Wow, you guys are starting to shame me good! Here is another build that is almost complete. I love the stone work. Really looks good. AI like the ties too. I’m interested to see how they hold up. I’ve heard that locust will out last stone!
Randy,
This is nowhere even close to complete. I am already sweating it. That’s one side. I just started on the front. Not to mention all the interior walls. They need to be done because it is very easy to see in those big windows. I will be hard pressed to finish on time.
I am not worried about the ties holding up really. Its for an indoor layout. So as long as they don’t split from drying out we should be good.
Due to the blizzard back east this weeks episode is airing a day late (i needed an excuse even though we have no snow anymore).
Large Scale Central TV
The Steam Propulsion Laboratory: Building the “Badger Works” Episode 3
Welcome to the third installment of our series “The Steam Propulsion Laboratory: Building the ‘Badger works’” show. I am your host D. James Sinsley and on this episode we will look in on construction as it progressed and meet a very special character in history that also got his start at the badger works.
The primary goal was to make the SPL look as if it was just an ordinary building, in an ordinary location, being used for ordinary purposes. As we have already discovered the cover for the operation was the Sinsley Mountain Logging and Mining Company. The building was built as a small two engine house with a small work space inside. It would only be big enough on the outside to appear to hold just a couple small diminutive locomotives. What is still unknown is how large locomotives were built and tested here. The speculation is that Bartholomew Badger was more than a pet badger. It is believed he likely was a tunnel builder, digging tunnels coming natural to badgers, and that the SPL had a great series of tunnels underneath it from whence locomotives would rise and exit the doors. This is unsubstantiated to date.
In keeping with the local flare the Badger Works was made from locally sourced materials. The exterior was sided with the shakes cut from abundant Western Red Cedar and cut granite stone from a nearby quarry. The interior flooring and timbers were cut from long straight grained Western Larch known to locals a Tamarack. The framing was made using a manufactured wood invented at the SPL by Barnabus and he called it layered lumber, which later came to be known as plywood. Receipts found show all the lumber for the project was produced by Loyet Lumber Company in nearby Challenge Town. The roofing was galvanized tin sourced from Taylor Tin Works, also in Challenge Town, from a shady character affectionately known as the Tin Man.
A interesting piece of information was recovered on the identity of the construction foreman. A young man of 22, working as Barnabas’ apprentice, was a Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright. The now famous architect cut his teeth learning the trade of construction under Ford. He traveled from Wisconsin where he was born and raised to work with the pioneering Ford. Wright would later become famous for his unusual and contemporary design but here is an early photo of him swinging a hammer under the supervision of Barnabus and Bartholomew.
Thank you for joining me today as we continue this journey, until next week, good night.
Imagine Frank Lloyd Wright as a carpenter but then again what better way to learn construction than hands on.
You are making nice progress there. I really like the floor and how the track is inlaid into it.
Will you be putting doors on ? The reason I ask is when I built my engine house I cut the 2 door openings wide enough but when the doors went on they narrowed the opening just enough to be a problem with some of my 1:20 locos like the Bachmann shay.
Todd Haskins said:
Imagine Frank Lloyd Wright as a carpenter but then again what better way to learn construction than hands on.
You are making nice progress there. I really like the floor and how the track is inlaid into it.
Will you be putting doors on ? The reason I ask is when I built my engine house I cut the 2 door openings wide enough but when the doors went on they narrowed the opening just enough to be a problem with some of my 1:20 locos like the Bachmann shay.
Yes Todd doors will be installed. And I have the width thing covered. I actually researched how 19th century craftsman attached doors to stone walls. I will only add at this point that they will be zero clearance; the doors open as wide as the opening. That will be in next weeks update if all goes as planned. Stay tuned
Who’d a thunk it? Frank Lloyd Wright apprenticed under Barnabas! It’s absolutely amazing what one can learn on this site.
I like the use of different materials, Devon. Looking forward to the next episode.
Frank Lloyd Notquitewright methinks
So since Frank is involved …why isn’t the water tower massively cantilevered off the roof?
It’s early in his career , He hadn’t got that style yet, 2 Winters in ID and it makes anyone a little off of normal.
Dave Taylor said:
It’s early in his career , He hadn’t got that style yet, 2 Winters in ID and it makes anyone a little off of normal.
Understood
Two winters in Idaho studying under a surf bum (before there was such a thing) in flip flops with a pet badger is bound to make anyone eccentric.
