Mianne benchwork???

I hope to get mine designed in the early spring in time to place the order at York.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I have a standard sump pump, a battery powered sump pump, and a spare sump pump with a hose for real torrents.  I've had a couple of occasions where all three were running.

Yes, I also have a generator to keep them running, it seems whenever there's a torrential rain, there's also a power outage!

Hi John, I'm looking for a good battery powered sump pump - can you make a recommendation?

My train room(s) are on the lower floor with a walkout to the pool area. There is a drain right outside the door and I am in fear it will clog up and get in through the door. I did put down a shrieking water alert siren - but if I'm not home not sure how that would help me.

Good thread! Thanks,

Paul

Suggest in looking for battery sump pump that you check for marine bilge pumps.  They are 12 volts and come in many different ratings and capacities.   I have seen them commonly available up to 3750 GPH.  They also make float switches.  Check with major marine vendors such as "Defender Industries".

Bill

It's a Catch-22 situation for battery powered pumps.  The really large marine pumps are great, but they'll suck the batteries dry in short order. 

I use the Basement Watchdog, it's been OK, but the charger seems to overdo the charging, I have to replace the battery about every three years, they should last a lot longer than that.

Thank you Bill and John.

I believe the answer is what you said up above John - three types: you may need em all.

We moved into our new home in June. The previous owners were leasing a full house gas generator that's on the side of the house. We contacted the company and no reply. Don't know who is paying for it, but it has already saved our bacon (literally) when the power was out for three full days three weeks ago.

If in fact someone comes a knockin and wants it back I'm convinced it is the only way to go long term.

Paul

My new house has natural gas, so once we get moved in, one of the first major upgrades will be a whole house standby generator.  A lot of above ground powerlines and trees to help the lines come down all around here.

I use a two crocks.  Each crock uses a 110 volt pump with a pair of 12 volt  back up 8 hour battery pumps in each basement.  Plus a gasoline fueled 7k generator.

This was shot at installation before mounting batteries and assigning separate circuits. Sealed lid is for radon remediation, vented lid is for French drain  and the unlikely event of a water leak.  Extending the downspout discharge down grade 20' away from the foundation, installing a Bilco door,  Extended soffets and regrading the property sealed the deal.

Gad Tom, you must have a real bad water issue!

if I was to order a basic 6x12 bench work system on the web site how long would it take it get to me?

asking for a friend...

That would be a question for Mianne, only they know their stock status and shipping schedules.

conifers4 posted:

if I was to order a basic 6x12 bench work system on the web site how long would it take it get to me?

asking for a friend...

FWIW .... an acquaintance needed ready made benchwork for a large 1/35 military diorama, and Sievers Benchwork in Wisconsin did a rush job for him.

Good luck.

I would also wait to talk to Tim before ordering anything from Mianne. Might save you some future regrets if you talk to them and ask some questions to get exactly what is right for you. I also agree with the others that Tim will get you all the correct parts, which might be difficult to select on your own. Tim even helped me with my 2nd order which was just some added pieces for my original layout and a transformer cart. I came close, but he caught some pieces I needed that I had not thought of.  

GRJ, I have had the same problems with the battery charger on our backup sump pump. It seems to boil the water out of the battery every couple of months and the batteries don't last too long like that. They say to check battery every 6 months for water, ours needs water much sooner than 6 months. Not sure what brand it is. Maybe all chargers are similar in operation and not good for the batteries?

I think they just go cheap on the charging circuit, there are good designs of trickle chargers that won't kill the batteries.  Apparently, those designs aren't used on these products.

Might be a good idea to try and find a better trickle charger? I may take a look after the holidays. There are some boat and RV places around here that might know of something better.

Well, since the charger is built into the controller for the basement watchdog, it won't work properly if it's charger isn't actually charging a battery.

Hmmm... I guess that is a very good point that I hadn't considered. So much for that idea. I was just thinking better battery charger. Maybe some stock in a battery company would be a better idea? 

