Jon H Olson Chemical Co DBA Skeeter's Fly Dope

[Jim Donovan]

More in a few.

[postalkarl]

Hey Jim:

It's coming along nicely. Great progress shots.

Karl

[GPdemayo]

More in a few.

It's been more than a few...............

[Jim Donovan]

Bummer, Greg you are right, I was called away by the Boss. Anyway, I have found I can much more easily import photos so I have been leaving them large. Looks a little odd when viewing but does show more detail. I am going to change things up a little. I am will post the photo(s) first and then describe what it is and what I did.

Back to catching up:



The upper section of the main building is what gives it its character. Called a Clerestory (new word to me) there are a row of tilt windows on the lower level and then another on an upper level. I am sure this is so rising hot air can escape and ventilation is improved. Anyway the kit directions have you construct the area using another set of interlocking tabs, some of which I was able to duplicate. The rest I designed myself.

One of the things I have found odd in craftsman kits is the lack of plastic except for doors and windows. I understand not using it for the outer walls but it sure beats the pressboard most kits use for the roofs and other 'not seen' items. Therefore, for the floor of the Clerestory I used .2 styrene cut to fit  per directions where the side roof clapboard starts. I used 1/8 x 1/8 basswood strips to help make it rigid. To glue these two dissimilar materials I used Walters Goo. The walls that create the upper cherestory were cut out of the same 1/16 inch clapboard as the side main walls. These were glued to the floor, connected by a 1/8 basswood strip at their tops and braced. I tried to cut out the window frames using 1/16th in clapboard using the Cricut Maker but failed, the tolerances were too close and the wood too fragile. However it would cut matboard and .15 thick styrene so I made the frames using these materials. The matboard was sandwiched between a sheet of styrene on each side.

I had hoped to have this sub assembly remain loose and not glued to the walls, however construction issues down the road forced me to glue it in place. I did place an LED light on each upper wall so this section can be lighted. They are 12 volt warm LED's and I plan to be able to dim them.

[Dennis Bourey]

Jim. That building is coming out great.

[Jim Donovan]

I again turned to .2mm styrene for the six sections that make up the roof. The Cameo 3 was used to cut out the line drawings made from the provided templates. Drawing these basic rectangles and such is easy and really does no take much time. You could use the template and cut out the parts directly but the machine cuts are dead on with incredible precision. I draw in metric due to its ease of calculating and this being HO scale which is exactly 1 scale foot = 3.5mm. When I mean precision I mean I am drawing to .0001 mm. Both machines are able to operate to that level of tolerance.



These two sections are for the middle roof. Note they have 'tails' which wrap around the upper end wall sections. The lower two roof sections also have this feature making correct sizing a must. I used 2 x 10 trim on the bottom and middle roofs to provide strength and eliminate drooping. The directions do not call for trim on the upper section and at this point I have not added any. For looks I might add it down the road. I stained the trim using Hunterline Barn Red. I will be using this color wherever trim is needed and a trim color is called for.

[Jim Donovan]

Jim. That building is coming out great.

Thank you Dennis, you are up late (for me) tonight. I hope this report helps someone else who tries using these print/ cutters. Appreciate you stopping by.

Jim D

[Dennis Bourey]

Jim, I'm really impressed by the job that cutter does.

[Jim Donovan]

The lower and upper roof panels were glued in place but the middle section is just a tight force fit so that the lower two floors can be worked on, more on that later.


To come up with a good shingle for around 1910 I Googled old shingles and came across a treasure trove of information in the Architect Magazine Archives. There I found a copy of the John Mansville catalog showing their new Asbious Shingles and how to install them. Using the diagrams I made an exact scale copy of one of the styles. I used the Cameo 3, first printing on the .05 mm cardstock the shingle design in gray, then having it cut out the strips of shingles I had duplicated. By accident I spilled a little HunterLine Red on a strip. The resulting color and look was almost a dead on copy of the Indian Red color found in the Mansville catalog. I figured I better use it before someone was offended by the name. Let's just call mine Autumn Red. Anyway, I first put 3M's 465 two-sided tape on each roof panel. Then I put a starter strip on 1/16 inch wide cardstock along the bottom of each. Finally, after lightly staining the strips I applied them to the panel working my way up the roof and making sure to stagger the tabs and ensuring each row overlapped the previous.

[Jim Donovan]

Jim, I'm really impressed by the job that cutter does.

Dennis I agree, these machines are amazing, wait till you see what they did making window frames! The Cameo seems to be able to do close in work a little better but the Maker is the heavy duty cutter.

Jim D

[Jim Donovan]

So here is the roof completed on the building. To finish the caps I followed the Mansville catalog. Using 1/16 inch dowels I sanded them about in half, so one side was flat and the other rounded. I then lapped two scale foot cap shingles across the dowel, overlapping each to the one prior using Elmers glue to hold them in place. The dowels were cut to size and glued over the top rows producing a rounded cap.

That's it for now. More to come soon.

Jim D

[Dennis Bourey]

IT MAKES WINDOW'S?

[GPdemayo]

Hey Jim.....I used Johns Manville roll roofing for flat roofs and their shingles for sloped roofs in the 70's. They made excellent products and we had great success with their materials. Good looking roof.....

[tom.boyd.125]

Jim,
Nice progress photos on your build.
It's really taking shape.
Keep sharing them.
Tommy

[Jim Donovan]

Thanks guys. I spent a lot of time figuring out the settings needed for the cutters. The Cameo 3 is proving to be the better machine for cutting styrene plastic in tight spots. Still I have to spend an amazing amount of time to get things right. The nice thing is once figured out it is repeatable. I will list my settings going forward and put them in for what I have already done.



I used the Cameo 3 to make the lower and upper Clerestory windows. I started with .15mm thick styrene approximately 8 x 10 (No Parking Signs made of plastic). Settings were: Depth .2mm, Force 33, speed 2 and number of passes 6. I used a 60 degree blade. The acetate was .1mm. Same settings used. To make the window I used the Tichy chart for their window for the width and height. This becomes the dimensions for the outer frame outer. The next part is the frame for the Mullins. It was sized so that it fits inside the window opening. This allows the window to be closed flush to the outer wall. In order for the mullins to have the inner styrene removed an X was made in each pane. This allows for the plastic to be separated from the mullin without damaging it. From the above picture you can see this was not always successful so I always make extras. Next is the acetate which is made the same dimension as the mullin frame. Finally there is a back frame which turned out not to be needed.




The frames were primed gray on the white side of the plastic. The backside which had some of the original sign paint on it was left as is. After drying they were airbrushed with Vallejo flat red.Tamiya Thin Cement was used to assemble each window. Finally all were sprayed a coat of Krylon Matt Varnish. The result was this: