New legs

Today's project takes us back into the murky realms of woodwork. Now my skills or lack thereof have been well documented over the years, but its never stopped me. The layout has been in need of a better set of pins for quite a while, but it came to a head one night last week when it almost fell over while I was lifting modules off and on. It was time for something new, and I've gone for something a bit left field. Its an adaption of an Ian Rice invention called a 'Ulysses', which i think is some daft acronym for a universal layout supporter (kind of like a wooden jockstrap). Basically it has wooden beams mounted between trestles, with some metal tabs to hold it all together. its designed to set up and take down quick at exhibitions. so after a trip to Bunnings we have all the bits we need.

'Wow, not just firewood'

Now at this point I could go on about how everything just fell together and it was all unicorns and rainbows, but real life doesn't work like that, so here instead is the true unadulterated version.

-Head out to garage to get started. go down the back to the Man-sion to get the power drills, measuring tapes etc.
-Go back to the house to get the key.
-Head out to garage to get started. go down the back to the Man-sion to get the power drills, measuring tapes etc.
-Take these to the garage.
-Go back to the house to get the car keys to unlock the car to get the wood out. the lady of the house asks just what the hell I'm doing?
-Remember that one of the drills is empty. Go back to the Man-sion to find the charger so that it is good for later.
-Finally get down to cutting some wood. Discover that other power drill is almost empty as well. Go back to the Man-sion to find the charger so that it is good for later.
-Discover I'm out of power drills.
-Discover I don't posses a posidrive screwdriver.
-Tea break time. Wonder if this is how builders do it?
after a suitable interval, head back out to the garage. The power drill is all charged.
-Put together bits of wood together and add screws. Everything seems to go ok apart from some wood splitting.
-Set the first legs up and discover that they rock (and not in the cool way). cut a small amount off the offending leg to get it to stand up.
-Repeat with second set of legs, again with the removal of excess legging.
-Make up supporting rails. Add the metal L pieces to the end that hold everything together. Mark which ends go on which legs.


-Move everything into the Man-sion. Disassemble layout and old legs. Put new legs in place.
-Wonder why support rails don't match markings.
-Rearrange legs to match markings.
-Put center module onto support rails.
-Wonder why I'm trying to mate 2 modules with the steel pins facing each other.
-reverse center module.
-Connect it all up. I think it will do.


It is quite high, about level with my armpit (wasn't that a good height?).
I might remove some of the legs to drop it down 6", but it is going to be much easier on my back. Its also much easier to get underneath to adjust things.