Hey, guys .... this is a Mianne thread.  What do trickle chargers have to do with that?  LOL.  

(Honestly, no concern to me ... I live in coastal California and, well, generator talk is interesting.    )

If your basement is wet your bench work will be affected.  It may surprise you if you hold a moisture meter against your bench work.  You should be able to pull a 7% +/-  reading.

GRJ, my  basement is  dry, just a safe redundant approach.  I used to fix wet basements for  living.  I use the Watchdog brand back up system with Watchdog batteries and have had success for 22 years.  Typically replace batteries every 5 to 6 years.  top them off with distilled water as needed.

UPDATE!

Talked to Tim Foley yesterday and this afternoon got the proposal from him, FAST!

Everything looked fine except the height he had called out on his plan (40" vice 35-36" with top) so I emailed him back to let him know and to find out what the next step is to getting the benchwork.  40" may be his standard and it may be I have to cut them down, I did ask in my email if that's something he can do.

I'm excited.  This past week I cut an access (thru the knee wall) to the attic over a 24x24 room addition on the back of the house, so I can access it from the front upstairs where the train room is located.  I needed the access to move a bunch of stuff that had accumulated over the years.  There is a hatch in the room addition, but it was hard pushing boxes up thru it then having to climb in to arrange them.  The access thru the knee wall lets me slide boxes easily into the attic.  Here's what I did:

(The above photo is not of my attic, but close enough, I had to remove about 1/3 of a rafter)

The shot above is showing the hole I cut in the knee wall (under present layout)

This shot shows where I rough cut the old roof boards to gain access to the back room attic, I "cleaned" the edges up yesterday.

Bob Delbridge posted:

UPDATE!

Talked to Tim Foley yesterday and this afternoon got the proposal from him, FAST!

Everything looked fine except the height he had called out on his plan (40" vice 35-36" with top) so I emailed him back to let him know and to find out what the next step is to getting the benchwork.  40" may be his standard and it may be I have to cut them down, I did ask in my email if that's something he can do.

Bob;

If I remember correctly, Tim will make the legs any height you call out.

Thanks Paul, that's what I recall someone saying too.

I most likely won't hear back until Monday afternoon, better start planning the old layout removal

Actually I can erect 1/2 of the new layout before I really need to tear down the old one.

Bob Delbridge posted:

Thanks Paul, that's what I recall someone saying too.

I most likely won't hear back until Monday afternoon, better start planning the old layout removal

Actually I can erect 1/2 of the new layout before I really need to tear down the old one.

Yes.  Tim will make the benchwork at almost any height.  And, Bob, ordering Mianne is one of the best decisions you'll make in building your new layout.

Good luck!  

Thanks RT!

Tim emailed me this morning with the corrected height I wanted and the total price, very close to what I had estimated.  He said it would take about 5 weeks so I figure around March 1 I should be looking at some new benchwork!

Just curious, what height are you looking for?  I'm not really sure what I would like best so I may just do the 40"

Bob,

Good luck with your new benchwork, glad you finally got everything all squared away. I am sure you will be quite pleased when it arrives. Please keep us posted and add some pics when it arrives and you get going and setup. 

PRR Mark,

For height I also got the 40" standard Mianne size, wasn't sure what to get myself? I think it's a good height, compromising between maximum reach around the top and space below for working and storage. I have a mechanic's stool that I use to get around below, much easier on the old body. I always say that another couple of inches would be better for my head when clearing the cross braces, but I am not so sure I would actually go with the extra height if I was to start over? Kind of a tough call. The 40" really is a pretty good height, all things considered. I am 5'-9" maybe a little shorter now with age, but that is close.  

Mark,

My present layout is 36”, mainly due to one of the knee walls being short, but I have really come to like that height. My old garage layout was 48” and that was too high (I used to be 5’-10” But have also shrunk to due age and degenerative disk disease, probably only 5’-7” now!)

At 36” I can reach everything on the layout.

 I asked Tim to cut mine to 35”, with adjustment feet and 1/2” plywood I can bring it up to 36”.  Price was the same either way.

