The Construction of the Ashland Iron & Steel Blast Furnace

[Trucklover]

Hi guys, im currently building this structure for a contest over on the Gauge Forum. Thought i might share this with this forum too since i know there are a few Steel Modelers on here, plus some of you might find it interesting watching such a massive structure being constructed

Im going to be building and weathering the new Walthers Cornerstone Blast Furnace. There are over 400 detailed pieces in this kit!! I estimate this will take me about 60 hours to complete, and im exited! Can you believe it? LOL

Well here is the kit: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2973

 

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I broke ground on the kit last night. Here are a couple shots showing the amount of pieces in this MASSIVE kit:

 

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Steps 1 & 2

Now it was time for steps 1 and 2 of the 68 steps in the instructions (btw, the instruction sheet is 12 pages long!) lol

Step's 1 and 2 refer to putting the Bustle Pipe and Mantle Ring together. The Bustle pipe has been glued together and the mantle ring is shown in this pic:

 

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Steps 3, 4, and 5

Next step was to glue the Mantle Ring to the Bustle Pipe. I glued the Bustle Pipe Hangers to the Mantle Ring, and then glue the Mantle Ring/Bustle Pipe Hangers assembly to the Bustle Pipe. After this, i glued the Furnace Halves together and then slipped it into place in the Manlte Ring/Bustle Pipe assembly.

 

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Steps 6-14

Steps 6-14 were alot of little parts so i assembled them all and then took 2 shots of the end product. Here is a summary of what took place in steps 6-14:


1. Glued the Lower Offtake Halves together and into the openings on the top of the Furnace
2. Glued the Bell Platform in place ontop of the Furnace.
3. Bell Platform Supports were glued in place
4. Glued the Mantle Columns in place on the underside of the Mantle Ring
5. Glued the Sheaves onto the Sheave Rod, and then glued this completed assembly into the holes on the tops of the Trolley Support Trusses.
6. Glued the Trolley Support Trusses to the Bell Platform Platform
7. Small Bell Beam and Big Bell Beam were glued in place on the Bell Beam Support and then to the tops of the Trolley Support Trusses
8. The front and rear Trolley Support Braces were glued to the front and the back of the Trolley Support Trusses
9. Then glued the Crane Support Beams in place atop the Trolley Support Trusses


NOTE: there are more steps listed above, in the instructions, some of the steps were combined into one..... lol

 

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Painting the Furnace Assembly

Now it was time to spray paint the work done so far. For this, im using Rustoleum Primer "Rust" which in my opinion is a perfect color for such Steel Mill Structures.

Here is the Furnace assembly painted as it is right now:

 

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Steps 16 & 17

NOTE, Step 15 has been skipped for now, railings will be installed once this assembly is completely done to eliminate the risk of damaging them when doing more construction on the furnace

Steps 16 and 17 involved gluing together the Upper Offtake Halves, Upper Offtake Elbows, the Downcomer Halves, and the Downcomer End Cap together, gluing the Upper Offtake Halves to the Upper Offtake Elbows at right 90 degree angles. Here is a pic of the Upper Offtake Halves:

 

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Step 17 Continued

Now the instructions state to place the Upper Offtake Assemblies into the Lower Offtake Halves located on the Furnace Assembly. It also says to set in place the Downcomer Assembly to connect the Upper Offtake Halves together. This is currently where i am at with this project right now. Here is a pic of that assembly as it stands right now:

 

[jbaakko]

Looks good Josh! I'll have to order that blower house from you before they disappear forever! I'm already regretting not buying the cement plants...

 

[Irongrave]

damn i might have you build something for me here in a the next few weeks

 

[NH Mike]

Nice clean work so far Josh. I'm looking forward to the progress pics as you go. What size is the overall footprint of the completed unit? I'd love something like that but it seems quite large for my RR at least.

 

[UP2CSX]

Dang, just looking in the box would be enough to scare me off. How many #11 blades have you already gone through?

 

[jackn2mpu]

Dang, just looking in the box would be enough to scare me off. How many #11 blades have you already gone through?

Sprue nippers are your friends

Something I have found that works with #11 blades that makes cutting away from a sprue easier is to heat the blade slightly. If I'm doing that I have a small photoflood lamp and fixture next to my workbench to do the job.

