I’m not going to hide the wires…..they need to be visible…..they would be in realityin fact its a chance to model that fact….junction boxes…..switches to operate the lights ( not really operating the lights) and breaker/fuse panels. I’m using a different brand of lighting.
I also lucked out this past weekend and found a full set of sawmill machines with the horizontal boiler and mill engine with 2 full line sets…really cheap at a narrow gauge train meet in Ohio….I think a shingle mill is in my future…
Art, I have not given any thought to leaving the wires visible. I have seen a couple of diorama’s where people have done that on a small scale and it looked reasonable. I’m not sure I have the talent to pull that off, but it’s worth thinking about. Thanks
Love the machinery and overhead belt drive. Great job Ray. What a solid foundation for your sawmill build. I absolutely love to see lighting added. What a worthy addition. I am going to push back just bit on the exposed wiring. While it may be prototypical I find it looks a bit unfinished. No right or wrong here, just my opinion.
Yes, no right or wrong with wiring. With my sawmill build I
did not try to hide the wiring when adding lights, I just painted and weathered with chalks to blend in with the rafters, once the roof is on it is all most impossible to see the wiring any way.
So, moving on, as I’ve been writing these post I have continued working. I’ve been able to get the log roller installed, the sawdust bin mostly done, the maintenance shed, storage shed, and the details painted, but not weathered. I’ll share all in this post.
The log roller went together easily, I had to use 1 link out of a slightly larger chain to attach the hook, I could have made a career out of using the very small links in the provided chain.’
Ive been using Brett’s technique (IPA and a cosmetic wedge), putting a rust coat on, letting it cure then painting and using the IPA/cosmetic wedge. I have not quite mastered this, most of the time I get impatient, use too much force, and pull big chunks off. No chalk has been applied yet.
The storage shed - I’m always a little anxious when the instructions say to test fit something and imagine the worse case. In this case the wall slipped into position with a very light press fit. This speaks to how well this kit is engineered, this made me smile which is rare.
Wonderful detail work here Ray! That tool cart really turned out nice as did the other fine details. The attention you’re giving those details pays dividends later on. Well done.
Hi Ray, Like many of us I have added indoor and outdoor lights to every SW kit I’ve built. How you are doing this is very instructive, but I wouldn’t begin to know how to duplicate the setup you are using. I have a roundhouse in which I installed 70 lights, most of which are from a company called WeBHonest on ebay. They have lots of different light styles and colors along with a board that you can hook up to 26 lights into and then you can daisy chain the boards together so you only need to have one power supply. Unfortunately most models we all build don’t really have any provisions for lights, so we’re left to figure it out for ourselves. I use very small PVC tubes as conduit which I paint black and then run the wires through them which hides them. But that takes time to set up too as you have to figure out where the tubing goes within the model, and ensure the lights are in the “right” location. But, like yours, when you get it done it looks awesome. Love what you’re building and I look forward to continuing to follow your progress as I can learn from you before i build my sawmill. Thanks for your guidance and tutelage and keep up the superb modeling. Thanks.
George - Thanks, I’ll check out the WeBHonest site. I know nothing about LED’s so this effort is really a “just jump in and see where it hurts”. I’ll give the conduit some thought. I did look through your Blue Sky build this morning - you’ve got nothing to learn from me, you’re scene detail is amazing.
Thanks, Ray. I appreciate your compliment. I also gave you the wrong seller address on ebay: it’s WeHonest_cn without the “B”. Sorry about that. Take care and have a great week, Ray. Looking forward to continuing to follow your build.
George, WeBHonest certainly catches your eye more than WeHonest, but thanks for the correction.
Art, you should get back to it. I can’t believe how much work Brett has done to deliver this level of kit, it’s truly a work of art, and great entertainment.
This will most likely be my last post for a couple of weeks, I need a break and I’ll be at the Sn3 symposium in Denver next week. This post will cover the build and installation of the Boiler and Mill Engine. I put more time and thought into trying to think through build processes, looking carefully at drawings, and spending time reading through previous builds on the forum. Two builds that I spent the most time on was Robert G, and Bill. Thank you for taking the time to document (in photos) this part of the build. You are both truly masters at this art form. One spot I had trouble was with the little belt that runs from the Governor to the Governor Drive Wheel. I did not have any problems with the initial assembly, however when the Mill engine was on the diorama and I was putting the belt on the flywheel I snapped the Govenor off. I guess the big take away here is to make sure the flywheel and governor drive wheel are fully epoxied in place and won’t move. With a little epoxy and a lot of patience I was able to rework this. It won’t bear really close scrutiny, but I can live with it. What I would do instead would be to have the belt attached to the Governor Drive Wheel adjacent to the flywheel and leave the other ends free, finishing up after everything else is in place.
One other thing I learned that it is much harder to nicely weather big pieces, the boiler was much more difficult than a barrel.
I was also really happy with the way the boiler is plumbed in - a lot of thought went into this, nicely done Brett.
The way I assembled this was to 1) epoxy the gland in place, 2) Epoxy the Crank Disc in place, 3) inserted the cross head into the gland and let it float. There is plenty of range on this part, pretty much no problem wherever the crank disc is positioned. The last step was positioning it using the connecting rod, then epoxy that in place. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this was.