I'm interested in how much these kits end up costing?   I built mine out of 2x4s with 2x3s for bracing.  17 feet of 36 inch wide, 8 feet of 2 foot wide, and a 4 foot by 8 foot section with an a few small added sections for under 175.00.  42 inches high.  Screwed together with deck grade screws.  That includes all the plywood.  I really like their lift gate!  

Jim 

carsntrains posted:

I'm interested in how much these kits end up costing?   I built mine out of 2x4s with 2x3s for bracing.  17 feet of 36 inch wide, 8 feet of 2 foot wide, and a 4 foot by 8 foot section with an a few small added sections for under 175.00.  42 inches high.  Screwed together with deck grade screws.  That includes all the plywood.  I really like their lift gate!  

Jim 

Pre-built benchwork kits aren't exactly cheap, but they're easy to assemble (hours vs days/weeks - though Bob has to wait 5 weeks for shipping ), can be added to or taken apart easily and use high grade materials/hardware that don't warp/rust, etc. It all depends on what you're willing to settle for, how much your time is worth, if you have the tools/expertise to build it yourself, etc. Some would say it's apples to oranges comparison. When I was looking into pre-built, I figured it would cost less than 15% for me to do it myself using 2x4s.

I could be wrong, but using their catalog prices and depending on how they'd configure it, I estimate it would cost around $1,400 plus the cost of the plywood decking.

-- The 17' of 36" wide section would take 2 of the 30"x36" expansion kits @ $94 each plus 6 of the 24"x36" kits @ $92 each for a subtotal of $740
-- The 4x8 base kit is $379
-- The 8' of 24" wide section would take 2 of the 24"x48" kits @ $97 each for a subtotal of $194
-- Shipping is 10% or $130
-- 40" legs are $15.50 when ordered individually while 42" legs are $18.25, but I don't know if they charge the extra when an entire layout is ordered. 

$740+$379+$194+130=$1,443

   I use all outdoor grade decking screws on my layout, although I don't plan on it getting wet : )   And I use premium 2x4s so they wont warp or expand any worse than our houses I suspect.  Everything comes apart as easily as it went together.  Thanks for the insight Dave!   I really do like their lift gate.  Very impressive!  I reckon if I had their bench work I'd surely get that lift gate, if needed!  

Jim 

I have a bunch of the Mianne benchwork, but I'll need more in the new house.  One of the things I will be getting is the lift gate for access to the central section of the layout.

I've seen the liftgate in action and it is nice. The Mianne is nice too, it's just a matter of how much you can afford vs DIY, etc. I can't use Mianne for my garage layout, but it's still an option for the bedroom layout where I'd need at least 2 of the 4x8 kits to make the L-shaped base for my wife's display of her Bedford Falls collection of buildings, etc. Between traveling and medical issues, I just haven't gotten around to starting construction of either layout, but I hope to after we get back from Alaska in July.

carsntrains posted:

   I use all outdoor grade decking screws on my layout, although I don't plan on it getting wet : )   And I use premium 2x4s so they wont warp or expand any worse than our houses I suspect.  Everything comes apart as easily as it went together.  Thanks for the insight Dave!   I really do like their lift gate.  Very impressive!  I reckon if I had their bench work I'd surely get that lift gate, if needed!  

Jim 

You can adapt conventional benchwork to fit Mianne's liftgate bridge with the money saved from going the conventional benchwork route paying for the Mianne liftgate anf having the bonus of considerable cash left over.

ogaugeguy posted:

carsntrains posted:

   I use all outdoor grade decking screws on my layout, although I don't plan on it getting wet : )   And I use premium 2x4s so they wont warp or expand any worse than our houses I suspect.  Everything comes apart as easily as it went together.  Thanks for the insight Dave!   I really do like their lift gate.  Very impressive!  I reckon if I had their bench work I'd surely get that lift gate, if needed!  

