I need help with Barber Chair Modification for a set piece

[ProfCoppersmith]

(I hope this is in the right forum, if its not: I'm sorry. Mods please correct me if I'm posting this in the wrong place. Thanks)

I'm working on a set piece for work that is based on a 1950's Takara Belmont Barber Chair. The problem is that it's leaking hydraulic fluid. It doesn't need to be functional, so I want to just drain it fully so I can get it cleaned up (preferably without making an even bigger mess in the prosses) and start turning it into a miniature navigation bridge for the set it goes on.

Any help would be awesome here. I've been trying to find info on this chair and have yet to find anything useful. No manuals or maintenance instructions. It may just be too old and obscure.

Thanks in advance! ^_^

 

[udog]

(I hope this is in the right forum, if its not: I'm sorry. Mods please correct me if I'm posting this in the wrong place. Thanks)

I'm working on a set piece for work that is based on a 1950's Takara Belmont Barber Chair. The problem is that it's leaking hydraulic fluid. It doesn't need to be functional, so I want to just drain it fully so I can get it cleaned up (preferably without making an even bigger mess in the prosses) and start turning it into a miniature navigation bridge for the set it goes on.

Any help would be awesome here. I've been trying to find info on this chair and have yet to find anything useful. No manuals or maintenance instructions. It may just be too old and obscure.

Thanks in advance! ^_^

Difficult without seeing it. There should be a drain plug somewhere. Where is the leak?

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Difficult without seeing it. There should be a drain plug somewhere. Where is the leak?

Leak seems to be towards the top of the pedestal/base of the seat. I can't see where it is directly. It leaks the most when I set it on it's side, from the assembly just beneath the seat platform. I did take a look under the pedestals skirt, as much as I could at least, and there's a large base cap, but no plug that I could see.

(I may end up just drilling a hole in the bottom end of the piston and letting it drain into a bucket. I have to have the whole set finished in about 3 weeks to stay on schedule. So I might have to do this quick and dirty. I'll update if I had to do so later tonight.)

Here's a picture of what it looked like before I stripped it down to the metal. (though it was in much worse condition from this image) again, it's a 1950's era Takara Belmont barbers chair.

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Ok, ended up drilling a hole in the botom of the piston. I couldn't find any valves or drain plugs, just one big cap on the bottom that wouldn't budge.
So it is now sitting atop three buckets, draining into a third for the weekend.

Thanks for the help anyway!

 

[ZeroSum]

Be sure to share some pics of the end result

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Be sure to share some pics of the end result

Definitely, though I may have to wait until we open the attraction. Have to see what my boss says. ^_^

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Bit of an update.
After I drilled the hole in the bottom... I realized that the round plate in the middle of the seat base was the cap to the piston. I feel rather silly now...

Otherwise, I have the whole thing stripped now, I get to start welding stuff to it now. ^_^

 

[Engywook]

Love to see an update and the finished piece?

 

[Snow Builder]

Me too!

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Sorry for the delay all. Things have been busy, since I’ve had to start taking hours at one of the stores we operate here too.
Anyway, here’s an updated picture, it’s in place and growing new additions still:

I'll try to post some more recent pictures Tuesday or Wednesday. ^_^

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Once again, I'm late with the promised update...
Things have been busy lately.

Anyway here's the update photos:

These are supposed to be catwalks. The wood ones are for general observation, the metal ones are maintenance. This whole set is covering some of the plumbing for the building (you can see some of it in the backgrounds of a few of the photos, and under the metal catwalks.) So parts of this are to disguise it as part of this submarine.

This is all still very much a work in progress, but I only have about 2 months left to finish, before we open the attraction.

I may have mentioned this already, but this is all so oddly sized because it's supposed to be owned/used by a gnome. Though the sub was made for human sized people, he modified it to work for him. So the original pilots chair was converted into his bridge, thus the use of the barbers chair. ^_^

 

[ZeroSum]

Damn, that's turned into a crazy looking contraption!

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Another update on the set ^_^

Some detail weathering I'm rather happy with, It's the mounting for some gauges I made:

On to the set itself, so far:

Some wear on the metal ladder.

The faom craft guages in place. Yes the depth gauge reads just under 20000 leagues

I'm working on the last bits now, doing some painting on the walls and some background details. I'll post some pictures once it's finished.

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Small update, I just finished some pressure doors to fill some space in the background of this set. They're made of pink/purple insolation foam, some pipe insolation, fun-noodle, a few wooden shims, hockey tape (I love that stuff). Coated in a fire retardant resin, and the welds made with calk. All painted with metallic spray paint and aged with burnt burnt sienna mixed with a little black and silver for the rust.

I know they aren't perfect, they were relatively quick and dirty. They will be placed in the unlit back corner of the set, so no one will see them closely, or well lit. Meant to imply that there is more to the submarine than what is visible, while filling empty space.

 

[drusselmeyer]

Any progress?

 

[ProfCoppersmith]

Any progress?

Sorry! I thought I had posted an update when I had finished. The attraction is now open, and the set is populated with it's characters (which I did not make). Here are the finished pictures (before they added the characters in)!

 

[Leinads]

Very cool!