Wood Shop

Mexican Seats

Meanwhile back in the wood shop and annex area, Mike Stauber and Frank Sirinek are working on two more of the wooden seats for Vera Cruz 19, the single truck open car.  Here they are using heat guns to soften and strip many coats of old paint.

Sliding Windows

Buzz Morisette was nearing the finish point for two new windows for our MILW 01984 caboose.  The bay windows slide left to right and here they are painted, glazed, and hardware being ready to mount.

Passenger Seats

Shelly Vanderschagen was hard at work on the next seat frame for the Passenger Department Santa Fe car.  Clean it, sand old paint, and refinish.

Mortise and Tenon

John Faulhaber was working on the new door for our depot.  We use traditional mortise and tenon jointery as on the original.  John is holding the middle rail and in front of him is the stile ready to accept it.  These are not simple joints and close and careful work is required.

Assembly

Victor Humphreys is fitting together each piece as the work continues.  This can be tedious work to fit each joint but slow and steady wins the race.  This will be a heavy door and good jointery will help it survive use and abuse.

Perfect Fit

A lot of the wood shop work is specific to the volunteer's favorite or currently active project.  We do just as much or more work from a pool of interested and willing volunteers, who get to experience a variety of tools and techniques and learn in the process.  The first section of this report deals with constructing a new door for our East Union Depot.  John Faulhaber explains to Simon Harrison the geometry of a mortise and tenon joint and the steps to try to achieve a perfect fit as the door top rail is matched to the right hand side stile.

Next Piece

Next John Faulhaber is using the table saw to nibble away and size the tenon for the middle rail of this door.

Testing

At each step in the process the parts get to be assembled to check that everything is in order.  I suppose that would not be necessary of we were making twenty or so identical doors.  But for a one of a kind item it is quite an important step.  By end of day, parts are dry fitted for the frame and top rail, and Victor Humphreys and John are working on the middle rail

More PCC Work

Steve Iverson has combined some vacation time with his latest trip to IRM for the Annual meeting.  He has been working to help Frank Sirinek continue the progress on Kansas City Public Service 755, one of our PCC cars.  He is making new wood parts while behind him to his left is a restored and painted ventilator housing waiting to go back on the car.

Rapid Transit

Certainly RAPID progress as Tim peters continues on the epic restoration of a wood L car, Chicago Rapid Transit 1797.  Timbers shown in last week's shop entry have been completed and painted, and here he is consolidating and repairing more wood parts for the car.

Suck It Up

With the addition of the new shop annex, some of our sawdust collecting system had to be dismantled.  Henry Vincent takes on the role of 'tin knocker' as he hangs a new run of ductwork, to suck up sawdust and debris as fast as our volunteers and machines can produce it.

What Is Your Favorite Vise

Simon Harrison and Rich Witt have had enough of a bench vise that really offered as many problems as benefits.  So they removed it, and are installing a different one from our 'stock'.  We really never had ONE good bench vise and now seemingly we need THREE in working order considering the number of active projects in the shop.

As a footnote, one of our members notes a reminder that our Member Photo Gallery on this site hosts thousands, maybe over ten thousand images.  All of those used in my BLOG entries are hosted there, as well as a myriad of other images for virtually every piece of equipment, operation and activity on our campus.  In our BLOGS you get to see those images along with some of the 'back story'; but feel free to explore the albums and images in the Member Galleries for your favorite topic.

End Beams

Tim Peters has two new end beams well in hand, destined for installation on CRT 1797.  In the past few weeks we were able to acquire some old growth southern yellow pine timbers from a salvage site, and this allows some key steps to once again move forward.  We invested a lot of money on this and other projects to secure this material, at about 15 cents on the dollar.  If you can help out here with a donation, there is still more wood left that would suit and be tailor made in size to work on a number of projects.

A Glazed Look

Buzz Morisette was glazing some of the new windows constructed for caboose MILW 01984.  Better be careful swinging that hammer around all those sheets of glass!

Saw Base

Victor Humphreys was continuing the prep work prior to prime painting our new base for the heavy circular saw we hope to place in service soon in the wood shop.  Rod Turner had completed some additional welding on this during the week, thanks.

A New Door

Roger Kramer and Bob Kutella are working on a base rail for a new station door.  We had hoped to complete this last season, but other projects intervened.  Here we are sawing stop cuts to define tenons on this large slab of wood. Yes, we do something beside turn out prodigious quantities of new windows in the shop.

A New Window

That said, there seem to be endless quantity of new windows needing to be made.  (As an example there are 96 panes of glass in the Sand Springs 68, and it does not use storm windows)  It was good to see Henry Auchstetter out for the day, and he is discussing and examining a deteriorated window with Bob Kutella, the new ones to be destined for the Glen Springs.

All of the many projects underway rely on two things - dedicated hardworking volunteers, and a source of funds. Can you help?  We will teach skill sets and apply your labor, you will have to wrestle with your checkbook yourself!

The Home Stretch

We are in the home stretch of completing the large window order for new frames for the IC 3996.  Here, Rich Witt is routing the last few pockets in the bottom rails for brass window lifts.

