Wichendon Machine Shop (restart)

[deemery]

Nice job, Dave.

I had problems too with warping of the walls, but unfortunately, there is no real way to add any bracing, since it would interfere with the framing for the floors.  I did some along the walls where I observed warping, but was limited to short sections.  Unfortunately, as you note, this will make construction of a removable wall difficult.

Nevertheless, good progress!

On the track side, the full length loading dock provides an opportunity for an outside full-length brace.  I'm thinking about a way to add some trim on the other side to accomplish the same thing, using a strip of painted brass.  Goal for today and tomorrow ill be to paint the gable windows that I bashed up, and do some weathering/treatment on the outside walls (which are right now a way-too-clean white....)  I can probably spray a coat of alcohol & ink to start, and maybe some Pan Pastels...  

(my usual treatment, where I don't have to worry about warping, would be to do a coat of an alcohol stain like HunterLine or Vetero, and then do a thin coat of paint over that.  But both those approaches would cause warping.)

dave

[swisstrain]

These are both excellent ideas for bracing outside, Dave.

Looking for ward to seeing how you will implement either one or both of them.

[Philip]

Warping would add character and shows signs of a neglected roof or wall treatment. Straight would be better. 

[deemery]

I had a good idea this morning on how to brace the long walls.  I'll print out new signs that run the entire length of the building, and laminate those to (painted) brass strip.  Then I'll epoxy the brass strip to the outside walls.

dave

[friscomike]

Howdy Dave,

The shop is progressing well. That's a clever trick using brass hidden by a sign to reinforce the wall.  Nice work.

Have fun,
mike

[GeorgeD]

The brass strip sounds like a great idea, Dave.

George

[nycjeff]

Hello Dave, I really like what you are doing with this build and can't wait to what you come up with for the interior.

[deemery]

The white spray paint has cured, so I can look at weathering the walls, both inside and outside.  For the outside, I did MIG pigments, using a 'blusher' soft make-up brush, to put some black pigment starting from the bottom working up.  That worked well. I tried that on the inside walls, and wasn't happy with the effect.  So for the inside, I masked off the 2nd floor, and then sprayed dark grey and neutral grey weathering colors to try to get close to the effect I got on the interior partitions.

It's a start, but I'm not quite happy with the total effect.  I don't have a great match between the partition and internal walls, the internal walls are a bit too uniform.  I did try to concentrate the weathering, particularly the black, on the engine side of the walls.

dave

[deemery]

Well, I tried to produce a large 5 spoke handwheel for the large pipe threader.  Between the CA not quickly setting and the little pieces of brass tubing flying off the tweezers to God-Knows-Where, I gave up on that particular frustration.  I've ordered some O scale brake wheels, that I think I can rework into the desired shape.  I also did a bit of work on the tool itself, that went better, and I thought about ways I'll do the rest of the tool.  So not much to show, but not a complete loss of the day.

I also swapped some emails with Bernie Kempinski, who sent me some drawings and photos of his work-in-progress on his O scale Civil War era machine shop.  His work is always inspiring.

dave

[Rick]

Dave, I've been sitting quietly on the sidelines watching you work away on this kit.
Despite some of the challenges you're doing good to overcome them.

[PRR Modeler]

It looks really good Dave.

[deemery]

Another kinda frustrating day, where everything stuck to my fingers rather than to what it was supposed to.  I did make a simulated "worm gear" for the large pipe threader and some legs for the bench.  Once I get my 'long handles', we'll see if this all pulls together.

Another frustration came when I discovered the inexpensive thin 'magnetic sheets' don't stick to each other the way I expected.  So I've ordered a small piece of steel that is supposed to be magnetic.  If the magnet sheets stick to that, I'll be OK.  (Little 1/8" square glued to the wall, and then a 1/8" square piece of magnetic sheet glued to something on the framing.)  But until I get the steel sheet (due Monday), I won't be able to test the strength of the magnetic sheets.  I want something that has a bit of tack, but where removing the wall doesn't also pull the magnet from the framing (so not too much magnetic strength....)

And I spent an hour or so watching more "Iron Jonsey" videos on his machine tool restoration projects.  Watching how he uses period tools to restore other period tools is both informative and inspiring.  One of today's video was on using molasses! to remove rust.  To summarize, "It works.  It's much cheaper than the commercial products.  It's slow.  And it stinks.  You have to clean the parts thoroughly, in between treatments and when you're done."

dave

[Michael Hohn]

Hi Dave,

Good to see you back at it.  I expect it will be a beauty.

Mike