Thanks Pat... it's that old Chinese proverb, "May you live in interesting times." Sometimes "interesting" is good and sometimes it's not so good. I consider all the piping "good".
Continued working it all together today with the completion of the two pipes to and from the heater, painting the line from the blue tank and installing it, and finishing up with the steam line from the heater to the flare.
I had some interference with the bottoms line coming from the distillation column to the heater so instead of making everything askew I jumped the piping that was causing the problem. After fitting all this and making more pipe stands, I rattle-can sprayed the pipe with Tamiya Bare Metal. You can see the finished color in some later pictures.
I also laid in the last piece of the other line that went from the heater to the blue tank's pump. I did make a transition piece, but to go from the 3/16" tubing to the 1/8". I just chucked the piece in the lathe and tapered it with the compound set on a shallow angle. The tapered portion is at the lower left of the blue line. You can see the silver pipe now going from the still to the heater. I added another light pole here. I have one left for the ops building. The heater pipe will be painted light blue to match the piece coming out of the heater.
Here's the other end of the blue line.
Just for fun I placed my mobile crane into the scene. The cable isn't riding on the hook's pulley correctly so I couldn't extend the boom further. I bought this at York 2 years ago from DHS models. I'm a sucker for construction equipment models.
And another overhead shot showing current progress.
Believe it or not, there's only one more pipe to install which is being held up by waiting for the elbows to arrive. It's the flare pipe from the demethanizer to the flare manifold pipe and paint the whole deal yellow. I also have to create some kind of gas apparatus for the gas line to the flare. I'm thinking of a cabinet with the gas line coming from the ground into the cabinet and from the cabinet to the gas line on the flare. I'll have to cobble some gribblies to make it look technical. Lastly, I think the big red demethanizer needs a work platform next to it so workers can access those valves on top. I have stairs and railings left over and am getting some more H-beam to provide support. Onward and upward!
Tomorrow's the St. James art fair here in Louisville so refinery work will continue on Monday. Have a nice weekend.
