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  • Refinery Work

    My joint was too large so filling is warranted, then I'll scribe a line which would serve as that weld.

    In fact, yesterday I did add the filler: 5 minute epoxy thickened with micro-balloons. I'm letting it cure all night and will sand it later today.

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    I made another faux concrete base and epoxied the heater to that base. That too cured all night. I bought new scroll saw blades at Lowe's. This time I got some that were coarser than the 28 tpi blades that I was using. For thin stock the fine blades were okay, but they broke constantly on anything with any thickness. It was very frustrating. I first went to THD and they didn't have any blades without pins in them. I need plain blades. I then went to Lowe's and got them.

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    I then enlarged and taped together all the elevation drawings of the units to use in aid to piping and platform locating. I asked Al Graziano (on another post) about the beautiful tie-down anchor bolts he added to his distilling tower project. Notice on the Plastruct drawing, there is no detail at all about how this tower is held to Mother Earth.

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    I also asked him about curving Plastruct railings. I've had a tough time forming them and want to know if there's a secret technique he uses. I tried softening them with a heat gun, but I overheated some and they distorted badly.

    Notice on the drawing, when printing with Adobe Illustrator, I lost some of the image on the page tiling and had to fill it in by hand. There's an "overlap" setting on the print, but I wasn't getting it right. The drawing isn't very clear, but those various side cut tray takeoffs should probably connect outside of the tower. The drawing looks like they loop back into the tower and that makes no sense. The ladders included with the O'scale kit include cages which aren't shown in these (originally) HO drawings. Someone said this kit is not for the fainthearted. No kidding!!

    Comment


    • Distillation

      First up was chucking the heater into the lathe between the chuck and a steady rest and sanded off the excess epoxy filler using progressively finer sanding sticks. I then scribed some seams at the transition and above to simulate its "real" construction. Not perfect, but Al says these aren't perfect in real life.

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      I got back to work on the distillation tower. I scribed the various levels for platforms and pipe fittings using the surface gauge on the surface plate. After laying out the shapes for the platforms, I engraved all the lines deep enough to crack the ABS on the lines. To get the inner diameter I measured the tower diameter with the digital caliper, divided by 2 and set caliper to this new number, and then set the dividers between the caliper jaws.

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      To ensure that I had a reasonable fit, I attached a small piece of adhesive sandpaper to the tower and used it to final shape of the opening.

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      I laid out the vertical braces out of the same thickness ABS stock. I finished them up on the NWSL precision sander so the mounting edges were all square. I fastened the tower into the woodworker's vise I have attached to the modeling table to stabilize the tower while I held the bracket in place and applied cement. Went back and reinforced glue joints with med CA. The bottom platform had to align with the upper so the ladders would align AND they needed to be positioned to clear the tray downcomers that will go on later.

      For the railings I first attempted to notch and bend the rails to give me the shape I needed, but most of the thin rails broke. So for the rest of them on the four sided platform, I installed each piece and glued to thin rails together after the kick plate was adhered to the platform. This looks easier than it was. Again, joints were reinforced with CA.

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      On the bottom platform, I was more careful with the notching and bending and was able to put the 3-sided piece on as a single item.

      I also drilled the top for the pressure relief valve and the main top downcomer. Marks were made on the sides for the other side taps. I'm going to add some flanges on the support brackets to give them some more details.

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      Next week work will continue.

      Oh... I started today's session still trying to find out why one of my Z-Stuff crossing gates is not responding to the trigger signal. I had it apart and it works perfectly. Dennis Zander has been giving me some pointers, but so far, nothing is making it go as it should. I am nothing if not persistent.

      Comment


      • Chem Refinery Work continues

        According to the catalog, the HRS-24 is a 1:16 stanchion. They don't seem to show one for 1:48. I've made my own out of brass drilling holes in brass angle. Soldering them together makes the best looking rails, but much, much slower and more difficult.

        Got back to the shop today. My daughter was at a conference in Washington D.C. so I was tasked with carpooling the boys to various activities. Yesterday we took the grandsons to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Lots of fun, exceptional CGI with thousands of people employed making it. You have to sit to the end of all the credits to see all the vignettes that are included.

        Today I did some more distillation tower work. I decided to do some Internet research and looked at tower design and noticed that many had a platform on the very top the was to access the pressure relief valve that sits up there, and access the davit which is used to hoist components in position during maintenance. So I scratch-built one and installed it. I had a limited supply of Evergreen structural shapes that would would so I cobbled together what I could. The I-beams I used for the sub-structure was a little overkill. You have to cope the pieces that lie between so they nestle together.\

        I glued on two vertical supports to the tower and shaped them so the platform would nestle tightly to the supports.

