That roof looks good, Devon. The tightening detail on the band is awesome!!
People never seem to find cats. Cats always find the people. Good luck with your new little torty. The engine house is rounding out nice. Really like the door hinges and tanks bands. Always love to see how you tackle those types of details. That foam stone work looks great too. I may have to try that some day.
Large Scale Central TV
The Steam Propulsion Laboratory: Building the “Badger Works” Episode 4
Welcome to the fourth installment of our 6 part series “The Steam Propulsion Laboratory: Building the ‘Badger works’”. I am your host D. James Sinsley and on this episode we will step away from the construction of the badger works and look at some of the innovations that are attributed to the SPL.
One of the most significant innovations to revolutionize the world was the harnessing of electricity. In all aspects of all industries electricity changed the way things were done. Locomotives were not immune to the conversion to electricity; with modern locomotives being nothing more than giant diesel generators. For the steam locomotives it began with the lights. Prior to the electric headlamp locomotives required some fuel base to keep a flame burning. Seeing the value of electricity and the electric light Barnabas looked for a way to use the locomotive’s steam power to make electricity. What he came up with was the electric steam turbine generator, the dynamo. While Pyle National was credited with its development and production with its successful tests on the Rock Island line in 1897, it was really Ford who invented the dynamo which was powered by the SPL’s steam boiler, to light the lab as early as 1890.
In modern times one of Lockheed-Martins high profile projects is the F-35 high tech war plane. One of the variants of the F35 is vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) b model design for the United States marine Corp. VTOL aircraft are considered a relatively new innovation with the development of the Harrier Jumpjet developed by Hawker Siddeley in 1969. However evidence of VTOL vehicles have emerged from the SPL. Many suggest that this technology is due to the secret dealings the SPL has had with alien life forms. Many theorize that steam powered alien spacecraft paved the way for steam development. However one emerging theory is that what people believed were alien space craft were really humans engaged in time travel.
The theory goes that the obscure relative of Barnabus Ford, Theodore Ford, was a student of Albert Einstein and worked closely with him on the theory of relativity. T. Ford continued the work and many believed that he invented a device called the flux capacitor which allowed for time travel. It is believed that he traveled back in time in a Volkswagen bus by reaching a speed of 33 miles per hour. He is believed to have traveled back in time to meet with Barnabus and give him insight into a great number of possible inventions. Many believe that the Back to the Future movies are based on T. Ford’s work and that the 3rd instalment is Hollywood’s interpretation of the meeting and resulting efforts of T Ford and Barnabus in the development of a VTOL locomotive.
Next week we will return to construction of the Badger works as we begin to wrap up our series on one of the nation’s greats secrets.
Randy Lehrian Jr. said:
People never seem to find cats. Cats always find the people. Good luck with your new little torty. The engine house is rounding out nice. Really like the door hinges and tanks bands. Always love to see how you tackle those types of details. That foam stone work looks great too. I may have to try that some day.
Yea, I am a dog person, but, well, Jessie kinda found me. Jessie wasn’t actually a cat, although she did purr.
OK so here is a how done it on the bands. i wanted it to be a real workinn version of the prototype tank.
Also on many of the tanks the bands are closer together at the bottom than they are at the top. Lets get started.
First the materials. 1.1 mm wire but 1.2 mm is better for the 00-9 nuts. The tubing is I believe 3/16 but not sure and the strip of brass is just a 1/4 wide cut off from some sheet material. The tools are self explanatory.
I start by making a rounded bend int he strip with the wire wrapping pliers on the smallest round part that hols the brass tube. Bend it and put it in my vise. Add the two pieces of tubing and two small strips of solder; one at the strip/tube joint and one at the tube/tube joint. I don’ have a pic of that. Then apply flame to the bottom with the torch that draws the solder down through the joints. Once that is done bend the strip around the other side and apply another piece of solder to the new tube/strip joint. The pictures show it a bit different because of a mistake. But you should get the idea.
Once that is done cut the strip off and file the edges of the strip and solder to a nice shape around the tube and fiel the tubes square and flush with one another.
Then time to thread the wire. I used a cheap threading tool that I got off Ebay. The taps suck but the die works great. Measure your wire so there is about 3/4" over lap when pulled tight around the tank. cut it and thread each end about 1/2 and inch.
The result is a nice thread for the 00-9 nut. Now like I said 1.2mm wire is better 1.1 mm is a little sloppy but works and I had 1.1mm wire. Then come the hard part. thread one nut onto one side. Feed on the fastener so it faces so the tubing is to the outside. Doesn’t matter which wire goes on top just keep it uniform for each. then push the other end through the other hole and pull it tight and thread on the other nut. trying to use fat fingers on tiny nuts and threading it while holding the wires tight is well. . .a bitch. But I did it and so can you.