Jim 

You can adapt conventional benchwork to fit Mianne's liftgate bridge with the money saved from going the conventional benchwork route paying for the Mianne liftgate anf having the bonus of considerable cash left over.

Yep there is a guy I follow on YouTube that did that.   Sean's Train Channel. Has a video of him putting it together and adapting it to his 2x4 layout.  I reckon he had it in the plan from the start. He used two 2 foot section of their bench work on each side.   Turned out great.   He also made a switch panel for each side so he didn't have to worry about getting that hand held controller each time he went in/out.  

Jim 

carsntrains posted:

ogaugeguy posted:

carsntrains posted:

   I use all outdoor grade decking screws on my layout, although I don't plan on it getting wet : )   And I use premium 2x4s so they wont warp or expand any worse than our houses I suspect.  Everything comes apart as easily as it went together.  Thanks for the insight Dave!   I really do like their lift gate.  Very impressive!  I reckon if I had their bench work I'd surely get that lift gate, if needed!  

Jim 

You can adapt conventional benchwork to fit Mianne's liftgate bridge with the money saved from going the conventional benchwork route paying for the Mianne liftgate anf having the bonus of considerable cash left over.

Yep there is a guy I follow on YouTube that did that.   Sean's Train Channel. Has a video of him putting it together and adapting it to his 2x4 layout.  I reckon he had it in the plan from the start. He used two 2 foot section of their bench work on each side.   Turned out great.   He also made a switch panel for each side so he didn't have to worry about getting that hand held controller each time he went in/out.  

Jim 

Here's Sean video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDfl5QUimtI

Here's the initial plan Tim sent me to verify.  I didn't see any copyright on it and hope he doesn't mind me showing it, I figure it can only improve his sales if more folks see his work:

It's approximately 12'x30'; some sections are 24" wide, some 30", and one wall is 36", along with a 8' section (may turn into a bridge at some point) at the top of the stairway where the framework is 6" wide (top will be approx 12" wide).

The gap between the 12" wide piece at the top of the stairway and the area on the right is a wall that extends up from downstairs to the ceiling upstairs.  It's not load bearing and I'm either going to make a tunnel OR cut down the wall level with the top of the layout.  I want to cut it down to the top of the layout, but there's a light switch mounted on the wall.  I could leave a column of sorts there to have something to mount the switch to, need to decide quick and get it taken care of.  Removing the upper part of wall would also make it brighter in both rooms.  I have a 20"or so diameter LED light fixture in each side of the upstairs, plus a circular fluorescent lamp over the stairway.  I want to replace the fluorescent lamp with another LED fixture if I can find one that looks like these two.  I have one like it in my kitchen so if I have to I can get a new one for the kitchen and move the old one upstairs.

Here's what the LED fixture in the recently remodeled kitchen looks like:

Hey Bob, just curious but what is the cost for your bench work? I have pretty much the same area to work with. 

My 68 year old knees really appreciate the liftgate. I had the luxury of including it in my plan when designing my layout here in CA after moving from PA three years ago. All other Mianne components were re-configured from the PA layout. The liftgate was the one new luxury that I treated myself to:

Bob,

Thinking ahead to the next step, once you have assembled the benchwork and have it leveled, it is then the perfect time to run you main bus wires. With no tabletop, this can be easily done while you are standing up and have full access. You will be spending enough time underneath making all the connections. You can use the holes Tim has provided in the webbing of the beams or drill additional or larger holes as needed.

Phil,

Tim gave me a price of approximately $2500, just about what I figured.  Plywood/homasote will be extra.

That sounds like a lot, but all the work is basically done except for joining the pieces together.  My hands have been giving me fits the past year as well as all the other joints (arthritis), I figured I’d save myself some wear and tear and have a good lookin layout too.

It will look so much better than my previous attempt at Benchwork, I can’t wait to see it delivered.  I’ve already started taking apart the old layout, but will go slow cause I’ve got at least 5 weeks of waiting 

Dave, (doubledaz)

Your figuring is correct with an exception. When you combine kits, you can eliminate one set of legs and the crosspieces.