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Garage Dio


dannyi

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The thing I love about following your progress is getting ideas and "how-to's" for my own dios.

Problem is.... I just don't seem to be able to pull it off the way you do! You have a special talent that few of us have.

Tony

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..thanks Tony....I don't know, I think we all have it in us. That ole adage "practice, practice, practice sure is true! Can't begin to tell ya how many times I totally messed up things....

...couple more progress pics......

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Danny,

Glad to see your back at it. Your work on the service panel makes me speechless. Reminds me when I

worked in the the old Thomas Flyer plant at 1200 Niagara in Buffalo, NY a convertered auto part-warehouse. Your

work never ceases to amaze me. Now working on a '32 Ford.

Ron

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..thank you Ken, Ron and Harry!

..Joe, you asked about the fuse box door being hinged. I think you might be asking because most service panel cover plates are not hinged. Usually just the access door for the fuses/breakers. Though I did see some really old boxes at the plant I worked that has hinged doors, admittedly those were for cartridge fuses mostly and main breakers. I guess I'm exercising my artistic licence a bit here..lol

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...thanks Charlie....the fittings I used for the piping came from Ozark Mountain. Their white metal so I made a few resin copies of those. But their not hard to do yourself. You need two different sizes of styrene rod. Lets say 0.040" rod and 0.050". For an elbow use a heat gun or blow dryer to make the 90 degree bend in a piece 0.040" rod. Cut the elbow to the desired size. Then carefully drill a 0.040" hole in the end of the 0.050" rod deep enough to make a couple "rings" about a 1/32" wide. Glue the rings at each end of the elbow, round off all the edges, then paint. For the "T" cut the horizontal piece about 3/16" long and cut a "V" groove in the center. Cut a 1/16" long piece for the vertical part with a "V" point at the end to match the groove cut of the other piece. Glue together, then add the same kind of rings as the elbow. Round off all the edges , then paint.

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That light bulb could probably be quite saleable as a resin item.

Wow, that's impressive.

If I could (and had the patience and skill to do it,) I might put a grain-o-rice bulb in the fixture and electrify the fixture so it would illuminate.

Charlie Larkin

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Charlie, I was thinking about illuminating the bulb with fiber optics. Need to experiment with it a little, see how it turns out.

....got the stairs under way and finished the air line along the back wall, just need to add fittings for the air hoses...

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This is incredibly beautiful work, Danny. It's one thing to use and modify existing wiring, tubing, etc. to create parts, pieces, and effects, but to master new parts for the pipes and light shades for better accuracy is an indication of just how skilled you are, and what a great eye for detail you have.

This definitely passes the "How long can you look at it and still not notice all the details?" litmus test for dioramas.

I would suggest that you shorten the rise between each stair tread, as it looks like each tread is 14" or so deep, making for a very big step each time. Maybe a right angle stair using the corner would cut down the visual length, too?

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..thank you Casey for the kind words. I was thinking the same thing you were about the visual length. The stairs were an after thought. Because I was virtually starting over due to the accident I started to add and change a few things. Came across a photo of a building similar to my dio and it had a stair case in it. I thought that might be pretty cool to add. Because of where the hoist is located I was pressed for room if a car was on it, so it's just wide enough for one person. That in it's self is not unusual, saw plenty of them at the factory I worked but like you said it's a bit steep and long. I've been thinking I might not even use them but if I do keep the stairs, I will do as you mentioned and make a right angle set going up the opposite direction. As for the tread height it's a bit deceiving in the pictures, but their a scale (1/25) 10 inches. Higher then the normal 8" of residential tread height but not that uncommon in these old factory buildings. I used a 1/24 scale figure I have for reference also. Thanks for the suggestion, it looks like we were both thinking the same thing!

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..now that the major plumbing and electrical work is finished along the back wall I started on the I beams and ceiling joists. Had a bit of a mess on my hands because some of the ceiling were joined by the wiring for the lights. Took a while to untangle them without damaging the wire connections. To my surprise all the lights still work! I still have to straighten out the lamp shades and the conduit, hopefully they'll all light up afterwords......

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