Alan's O'Neill's Build

Karl.A · February 2021

Those walls are looking great Alan, the peel is very effective, one thing I instantly noticed was that there was paint at the top of the wall but none at the exposed bottom of the wall, really nice work and great thinking, it takes some planning but you really did it well.

Here's an idea for your strip wood.
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Alan_H · February 2021

Tonight I got the welding shop doors done. They are shown here before trimming/sanding square to fit inside the openings.

Alan_H · February 2021

Karl.A said:
Those walls are looking great Alan, the peel is very effective, one thing I instantly noticed was that there was paint at the top of the wall but none at the exposed bottom of the wall, really nice work and great thinking, it takes some planning but you really did it well.

Here's an idea for your strip wood.

Neat idea Karl and God knows I have enough prescription bottles around here! If you'll go back to page one of this thread and scroll down to where I discuss my work area you'll see a box I fitted with compartments that I use this way. My problem occurred when I bundled everything back up, being done with Bag 3 for a while. I got sloppy with what went where, or I must have, though I don't remember doing it!

My other SWSM kits (Quincy's Salvage, The Brass & Iron Foundry, the Loco & Service Shops) all have an inventory listed on each bag tag. The Logging & Tractor Repair Shed doesn't, though it does list what the lumber in each bag is for, and there aren't many different sizes in that kit. O'Niell's doesn't. Understand I'm not picking nits here, most of the lumber can be segregated by length alone, and this was entirely my fault. I just wish I'd done it on one of the other kits! It only cost me about an hour or so with the caliper, so no big deal.

Alan_H · February 2021

Speaking of the Logging & Tractor Repair Shed, a friend of mine's club was donated one of these kits in O scale. It was incomplete, missing the templates, the manual, the signs, and the resin castings. I was helping him assess what was needed and showing him the gallery and a few build threads on the forum so he could get his bearings and decided I wanted one. In discussions with Brett while rendering assistance he mentioned he had one. A quick discussion with the Comptroller and it's now mine! My friend got a copy of the HO manual, and copies of the templates, so he's on his way. Into the stash mine goes until O'Neill's is finished.

OK Intermission is over. Back to the O'Neill's build!

Karl.A · February 2021

Great that Brett had one for you.
I primed my resin castings for mine back in 2010, but, thats as far as I got, I messed up the finish on one of the cats and put it away,
as i'm running out of SWSM builds to finish now its probably going to be my next build, so I can get back to a kit and just following instructions

Alan_H · February 2021

Hello all! I took a short sabbatical. I just haven't been able to get to the bench lately. This and that and boring everyday life stuff I won't bore you with.

I have begun assembling the welding shop. The walls are delicate, and I had some curl in them. What would we do without our 1-2-3 blocks? The detail added to the walls made keeping things square a little interesting. I held off adding the lamp over the main door and I'm glad I did as you can see from the photos. I also needed a way to remove the curl so I cut some bracing from a popsicle stick and clamped two of these in place. I'm sure the workbench castings will help with bracing when they are added, as well as gluing the structure to the dock, but I wanted everything as square as possible during this step. The trap technique worked quite well. The grid on the work mat helped as well. A nice visual reference. I'll let this dry until tomorrow morning, and start working on the dock.
Welding Shop ASSEMBLY 1

Alan_H · February 2021

Got the welding shop assembled. I'll be working on the loading dock this weekend!

brownbr · February 2021

Real nice.

Dave_S · February 2021

Alan,

Do you plan to make the roof of the welding shop removable? Looks like you might be headed in that direction. That would be great if you do. You could create a mini scene of welders at work inside.

Later, Dave S Tucson, AZ

kebmo · February 2021

how do you plan on installing all the interior details?

kebmo · February 2021

Alan_H said:
I would suggest test fitting the roof first and doing a pencil line at the interface so you know where to stop. I may try this method myself next time!

that's exactly what i did. that way you know where to cut the rafter tail. its alot easier (to me) to do it this way than to try and install them on the model.

kebmo · February 2021

Alan_H said:
I had to take a pause this weekend because of a problem I had. A couple of wood bundles got put back into the wrong bags. While this can be confusing, it's not a catastrophe. At this point in the build there are several sizes that appear close to each other and are the same length, so I had to spend some time with the caliper. The good news is we've used a bunch of wood, and there aren't many sizes left. The correct sizes appear on the templates, so I measured everything and got it all resorted and in the right place. The templates themselves are also a useful sizing guide to check yourself with. Chalk this one up under "lessons learned" Also, if this happens to you remember that strip wood does expand and contract with humidity, so you are OK with "close enough".

I've now begun to detail the welding shop walls. I tried mixing paint to resemble oil on the oil bottles with less than satisfactory results. Maybe when Brett gets those clear plastic 3D printed bottles ready I'll do better!

greg shinnie over on the other forum created a perfect strip wood sorter out of used egg carton and two toilet paper tubes.http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=53611&whichpage=6
i'm going to make one as soon as we finish off these eggs for my next swsm project.

Alan_H · February 2021

kebmo said:

greg shinnie over on the other forum created a perfect strip wood sorter out of used egg carton and two toilet paper tubes.http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=53611&whichpage=6
i'm going to make one as soon as we finish off these eggs for my next swsm project.

Neat idea. I belong over there, but don't post much.

Alan_H · February 2021

kebmo said:
how do you plan on installing all the interior details?

Dropping them in from above I guess. I'll see what the manual says.

Alan_H · February 2021

Dave_S said:
Alan,

Do you plan to make the roof of the welding shop removable? Looks like you might be headed in that direction. That would be great if you do. You could create a mini scene of welders at work inside.

