Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Tears dried. Water tower repaired.

The last job was to repair the cotton thread that connects the spout to its counterweight on the right. The thread had frayed and was in two pieces: one half was still attached to the counterweight, and the other was tied to the spout. I suspect it was cut by a sharp edge in the upper support bar. I thought the easiest course of action was to restring the counterweight through the upper support bar hole, and then glue the two halves of thread back together.

First, that upper support bar had to be carefully pried off so the counterweight thread could be inserted through the back. Once done, some Weld Bond was smeared on the two thread ends and they were glued together. It sounds like a tricky repair, but it turned out to be easier than I thought.

Once the thread bond had dried, I reattached the upper support bar with some glue, and that was that. 



2 comments:

  1. A handsome structure. Glad to hear the pain and suffering have eased!

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    1. Thanks! My guess is that if this was the water tower from his EVRR layout, and not the tower from the backwoods engine terminal diorama, it's close to 65 years old. Even if it did come from the diorama, it would be around 55. It's in surprisingly good condition, so I was distressed to see that breakage, and am now glad it's a thing of the past :-)

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