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Joseph Rowland said:
My thought on the metal studs, where the length is more than the 10' length that they come in, was to basically box in a third stud where the other two come together
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I was thinking that with as much overlap between the studs as you can get.. And maybe permanently skinning them over at the junction for a foot or so across the width of the thing (still pretty easy to fish wires) for extra stiffness. I think the short direction you'll have no real problems but the long way could be a challenge.

Joseph Rowland said:
My thought there was to use some of the Loctite product on E-Z Anchors and the put the screws into the anchors
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I think the main risk there is twisting the foam around the anchors out.. the foam board isn't super structural and can easily pull apart. If you're wanting to fasten strictly to the top.. I think surface area and glue are your best friends.

Looking around I see someone using T nuts plus gorilla glue.. although they didn't say what side of the foam board they were putting the T nut on.. I'm guessing the backside... I suspect something that allows you to sandwich the foam with the connector is probably "better" for some value of "better". Maybe something like a flip toggle with a healthy sized (shop made.. out of some scrap tin.. could be a tin can hammered flat with a hole drilled in it..) washer on either side?
 
Welcome Joseph!

Slot cars! Wow, that brings back a lot of fond memories. I played around with the HO as well as their larger cousins. Watching with interest!
 
Ryan Mooney said:
I was thinking that with as much overlap between the studs as you can get.. And maybe permanently skinning them over at the junction for a foot or so across the width of the thing (still pretty easy to fish wires) for extra stiffness. I think the short direction you'll have no real problems but the long way could be a challenge.

The short direction will be 7' so it will be one stud (except for the 2 that will hold the folding legs, they'll be doubled).

I think the main risk there is twisting the foam around the anchors out.. the foam board isn't super structural and can easily pull apart. If you're wanting to fasten strictly to the top.. I think surface area and glue are your best friends.

Looking around I see someone using T nuts plus gorilla glue.. although they didn't say what side of the foam board they were putting the T nut on.. I'm guessing the backside... I suspect something that allows you to sandwich the foam with the connector is probably "better" for some value of "better". Maybe something like a flip toggle with a healthy sized (shop made.. out of some scrap tin.. could be a tin can hammered flat with a hole drilled in it..) washer on either side?
Click to expand...

They make foam board washers that are about 1.5" - 2" wide. I could use a 1.25" bolt through the button, through the foam board and into the washer with a nut on the other side. Problem is there is 1 button for each piece of track. And I've got a whole lot of track to attach. I'm going to be using the Foamular NGX250 which is twice as dense as the 150. I'm going to have to try and thread the anchor into to foam and see how it reacts. Maybe loading it up with the Loctite glue will help reduce any friction and reduce any damage as it gets threaded into the foam.
 
Rennie Heuer said:
Welcome Joseph!

Slot cars! Wow, that brings back a lot of fond memories. I played around with the HO as well as their larger cousins. Watching with interest!
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Hi Rennie,

Yeah, aging myself LOL. The new digital track is way more fun that the old analogue ones we had as kids. Now you can change lanes, have timed pit stops, have pace cars for when there's a car that goes off the track. They even have wireless controllers, but they aren't as good as the wired ones so my set up is wired.
 
Why not laminate foam board between to layers of 1/8 underlayment for the top board and then one layer of Underlayment for the bottom of the torsion box. You could then use plastic anchors for screwing the track to the top layer just use anchors that go all the way through all 3 layers of the top. This is kind of how they make Aircraft wings and fuselage. You should be able to epoxy the underlayment to the metal studs
 
It looks like the E-Z Anchors are going to do the trick. I forgot I have half a sheet of the NGX 150 in the garage. It's only 1/2" so I doubled it for the test and took an E-Z Anchor and just used a screwdriver to screw it into the foam. It went right in and holds very tightly. I didn't use any glue so I'm sure with glue it will even hold better. Some of the anchor stuck out the bottom so I put it on a piece of plywood and pushed down to see how much force it would take. It took a whole lot for me to push the anchor out of the foam. I don't think the vibration or the weight of a piece of the track when it's placed upright will pull the anchor out of the foam.

Jay, I'm kind of holding off on building a true torsion box with a bottom skin because of the wiring issue. However, once the track is up and running I should be able to take some 1/8" Masonite and screw it into the bottom of the frame.
 
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