Gameroom
Pinball
Mame
Train
Bubble Hockey
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| Ceiling Supports |  |
I needed a way to mount the track to the wall and in the spots where the wall was not close enough, I needed ceiling mounts. The ceiling mounts were the first pieces to design. I ended up using 1x2 stock maple and cut them to approxmately 11 inches long and then beveled the edges. I made a top piece and a bottom piece that matched and then the drilling began. Lots of drilling had to happen. I used T nuts for the top piece, which required 3 different size holes to drill. 1 to the width ofthe rod I would be using, a second for the neck of the T nut, and then a thrid diameter for the flange of the T nut. I also had to create a counter sunk hole in the center of the board, as this was where I would be putting the screw that is used to mount the bracket to the ceiling. Likewise for the bottom piece I drilled two holes the size of the rod and then drilled two more holes the size of some 10-24 lock nuts.
I then proceeded to purchase 1/4 inch x 4 foot rods from home depot. I cut them to 11.5 inches (based on my ceiling hight) and then used my die set to thread each end of the rod. Once I did a few of the, I then cleaned each one and spray painted it with rustoleum satin black.
Assembly was pretty easy. The two rods would screw into the top plate with the T nuts and then the track goes in between the rods. The bottom plate goes on and then you tighten down the lock nuts at the end. The nuts hide inside the wood, and I will be putting small wooden caps over all of the exposed hardware to give it a nice finish.
It turned out great, unfortunately the first time I built the mounts, I miscalculated the length of the rods and they were short by 1/2 an inch which may not seem like much, but it was too small to let the train pass. So word of caution, make sure to measure the rod length and take into consideration the counter sinking as well as the amount of threading you do as well.
The side wall mounts were another issue. I started off with a pretty rugged over designed mount that I liked. however it didn't look as nice when the train ties were not parallel with the mount. I then went back and build a more flexible design that pivots. Once again, much drilling was needed to countersink the screws used to mount the bracket to the wall.
