I am modeling the interior of a paper mill. I need advice and parts. Can you suggest locations for castings and kits that are suitible? Have any of you tried it? What have you learned?
I have toured a paper mill (no photos were allowed) and there are tons of videos on YouTube showing the process and the interiors of various types of mills. Making bond paper looks different than making cardboard or kraftpaper or newsprint of course.
The overwhelming impression is that the mill is filled with machines, mostly big ones, everything looks "busy" and intricate and dangerous, and there are large rolls of paper which I suppose could be modeled from spools of paper meant for cash registers or credit card readers that stores have.
I am not aware of any models offered that are specific to paper mills. I have had some luck cobbling together vaguely "industrial" looking models using the interior stuff taken from things like dental floss containers, deoderant containers, and the like, as well as kits for HO scale amusement park rides, military models, MiJack cranes,and so on, just so it looks busy and intricate. That plastic for floss containers and deoderant containers takes cements and paints different than our modeling plastics do by the way but it can be done. Dean Freytag's Cyclopedia of Industrial Modeling is mostly about the steel industry but he gives good ideas about how found stuff such as old toys and parts of other models can be adapted. The point is less perhaps to be accurate than to capture that busy, intricate "feel" of such an industry, with appropriate clutter and weathering, with the main point being the rolls of paper. And then there are the things common to any industry: railings, lights, lockers, shelves, tool bins. Model Tech Studios has some of that stuff
http://modeltechstudios.com/hoscaleindustrialandtracksidedetails.aspx
Dave Nelson
What is inside is dependent on the type of paper being produced as well as width of rolls and linear feet on a roll. One thing is certain, in nearly all cases the odor in a paper mill would gag a maggot. Absolutely the worst smell of all plants I have ever been in including garbage separation.
Sulfur dioxide bleaching?
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
ndbprr What is inside is dependent on the type of paper being produced as well as width of rolls and linear feet on a roll. One thing is certain, in nearly all cases the odor in a paper mill would gag a maggot. Absolutely the worst smell of all plants I have ever been in including garbage separation.
You are exactly right I will give you that one. The resort I grew up on was 34 miles south of International Falls. Boise Cascade the main employment of the town. The smell very foul when we went into town. On certain given days you could smell it 34 miles away on the lake when the wind was right or maybe not so right.
It's funny how you live there long enough you get used to the smell and it wasn't so bad after a while. Almost a welcoming expected smell when you get into town.
I remember my dad saying it's kind of like a fart. It stinks but it is'nt like bad pollution that will hurt you.
It would be important to State what era you want to model when it comes to paper mills.
BE&K came into International Falls and automated Boise Cascade.
Many jobs were lost and hit the town really hard.
Old school paper mills were very different than modern robotic paper mills.
Which era paper mill would you like to model.
ericsp Sulfur dioxide bleaching?
No soup for you indeed funny stuff thanks for the laugh
ARTHILLCan you suggest locations for castings and kits that are suitible?
It occurred to me while looking at some of the reversing mill stands I made recently for my steel rolling mill that these rolls might be a good starting point for a kit-bash type paper mill?
https://www.walthers.com/reversing-mill-stand-ashland-iron-steel-kit?ref=1
Sure, they are heavy-duty for rolling steel but it isn't too far of a stretch to adapt them for use in your paper mill. The off-feed tables are banks of rollers similar to what might be part of a paper-making operation. Perhaps you could mount them one above the other and have paper threaded through them?
Perhaps similar to the second-to-last photo in this article...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_machine
Hope that helps,
Ed
Here is a start with a Google search for paper mill machines.
http://tinyurl.com/y8rkf45g
I use to live in Holyoke, Ma which got the nick name paper city as it had about twenty six paper plants at one time. Many types of paper, cardboard, etc, were produced.
Some years ago I visited the Holyoke library for info about paper plants. Many photos were from older plants.
A cardboard box plant in Northampton, about four miles from where I live and serviced by trailer trucks and the Pan Am Railway. Boxcars are moved into the building for loading and unloading.
I retired from a paper company in Holyoke back in 2006.
The last company that use to make the paper machines, rollers for paper plants just closed.
I saw a couple interiors many years ago. They were crude and smelly. So was the Connecticut river.
Lots of steam is required for paper plants. You will need some kind of power plant depending on the size of the mill and lots of water.
The first set of rolls are steam heated.
A canal system was used for powering the mills many years ago until steam power engines and electricity took over.
No doubt yours must be modern.
No idea on how much detail you will want but the Google images should give you lots of ideas.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
About 3 years ago, the wife and I took our grandson on a tour of the "Flambeau River Papers" mill at Park Falls, WI.
Amazing watching a slurry turn into paper. Everything, from the vats to the machinery, was big, and noisy.
The bleaching process, for handling the recycled products, and pulp, was in a totally seperate building, and not part of the tour.
There are plans to add a bio-mass power plant to the facilities.
I go along with the Google search of paper mill equipment. Lots of pictures.
Mike.
My You Tube
A Lockwood's Directory of Paper and Allied trades (annual print) might be a useful source for the specific types of machines you are looking to model. Some years also have paper production and load consumption data for 24hr periods and if the plant was rail served or not.
ndbprr One thing is certain, in nearly all cases the odor in a paper mill would gag a maggot. Absolutely the worst smell of all plants I have ever been in including garbage separation.
One thing is certain, in nearly all cases the odor in a paper mill would gag a maggot. Absolutely the worst smell of all plants I have ever been in including garbage separation.
The exceptions you noted ("nearly all cases") would be recycled paper mills. These used various grades of recycled paper and OCC (old corriguated container) as the raw material for new paper products ranging from writing paper to paperboard (that's what's at the back of your legal pad). There is no complex chemical process because the base material has already been reduced from wood chips to paper fiber. The raw material usually is in bales of OCC and newsprint, often delivered in boxcars.
Jim
Celotex paper mill in Perth Amboy, NJ back in the 70's and 80's. Lots and lots of very large paper rolls spinning during the process. Two men in the offices given desk jobs when they lost an arm in those rollers.
A friend used different sized spools from sewing thread to model those rollers. With painting and trimming, looked very good. Used some kind of shipping tape to imitate the paper going from roller to roller.
Good luck.
ndbprr...... in nearly all cases the odor in a paper mill would gag a maggot. Absolutely the worst smell of all plants I have ever been in including garbage separation.
JimL ndbprr ...... in nearly all cases the odor in a paper mill would gag a maggot. Absolutely the worst smell of all plants I have ever been in including garbage separation. I guess you've never been in a leather tannery.
ndbprr ...... in nearly all cases the odor in a paper mill would gag a maggot. Absolutely the worst smell of all plants I have ever been in including garbage separation.
I guess you've never been in a leather tannery.
I've spent 43 years designing municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants. The worst smelling wastewater by far was a walnut veneer plant. The stream bath used to soften the logs smelled like pure 100% vomit. Second worst is sugar beet refinery - closest thing to burnt flesh I can think of. A sugar beet refinery would make a great model railroad industry with its great variety of inbound and outbound traffic - just don't model the smell!