Wednesday Shop Time

 As you perhaps know, Wednesday is a busy day in the wood shop.  Often there are more people working there than on weekends.  Thus, many different projects can be worked on at once.  For details, of course, you should read the department blog.  I'm usually not able to be out on Wednesdays, so this was a treat.  The Wednesday crew has some new members who I met for the first time.  But there's always room for one more!

 

Today we started on mass production of third-rail beams for the 36.  Or at least this is what counts for mass production in my book: four at once.  These beams are big and heavy: 3 5/8 x 5 5/8", 66" long.  We can't easily get oak in that size, so each beam will be made of two pieces glued together.  Some of the pieces we bought were rough cut, so the first thing to do was to joint and plane them, then rip them to the correct height.  John Faulhaber helped me with these processes.  And Bob Kutella provided expert guidance all the way.

The finished product is seen here, stacked up in pairs as they will be glued.  The arrises are nice and sharp, like knives.  The pieces are almost ready to glue up, but for one step.  There's a slot through the beam at one point for the metal shaft that runs the sleet scraper.  It will probably be easiest to make this by dadoing the inside edge of each half before gluing them together.  Then there's no drilling or mortising to be done.  

I also did some more paint removal along the letterboard.  Better pictures should be coming along tomorrow.