# got my table made sorta



## sid (Mar 26, 2018)

found some kinda steel frame behind a lowes where i live, i go there to get free wood . they get shipments in and throw the wood palets out back , been know to get good 8 foot 2 x 4s from there. any who they had this wierd looking metal frame thrown out there so i snagged it. took it home and wala i got a table. grabbed some wood while i was there and started building my train table . got that done didnt have any funds for the pink foam board stuff so card board its gunna be. now i got my kato track kinda working. i got some bugs with dcc to work out. I found out you got to get them wires in the right order. i had a problem with the x cross over shorting , i reversed the wires going to the rails and wala thats fixed now had another problem with the dang turn outs shorting , turns out you need to have both turn outs switch at the same time , solved that problem ( i could put feeders at both ends of turn outs and that would solve the problem too . but if you make them throw at the same time it works great. got a bigger amp power plug for the power cab and i swear them dang trains run slower than the did before. what gives ? any who heres some pics so far. at least now i can play with my trains. still need to hook up the kato switch thingys


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## VegasN (Mar 14, 2016)

Very cool! I love scavenging things. Will that cardboard create a problem when you start wetting things for ground cover?


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## Guest (Jul 7, 2018)

Looking good, sid. The cardboard is good enough for now but not as a permanent table. You can run trains and have some fun and replace the cardboard with something a little sturdier when you can.


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## Guest (Jul 7, 2018)

OH, I forgot, you must maintain polarity with DCC just like DC. Make one connection at a time and run an engine. If you get wires crossed it will show up immediately when you try to run an engine and you can correct it.


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## sid (Mar 26, 2018)

Country Joe said:


> OH, I forgot, you must maintain polarity with DCC just like DC. Make one connection at a time and run an engine. If you get wires crossed it will show up immediately when you try to run an engine and you can correct it.


yes im finding this out hahahahaha my power cab shuts off an on when its not good also my fingers will short it out too. very sensitive .


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## sid (Mar 26, 2018)

Country Joe said:


> Looking good, sid. The cardboard is good enough for now but not as a permanent table. You can run trains and have some fun and replace the cardboard with something a little sturdier when you can.


ya its just temp until i can afford to get some pink foam board. but at least i can get the wires figgered out and play with my trains . also i can think much better now about what to build citys ect. for some reason im missing a right hand turn out cant find it any place. i had though i threw all my kato stuff in one box. when your broke you got to get creative about things.


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## sid (Mar 26, 2018)

VegasN said:


> Very cool! I love scavenging things. Will that cardboard create a problem when you start wetting things for ground cover?


going to change out cardboard for pink foam when i get some extra moola. right now its just so i can at least play a lil bit


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## J.Albert1949 (Feb 3, 2018)

You'll need something more than just cardboard for the top -- it's not durable enough.

Even some 1/4" plywood will be better.

The Lowes near me sells 1/4" birch plywood pre-cut to 4x4' for $10.
I'm thinking you could make do with a couple of them?
They'll even trim them to the size you need (measure carefully).
I'm using that (on wooden tablework) and it works well enough for my needs.

I'd be worried about the metal frame sagging in the middle.
Perhaps a couple of 2x4 legs (attached to the middle crosspiece) for added strength?


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