Wood Shop

Or in this case, the pattern IS the work.  Frank Kehoe shows off a very elaborate piece of woodworking - be sure to look closely at the full screen image to see the hundreds, maybe thousands of small pyramids milled into the surface of this slab.  This will be sealed and then sent to a foundry for a cast iron pour.  Ultimately the finished castings will provide new threshold plates for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  Non skid?  You bet!

The work continued on the Berlin Sander, assembling and lowering the deck back onto the mechanism.  That was not without DRAMA.  Bill Peterson and Dave Diaz did a lot of the 'heavy lifting' and here we are only a few parts away from finishing the re-assembly.

Dave Diaz and Bill Peterson wasted no time after we did some checkout and got the machine running.  Here is one of the two new doors made for Chicago Great Western X 38.  Both doors went through the machine without incident, although I think some more adjustment and fine tuning could be made on the feed rolls.

After sanding, both doors had the tails cut off of the stiles.  We leave those long to protect the assembly in handling, but now they are squared off to finished length.  Then we sized and squared the previously made lower panels.  Bill Peterson and Victor Humphreys are calling it a day with the panels in place on the first door.

Warren Newhauser showed up early and got a head start on the T&G we made three weeks ago.  Here he is cleaning them up to ready them for prime painting.  These will be installed in the Milwaukee Road X 5000 dynamometer car.

Warren, new volunteer Brian Patterson, and Buzz Morisette are busy with the paint for the X 5000 boards.  Yes, it appears Warren was working hard and shed the green shirt he was wearing earlier.

This week we owe thanks to Gerry Dettloff who supplied a number of images to fill out this entry.  I will start with a review of several of the projects and then move on to the BIG job of the day.  Read on.

Victor Humphreys was on call and started out by glazing some of the new windows for Chicago Great Western X 38 snow plow.

Paul Cronin pitched in by working on motor cleanup and repair for the next woodworking machine to join our stable, a large GREENLEE table saw.

Paul continued on the picky motor work.  He found old gunk, oily sawdust, and peeling paint caked on almost every surface.  The bearings for the motor have seen the needed attention already, and when all parts are primed and painted, we will attempt to reassemble it.

Henry Vincent is making good progress on restoring a door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  The rotted wood has been repaired with new custom fitted pieces and here Henry is trimming out the recessed panels with custom quarter round we made in the shop.

Gerry Dettloff and John Faulhaber have been working on repairs to the roof of Lake Shore Electric 810.  The new shop made boards and new tack molding are done for the north side.

Jeff Brady and Norm Krentel are working on the roof of Michigan Electric 28.  Brrr!  It was chilly working out in the barn area.

Here is the BIG job of the day.  Our workhorse for many projects is the massive Berlin Sander which has an estimated weight of 12,000 lbs.  Two of the three drums needed new sandpaper and the machine has to be substantially disassembled to replace the sanding media.  First, the top drive deck is removed using a purpose built A frame and a custom frame jig.

The deck is off and many have never seen the machine from this perspective.  There are a LOT of parts, and many special tools we had to 'invent' to do the work.

With that top deck off you may begin to understand how this machine works.  The three sanding drums may be engaged independently and there are synchronized drive rollers on the now removed top deck, and between each of the sanding drums on the lower deck.  The crew for this project included Dave Rogan, Jim Leonard, Dave Diaz, Victor Humphreys, Jim Foraker, Bob Kutella, and Rod Turner.

To gain access to the drums ever more parts were disassembled giving more understanding to the design.

Then it was on to spiral wrapping with big sheets of sandpaper - each about 2 feet wide and almost 10 feet long.  They have to be smooth and tight.

More hands make quick work of any job.  In this case maybe more could not fit in the picture (or on the machine).

With the new paper wrapped it was time to start the assembly process.  I do not remember that casting being that heavy when we took it off.  Is this where it goes?

People rotated in and out of the crew.  At the end of the day we had the top deck back above the machine, although not yet set and aligned.  These three guys were ready to do more - Dave Diaz, Jim Leonard, and Victor Humphreys.  But the parts which had littered the shop floors were back in place and hopefully tightened and aligned where they should be.  TO BE CONTINUED

I do not think I can compete with the Steam Shop news posted by Nigel Bennet, and in any event the turnout of volunteers was lower than recent weeks.  Perhaps due to the evening event scheduled.  On the down side we now have torn sandpaper on two of the three drums on our Berlin Sander and work will have to commence at once to dismantle the machine and replace the media.  Can it be done in a day?