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        These probably should have been structural shapes, but I didn't have one of the correct size.

        I then added some Evergreen styrene angles underneath to brace it all up. It works and adds another level of "busi-ness" to the structure. I also added a series of styrene bands (0.015" X .125"). I noticed in my research that there are reinforcing bands that serve as places where pipe/ladder brackets are attached to the tower.

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        I also added some small styrene bars to the underside of the platform supports to add interest.

        I went as far as I could without the ladder brackets, nozzles and manholes from Plastruct. They should arrive in a couple of days. So I started work on the "concrete" foundation structure that supports some of the other unit ops.

        The base is made of 3/8" square ABS. The cross pieces are 1/4" ABS. I cut all the parts using an Xacto saw with my miter box fastened to the workbench. The miter box is wearing and no longer produces dependable square edges. So I clean them all up with the NWSL sander, constantly checking that they're still the same size.

        I employed my magnetic building tray to hold parts in place and square.

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        After the cross pieces were installed, I clamped it up for the 90 degree pieces. I first used Bondene to glue it up, and then reinforced with med CA and accelerator.

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        After pulling off the clamps just now, I find that I glued one side reversed to the other. DOH! So now I have a decision to make, break it apart and fix it or leave it alone and situate it so the booboo is away from the viewer, fully cognizant of the fact that the refinery will be at least 10' from the viewer unless they go inside the layout.

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        Upon this goes 3/8" I-beam and cross beams. I'll do that tomorrow. It's a fun project!
        Last edited by Builder 2010; 08 Jun 17,, 00:28.

        Comment


        • Unit Ops Pedestal cont.

          Well... my AMS kicked in and I broke the incorrect joints and re-glued it in the same orientation as the other side. I then added the I-beams and made another small error. If you'll notice in the drawing in yesterday's post, the I-beam extends out beyond the concrete pedestal. I glued them flush. So I added a little extra bit to extend it since this is the side that the ladder goes. I made the other end flush since I was out of that size I-beam. Plastruct is not generous with some of these raw materials. I had exactly the amount needed for the pedestal and have found the situation with the I-beams.

          I also closed off the tops of the hollow "concrete" pedestal legs. These wouldn't be hollow and the I-beams didn't entirely cover the open ends.

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          Here's the I-beams and the thin ABS mounting surface applied. In reality, there would be more structural steel underneath the platform, but for the model this was fine. Besides, as I noted, there's no more I-beam stock.

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          Tomorrow, I'll have more time and will start installing some of the upper works and the condenser vessels that will go on this structure.

          Comment


          • Refinery Work ongoing

            Still waiting on my pipe fittings from Plastruct so I'm going as far as I can making up vessels and finishing the condenser platform.

            Before I got started I had to go to Lowe's and replace a workshop light. It had some LED florescent replacement bulbs I bought at Costco. It was flickering yesterday and when I tried wiggling it, it started sparking and the end connectors caught fire. I perceived that catching fire is generally frowned up in ceiling lighting. I shut it off. After inspecting it I found that it was burning at both ends so it clearly was breaking down internally. That's the trouble with LEDs (or should I say the myth). While the lighting elements themselves, the LED, will last 10,000 hours, the circuitry that turns 110 VAC to some DC value that the array needs will not last 10,000. In this case it lasted a little over a year. I replaced it will an entire LED fixture. They produce greater output than fluorescents with significantly lower energy use. We'll see how long this one lasts.

            I glued the ends on the three remaining kit vessels. Two have domed ends that are Plastruct parts, and the other has flat ends formed from sheet stock. After gluing and setting, I sanded the ends to even out the seams. The smallest of the three fit into my lathe chuck so I was able to spin that while sanding which produces very nice results.

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            The smallest one suffered a near calamity. While working on the pedestal, I had unknowingly knocked over my bottle of Tamiya thin cement which now contains a mixture of Bondene and Plastruct plastic cement. I had screwed the lid on, but apparently not tight enough. It wasn't fully sideways, but tipped enough that it leaked. And of course Murphy was right there watching the whole thing. When I finally realized what happened, the small vessel's bottom was fully soaked with solvent cement and it did some damage. I let it all dry, and then re-chucked it in the lathe and re-sanded it all until the blemish had disappeared. Whew!

            I laid out the tanks for their respective valves and pipes. I'm using V-blocks, a surface gauge and my granite surface plate to lay out the locations. I pick the dimensions off the full-size prints with my caliper and transfer this to the surface gauge. There's no reason for any of this to be specifically accurate, but I just try to work that way. But... the pipes should all come off the center lines AND they should be vertical and in-line, so there's that.

