Carry on Clamping

The storage box for 'odsock Corner is now complete, it has been something of a saga for what should be a simple job! Firstly, I didn't have the hardboard and timber strip in stock as I had used most of the supply last year when I enclosed part of my new shelving in the workshop (which of course I have done nothing with...), so a trip to B&Q ensued and a shock at the price of these supplies (my old hardboard was free from an old wardrobe!). The new timber strip, despite being the same size as the old stuff, was actually slightly bigger too but I've ignored that. 

After careful measurement of the baseboard and material thicknesses, I calculated the sizes of the hardboard panels (with a +1mm allowance) and cut them accordingly. The timber, 25x11mm section (which B&Q retail as 25x10.5mm) was cut, again slightly over-length, and panels then assembled one-by-one, to get as many clamps on each as possible. Allowing for drying time this took place over a couple of days, after which I sanded all the edges of the hardboard back to the edges of the timber to allow for neat and square corner joins.

From my home made kit of parts I could then assemble the box. Being a square layout my sides are not equal lengths, the two shorter ones sitting inside the two longer ones to make the square. I paired up one of each on a flat surface, glued and clamped them together, checking for squareness and then repeated for the second pair. My 18" clamps came into their own with this along the top edges (at the bottom) supported by the smaller clamps along the corners.

The two pairs of sides were then brought together, again on a flat surface, into one assembly. Again, plenty of clamping!

The final piece of hardboard to add was the top, this was slightly oversize and would be adjusted at a later stage. The timber lengths under the clamps are to spread the force along the edges of the board and keep pressure along the edge as the glue dries.

Once set the edges of the top were sanded smooth and then the saga took a new turn. The vertical timber sections protruded slightly below the hardboard sides and I decided to sand these down. My power sander had other ideas and when I wasn't looking took a chunk out of the hardboard in one corner. Words were said, tea was brewed and I went off and cut the grass... on my return I had cooked up an audacious plan to remove a strip from the entire base of the box, hardboard and timber. This was carefully measured out and the timber corners cut first with a fine saw, and the hardboard with a combination of Stanley knife and saw. It worked, and (gently) sanded to finish the result was actually better than it would have been originally. 

By co-incidence the height of the box was now actually identical to that of my 009 layout 'The Old Quarry Line's box, which it probably should have been all along! However, the saga (or given this post's title, the farce) would continue to throw a few curveballs at the subsequent stages...

Colin