With the Berlin out of service we moved to Plan B, that to continue milling stock for new roof boards for Michigan Electric 28.  Paul Cronin and Bill Peterson are set up run all those slats through the shaper, and that is only PART of them.

WHEW!  Over 100 pieces done with new grooves milled to match the tongue side.  Bill and Paul look as proud as new parents.  Maybe that is only the relief at completing the shaper work on the third similar shop order in the last month.  Three differing profiles totaling about 2000 linear feet.

Here is what they look like, each only two inches wide.  But there was still one more operation since these are to installed above the curved carlines on the roof and need to fit together closely.  Just as the carbuilders did, we ran than all through the table saw to create an 8.5 degree bevel undercut on the groove side.

Finally Paul and Bill stack off the completed work for the last time.  You would not think that too hard a job, but it gets old and tiresome when every day starts by picking up the over one hundred pieces and now for the last time, stacking off the completed stock.

Victor Humphreys and Bill are pawing through the BUCKET-O-LOCKS to pick out door hardware for the new Chicago Great Western X 38 doors.

Victor measured and cut some glass for the new CGW X 38 windows and here shows that off to to Bill and Paul.

Tim Peters was working on the second door to be restored for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  How many doors are there on that one car?  Maybe FOUR I can count right now.

Keith Letsche was repairing lamp sockets for the 1024.  That includes cleaning the many layers of paint, inspecting, and repairing as needed.

On a different bench Bill Wulfert, now becoming known as the King of Lamps, was doing many of the same operations to a production line of lamp bases.

Finally, here is a picture of molding produced by the Pullman plant over 100 years ago.  Two similar types are found in many places throughout the 1024 and of course, nothing even close is contemporary today.  It presents several challenges to make and will require special tooling to be ground for our machines.  All of those steps may take several weeks so it is timely to start contacting suppliers now.

And in the wood shop area, as is our custom, we produced a lot of sawdust and chips.  Production is at such a high level, the collection barrel needs to be emptied more than once every day the machines are running.

Victor Humphreys is our 'go to guy' for painting and he does a fine job.  Here are the new cupola cab windows for Chicago Great Western X 38 getting the first coat of maroon.

Dave Rogan does careful work in fine tuning the mortise and tenon joints for the second CGW X 38 door.  We make it a practice to completely assemble and dry fit the door before gluing, and on occasion, fine adjustments need to be made.

And at the end of the day it is worth it.  The second door is in the glue press curing as Dave makes a final check.  The first door  is done to this stage and can be seen in the background.

John Faulhaber and Rich Witt are trimming a new roof board for the Lake Shore Electric 810.  The new boards are being installed from the top down towards the tack molding. 

John is on the belt sander now making the final fit fpr this piece.  Nothing ever comes out exactly perfect when working on an eighty year old car body, so the last piece is a custom work of art.

And here is the car, outside in Barn 4.  Three or four rows of roof boards are done, and the new tack molding has been installed.  Wednesday morning it was about plus 7 F and these guys were on the scaffold first thing.  At least they were out of the wind!

Henry Vincent has completed the new pieces for the repair on this door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  He has moved forward and is sanding old paint off, and preparing the mating surfaces for new finish before final assembly. 

Well, more properly, speaking OF tongues.  A good sized crew worked again throughout the day on new roof boards for Michigan Electric 28.  I think the goal is for something in excess of 1200 linear feet to be made.  That is not a trivial effort.  Here are the first boards off the shaper showing the new tongues.

Paul Cronin is acting as catcher getting the stock as it comes off the shaper, and Buzz Morisette is feeding the machine.  Not the only two working this project, others helped, but were not in this image.  Jeff Brady and Norm Krentel were outside in the barn, working on the top roof sheathing.

Progress was also made with the new Boston & Maine windows - beading, planing, and ripping.

A very busy day in the shop Saturday and a lot of hands at work!

Work continued apace on the second new door for Chicago Great Western X 38.  John Faulhaber did a lot of the fussy work of fitting the joints and I pitched in when I had some free time.  The second door is ready for assembly and glue up.

