Smoke Stack "Hats"


CoolRuehle

Member
I have a two-stall engine house made by Heljan. It has a total of four smoke stack on it, presumably for some wood or coal burning heaters that are against the walls.

I need some of those conical "hats" that cover the tops of the smoke stacks. These "hats" need to be about 7/16ths of an inch in diameter, and maybe about 3/16" tall (dimensions are approximate).

They look like this:


cone-top-cap-300x221.png



They do not need to be "see thru" like these. I would settle for just a conical piece of plastic or whatever to glue to the top of the open stack.

I have tried cutting circles out of heavy aluminum foil, paper, and coke can aluminum, slitting a radius in it and overlapping the cut radii to create a cone. The aluminum foil is too lightweight, as is paper, and deforms before the cone can be created. Aluminum can material is too heavy to work with.

I would welcome any ideas on how to create these smoke stack covers, or use something that is "outside of the box" that I have not thought of. You know, something from the hardware store, Wal-mart, etc.

Thanks!
 
Stack caps

I have been making smaller caps using old model sprues and plastic rods. I sharpen to a point then cut it off and glue to the stack.
 
How about using a hole punch, like you use for ring binder files, to punch out circles from plastic sheet, then slit and glue those for the cones.
Ron
 
I have been making smaller caps using old model sprues and plastic rods. I sharpen to a point then cut it off and glue to the stack.

I had thought about taking a countersunk screw head like this

KVS.JPG


and chucking it into my drill press, then filing the head off of the shank in a pointy sort of manner.
 
How about using a hole punch, like you use for ring binder files, to punch out circles from plastic sheet, then slit and glue those for the cones.
Ron

I tired this with heavy aluminum foil, aluminum can, and paper. It's just too small to handle.
 
I see that, they definitely work.

Questions:

1. What are they made out of?

2. How did you make them?

These were done over 20 years ago. They were made out of Evergreen styrene sheets of different thicknesses. The base was from thicker stock, while the stack and cap were out of extremely thin sheet. The stack material was wrapped around a pencil and cut so the edges could be glued together to form an almost invisible seam when painted. The cap was also cut from extremely thin styrene. and also glued together. The straps were fron scrap brass strips and super glued on. Then wire was used for the cables to support it to the roof. Didn't have as much available back then as we do nor. If you couldn't find what you needed in the limited market back then, you built it from scratch. The paint covered up a lot of my sloppyness.
 



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