FOS Gorman Sign Company build

[ReadingBob]

Great start, Bob.

Its looking very neat.  A cool little kit, too.  Good to see you start your retirement with such gusto!

Cheers, Mark.

Thanks Mark!  I found this kit really interesting, and the 3D printed details put it over the top.  I'll get back to painting some of those this afternoon.  Still doesn't feel like retirement because it's the weekend.  We'll see how it feels tomorrow.  

[ReadingBob]

Ah , Bob the Builder at work ( well hobby ) , thanks for sharing.

  Thanks Jan!  Glad to have you following along.

[ReadingBob]

Retired for 1 day and you're already working at "Greg Speed".....atta boy Bob. 

  Now we both know there are two versions of "Greg Speed".  The kind where you're at the throttle and the kind where you're at the workbench.  I'll settle for somewhere in between the two.  

[ReadingBob]

Nice work, Bob.

Several of the 3D printed parts were also used in the Axle Road kit. The CAFE sign, for one. Greg was asking about the air conditioning unit I showed in one of my pics.

Thanks Rollin!  Yeah, there are two workbenches included that are part of a pack of four that can be purchased separately on Doug's website.  The Cafe sign is a really neat detail as well.  A little tricksy to paint, but neat none the less.

[ReadingBob]

I'm gonna be watching this one....looks good so far
Terry

Thanks Terry!  Hopefully you'll get to see it, in person, before too long.  I'm having fun with this one.

[ReadingBob]

Update time....

For blinds I use a sheet of paper painted either beige (Depot Buff in this case) or green.  I cut strips off the sheet of paper slightly wider than the windows and then lop of chunks with a square to create a blind.



The blinds get glued to the back side of the wall, over the window openings, at various heights.  



When done, they look like this.



Although the instructions don't mention lining the opening for the door on this wall, I opted to do so to give myself something to glue the door too.  It's the same size as the opening so there wasn't much to hold it in place, aside from the 'rollers' at the top.  By the way, I drilled a hole through those brackets to pass the wire thru.  That's not mentioned in the instructions but gluing the wire to the wall and then the door overtop of the wire didn't seem like a good idea.



Not perfect, but close enough.  There's a roof that will go over this door that will hide some of the imperfections.



I noticed the front wall for the dormer was a wee bit shorter than the sidewalls.  Maybe one clapboard short.  This opening would have been hidden by trim pieces, but I opted to address it none the less. 



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

Here's the wall that the dormer front wall was included with.  The opening, here, will be hidden by an extension.  No harm in removing another board from the opening and gluing it to the top of the dormer wall so that's what I did.



Finally time to start gluing the walls together.  I pretty much ignore the instructions at this point and just had at it in the order that made the most sense to me.  I tried my best to keep everything square.  



Ah, the joys of tab in slot construction.  When I glued these walls together, they were anything but square!  I remedied this by removing the side wall, cutting off the 'tab' and the gluing it back in place squared.  The offending 'slot', fortunately for me, was hidden inside the structure.




Now it's starting to look like something.



The foundation for the structure is comprised of several pieces.  I painted these with a cool concrete color and then applied a number of different shades of Pan Pastels (browns, grays, etc.).  Then I sealed them with Dullcoat. 



I prepared the 'roofing' material by spraying one side (the unlined side) with rattle can black.  I had a separate sheet from a previous kit that I sprayed with rattle can gray.  I'd prefer to use Stoney Creek roofing paper, but my stash is running low and that's no longer available.  Anyway, after painting one side I cut the strips out using the lines on the other side of the paper as a guide.



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

I applied 3M Transfer Tape to the top of the roof cards.  I should note that the edge, and underside, of the roof cards were painted with the same wall/trim color as the walls.



I trimmed the transfer tape to fit after applying it.



When you peel away the backing of the transfer tape you're left with a sticky surface on the roof card.  Perfect for adding the roofing paper.




Adding first row of roofing paper I turn the roof upside down to ensure I have a little overhand on the end and bottom edge.  



The big thing is to keep the rows level as you work your way up with just a little overlap.  



Okay, I told myself I wasn't going to bother lighting this structure up.  I figured it's okay to have a business where the employees actually go home at night and the place is dark.  But I gave in.  I started by gather the materials I'd need to light this one up.  Six LED's total (4 3mm and 2 micro LED's), 2 current limiters, wire, etc.  I began by constructing two goose neck lamps for over the doors.  I took some .018" OD steel tubing and scored a piece, roughly 1 inch from the end, by rolling it under a razor blade.  I wasn't trying to cut through it.  Just score it enough so i could snap the piece off.



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

Success.  It snapped off.



I smoothed off the end of the tubing with an emery board.



There are several nerve-wracking steps involved in making these goose neck lamps.  I had a batch of micro LED's prewired already.  Soldering leads onto these things requires a steady hand, a 10X Optivisor and a shot of Irish Whiskey. So, the next step is feeding the two wires thru the steel tubing.  That can be quite a challenge, but it actually went pretty well this time.  Then I slip a Tichy lamp shade over the wire and the tubing.  I have a bunch of these primed and the reflector part pre-painted white.  I'll paint the rest after the lamps are installed in the structure.  The final step is forming the goose neck shape.  This one almost always bites me.  You have to make a series of very small bends.  Anything too sharp will crush the tubing and pinch the wires.  Either I'm getting better at this, or I simply got lucky this time around because both turned out okay and the lights still worked when I was done! 



Just some more bending.



I tested them out and, though you can't really see it here, they both worked.  Whew!



I put a little bit of 5-minute epoxy on the end where the LED and lampshade are, to prevent the LED pads from touching the steel tubing and shorting out.  It also holds the lampshade in place.



More in a moment...

[ReadingBob]

For the interior lights I constructed a few circuits on some black, photo mounting, board.  It occurred to me to try something new (for me) this time around.  I drilled 1/8" holes in the corners so I could mount these using 1/8" dowels.  



I ended up with this contraption, which I can drop in from the top of the building before the rood cards are installed.  The dowels let me adjust the second floor to the proper height.




With everything installed and connected I attached a power supply and, eureka, it worked!



That's all for today.  Back the workbench!

Thanks for following along!

[Jerry]

Just saw your new build here.  Retirement must agree with you because your already set up and moving right along.

Really like the coloring on this one.  And your usual neat and careful planning of things.

Nice tutorial as always.

Jerry

[oldiron]

A little late to the party but would painting the black inside with an oil base paint reduce the warping? Bob

[deemery]

Clever idea for the adjustable lighting rack!

dave

[Jim Donovan]

I agree, neat idea! Great work and looking forward to more now that you have reached the seven days of Saturday stage of life.

Jim

[GPdemayo]

Looking good Bob.....