Monthly Archives: October 2019

First Benchwork is In

The first piece of bechwork
Here it is! The first piece of benchwork–finally!

Today was a big milestone on the St. Charles Branch–I installed the first sections of benchwork! I’m building open-grid benchwork from 1×3 lumber recycled from my previous layout. I started with the staging level (~30″ above the floor) at the reversing loop.

  • More benchwork
    Two is better than one
  • Even more benchwork
    Making some progress
  • First section of benchwork finished
    The first four pieces of open-grid benchwork are in. This will house the staging yard set on a reversing loop under the helix.
Frame around beam

Preparing the Layout Room

The layout is going into an unfinished space, and I don’t want it to look so unfinished when everything is done. Most of the walls will be covered with layout, but there’s one corner by the entrance that will be exposed. I’ve never done any framing or drywalling, so I figured “how hard could it be?”

Room Starting Point
Here’s how the entrance corner of the room looked when I started. This area is the only part of the room that won’t be covered in layout, so I wanted it to look a little nicer.

The studs along the wall were already in place, so all I had to do was build a frame around the steel beam (pretty straightforward. Now for the drywall. I watched a lot of YouTube which helped, but nothing can quite prepare you for heaving a full sheet of drywall over your head and holding it while you try to put enough screws through the board into wood to keep it there. Despite my best efforts at marking the studs, I missed enough to have the drywall ignore the screws that were secure and come dropping back down on my tired arms–I came up with some pretty creative non-cuss words to share my joy! Thankfully the walls were MUCH easier!

YouTube was again my friend when it came to taping and mudding the drywall. If nothing else, it at least helped me get the right tools for the job, and I found it a moderately soothing chore. A little sanding, a little spray texture and a little gray paint, and the corner mostly looked like it was finished with the rest of the house.

  • Frame around beam
    I added a frame around the steel beam in preparation for drywall
  • Drywall
    After the drywall installation but before the mud and tape
  • Finished walls
    The corner is nearly finished–just need some trim and carpet
Here’s the rest of the room where the layout will go. I’m using 2x3s set into the concrete to hold the layout

I also needed a way to anchor the layout to the concrete wall that made up about 2/3 of the room. I decided to use 2x3s spaced about 18″ apart and set into the wall with nails fired from a Ramset. They’re quite secure!

The final pre-layout touches included installing a couple of cabinets and a counter top I’d picked up from a local recycling store and adding some carpet. For the carpet, I just used a roll of surplus industrial carpeting 4′ wide and laid it down with some carpet tape in the areas where the aisles would be. There’s still some trim work to do, but the room is ready for some benchwork!