            The horizontal center line was already laid out in this image. Here I'm adding the cross lines to the two equi-distant (from the ends) openings are the vessel bottom. This is the big vessel and has 6 penetrations: 3 on top, a man hole on the side and 2 on the bottom.

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            After prick-punching the cross line, I partially drill each hole with a small drill, and then, again using V-blocks, drill the holes in the drill press. The pipings is 1/", but I'm drilling with a .126" number drill that enables the piping to enter much more easily.

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            Can't add any piping yet, but I was playing around adding some stuff together. According to the drawing this center hole is actually the relief valve line, not a gate valve.

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            Finally, I got back to building the structure which will hold these units. I cut four small H-beams for the verticals, and glued the long horizontals. I was in the process of cutting the short horizontals when I ran out of time. Have to wait until Monday. I needed pressure to hold the pieces together and after messing with quick clamps reverted to good old reliable gravity clamps.

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            Speaking of gravity... has anybody been watching "Genius" on National Geographic channel? Story about the life of Albert Einstein. Very interesting! Speaking of Einstein, just now another prediction of General Relativity was proven by being able to measure the mass of a star based on the gravitational lensing of a star that lies behind it. The star in question was a white dwarf 14 light years from Earth. Using Hubble, astronomers watched it eclipse a star that lied behind and then that star reappeared by the exact predicted amount which then enabled them to derive the occluding star's mass based upon how much it warped space-time. They observed it over several years. It took until now to do this because previous telescopes simply weren't sensitive enough to measure the tiny amount of light bending. Pretty cool!

            Comment


            • Tower Nozzles and more

              Happy Monday!

              Did more work on the pedestal finishing up the steel work for the upper deck. Then UPS delivered my Plastruct pipe fittings. So I went back to work on the distilling column.

              I initially picked up the wrong size vessel footings and thought that the upper deck was too wide and immediately measured and cut out a notch on both sides so these footings would fit. Then I attempted to fit the vessel to them and immediately realized that these were way too big and searched for the right sized ones. So now I have two erroneous chunks removed from the decking and found little pieces of ABS to refill the gaps and then used Tamiya filler to make it all better. Then I glued the correct footings in place. All of this gets painted of course.

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              One type of new pipe fittings I got are nozzles which are the flanged extensions that come out of pressure vessels to make pipe connections. Since I'm spending so much time on this project, I wanted to do it as best I could.

              Also, on the very top of the tower is a davit which is used to lift components into place for maintenance. I thought it needed a pulley at the end so I fabricated one out of excess PE fret and turned little brass pulley and a piece of -032" brass wire. I really don't know what's really going on up there since most of the pictures I find of these vessels are taken too far away to make out what's going on. The post is assembled from Plastruct #4 piping. Those are True Details resin NBWs at the ends. Whether it's prototypical or not, it does add interest.

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              I installed all the pipe nozzles in their various 1/8" holes. I filed the area right at the apex of the curve so the nozzles would fit more closely on the curved tower surface.

              Now it was time to build some man ways, access ports so humans can get inside for maintenance. I used the larger #8 nozzles and made some 7/16" disks to serve as covers. I punched these out using a hollow punch I got from Harbor Freight. I mentioned this before when building the substation, but these Chinese tools are really not very good and do not hold an edge, but they do work in a pinch.

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              After gluing the covers to the flange, I chucked them in the lathe to true up the edge and then engrave a ring on the face that would be the bolt circle. With a divider set at the radius of this circle I set out six pin pricks to serve as bolt locators.

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              After drilling with a 0.032" drill, I installed Tichy Train Group small (1.125 scale inch) NBWs and glued the assembly to the tower at the proper pre-drilled locations.

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              In this case, instead of filing the tower curve to help the man way to fit, I milled little bit from the back of the fitting to relieve it around the curve and help in seat better.

              I think these man ways are a bit out of scale. I think they extend too far out and their diameter is too small. They're 16" scale inches. I don't think a human adult can squeezed through that space. They probably need to be at least 24" scale or bigger. But again, they add interest, and Plastruct gave no parts or specific instructions about making them other than a few callouts on the kit drawings.

              Meanwhile, I did order enough of these #8 nozzles since I didn't realize at the time that I needed them for both pipe attachments AND man ways. Instead of ordering more, I'm going to make my own out of the large diameter pipe and some of my cut discs.

              Comment


              • Distilling Tower comp.

                I got the ladders and piping into place on the distilling tower. It could have been better. The Plastruct ladder supports interfere with the Plastruct ladder cages. I placed the ladders too close to the platforms and after I installed the ladder supports and therefore didn't have enough room for the ladder cages. I have pipe valves impinging on adjacent piping. And so it goes. If I were to make another one of these, all of these challenges would have been solved. But I'm building only one. The other problem, as I see it, is that it's a very narrow column with a lot of stuff going on it. I would be easier to get them all nested together if it was a larger diameter tower.

