Episode 136 20 Scratch Built Girder Plate Bridge

Discussion in 'The Collection' started by gormo, Jan 18, 2020.

  1. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    G`day Folks and welcome to the second Gormo`s Shed for 2020. The year is running away already and we`ve only just survived Christmas.
    Fortunately we are now starting to see some rain in Australia, which will help tremendously with our current situation, as long as it keeps coming for a while and in the right areas too........fingers crossed.
    Anyway this week we have a scratch built bridge..........no big deal really......there are plenty of proprietary bits and pieces to build pretty much what you like, however in this case, I decided to go the whole hog and build it all myself.
    I guess the challenge is what it was all about and the sense of satisfaction at the end, but it just goes to show that if you put your mind to it, almost anything is possible.
    The bridge is made from ply, MDF, Cereal box card, Aluminium baking tray foil, paper and Wet & Dry paper.
    Basic tools are all that is required, however I made one tool to create rivet detail.
    At this point in time, the project is a few years old and it had it`s premier on another forum, when platform 1 was not even an idea, let alone a full on up and running successful model railway forum.
    I have been looking backward for these first two sheds of the year, but I think we have a relatively new audience here who may be interested in some of the ideas and techniques, so I am not too concerned about repeating myself.
    Fortunately, after all this blurb above me here, there is a video to follow which will take you through the build process.



    :cheers::tophat:Gormo
     
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  2. mikejh

    mikejh Full Member

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    Love the way your brain works you make something that looks complicated to achieve into a seemingly simple task.

    Cheers Mike
     
  3. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    Thanks Mike,
    For me, it`s all about breaking it down into simple elements and standard measurements sometimes.
    I also have a good range of basic tools and a PC at my disposal, so how can I best use those tools and PC to create what I want.?
    For example.....how to make a simple girder or RSJ.......it`s really only three parts......top, bottom and middle and the top and bottom are identical. So if we cut a strip of maybe 2mm card to your desired girder width. Cut two more strips of 1mm card at maybe 4mm wide and glue these centred on the top and bottom edges of the 2mm card so that you form an I shape. Once painted the appropriate colour, we have one girder...... 2mm card may be a little on the thick side but it would look OK under a bridge or whatever because you can probably only see one side at a time anyway.?
    Of course the beauty of creating your own parts is that you are not restricted to what you can buy from the model shop and it`s usually a lot cheaper. The down side is that more time and effort is required.
    :cheers::tophat:Gormo
     
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