Later, Dave S Tucson, AZ

I'm considering that. There are rafters that fit into the notches you see on the side walls, and the roof goes over them. I'm considering using small rare earth magnets, just so you can see all of those lovely details that will be in there.

Karl.A · February 2021

Those walls look great, really nice job on the peeled paint and the weathering on the walls.

Alan_H said:
....... I'll see what the manual says.

You cant go wrong with that approach, I look forward to seeing how great it looks when you get there.

ALCO · February 2021

The rare earth magnets I’ve used are pretty strong. Would probably break a glue bond or pull the chipboard apart. I’ve been thinking about the same problem on the same kit. Roof seems to be a 90 degree angle so that can be braced from the underside of the roof. Then maybe just glue a small rolling stock weight to the underside to keep the roof in place?

ALCO · February 2021

ALCO said:
The rare earth magnets I’ve used are pretty strong. Would probably break a glue bond or pull the chipboard apart. I’ve been thinking about the same problem on the same kit. Roof seems to be a 90 degree angle so that can be braced from the underside of the roof. Then maybe just glue a small rolling stock weight to the underside to keep the roof in place?

Hmm, the underbrace to keep the 90 degree angle won’t work because of the ridge beam...,Back to the drawing board!

Alan_H · February 2021

Got to work on the loading dock. I'm working the template upside down to keep the work close to the edge of the bench and my eyes! The key to keeping everything square and properly spaced is in the manual, and in going slow and checking the fit and orientation each time.
Loading Dock 1

Alan_H · March 2021

Here's the loading dock with the decking complete. That little wire brush is a gem. I grained the individual boards again before installing them. The little brush made them curl a bit, but the old faithful 1-2-3 block was used to hold the boards down until the glue grabbed. This gave the deck a nice worn look. Tomorrow I'll do the legs.
Loading Dock 2

Alan_H · March 2021

I got the legs on the loading dock and in this photo, the welding shop is just sitting on top of the dock. I have some tweaking to do. A few of the legs moved enough while the glue was drying to be slightly off plumb. Those will be removed and re-attached. There is also some touch up to do with staining. I've also noticed that the oil dump casting seems to sit pretty low. I've seen other builds where it sits below the loading dock level, but it seems to me it should be level with the dock, or that's my gut feeling anyway. I can easily adjust this when placing the structure on the diorama base but was wondering if anyone had any thoughts? The dock legs are the correct length. I cut the first one off the template and did the rest on the chopper. I checked them with my caliper after the fact.

Notes:
Using a chopper can still get you uneven lengths on repeat cuts. The screws that hold the guides in place don't prevent all movement, and over the course of doing a batch you can get some pieces slightly off the mark. When I sat the dock on my piece of glass it rocked somewhat. That wouldn't be a big deal as it would be absorbed during structure placement into the scenery base but I wanted everything perfectly flat for test fitting. I took the dock and placed a piece of fine grade sandpaper on the glass and lightly sanded the assembled dock using a circular motion. It didn't take much to even things out.

On the tools front: I'm seriously considering the Ultimation Sander. It looks like "The" tool for getting uniform lengths and angles. Anyone have one? Worth it? As with any of these specialty tools, they aren't cheap, but like my resistance soldering gear, or my Unimat, you find that when you need it there is no substitute.
Welding shop and dock 2

admin · March 2021

Wonderful progress, looks great!
On the Ultimation Sander front, great tool and many members own one including myself. I did a review on this tool. Cannot recommended it enough!

http://www.craftsmankituniversity.com/vanforum/index.php?p=/discussion/1107/ultimation-sander-review/p1

KCSTrains · March 2021

Alan, great progress. It's really looking good. With regard to the chopper, I take all of the lengths cut and put them all on the true sander at the same time to obtain a uniform length. It works great and you don't have to spend all that money for the Ultimation Sander. Phil

kebmo · March 2021

alan, i have the ultimation sander clamped to my bench and i use it on every board. it's absolutely worth it in my opinion.

Alan_H · March 2021

I ordered the sander Saturday. I considered Phil's advice as I do have both of those tools, then I looked at how many kits I have waiting on the shelf. Then I thought about rafters, fascia, platforms and such, and how big my tax refund was going to be this year, and said to myself: "Self, it's only money, and if you don't buy this, you'll just buy another kit, then wish you'd bought this." How's that for rationalization? That's my story and I'm stuck with it!

TomMich · March 2021

I have been contemplating buying the Ultimation sander myself since Brett reviewed it a while ago. Many of you chimed in with positive results. It has been on the back burner ever since and I also purchased one this past Sat. and look forward to its arrival.

admin · March 2021

Can't go wrong with the Ultimation Sander. Quality tool.

TomMich · March 2021

Looking forward to receiving it.

Alan_H · March 2021

Well the sander shipped. It'll be here Thursday, so I'll have it for the stairs and platforms on this build. Meanwhile I've started on the roofs for the tower and welding shop.
Shingles

Alan_H · March 2021

I finished the shingle work tonight. The process is very easy, and I like the way you peel one strip off at a time, exposing adhesive. It makes the work quick and easy, though I still spent a couple of hours doing it. Way better than those Campbell shingles. One note: Way back when I got my replacement doors, there was a sheet of shingles in the plastic pouch with them. I remember thinking: "Spare shingles, awesome!" I needed them. I had very little left over. The three color paper towel blotting method colored the shingles nicely as well. I may add a little chalk over top of everything. The welding shop roof is just sitting there for now. There is way too much work still do do to even think of attaching it. Note my method of keeping the tower roof square. Next I'll be working on detailing the shed walls with the hoses and such.
Tower Roof Shingles

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