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                I did spend over an hour doing a very annoying job. The tower fell over and the glued connections at the ends of the rails on one section of the lower platform's railing. It needed reinforcement. I first tried a piece of bent fine guitar string so it wouldn't be too noticeable, but it was impossible to get it hold still long enough to glue it with CA. I then turned to making some very small brass angle stock using PE fret material. This too just was not working to the point that the rest of that rail section broke away. I replaced the section with a fresh piece after pre-fastening the reinforcing angles and this time got it all together. You can see the brass pieces in the picture, but you won't when it's buried in the chem plant at the back of the layout. I really have better luck actually soldering the whole deal out of brass, including the platforms. If I made another one of these, I'd use brass.

                Here are the ladder cages completed and waiting for paint. I'm going to prime and paint all the unit ops at the same time since it's going to be with solvent paints and that's done outside (until I get my spray booth... still working on that one).

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                I bought the transparent ladder supports, but these do not work with the ladder cages. I had to notch the cages to let the supports clamp to the ladder, but even there is was sub-par. Also, by staging the ladders too close to the platforms, the cages again, needed to be trimmed to clear. I'm going to paint the ladders safety yellow and the rest of the tower to be bare metal metallic by Tamiya. Everything will get a Tamiya grey primer coat first.

                Since I ran out of Plastruct man ways I scratch-built one using some of the largest tubing and the same discs I used for the factory ones. I again used the sandpaper on vessel method to impart a curve to the bottom of the man way that would match that of the same vessel.

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                I finished adding all the tank bases and trial fitted them on the pedestal. I'm having to figure out the piping for them. The P&ID drawing is a bit cryptic.

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                I also cut apart the plot plan and rearranged the unit ops to make it longer and less wide. I like how this worked out. It no longer juts too far into the open space in the railroad's mid section. It uses more of the linear space, and still leaves plenty of room for any other things I want to build in that space (maintenance and ops buildings and a cooling tower). I also found a left over piece of the tubing that I used for the stacks on the distillery's boiler house. It's about 20" tall and will make an excellent flare tower. I turned the two HP storage spheres 90 degrees as I did with the mechanizer reflux drum (the big horizontal vessel). I moved the heater and the big liquids storage vessel towards the track so the whole thing is much thinner. It now extends into the open space and 10" which is about what I anticipated it should be. It may or may not take more piping and I hope I won't run out. It looks like I'm going to have to fabricate about 4 more man ways. Now that I know how to do them, it shouldn't be too much work.

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                The big storage vessels will be white. The long reflux drum I'm thinking of making red. The heater will be black and the distilling tower bare metal. The other three vessels will be some mix. The flare tower will be broad red and white stripes. I'm thinking of pupping a simulated flame LED up top with some cotton to show some minor waste flaring.

                Comment


                • Vessels and Piping

                  Did a lot of finicky pipe work today. I'm having trouble with the plans. There are dotted lines indicating the structural steel that lies under the upper platform AND more dotted lines showing hidden piping. It's quite challenging to figure out which is which. Furthermore, the plans show the center top pipe leading to the overhead top discharge from the distillation column, but the booklet photos show this center top position as a relief valve location and the line running straight into the ground. I'm using the input from the column in my design. The column needs a receiver for the top flow and it's a bigger diameter line (gas vs. liquid) and the plans show this. Where I'm having the most trouble is figuring out what all the underneath piping is.

                  I added the lines to the receiver. After messing around trying to get the piping to stabilize, I finally add some "welded" braces to it since there was no place to put a Plastruct pipe support. I don't know if this is prototypical, but I really needed it since the piping was very fragile and kept breaking loose. I find the white ABS piping does not weld as securely as the gray. You think it's adhered and then suddenly it just lets go.

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                  I also had to fit one of the bottom entry pipes coming from the smallest vessel below. This pipe isn't going to be connected until the tanks and platform are separately painted. I had to tape the receiver into position to hold it steady enough so I could measure the distances involved.

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                  I added the pipe to the medium-sized receiver. This too will be separately painted. Due to the restricted overhead space, I used and angle valve. This was not included in the kit. I had it leftover from the boiler house project. I added a drop of medium CA under the S-curve to stabilize this pipe also.

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                  I decided to start building the pump sets. They're not all piped the same. This first one feeds the big storage tank. It has two gate valves and two check valves on the discharge side. The instructions say (and I quote), "Assemble the pumps". That's it! It doesn't say that there are not holes for pipe fittings. It doesn't show where the intake and discharge sides are. It doesn't talk about how big or thick the base should be, or the spacing of the plumbing. I drilled them out 1/8", but then realized that I wanted to use the small diameter pipe fittings so I glue in the small diameter tubing in the holes.

