Large Scale Central

Building the EBT's Tank #102

Modeling
#21

Jon,
a technique used a long time ago was to slightly burn the timber with a butane gas flame gun (like plumbers used to use when soldering plumbing in a house). The burned area was then attacked with a wire brush. The brush would remove the softer grain, leaving exposed ridges of hard timber on the surface. This method would require selecting timber with varying grades of timber hardness in a plank and most likely unsuited to timber having a close, uniform grain.

 I do like working with 'red' cedar.  Here the better quality product is marketted as 'clear' cedar as it is free of knots and has a beautiful uniform grain finish,  perfect for models.  It is also easy to machine,  giving a smooth finish.
#22

Thanks Tim. Well this is definitely RED Cedar with plenty of knots. I had to mill several extra side sills because the integrity was ruined by a knot. Fortunately for the other shorter parts I was able to easily work around them.

I have a propane torch and a wire brush. I might try that method on some scrap just for fun, but I don’t think I’m ready to make this nice wood look that bad, even though I said I wanted it :smiley:

#23

raise the grain with H2O…it will bring it up, maybe more than you’d like!

cale

#24

Tonight was a disaster. After spending an hour setting up my 10" table saw to cut down some small strips to make the 9.5 x 2.3 mm decking, I ran all the stock through the saw and made a nice pile of sawdust and about 40 planks ready to cut to length. Then I noticed that I had run the stock through the saw with the wrong side up. Instead of ending up with planks approx. 7.5 x 1.75 scale inches, I had a pile of 11.25 x 2.25 scale inch planks. The 2.25 thickness was intentional - there is just no way I wanted to try and cut under 3 mm slices, but the 11.25 board width was a mistake.

This wouldn’t be a big deal if I could run a whole bundle of them through the saw at once, but the individual pieces are now too small to run through the 10" saw individually. I can’t come up with a way to safely hold them together in a stack so I think they will be relegated to the stock pile and I’ll have to start over.

Now I have to hunt up another chunk of wood I can turn into sawdust :smiley:

#25

Guess there’s some truth to the old axiom…measure twice, cut once…:wink:

#26

Now that’s a bummer.

You’re cutting to the nearest SCALE 1/4"??? Wow. :wink:

#27
Bruce Chandler said:
Now that's a bummer.

You’re cutting to the nearest SCALE 1/4"??? Wow. :wink:


Achieving that - no, not on a 10" saw. My boards actually vary in thickness by about 1mm from one end to the other since I cant get the fence any truer on my cheapo saw.

The plans I have call for boards 2.3mm thick. That’s too thin for my saw so I decided 3mm was good enough. I’ve been doing my best to set the saw up +/- .5mm but accepting +/- 1mm results. It takes a lot of fiddling around and test cuts to get even that close. I’m not too worried about uneven deck planks, in fact it may help make the car look older.

For the deck lumber I built a jig on the saw. Two finger boards hold the stock down against the table and a second “fence” keeps the stock tight to the fence. I got so involved in designing and making this jig work and protecting my fingers (I can not see or touch the blade without trying very hard) that I didn’t realize my error that was made when first setting up the jig.

Ken - I need to measure and adjust about 10 times to get this saw to cut within that tolerance. Thickness, that I was cutting for was right on, I just had a brain fart when it came to board width. I ran the stick through the saw with the wrong edge against the fence.

I wonder if these nice 11 inch boards would look good as siding on that shanty I never finished :smiley:

#28

I thought you finished that shanty? Oh, well, memory fails me. But, I’m sure that they would look good.

I’m uncomfortable cutting that size of wood, but I may have to try it again for my next project. Ordering scale lumber is nice, but it’s a lot more expensive.

#29

Nope - I got the acrylic box and roof done, but never did the finishing. Now that I have some siding cut I’ll have to bring it back to the front of the workbench. I need some styrene strips to make my window and door frames - or I could try milling those too. On second thought there is no way I would try and cut window mullions.

#30

Sometimes a disaster can lead to a good outcome. My mistake milling lumber for the deck made me go searching through the boxes of off-cuts I keep for small projects like this. I found two very nice pieces of clear cedar that was just enough to mill up into 40 some planks for the deck. The grain on this wood is beautiful. Much nicer than the blah pine I milled up the day before.

