#006 02 Four Way Cotton Gin - Rust Bucket

How to Use Archer Etchant by Alaska's Wisest Man

I am about to build the cotton gin, and Darryl Huffman's post on using Archer Etchant is brilliant...

I started using this stuff decades ago and love it.

I keep one of my small plastic drawers in my parts cabinet labelled ETCHANT
and I use it for nothing else.

When I am done with the etchant, I wash the drawer out and put it back in
it's place.

I know you should use gloves and glasses with this stuff but I never have.

But I do spread out newspaper under the little tray as this stuff platters
everywhere.

I have one tip for newcomers.

Pour some of the etching into a plastic tray so that it is about 1/4 inch to
3/8 inch deep.

If you are using Campbell's Corrugated Siding, cut the siding into the right
sizes and put one piece into your tray containing the etchant and go away
for 15 minutes.

When you get back the piece of siding will be completely dissolved.

But, by doing this, you speed up the action of the etchant.

And, as you continue using it, it works faster and faster.

In addition to just sticking the sheets of siding into the etchant, you
should also try spraying one side of the siding with gray primer first.

Let it dry and then put the siding into the etchant.

With just a little bit of practice, you will be able to turn out great
looking, weathered siding in no time at all.

After removing the siding from the etchant, I just drop it into a bowl of
water.

So people recommend adding some baking soda to the water first but I have
never found a need to do that.

I let all the pieces sit in the water for about 30 minutes and then spread
them out on a paper towel to dry.

The stuff I did 30 years ago still looks great.

I demonstrate my methods on my Easy Weathering DVD:

http://darrylhuffman.50megs.com/custom3.html

Darryl Huffman
12020 Old Seward Highway
Anchorage, AK 99515
dlhuffman@alaska.com

#005 02 Four Way Cotton Gin - Photos of Homer Cotton Gin

My wife has a cold and is still very pregnant.  About six weeks left to go.  So, she through my daughter an me out of the house.  Oh goody!  Time for a spontaneous trip to Homer, Georgia!  Its only about 30 minutes north of me.  More on Homer, GA in my Model Railroader's Notebook as I hit a gold mine when I went there.  I promised Popsicle Rick that I'd take him, but we left before Church was over.  We'll go back, for sure!

Click on Photos to Enlarge

The cotton gin sits on the side of the road just like the old timer at the gas station told me, between spits of tobacco and lookin' at me funny.  Naturally there is a !@$#^% telephone pole in front.

The cars on the front loading dock are quite amusing.  Since this is a used car lot and that I'm known to be shot at, I kept my distance and shot with a telephoto lens from the Post Office across the street.

The large vent pipe is still in place and most of the building is in great shape.  While I didn't get to go in, it is obvious that some of the machinery is still inside.  It is quite large compared to other gins I've seen.

Continental Ginning Systems were quite common at one time in the south.

This is a rough looking shot, but you can see the unloading machinery still in place.

Amidst the junk you can make out the really worn looking cotton storage building, still connected by a seed pipe.

There is a road behind the building but I still couldn't get a clear shot of the gin.  Here is the back of the cotton storage building which is outside braced and very interesting.

Here is the back side of the gin and the seed pipe going to the storage building.

This building is also on the property but I'm not sure if it is part of the gin or not.  It has a very long overhang on the roof which leads me to believe that it is.

Yes, this is the one that I'll build and I'll get started on the drawings right away.  It is much easier to build a prototype that you can go see again if you need to.

I shot over 150 photos of the building, many of them detail shots.  Let me know if you want to build your own and I'll send you the photos.  They will come in handy when I begin drawing.

#004 02 Four Way Cotton Gin - Changed my Mind

Actually, I'm going back to the wood sided prototype, the Augusta Gin.

Really, I like the look of the wood sided gin.  This one is old so the wood would have been nice and silver-gray by 1945 if it was standing at all.  There is no information that I can find on this mill so I'll build it as a freelanced model and use what I can from this one photograph.

Here is the plan overview with the rough dimensions that I was able to decipher.  Not a hard structure to  build, but will take some time.  Just what I needed for the SER convention, though I probably won't be able to make it with the new baby.  Maybe I'll send it by courier.

One change that I'll make is that the cotton storage shed will have a railside loading dock.  I don't want to put the nice side of the gin toward the back so I'm not sure how it will look yet.

Here is the warehouse, which is slightly enlarged from the above drawing.

 

It is a simple structure, building on wood blocks to keep it off the ground.  Identical on both sides unless I put in a rail side dock.  I've shrunk it down a bit for the space I have.

#003 02 Four Way Cotton Gin - Burton's Cotton Gin - Texas

Here is the prototype or at least one of the prototypes that I'll use for the gin.

Gin Picture


The Burton Cotton Gin


This is a historical landmark and there are tons of photos of this magnificent place.  The angles on the roof are VERY interesting and it invites your eye to walk around.

They have a FAQ about cotton processing.

I've got a Powerpoint on the gin and a ton of photos in the file.  I'll print these and start drawing.  It's a very interesting building.

#002 02 Four Way Cotton Gin - Hell's Bales

Its funny, but the size and shape of a bale of cotton has not changed much since the 20's.  It's still 500 lbs and 33" wide at the "bulge".

Here is a link to the dimension.
 http://www.cotton.org/tech/bale/bale-description.cfm

I'm going to need a lot of bales of cotton.  I figure somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 or more.  They will be needed for the gin, for the dock, for loads in cars and some for the mill.  Maybe a few others here and there.

For this many we'll need to mass produce them.  Probably resin or hyrdocal castings.

Model Tech Studios has some, but they don't look very real.
http://www.modeltechstudios.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=768&lastcatid=6&step=4

Cotton bale dimensions are 500 lbs, 55 inches long, 20 inches wide, 33 inches or less thick.

Bale pictures...

Also!

I forgot to check Model Railroader Magazine but E. L. Moore actually did an article on building a ginnery.  I ordered a copy of the plans from the NMRA Kalmbach Library today, so I should have it by Friday.  They are VERY good!
http://www.carendt.us/microplans/pages/switches0/oper/index.html

#001 02 Four Way Cotton Gin - Scratchbuilding Project

 

Click on Picture to Enlarge

I finally found the prototype for the cotton gin!  Someone gave me a really neat book called "From Abbeville to Zebulon: Early Post Card Views of Georgia".  Normally I'd have just shoved this one on the shelf.  But this book contains the best collection of structure and railroad pictures I've every seen for Southern modeling.  In its pages I've found a southern rail car manufacturing plant, the Hebard Cypress Saw Mill, and this fantastic cotton gin.  Yes, I'm building this one.  Notice the rail car on the right.

Here are a few more sent in by readers...

#1 Armstrong and Dobbs Cotton Gin on Oconee St., Athens ca. 1912-1918  Note railcar.

#2 "The Quitman Oil Co's Long and Short Cotton Binnery", Boston, Ga. Thomas County ca. 1897-1898. Note the ventilated railcar on the side.

#3 Arnold Mill Rd., north Fulton County 1920.  A new steam engine just installed to power mill.