N scale Falls Road Secondary 'Retro Modeling Childhood memories'

[learmoia]

What was supposed to be a day of building desks/work benches for the layout room turned into a morning of learning how to replace a sump pump.. (no water outside of the pit).. but the pump was running bit not pumping..  I thought the outlet was frozen but a few minutes with the hair dryer outside.. and no water.. (and the inside portion of the pipe at the wall  wasn't notisbly cold)..

So I disconnected the pump at the check valve from the outlet and confirmed it wasn't pumping.  I couldn't get the outlet pipe off the old pump I had to replace the PCV pipe between the pump and the check valve..   ( I set the pumps side by side and worked my way bottom to top installing pvc.. and it all fit.

New pump works great.. and the model I got was $50 off and Menards 11% this week so I went back and got another for the next time.

My insurance guy said he changes his pumps every year.. which seems overkill, but every 2-3 years makes sense.

The new pumps supposedly have a life time warranty. Not that I believe that.. but it should last a while.

~Ian

[C855B]

Ugh. I know your pain. We have two pumps at the museum I help run, and my favorite (NOT!!!) is at the bottom of the elevator shaft. It's bad enough I'm a bit claustrophobic, but each time I have to climb down there and mess with it every horror movie scene of runaway elevators is running through my head. Every possible interlock and safety is engaged and the main circuit is off, and I check each probably a half-dozen times. And I don't do it without capable, full-strength assistance.

Which reminds me, I haven't heard it running lately, and there are water noises in the shaft. I last changed it three years ago. Crap. [...shudder...]

[learmoia]

Ugh. I know your pain. We have two pumps at the museum I help run, and my favorite (NOT!!!) is at the bottom of the elevator shaft. It's bad enough I'm a bit claustrophobic, but each time I have to climb down there and mess with it every horror movie scene of runaway elevators is running through my head. Every possible interlock and safety is engaged and the main circuit is off, and I check each probably a half-dozen times. And I don't do it without capable, full-strength assistance.

Which reminds me, I haven't heard it running lately, and there are water noises in the shaft. I last changed it three years ago. Crap. [...shudder...]

Better send someone down and check on that..

~Ian

[jagged ben]

What was supposed to be a day of building desks/work benches for the layout room turned into a morning of learning how to replace a sump pump.. (no water outside of the pit).. but the pump was running bit not pumping..  I thought the outlet was frozen but a few minutes with the hair dryer outside.. and no water.. (and the inside portion of the pipe at the wall  wasn't notisbly cold)..

So I disconnected the pump at the check valve from the outlet and confirmed it wasn't pumping.  I couldn't get the outlet pipe off the old pump I had to replace the PCV pipe between the pump and the check valve..   ( I set the pumps side by side and worked my way bottom to top installing pvc.. and it all fit.

New pump works great.. and the model I got was $50 off and Menards 11% this week so I went back and got another for the next time.

My insurance guy said he changes his pumps every year.. which seems overkill, but every 2-3 years makes sense.

~Ian

Well, $50 a year compared to the risk of losing much more than that worth of layout material and labor if things flood...  One can make the calculation.

[learmoia]

Well the pumps came out to about $80 each.. (original price was $150 each)..

The other thing the insurance guy mentioned was to get metal industrial shelving and put the first shelf about 4" off the ground.  Historically from what the prior (origional) owner for this house said (and the 8" of rain in 3 days..), I dont think I need that extreme.

The layout legs will all have adjustable carriage bolts for leveling and to keep the wood off the ground.

Hopefully next week, I can get the desks built.

~Ian

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The layout legs will all have adjustable carriage bolts for leveling and to keep the wood off the ground.

I did this on my last one. It was definitely worth the piece of mind. I'd also recommend getting those little "cups" for them to sit in too to spread the load a bit if you're on top of anything. They also keep rust circles from forming too.

[nscalbitz]

..., I dont think I need that extreme.
~Ian

Famous last (and fallible) words Ian....  
dave

[peteski]

I did this on my last one. It was definitely worth the piece of mind. I'd also recommend getting those little "cups" for them to sit in too to spread the load a bit if you're on top of anything. They also keep rust circles from forming too.

Carriage bolts are available galvanized (to minimize the rusting problem).

[learmoia]

Yeah true anything is possible... but we have gone through some record breaking flooding and rainfalls the last few years..

(I suppose I still keep everything 3-4" off the ground)

I'm not too worried about rusting on the floor.. but I'll keep that in mind for future bolt purchases.
Edit.. I've been getting Zinc plated so far.. the next step up is stainless steel..

~Ian

[Lemosteam]

I remember a post about the long bridge across the work area opening.  What method did you end up deciding on for it?

For legs you could try this and eliminate wood altogether and it keeps the thread at the top so flooding does not rust the threads.  The 4x4 cedar block (because it is lightweight for my module) goes up into the corners of the benchwork (angles can be cut to fit acute or obtuse angle corners), 1/2-13 coupler nut is secured into a tight through hole (I may have counterbored a smaller hole to clear the 1/2-13 rod) with screws and epoxy, another 1/2-13 coupler nut is hammered into 1" electrical conduit which is cut to height and bottom capped with a rubber foot.  Threaded rod makes the connection to the benchwork and provides the adjustability:



The boy is now fifteen and 6'1" tall...

[learmoia]

For the long run bridge, I think I'm going to do steel stud construction.  (I've been working on that design recently.. )

I should try to mock it up in 3D and post for review..

~Ian

[learmoia]

1 hour and $214 later....

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[Jbub]

1 hour and $214 later....

(Attachment Link)

I'm about to build a house and have been thinking about putting a sleeve in the foundation wall between a "cold storage" room and mechanical room. I'm just not sure at what height or where or if o do two for a double deck layout.

[learmoia]

I wouldn't cut your holes until your ready to build benchwork.. Otherwise your forced into the choices you make..

For me, I wanted main layout height at roughly 52" and the exit from the tunnel goes under an industry, so I needed my hole based on the track height 3" below layout height.... and the center of the hole is the center of the car, so the hole centerline was 2" below layout height.

I was planning on a 4" core, and got 5" because their 4" bit was broken.. (But I think 5" will be better in the long run.)
I asked about reber in the core, and the guy said the bit would go through it.. (turns out no rebar)

~Ian

[learmoia]

More progress..

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2 more to build for the wife.. each desk is 2'×6' (4 total) overall desk is 12' × 8' U shape.

Use of space will be office/PC, Modeling area, Spray booth and Mini Mill

Overall cost of each desk was about $25 
1 workbench top
2 2x4
1 2x2 1/2 plywood.
Various screws, glue, lag bolts, ect..

~Ian