NEW PROJECT STEEL MILL COMPLETED MODEL PICTURES MARCH 17,2023

Alan,

Your building skills are amazing.

This will be interesting, especially with all the lights. Do you just power them off a 12v power supply?

Thank you Jim. I am forever greatfull of your support by purchasing many of my items when I first started building and going to York.

Billy,

I use grain of wheat bulbs that are 12 to 16 volt. I buy them from a company called Cir-Kit Concepts out of Minnesota. The lights have 18 inch leads on them. I use Plastruct LF6 light shades.you can hook these up to any 12v power supply.

I appreciate the insight @Alan Graziano. I'll likely use them on my steel mill. You're a master! Can't wait to see how this one turns out!

Billy,

The code number for those lights is ck101018. I usually buy 100 at a time.

That is awesome looking, Alan, and I like how the train tracks access and service the facility; that makes for fun ops.

Years ago, I inspected Bethlehem-Lukens Steel Mill in Coatesville, PA, and noted the train tracks running throughout. 

Impressive as ever! I’m looking forward to seeing this one come together.

Awesome, Alan.  I'll be watching this thread with interest.

George

Allan, you are killing me with these structures!!!! Fantastic, cannot wait to see this one. I am going to contact you about building me one. I know we talked about it when I picked up Ewing Oi from you. Downside, I am running out of room, may have to be a little condensed. I also have the HO scale rolling mill that I would like you to build in O gauge. I was going to try to "copy" the HO kit, but lack of time and my skills are not even close to yours!!

Thx, Jeff

Very cool!

Peter

I made some pretty good progress on the blast furnace building. I also had to install light fixtures and set some equipment in place. I am installing some things I did not build. I think they are great with the exception of one thing and that is stairways and ladders to access them. You can see in the pictures how I cut away some handrail sections to add a stairway in two locations. I matched the handrails with brass rod that I bent to suit. It was a lot of fun and it gives the structure some character in that all the handrails are not the same style. You can see where I installed the elevator I tied into the top platform of the blast furnace. I plan to leave most of the blast furnace roof open on one side since some large piping will be installed and it allows for some viewing. REMEMBER PLATFORMS. WALKWAYS AND LADDERS TO CREATE A COOL STRUCTURE.

@Alan Graziano posted:

I made some pretty good progress on the blast furnace building. I also had to install light fixtures and set some equipment in place. I am installing some things I did not build. I think they are great with the exception of one thing and that is stairways and ladders to access them. You can see in the pictures how I cut away some handrail sections to add a stairway in two locations. I matched the handrails with brass rod that I bent to suit. It was a lot of fun and it gives the structure some character in that all the handrails are not the same style. You can see where I installed the elevator I tied into the top platform of the blast furnace. I plan to leave most of the blast furnace roof open on one side since some large piping will be installed and it allows for some viewing. REMEMBER PLATFORMS. WALKWAYS AND LADDERS TO CREATE A COOL STRUCTURE

Looking very sharp, Alan! Masterful!

Peter

This is really going well Alan! Very impressive work.

Dave

That will be very impressive when done, can't wait to see it installed!

REMEMBER LEAVE IT TO ALAN TO CREATE A COOL STRUCTURE.  Dynamite work as usual Alan.

Looking great Alan!

Alan, I felt compelled to chime in to say what a terrific structure. 

I would love to see these wonderful buildings and structures if they are placed on top of model railway layouts.

John

Thank you very much Jeff, Pete, George, Peter, Paul, Dave, Darrell, Coach, Anthony and Seth.

Seth, I am sure you will see this one on the layout as soon as it is completed and picked up. I am about finished the easy part. Now I have to paint, set the equipment, add details and install the dreaded lights.

Alan,

I have to say that your blast furnace is exquisite.  I hope people appreciate the difficulty of such a build and the detail you have put into it.  I have seen a lot of disappointing O scale blast furnaces over the years.  Many folks mistakenly think they can slap an HO Walthers kit (which is small even for HO) on the layout and call it a day.  Blast furnaces are HUGE - even the small ones like Carrie Furnace.

It's such a complex structure and getting the proportions right is not easy.  A lot of people have trouble with the base of the structure, but this looks awesome.

The other stumbling block (in my opinion) is the top (downcomer and skip hoist).  Again, it's a matter of proportions.

I think you nailed this! 

George

George,

The blast furnace for this model was made by another fellow. He actually used a vacuum cleaner motor to create the furnace, he added valves and piping. In my opinion he captured the image of a blast furnace. You are right about trying to make all the details correct. It is not easy and takes a lot of time. I think one of the biggest things you have to consider is viewing distance and other structures being in the way. Based on this, you can decide where to put in the detailing time.

That is fantastic Alan

Alan Graziano.....I am fairly new to the forum, seeing this work is amazing! You have exceptional talent. do you have a website where you sell for items or just at shows? I would love to see what your offer and likely will purchase for my layout expansion. I have not yet been able to make the York show but plan to in the future. Again thanks for sharing!

Lt1,

I sent you an e mail

Here are some photos of the piping from the dust collectors to the blast furnace. The piping does not make complete sense, but that is not the main focus of this model. Most of this piping will not be glued in place. This will allow the blast furnace to be removed for shipping purpose.

Interesting piping indeed haha

Will the customer eventually glue things together?

Billy,

I think it will depend on whether it will go to another layout. The customer mentioned to me that he may build another layout someday. The piping will stay in place even with a few of these joints loose.

I completed the painting. I sprayed inside the model room because it was too cold outside and I am too impatient to wait. I permanently set the building and small scrubber. The first picture is for Billy showing a little of the wiring of grain of wheat bulbs.

Looks great Alan! Detail is amazing!

I appreciate it @Alan Graziano it's so helpful to see how that sort of stuff works. I designed my blast furnace and I'm in the process of building it but I haven't even thought about any lights beside the liquid iron/slag during the tap.

The progress looks great!

Alan,

Just wonderful! You never cease to amaze. I too can be very impatient. Especially when I actually have the motivation to do something. Having to stop can have an adverse effect on that groove we get in when working.  Thanks for the progress shots.

Dave

For those of us who might consider modeling something like this some day, would you mind telling us what the overall length and width (I'm guessing the depth is only about 2') of this project is?

Chuck

Awesome 👏❤️❤️

Chuck,

The base is 17.5 inches wide and 30  inches long. In addition, there is a 4  inch wide by 24 inch long base on the right side with the stoves. You have to also add 6 inches square on the front left for the dust collector.

Thank you everyone for the comments.

Thanks for the info, Alan.  It's actually a little smaller than I imagined.

Chuck

I just completed modifying, lighting and painting all the associated structures to the blast furnace. This was a lot of work. I have to make a few more pipe spools and glue all the structures down to the baseboard and then I will modify the blast furnace.

That is an impressively dense blast furnace setup! I think the density of these structures is a major part of what makes them so interesting and exciting. I hope we'll get to see this thing in it's final home on the layout.

@Alan Graziano posted:

Alan, what did you use to make the furnace body? Is it all  scratch built or something cobbled together?

Bill,

This is one of the items I did not make. I only modified it by adding lights , ladders, some piping and than repainting. I think this one was some type of plastic bottle. I use Plastruct tubing, heads and cones for these types of structures when I build them from scratch. The primary reason is the ability to glue them together using solvent cements rather that CA or a glue gun.

I just completed the modifications to the blast furnace. I added a top platform with ladder and stairways, small craneway, cover over the conveyor interface and 12 lights.