#3 Blast Furnace "Megan" Dust Collector

I'm not starting on the blast furnaces.  Really.  I don't have room to store them, and the bench work for the mill isn't constructed yet. But one of the first products I drew up for the Steel Mill Modelers Supply product line was Pug Mill kit.  Complete with a gate valve and Rotary Valve for feeding the Pug.  That being said, I had taken the Dust Collector from the furnace kit that had been "assembled" but a former, and well meaning, club member, and taken it apart.  I cleaned all the CA cement off of it, and fitted it together. It was a pain, as the parts were ill fitting and warped.  But, none the less, I got it together.  After some sanding and filling, I used it as a model for fitting the pug mill kit.

So, the fixed and sanded dust collector sat on my modeling table for months.  After Train Fest, I started thinking that I should have some display models for taking to shows that had my parts integrated into them.  And the dust collector kept calling my name to build it. Even though I had resigned that I wouldn't start on the furnaces for at least a year or more.  And we're back to the dust collector nagging me, sitting there on my table neglected.  The modeling examples of my parts won out.  I decided I could take it to shows with me until I built the furnaces, and sit in a box in between. So, I build it.  Since the dust collector needed to be slightly higher with the pug mill kit installed (even with cutting the little funnel off the bottom of it), I decided to go hog wild and build the entire support structure new.  This entailed drawing up column footers as well.  I'm told that this style wasn't used pre-WWII. And that's fine, as this dust collector will be used on #3 Furnace (Megan), which would have been built in the '50's.  Whereas #1 and #2 Furnaces (Martha and Wendy) were built in the 1920's.  It will show the growth in the mill with the economic boom following WWII.

Once the basic superstructure was done, I mounted the pug mill kit.

I want to point out these Tichy Rivet Plates are something I didn't know Tichy made.  I discovered them in their well thought out display at Train Fest. I had to make 8 of these small ones for the Benzol Plant. I spent probably an hour making 8 of them all the same.  And even then, no rivet detail.  These are $3.50 for 60 of them!!  I'll never make these again. And there are other sizes.  the small and medium ones are great for these X braces, that are all over a mill and heavy industry structures.  I don't think it takes more than about 10 minutes or so, maybe less, to make one X now. 

Next came the caged ladder, again from Tichy, and the railings.

I added a Water Control Cabinet that I also product. I'm not sure you'd need this for something as simple as a pug mill, but I added it anyway.  It's a nice detail.  All I have to add now is a section of rail, the hose from the bottom of the pug mill to fill rail cars, and the water line and it's ready for paint. The whole project was about 4 or 5 evenings of work at 2 hours an evening average.  And fun to do.