How I make paper corrugated roofing

[IWannaRetire]

Back when freerails was viable (RIP) I posted my method of making corrugated roofing/siding sheets.

My goal is to build this in O scale:



It's an oldie and goodie from :




It will take a lot of corrugated material.  Ray Oversat made his HO scale siding by scribing tin foil with a ball point pen.

I actually started this in HO back in the '60s.  I fought the scribing and the scribing won!

I have been on a quest to make good corrugated material cheaply and quickly. It's probably the challenge presented by my 13 year old self.

I don't like the plastic versions out there because they are way too thick, and overlapping stands out.  I purchased a small amount of an O scale  paper version online to see how nice it was, it is very nice paper,  it's very pricey as well.

To use for dies to make my own, I purchased a package of Evergreen Plastics 4527 Metal Siding .060" Spacing.   I happen to have some old full size corrugated roofing/siding on my property. I measured the rib spacing on my tin;  mine would scale to within .002" of the Evergreen Plastics, so close enough for rib-counters.
 
A dive down the WorldWideWabbit hole revealed as one might suspect, there is quite a range of rib spacing and rib depth, often from the same manufacturer.  One manufacturer said for steep pitched roofs, the ribs can be shallow, but for more gently pitched roofs, the ribs should be deeper because of different snow loading.

My first trials were OK enough to post on freerails.  The material I pressed between two pieces of the hard plastic material was a "cover paper" that measures .012" (regular copy paper averages near .004") 

I used a small roller that was for setting window screen splines, because I had it.



Dried paper wouldn't take an impression, simply wetting the cover paper didn't work well either.   Eventually I soaked  it overnight.  A lot of my material wasn't usable after drying due to uneven pressure from my rolling.  While drying out after an overnight soak, it also seriously potato-chipped.  Usually, I could get that out when gluing it down.  I was producing usable material, but way too slowly, and with a lot of unusable material as well.

I quit working on that building because my process was too slow to produce the amount of material I needed.   Meanwhile, I've been carefully watching Bernd's amazing efforts at making scale roofing from thin aluminum shim stock.  I did press some from heavy duty kitchen foil with my method, but it dented too easily, was difficult to paint as well.  I don't use solvent based finishes in my basement workshop. 

Then, the other day at Goodwill I ran across this, curiosity got me so I took a dive down the web.  It's an entry level Sizzix machine. Paper crafters use it to cut and emboss shapes and designs.  The machine is just 2 rollers spaced apart by a fixed distance.  Side lever works a vacuum base.  For 4 bucks, I brought it home.



After playing around a bit, here's what I am making now, much faster and better.






My current paper softening technique is borrowed from leather working: I soak the paper in alcohol, but only long enough to get it thoroughly wet, takes just a minute.

I sandwich the wet paper between 2 strips of the evergreen plastic, and sandwich those between enough card and basswood until it presses hard enough to get the results I want with a single pass through the rollers.

The machine presses way more evenly than I was with the hand roller, and the alcohol dries way faster and with way less potato chipping.  Now I am able to consistently make paper corrugated material in a timely fashion.

This is some of my old paper after a very quick weathering experiment:

[deemery]

Great bargain store find!  Here Bernd went to great lengths to create one of those, and you got yours for $4.  

Nice coloring/weathering on the sheets, too.  One thing to consider is using an artist marker to paint the edges, try a neutral grey that's just a bit darker than your coloring.  That'll make each sheet pop.  

dave

[Philip]

Nice find and results.

[IWannaRetire]

Great bargain store find!  Here Bernd went to great lengths to create one of those, and you got yours for $4. 

Nice coloring/weathering on the sheets, too.  One thing to consider is using an artist marker to paint the edges, try a neutral grey that's just a bit darker than your coloring.  That'll make each sheet pop. 

dave

My plastic dies won't press into anything thicker than heavy kitchen foil, but because of the solvent reasons I mentioned, I'd really rather work with paper anyways.

Dave, thanks for the marker tip. Should I mark the edges first thing before washing with paint?  I haven't used markers yet, but lately they seem to be coming up a lot in videos I watch, so I would like to try some.

Philip, thanks for the compliment.  I got lucky with the find and the results.

[Bernd]

Great bargain store find!  Here Bernd went to great lengths to create one of those, and you got yours for $4. 

dave

Yes, true. But mine is fine tuned for HO scale. I was able to make the tool to fit the need. Mark was lucky to find one that makes close to "O" scale corrugations. Sometimes you luck out finding the right tool.

