Deadwood Smelter


Some more of the shingles added today. The second shot gives an idea of what I will have to work with in setting the interior on this piece. Next up is going to be the upper portion of the main mill building.
 
Since I have started drawing my own plans from pictures I have had trouble with one detail. Trying to determine the length of walls when you don't have a straight on picture to work off of.. I noticed on this structure, you are working off of the type of picture I am talking about. Is there a formula for determining the length of walls or are you like me and just guesstimate?
 
Finished with the current shingling on this section, the last two courses were left off till the the wall sheathing is added to the upper section to give a tight joint.

As for preparing a plan from a skewed photo, I normally use a man to estimate heights and a door for lengths. After 30 plus years of doing it that way it has gotten easier. Any more I hardly ever draw out plans of projects, instead I just transfer diamensions directly to the material for the model. I keep the photos of the piece directly over my workbench and compare the look between the two constantly. There is a way working from a known height and lenght to draw exact plans from a skewed photo but unless you are doing plans for publication it is more work then it is worth.
 
Got the wall framing done for the upper main building. The hole over the doorway on the left side (last photo right next to were the sheathing stops) is where the diagonal pipe goes into the building, I did not cut the hole in the lower building roof yet and will wait to make sure that I have everything lined up before doing that.
 
Center ridge 6x14 was added today then the 2x8 rafters. After which the 1x12 sheathing was started on the upper main building.
 
Added more of the 1x12 sheathing. Began laying out the entire complex on its base which will be stacked layers of pink foam to keep the weight down.
 
Matt, how big is that whole complex going to be when you're done? It looks like it's going to be massive.
 
Jim the various buildings will cover 90' x 62', which in O scale makes them 22.5" long and 15.5" deep. That does not include any retaining walls, the trestle for the ore bin loading or the front loading dock. All in all a bit smaller then the stamp mill that I built last summer but still an impressive size.
 
Some more siding work, this is all being sheathed with 1x12's. There is no known photo of the back side of the smelter or for that matter the right side so all of the openings that I put in are based on what I thought "looked right". In the prototype photo there is a building behind the back wall with its own tall smoke stack, some captions on the photo seem to indicate that it is a separate smelter so I have not figured on attaching it to this complex.
 
Finished up with the wall sheathing along with the 1x6 nailers for the upper roof. It is amazing how strong this structure feels even though it does not weigh more then a few of ounces.
 
Doug I don't believe the Deadwood was rail served, to me it looks like wagons only. For the model I am adding a rail spur in front of the lower main building using the pair of doors/openings on that wall, with the siding below the floor level of the building. I am planning on using a retaining wall between the track and the floor level, originally was going to use stone but I have been thinking maybe wood would also work. As for plans for the Deadwood I do not know of any, I am using the single photo and scaling the buildings directly onto my jigs.

I am very impressed with your work.

Matt
 
Matt,
Thanks for the compliment. That goes both ways.
I'll be keeping an eye on your smelter for ideas.
I suppose the railroad brought the concentrated ore in to these smelters packed in sacks and delivered by boxcar.
I've seen pics of the Deadwood smelter with what looks like a water pipe protruding through the side and exiting down a wood water flume.
I've been to Deadwood a few time and guess that waste water all goes in the river running through town.
Doug
 
I would imagine that the waste water was just dumped, too much trouble to treat it at the time. Got the shingles finished on the lower roof and started on the upper roof.
 
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