Upgrading the MTH Mill - Operating Water Wheel and Additional Details - 6 Jan 19 Update - COMPLETE!

That's gonna be one + mill when your done.  What sort of paint, stain or weathering for you water wheel?

Dustin, That is going to be a great addition I cant wait to see it in operation!

coach joe posted:

That's gonna be one + mill when your done.  What sort of paint, stain or weathering for you water wheel?

Thanks, I'm thinking this will end-up being one of my more interesting structures - so long as the plan comes together 

My plan is to stain the water wheel with a medium-to-dark-ish wood stain, then use some black paint around the joints to make it look a little more weathered.  I may also hit it with some gloss clear overcoat so as to make it look more "wet". 

Wow, Dustin!

You never cease to amaze. Is this going to be "driven" by a creek underneath or a flume overhead?

Wow, and l built several mill wheels from scratch, with a grade school compass and kitchen dishes of the right size, to get good circles....gonna hafta check out "embroidery wheels" which I'd never heard of.  Hope they are in several sizes... Building the flume, for overshot, breastshot, or undershot, will be easier than the wheel.  I bashed one of those MTH mills, several others' have been posted here, but none were operating, so we want to see this.  In the mills l have visited, the bolts holding the wheel and spokes together, create a need for a touch of "rust".

Love it !  

AGHRMatt posted:

Wow, Dustin!

You never cease to amaze. Is this going to be "driven" by a creek underneath or a flume overhead?

Thanks, Matt!  I miss hanging out and running trains with you and the guys at AGHR - it looks like the club layout is really coming along and you've added some  interesting new features!  My layout is a decent size, but my trains can't really stretch their legs the way they could at the club, either...

As far as the mill wheel, my plan is to go with a creek driven approach - with the water pushing it from underneath & the wheel moving clockwise.   I'm assuming I can reverse the motor if needed.... but if I can't get the wheel to spin clockwise, I may go with an overhead flume. 

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CO HIRAILER,

Embroidery hoops do come in a variety of sizes (and shapes, FWIW)... I'd actually ordered a small lot with different sizes so I could stand them next to the mill and judge the aesthetics.  In my limited experience, some hoops are more truly "round" than others, so I would either buy them in person at a craft store or order extras online.   

Good call with respect to the rust on the bolts.  I'll have to see how/if I can model the bolts, or if I should try to fashion some bolt plates.

Just a quick update this time...

I've gotten the wheel stained.   I decided to go with a "dark walnut" I had on hand, which allows some of the wood grain to be seen but also looks sufficiently "old".   I applied the stain with a rag and a chip brush:

I also did some additional weathering on the roof of the mill, and have removed the set of stairs on the side of the mill where the wheel will be mounted (I'll cover over this area with a wood 'panel' and maybe a little ladder up the door).   I have the first stone color done as well... 2 more to go (both also shades of gray):

...and I also found these online, which will be great in the loading dock area of the mill once this is all done.

The wheel is certainly taking shape.  Those feed sacks will look good on the dock!

Wow! Awesome! That wheel and structure looks very realistic.

Pretty creative. This will have the look of a high end craftsman kit when done. Nice job.

Nice work Dustin! I was just wondering are you going to have to build a support bracket inside the building for your wheel motor?

mike g. posted:

Nice work Dustin! I was just wondering are you going to have to build a support bracket inside the building for your wheel motor?

Thanks, Mike   Yeah, I think I will likely add some kind of wooden bracket on the inside that I can screw the motor into to mount it.   I could glue the motor in place more easily, but I'd like to be able to replace it without too much hassle if it fails.   It is a ~$3 motor, so I don't have super high expectations for long term durability & already have a spare.

I plan to detail the interior of the loading dock area, but add a false wall in the back behind that to hide the motor itself on the opposite wall.  Once I get the exterior of the mill fully painted, I plan to disassemble it to work the (limited) interior details, motor mount, and lighting.   Should be interesting to disassemble...  on their structures, MTH doesn't hesitate to use 14 screws where 4 would do the trick.

Dustin, I agree on the amount of screws MTH uses, but you don't have to worry about it falling apart! Sounds like you have a good plan, I cant wait to see it in action!

Whew!  I now have all the stones painted, and did a little bit of additional shading on the wheel.   Ended-up using 4 shades of gray on the stones, and "aged concrete" for the headers above and below the doors and windows.  On the wheel, I dry brushed on some black around the joints for some aging.   Still need to ponder some more on how best to represent the rivets.  Below pictures show the current status.

Next step is to pop the mill apart and work the internal components (LED lights, loading dock, wheel motor & mount, etc.) as noted above.  I think I'm going to hold-off on doing the mortar lines or further weathering until I get all the internals done and the mill put back together.  Getting closer to done!

It's looking very good! 

Looks really good from my house.

Very nice job.  Reminded me of the mill at Little Buffalo State Park near Newport Pa.

Dustin:

For the bolts, get in touch with Dave and find out which nut/bolt/washer castings he used on the trestle. They'd probably be perfect for "bolting" the spokes onto the wheel. All you need is a pin vise and a small drill bit.

Looks nice , when I did mine the roof was too "busy" looking so  I removed several of the vents from the roof and shortened others. The holes can be filled with sheet plastic and painted to look like patches on roof.

AGHRMatt posted:

Dustin:

For the bolts, get in touch with Dave and find out which nut/bolt/washer castings he used on the trestle. They'd probably be perfect for "bolting" the spokes onto the wheel. All you need is a pin vise and a small drill bit.