A 00-9 nut driver would be nice but I used fingers first then forceps to get it tight. Now stagger the joints and make the bands get closer to together at the bottom and you have a tank.
In hind sight it would be a whole lot easier to do this before you put on the roof. It would make threading the nuts on so much easier. But I am not the brightest bulb in the box so I didn’t do it that way.
Hey, its not how bright, just as long as its burning!! The bands look good.
Trivia: Why do the bands get closer at the bottom?
A guess: More pressure at the bottom of the tank due to weight of the water above.
yep I agree with David. My water district just built a 2 million gallon water tank and the steel at the bottom is twice as thick as the steel at the top or nearly so.
That was too easy. Devon, it sounds like you and I have similar careers. We have 4 elevated 2MG tanks and I am trying to downsize 3 of them.
I work for a public water utility, a small one of about 2000 connections, We had a 40 year old 1 million gallon tank and we just finished the 2mill
Here are the tank with all the bands in place and the rest of that fine Taylor tin in place. The tank will be painted green like all the trim.
and another “how I done it” or at least how I hope it works. So we learned that Barnabas invented the steam dynamo for electric power. Well that power will be used to light the plant. That will be done through 6-3mm white LEDs. I used the appropriate resistor to run these of 5v. Why 5v because for some reason I thought this would be a good idea. I have a computer power supply I cannibalized to use for a solderer but it isn’t going to work in that application so I figured I would use it as a power supply for my indoor or testing on my bench. Well it has 12v and 5v and i figured why not use the 5v for lighting LEDs. Not sure that’s the best plan but its done now. So I cut the negative wire on the LED short and cut one side of the resistor short and soldered them together and then soldered on color coded wire (red for + and green for - I have lots of this wire)On the positive side I put some small heat shrink. That keeps from shorting the two sides. The I heat shrinked the whole thing.
I then took some cap nuts that over the threads on bolts for decoration and safety and took out the metal piece and drill a hole to slide the bulb in. I then glued a piece of fiber tube used for model rockets over the wire and onto the lamp shade.
These will be installed in a piece of wood hung from the rafters. Wire will run down the rafter to the center where the main ffed wire will run to length of the building. The way it is wired they will all be in parallel with one another. I haven’t fired any up yet.
Mmmmm , lighting. Something else to extend my build time. I have a a bunch of LEDs stripped out of a sign we scrapped last week. I just yanked them out by the wire leaving the plastic housing behind leaving only the PCB mounted LEDs with a 12V current source IC. I could put a few on the top of the main beam for indirect lighting bouncing off the underside of the roof.
Thanks for another bad idea.
Nice light fixtures, Devon. I hope I can remember all the neat little tricks I see here or at least where to look for them. Can’t wait to see the power come on.
Barnabas commanded let there be light and there was.
Lights are in wired and running off a temporary 6v source. 6-3mm white LED with an appropriate resistor for 5v. They are wired in parallel. I will have to paint the white piece black so the light doesn’t bleed through. Eventually I want to take some of the cutoffs from the tin and make a storage bin for the outside back of the building that will have a lift up hinged lid that will house the switch to turn on the lights
I think I am going to make the finish line at least with something to show. I have to finish the other side wall and the back then the exterior will be done I have a lot of details I would like to put into it such as planked interior walls and a whole host of other small details. I have one more surprise detail I am holding out on that I hope to get in before the finish gun sounds. We will see.
Wow, those look great.
I like the lights… Nice touch.
I like the lighting Devon. Later after the build would like to know more about them… Looking very nice so far…
Dave Taylor said:
I like the lights… Nice touch.
agreed
I’m sure glad life is interfering with my entry, a face saver fer sure compared to yours and others builds!
A continual show of Nice Touches! Wow, way to go!(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Psst … wanna buy a culvert?
John, the way behind one.
John, I compete though I do not plan on winning. I build running models and stuff that needs to live outside. So all the cutsie trim detail is pretty much out for me. Anything that would get ripped off by snow, taken away by tree rats or otherwise destroyed I don’t put on my buildings. I also don’t do detailed interiors, because I don’t expect anyone to get down on all fours and look through 1:24 scale windows and try and read the writing on a wall calendar (also in 1:24th scale).
That said, I am also way behind schedule, and I have just been informed that I need to be somewhere else this afternoon. And I will also be somewhere else tomorrow afternoon. So, my entry may be a Derrick and a pile of aluminum panels.