Refinery Flare Lighting
Well, all the great Bar Mitzvah celebrations of this long weekend are now over. I had lots of people visit the trains and they weren't behaving. The people were fine. It was the trains that were being bad. His parents rented the entire Louisville Palace theater for the celebration. It was a terrific venue and folks had a lot of fun.
Got back to working on the flare today. Based on a suggestion I received my styrene railings from Plastruct and installed them. I also received two more pumps that will feel the cooling tower, and some Plastruct brick sheeting that will be used to make the Nighthawks Cafe. Picked up more corrugated "metal" siding and some Grandt Line windows at my LHS.
I first attempted to pre-bend the railings by wrapping them around some PVC pipe held with rubber bands and then heating it... gently... to kind of set the bend. I then wrestled it around the platforms and glued it with solvent reinforced occasionally with CA.
To add the loose end, I added some backing to add more surface. In looking at these now, I again realize that I should have sized the platform sectors based on the rail spacing of the Plastruct rails.
With the rails in place, I got back to making the flashing lights. I wanted to tie all four lights in series, but the current limiter is 1 ohm and I didn't have a resistor of that size. The smallest value I had was 100 ohms. So I did the next best thing and make two series sets each with a 330 ohm resistor.
I had to then get both conductors of each series set down a pipe to the bottom. I realized immediately that the hole down the 1/8" Plastruct pipe was too small so I decided to try it with a 1/8" piece of K-S tubing. This is the same I used to make the the light poles.
I figured out where the pipe would end up top and then where the platform would meet it. Then I drilled a couple of increasingly sized pilot holes and finally opened up and tapered the opening with a diamond burr so it would accept wires going all the way down the tube. I was able to get both the positive and negative leads down the pipe. This composite shows both ends.
I got all four lights CA'd into the platform edge and finished soldering them together and with their downward running leads. The + lead was soldered while off the platform since it required shrinking the tubing on it. I soldered the LEDs together in the platform and of course touched the iron to the plastic and melted a divot. I've secured a piece of tubing in the gap which I will trim and shape tomorrow when it's fully cured.
I made a very short movie to show the lights flashing. Yes! They actually work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orN2...m-upload_owner
Tomorrow I'll try and put the finishing touches on the flare. I have a couple of lights to modify for the HP Spheres. I made tall poles thinking I was going to use them next to the cooling tower. Then, at some point, I thought they were going next to the spheres and made lights to sit on top of the cooling tower. Now I find that the first poles are actually too short to properly light the spheres, and will have to do something about it. I have enough 1/8" tubing to make some short ones that will go on top of the sphere platform. I've also finally figured out how to run the wires discretely down on the tanks without having to drill those spheres.
Well, all the great Bar Mitzvah celebrations of this long weekend are now over. I had lots of people visit the trains and they weren't behaving. The people were fine. It was the trains that were being bad. His parents rented the entire Louisville Palace theater for the celebration. It was a terrific venue and folks had a lot of fun.
Got back to working on the flare today. Based on a suggestion I received my styrene railings from Plastruct and installed them. I also received two more pumps that will feel the cooling tower, and some Plastruct brick sheeting that will be used to make the Nighthawks Cafe. Picked up more corrugated "metal" siding and some Grandt Line windows at my LHS.
I first attempted to pre-bend the railings by wrapping them around some PVC pipe held with rubber bands and then heating it... gently... to kind of set the bend. I then wrestled it around the platforms and glued it with solvent reinforced occasionally with CA.
To add the loose end, I added some backing to add more surface. In looking at these now, I again realize that I should have sized the platform sectors based on the rail spacing of the Plastruct rails.
With the rails in place, I got back to making the flashing lights. I wanted to tie all four lights in series, but the current limiter is 1 ohm and I didn't have a resistor of that size. The smallest value I had was 100 ohms. So I did the next best thing and make two series sets each with a 330 ohm resistor.
I had to then get both conductors of each series set down a pipe to the bottom. I realized immediately that the hole down the 1/8" Plastruct pipe was too small so I decided to try it with a 1/8" piece of K-S tubing. This is the same I used to make the the light poles.
I figured out where the pipe would end up top and then where the platform would meet it. Then I drilled a couple of increasingly sized pilot holes and finally opened up and tapered the opening with a diamond burr so it would accept wires going all the way down the tube. I was able to get both the positive and negative leads down the pipe. This composite shows both ends.
I got all four lights CA'd into the platform edge and finished soldering them together and with their downward running leads. The + lead was soldered while off the platform since it required shrinking the tubing on it. I soldered the LEDs together in the platform and of course touched the iron to the plastic and melted a divot. I've secured a piece of tubing in the gap which I will trim and shape tomorrow when it's fully cured.
I made a very short movie to show the lights flashing. Yes! They actually work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orN2...m-upload_owner
Tomorrow I'll try and put the finishing touches on the flare. I have a couple of lights to modify for the HP Spheres. I made tall poles thinking I was going to use them next to the cooling tower. Then, at some point, I thought they were going next to the spheres and made lights to sit on top of the cooling tower. Now I find that the first poles are actually too short to properly light the spheres, and will have to do something about it. I have enough 1/8" tubing to make some short ones that will go on top of the sphere platform. I've also finally figured out how to run the wires discretely down on the tanks without having to drill those spheres.
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