Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Well, today we did a BIG job in the wood shop, with nearly every one of the half dozen volunteers participating.  For several years we have made very good use of the Berlin sander for finish work on well over 180 windows and doors.  One of the abrasive sheets (on drum 3) was about worn out, and last Saturday the sheet on drum 2 failed.  So we had no choice but to invest some time to return this machine to service.

Disassembled

This is a large and complicated machine - it has over 95 lube points alone!  So the first steps are to start the disassembly which has largely been accomplished in this photo.  The A frame was used to remove the top deck (seen in the background here) and then one layer of mechanism parts after another to get to the drums.  Pete Galayda, John Faulhaber, and Victor Humphreys worked on on this - seen here measuring and cutting a new sheet of sandpaper.

On Deck

Pete Galayda, Victor Humphreys and Tim Peters (on the deck) are putting parts back together as the new paper has been installed, and the fussy assembly work is next.

Together Again

Amazingly, by the end of the day the machine was almost back together, John F and Pete G reassembling the dust collector ductwork which had to be removed for access.

Many thousands of dollars of custom woodworking projects are produced each year in the wood shop, at great benefit to IRM.  But like most things there are no funds for ongoing expenses and upkeep of the tools and machinery.  By way of example, EACH sheet of sandpaper for the Berlin cost $60 when we bought these some time ago, and we needed to replace two of them now.  These were the last of our stock, so, any of you want to send in some coins so we can buy more?  Thanks!

409 Sash

Rich Witt continued on work for a new wood sash for the CA&E 409, cutting the rabbets for the rails and stiles.  Here he is seen laying out the mortise and tenon joinery.

Step Up

Henry Vincent, with Frank Sirinek behind him, was fitting new drop steps for the Chicago and West Towns 141.

Mike Altrerio went through the shop area and was recruited to fabricate some new fixtures for the mortiser.  Charlie Strong is doing project planning for the CA&E 451 and we discussed needed hardwoods and costs.  He has quite a 'laundry list' of tasks and I am sure donation of dollars and volunteer hours will be appreciated.  Several guys from the Wednesday Special Projects group stopped in to discuss current work, although I suspect the real reason was to warm up for a bit.