Update time. The front is all done except one door. That should be completed tomorrow and then I am hoping to tackle the roof of the tank and the tricky angles. I will likely finish all the roofing as well. So Todd asked about doors and clearance. I gave some thought and research into how to do the hinges. I wanted to know how Old School carpenters dealt with hanging a wood door to masonry. It is a great design they lay the pin part of a barrel hinge between bricks or stones in the mortar. The other deal is that the hinges were made long and when swung open they created a zero clearance with the opening so that the doors open as wide as the opening.
So this is what I wanted to copy. U used a piece of steel brazing rod hammered the end flat and drilled a hole in it, for the pin I used the steel wire from the little flags that mark out sprinkler head locations. Those were soldered together. I wasn’t sure it would work on steel and while it wasn’t as easy as brass and copper it did work. then for the strap part I used some small copper tube that fit nicely over the wire and a piece of soft brass wire that was hammered flat. I like the hammered brass wire because it looks to me like wrought iron that has been worked by a blacksmith. The piece of tubing was soldered to the strap. Then after all my masonry was done I drilled a hole through it all the way through the plywood with a tight fit for the brazing rod. I glued therod in place so that the hinge would allow the door to sit flush with the front of the stone. Then I drilled four holes in the strap and into the door and used CA to glue sewing pins through the strap and it to the door. Makes a great rivet or carriage bolt. Any the door swings all the way open clear of the jams. I did make a mistake and ended up with a gap between doors. So a nice decorative piece hides it. I was not happy about the gap but actually I kinda like the look of the fix so I am leaving it.
Top is the completed hinge but the strap is on backwards and needs to be flipped
Those hinges look really nice Devon. I am kicking around the idea of making mine for my doors too. They will be similar to a barn strap hinge if I go that route.
While so many are getting a slow start and just now getting rolling, I just have been given a dose of reality in that my participation is coming to a precarious end. The next two weekends are very full for me. My son has a hockey tournament all next weekend (thankfully right her in my home town) but then the following Sat I will be in Canada. Not to mention school is really off to a rolling start and while the last two weeks have been OK I have a book report due next week which is a 5 page report (oh and you have to read the book lets not forget that) and a research paper outline the following week for one class and then 3 work sheets and a mid term exam for the other (gee isn’t grad school fun). Plus work. So I am under the wire now even though there are two weeks to go.
The outside will be done. Not sure how far I will get on the inside.
I like the hinges, Devon. Great progress so far. Sounds like you have a lot on you plate for the next few weeks. Just remember, there are 24 hours in a day and who needs sleep anyway. As Sam Elliot said in Road House, “I’ll get all the sleep I need when I’m dead” So see, you had a lot more time than you thought!!!
As a general rule I am not much of a cat person. But every once in awhile one comes along and gets me to like it. I had introduced you all to my old buddy who past away last summer. One of the few cats I reached a mutual understanding with. Well I was pretty convinced I would not like another one much less allow another one in my house and certainly if I failed in the last two things it absolutely would not be my fault if the above two things do happen. Well yeah right. So a few months after the other cat died along comes this fur ball. Wandered into our shed and was very small. So while the wife and daughter took a picture of it and went around to all the neighbors and posted it on face book I said I would watch it. Well by the time they got home it had a name. . .Fuzz. I have a new cat and its all my fault.
Kind of hard to get much done
Fuzz has found a new home and a new house!! I was like you about cats in an earlier life. But my wife is a cat lover and over the years I have come to appreciate them. Mr. Paws has had a profound impact on my feelings towards cats. He’s just a cool dude and don’t take crap off no one. Fuzz looks like a cool cat too.
Get crackin mister…you are burnin daylight!!! … Looking very nice!
Here are a couple pic full update tomorrow.
Thanks to Gary for coming trough with CAD drawings for the roof. Very easy to do with the known angles.
Here is the first band in place. I am pretty proud of these. It is a piece of wire that I threaded both ends after getting the length to accept a 00-9 nut. Then I made a seperate piece for the tightener by soldering two pieces of copper tube to a strip of brass. This is pretty much hownits really done. Each end of the wire was threaded through the brass tube and the nuts put on and then the whole thing was tightened down with forcips. Wish I had a 00-9 nut driver need to get one. Anyway I was able to apply enough force to make them so you couldn’t move it. I did CA glue it for added insurance.
But like last year’s real working chain binders I wanted these straps to be real working straps. I succeeded. Tomorrow I will show the piece and process
The roof is metal foil duct tape applied in two layers and painted black. Yes it’s gloss its all I had but I will dull coat it with a matte finish. It’s is supposed to be a tarred Tin roof.