C'mon Baby Light My FIRE...!
[LATER EDIT - the following text and pictures were inserted on February 12, 2006:]
BOF Buildings Described
The following paragraphs attempt to explain how a rectangular plexiglas box, combined with two Walther Eleltric Arc Furnace building shells, morphed into an HO scale Basic Oxygen Furnace melt shop. A friend of mine asked me for measurements and under-construction photos, so I partially disassembled the mill to allow for some shots of the rectangular section and the modified EAF buildings. [The ingot teeming area, which is merely covered by a Walthers Rolling Mill building, will not be discussed at this time.]
Rectangular Building
To help create an illusion of enormous size, a rectangular addition had to be added to the pair of EAF buildings that housed the charging area. Obviously standard Evergreen styrene sheet wouldn't have the required rigidity for such a large area (24"Lx10"Wx20"H), so I used 0.25"-thick plexiglas instead. A friend of mine, who owned a table saw with a blade specially-suited for cutting this type of material, was kind enough to cut the desired shapes for me.
The following GIF image attempts to show the shapes and measurements of the plexiglas pieces that were used to form the rectanglar building section. [
NOTE: Due to space limitations, I needed to cut a 3" high, 16" long opening along the bottom of the rear wall to allow passage of trains - you may not need to do that with your own structure.] Since I was able to use Evergreen 0.125"-thick styrene for the roof, I ommitted that 9.5" by 23.5" sheet from the measurement diagram to save space.
The next JPEG image shows a view of the front with the twin EAF buildings removed. I coated the interior walls generously with flat black paint to create the illusion of a large, caverous interior - I could not allow the reflected light from the 40watt BOF light bulb to spoil that effect. I later discovered that I would need to drape a layer of aluminum foil (also painted black) over the BOF vessel enclosure to prevent 'stray' light from escaping.
Here is a view of the rear wall, rarely seen by visitors, so I have not yet gotten around to "beautifying" this area. The tiny supporting "column" in the lower right-hand corner was cemented on, since attempting to make a right-angle cut on a sheet of quarter-inch plexiglas would be not only impractical, but dangerous as well!
This view of one of the ends was the best I could hope to get without totally dismantling the entire structure. If I would have had the foresight to completely cover the raw plexiglas with a layer of flat black paint
before applying the zinc-chromate red, that unwanted "fiber-optic" effect visible in the left corner would not be a problem!
Modified Walthers EAF Buildings
Now let's have a look at the two Walthers EAF buildings, which house the area "where the action is." The first image shows a 3/4-angle view into the side that sits adjacent to the furnace vessel, with the overhead crane and charging ladle still in position:
Here is another view of the rear of the same structure, showing the cutout area [to allow access to the furnace] and the covering of painted aluminum foil to contain stray light:
Next, we have a 3/4-angle view into the second of the two modified EAF structures. This covers what I call the "receiving" area, where the bottle cars discharge their hot pig iron into the charging ladle in a pit, and scrap metal is unloaded from gondola cars into a special charging bucket. Unlike the furnace-side structure, the rear wall has been left intact - but the
front wall has been cut open to allow easier viewing of the BOF vessel and charging platform.
As with the first modified Walthers building, the rear has been shrouded in aluminum foil to prevent the bright light the the 40watt BOF bulb from shining thru:
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[Back to original post....]
OK gang, here are the pictures to tell the story of what I've been working on since last Sunday.
The next major structure I'll be putting on the layout is the Basic Oxygen Furnace mill; the word 'basic' refers to the type of chemicals used in the refining process, i.e. "base" as opposed to "acid". One thing I wanted to do is portray the top opening of the vessel, where scrap metal, and liquid 'pig' iron are dumped in. At 2700 degrees F., that baby's gonna
glow - really bright! So what I did first, was to make a BOF vessel out of
self-hardening clay since that material can endure the heat from continuous exposure to a 40watt light bulb. The bulb fits right up inside the vessel (see below); the black painted foil captures and absorbs stray light, it will NOT be visible once the building has been fully assembled.
Of course, a glowing light bulb by itself is not going to look right; liquid metal lies flat on the top,
not hemisherical! Luckily there is a workaround:
Flames often emanate from the opening, so I can tear off a little swatch of yellow
fiberglas insulation batting (below)...
...and prop it over the vessel opening,
thusly... (Can't see the light bulb as easily
now, can you?)
Flick the switch, and
presto... we've got
FIRE!
OK, what's wrong with this picture [aside from the fact that the crane is straddling a pair of paint cans)? Answer: The second trolley that controls the tipper hook is missing! I was ready to reassemble the entire building at 6:30pm on Sunday (Jan 20), but that missing trolley stopped me dead in my tracks; I spent the next 3 hours turning that trainroom upside-down hunting for the missing pieces.
I never did turn up the missing tipper-hook trolley, but I found
these two gems that I had totally forgotten about: a
cast-resin charging
ladle and scrap metal box, manufactured by a fellow steel modeler named Brandon Wehe in central Illinois.
I bought these items during an annual RRI/SIG meet in Pittsburgh 3 years ago, but wasn't sure I could use them. Now, since I had to scratchbuild my own replacement tram and tipper hook...
...I may as well install a larger, wider set of J-hooks to accommodate the new ladle and scrap box:
Once they were painted by Tuesday night, I was back at the point I should've been at on 6:30pm Sunday...
Here is how I plan to position the charging ladle in front of the flaming BOF:
...and here's what the scrap box looks like when ready for dumping:
I'm waiting until I have the trains back on the layout before snapping any more pics of the BOF shop, that's all for now...thanks for dropping by!