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                  I added the discharge side piping, but after checking the plans had the T facing the wrong direction. Here's the completed array with the check valves and the piping facing in the correct direction. If I wanted to be silly, I would cut spokes in all those valve wheels, but I don't want to be silly since this stuff will be buried in piping.

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                  I'm going to build all five pumping stations now since I'm getting the routine down. Next up will be the large demethanizer vessel. It too has the usual array of nozzles, valving, and piping.

                  Comment


                  • More Pumps... Up the Learning Curve

                    With the little time I had today I continued building pump stations. I got three complete and one more than half leaving only one more set to finish them up. The last set has a different configuration according to the plot plan.

                    I'm getting sort of an assembly line working here. I'm doing the drilling before the motors go on the base so I can clamp the pumps more effectively in the drill press. I measured all the pipe pieces and cut them ahead. I've standardized on the exact placement of the pumps on their bases and the bases on the base board. There's not specifics about how this should be done, but, you need to have them parallel and at the same edge or the piping goes in out of square. I'm also short of check valves and will make some out of standard valves.

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                    I have a few odd-sized pieces of OSB and found enough that I can puzzle together to make the base for the entire refinery complex. It will consist of four pieces all joined together. That was a big relief since I didn't want to have to buy another 4 X 8 sheet which I would only use about 1/3. I'm running out of things to build with OSB. It's a little bit of overkill to use it for a spray booth. I'll do the cutting some day when #1 is out of the house since the circular and saber saws raise on heck of a ruckus. I use 3M sound deadening ear muffs, but upstairs doesn't have that.

                    Comment


                    • Building the Refinery Baseplate

                      With #1 out today, I had the perfect opportunity to make some sawdust and make lots of noise with the circular and saber saws, plus let's not forget the shop vac. I got the entire baseplate built and fitted.

                      The puzzle is made up of 8 pieces with lots of scrap OSB plates and screws (1 1/8" SPAX TORX Head). I swear by those screws, originally sold in Germany and now in selected Home Depots. They're the best self-threading wood screws I've used. The shank above the threads is narrower than the threads so once the screw penetrates the first piece, it's able to freewheel so it can pull the attached piece more tightly without having to strip the threads in the top piece. Even with that, I drill pilot holes since it's easier to drive them when you need a free hand to stabilize the drill/driver.

                      Here's the array of scrap OSB all screwed together to make a big sheet.

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                      I added some cleats on the layout edge to support that side so I could try in on for size and see how it worked. I added another couple pieces in the forward edge (as in this image) to give enough space for a parking area, flare tower etc. I'm also leaving real estate in back for more stuff. At first I was going to trim that off closer to the drawing, but had second thoughts and realized that this extra space will come in handy.

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                      I rounded the edges and will form a nice S-curve with the fascia on the far side so it will look more finished.

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                      You can see in the above that I've added the extension joists. I cut them long enough to extend all the way into the layout to lie on the rear girder. They're pretty cantilevered, extending out about 2 feet. If this proves a problem, I might add a leg and some underpinnings to support the overhang. It only has to support a plastic model, not trains, but it may have to support a human (me) when I'm installing all the stuff or attempting to reach a train that's derailed. There is a switch back there that's hard to visualize from the control panel and I've had derailments there. The switch sometimes doesn't fully cycle. I've doubled the new joists next to the existing ones. If I need to, I can screw them together which greatly increases the holding power since these are all networked together through the large piece of OSB subroadbed above. There are at least 8 risers and cleats holding onto that OSB. As I write this, I'm probably going to do just that. I trimmed the joists so their ends are flush with the baseplate which greatly facilitates screwing on the fascia board.

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                      This work really shows off the benefits of L-girder. Adding more benchwork is easy since everything is so open. Furthermore, there's nothing blocking getting wiring from one place to another. There will be lots of lights in this project since there are lights almost everywhere since it's a 24/7 operation (except in July when there's a 2 week turnaround). Monday, I'll get the risers made and installed. I don't think I'm going to mount the models directly on the OSB, since it will be unwieldy to attach all the stuff and get it to the layout. I may build the refinery on some Masonite or other thinner material and move it to the baseplate in sections. Just thinking out loud here. Perhaps Al, or other refinery builders can add to this discussion.

                      With this benchwork, there are now no open spaces on the layout. It was by design that a refinery was going there, and not knowing how wide it would be, I held off adding OSB until I had a plan to go by. I'm going to be very happy when the fascia is continuous from one end to the other.

