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All,

I'm looking for smoke stacks for my Open Hearth mill.  They don't have to be finished products - ideas for building them or re-purposing something else are welcome.  Here are the requirements:

  • Very tall - in excess of 28" (preferably more or extendable to a longer length)
  • Metal appearance (not brick) and straight (not tapered)
  • Hollow - I will be putting smoke units in these myself.
  • Diameter - 4" or less

NOTE:  I have already considered (and own) Lionel's 6-14142 Industrial Smokestack.  It's smoke output is anemic at best.

IMG_1966

If you have any ideas, please post them here.

Many thanks!!

George

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Bill Bramlage, did an article in OGR magazine about using replacement parts form a vacuum cleaner wand.

Central Vacuum Friction-Fit 19

I found this at think vacuums web site - $7.95 1-1/4" in diameter and 19" tall.  Could stack multiples.  May also find them at a hardware store.  Bill painted his , and added a plastruct ladder and some lights.  Looks very good.



There are many sizes to choose from and you can get pretty imaginative of how you paint it.

Last edited by OGR CEO-PUBLISHER

George, consider, a chimney is more than just a straight cylinder.  There is usually a taper commensurate to height, a foundation of sorts and in early 1900's some fancy brick work.  Plus they emit smoke.

Well, I got this from Harry Hieki that is all the above and quite reasonable.  856 625 5506

IMG_0257The track is on an incline, the pictures are straightIMG_0258

It is 20" tall which IMO is a realistic height and will not over power the layout.

IMG_0259It has a smoke unit which fires up nicely

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Harry's chimney is neat. Smokestacks are a visual reminder of the industrial-steam age and yet there's so few available in O-gauge. From my earlier thread, Melgar recommended Altoona Model Works, where I ended up buying the 16" kits. Very nice and heavy models, superb brick detail, good instructions. Maybe he can make taller units, or you could put the 16" behind a building to elevate even higher. For example, this one is sitting level with my industrial buildings, but you could customize a lower portion ~ 12" and wider diameter and install the 16" version one on top (anchor or glue down), to give requisite 28" tall.

DSC00701

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Last edited by Paul Kallus
@Tom Tee posted:

George, consider, a chimney is more than just a straight cylinder.  There is usually a taper commensurate to height, a foundation of sorts and in early 1900's some fancy brick work.  Plus they emit smoke.

Well, I got this from Harry Hieki that is all the above and quite reasonable.  856 625 5506

IMG_0257The track is on an incline, the pictures are straightIMG_0258

It is 20" tall which IMO is a realistic height and will not over power the layout.

IMG_0259It has a smoke unit which fires up nicely

Tom,

I appreciate your post, but I am replicating this situation (below).  This is the Weirton Steel Open Hearth.  It had 14 ovens and all stacks were metal and straight (as far as I can tell).

Open Hearth - smokeweirton

I am aware of Hieke's work and it is gorgeous.  However, it's not what I'm looking for.  And the last time I saw one of his stacks at York it was $400.  Ouch.  I think it was very heavily weathered.

Anyway, I appreciate your effort.

George

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Last edited by G3750

Harry's smoke stacks are $225.

That $400 stack may have been from one of those Menard's mark'em up resellers.

Harry is one of the group sitting out this York.  He is too busy to attend.

Run the numbers, 10 tables, several nights in a hotel/motel, food on the run, truck rental & fuel...gotta sell a lot of stock just to break even.

                      Another void in O Scale. A common item but only found in H.O.

For my compressed trackside warehouse I bought a Walthers H.O. stack. Raised it up as I did with H.O streetlights. Today we finally have 1:50 and O scale 60's street lights! I could not duplicate the bricks at that time so I used it.

Now I use printed paper for buildings and detailed items. Actually looks read compared to O scale oversized plastic buildings.

For Sunshine Biscuits, I cut up a wooden CHAIR LEG from Lowes and spackled it.

23

SB [33)SB [54)

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@G3750 posted:

All,

I'm looking for smoke stacks for my Open Hearth mill.  They don't have to be finished products - ideas for building them or re-purposing something else are welcome.  Here are the requirements:

  • Very tall - in excess of 28" (preferably more or extendable to a longer length)
  • Metal appearance (not brick) and straight (not tapered)
  • Hollow - I will be putting smoke units in these myself.
  • Diameter - 4" or less

NOTE:  I have already considered (and own) Lionel's 6-14142 Industrial Smokestack.  It's smoke output is anemic at best.

IMG_1966

If you have any ideas, please post them here.

Many thanks!!

George

Yes I wish the Lionel Industrial would smoke more.

Yes I wish the Lionel Industrial would smoke more.

Me too!  I explored ways to make that happen, but it's not easy.  The obvious solution is to rip out the anemic smoke unit and replace it.  The MTH PS-1 device comes immediately to mind.  Another choice is to totally gut the insides and put in HarborModels smoke unit (these are made for outdoor boat/ship systems).  The construction of the Lionel stack makes that impossible.

I ended up using PVC and the HarborModels unit.  Here's a test conducted prior to painting and lighting the PVC tube.

Figure 22a

Yeah, baby!  That's what I'm talkin' about. 

George

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Last edited by G3750

If you have access to something to turn it, you could use thick sided PVC pipe and turn it to allow giving it a slight taper, so at the top the walls would be thinner than the bottom. I also agree with other posters, another way would be a wood dowel, the only problem there is the OP wanted to put a smoke unit in it.

As far as the smoke itself, someone I met did something like that, used a fan driven smoke unit (not sure which one he used), and said it really gave that industrial miasma look *lol*.

@CBQ_Bill posted:

George:  

That is a very realistic smokestack that you have created in your basement.  

Please don’t tell your neighbors about it.  

Unless you are ready for the an EPA inspection of your unregulated smoke stack industry in their neighborhood !!!

😆😀

Hey, its 1952 in my basement.  So the EPA doesn't exist!

So there! 

Actually, I have also constructed a ventilation system with high powered fan that exhausts the smoke out the basement window.   And that mill will have an adjustable smoke density setting (from 0 to full).

George

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