Setting up the saw and getting nice results from this wood reminded my of why I’ve always enjoyed woodworking so much. Too bad I’ve never been good at it :o

I mucked around with the fence again trying to get it parallel to the blade, but I’m still getting a 1mm variation in thickness on a 7" long cut. That’s working out OK for the decking because I like the slightly irregular look. The deck isn’t perfectly smooth. One other ‘problem’ will be taken advantage of. The cedar I milled up was 3 boards short of completing the entire deck. I have some short pieces left from trimming the decking to length, so rather than stop where I ran out, I pulled up some random boards to finish to the end. I’ll fill these in after the center sills are in with splices and it will look like a repair was done during the life of the car.

I’ll get some fresh pictures tonight.

#31

The decking is on and the center sills installed. I need to stop at the hobby store tomorrow and get some T-Nuts and then I can put on the bolsters and needle beams finishing the woodwork. I still need to decide on couplers and I’m short some of the Ozark castings I need, but the flat is just about ready for the detailing stage. I forgot to set the white balance on the camera so the colors are a bit odd. I attempted to color correct the deck close up, but just made it worse. BTW - I relly love that Grex pinner. [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_3_1200.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_3_700.JPG)

[/url] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_4_1200.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_4_700.JPG)

[/url] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_5_1200.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_5_700.JPG)

[/url] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_6_1200.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_6_700.JPG)

[/url] You can click the pictures for a larger version.

#32

If you don’t feel like shelling out the dough for the Grex pinner, Harbor Freight has one for $25!

Later,

K

#33
Kevin Strong said:
If you don't feel like shelling out the dough for the Grex pinner, Harbor Freight has one for $25!

Later,

K


Hey Kevin,

I have seen these but wonder about the quality. Do you have the HF pinner? I got bit in the butt a few years ago buying a second brand finish nailer a few years back. The thing constantly jammed and was a piece of s— and it was only 10 bucks less than the name brand (which was out of stock). Once bitten, twice shy! :wink:

-Brian

#34

I’ve never bought tools from Harbor Freight so I can’t comment on them. I got a pretty good deal on the Grex pinner at ECLSTS. I’ve seen Senco pinners at Home Depot’s website at a reasonable price. I have Senco brad nailers, staplers and a framing nailer that I’ve been happy with. And I’m real happy with the Grex pinner.

#35

No work today so I was able to finish the woodworking. When I went to install the needle beams I found I had cut them too short. Another opportunity to do things just a little better :smiley: All the woodworking is done now. Next step is to add the detail parts. [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_7_1200.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com//EBTTank/Wood_Flat_7_720.JPG)

[/url][color=blue]FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_8_1200.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com//EBTTank/Wood_Flat_8_720.JPG)

[/url][color=blue]FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] This is my fix for the boards I was short for the deck… [url=lsc.cvsry.com/EBTTank/Wood_Flat_9_1200.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com//EBTTank/Wood_Flat_9_720.JPG)

[/url][color=blue]FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] Looking at it this close I’ve learned that next time I’ll randomize the boards better so the grain isn’t so similar in adjacent boards. Better color this time though :slight_smile: Now I’m trying to decide if I should sand the deck or leave it uneven like it is.

#36

Jon…
In the real world would they sand the deck for a nice smooth finish only to be coated with oil and chemicals on the line? I think it looks great! just build off of it! I gotta get me a pinner.

#37

Jon, that’s one beautiful piece of work… :slight_smile:

#38

Railroad inventory increased by one. :slight_smile: Looks like a fun project. Great work! Thanks for sharing.

#39

Thanks guys -

What you see so far has been the easy part. Detailing is very time consuming. I spent 3+ hours last evening and haven’t finished one end. I’m getting anxious to paint, but won’t be able to for a while as it is still below zero here.

Still struggling with what to do for couplers. All my other 1:20 stuff has the original Bachman couplers, but I don’t have any spares without the drop-down bar. I have plenty of extra Delton by Aristo to fool with. I think they mate pretty good with the Bachman couplers. I may try and come up with a body mount for them.

#40

That’s really marvelous. Nice looking wood deck. Almost makes me wish I worked in 1:20