Any 5

Has there ever been an article on building a 5" Gauge Ground Level Turntable ? "Search This Site" suggests there hasn't. Does anyone have any advice for a beginner-level metal worker ( no lathe or milling)? I was thinking of a design based on cheap, easily obtainable 2nd-hand car wheel hub with angle-iron to form both the rails and the structure . Is a circular ring rail necessary or use castor wheels? Only need a basic functional design for 040 /060 tank engine and Bo-Bo battery diesels . Thanks in advance for any hints and tips.on how to start this project.

Use a lazy daisy, ie table centre rotary stand

Or perhaps an oversize lazy susan? I think it would require some peripheral bearings to take the weight of track and locomotive.

Thanks for the ideas. This looks amazing , £10 for 1000 LBS load capacity ?

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I will order one at this price and do some testing to see if it will need peripheral support.

Chris, I don't know the weight of a 5 inch gauge loco (plus coal and water), plus track and support structure, but I expect that the 1000 lb. capacity is for a nicely balanced load. It looks like sheet metal, and might distort under a bending load. The circular ring you suggest would be a good idea, or a lower concrete ring with castor wheels might be easier to achieve.

Chris.......you could use the lazy susan at the centre of a burried car/Lorry wheel and use the rim as a support rail.

Just be aware that when the "Lazy Susan" gets wet, the bearings will probably rust. I would not start off with that, stick to some sort of car wheel bearing idea.

I was once shown a "writing hut" which the homeowner had built in his garden and which rotated to catch the sun on a home made lazy susan bearing. The bearing itself was made of 3 sheets of plywood each about 8 feet in diameter. The lower sheet apparently rested on the foundations and the upper sheet was secured to the base of the shed. The middle sheet had holes drilled in it in 3 (or possibly 4) concentric circles to act as a cage and children's glass marbles were used as ball bearings. I was told the bearings had indented the plywood a little in use, to make tracks in the upper and lower sheets of ply and that there was a "bolt" in the centre to form a centre bearing, the builder was not an engineer. I don't know what the shed weighed but it seemed strongly made and the owner was keen to demonstrate that the shed could be rotated with little effort even with 4 or so of his guests crowded into it.

it might be a bit homespun for a turntable but it does demonstrate what can be done with simple arrangements.

If the load on the turntable is 1,000 lb and there are (say) 200 marbles, it does not seem unreasonable to expect a marble to support 5 lb?

Max mass you will see with loco, structure probably no more than 250kg tops. So well within the loading capability. With regards to bending due to offset loading, it will probably be ok, but well worth a punt at that price.

Dave

That assumes all marbles would be equally loaded. My gut feeling that is unlikely with a a timber structure.

Thanks for all the advice and comments. Thought I should share with you the almost finished product.

So I went with original car wheel hub idea. This turned out to be reassuringly sturdy, almost too heavy to lift. Main beam is 150 x 75mm x 8 mm C channel with 25x25x5 angle iron rails. It is 2m long and uses an inexpensive trailer wheel hub.. There is no peripheral rail as there is only about 5mm of deflection caused by play in the hub but this isn't a problem to be solved as the necessary locking mechanism ( stable door bolt) keeps everything aligned and supported. There is still cosmetic and landscaping to compete but it is too cold to lay more brickwork.

Looking really good Chris. Does your angle section have a fairly flat edge in contact with the wheels or is it the rounded edge type ?

That is why I went with the 5mm thickness rather than more common 3mm . A bit flatter with round edges rather than semi-circular profile. Hopefully better engagement with flanges and sufficient adhesion surface . Tested Ok in workshop with small battery 040 shunter but cannot get big BO-BO loco around to that part of layout for a real test until I clear all the leaves off the line !