The BIG job of the day, volume wise and manpower wise was making stock for new roof boards for Michigan Electric 28.  So you will see a lot of pics of those steps.  The goal is to have about 1200 linear feet of stock sized and planed for milling a tongue and groove on each piece.  Henry Vincent, Paul Cronin, and Buzz Morisette got the ball rolling by running the remaining rough boards through the jointer to make one edge true and straight.  I should note that Paul Cronin had knee replacement surgery a little over four weeks ago and he is back in the shop working.  TWO THUMBS UP for Paul!

All the wide boards were cut to the needed two inch wide strips and Paul, Bill Peterson, Henry, and Buzz were stacking them completed around midday.  But these guys are like the EverReady bunny, they just will not stop.  They were ready for MORE!

So we have this stack of something over 100 pieces of stock and the next step is to plane to about 7/16 inch thickness.  Buzz, Henry, Paul and Bill took on that task.  It is fairly simple if you have two or four pieces, but 100?  A lot of handling and the consideration of where do you stack it up along the process.

Buzz and Henry were feeding the stock, and Paul and Bill were acting as catchers.  Every 15 minutes or so an intermission was called.  We have a pretty good system to collect the dust and chips.  But you have to watch the collection barrel and make sure it gets emptied!

Henry and Buzz continue feeding the planer while Greg Kepka pitched in moving and staging still more stock to feed that voracious machine.

Still these guys wanted more.  Paul and Henry are at the infeed end of the planer for the second and final pass to produce the finished 3/8 inch thickness.  Bill and Greg are at the outfeed end acting as catchers.

Whew! With all that done, now what do we do with it?  Bill, Henry, and Paul are stacking off the finished work while others help to clean up the work area near the planer.  A BIG job DONE!  With much of the center stage area of the wood shop and its machines busy, that did not mean all the other work stopped.  You merely had to take a number and wait your turn.

Rich Witt was measuring and laying out cuts on new beautiful mahogany stock for the Boston & Maine windows we are making.  That got processed and is ready for the next step.

Tim Peters filled some of his time waiting for machines to be available by cleaning and wire brushing some castings needed in the next steps for rebuilding a door for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.

Then Tim was back on the saw with a tricky set up for slicing a thin skin of quarter sawn white oak to be applied to one of the stiles on the above door.  The skin was not particularly loud but the nearby planer was still howling away, thus the ear protection.  Either that or he thought it was cold in the shop and likes warm ears.

Two of our PCC cars saw more work.  Frank Sirinek and Mike Stauber were in the shop stripping old paint and cleaning interior panels and trim for the Kansas City Public Service PCC car.

Lorne Tweed and Eric Lorenz continue work on the Cleveland Transit System 4223 PCC car.  They claim they were involved in some planning and engineering work, but it looks to me more like something shady was being discussed as I caught them in the act with some drawings and plans.

It seems a lot of folks like to volunteer in the wood shop, another very good turnout with some rare visitors - first timers or members who  do not spend all their time in the shop.  The event that is becoming space limited is noon around the lunch table - shoulder to shoulder swapping tales, telling stories, and discussing the work.

The biggest job for the day involved making new tongue and groove boards to replace rotted stock inside the MILW X 5000 dynamometer car.  Buzz had jointed the new lumber last Wednesday.  The next step was to set up the table saw and rip all the wide planks down to about 2 1/8 inches wide That was a lot of ripping but by noon or so, Bill Peterson, Warren Neuhauser, and Dick Melzer are standing in front of a large pile of the slats.  We started that job earlier with John Faulhaber also helping, especially with the fences, jigs, and set up on the table saw and soon to be used shaper.

Next - the wood was marked for the 'best side' and each was run through the shaper to mill the groove and a small chamfer.  All in one pass using our power feeder.  The crew feeds, monitors and catches each piece.  Not heavy work but many hands to do that and inspect each piece coming off the machines.

The second pass through that machine puts the tongue and a chamfer on the other face edge of the boards.  We kept the crew busy throughout most of the afternoon.

The result was about 450 linear feet of new stock, here being stacked up ready for priming and painting.  We purposely kept the tongues shallow as this will be installed on the inside, (concave) side of the car, and each piece will have to be able to create that inside curve.

