Empire State Express – Now, Get Back to work!

The thing that had made me procrastinate as much as I did about getting back to finishing the Empire State Express was the daunting task of having to make all of the wheels for the tender.  I hate doing anything that is repetitious and turning 8 small, boringly identical wheels on the lathe just didn’t thrill me at all.  The set for the loco (8 wheels, 2 sizes) took me an entire afternoon to turn.  But, at one point last Saturday afternoon I stood up and marched down to the lathe determined to get them out of the way.  
 

As it turned out -- no pun intended -- once I figured out the technique, I was able to zip off 9 of the little rascals in just a bit over 90 minutes without even breaking a sweat.  In fact, it was so much fun that I went down to the lathe again a day or so later and made one more and took photos for this blog article.

So here is my simple, step-by-step procedure for making small wheels for any sort of model that won’t make you procrastinate like I did.

The first thing that you have to understand is that the grain must run across the face of the wheel so that it maintains at least some sort of structure strength.  You “could” cut the wheels out of a dowel rod of correct diameter but the problem there is that the grain would run through the wheel not across.  Even though the dowel rod might be made of maple any stress on the wheel would still snap it in half.

Now you may have a better chuck than I do or, even better, a steady rest for your lathe.  If so, you can start with a smaller cross-section block than I could.  But in order for me to grab the billet tight enough to allow the turning of a long, spindly, wheel blank, I had to start with a larger (in this case about 2-7/8” square) block (about 5 inches long) that I attached to my smallest faceplate.  The wheels are only about 1/8” thick so even including the material lost in parting off the wheel you can see that I was expecting a lot of rejects.  As it turned out, I only had one failure and in a pinch I could even use that one.

I turned the block round and the “free end” down to my desired 1” diameter.  Once it was round, I left the drive end of the block at nearly the original size to provide a nice solid support base to minimize vibration.  For the heavy roughing out, I supported the “free end” with the live center in the tail stock.  By the way, for best results, keep your tools as close to “scary sharp” as possible.  Basswood is so soft that you need sharp tools to keep from tearing the wood.

After backing the tail stock out of the way I drilled a 1/8” hole into the end.  From this point onward I kept the speed down to about 50 or 60 RPM to avoid excessive vibration in the block.  If you have a steady rest for support you probably don’t have to worry about that and can probably run faster.

To start making the wheel, face off the end of the block so that it is smooth and flat.  A round nose scraper worked best here for me.  

 

Switch to a small spindle gouge to cut the “Cone” of the wheel.  At this point you could make careful measurements but as I discovered, “eyeball” measurements are close enough for this sort of thing.

Next, switch to a Skew chisel to cut the face of the wheel.  Gently move the tip of the Skew in to produce the rim of the wheel.  Here you are using the skew like a scraper because you are shaping the entire surface of the wheel at once. 

 

 Here you can see the finished wheel face.

 







The next step is to use a standard parting tool to define the wheel flange and begin to shape the cone of the next wheel to be cut.  This shot is a bit fuzzy but you can see how the second wheel is already starting to take shape and we’re not even done with the first one yet!

 

This step is probably going to raise eyebrows with wood turners.  I am positive that this is not considered to be orthodox lathe operation, but it works -- at least at the low speeds that I am using.  I first did this because my parting tool is wide and I didn’t want to waste any more available block length than was absolutely necessary.  I held the teeth of a hacksaw up against the back of the wheel flange and used it as a parting tool. 

It quickly cuts a very narrow groove.  You can see how narrow it is in this photo.

Finish parting off the wheel.  The back side of the wheel will be very rough but a few seconds on a piece of 100 grit sandpaper will smooth it right out. 

So the first wheel is done, short of a little sanding with 220 or 320 sandpaper.  Best of all, the next wheel is already about half done.  Face off the block, dress up the cone (if necessary) then face off the wheel and part it off.  Like I said, I did 9 in 90 minutes.  You can, too.  Here they are: 

One for the Bench

Promise only what you can deliver. Then deliver more than you promise. - Anonymous

‘Til next time…Keep makin’ chips!

Empire State Express – Status Update

As a result of some repainting at our house and the subsequent furniture moving, we went through a shuffling of my carvings to bring out some of the previously unseen pieces and retire some of those that had been in the curio cabinets for some time.

As a result of all of the shuffling, some of the shelves were repositioned and room was left on the top (eye level) shelf for the Empire Express Locomotive and Tender that I spoke about making.  

When I later checked back into my blog to see when I last posted about it,  I was shocked and embarrassed to see how long it had been.  This fact and the now empty shelf space waiting for a Train model galvanized me into resolving to do finish. 

For the record, I did get most of the locomotive done before I shelved the project temporarily - see the photos below.

In the left rear view you can see the air pump, drive rods and the roof of the cabin.   I used a piece of 320 grit sandpaper for the roof – rough side up, I’ve done this before.   Once painted black, it looks pretty much like roll tar paper. 

Obviously, I still need to do some additional painting.  The “real” Empire State Express was all black and to be perfectly correct the model should be, too, but let’s face it, Black Locomotives are boring :-) so I plan to use some color to make it more interesting.  Yeah, it’s not historically correct but it will be more eye-catching in the curio cabinet.

The front side view shows the cowcatcher and the brass steam and sand domes, bell and headlight.  That is about as much detail as I plan to add, although the final locomotive may have an Engineer on board.

