plastic & wood furniture

[railroader9731]

i was wondering if any one would know what type of chemicals that would be used to make ither of the two?? thanks a lot.

[eightyeightfan1]

Confused?????
I'm guessing you want to know, what kind of frieght cars would be used for hauling chemicals to make plastic and wood furniture.

Plastic funiture would only require a couple of plastic pellet cars. Walthers did make a standard 62' version of this a few years back. It probably would also be a good idea to pick a Walthers Plastic Transfer facility so you could use the silos. Plastic pellets also come in huge cardboard bins, so maybe a boxcar or two.

As far as wood furniture, maybe a couple of tank cars to haul glues and stains.
Wood could be delivered on centerbeam flats or even boxcars.

A dust collector for the sawdust, straddling the tracks so a gondola could be spotted under it, would make also another neat detail.
I hope this is what you're looking for

[railroader9731]

close but i should have said such as acids or other types of chemical. none the less your ideas will become of some use.

[Russ Bellinis]

I doubt if there would be any acid or other types of chemicals involved in either plastic or wood furniture. Wood furniture would involve wood, stains, and finishes. It isn't really anything that you could not buy at your local home improvement store except that a high end furniture manufacturer would be using hardwoods rather than Douglas fir or pine. A low end furniture manufacturer would use particle board and vinyl wrap, which would entail glues but not a whole lot different from the tank cars binging in stains, finishes, and glues for high end furniture. If I'm not mistaken, plastic furniture is made by filling a mold with plastic pellets and using enough heat to melt the pellets to fill the form, or else they melt the plastic pellets first and pour them into the form. They would use a wax of some sort or talc for a mold release agent.

Of course, if you are modeling in the modern era, the only furniture plants left in this country are some of the high end hardwood plants in the Southeast. Virtually everything else is made in China!

[logicman]

If it helps, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) is used in the antiques and restoration trades. Some firms use large tanks to strip and bleach old windows, doors and large furniture items.

In general, as far as I know, the only acids used in the wood trades are at the mild end of the range: acetic acid, citric acid as bleaches, picric acid as a caesin resin hardener. Most acids actually damage wood, as e.g. gallic acid, which causes stains around iron fixings. Strangely, gallic acid can be modified chemically to produce a stain inhibitor.