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                      • Refinery Sub-Base Installed

                        Today was productive. I got the refinery sub-base fully attached to the layout. I employed 7 riser/cleat sets and one angle brace. I used every 1 1/8" SPAX screws I had. Before fastening it down, I traced it's shape onto a large piece of 3/16" Masonite that was left over from mountain building. This will be the surface upon which the refinery will actually lie, and it enables me to build the refinery in the workshop and move it to layout which will give me access to parts that would be almost out of reach.

                        I used a combination of saber and circular saws to cut this out. The narrow strip between the track and the main part is where the loading rack will go, and that too will be fabricated in the shop and moved complete to the layout. I'll only have two pipes to connect the rack to the refinery proper.

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                        Here's all the underneath stuff. I felt that the front left corner was a bit spongy so I installed a diagonal brace. If I need to I can run another and tie it into the wall brace which will really stabilize the cantilevered nature of this. I took the belt sander and smoothed the curves and matched the Masonite layer to the that below it. The fascia boards were also cut, but won't be installed until near the end since there's wiring that will go below and fascia boards make it a little less accessible.

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                        I tried the plans on for size. I also added a trim end to fill that space on the left. I may not be able to get the Masonite to curve as tightly as I want it so I'll possibly approach the fascia.

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                        I moved the Masonite piece into the workshop and cleared a table for it. I then carefully located the plans on the Masonite to correspond to the spacing that I measured on the layout. The plans extend out past the Masonite 6" to the center of the track. That will provide pretty good references for those two pipes that will merge with the loading rack's. I taped the plans in this position.

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                        With this out of the way I got back to building pumps and assembled the last two. I ran out of check valves and faked a pair by using a modified gate valve. They're invisible when install on the base.

                        Here's all five pump sets in their final position. I finally figured out the piping to the reflux drum and had to add another nozzle in the bottom center. It appears that the pumps have two separate feed lines to the vessel's bottom right and left sides.

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                        More vessels tomorrow. There's lots of pipe racks to make and I have major work to do on the HP Spheres. The legs are a challenge.

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                        • Platform Rails and Methanizer

                          Clearly, you guys aren't paying attention! In the last post the refinery plot plan was taped to the Masonite upside down. The curved sides are the front and are away from the tracks. The drawing should align with the straight edge.

                          Here's the way it should look. It was important to get this right since I'm going to make the panel through the drawing for all the equipment placement. I've left enough room on the right side to have a parking area. I need to find space for the building, cooling tower and flare.

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                          I decided that all the ladders and rails on the vessel platform before painting since all those joints require good gluing surfaces. The bottom ladder seemed high enough for a ladder cage, but the upper was a little short and is uncaged. After looking at the isometric drawing I realized that the lower level platform did not completely cover the structure. There was a rectangular opening under the vessels... probably to make piping easier. That ship has left the dock. I followed Al's practice and put diagonal braces not the railing ends on the top rail since it was very insubstantial and needed some other support.

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                          I then turned my attention to the large mechanizer horizontal vessel. I laid out center lines on top and bottom using the same technique as with the smaller vessels. I also decided to add the vessel supports before painting since it was necessary for support in subsequent operations. To further ensure that the two legs were parallel and in line with each other, I added some piping to tie the two together and ensure alignment. Drilling in the drill press on V-blocks ensured the two holes were perpendicular and in line.

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                          The last thing I did was cut some "concrete" bases and epoxy them to the legs. This was necessary since the elbow at a bottom outlet wouldn't clear the ground with the extra height. I could have glued the elbow directly to the tank, but I'm trying to us nozzles at each pipe outlet. Gravity clamps keeps the tank down until it cures.

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                          Tomorrow tank work continues.

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                          • Big Tanks and Spheres (Part A)

                            Big post today... two parts.

                            Interesting day today. I tackled two of the most daunting aspects of this build: the High Pressure Sphere legs and the curved stair up the liquids storage tank.

                            I first started by adding some piping for the relief valve line on the Mechanizer vessel. On some of the pictures they show this pipe going straight into the ground. I'm going to run the relief lines to the flare and they will be above ground. Again I added a small piece of styrene angle as a brace for this unwieldy line. This stabilizes it during all the handling that's to come. I also added the angle valves up top and finished up the man way. The angle valves were not included with this kit, but I'm trying to conserve by 1/8" 90° fittings. I had them left over from the boiler house project. Even with the elevated "concrete" bases, the bottom 90° fitting didn't clear the ground so I removed the nozzle and mounted the L directly into the vessel.

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                            Time for the big tank. There are four fitting on top: curved vent line, 2 valved fittings, and a man way. There's another at the bottom which appears to be an output since it connects directly to the pumps which feed the loading rack, and then there's the stairs, rails and platforms.

