Monday, December 10, 2012

Almost missing the obvious

Work progressed well this weekend on the Aylmer coaling plant.
The silos are attached to the leg structure, the sub-roof is in place and the trickiest bit, the angled connections between the silos and the legs was attached and filled with putty.






In my head, as work was progressing, I was going over how I was going to determine the actual shape of the the sloped bits that go from the leg frames to the silos. I knew they were going to be ellipses. I knew that the slope was 45 degrees. I know how to draw an ellipse once the lengths of the major and minor axis are known. It's a bit of a pain. Involves pins and string and virgin sacrifice, etc.
And then it dawned on me. Take the ABS drain pipe, cut it on the chop saw to the desired angle and the final shape is given.




Place this on the sheet styrene and trace.





Ta Da!
They fit the first time.
 I'm very pleased with how this is shaping up.

2 comments:

Jeffrey P. Smith said...

I'm curious about the design of the Aylmer coaling plant since at first glance it appears to be a two-bin version of the one at Fire River but the "sloped bits" are different. At Washago, South River, Fire River, etc. the platform supporting the bins is flat. Was the Aylmer design adopted to reduce the amount of concrete required?

Pierre Oliver said...

Jeffery,
I have no idea.
If I had to guess I'd say it was sloped to help shed water and thus eliminate damage.