I finally got my work bench cleaned off last night... and made it messy again in no time flat. Looking at the three main projects I have going on right now, I elected to have a go at making some chain and tackle for my float transfer slip.



It started off innocently enough with some brass stock that I placed in my electric drill chuck and then filed a couple of grooves in it with an angle file. Pretty tricky to get started, but once it got going I was able to make two of these in a few minutes. These would be the pulley mechanism or something like it... :?



The next step was to give it some chains... I draped some some scale chain into the grooves and soldered it in place.



Once that was done I made some small brass eye hooks and clamped them onto the chain leaving a bit at each end to solder a loop into it.



A test fit with another eye hook at the bottom and then a finally one at the top which was pulled and then bent in place to keep the chain reasonably taut.



Next step is to finish off the steel plate details for the framing, you see I got a start on the two of the plates in the bottom right of the photo. I finished off the one side this morning. This was pretty simple, I cut a couple pieces of brass shim stock to size, drilled the holes, glued the plates in place with Pliobond, drilled the holes into the wood timbers and then using some .025 music wire (I sanded the bluing off) I soldered the music wire to the plates on both sides. It creates a sort of clamp on the timbers and helps give it the stiffness I was after all along. I left the wire short on the inside, but will trim the out side length with a rotary tool.

I'm off for the weekend and won't be back home until Sunday. But I plan on getting this structure finished and fixed in place before the end of next week.

Bye for now.

I had been wondering if you had done anything more to your float operation...

It sure is amazing how a few details will really polish up a project, now what are you going to do to paint and weather the wood?

very nice!

mountaingoatgreg Wrote:I had been wondering if you had done anything more to your float operation...

It sure is amazing how a few details will really polish up a project, now what are you going to do to paint and weather the wood?

I will use some stains to "paint" the wood. Because I decided to build the metal parts in place, I'll lightly brush paint them using some blacks, browns and some rust. I want to try some weathering powders as I've never used them before and I am eager to try them out.

Thanks for the words gents.

That is such fine work! Beautifully done!
Ralph

Dang, Tetters, that is BaD tO tHe BoNe!

Now that I'm no longer distracted by the chainwork.......I like your use of railroad car wheels as counterweights !

Well done tetters

Lutz

Tetters, can’t help but start drooling when I see stuff like that. Great job!

Sumpter250 Wrote:Now that I'm no longer distracted by the chainwork.......I like your use of railroad car wheels as counterweights !

Just like the prototype! No joke.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I just got back into town and can't wait to get the other side done and finish up the plate work. I really need to get this completed, its been in the back of my mind the whole weekend.

Then I can start on the car float. Which if you haven't already guessed is that grey thing parked at the end of the transfer slip.

Tetters,

a very, very good work! Wood model building and metal parts for superdetailing is a wonderful combination for a very realsitic modeling - and I like it! And I like to see your pictures and ideas!

Some very nice modeling, Tetters.

Instead of painting the brass and the chains... how about using blacken-it or something similar?

Thanks for compliments everyone!

SP1 Wrote:Some very nice modeling, Tetters.

Instead of painting the brass and the chains... how about using blacken-it or something similar?

I've tried Blacken It and did not seem to have much sucess with it.

Hello again,

I was getting to the point where I thought I was almost done. Then as I began to survey my work, I noticed some details that were just bugging me. So I made some changes which I hope will improve the over all look of the slip in the end.



I started by removing the upper piece and redoing some of the structure up there. I fashioned some upper brackets out of some brass stock which are a little closer to what is on the prototype bridges. The brackets were drilled and four pieces of music wire were inserted "nailing" them in place.




I also made some new top plates for the tension cables. I used some brass shim stock measured, cut to shape, drilled holes, and bent some eyelets and inserted into the three end holes. I used the plywood as a jig of sorts. Once I soldered the eyelets in place, I then bent the ends down... like the prototype.



The top plates were then glued with pilobond to the top piece. The wood was drilled and four pieces of music wire were inserted into the four holes. These were also soldered. The Pilobond activates when heated which makes for a very strong bond. Once cooled, I trimmed the music wire down to give the appearance of bolts.



No project goes without its mishaps though. This piece snapped clean off due to all the handling. It was easily repaired thankfully.



More structure replaced. The blocking was moved down, to allow the angle bracing to match the 45 degree angle as seen in the prototype photos.



I also added some additional bracing and blocking to where the counterweights are located.



I managed to get one of the counterweights re-installed. The brass pulley wheels were also filed down to a smaller diameter which I think looks better then the larger size they once were. I also put a coat of Rail Brown paint on the rails, added a whole bunch of nut/bolt/washer details courtesy of Grandt Line, and oh yeah, applied a grey ink wash to the wood to give it that nice old and weathered wood look.

Working hard to get this done. Almost there.

Tetters,

I know what you mean about almost being done and soemthing bugging you!
I think you made the right decision in the long run to stop now and fix things instead of get everything done and have it bother you. I also like the looks of the weatehred timbers, it looks like this structure has seen many storms and battered by waves for many years.
Keep up the great work...

P.S. I hope Darth Vader also approves of your work, he appears to be paying close attention to your goings on.