Matt - Good call, I will shoot Dave a note and ask him about that.  Those bolt castings on the trestle do look outstanding.

Dave Funk posted:

Looks nice , when I did mine the roof was too "busy" looking so  I removed several of the vents from the roof and shortened others. The holes can be filled with sheet plastic and painted to look like patches on roof.

Dave - That's a good idea & something I hadn't even thought about.  I agree the as-delivered roof does look a little "busy", so I may copy your approach and clean it up a bit with fewer vents.

Great stuff!

Peter

I believe this is worthy of a OGR Magazine article. Great info and photos.

WOW Dustin, that sure is turning out to look sharp! Very nice work, but then again you always do nice work! I will be here fallowing to the end of the project and to see what your next project will be!

Now this looks great. Here in NJ I think there is only one working mill that I know of, they call it the Red Mill Museum now. It varies from MTH's, but still a fantastic machine. I can't wait to see what it looks like when you're done. Are you going to use real water or fake water?

Dustin, excellent results so far.  Not and bolt castings will make it even better.

Mike - I have some upcoming projects I'm pretty excited about.  Not sure which I will do first, or when I will be able to get to it, but I'll start a thread with ongoing progress for each of those as well.

Dave - Thanks!   My plan is to go with fake water this time around.  If I ever build a super "dream" layout, I may go the real water route

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Alright, I was able to make a little but more progress.   I disassembled the mill & removed the incandescent bulbs.  I plan to re-use the existing wiring and the lower level mounting points when I install the LED lights and the motor.

I decided it would be easier to do the "mortar lines" while the mill was unassembled after all, so went ahead and did that first.  Given the deep grooves in the façade, I used pre-mixed drywall spackle.  The end result came out much improving the stone look.  Still have a little clean-up work to do around the windows & need to do a final wipe-down:

In the pic above, the wheel is actually mounted to the building for the first time.  I drilled the hole for the motor and test fit it in the available space.   The motor fit better than I had any right to expect, neatly sliding in to place above one of the cross beams.  I did have to remove one of the lower level mounting posts, but there are plenty of others:

Here's what the axle looks like, protruding from the building.  I will paint the axle black so it blends better..   This is also a pretty good shot of the brick work...  rubbing off some of the excess spackle had the unintended positive side effect of rubbing off some paint & making the stones look more convincing.   No mistakes, just happy accidents:

Here's how the motor sits in the upper "section" of building:

I glued in some thin prices of wood so that I can mount the motor with small screws.   I may also use a dab of glue (but little enough that I can torque it free if a swap is needed):

As far as the roof, I took Dave's suggestion and eliminated some of the smokestacks.  Ultimately, I removed 3 sets of stacks... which still leaves 3 remaining.  The ones I removed will likely be useful in bashing other projects, so this is a win-win.   I covered the holes with pieces of thin scale aluminum sheeting I had on hand & glued them in to place.   Not sure if I will paint them rust red to match the roof or just rust & weather them a bit.  Either way, I'm also extremely happy with how well these "patches" fit in to the original roof and look like repairs.   IMO, imperfections give buildings character:

I had planned just to do a partial interior by the loading dock, but this thing has enough open space inside that I'm considering doing a more complete (albeit basic) interior.   I'd have to replace the window glass with a more transparent plastic as well, but may be worth the effort...

WOW Dustin, that sure is coming along! Looks great! I agree I like the patch look, a little weathering and boom your done! I cant wait to see the wheel turning!

Looking great.

The mortar really made your painting efforts stand out.  This is one fantastic build.  You could leave some of the opaque window glass to limit the amount of interior modellingrequired.

Thanks again for the compliments and ideas, guys.  After some experimenting with interior layouts, I decided to mostly finish the first floor, leave the interior space open, and leave the windows translucent.  Decided it wasn't worth the hassle to re-do all the windows, make interior walls, and fully hide all the wiring.

Here's the installed "floor" for the first floor.  Just filled the open space with foamboard:to make a continuous floor:

I also took some textured brick sheeting I had leftover from a previous project (large bridge piers) and started patching the area under the door on the wheel side where the stairs were removed.   Going for a "newer stone" look, as if the mill had a more recent re-design in this area:

I covered the floor of the mill with a paper wood flooring pattern.   That hole in the first pic below is needed for re-assembly and will be patched over when the mill is done.  In the pics, you can also see the additional details added inside.   This one has a good shot of the "discharge chute"

This shot shows some of the bags stacked up:

Here's the millstone itself.   It's the end of a Pringles can with a dowel stuck in it, painted gray and covered with stone paper:

Scale, and a barrel under the chute, in front of the millstone.   The light fixtures also now have warm LEDs:

In testing the wheel, I found that the motor spins at 15 RPM at 12V DC.   At 8V DC, the wheel slows to a more realistic 10 RPM.  In order to keep the whole building at a common input voltage (12V - my layout standard for most structures), I'm using a buck converted to step down the voltage for the wheel to 8V.  Here is the converted installed, with quick connects for main power (right) and the wheel motor (left).

This is what I use to test varying voltages from a single device... handy little AC-DC adapter with adjustable output voltage and display.

Here's the bottom section of the mill, showing the revised wiring and interior details:

...and here's the current status of the door patch:

Outstanding!

Thank you, for the time and effort to post the progress pictures.  Great project.  Mike CT. 

Amazing work Dustin! 

Great work Dustin. Can't wait to see the wheel turning.

Bob

Simply superb! Great work. Inspiring. 

Dustin, The door patch looks just like one you would see in real life.  That is quite a good job you are doing on the mechanism!  Keep up the good work!!

Outstanding work!