dannyi

Tom this is absolutely gorgeous! Your attention to detail is off the charts....fantastic work..

....got some outlets installed and the conduit started.......

..thanks Charlie, ....taking my dio to NJ is definitely part of the plan. This time I will properly crate it insure it's survival!!

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...

James your garage is looking really nice, great job! Looking forward to seeing it completed.

.....here's my first attempt at a light bulb. Saw where Chuck Doan did this for one of his dios and thought I'd give it a try....

...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.

..congrats Ken! Too bad it isn't going on in late October. Our daughter lives in Monroeville, NJ. and we were planning a trip out that way. I think Philly is only 30 or so minutes away..Sounds like a great event to be part of.....

..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

..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......

...thanks John and Mike...(how have you been Mike?)... ...got my order from Plastuct so now I can move on the air and electrical lines plus the stairs. Started the air line that will go across the back wall.....

..love this Manny! ..all the detail you got into such a small space is amazing...great job!

..John, more then one person has referred to me as crazy!..lol ...wiring the service panel was really an after thought, one of those details that's not commonly done. Just wanted to give it a shot. I didn't want to spend a ton of time on making it super detailed. You can definitely tell up close that the fuse block and ground bar are pictures. But from the normal viewing distance, a partially open door and stuck back in the corner, it will be one of those "oh, check that out" kinda effect. Which is what I'm basically looking for with this. ....the wires are about 24 gauge. Picked them up at Radio Shack a couple years back. The ground wires are 32 gauge brass wire I get at Hobby Lobby. The fuse block is 3 pieces of cut styrene sheet stock glued together. Made it to fit the cut out picture. The ground bar was made from 3/32 square stock sanded down to also fit the cut out. Once the blocks were made I drilled the hole for the wires. Then glued the blocks in place. Once they were dry I added the wires pretty much like the real thing. A bit time consuming but fun to try. I know that most panel boxes have a plate covering the wires but this one is going to be missing, or I might make one and set it on the floor like the panel is been worked on, we'll see.....

....thanks Tom, like you I worked at a factory that had a lot of old buildings, most of which were built in 1911, and were still being used when I retired. For some strange reason I just loved working in those old structures. My memories of that place are what inspired this dio. ....I had even thought about making a spiral stair case but opted for the more traditional one.

..spent the afternoon working on the service panel...... I"ll make the door and weather it a bit before it gets permanently installed..... ..just in case someone is interested in progress photos I did take some pics as I went along....let me know and I'll post them......

......spent a little time on the disconnect...next will be the service panel....

...desided to add a fuse box to go with the disconnect. Used a picture of the old box I took out of my garage a few months back for reference....I'm going to try and detail the inside of the box close to that..

...thanks Chuck and Brad...I made a mold for the steps and got 2 so far. A rough calculation is about 14 that will be needed. .....got the main disconnect box in white primer and did a mock-up......

......plan on added the electricl boxes and air lines to the rear wall before doing the beams and floor joists this time. Started on one of the main switch boxes..... ...feels really good to be back to work on this....more to come!

.....since there's an upper floor and I'm basically starting over I decided to add a stair case. It will be on the left side going up over the service door. It will be a "c" channeled metal with grated treads. Ordered the channel from Plastruct and I'm going to make my own treads.....

...finally got the dio off the shelf! I finished the over head piping and installed the rear I beams.

ya never know my friend, ya never know....lol