Sand Tower - a la Good, Good Whole Wheat Shreddies!

[tetters]

Once again thanks for all the comments. Just a quick update, sans photos. I started building the wood tower however I don't know if I like how it is turning out so far. I may start over and try another one and see how it goes. I decided to use a combination of strip wood (namely for the 8 x 8 legs) and card stock.

Could be I'm obsessing over it too much. I think when I do round two, I'll post up both and you guys can tell me if I'm just being neurotic about it. :?

[tetters]

Back to square one. You guys might think I'm nutz. However, whilst contemplating this latest build, there was always something tugging at the back of my head. Refer back to original drawing plans dated for towers built in or after 1949. The article graciously provided by Pete outlines the building of a sand tower dated around 1938 (I have the a copy of the plans for that one too...).

There are marked differences between the two towers...

For the record - neither belong to Saruman or Sauron. hock:

You'll see these differences as I go through this next process of building the updated tower. The windows and doors are in different spots, the wet sand bin for the newer tower is built up more. Most interesting is the dry sand bin at the top of the tower is tapered more like a funnel.

I've learned a lot from the article. It's given me some great insight into how I can tackle this version of the tower.

Tonight I got a jump on the wet sand bin. Using some 6x6, 6x8 strip wood, thick card stick, and very fine piano wire.



More to come in the days ahead.

[Bigsteel]

looks great tetters ,it still amazes me how well you get the card to look hock: ,i can never get it to come out as straight and nice as yours.and what size wire did you use?--josh

[Sumpter250]

If it will help, here's a close up of the upper part of the tower. The shingles are hand cut individual pieces of 20 pound bond paper, streaked, cut in strips across the streaks, and then cut into random width shingles.    

[ocalicreek]

Nice modeling, as usual, sumpter!

Hey Tetters - how goes the progress?

Galen

[LiveSteamer]

Looking Good Tetters.

[tetters]

This project has come to a stand still. Not because of anything negative. I was and am throughly enjoying this project. I've just been busy with other things.

Life has a way of doing that.

The last few weeks has seen me riding and tuning up my modest fleet of bicycles. The Roadie, The MTB and The Commuter all require attention in order to keep them cranking. Plus there have been Birthdays, Family Outings (family is far away and all over the place), and some weddings also coming up this year.

Like last year, I'll pretty much ignore the trains and layout until the fall rolls in again. There are always rainy days though, and I'd still like to get some projects finished so that when the time comes I can really steam through some real progress.

When I re-start this project and others, I'll restart the thread and pick up where I left off.

Have a great summer every one!

[tetters]

Just picking up where I almost left off. I started to work on my little sand tower project and have made some substantial headway here.



Almost ready for the first coat of primer. Just a few more little details to add here and there. Then I'll start to fashion the hardware, i.e. pulleys, spout, etc...

[e-paw]

great job

[Sumpter250]

That's looking good!

[tetters]

I spent the better part of a few hours tonight fashioning the sand spout and it details. I still cannot believe I was able to make something this tiny and and actually have it turn out alright. I used some brass rod I had, clamped a length of it in my drill and started filing. I got it down to a reasonable 3 - 6 inch taper which seemed to take FOR-EVAR! To get that flattened piece close to the end of the spout I used a small piece of brass cylinder, sanded it skinny and then crushed it with pliers to get the flat pieces while still maintaining some semblance of roundness at the spout area. I then soldered it in place and filed it down and shaped it until I got what I thought to be a reasonable size. The eyelet for that pull rod whatchamacallit was a bit of a pain. I used some well...eyelets and bent the end around the spout, until I roughly had a circle that I could solder in place. Then filed and shaped it until I was happy. The brass chain was hand made and assembled link by link and is what took me most of the night...

yea right! I actually just bought it and tacked in place with solder.

Just want to see who is paying attention.

Lastly the pull rod (?) was made from .015 music wire which I bent, cursed at, twisted, cursed at some more and squashed until I got a handle at the end. Then I tacked it in place with, you guessed it, more solder.



So, what do you all think so far?

Tomorrow night, I'll tackle the pulleys and counter weights. Then its off to the paint booth with ya all! Arrrr!

[doctorwayne]

Lookin' good, Shane.

Wayne

[MasonJar]

That spout is a fine piece of work! Dave Harris would be proud!

Andrew

[Sumpter250]

That spout is a fine piece of work! Dave Harris would be proud!
Andrew

....and so am I

[tetters]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I started work on the pulleys and gate valve "stuff" last but was feeling pretty bagged and hit the sack just after the kiddies.

I fashioned one pulley last night, however started to get a case of "lets-see-how-small-I-can-make-this" syndrome with the pulleys. So I'm going to go home and go for broke and see what I can fashion up tonight. That said, I want to leave the opening large enough that I can drop the chain for the sand spout through and let it hang "loose" when the counterweight is soldered on.