Washago coaling plant--step 3

On your base, lay out lines denoting the inside and outside of the foundation walls. Dimensions are shown in the photograph (the 17'-0" applies in both directions, and the wall thickness is 2'-0" all around). The outside lines are 1'-3" in from the edges of the footings on the large square. The rectangular portion to the right is the footing for the conveyor, the foundation for which we will pour separately.

As you can see, I was a little over-zealous with a palm sander on my plywood base. But as mentioned before, this portion of the structure will be buried underground. For our purposes, it is a flat base upon which the foundation walls rest, and a floor for the receiving hopper and conveyor house.

With this illustration in front of us, it's a good time to speak of alternate means of construction. In a small scale such as N, pouring hydrocal would be impossible for small components. You may choose to cast the base as a solid block. Or, regardless of scale, you may opt to use styrene, wood, illustration board or some other medium and avoid casting altogether. If that is your situation, you will find in these instructions the required information to take that route (you may have to read ahead a couple of steps).

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