Hank's Machine Shop

[Larry C]

Curt thank you. No the base will be mounted on the foam as you see it in the photo. The entire front (about 5 boards back) will be a dock area so trucks can back up to it and unload.

Jerry thank you so much. I thought I could feel a warm breeze on the back of my neck. Lol. If I even come close to Brian's amazing work I'll be a happy boy.

[kyle creel]

Here we go again     ......another fabulous build by Larry C*         I can't wait to see it come to life.....thanx for the inspiration       ............

KYLE CREEL
G&D Ry Co. 

[Rick]

So far so good.

[Pennman]

Larry,

Looking back on p.1, you mentioned that the machine shop would be 36' x 20'. OMG that's a
small shop in HO scale! I don't think it would be big enough for me to fit in all of the
machines, with my fat fingers! LOL Keep on with the grind.. 

Rich

[Larry C]

Kyle thank you so much for stopping by and you're welcome.

Rick thank you.

Rich you're correct the Shop is 36' x 20' BUT the steam engine, boiler, and water tank will be on the side of the building. There will be 4 or 5 machines at the most in the Shop. Also no  rail inside so that space isn't required for the interior. I figure the area for the steam engine, etc will add another 10 - 12 ft to the overall length; hope I explained it so it makes sense.

[KentuckySouthern]

My goal is to have a Shop that looks used over time but well taken care of. Too many times I've seen shops that look like they're "on their last legs", which is what the builder intended, but I'm sure there were many throughout this Country that were used but well taken care of.
 

I wholeheartedly endorse that point of view.  I think that there are way too many in model building that seem to try and portray the worst of times, shameless copying a few 'masters' that model that way quite effectively but the tendency is toward conformity and lightly managed originality.

Most good machinists are particular about the cleanliness of their work places as medics...their livings depend on it.

Good start, LarryC

KS 

[Larry C]

Karl thank you and your thoughts make a lot of sense. There's a machine shop about five minutes from my house that's been there ever since I can remember; matter of fact my neighbor was a machinist there for years. The outside and the grounds are kept up very nicely so one can only assume the interior looks just as good.

[friscomike]

Larry, 

That base won't sag, nice work.  I've struggled with the "road hard and put up wet" look, and like your approach, worn, but clean and working.

Have fun,
mike

[Larry C]

Mike thank you so much. I hear you on that one. The "rundown look" does have its place but I've seen too many modelers use that same approach on all their builds. If you're going that route you better do it very well and few do; IMO.

[deemery]

Larry, your pulleys are in the mail....

dave

[Larry C]

Thanks Dave; I let you know when they arrive.

[Larry C]

When I started this thread I mentioned I wanted to show you how I do certain tasks when modeling so hopefully I don't bore you. To start with I use 2 surfaces when building; this one is plexiglass I use for graining and color the wood while the second is glass I attach the graph paper to and build on.

After deciding on a color to use, I then take the Rembrandt chalk and use the same number of scrapes every couple of inches using a single edged blade. Darker colors I use less scrapes and lighter more depending on the look I want to achieve. After that I take a brush and clear alcohol and work the color into the wood and depending on the look I want to achieve I may or may not add a coat of A&I. This will be the siding and I used 2x10's as 1x10's tend to have "bleed through" and I want to use  different colors on each side.



The tools I use are very basic. To cut thicker wood I have a brass mitre box and razor saw with a piece of sandpaper beside it to clean up the lumber after the cut. To cut thinner wood, like boards for siding, I use a block of wood. This one has a triple thick masking tape on the left to butt the wood up against and the single layer of tape on the right is the length I want each board to be. If you look closely you'll see it's had a lot of use.



So now it's time to build my first wall from 6x6's. All the measurements are taken directly from the graph paper. Once the wood is cut it may have the end sanded some to get the exact fit. The top and bottom boards are glued with just a touch on both ends to stick to a piece of waxed paper to hold it place. The rest of the wall is built off that. Once finished and dry I use a thin piece of metal to carefully lift the wall off the paper.