The next post will be a "how to" for making train wheels.  Stay tuned... 

                                                                                                                                               

Two Men in the Moon

Over the past few years, I have produced two other carvings using the pattern that I call “The Man in the Moon”.  This pattern was adapted from an image that I found on the Internet probably 8 or 10 years ago.  I think that it has appeared in my blog at some point in the past.

Both of these carvings were gifts to commemorate the birth of newborns -- one of which was our first grandchild -- and to decorate their rooms with something a bit whimsical and to perhaps help induce a little extra sleepiness to the room for the benefit of the weary new parents.
 

We have some friends in Virginia who were recently blessed with a brand new grandson and we also have a member of our (now) extended family in Germany who is expecting in February, so I dusted off this old pattern to carve a couple more. 

 

I decided that this might a good opportunity to play around a bit with the design.   I’ll let you decide which one you like best.

The first of these two is somewhat more “dramatic” with his very pronounced eyebrow on the left. :-) 

   

This is the one that my wife prefers.   

While I like that piece, personally, I like the other carving more.  I was experimenting here with shaping facial features such as dimples, wrinkles, smile-lines and making them more pronounced.  I even added a "philtrum" .  Uuuuh...in case you don't know what a philtrum is, it is the funny little vertical groove located under your nose, right in the middle area of your upper lip -- you can just make it out in the photo to the right).  

I think these added details makes the piece a little more “realistic”, if a cartoon-ish carving of a Man in the Moon could actually be considered realistic.

 

Not much else to say about these two guys.  Except to say that they are about 9" tall and that I hope you like them!

‘Til next time…keep makin’ chips!

The Christmas Angel

The Christmas Angel

I don’t normally do carvings from “store-bought” patterns.  I may “borrow” ideas from other carvers and articles I see in magazines now and again, but I usually change them enough that I can at least call them my own. 

I think that the most amazing fact about this piece is that I was actually able to find all of the design credits to go with it.  The original carving was done by Maureen Hockley, published in the Holiday 2011 issue of Woodcarving Illustrated. 

This is the second angel that I have cranked out for this Christmas from this pattern.  The first was done as a present and so I cannot discuss it at this time.  

I feel that I do a “pretty good job” on carvings that are “things”, but I always seem to have problems with faces.  Ms. Hockley’s version of the carving was 15” tall but my first carving was only about 9 ½” tall -- I was trying to conserve material.  Unfortunately, my stinginess made the face so small that is was nearly impossible (for me, at least) to carve.  I went through about 4 attempts (and layers of wood) trying to get the face right. 

Each time I started over I had slightly less real estate to work with because I kept carving it away.  Face #3 was starting to pretty good but instead of being satisfied with what I had, I kept at it and turned what was starting to look “sort of reasonable” into something that looked absolutely ghastly.  I ended up making the face, a stylized “non-face”.  It wasn’t as nice as I had hoped but it was OK.

I bumped the size of this carving up by about 20%.  This gave me slightly more face area to work with.   I jumped in and did the entire Angel, leaving the face for last.  The face started pretty well but when it started to turn demonic, I regrouped and started over.  That is when I came up with the idea to give her some bangs.  This made her face a little softer, rounder and a bit more cherub-like.  She still is no heavenly beauty but at least she looks happy and more angelic.

We have her hanging next to the front door.  Longtime readers will probably remember the postings related to "the Snow Demon" that hung on the same nail a couple of years ago.  We believe that he "might" have been responsible for most of the heavy snows we had those years.
 
I have high hopes for this angel. But, if the weather suddenly goes "north" on us she may find herself resigned to the decorations box with the Snow Demon plate:-)

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

7000 hits!

Wow!

I am proud to announce that as of today (officially) this blog has exceeded the 7000 hit mark.  Yeah, I know, the number at the bottom of the page shows about 90 more than that, but the OFFICIAL TOTAL -- according to the site meter website -- as of this morning is 7009!

Thanks!  That means a lot!

If you have any questions or would like to see something specific, post a comment or send me an e-mail.  Perhaps I can address your request.

'Til next time...Keep Makin' Chips...and keep those cards and letters comin' in! :-)

A Rebuttal to my Previous Effort

I received the following correction for the origin of the name "Toulouse-Lautrec"  from a fellow Punologist.


Seems that a group of amateur rocketeers in France, had been having problems getting their rockets to reach the planned altitude - They kept fiddling with the rockets' design, fuel mixture, adjusting the launch platform, you name it - but no, the hapless vehicles never attained anywhere near their anticipated height.

So, in desperation, they called upon the services of a well-known mechanical engineer to investigate the problem, Monsieur duPeunifié.   After he arrived, he looked over several of the rockets, examined the fuels, then walked over to the launch platform.   He pushed, pulled, prodded and poked various parts of the frame - and at one point, his eyebrows raised... He asked for a wrench, and tightened a few bolts near the bottom of the platform.

Finished, he invited the group to launch their next rocket - et voilà, it flew magnificently into the heavens, amid shouts of joy and adulation for le bon monsieur!

When asked what the problem was, Monsieur duPeunifié, replied in his typically way...  "Too loose - low track!" 

I don't know how long he worked on this one but I have to admit that I think he won this round. 

What do you think?