To rebuild or not to rebuild?

[RobertInOntario]

Robert, if the plywood board has warped, I would suggest getting some steel studs designed for wall construction use. Remove the old frame, all structures, and any removable details, and lay the studs on a couple of saw horses with the plywood layout board laying on the studs. Starting at the center of the layout and avoiding the need to drill through or under any track work, drill hoes for screws and nuts to bolt the plywood securely to the steel studs. If it is bowed up, use long enough screws that are threaded all the way up to the head or nearly to the head so that you can use nuts and washers to pull the board down to the studs. After the nuts have pulled the board down to the studs, you can cut off the excess screw with a hack saw. You don't need huge bolts for this, #10 machine screws are probably plenty strong enough, #8 might even work. Plywood warps because it is easy to bend. It can be flattened out just as easily. I think the steel studs are made of "channel" shaped steel like the "hat section" steel used for bracing on gondolas. When you secure the plywood to the studs, the studs will not bend, so the plywood has to conform to the straightness of the studs. You can still use some 1x3 or 1x4 or even 1x2 lumber for cross bracing, so you would only need 2 of the steel studs to form the main part of the frame. By the way, use flat head (counter sunk) screws so that you can cover the heads with scenery materials to hide them when done.

Could I not just straighten out the board by bolting 2 or 3 solid 2x4s to the bottom of it (instead of using the steel studs)? I guess there's always the risk that the 2x4s could warp too, but I would think it would improve the board and at least make it much better than it currently is!

I just came from Home Depot and the steel studs are not expensive but would have to be cut down in length. The most severe warping is mainly at one end of the layout on the narrow end, i.e. it's warped at the 4' side, not along the 6' side.

Thanks!!

Rob