                            I used the drill press to put in all the openings so they were square to ground. I had to fill the gap below the nozzles with med CA since the tank curves away from them. Since the valves are "snap-on" fittings and don't have a pipe in them, you need to drill the vessel with 1/8" and insert that size tubing and clamp the valve onto these pipes. I trim the pipes flush and immediately install the 90°'s.
                            Tank Fittings

                            Next up, the ladder. The instructions say cut one side off the stair moldings and then glue it to the vessel. They don't say which side should be facing inward. Al seems to end up cutting bot stair side rails off and just has the treads extending from the tank. I chose to leave the stair side rail on the outside. I marked the start and stop points for the stair on the tank from the plans and taped the stair to the tank working to keep it perpendicular (which it didn't want to be in the worst way). It took a lot of fussing to get it in place and I resorted to gluing a part, then using CA to stabilize and not moving on until that part seemed to be holding. Eventually, I got it all glued and set it aside to dry.

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                            While that was drying I started working on the HP legs. These need to be shaped to conform to the compound curve of the spheres. First I needed to cut 12, 3/16" ABS tubes for the legs. I took a quick measurement from the plans and cut the legs. I'm going to use 1/4" footings which the legs will actually enter so I measured from ground not from the footing top. I have a miter box screwed to my workbench. This is a god send since it frees up my left hand without it worrying about holding the miter box still. Further, it lets me install a bench stop to cut equal-sized pieces that extend out of the box. I used this a lot... really a lot! And the miter box is wearing out and will have to be replaced. The slots are getting oversized so square cuts are a crap shoot.

                            Fastening the box down is important for another reason. Most razors saws cut on the pull stroke which would pull the miter box off the edge of the workbench making it very unstable. The screws are countersunk below the miter's low point so they don't interfere.

                            I needed to create some footings. I'm using a left over piece of 1/4" scrap MDF left over from the 2nd distillery building. It was a wall that I had designed wrong and needed recutting. I laid out 12, 3/4" squares and pilot and final drilled them with 3/16", the tube size. Using the drill press insured that the holes were perpendicular to the face and would keep the legs facing north. The scroll saw kerf is very narrow so it doesn't change the layout very much.

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                            I cut them all apart with the scroll saw and touched them up on the belt sander. The legs are a nice push-fit into the footings. I then set them up on the plans to decide how to go forward. The plans had a missing slice and were not accurate so I took the compass and completed the circle. I then marked out six equal spaces using the radius setting on the compass. Amazing that circumference doesn't go into the diameter equally, but the radius can perfectly define 6 equal parts. Isn't geometry wonderful!

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                            I decided to make a base with holes spaced exactly the same as the plan, and put the legs in there. HP Jigs

                            I guesstimated the leg junction angle and set up a guide on the belt sander and chopped them off. I then inserted them into the bases. They're not glued... just sitting there. I have two thoughts. One is to epoxy the legs into the bases so they're solid before using sand paper stuck to the spheres to put a final shaping to the legs. The other is to install all the cross-bracing (more about that in a moment) and see how stable it is. If it's rigid enough where I can shape the leg tops, I won't need the bases and can put them aside.

                            The plans call for 4" (scale) channel for the X-bracing on the HP legs. The outside braces are longer than the inner. I was able to cut 3 pieces from each length of channel included in the kit. There are 12 inner and 12 outer pieces needed equaling 8 pieces of channel. Unfortunately the kit included 6. I tried to glue scraps together, and got two more, but I'm still 2 pieces short. Annoying. I'm finding other shortages... check valves, Nozzles. I can order them, but their shipping costs are steep. I'm going to call and see if they'll replace parts since this is a kit. I glued the pieces together using scrap ABS as a spline.

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                            • Big Tanks and Spheres (Part B)

                              I stopped work on the HP tanks and got back to the big tank.

                              The stair glued reasonably well and I fixed any loose ones with med CA.

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                              Again, I'm annoyed by the kit. It did not include any specific stair railings where the stanchions are perpendicular to the treads, not the ground. I installed the rails I have which are horizontal rails. I'm not happy with this. Naval "ladders" have this kind of railings, but I'm not so sure about refinery tankage. It also makes terminating the rail at the tops and bottoms more troublesome.

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                              The tank stair starts and ends with platforms. I'm making them conform to the tanks curve by again sticking adhesive sand paper to the tank and sanding the final curve there. I'm putting an ABA angle frame underneath and holding them up with diagonal braces. There will be railings on both. I notched the ABS angle to get it to curve.

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                              Here's the finished bottom platform waiting for the railing. I may need a step or two the platform bottom since that looks like a pretty steep first sep.

