# I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows



## LOST AND CONFUSED (Mar 7, 2008)

*I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

I am on a really tight budget so I have built my garden railroad out of wood from scrap bins at home depot and super strips. .. I prefer using pressure treated for base of bridges but the arch is built best by using spruce they are called super strips at home depot they are 1 by 4 inch . You will need to have a table saw with a straight fence and safty goggles.I go threw piles of super strips to fing one with no nots or large knots away from the edges.Make sure its straight on the edges lay it on flat surface and on its side and make sure you cannot rock it.After you get your wood home set your fence gap to 2 inches to run board along fence.Put on glasses make sure that you have clearance on both ends of the saw. I also take a straight piece of wood and clamp it to the other edge of the wood to assist with keeping it straight leave some gap incase the board buck or you will go to the hospital instead of getting your project completed I know this from personal experience .Take your time cutting go slow and allow sawdust to not build up on blade. I use 1 by 4 because 1 by 2 is hard to find straight and its not wide enough .A 1 by 3 is fine but it has to be knot free . Next take 2 of the uncut super strips and place 2 of the freshly cut good boards betweenthem clamping every2 feet leaving them up to where 1/4 inch is all that is not showing do them one at a time CUT THE BOARD AT 6 INCH SPACING .I MARK AS I go so I can switch the board with the uncut one and have exact spacing. You now have two cut boards to bend to make your ARCHES .START CUTTING ACROSS THEM TILL YOU REACH THE SURFACE OF THE SUPER STRIPS with gaps every 6 inches spray water on them liightly from old windex bottle only wet them enough to get them to bend slightly now once they are now arched be careful and screw them to wide side of the superstrip you just used as part of your a giant vice pre drill the holes for screws use as wide head wood screw on each end place them side by side on the board and make them line up with each other and clamp them together at least 3 places.squirt the joints again let set 2 hours.Next after you waited 2 hours move the again to make a higher arch go slowly rescrew ends as needed. repeat untill theirr is no gap between joints wait 24 hours now glue in between joints . let sit 24 more hours. and their you have it . I put together a rectangle frame to mount them on usually its 6 foot long depends on how high my arch is. Put pieces every 8 inches inside the frame so it looks loke a set of lower teeth .Now take 1 by 2 strips cut them to fit going the length of the frame 6 foot as an example spacing them so air can flow threw them and add your track


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

A photo would add to the understanding. 

(Email me if you don't have any web space to put one.)


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

Yes, how about some pictures!


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## LOST AND CONFUSED (Mar 7, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

Please email me at [email protected] and I will send you pictures I dont know how to attach to this site


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## LOST AND CONFUSED (Mar 7, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

Here is a link to my pictures they are from 2 years ago http://s671.photobucket.com/albums/vv77/hotwheeman/


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

John, 

The Photobucket site gives you all that you need to post photos here. It is a 24/7 place where the photos are stored (so we can see them when you're not online,) and it even gives you the IMG string that this website accepts. I copied the Photobucket IMG code string from the second pic to here to get this: 










(It actually adds the following to my post/message when I paste the IMG string - with sq brkt instead of my asterisk, which I changed to make it fail to work as an image link.) 

*IMG]http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv77/hotwheeman/trainpictures-45.jpg*/IMG] 

Your photos are quite large, so the moderator will object and change them to a link. Here's the *url] version which has to be clicked on to open a picture. 

*[url]http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv77/hotwheeman/modifiedcopy6.jpg*[/url]* 

**[url]http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv77/hotwheeman/trainpictures-45.jpg*[/url]

*[url]http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv77/hotwheeman/005.jpg*[/url] 

Nice bridges, by the way! I guess your technique is based on being a skilled table saw user? Not a job for a novice?


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## LOST AND CONFUSED (Mar 7, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

No MY technique is from the library I found a book on bending wood Anyone can cut a board you can use 1 by 3 boards and leave them as is .You just have to have a fine saw and a something to hold the wood in place the trick is that bow saw 4.50 at harbor freight and to keep the cut deep enough to allow it to bend slightly without breaking and to keep cut straight . all the other wood in the picture is from other trestles you can put your completed bridge on blocks I have done that in the last year works great so the stand is not needed and you put mulch up against it to hide them.


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## LOST AND CONFUSED (Mar 7, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

i I will post more pic of my new ones very simple to build less than a weeks work part time these pictures are old from2 years age


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

In-progress pix would be nice, showing some of the cuts and partial assembly.


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## LOST AND CONFUSED (Mar 7, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

Sorry I never took any pics of the process .I never thought anyone would be interested That is why I was showing the different styles I made after you have two bent arches I thought it would be an insult to this forum to explain the rest of the process because there are projects on this sight that I would never attempt .There are some real master builders here


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

Hopefully in the future should you build more you can take pics and show us how its done. Later RJD


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

From the looks of it the construction ir straight forward. Between two strips of flexible stripping he has added stringers cut aprox every 6 inches (Note; use more kerfs closer together as the arc gets tighter. See kink above right diagonal. This is a parabolic curve, not an arc. The bend is greater near the top of the bridge.) 

The use of cutting kerfs to lessen resistance to bending is very old, but doing so causes straight sections between the cuts, the bender board hides most of that. 

When making glue-lam stringers for my trestles, I ripped thin sections and blocked in the curve. I glued and pinned spacers and then an outer stringer was glued, pinned and clamped as I worked from one end to the other. If you eliminate the spacers you will have a very strucurally sound arc that will hold it's shape, though you will have less saw dust... 

John


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

Posted By LOST AND CONFUSED on 05/13/2009 8:44 PM
_{snip...}_ I never thought anyone would be interested That is why I was showing the different styles I made after you have two bent arches I thought it would be an insult to this forum to explain the rest of the process because there are projects on this sight that I would never attempt .There are some real master builders here 
John

Never think that the members "wouldn't be interested", as you've stated there are a great many master modelers as members here, however, there are many more members that are not only new to scratch-building things but totally new to the hobby as well. I think that you'll find that we're all interested in learning how others have found and executed solutions to the various problems we all encounter.


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## CJGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: I have built 5 different 6 foot arched bridges only using stuff from home depot or lows*

very nice bridges I work for home depot, I enjoy seeing what the customers make with the odd's n ends in the scrap piles haha


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