Good Ol' No. 119

No. 119

After six years of construction on the Transcontinental Railroad, the trailheads of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads finally met at Promontory
Summit in the Utah Territory on May 10, 1869. 

To commemorate the completion of this incredible accomplishment, two locomotives, the Union Pacific's westbound "No. 119" and the Central Pacific's eastbound "Jupiter" came together until their cowcatchers were separated by less than the length of a single railroad tie.  Four spikes, two made of  Gold from California, one made of Silver from Nevada and one made of Gold, Silver and Iron from Arizona were driven into the final tie while the message: "Dot...Dot...Dot...Done" was flashed from coast to coast by telegraph.

I understand that my accomplishment here pales in comparison to laying a couple of thousand miles of railroad tracks, but about a year ago, I produced a model of the "Jupiter" for John, my one boss, in honor of his 20th anniversary with our company.  That might sound like an odd subject for an anniversary present, but when your company makes railroad equipment, it actually *does* make sense. 

This week, my other boss, Harry, finally caught up and celebrated his 20th anniversary.  It was only fitting that he should receive a model of the *other* of these two historic locomotives.

Just like the "Jupiter", old "No. 119" was made primarily of Basswood although there are a few odds and ends that I fashioned out of small dowel rods and other wood scraps.  I turned the boiler, smokestack, sand and steam domes, cylinders, bell and wheels on the lathe and then assembled the cab, cowcatcher and drive rods from hand-carved/cut pieces. 

The roof of the cab was covered with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper painted black to simulate rolled roofing.  The track measures 16" long and the case makes the overall length about 2" longer.  I do hope that Harry has room for this relatively large piece in his new house:-)

The two locomotives are "nominally" of the same scale.  Unfortunately, the lack of any drawings and only a few good photos  -- those taken at right angles to the train so I could actually measure things -- made it very difficult to get them to agree in all details.  I did do a much better of getting the gauge of the tracks correct on this locomotive.  The wheel spacing was far too wide on the first locomotive, once again because I couldn't locate any really good photos or drawings to work from.  It looks great from the side but sadly way out of scale when viewed head on.

After it was all said and done, I realized that I had actually built both models "upside-down".  In real life, the locomotives of the day were built from the ground up and as I see now that methodology is preferable for building models, too.  It probably would have forced the design to be more accurate if I had started with a specified rail spacing and built the wheels, frame and body to match.  Getting the rail spacing to exactly match the wheel spacing of an already completed model was much tougher - to say nothing of less forgiving - than it would have been the other way around.

I did get a little smarter this time when it came to the finish.  In my opinion, the "Jupiter" suffered from a serious case of "Model Fuzz".  No matter how well I sanded it, the texture of the wood still showed through the paint.  This time, I used a couple of coats of sanding sealer on the boiler, stack and domes -- sanding between coats with 220-grit sandpaper - prior to painting.   Then when I applied the acrylic paint, it went onto an already smooth, hard surface.  That worked much better! 

I also spray-painted all of the brass items.  The metallic, acrylic brush-on paints (e.g., brass, gold, silver) that I have run across must use actual metal pigments mixed with a vehicle that is very transparent.  They always seem to go on "chunky" and require quite a number of coats for good coverage.  That might work on a big item or something that wasn't supposed to be made from metal but on something this small, it looks really bad.

Another gentleman produced the beautiful, slope-top Plexiglas case and cherry wood base for this train as well as John's last year - Thanks, Ken.

Harry and his Train

One bit of trivia I learned during my research on these two locomotives is that you can tell what type of fuel a steam locomotive uses by the shape of the smoke stack:

The "Funnel" or "Cabbage" stack locomotives (like the "Jupiter") burned wood and needed the huge stack so as not to set the tracks or surrounding forests ablaze as the train passed through.  Apparently, the larger stack allowed for baffles and screens that let the hot gases and smoke escape while any solids, including glowing embers, swirled around and eventually fell down into a chamber for later cleanout.

Coal-burning locomotives had straight stacks that may or may not have had any sort of "ember-trapping" screens.

One from the bench

     He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

"Til next time...Keep makin' chips!

