Sheepscot Scale Products Conveyor

Started by Oldguy, June 03, 2019, 09:49:47 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Oldguy

I finally got all the rollers installed.  The shown glue loopers sure made adding the AC easy.

Next up is the belt.  I had planned on cutting it to size and adding the cleats and then gluing that on to the conveyor frame.  But soon realized that I had glued the chute into position and this can not happen as planned.  I'll look into plan B tomorrow.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

Oldguy

The conveyor belt was fabricated from the the thinnest white plastic that I have available - 0.012" thick.  I cut it to width and fed it through the chute and got lucky.  I only have about an inch of length to spare.  I decided that the cleats would be 2 foot on center and 0.035" high.  I can not add all the cleats, only those that will not be fed through the chute opening.  Jeez, spent several hours and only got this far.
I ran into a catch-22.  I needed to paint the rollers and the belt, yet need clean plastic areas for the glue up.  I need to paint all sides of the belt as they are all visible in place or another.  That and need to do any weathering of the inside of the side extensions before the belt is added, due to space restrictions.   But that is for tomorrow.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Oldguy

Been awhile.  So I got the conveyor pretty much finished, but need some additional details.  Now I can work on the pit.  A quick double check of it's placement and cut the sides out of scrap plastic.  I needed to figure out a way to carry the rails across it.  I went to an online engineering toolbox to see what size of I beam is needed.  Seems an 8" is good to go, which is great since the size I have on hand.  I cut the notches for the I beam since it is slightly taller than the approach ties.  The first thing I realized that was need was a bottom cross piece to hold the conveyor in place and support the first slope sheet.  I should note, that I need the conveyor to be removed when installed.  To feed the coal into the conveyor, I made up a slide gate using C-channel and thin styrene.

Then it was time to add the easiest slope sheet which will rest on the interior brace.  Then placing the conveyor and gate into place, the next slop sheet was added.  All this engineerding makes my head hurt and eats up a lot of time.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Oldguy

Progress has been waaaay too slow.  I finally got the bin installed and weathered.  I needed to add a curbing around thefree sides to install it in the baseboard, otherwise there was no real easy way of installing it.  The conveyor is removable, but I wanted to see how it would look when installed.


Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

ACL1504

Bob,

Great job on the build, enjoying the journey.

Tom ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

Oldguy

I've managed to get some more work done.
The pit is pretty much finished.  I realized that I need to scrape the paint off the tops of the I-beams to get an adhesive to stick to the rails (when installed). Then a platform was added to one side of the conveyor to give some place for the little operator to open and close the coal gate, using a lever system.  After the platform was put in place and a hopper car put in place, I found that there was no decent place to put any type of operating lever.  So I got a scale person and realized that the pit isn't all that deep and it could be operated manually.  It was just a matter of adding a grab iron to the gate and call it good.

Then it on to adding the motor housing.  I didn't really plan this out all that well and there was precious little to hold it.  The housing it self was made out of scrap material.  I made a angle iron frame for the housing to sit on.  The on to the actual supports.  These were made out of the same angle iron material.  Parts of the painted conveyor had to be scraped free of paint prior to gluing each piece into place.  Although the support structure looks a bit flimsy, it is surprisingly sturdy.  Then it was a matter of using some beading wire for the pulley belt.
Before I mount this into the baseboard, I wanted to add some coal on the belt and in the pit.  So I combined some B&H Scenic Material HO scale "nut" coal and some N scale coal.  In the process of stirring the material together I found out that this stuff is magnetic.  If memory serves me correctly, this stuff could be some of the old crushed slag that was used a long time ago.  Not an ideal product to be used around electrical motors or speakers.   So much for using it along the ground underneath the conveyor.  I might be able to use it in the pit as it can only fall down and not out.

Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

postalkarl

Hey Bob:

Coming along very nicely.

Karl

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

Dennis Bourey

Dennis Bourey
dpbourey@comcast.net

Lake's Region RR
(Happy Modeling)

Oldguy

I got the pit installed along with the track.  The kit came with a rather nice end support structure that I had planned to shorten.  But it looked rather overbearing for the end height.  So, I took a hint from the cinder conveyor and made one from channel and angle iron.  Show attached is a photo of how it will look when all is installed in the layout.  All I need to do now is cit out a matching section of 1/2" homasote. 

I am now putting together a Walthers turnatable so I can move onto building a Laserkit roundhouse.  It will be cut down from 6 stalls to 3, with the remaining interior bits used to build another 3 stall roundhouse, but using Monster Model Works brick siding.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

ACL1504

Bob,

This is turning out very nice. Great job on the "fussy" fit.

Tom  ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

Oldguy

Thanks all.  I noticed that I posted the wrong "final photo".  I'll do the track weathering and ballasting once it get installed.
Bob Dye
Livin large on a pond

Powered by EzPortal