Nice find Mark. Corrugations look great.

Bernd

[IWannaRetire]

Thanks, Bernd.  I still have your gear supplier bookmarked from the freerails days.   

I was seriously contemplating following you down your path with the gears until I stumbled on the little Sizzix roller press.  I've seen paper crafter's crinkling rollers similar to your design that will crinkle dry paper by passing between the rollers with enough pressure and sharply defined teeth. The trouble is that they all produce ribs way too big for my scale, but with the right gear teeth profiles, I think it could be done. The O scale paper I purchased I think might have been done that way.

In order to get down into the valleys with my method, the paper must stretch between the ribs on the Evergreen plastic, hence the necessity of softening it by soaking.  But with your design, the material can be folded into consecutive ribs and valleys, with little to no stretching.       

[Bernd]

Thanks, Bernd.  I still have your gear supplier bookmarked from the freerails days.   

I was seriously contemplating following you down your path with the gears until I stumbled on the little Sizzix roller press.  I've seen paper crafter's crinkling rollers similar to your design that will crinkle dry paper by passing between the rollers with enough pressure and sharply defined teeth. The trouble is that they all produce ribs way too big for my scale, but with the right gear teeth profiles, I think it could be done. The scale paper I purchased I think might have been done that way.

In order to get down into the valleys with my method, the paper must stretch between the ribs on the Evergreen plastic, hence the necessity of softening it by soaking.  But with your design, the material can be folded into consecutive ribs and valleys, with little to no stretching.       

If you ever want to see how real corrugated sheeting is done a Google search will give you the answer. No way would I be able to build a machine in miniature to do that. That's why using two gears like that worked out well. You are correct in the stretching.

Bernd

[IWannaRetire]

Bernd, I did watch some videos years back. The commercial production process forms the ribs longitudinally, while your design forms the ribs at 90 degrees to that.  Your design shares many features with a bead roller.

I taught high school shop for over 3 decades,  woodworking, but primarily autos and welding.  Since I now have some time, I have too many hobbies, one is restoring old vehicles. To that end I have collected a lot of tooling over the years by being in the right place at the right time.

I have 2 venerable old versions of this bead roller:



The various interchangeable dies come in mated sets. The set of toothed crimping dies shown in the illustration are typically used for crimping one end of round ductwork so that it slips into the adjoining piece in the system.

In my metal shop out back I have sweet old LeBlond Regal 15" engine lathe (metal lathe), and in the past I have machined custom steel dies for my bead rollers.  The dies I machined were for forming beads, and not toothed.  I lack machining capacity to cut steel gears, a capacity I would need to make a more appropriate set of crimping dies for the above.

I contemplated re-boring the stock gears you referenced to fit my bead roller, but the center-to center shaft distance means that the overall outer diameter of the dies is a critical measurement, otherwise the dies close at an angle, not parallel.

Your design allows the gears to mate perfectly parallel to one another.

 

[Bernd]

Mark,

You are a very accomplished metal worker then. Sounds like I've been preaching to the choir.     

Bernd

[IWannaRetire]

Yesterday I ran across a roll of metal duct tape I have for the central dust collection system in my woodshop. I had tried a similar tape way back when I was pressing materials between the Evergreen plastic with a hand roller, and wasn't pleased with the results.

Here's my most recent results from yesterday when I ran a piece thru my Sizzex roller between the Evergreen plastic dies:





Here's the product, although there are many other similar tapes:



Since I took the photos, I discovered the red print comes off with alcohol, and the tape accepted a coat of Badger Stynylrez primer.

I'm going going to let the primer cure for a couple days before I peel the tape off the backing, as that will flex the paint and I anticipate it flaking off otherwise.  Maybe painting after it goes onto my cardstock would be a better technique.

[deemery]

You may need to use a solvent primer (rattle can) to get adhesion.  Fortunately, now that you've perfected this technique, you can experiment with different primers to see what works.

dave

[IWannaRetire]

I think you're right, Dave. 

Fortunately it's getting warmer (at least supposed to) and I can use a solvent primer outside soon. Then I'd just prime over the print.  My outbuilding shop is heated with a wood furnace, so I avoid solvent paints there when that thing is going. 

[Rail and Tie]

Now that you have the corrugations going well, you need to go old school on aging and corroding them. Circuit board etching solution.

[IWannaRetire]

Now that you have the corrugations going well, you need to go old school on aging and corroding them. Circuit board etching solution.

That looks great!