1/2"-scale Lumber Buggy

[marc_reusser]

Hope you don't mind Ken...

Here are some other methods of stacking lumber.

[Ken Hamilton]

Hope you don't mind Ken...

Heck, no, Marc. 
Bring on all you've got.  The more info the better.  This is great stuff!

(....Got any more shots of that monster Lumber Crane??)

[Ken Hamilton]

How cool is THIS??



I could really get into building some of this lumber yard equipment.

[TRAINS1941]

Sawmills and there equipment some fascinating stuff.  Ken you could spend a lifetime building all the oddities they used!!
Marc thanks for releasing some of your pictures again for everyone to enjoy.

Jerry

[Belg]

Ken, I wouldn't want to be the guy under that last rig you just posted, man if one of those boards catches some wind and flies,OUCH. Pat

[RoughboyModelworks]

I can only imagine what OSHA would think of a rig like that...  Interesting project Ken and well executed. Thanks for posting the pics, looking forward to see it come together.

Paul

[Ken Hamilton]

Here's the latest chapter:
"How To Make Wheels For the Lumber Buggy the Hard Way"

I wanted spoked wheels that looked something like this:



I had some left-over 1/24th-scale Mack tires and decided to make the wheels with
this method. No doubt there was an easier way, but I sort of made this up as I went along.... 
First, I scribed the inner diameter of the tire onto .030" sheet styrene.....



....then cut it out close to the line with curved scissors:

.

I cleaned up the circle and achieved the exact ID of the tire by using a Dremel and a file...



An inner line was cut out with a sharp blade, creating a thin ring.  The inner edge was
cleaned up with sandpaper taped to a big dowel.....



To make the actual rim, I placed the ring and tire flat on the workbench and glued a piece of
.020" strip stock around the edge, against the inner edge of the tire, like this.....



There probably should've been another photo or two before this one, but I got involved
with the building process and didn't stop to take pictures.  I added another strip-stock ring
for the spokes to sit on and made a circle template on which the outer rim and hub (from the
same '48 Chevy the motor came from) are attached with 2-sided tape, then measured, cut &
glued on the styrene spokes. 



Here's the finished wheel, sprayed first with automotive primer and then Rustoleum
"American Accents" Terra Cotta for a fine texture that will give the paint and weathering
something to hold onto......



Disclaimer: 
This wheel isn't perfect, has no known prototype and was made up as I went along,
which is the best part of freelancing.

More to come.................

[finescalerr]

That's the kind of "clinic" we need on this forum. Thanks, and excellent work, Ken! -- Russ

[MrBrownstone]

Hello Ken,

That's right... school me my friend... 

Excelent....thats the stuff I like...

when there's will to do...there's a found way to do it...

Mike

[Ken Hamilton]

While waiting for some Grandt Line gears, it was time to think about the front end of the Lumber Carrier. 
There were no suitable grill shells in the model car parts box, so I decided to make one using
the "Heated-Plastic-Pulled-Down-Over-A-Buck" technique.  I think airplane guys do this alot to make canopies.

First, I measured roughly what I needed aand sanded a piece of pine into a buck.
This is why I build freelanced models....no precise prototype dimensions to fuss over.
Other supplies include .030" styrene sheet and a mini-torch to heat the plastic.
A heat-gun would probably work better because you're not using an open flame:



Forming the grill involved heating the plastic slowly & evenly until it was soft, then
pulling it over the buck.  To get the whole grill I had to pull both "down" and "back":



Once the plastic cooled it was easily pulled off the buck, cut, trimmed & sanded:



Here's the final shape, which still needs detail work.  There's some wasted plastic using this
method, but it's pretty easy to do and you sure don't need a lot of fancy equipment.



FYI: not all of them turned out. This first one was heated too quickly and too unevenly,
which resulted in this mess. The key is to slowly and thoroughly heat the plastic sheet.



The other two I pulled worked out fine and were used in the above "How-To".

[MikeC]

As always, Ken, your modeling is simply astounding - as is your ability to creatively solve problems and design your own details and parts.

Here are a couple of photos of 'stacks' to go with the ones Marc posted earlier. They're not as impressive as the ones in Marc's photos....

Both of these were shot in the Missouri Ozarks, c. 1928. The second photo shows hickory ax handles.

[Frederic Testard]

Ken, again thanks for sharing your clever ideas. The way you made this piece is impressive, and the possibility to use this technique to make other models is a great feature of this post. The wheel making + the grill making make this page a must read!

[jacq01]

   Ken,

  impressive. 

  It is also possible to put the sheet styrene in hot water till it is soft. 

  Jacq

[finescalerr]

Ken, while your technique may not be new, it is the first time I have seen photos of the process. You even showed how it may take a few tries to get what you need. The presentation is about as perfect as it can get.

A less experienced modeler can see how even a veteran sometimes has to make a few attempts before getting a satisfactory result. That alone may reduce the intimidation factor of model building. (I remember throwing out an entire water tank base some years ago.)

The entire "mini-clinic" was helpful to me even though I have been modeling and writing about modeling for my whole life. Thank you.

Russ

[MrBrownstone]

Hey Guy's,

Wow.... did I just learn some cool techniuqe or what ....
Like the man (Russ) said supurb! documentation..

"wisdom gained without the pain"

Thank you very much Ken,

Mike