DONE

By day's end they are all done!  Some of the crew who worked on these were, l to r, Lorne Tweed, John Faulhaber, Bob Kutella, Roger Kramer, Rich Witt, and Simon Harrison.  At commercial cabinet shop rates these represent over $2500 in value, not counting the cost of materials.  Good job guys.

Technology

Not everything in the wood shop means you will get covered in sawdust.  Roger Kramer and Lorne Tweed are on a laptop using WiFi.  What is WiFi?

Angel in the Annex

Henry Vincent was continuing to do all the thankless finishing touches in our shop space addition.  Here he is installing base molding along the walls.  The picture caption?  Note the bright HALO hanging over his head as he works.

Side Sill

George Clark was cutting and fitting the last side sill timber for the north side of Lake Shore Electric 810.  Can the finished siding be far away?

Tag Team

Lorne Tweed and Simon Harrison were taking turns using a pneumatic needle scaler to remove heavy mill scale from our newly fabricated table saw base.  That is one of the necessary steps to assure paint and primer can be applied.  In case you are not familiar with a needle scaler, come on out and we can put you on the business end of one!

Brake Shoes

All of our rail equipment uses brake shoes to grip the wheels and cause them to slow and stop.  The vast majority are cast iron and almost every trolley car uses a shoe different from the others.  Different manufacturer of the trucks, different wheel sizes, different decade of construction, etc.  Above is a test shoe we had cast for Chicago Surface Lines 3142.  That is one of our regular operating cars, and is very popular with members and visitors alike.  But the brake shoes are worn to the point where the car's operation may have to be 'rationed' or suspended entirely without new brake shoes.  There just is not a foundry on every corner to make these and we are actively searching for one with experience in this type casting.  So far the costs seem to be substantial, to the point of being prohibitive.  If you like riding or seeing this car run, please consider a restricted donation to R3142 fund.  That fund still carries a negative balance from the emergency motor repairs last year and we need to pay that off and get funds to make new brake shoes --  OR --

Despite the title of these BLOG entries we try to show other activities, as appropriate, and when we are able to snap a picture.  So, to start out this BLOG, here is a short report on activity in the Freight Car Department.

Air Brakes

Victor Humphreys is testing air brakes on two freight cars, scheduled to be operated in a special freight train on April 30.  He has completed inspections and maintenance for five cars so far, with a lot of help from other departments. 

Hand Tools

What would someone from one of the many TV handyman shows say?  Buzz Morisette is using a hand plane to size new moldings for the MILW 01984 caboose project.  What a concept!

On the Bevel

On to some of the operations for the new IC 3996 window frames.  You might think wow, look at that new frame for a window.  But realize that to produce just one there are many steps along the way, and jigs and fixtures to be made.  Readers here will have seen many of the needed steps in earlier BLOG entries, now we are close to the finish line.  Here, Rich Witt and Loren Tweed are cutting a bevel on the bottom rail of these windows.

Stile Rabbet

With a special profile routed on the bottom rail, and the bevel cut, a bit has been installed in the router, and fences and guides set up to cut a rabbet on each side stile.  Even with the guides, it requires careful work for Rich and Loren to do each side of each of the eleven frames.

The Ledge

Rich eyeballs the new ledge or rabbet created on this frame, while Loren helps with the inspection.  We check each cut on each frame before moving on.

Lift Hardware

Brass window lift castings (two per window) need to be inserted into the bottom rail.  Another special jig or fixture was constructed to locate these and provide a consistent unchanging pocket for the hardware.  The jig is in place and Rich Witt is using a router, with yet another different bit, to plow out the recessed pockets.

The Pocket

Here is a better idea of the finished pocket.  Looks simple, huh?  One down, twenty one more to go.

Well, it was another short day for me, but here are a few images I managed to shoot.

More Window Work

Rich Witt plans some of the last cuts needed for the new windows for IC 3996, while Roger Kramer embraces some of the old rotted parts on hand to make sure we are replicating everything correctly.

The Bitter End

Not too bitter exactly.  We make the new frames for windows with longer stiles to ease the process of gluing and sanding and then trim them off.  Lorne Tweed is using a jig we made to trim off those pesky one inch ENDS.  This really brings the new frames into a state of near completion, and allows you to visualize the finished product.  Next in line, rout a special profile and add the bevel to the bottom rail of the window, rabbet reliefs for hardware on the side rails, and plow out recesses for the window lifts.

The Base-ics

Mike Alterio is helping out the Wood Shop a lot.  Recall that in previous BLOG entries, we showed the process of laying out and designing a new steel base for one of our large table saws.  Fast forward to the present.  Steel had been ordered and delivered, clamped and fit, and Mike welded up the main members and legs.  Watch your eyes!!

Other work continued in the area, including more finishing touches and wiring to the shop space addition, George Clark making good progress on the LSE 810, Pete Galayda continues on the west platforms for CCW 300, and the first Freight Car maintenance and inspections of 2011, thanks in large measure to help from Rod Turner in providing switching services.

We also noted that the Cleveland PCC CTS 4223 has returned to Barn 4 and we saw the first visitors of the year venturing in to the shop with questions.