I am designing a system which I think will make it easier to mount Peco PL-10E point motors below baseboards. What baseboard thickness do members use? (I use 10 mm wafer-board.)
I use laser cut MDF baseboards by Tim Horn. The original ones used 3mm tops but his latest use 6mm thick moisture resistant MDF. They are a total height of 50mm and so now have an underboard clearance of 44mm. This limits my choice of point motors as this is too shallow for Cobalt, Tortoise motors etc. but some servo mounts and the motors by MTB work nicely, as well as using H&M solenoid motors.
I've used 6 mm MDF - too heavy, 6 mm ply and what I thought was 6 mm ply but was more like 4.5 mm - both much better lighter. It was nothing special such marine or aero ply, just standard B&Q stuff, though I did spend quite a while selecting pieces to avoid ones with gaps as some of it was ropy. I paint all surfaces.
The MDF board is a narrow shelf-like shuttle layout, is constructed as a box girder with holes cut in the underside with the biggest hole-saw I could manage.
The closest to a "normal" baseboard is the 1200 mm x 600 mm one that has an open underside and double X bracing. It is 50 mm thick. I think I would make it a bit thicker now, maybe 70 mm, and though not make it a complete box girder (i.e. like a hollow core door) I would add bigger corner gussets to add stiffness. It is still pretty stiff and needs quite a lot of force to twist it. The board itself without scenery is easy to pick up with one hand. There is no sign of sagging in any of them.
I think it is easy to make baseboards that are far too strong for their needs, but insufficiently stiff, and when adding stiffness it is easier to achieve longitudinal stiffness than torsional stiffness.
Thanks Retiarius and Graeme. What I'm after is the thickness of the actual surface sheet, so that's a 6 mm, and a 4.5 mm (counting both mentioned by Graeme) and a 6 mm from Retiarius, and 10 mm from me. I'd be interested to hear from anybody who uses more than 10 mm. I find my 10 mm only just stiff enough for the spacing of bracing I've chosen...
(I have one section on 18 mm thick shelves but that's for other reasons.)
I'm another user of the 5/6mm ply for baseboard surfaces with 9mm sides and 5/6mm cross bracing. But I use Peco point motors mounted on to the point, not baseboard mounted (when i am not using slider switches, that is!.
I only use 9mm ply from local timber merchants who cut to my spec's. Guaranteed corners are square and all are same width and length. No dearer than the DIY sheds and better quality. Takes screws for point motors well.
Steve
https://dorsetrailwaymodelling.blogspot.com/
My layout base is made of two thicknesses of 6mm foamboard bonded together. I use SEEP motors (because they have long actuating rods) and to give them a firm base onto the underside of the baseboard, each is mounted on a piece of wood 12mm thick) which is glued to the baseboard.
I use a 1/4 (6mm) plywood trackbed on a wooden framework.
This gives a very solid base to fix the track and point motors.
Brian Meldon