Old Mill sorting floor and lower deck

The next 2 decks on the Pino Mill are the sorting floor deck and the lower deck of the Old mill floors
Both can be seen here fitted to the raised old mill deck. The lower deck fits into the square void of the upper or elevated deck and the sorting deck sits to the right. These were fairly easy to construct and completes the old mill minus the machinery, pulleys, wires, chains etc which will bring this portion alive.
Before leaving this section I'll get bare wood restained as needed..
After that, I need to take some undocumented time out and works on a couple of loco items which John Gibson has installed sound. Mostly decaling and renumbering is in order and a ladders and railings reinstalled.
That along with getting all the castings primered for this project, repaint a brass tender so John can get the Tsunami decoder I bought for that installed. I imagine it will take a couple of weeks....and I'll be back after that with the New Mill build. That will be interesting as its paint on top of stain showing lots of age. The techniques I 'll use for that will be explained then.  See you Soon! And thanks for reading.

all old mill decks fitted together

the lower old mill deck and sorting floor

Truss's and Weathering

I finished up the trusses yesterday. I like the look of  .20 wire representing truss hangers as its strung between the upper and lower supports. I had weathered them with Blacken It which was OK, but I still had to retouch  them in black acrylic. During handling the Blacken It bore off the wire.  A black craft paint worked just fine to finish the job.
Now a warning, but don't on't worry about weathering - I know its the fun part - until you've sanded, cleaned and otherwise rid your work of any random glue spots. Remember I am a sloppy gluist.  If you stain over those spots it just won't take. So clean up your glue before hand with Q tip or rag and get on with it.

5 trusses ready for stain and weathering

On my last entry, I had completely forgotten to talk about weathering techniques. Its surprisingly simple with these wood pieces and much of it is done before I get my hands on the glue. Specifically, after the stain dries and on those pieces requiring it I brush the wood with  one of those small wire brushes that you'd buy at the hardware store. Brush it in the same direction, not scrubbing but grazing the grain.  I use it to lighten and essentially blend the stain through out the wood. I do each piece individually and off the model being built. I do this to give each board a different look . Its the same stain throughout and you get similar color and shading, with subtle differences. I also use the brush by bearing down on it to thin the boards near the bottom of their length. Its the whole worn board thing.

I have a myriad of examples on the Pville where I didn't take that step and it felt like I was being lazy. Its just not the kind of work I  want to  display. Not really an appealing look. Start with a coarse paper and work your way down - with the last light sand to remove any and all fuzzy's that are clinging to your work. Other techniques as in splitting boards, creating knot holes, or nail holes  are well documented in the hobby press. I've even gone so far to utilize a #2 pencil for shading and creating shadows on some pieces over the years.

Now its on the the first of 2 equipment decks that will hopefully fit under the trusses and side walls.

See you next time. +

New Mill upper deck

The new mill  has two machinery decks. The main sits on 8x8" legs which supports 8x12's"and 4x12's" beams over the deck, The deck is finished off with 4x8" decking. A heavy duty structure, but necessary on the mill floor to support not only the carriages and machinery, but the constant movement of men and material on the cutting floor. This main deck along with an adjacent sorting deck and a lower machinery deck will complete the basic New Mill structure - however it won't get assembled until much later in the process. As this structure is open I am thinking about adding surface mounted LED's yellow bulbs to the trusses. It would highlight the machinery and scene underneath. I had bought a small number of lights and straight neck lamp holders from Ngineering last year. I knew I was going to use them!!!!!!!

                                       

                                          The deck basic framing spot glued to the template

The beams and joist in place

                                                                                                                               

                                                                               

The decking in place

The carriage pulley control wires and the pulleys themselves mount to the inside rectangular holes in the deck

I've started the build of the sorting deck which will sit to the left side of main deck as shown. A second deck will fill in the empty square space where the exactly blade is sitting. When they are done
I'l post it...........
Til next time...