Re: start ramp build
Tom,
If you're thinking about using 1/8" manufactured sheeting (what we used to call "particle board,") I can tell you Tiger used the same stuff on the LCB ramps for the '06 Encinitas race. By the end of practice there was a huge hole at the end of one ramp and the other was cracked. Tiger ran to Home Depot and got another sheet and screwed it to the top of the damaged piece. By the end of racing that day the second piece was cracked.
You know, two 1/8" pieces equals one piece of 1/4" plywood. You've ridden my ramps and know what that's like. When I got my plywood from HD I had the guy in the lumber department put it on their rip saw and cut an 8-foot length to the width I needed (34" for mine.) I then attached the top sheet to the cross supports just one at a time down the length of the ramp. The 1/4" bent to shape with no protest.
I was kind of careful about screwing the top to the frame as I would be doing it blind from the top into the cross piece. I was careful to space my cross pieces EXACTLY 6" on center apart. Then I layed out the plywood and literally drew a grid on the wood with a Sharpie where each screw would go. I didn't miss a single cross piece on either ramp. I counter sunk the screws just a tad, got a small bucket of wood filler and spackled every hole and then hit each one with a rotary sander. I thing it's eight spars with three screws each totalling 24 screws. After painting my ramp surface is flush with no screw heads visible.
Anyway, that's the results I've seen using that 1/8" stuff.
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