Spout Installation

It took two attempts – the first with epoxy, and the second with CA – to get the spout and frame mounted on the base. The epoxy didn’t work out because even with help from my darling wife, I wasn’t able to clamp it where I wanted it. With CA, I could hold it by […]

Ball Float

The water tower received a brass ball float and mast. The ball will indicate the water level in the tank, and I will animate it to lower when the valve is open and slowly return to the top of the mast when the valve is closed.

Water tower Spout frame v2

After the experiments a few weeks ago, I thought it was just a matter of attaching the water tower spout and its frame to the base and hooking it all up to the final model. Unfortunately, there is a surprising amount of complexity in the “attach the spout frame to the base” part of the […]

Water tower base gets sheathed

The weather was perfect this weekend for model railroading. Which is to say it was dismal for almost anything else. So, after a quick trip to Intercity Trains and Hobbies in the Far East, where I saw many old friends, I sat down with a clutch of sticks, a few tiny scraps of plastic and […]

Breaking the Water Tower

The water tower will be a nuisance to fix if it ever breaks, and so, I decided to find out when that will be. While The Boy is off at university, he doesn’t mind if I raid his Lego supply for some experimental apparatus, and I soon found the battery pack and motor I was […]

Water Tower Mechanism Base

I cut the mechanism base from 1/8″ plywood. And it went together exactly as planned. If you can think for enough ahead by to design all the holes, the laser can save all sorts of time on changing drill bits. I think I have all I need, with the exception of the speaker. Installing and […]

Water Tower Test Prints

Is anyone ever happy with the first sample they print? I’m calling these test prints, but in fact they’re semi-failed prints. In the case of the base, I forgot to change one dimension of the legs. So, when I tried fitting a piece of 10×10 sugar pine against them, there was no relief left for […]

Invasion of a New Hobby

Like just about every other hobby, with the possible exception of needlecraft, the electronics hobby is a subset of model railroading. I’m new to this part of the hobby, but fortunately I waited long enough that amazingly complex projects are within reach of people with nothing more than a winning attitude and access to the […]

Tight Quarters for Water Tower Drive

I had thought, or maybe hoped, that that the water tower was going to line up to the left (north) of the joist. However, there is some rule about joists, that places them exactly where they are least convenient, and when rulers and pencils got involved, it emerged that the best place for the water […]

Serendipity at Wakefield

I’m in Ontario attending some training right now, and had a little free time to pop up to Ottawa on the weekend to visit my mum. Being naturally adventurous and used to going on research field trips, she quickly agreed to join me for a trip to the end of the line at Wakefield QC […]