 

[RexHea]

Nice work going on, Josh.
When I built mine a few years ago, I had trouble with the all the round halves mating up. I had to use putty, rubber bands, and sanding to get them round. Hope this new kit is better. HINT: when assembling your casting house, make sure you have everything perfectly square and plumb. Because it is so big, you will be pulling hair making everything fit properly, if it's not. I have received the blower house and rolling mill to add on my mill section and now trying to get the courage to start putting them together .

BTW: if any of you have the old coke plant kit, Walthers now offers the Larry and Quencher cars separately. Also, the stairs for the blast furnace.

 

[Trucklover]

Looks good Josh! I'll have to order that blower house from you before they disappear forever! I'm already regretting not buying the cement plants...

Thanks Josh

LOL, i think they will have the Blower House Kits as well as the Steel kits around for a little while, there big sellers for them, that means they make more money, so i don't see why they wouldn't keep them out for a while lol

The Cement Plants will eventually come back out. None of the Structures Walthers retires are truly retired for good. Its all about demand, the more people who show interest in a retired kit, the sooner it will come back out. If there is little demand or interest for a kit they have retired, then they will not go through the trouble of re-tooling the kit and pushing it back out on the market. Emailing Walthers and showing interest in certain kits is what they are looking for..... Sometimes they will retire a kit because the tooling has gone bad and no longer is good enough to keep producing the kits, but often times they retire the kits because demand has gone way down on them, sorta like they flooded the market with them, so they take them off there production list for a while and wait for people to show interest in them again....

BTW, i have the Blower House kits listed on my site, just go ahead and order if from there when your ready

 

[Trucklover]

damn i might have you build something for me here in a the next few weeks

hehe thanks i can certainly do some services for you if your interested. Drop me a PM or email when your interested. My email is on my site which is located in my signature.

 

[Trucklover]

Nice clean work so far Josh. I'm looking forward to the progress pics as you go. What size is the overall footprint of the completed unit? I'd love something like that but it seems quite large for my RR at least.

Hi Mike, thanks for the compliments on my work so far

The overall size of this massive structure is: 27-1/4" long x 17-3/8" wide x 22" tall, it is truly a monster of a structure lol

 

[Trucklover]

Dang, just looking in the box would be enough to scare me off. How many #11 blades have you already gone through?

Sprue nippers are your friends

Something I have found that works with #11 blades that makes cutting away from a sprue easier is to heat the blade slightly. If I'm doing that I have a small photoflood lamp and fixture next to my workbench to do the job.

Thanks Jim and Jack

Jim it is quite an ambitious project and kit, certainly requires alot of patients and time lol

Jack, Spur Cutters are exactly what im using. I picked mine up at a local tool supply place for about $15, and there great! Mine are called Flush Cutters, but its the same thing as a Spur Cutter lol

After i cut the parts from the spur, i sand them down with 220 Grit sandpaper to smooth the cut even more.... works really well, and way better then a blade does

 

[Trucklover]

Nice work going on, Josh.
When I built mine a few years ago, I had trouble with the all the round halves mating up. I had to use putty, rubber bands, and sanding to get them round. Hope this new kit is better. HINT: when assembling your casting house, make sure you have everything perfectly square and plumb. Because it is so big, you will be pulling hair making everything fit properly, if it's not. I have received the blower house and rolling mill to add on my mill section and now trying to get the courage to start putting them together .

BTW: if any of you have the old coke plant kit, Walthers now offers the Larry and Quencher cars separately. Also, the stairs for the blast furnace.

Hey Rex, thanks bud

The tooling on the new Blast Furnace kit is alot better then the old tooling. The pieces fit together alot better than what it sounds like you had to deal with lol. I havnt had to fill any joints, well so far ("knock on wood") lol. None of the joints have been to terribly large, and some of them they actually make it look more realistic on the piping where pipe sections join....

Yup i know about the new accessory kits for the old Blast Furnace, Rolling Mill, and Coke Plants, got them all listed on my site as pre-orders

Ill need to get one of the Rolling Mill Accessory Kits to put in the kitbashed Rolling Mill im going to be building from 2 of the older kits.... lol

 

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Steps 18 & 19

Steps 18 and 19 involved gluing the Upper Offtake Platform ontop of the 2 Upper Offtakes, gluing the Bleeder Values together and to the top of the Platform, and gluing the Railings and Railing Bracing to the Platform.

Here are a couple pics showing the completed Upper Offtake Assembly and then showing the Assembly glued to the Furnace Assembly: