By-PRODUCTS PLANT Part - 10

Work on the primary coolers of the By-Products plant seem like a never ending prospect.  I added the outflow piping today that will enter the building housing the gas exhausters.  Before entering the building I split the pipe and stepped the  size down to 3/8" from 1/2".   Making flanges for the smaller pipe diameter was just a few turns in on the lathe tooling holder.   With all the work on this structure I estimate that I am probably only a little over halfway there as far as detailing goes.  I still have to add extensive water and drain lines, as well as platforms, piping supports, and additional stairs.  

On the tar extractors, I added the posts for the handrails around the top.  I have been using a new method for these individual posts that is another good example of why I'm finding, after 30 plus years as a lone wolf model railroader that it is beneficial to get out and meet other model railroaders and learn how they are doing things.   For the past year or so I have been simply glueing .030x.030 styrene strip vertical, creating the posts for a railing system.  It is easier to do this than it sounds, but as there is only .030 of glue holding the posts to the model, they are fragile.  At this past Steel Mill Modelers Meet, Vince Altiere suggested drilling a small hole (I'm not sure of the drill size I am using, but it's around .030) first and then sticking the glue softened post into it - a method that he uses.  Well it works great and only adds a slight more time to the assembly process, but in a way, even that works to advantage as you can work out any spacing issues that arise, before putting in half the posts.    I added a five foot section of 5/8" tubing to the top of each extractor, and then a smaller, horizontal tube (3/8"), and then finally another, 1/4" tube section.   These are not gas pipes, but rather the high-voltage feed for the extractor.  I connected these feeds to a small electrical box at the base of the model with three .032 conduits.   I finished out work on this structure by adding the 1/2" outflow piping.