The Home Machinist!

I took one of our other members advise and purchased Baltic Birch Plywood. It did machine nice but left me with lots of sanding. In any event the project is coming together. I think in the future I may try the Azec PVC board. From what I have heard there is no tear out and no or little sanding.

Here are some progress photos

John B

John,

That is one serious looking caboose. The door looks like it was a success even if you did have to do some sanding. I have found that the Baltic Birch likes nice sharp tooling for best results with the thin veneer layers of wood.

The caboose almost begs for you to climb inside for a ride.

All the internal square corners required for the window openings and the panel openings can become a laborious event, especially in a smaller scale and when more of them are required. While not having a luxury item like a hollow chisel mortise machine in my shop, I am giving thought to a similar approach with my drill press. I am currently modifying a wood chisel to fit in the chuck of my drill press. With a keen diamond honed edge on the modified chisel, I hope to be able to take small cuts almost like a vertical shaper attachment on a Bridgeport and be able to create some real slick and easy internal square corners on some window face frames that have been rough cut. I have never seen where is says one can not install a chisel tool in a drill press and use it to chop some nice corners into a window frame. With a fence and some stops set up on the table, a nice straight edge and corners should be a slam dunk.

Please keep up informed on how you make the roof for this building effort.

Robert

It appears to me that there is a sliding door on that caboose. What was it there for?

Redneck

In longer versions of caboose the sliding door would be in what is called a "Drovers" car. Common on cattle trains to haul saddles and tack. This caboose is not a model of anything however it was based on the C&S short caboose. A fellow built this car in 5" scale, 15" ga. and that is where I got the idea to build it. I am planning on using it to carry my tools, extra water and fuel.

The roof will be exactly the same as the roof on the cupola. Lap seam lattice board covered with canvas. I use Sig "Stix-it" to glue the canvas down. BTW the cupola lifts off and all 4 doors operate.

John B.

For future reference, there is a corner notcher available, that I saw on some home handy show while building cabinets. It happens that I bought one from the little cutting tool section in Horror Fright for less than $5. It is near the cutoff and sanding discs and mini planes.

I have it in my tool drawer.... somewhere.

The idea of maybe putting a shank on this and using the drill press to chew the corner out and then rotate the bit for the next corner, is simply genious. That setup is inspired.

John,
Is this 1-1/2 or 1.6 or is it 2-1/2" scale?

It is 2 1/2" scale. I thought maybe it would look good behind the Shay.

John B.

It reminds me of the Lionel "large scale" caboose that company put out in the early 1990s when they decided to enter the G gauge market.

It reminds me of the Lionel "large scale" caboose that company put out in the early 1990s when they decided to enter the G gauge market

That may be where the idea came from for the 15" ga. builders.

John B.

FLSTEAM wrote:It is 2 1/2" scale. I thought maybe it would look good behind the Shay.

John B.

Nice work....I am sure it will look great behind the Shay!

I do a lot of cnc woodwork and when I get a piece that is giving me some fuzz on the cuts I use a sanding mop from these guys for my cleanup. I use mostly the 320 grit for the cleanup. Russ



http://www.stockroomsupply.ca/shop/sand ... 220-1.html