Restoration of an 1897 railroad car. #3: Splicing an intermediate sill

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I’ve almost finished making the first replacement for the intermediate sill. We chose a splice used in shipbuilding. I am not opposed to using training wheels since the cuts need to be precise.
This is the layout

Now all I have to do cut along the lines!
First cut
The result

Next up is a cut parallel to first but not a full cut.
Just to keep my self respect the last cut was fee-handed. And it worked!

The other end just a rinse and repeat process. Once both ends were done we set it  on top of the broken beam and outlined the joints. Since the current beam was in place I had to free hand all the joints. This is the last cut but ran out of time. Tuesday is beer time and I have a responsibility to imbibe with friends!

To be continued next Wednesday.

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18 Comments

now i know it would cost more but wouldn't clear grain be a better choice ?

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Clear would be preferable Potz but the cost would be prohibitev.
All our timber stock is donated from local property owners. We get a very favorable rate from the mill for sawing and delivery. Finally, theses cars are too long to run on the right curves on our track so they are static displays.

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i hear ya, costs more than most hardwood here. what you have though looks pretty stable.

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Not too bad but I wish we could get kiln dried. At 20’ to 40’ I’m betting the price would be through the roof!

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Only way to do it is by hand saw? I'm sweating just thinking about those cuts by hand.
40ft, yeah bend over and bite the bullet..........hard !😬

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Corelz, Practice 😁

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Nice use of the training wheels, Kevin! I find that my first couple cuts of the day, I’m best with some sort of aid, and then once I’m warmed up, I can freehand a lot more reliably.

But to be honest, I have more fun working small than large. I’m currently working on ripping some 3/4 stock into 4+ pieces. Aiming for 1/8 thick when I’m done smoothing and such. Got an idea, but it’s going to take some pine and poplar practice before I try it with the fancy lumber.

May you have the day you deserve!

1/8”?
That takes chutzpah Dave, go for it and report back to the collective.

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Might be I’ll just cut the 3/4 into three quarters and then end up removing half in order to get them flat. Pretty sure I can do that. But I’d rather get 4 or 5 if I can. Bought the MicroMark drum sander for smoothing these little guys.

May you have the day you deserve!

What? Just use a rasp. 😏

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Good use of that joinery for making your tree longer!

(wood nerd alert)
I've been watching a series that features old (1700's) war ships. Spotted that joint used in the cross beams and just stared at it while all the pirates were fighting below.

Neat miter! Some inventor got tired of trying to clamp their miter box to the work and devised a "better way" 👍
Very interesting especially the miter saw
Great wood stretcher how to OF. More info on that training wheel set up? 
George, I’ll try to post something in the mitre box thread in the next few days.

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Very nice work! Love to see that mitre box, and orange clamps at work!

Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. - OldTools Archive -

Looks like you are getting to grips with this. Everything today is so much about being precise with setting up your machine or jig or cutter, it must be refreshing to have to have to do it using only traditional methods. 
The sheer scale of it is something to behold. You deserve that beer.
Thanks for the compliments folks.
I’m just having fun!

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