Tim Peters was stripping the many layers of old finish off of one of the doors for Chicago Rapid Transit 1024.  He put on quite a show acting as a stripper wearing hearing protection.  Those were needed since he was right next to the shaper milling operation which is quite loud.  He also ran quite a stack of new basswood planks through the table saw and the planer.  This was the first steps to making boards to curve over the roof ends on the 1024.

Victor Humphreys applied the first coat of maroon paint to two of the new windows for the Chicago Great Western X 38 and also did more painting on the small quarter round strips for installing the glazing.

Not a lot of work on the new doors for the X 38 since the tongue and groove work was a full time process for many hours.  But the door joint final fitting came out well under the direction of John Faulhaber, and we did the planing and finish work on the four solid panels which will fill the lower two spaces on each door.  It is sitting in the press, ready to be glued up on Wednesday.

Lorne Tweed and Eric Lorenz are going over all the details for the the window posts on Cleveland Transit System 4223. While many of these are nominally the same, there are also many for special mounting at the front, rear, or near the side doors.  All seem to be measurably different from one another.

Dave Fullarton stopped by with a small wood electrical box door, I think he said for the CTA 2000's.  Whatever, you can be sure it relates to our rapid transit cars.

John Faulhaber and Rich Witt helped and the new door was made in no time while the shaper crew labored on.  Dave moved on to painting it at once with GLYPTOL insulating varnish.

We will close with the WHAT IS IT quiz of the day.  Roger Kramer has a box like dispenser removed from the Ladies Room of one of our heavyweight Pullman Passenger cars.  We think it held flat folded paper cups for drinking water, if any of you are old enough to remember those. 

This was another busy Wednesday in the shops in Barn 4.  One of the volunteers said to me "Wow, there are 17 people here today!"  I counted 18, so another weekday record for attendance - and PROGRESS.

The lead photo today has to be Mike Alterio and Frank Sirinek alongside Chicago & West Towns 141.  Work has been ongoing to fabricate new parts and linkages and yesterday the brake rigging under the car was COMPLETE!  The trolley pole went to the wire, the air compressor charged the brake system, and the brakes were applied from the control stand inside the car.  THEY WORKED!  This was very much a team effort with many contributing to the success.  The tests pointed to some adjustments still needed but the brake cylinder, rods, bars, pins, bushings, new clevises, the many parts salvaged and made new performed as designed.

Dick Cubbage and Jim Leonard are trimming tenons on the bandsaw for a rail on the new doors for Chicago Great Western X 38.  It is a fitting job and quite fitting that volunteers new to the work are doing and learning the skill sets.

Each mortise and tenon joint is custom fitted one at a time.  As we go along it is too tempting to resist assembling what is ready so far.  Jim Leonard, John Faulhaber, and Dave Rogan seem pleased.

Jim is using the disc sander to take off just a 'whisker' to make the joint nearly perfect.  The smart folks do this carefully and only a little bit at a time.  Slower perhaps, but little risk of taking too much and ruining a piece.

Dave and John are using a tenon jig on the table saw to just shave a bit off the thickness on one side of the tenon.

Results are what count.  Near the end of the day Dave, Jim, and John have the entire door assembled for the first time.  They look very proud and OUGHT TO BE!

Henry Vincent has been working at repairing an end train door for Chicago Aurora & Elgin 36.  He has moved on to the fussy work of plunging mortises (seen here) and trimming tenons for the final fit before the gluing stage.

Buzz Morisette is already at work on new lumber for creating tongue and groove ceiling boards for the MILW X 5000 dynamometer car.  Our volunteers yesterday got what I estimate to be over $1000 of new hardwood lumber and hauled it to our site in our truck.  It barely had a chance to get warm, and the work was on.  Yes the raw materials alone can be costly (donate now to MILW X 5000, CRT 1024, or ME 28) but the value of the fabricated work we do is easily five times that.  And we have the opportunity to pass on the skill sets every week to the volunteers.

What would a BLOG entry be without mentioning windows?  Volunteer Dave Diaz has returned to the fold to help out, and he and Simon Harrison are working on the metal sash windows for Cleveland Transit System 4223.   This PCC car had a lot of window work done last winter in the shops, and now it is time to finish off remaining items to make them ready to install on the carbody.