[Larry C]

Continuing on:



The inside of the side walls are built. If you notice the one on the left has the siding extended above the top of the frame. This is done intentionally and gets trimmed off and all four sides get a light sanding so everything is flush and square. One of the side walls actually was built twice. The first time I thought I might have more of a finished wall inside so I built it with interior boards going horizontally. NOPE! Did not like the look at all. To me a Machine Shop should have the beams showing so I removed the boards and rebuilt that one side.



Obviously this is the back wall and I built it with two window holes to accept windows but still have plenty of wall space. You'll also notice the side walls are windowless for the same reason.

Next the exteriors on the walls will be finished and the windows installed. Going to use two laser cut windows that Jerry gave me, one of which I'll have to assemble, because they look very promising and the look should be great. Thanks for stopping by and as always I appreciate all your comments and/or suggestions.

[deemery]

Some thoughts about machine tool layout in the shop:

I scanned the floor, but you could just draw it onto a piece of paper.  I made cut-outs for the footprints for the candidate machines.  I used these to plan the tool layout, the shaft (drive shaft and aux shaft) locations, where to put the various pulleys on the shafts, shifter and shifter handles, etc.  I spent a fair amount of time on tool and shaft layout design.  In my case, the walls were framed but there was no siding, and the roof was open, which made it MUCH EASIER to do all the belts and connections, etc. 

You should consider if you can build your model by attaching the two ends and the ceiling framing, installing the tools, then adding the 2 side walls after the machines are installed. 

For each machine, you need to figure out the power run. That includes (a) how to turn the machine on and off, (b) the location of the drive pulley/step pulley from the shaft to the tool, (c) if you model it, the belt shifters.  In my case, each machine has its own auxiliary shaft.  The drive shaft/aux shaft pair got either 2 pulleys each, or a wide pulley on one side and a pair of narrower pulleys on the other side.  For the pair(s) in the prototype, one pulley is actually coupled to the shaft, and the other pulley spins free.  When the belt is on the free-spinning pulleys, the tool shaft/tool is not powered.  Then a belt shifter moves the belt between the two drive pulleys (or the drive pulley and wide pulley), or between the two idler pulleys (or idler pulley and wide pulley.)  The belt shifter moves the belt from one set of pulleys to the other.

Then you connect the shaft down to the tool.  If the tool has a cone pulley, you need a cone pulley on the shaft, and of course those are reversed.  (small end on the tool lines up with large end on the shaft.)  In theory, those 2 sets of cone pulleys have to be exactly the same diameter.  (In practice, that's kinda hard to do when you're sourcing machine tool models from different sources.) 

Now on my shop, sometimes the driven/idler pair and the cone pulley were close together.  But sometimes that wasn't convenient, so other times the driven/idler pair are on one end of the aux shaft, and the cone pulley is at the other end.   Needless to say, using an aux shaft means you need a pair of shaft hangers for that, as well as the shaft hangers for the main shaft. 

Some shops had a way to disconnect the steam engine from the drive shaft.  (Not a problem if you're using an electric motor.)  I did not model that. 

If you're going to model machinists, think about the figures and how they're positioned to the tool and maybe to the belt shifter handle if you're modeling that. 

Now attaching the belts, after you've glued the tools into position,  turned out to be more annoying than I thought it would be. I used leather-colored construction paper.  What worked for me was to cut the paper over-length, and add a bend (around a drill bit or rod) to make a U shaped belt.  I marked up and rough-cut the belt length slightly long, and glued it into position on the shaft pulley.  Then I put Deluxe Materials Tacky Glue, which is thinner than the Aileens product.  If you use Aileens, thin it a bit so it's easier to apply to the tool pulley.  Test fit, trim and then glue the belt to the back side of the tool pulley, and do the same for the front side, wrapping that piece around the bottom of the pulley.  I left a gap in the back bottom of the tool pulley where it's least visible. I used decal scissors (or use embroidery scissors to cut the paper, you need something thin that cuts precisely.  Besides the embroidery scissors, I used tweezers and a needle in a dowel to position the belts.  It might be worth creating a testbed to practice attaching belts to pulleys.

The Iron Jonsey videos are the best set of 'what's going on here?' videos, particularly this one that shows the belts and belt shifting:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=730XhT4B0H0 

I hope these notes help!

dave

[Philip]

Looking great! I would like to say the piers longivity may be short



Philip