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                              Tomorrow (after exercising) I'll finish the big tank and get back to putting legs under the HP spheres. I have to build a lot of pipe racks, add details to the heat, build the flare, figure out how to build a cooling tower and then design and build the ops building. For fencing, I'm going to use brass wire with bridal tulle, AND the jig that came with the Brennen Chain Link Fence model I bought and built for the substation. Brass wire is much easier to handle than the steel included with Brennen. But there's light at the end of this tunnel and it's not a headlight from on an onrushing 4-8-4.

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                              • HP Spheres

                                Well... wrote an eMail to Plastruct detailing what was shorted or missing and then followed up with a phone call. Talked to Customer Service, but she said that the eMail would go to the office manager who would just get the parts pulled and mailed out. She transferred me, but I got voicemail. So... no further input to that discussion.

                                Really got into the Hi-Pressure Spheres.

                                I needed to drill three 1/8" holes in the spheres. One on the very bottom. There's a injection mold lug there which facilitates finding that. I didn't file these off knowing that I would use them for the bottom outlet. It also has two, vertical, off-axis holes for the two relief valves. It's tough to drill vertical holes in a sphere, so after spotting them with the awl, I milled two flats that were horizontal with the ground line to give a purchase for the drilling that followed. I used a 0.032" carbide drill in a pin vise to start the hole, followed up with a #50 also in a pin vise, and then took it to the drill press. I put the sphere on a role of masking tape so it sat still and then maneuvered it so I could drill the two holes. Worked good and the drill did not slip.

                                I had enough braces to do one tank. After getting them all glued and set, I put a wire around the legs to prevent them from spreading outwards, stuck some coarse adhesive sand paper on the sphere, put on a nitrile glove so I could get a good grip and then swiveled the sphere back and forth until each leg shape conformed to the curve better. All of them didn't come in precisely, but as you'll see, gluing and CA solved that problem.

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                                Here's the fit after shaping.

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                                Since I had already drilled the sphere for the two relief valves on top and the bottom outlet, and mounted the valves, I had to make sure that the valves were vertical and this meant that the seam line would be horizontal prior to gluing. I set it all up on the surface plate and fussed around with the sphere until the surface gauge showed a level seam line. Judicious use of Tamiya tape held that position so I could apply glue to each leg, only removing the next piece of tape when the leg showed it was adhering.

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                                After gluing I went back and added med CA to any obvious gaps. One needed some granular filler with the CA to close the gap. But they were all glued and strong. The bottom outlet has a nozzle, a #4 pipe and an elbow. The relief valves are attached using a piece of #4 pipe, but no nozzle since it would fit against the severe curve.

                                Here's what the glued leg looks like. I'm happy with the fit. Again, the instructions on this critical step were very skimpy. I don't know how to get the legs positioned without having an assembly jig.

                                I pulled the assembly jig off to see it was still all stable and it was. Therefore, I can mount the tanks directly on my baseboard, AND I can use the templates to drill holes in the baseboard to insert the legs and further stabilize the assembly. I forgot to mark leg 1 on the tank and template so I went back and kept turning it until all the legs lined up. On Tank #2 I marked leg 1's position for going further. Live and learn.

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                                Oh... and I dropped HP Sphere #2 on the floor, it bounced twice and the then flew apart into two hemispheres when the glue line gave out. I re-glued it, and due to slight misalignment, had to re-fill all the seams... AGAIN!... and tomorrow will finish sand it back into good form. They're hard to hold onto since they're so slippery.

                                I took this pic this morning for inclusion in the Plastruct eMail. It shows current progress before the completion of HP #1. Question for any refinery experts. The overhead line from the distillation tower goes to the top drum on the platform (reflux drum?), but instead of the line going directly to it, the distilling tower line goes to the pipe rack, T-s into the a long #8 pipe that's blocked at both ends. The line runs the entire length of the pipe rack, and the reflux line T-s off this same long line. It wastes a lot of #8 piping which I want to use for the relief valve lines going to a flare knock out drum. What is the reason for running this long line that's blocked at both ends? (See the arrows).

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                                While waiting for Plastruct's response, tomorrow I start building pipe racks, mounting pumps and other stuff onto faux concrete bases, and then get started building lighting systems. I have the silicone mold used in making the lampposts for the distillery, but the mold's not great and I'm going to re-mold it before casting. There was a bubble in the area where the pole interfaced with the light housing and required handwork to remove the resin the filled the bubble. I also have to finish up the details on the heater, build the cooling tower and a flare, plus and ops building. So I have a lot to do. I think my LHS has the #4 Plastruct channel which I need to finish up HP #2 leg assembly.

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