Another Commemorative Plaque

Another dedicated and enthusiastic group of mission workers from Beulah Presbyterian Church in Churchill, PA http://www.beulahpresby.org is preparing for another trip to "Katrina-land" to help some of the unfortunate individuals in Mississippi try to put their houses and their lives back together.

Most of us who came through that big storm without so much as a scratch would probably shocked to realize that it has been over 5 years (!) since Katrina hit.  This occurred to me when Jeff, the trip organizer, came to see me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to carve another "housewarming gift" for the group to take along.

Jeff's request was a little different this year.  Previously the gift has always been given to one of the families that they help during that trip, but this year Jeff wanted to show the team's appreciation the church that serves as their "home away from home" for the construction week.  That church is a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church and the carving is a rendering of the church's logo.

Except for the cross which is made from cherry, the plaque is done in basswood. Each piece was fashioned separately and the "let-in" to the round basswood back to give it a relief-carved look.  I turned the crown on the lathe, cut it almost in half and then veeeerrry carefully cut the points into the crown (the points were very thin and cross-grain).  It was the last thing to be "let-in" and needed be shaped to fit over base of the chalice and the pitcher (see the second photo).

The only real problem that I encountered was in the final step of the finishing process.  I sprayed the plaque with polyurethane, but I had to do it in the garage where it was pretty cold (remember, it's February in Pittsburgh!).  Immediately after spraying, I rushed the still dripping plaque into the shop and sat it under a lightbulb to keep it warm while it dried.  After a couple of hours I went to buff it with some #0000 steel wool prior to applying a coat of paste wax.  While the polyurethane felt dry and hard, under the surface it had the consistency of chewing gum.  It grabbed a hold of every single particle of steel wool "dust" and just wouldn't let go.  All I could do was repeatedly wipe down the surface with mineral spirits to remove the stickiness, sand it all smooth again and apply the wax.  As a result the finish is anywhere near as nice as I had hoped for.

Note to self: Give more thought to the idea of adding a nice warm spray booth to the shop!

One for the Bench:
  
    Those who criticize our generation...or the next...forget who raised it.

'Til next time...keep makin' chips!

I wasn't expecting this one at all

Some time last year I carved the "Water is Life" plaque (left) to commemorate the passing of a woman from a co-worker's church who had devoted her life to raising money to install water wells in Malawi. 

I sort of assumed that it would be hung in their church or given to the woman's family as a memorial.  But I was wrong.  Apparently, this past Lenten Season, my co-worker's church raised enough money to have another well installed in Malawi.  One of the parishioners took the money and the plaque to Malawi and this picture shows the results of their -- and I guess my -- efforts. 

All those happy people kinda made me feel good this morning.  (I'm guessing that the plaque won't stay out there on the pump.)

My co-worker  indicated that his church is planning on raising money for another well during this upcoming Lenten season.  So, if you are interested in helping in that effort, drop me an e-mail and I'll connect  you with him.

That's enough.  I probably don't really need a "One from the Bench" today:-)


'Til next time...keep makin' chips!

Snow Demon Exorcized

I carved the pictured Snowman plate last year.  Loyal readers are aware of the damage inflicted on the Northeast last February (the snowiest February in the history of Pittsburgh) that was *apparently* the result of our leaving it on the wall next to the front door past the end of the Christmas season.

I say "apparently" because when my wife and finally associated his presence with the massive accumulation of snow, we removed him from the wall and the snow stopped almost instantaneously with  very little snow accumulating after that date.....Hmmmm.

Now as an Engineer with 40 years experience I am not given to believing in hochus-pochus, but in this case I have to admit that I can't argue with the empirical data collected thus far.

We hung the rascal again before Christmas without any undue problems.  We figured that the demon probably has some sort of agreement already worked out with Santa Claus to provide snow for the recipients of skis, snowboards and sleds to try them out.  We vowed to take him down the moment the weather turned bad but Christmas came and went and despite the accumulating snow outside, my wife and I ignored his presence.

Then suddenly, late last week, after about the 20th day of snow in a row, we realized that he was still hanging on the wall.  Immediately, we snatched him off and replaced the hand-carved, wall-hanging with our initials that normally hangs there.  The snow, although still falling, has abated considerably.  In fact, the "Groundhog Day" blizzard that devastated the Midwest and Northeast just went right around Pittsburgh leaving us pretty much unscathed.

