Large Scale Central

Hecla Mine, Burke Idaho

Modeling
#221

All the other buildings I will either make with a foam/Styrene wall or just .125 styrene with bracing if they are small buildings where warping wont be an issue. After doing the Burke, which is first building I have made from plastic and not wood, I am liking the construction method so far, save the small amount of warping that is solved with internal bracing. Now it has not stood the test of time yet obviously, but I think it should hold up. My intentions (the road to hell is paved with good intentions) is to bring my buildings in for winter. But even at its size I wish I had laminated the plastic to foam on the basic box.

Since I have no desire to model interiors and have blanked out my windows anyway, Another thought especially on smaller structures would to make them solid blocks of foam with styere laminated to the outside. That would make it hell bent for stout.

#222

Just trying to follow. This 5 foot piece will rest directly against the house? If so, the house is your bracing so long as you have some attachment points. They could be ScotchLock or Velcro if you need it removable.

#223

I had not really considered attaching it to the house. But there is no reason I can.t. That could work.

#224

It doesn’t seem to be as messy as a regular serrated kitchen knife. I think if you’re wife doesn’t mind or you dedicate it to your hobby, you could dull down the teeth a little and that might minimize the mess.

#225

The wife??? Why would she care…lol. We don’t share traditional kitchen roles. When it comes to the kitchen I wear the apron in the family. And I look damn good in it.

#226

I don’t know why I had not thoucht of this before but I have a long thin smooth bladed knife for slicing jerky. I bet that would work up against something like the level to give me a nice clean smooth cut.

#227

I hope its more than just an apron :rofl:

#228

French cleat system for holding onto the house! Removable but yet sturdy.

Second more relevant question. Where are you planning on storing the buildings during the winter? In the garage? Seems like it would take up a lot of real estate quick.

#229

The “yard” is a big cabinet that I built with storage in mind. Originally car storage. But I might dedicate it to buildings. Also the wife and I are going to build false front buildings as part of our fence to create privacy screening and give the yard a look and feel of an old west town. Part of this is to make shallow (in depth) buildings along the fence that we can use for various forms of storage. And if all else fails then the rafters in the garage. I really don’t plan on having a tremendous amount of buildings. Well at least by my standards. I will have the mine complex, a downtown, and then another area that will be where the concentrator is maybe if I can squeeze it in a very small saw mill. Another though I have had over the years is under the bench work I could store them and build removable panels to skirt it. I am not looking for air tight storage just something to keep the sunlight and snow off of them while not in use.

But that does bring up an intriguing idea. Making the main hoist house a flat and having it attached to the house, I could easily build a cover for it and leave it in place and just remove the other buildings.

#230

No one would eat dinner if they saw me in only an apron. Would ruin peoples appetite for a week or more.

#231

You for got that tin foil hat … :kissing:

#232

Would a building along the house really need much covering? Doesn’t the roof of your house cover the siding by a few feet?

I’m not too worried about snow loads here in Seattle but every once in a while we get a few feet at once. I figured if that’s the case, the surrounding snow might actually help support the structure as it takes on an increasing heavier snow load. :roll_eyes::thinking:

#233

Its not so much the snow load as just having that much water sitting on it. While the house does have an eve its the gable end and is 10 feet or more above the bench and all of this is on the south facing part of the house. Little to no protection would be afforded by the house. My main interest in protection is just the UV and moisture. No sense in having stuff exposed unnecessarily. My railroad gets used about 4 months out of the year. maybe 5. So the rest of the time its just idle and taking abuse.

#234

Well I am not sure what Eric did different than me but my attempt to glue styrene to pink insulation foam with titebond 3 was an epic failure. No adhesion whatsoever. Not even a little.

Next attempt will be e6000. I bought a case of it. If that doesn’t work then I will go back to using some sort of foam core plastic board.

#235

It never occurred to me to look at what pink foam board was made out of. . . Polystyrene. I just ran up stairs and applied a liberal does of MEK to a piece of styrene sheet and slapped it on the foam. Instant reaction. Now I an still not sure but I have little doubt it will bond. But the piece of sheet is smaller than the foam and is sinking into the foam. As long as that process can can be controlled with uniform pressure and stops at some reasonable point then I am not overly concerned what the nominal thickness comes out as long as it relatively uniform.

I have much higher hopes for this since its a true chemical weld as opposed to a mechanical glue joint. If I can rig up a simple press I should be able to apply uniform pressure and keep it flat.

On the liberal dose part. Seeing as how well it ate the foam a lighter touch my ease up the reaction and give me better control.

#236

Have you tried Goop? My favorite adhesive.

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#237

I have not tried it yet. But having said that I woke up this morning and the bond between foam and sheet is as good as anything I can expect using MEK. It welded it. Its on tight and when I ripped it off it took chunks of foam with it. So I think I can refine the process with less MEK and then some good even pressure and it will give me a nice uniform solid foam core styrene to work with.

#238

funny, using titebond lll I glued my wood lumbercar load to the blue foam filler and next day I wanted to fix a small issue ant there was no pulling the wood off the foam. Anyway good that you forged ahead and found a fix.
I tried to glue my blue foam using E6000 and it worked but melted it together IF i remember it right

#239

To be fair the glue stuck to the foam. It did not stick to the styrene sheet. Now they are both styrene but I think the porosity of the foam allowed the glue to “stick” to it. But the sheet is I think too smooth and since it is a mechanical bond and not a chemical one it didn’t stick.

Now on the flip side. . .the MEK joint also “melts” the foam. It actually also melts the styrene sheet. And this is why it works. It melts both and when the solvent evaporates the melted styrene combines to chemically adhere the two pieces into one. This is 100% a chemical weld/bond and not a mechanical glue joint.

I really am inspired by this new discovery. I will have to learn to temper and control the reaction and get the sheet to bond on nice and flat. But I think with a make shift press I can do this no problem.

#240

Sorry for my tardiness to this thread.

Doc, I mean, how did your wife actually react to that? Our electric knife is ONLY brought out for turkey day, if then…

OK, carry on.