Part 12.

I decided to leave planking the deck and making the bulwarks until later, my main reason is ease of positioning equipment when I have clear sight through the deck beams, this turned out to be a really good idea.

Back to the steam engine. The following steam engine issues happened over a number of years, not necessarily in order with building of the hull as presented in these articles.

To recap from part 2; first run showed that it took a very very long time to raise steam and once it did raise steam the engine didn’t run for long before the pressure dropped.

I only ran the engine three times before I had large leaks mainly between the cylinder port and distribution block faces, the leaks being so big the engine wouldn’t run properly!

I wasn’t sure why I was having these problems, I thought I had made the engine as accurately as I could.
I pulled the engine apart and found that the distribution block now had slop in the bearing for the cylinder pivot.

I was puzzled that this should occur with so little running time, at that point I thought either the pivot pin or bearing hole wasn’t square to there respective face.
I couldn’t understand how this could happen, but I couldn’t think of any other reasons either.
So I set up the cylinder in a 4 jaw independent chuck, not easy to do, then took a skim off the face, then repeat again for the other cylinder.

Next I setup the distribution block on a face plate and bored the bearing hole out this would ensure an absolutely perpendicular hole, then made a bronze bush and pushed it in.

I reassembled the engine with high hopes only to have a similar result after a few runs, I had huge leaks again, I started to think this steam thing might not be for me.

Then while I was exhibiting my partly built drifter at a model boat show at the Queenscliff Maritime Museum in Queenscliff a bay side township in Victoria, Australia, I met a guy who had built 2 of the same engines that I had.
While talking he asked me how my engine was going and I told him not so good.
He told me that one of his engines ran beautifully while the other was terrible like mine.

He then proceeded to tell me how he over came the problem also saying he would send me some photos of his modification, photos eventually arrived of his floating cylinder retaining device ( I don’t really know what to call it ).

I proceeded to copy his modification along with another modification on the cylinder faces to under cut between the pivot pin and steam port, reducing surface area.

Then for the second time I set the distribution block on a face plate and bored the pivot hole out this time for DU Glacier bushes.

I re-assembled the engine then put it aside, with the hope those problems were fixed.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 11.
I got a bit excited and posted more photos than than were required in the last post, mainly referring to deck beams.

So here is the discription.

I made up a cardboard template for the deck beam camber and using some Kari pine made up a batch of deck beams.

Using my newly acquired Byrnes Table saw I cut and fitted the beams placing them in reference to major deck openings.

The width of deck beams is close to scale, though the number is not correct. Depth of these beams is not to scale due to a desire to stiffen up the removable structure.

Then my focus turned to how I was going to attach the removable section and how I was going to secure it.

What I came up with was a system of cams and push rods, having 4 sliding pins on each side for a total of 8 pins.

To achieve this required a lot of components, once again taking a lot longer than first thought.
The main motivation for this design was my distaste for removing 6 to 8 screws each time I wanted to remove the top section, I wanted to just turn 2 screws and then be able to remove the top section.

You may ask why so many pins, in my opinion the top section is not a stable structure by it self, if it is not held in place properly it will move out of shape over time, hence all the pins to hold it in place.

When I was making the components, in the back of my head was if any of this fails removal will be difficult in the extreme. With this in mind all rotating elements had bushings.
Pivots for linkages on the pins were “riveted” using a watch makers staking set to ensure no pivot falls out.

Locating pins were also fitted to ensure alignment when putting the top on, hopefully eliminating possible damage to planking when replacing the top section.

The inside was given a couple of coats of epoxy resin. I am happy to say that very little epoxy ran through to the other side as there were not many gaps in the planking.

I then installed the pin guides and sockets, not relying on an adhesive alone I used small brass wood screws to mechanically fix the components.

I started with the pin guides mounting then to the removable section.
Then aligning the sockets using a tight fitting pin together with a spacer between the two I initially glued the sockets in position with Milliput once set I screwed them in just to be sure.

Thanks for looking in.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 10.

After planking had been finished came removal from the building board then removing all the former's from inside the hull, and at last time to separate the upper and lower parts of the hull (that’s if I hadn’t accidentally glued them together).

I used small wedges to force the parts apart and to my relief after some initial reluctance to move with a pop the two parts started to separate.