Coincidence???  Well, I don't know.  We're going to try him one more chance next year and if he isn't on his best behavior, he's staying in the box with the other Christmas decorations from then on.  Maybe they can rehabilitate him:-)

One For the Bench:

     You do not need a parachute to skydive.  But you do need a parachute to skydive twice.  OK...ok...I admit that's pretty lame, but  it makes about as much sense as this posting:-)

'Til next time...  Stay warm and keep makin' chips!

Happy 1000th !

This morning I checked the blog's hit counter and found that as of this morning "Carvin' Tom's" has been visited 1002 times!

It feels good to know that somebody -- or in this case a bunch of somebodys -- has been paying attention to my ramblings.  I've actually had people that have spent the best part of 30 minutes here and have read dozens of posts.  That is a great feeling.  Thanks!

I know that I haven't posted anything new recently and I apologize for that.  I have been working on a couple of new pieces but as usual they are surprises and can't be revealed just yet.  I promise that I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Oh, check out the newly  added blog to my list of links: www.theoldstump.blogspot.com.  Brandant has been posting some really fine caricature tutorials.

One for the Bench

     Only the wisest and the stupidest of men never change.

'Til next time...Keep makin' chips!

The Dove and Rainbow, revisited

You may recall from earlier this year, I posted a bit about, Scott, a ventriloquist friend of mine who gave a very nice presentation about how to carve and paint dummies at our carving club.  It was quite a nice evening.


I think that I mentioned at the time that his church (Scott is one of the two Pastors there) was in the process of adding a 6000 square foot addition onto their building and completely renovating their sanctuary.   They have done a nice job.  It really looks fantastic now!.

I promised him that I would make a "housewarming gift" to commemorate the new addition.  Since then I have been trying to come up with an original idea and finally decided to fall back on a previous design, or at least something based on a previous design, the Dove and the Rainbow and the picture shows the final product.


The proportions of my previous efforts (this one is the third) have always bothered me.  The rainbow was too short and too wide.  I managed to beg borrow and steal...well, not actually "steal"...chunks of a number of different types of wood for the rainbow.  This rainbow is about twice a long as the previous ones, about 2/3s as wide and has an additional stripe.  I would have like to have even more stripes but the colors of the wood I was able to find just weren't varied enough to merit it.  The species of wood, from top to bottom are: Bloodwood, Cherry, Butternut, Oak and Purpleheart.


I wanted to have a place to add a little brass plate with the title and appropriate bible verses, so I added the cloud.    The dove and the cloud are both carved from basswood.


One of the people that my wife works with reminded me that I really needed to add an olive branch.  I had thought of the before but this time I bent one up of tinned copper wire, filled in the leaves with solder and superglued it in place.  I think it was a nice touch although any similarity between it and a real olive twig is purely coincidental.

I hope you like it.

One from the Bench:


         Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.

'Til next time...Keep Makin' Chips!

Railroad Signal Lamps

To say the least, my daytime job is often "a bit different" from what most people experience in their lifetimes. Here's one reason why:

My company makes electronic signal equipment for the railroad industry. Quite a number of years ago my bosses decided to shoehorn some of our equipment into a Garden "G" Gauge model train so that they could demonstrate its operation on a moving (albeit small) train at trade shows. Over the years the train display has grown in size and complexity. The latest iteration measures 10 feet by 30 feet and has a bit more than 80 feet of track in sort of a "flattened dog bone" shape. The rear edge alone has 2 mainlines and 2 sidings, each more than 15 feet long!

Over the past few weeks it has actually been my job, if you can call it that, to spend my time cutting and fastening the track with foam rubber track bed on the new display. Yeah, I know. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

The display is pretty much devoid of any scenery except for a couple pieces of wayside equipment, e.g., the signal lamps. The longer I worked on the track and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that the signal lamps that we have used for years just didn't quite measure up to the standards of the new display, so I decided to make some replacements. The picture shows one of the four new signal lamps that I built.

I am sure that there are those who would slavishly conform to the required scale to ensure authenticity in all model train projects. I realized early on that, although all 4 of our trains are all considered "G" gauge trains, none of them were built to exactly the same scale. So, no matter what scale I chose, it wouldn't be quite right. Instead, I just sort of "eyeballed" the scale and made the signal lamps about 7 inches tall or about even with the average cab roof.

