The Ensley type mixer will actually be part of my Bessemer Plant, however, I've decided to describe it's construction under a separate heading as this machine is fairly unique. It's uniqueness will make it difficult to scratchbuild. The core of the mixer is a cylinder, but all simplicity ends there with partial conical ends and a clipped top. See Photo of Prototype. Additionally, both spouts are complex curved shapes, and not the same. Finally, the structural reinforcing and bearing rails are all curved shapes. As I find with these type of projects, solve one problem at a time. A word of warning too - if you follow in my footsteps, the only scale drawing I have to work off is about the size of a penny in total, so most of my measurements are approximations or eyeball take-offs.
The mixer body is about 24' in diameter - perfect for once again using the Rix Water Tank sections. I glued two courses wide and four or five sections each - no need for a complete ring as it will be cut down later. The next step is the sides - these are basically conical sections with about a third removed at the top. Vacuum forming seemed the only way to make duplicate sides so I turned a block of pine in the lathe, creating the gentle curve of the side. I used this as the master in my homemade vacuum forming machine. I think I used .030 plastic to form the sides but it could have been .040. I trimmed the finished sides along the edge and they fit perfectly onto the Rix core. Now, to create that arched top of the sides I drew a crosshairs on the side of the round side piece and then marked about two feet up from the centerline on each side. Then, using a compass with it's point at the base of the vertical line and the pencil on the 2' mark I drew an arc. The result was pretty close to the prototype so I cut the plastic along the line and then sanded the curve right too the line. The one photo shows the result.
No comments:
Post a Comment