I still have a little to do to my latest scratch build.Mainly by finishing the BOF down-comber pipe ,by connecting the pipes together.It wasn’t hard to build this type structure,I buddy of mine gave me schematics of a 1962 BOF.There was a lot of “imagineering” that went into this model.
The entire structure measures 4’ long X 4’ wide X 3’ high.Painted in gray spray paint,with indian ink & alcohol wash as weathering.The pipes are made from old plastic shelve pipes,with pressure bands and painted rust color.
Many machines are busy getting the next charge ready for the steel converter.In a firey blast of super sonic oxygen lance,the converter will come to life. At a temperature over 2800 degree,the molten steel & scrap metal arer melted.
Hope you steel mill fans enjoy the photos.This project took three weeks to complete.
That is awesome patrick! I was going to start building my open hearth soon, and it seemed big but your BOF dwarfs it. It actually covers more area than my layout. Please keep us posted on the progress on you layout.
Now I’m not a stel mill fan (yet… [;)]), but those shots make me want to get to know more about steel mill operations. That looks like it will be an amazing scene when you finish everything up.
Wow, that is an impressive buid. So, did you wipe out a plastic EverGreen display at the local hobby store to build that? How soon till you get into a layout? keep us updated.
I’ve been waiting to see you open hearth. I have plans in my head for a small open hearth beside the blast furnace.The furnace is going close to the wall,so figured on building half the open hearth structure to go next to the wall.Shoot I don’t even know what an open hearth looks like.Research time…lol. But really I’m more intrested in seeing your open hearth.
Patrick, your creation is something to behold. I think if someone were driving by it on the highway there’d be a high risk of driving off the road or running into the person ahead of you while you were staring at this leviathan.
It seems to have turned out well. I would like to see it in place.
Thanks for the kind words. Nope didn’t wipe out the evergreen display. As a matter of fact the whole build was stuff pulled out of the trash. I work for local county goverment,hence solid waste division.One of the perks of the job is all the scratch build things I find daily. The structure back bone is made out of corrugated plastic signs.The sheet metal siding was projection screen TV covering {looks just like HO scale sheet metal}.All of the piping was at one time plastic shelve pipe.
The project cost me about 40 bucks ,hot glue,staples ECT.
Oh BTW I love your locomotive fleet,great looking paint job. Looks mean as heck.
Patrick
Oh BTW I love your locomotive fleet,great looking paint job
When I read your post I almost tinkled laughing…lol. Funny you should mention driving down the road with it. A guy from the Yahoo steel group said I should take it to the next steel mill convetion.Thats what made me laugh,I think your right,someone would wreck.
Thanks Dan. I sure hope the whole layout turns out good. Now I can start on the walthers kits. Sheez really looking forward to building the blast furnace kit,heard its a bear to build.
The book is on Google book search which lets you look through whole books that are in the public domain. This book tells all about open hearths their construction and operations.
Geez Patrick, that thing’s huge - it even dwarfs the structures on Mike Rabbett’s layout!
I see you made your cowl-style roof vents, they look great - that end of the building reminds me of the BOF at Great Lakes Steel (now a subsidiary of US Steel) in Detroit, MI. (Wish I could find my photo of it from the 2003 sig meet, aaargh!! [banghead] )
I was hopeing you would be on the forum today. I own you a huge thank you for helping me start this build. Ken if it wasn’t for you I would have never have know were to start.Thank you for for the round about size refference using your BOF.
I’ve never seen Mike’s BOF. You have any pictures of it ? Sure would like to see his work.
Patrick, Mike doesn’t have a BOF on his layout (he models the 1940’s era); it’s just that all of his structures are non-compressed, the measurements scale exactly 1:87 to the dimensions on their original blueprints. (He does have the precursor to the BOF, however - a pair of bessemers.)
Nice work, Patrick. It’s nice to see steel mill related structures in a size approaching that of an actual scaled-down prototype. Sounds like Mike’s would be worthwhile seeing, too. [swg]
Thanks…the little bugger took about three months to build,not including the honey do list time. Today I built the flux house ,beside the conyeyor belt. Last night I installed clear LED lights inside the BOF and six outside above the door-ways.
Flipped on the switch and stood back in awe. Have to take another trip to wal-mart for more LED lights.
I plan on modeling the whole kit & cabootal. I figured on scratch building the largest structure first,just to get it out of the way. The rest are mostly walthers kits.
This is the run down on what I have in store for the mill.
The BOF…pretty much done.
The walthers blast furnace kit.
The walthers EAF
The walthers ore bridge crane.
The walthers rolling mill will be kit-bashed as part of the EAF.
The walthers coke oven kit.
The slag works ,using walthers glaicer gravel need to the dump pit.
The old walthers coal flood loader,for use with the slag works.
And a bunch more kits. I talked to a friend of mine today. He scratch built a working three fan industrial cooling stand. That will go next to the BOF. A caster building has been in the works for some time.just dunno where to put it as of yet.