Originally, I had planned to blather on here with a blow by blow description of how I put it together on the off chance that someone might want to actually duplicate them. After a sobering evening's reflection I realized that anyone who was that interested could just look at my annotated photo and glean everything they need to know to duplicate what I did. If you want more info than that, just drop me an e-mail. I can probably tell you much more that you will want to listen to.:-)

The display will debut in September in Minneapolis (?) and then be disassembled and rushed to another show in New Orleans (?) just a week or two later. Now, on to the wiring...

One from the Bench:

Don't let your victories go to your head, or your failures go to your heart.


'Til next time...Keep makin' chips!

The Loaves and the Fishes

I mentioned a posting or so ago that I started and was working on a spoon with the theme of The Loaves and the Fishes? while I was participating in the recent Christmas craft show. One of the two women who had the table immediately to my left showed a considerable amount of interest in my progress as the two days went by. As we were packing up she asked if I would keep her informed as to my progress because she thought that it would make the *perfect gift* for (name withheld). I gave her my card and suggested that she call me in a week or so and I would be able to give her a progress update.

I finished carving the spoon a day or so later, sanded it and gave it the first coat of finish but then it sort of languished because I got involved with another project which will be the subject of my next posting. I was jolted back to reality when the woman called early this past week -- as she said she would -- to ask when it would be completed. With Thanksgiving on the horizon and the Grandkids coming into town, I wasn't sure that I would be able to deliver it until after this coming weekend. I did, however, assure her that I would have it done in plenty of time for Christmas.

As it turns out, the intervening project wrapped up more quickly than I expected so I was able to quickly get back to the spoon. I completed it today. So, here it is: The Loaves and Fishes Spoon.

One for the Bench:

Knowledge talks, wisdom listens....I'm doing all of the talking here...hmmmm...I'm not sure what that says about me :-)

'Til next time...Keep makin' chips!

The (mis) Use of English Today

The following is an editorial comment from the management of Carvin' Tom Woodcarving Blog.  Those easily offended should avert their eyes from the screen...So, are the eyes of everyone who doesn't want to see what I have to say averted???  OK, here goes...

I guess I'm just getting old and crotchety, but these days I am just aghast at how otherwise intelligent people cannot seem to assemble a sentence that says what they really mean to say, for example:

 

During the news broadcast this morning I heard the (I'm assuming well-intentioned) announcer (who you would think had some mastery of the English language) say, 

 

"It's Veteran's Day and there will be ceremonies honoring those veterans who lost their lives in cemeteries throughout the land."

 

...so does that mean that if those veterans had just had the sense to not wander into a cemetery they would be alive today? Or did he really mean to say, 

 

"It's Veteran's Day and in cemeteries throughout the land there will be ceremonies honoring those veterans who lost their lives."

 

You'd think, particularly considering the intended message, that he could have gotten it right.

 

To all of my fellow Veterans, "Thanks, for a job well done!"

 

           I'm feeling much better now...

'Til next time...Keep makin' chips -- and correcting deficient English

The Craft Show is over...

The show went very well. A long evening on Friday and a good day on Saturday. I understand that upwards of 1000 people filed through to see what was for sale. Not bad! I could have sold more but I'm happy with what did go. 

At first I was concerned that I had too high a price on the Birdhouse Christmas Ornament but felt better about it when I saw that people were actually buying them in pairs. So at least for some folks the price was right. I'm guessing too that there were a lot of pairs of Grandkids out there that will be getting Ornaments as part of their Christmas. 

I haven't yet decided whether to do it again next year. It seems that I spent a lot of time this year making stuff for the show and not enough "just for fun". I'll have to think on that some while I carve.

I was working on a new design as I sat there. A spoon with a "Loaves and Fishes" theme to the handle. I wish that I had a couple of them because people really seemed to find them interesting. The spoon is almost done -- I'm sanding and have put the first coat of finish on it. I'll post it as soon as I'm done.  

One from the Bench:  

         You're never too old to learn something stupid! 
 
'Til next time...keep makin' Chips!