MT-500 Engine Lathe build thread

Rscobie

This series of build threads will document my building of the O Scale Machine Shop machinery now available from Sierra West. These series of kits are the old Charles Brommer series, also known as CHB, and as I have already mentioned, they are simply fantastic. I purchased the complete machine shop set, MT-CMP. It has all the machinery, 7 in all, vertical boiler, single cylinder mill engine, resin detail set and a spiral bound instruction booklet.


The outside of the MT-CMP box.


The inside of the MT-CMP box
The box contains the instruction booklet, the traditional poly bags with strip wood etc and two smaller boxes, one with the machinery and the other with the detail set.


Here are all the machinery kits.

Here is a glimpse at the detail set.


Here are the rest of the contents of the box. All well organized in the typical Sierra West style that we have come to expect.

Next up. Beginning work on the lathe!

Rscobie

The first thing that I did was inspect the parts for the lathe. I looked for flash and mold lines and I was amazed at how little there was. These are very finely cast components. I made a copy of the diagram that calls out all the parts so that I wouldn’t have to be turning pages back and forth constantly.

Lathe parts cleaned and ready to be identified.
I also made up a work surface that had double faced tape on it with numbered spaces for the parts that weren’t quite so obvious. It took me awhile, looking at the pictures online and on the diagram, to accurately identify all the pieces. Some of the gears look very similar as do the handles. Once I figured out what number they were on the diagram I just stuck them to their appropriate spot on my work surface. There are also a number of small holes that need to be drilled. I went ahead and did all the drilling and fitting.

I then dipped each of the metal parts in Blacken It.



I then followed Brett’s direction of buffing the metal pieces with a felt wheel in my Dremel. This worked well and gave the metal a great patina.
Next step, beginning assembly.

Rscobie

The next step is to begin assembly by gluing the cabinet legs to the bed and then gluing the major parts like the headstock, feed box, carriage and tailstock to the bed. Once these are in place you are ready to paint.





I brush painted the assembly with Floquil Depot Olive.


Next step, assembling the headstock.

Rscobie

When the paint is dry, the next step is to assemble the headstock and its assorted pulleys and gears.






Next step, quadrant gear assembly.

Rscobie

Assembling the quadrant gear assembly was fairly tedious but worth it. Everything fits like a glove. All the gears mesh perfectly.





Next step, levers and cranks for the carriage apron.

Rscobie

More tediousness.


Next step, weathering.

Rscobie

Before you add the finishing parts to the lathe Brett suggests going ahead and using chalks to weather your lathe. I followed his recommendations and used some Rembrandt brand artists chalks. I used the colors Burnt Umber, Gold Ochre and Raw Umber. I dusted a bunch of each color all over the lathe and then blew it off for each color. I repeated that process a number of times and then once it looked nice and dusty and mottled I started to “bathe” the lathe with my dark A&I stain. I made sure to not let the stain puddle up or leave brush marks or unnatural patterns. I worked outside in the sun so the wash would dry quickly. I would then add more in areas that I wanted to emphasize all the while adding chalk when I thought that would look good. I did this until I thought the results looked good.

I went ahead and polished up the cone pulley to look shiny along with the handles.

Next step, final assembly.

Rscobie

After the weathering, there are just a few more items to be added such as levers and the chuck. Once I had attached those I went ahead and added some chalk and or A&I wash to tone down and blend in the final additions so that everything looked consistent.
Here are my final “glamour shots” of the finished lathe:









On to the 36” Vertical Drill!

pratoa

Rscobie,
Your lathe looks great. I like the coloring a lot. Also, the way you placed the parts on a numbered piece of paper is a wonderful idea. Did you have any problems drilling/reaming holes in the small metal pieces? That's where I've had problems. Look forward to seeing the rest of your machinery builds.
Tony

Karl.A

You are so much more organized than I am, the numbering/tape is a great idea. One that I will definately use when I build my set.

As many of these items that I have seen, (ALOT), I am always amazed at how intricate and detailed they are, it blows me away every time.

The lathe really came out superbly and the weathering is worn but not worn out, really nice work. Superb.

Karl.A

Rscobie

Thanks for the kind words Tony. The biggest challenge I had with the drilling was in making sure that I was drilling the holes nice and straight. I will address how I handled that in a later build. Stay tuned.
Karl, thank you for the compliment. I am a very big fan of your modeling!

Wes

Just fantastic stuff. You've done a great job on this and Im sure you will continue this through to the next one.

brownbr

Very nice build. The gears mesh up so closely it almost looks like it is a working model. The dirty/dusty appearance gives the look of a machine in a busy shop. I think a light drybrushing would bring out the ridges and corners. And if you really want to go crazy think about some grease/lube spots and runs around the moving parts. It looks like you did something like this behind the gears in photo 8 of your most recent post and above the long screw looking thing in the first pic prior to polishing the wheels and IA treatment.

MikeM

After you installed the cone pulley was it removable or rotatable? I'm curious how you buffed the portion at the bottom which looks like it would otherwise be unreachable. Abrasive strips ala sanding sticks?

Rscobie

Thanks Wes.
Bryan, you are right about the gears meshing. The tolerances on these kits are nothing short of amazing!
Mike, the cone pulley was rotatable so that is how I polished it...but as you will see as I go along with these builds, sometimes I polished the cone pulleys more than others.

Bill

Rscobie-
Very nice looking lathe. I think you've captured that dirty machine shop look in a convincing way.
Bryan had a good suggestion with a little dry brushing. I'd try a light tan or a medium gray--just not pure white. A real small amount of paint just at those raised edges and you'll see a lot of definition and depth as a result.

Hope you don't mind one more: go to the craft store and get a little container of silver stencil paint. It looks like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Metallic-STENCIL-PAINT-Creme-1-2-oz-METALLIC-SILVER-/190689697575#vi-content

The stuff is real thick (I think the one above even calls it a "creme"). Take a tightly wound Q-tip or a make-up sponge and dab it into the silver creme, then gently touch it to the teeth of all the gears. It gives you a cool metal on metal "wear" effect where the gears rub together and really makes them pop. I used the same stuff on my machinery--very easy and effective.

Plus, if you take a blob of that stuff and let it dry out completely, it's made up of TINY metallic particles that you'll be able to add to the floor to look like metal shavings.

Keep up the good work!
Bill

brownbr

Bill, I wonder how the stencil paint would compare to some of the Valejo metalic paints. I'd also be interested to see how graphite might look on these gears or some of the new metalic powder from AK.

Bill

Bryan-
The reason I like the stencil paint for something like this is that it's so thick. It's going to go exactly where you put it. You get a lot of control and It's very forgiving in that respect. Funny you mentioned graphite...I've got a tube downstairs that I'd planned on using for wear marks on the deck of an Erie crane. I bet it would work on the gears, but I'd be sure to apply it before the mechanism is assembled so you can better control where and how much gets applied.

admin

What a fantastic build... beautiful work! I am excited to have your build threads here on the SW forum. Thanks for that! I can't wait for the rest of the machinery!

srankin6

great job and the pictures were nice and crisp......can't wait to start mine.

scott