I continued carefully prising the two parts apart taking my time to ensure I didn’t damage anything.

I would have to say that I was very happy with my effort so far, I quite like the lines on this hull.

I used a rasp and sandpaper on a stick to carefully trim down to the sheer line.

I put the hull back on the building board temporally using a couple of former's to hold it in position this was so I could make and fit the “sand band”.

The sand band on the real thing was a “D” section made of mild steel.
After looking around I couldn’t find any brass “D” section the right size so I decided to make my own from brass strip shaped into a “D” section.

After contemplating how I could do this I came up with attaching the strip to a flat board with double sided tape.

Then using a file and sand paper producing the required shape.

After bending to shape the sand band was glued with Titebond 3 and pinned using brass pins.

I did some experiments gluing brass to wood using Titebond 3 with great results it adhered very well, I scratched up the brass before gluing with coarse sand paper, then chemically cleaned using thinner or isopropyl alcohol to remove any contaminates.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 9a.

Making of tree nails/pins using a draw plate.

I do not profess to be an expert on making tree nails, my experience so far is fairly limited.

This is simply the way I do it.

Firstly the material; I use bamboo I have red that fine grained hardwood such as Boxwood can be used. I have no experience outside of Bamboo.

The Bamboo that I use is either satay skewers or tooth picks. Satay skewers being preferred due to their length.
In my opinion there is a difference in grain density between different packs a tighter grain being preferable.
A pack of skewers will provide a very large amount of pins therefore quite economical.

Using a sharp knife I split the skewer down into strips a little bit bigger than the end size, easier said than done. I tend to have a fairly high reject rate until I have got my “hand in” so to speak.

Once I have some material ready I sharpen one end and feed it through a suitably large hole in the draw plate. The draw plate being held in a vice preferably.
Grabbing it with pliers and pulling all the way through, then using the next smaller hole in the draw plate until I reach the required size.
Until I have done a few I have a fairly high breakage rate winding up with a much shorter piece than I started out with, again practice makes perfect or so they say….

I have 2 draw plates on is home made from gauge plate hardened and tempered the cutting side being surface ground, that is what I did because I have access to the equipment, it is not entirely necessary to do that.
A home made draw plate can be made from spring steel or other steels the down side is fresh holes will need to be drilled once the original holes become blunt.
The other draw plate was bought from Byrnes Model Machines who make some lovely equipment, there are probably other draw plates available from other manufactures.

Here is a photo of my draw plates.
In use the side opposite to the countersink is the cutting edge.

I hope this is of help.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 9.

Some more planking photos….. I hope you enjoy them.

When it came to fitting the rubbing and bilge strakes I tapered the respective planks which are thicker than the rest of the planking material, before fitting them I felt that I would make a mess of it if I tried tapering them once fitted.

Planking around the stern I found to be the trickiest especially around the prop shaft. In one of those regrettable moments of “she will be right” and take the easy rout I will just make up a couple of wedge shaped planks to fill a hole, instead of making a proper “stealer”.
Later on I did go to the trouble of making a better “stealer” this can be seen in a couple of the photos.

When I got to the last plank ( quite a mile stone event ) I was very happy and relived that there were no large adjustments to be made.
I doubt anyone would be able to find it without referring to a photo first.

Somewhere in the 2 or 3 years that planking took me to do, I showed the model at a few shows.

One show in particular at Queenscliff maritime museum in Victoria Australia. I ran into a guy Les Lauder he had built 2 engines to the same design as I did, he told me that one of them ran beautifully without problems while the other had similar problems to mine.

He told me that he had fixed this problem by using a floating frame to push the cylinders onto the valve face. He very kindly sent me some photos of his modified engine.

This mention of steam engine problems and other steam related issues will be covered in the future.

Updates will slow considerably now that the pre-written stuff is depleted, also I work full time.

There is still quite a bit to catch up to the latest work.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 8.

Planks are made of Huon pine, rubbing strakes being thicker than the normal planks, all to a scale thickness.
This wood has a unique aroma, I my opinion quite a pleasant smell it seems to permeate the workshop when sawing/sanding.

Planks were made in pairs being temporarily glued together using a Glue stick.

First the planking material would have a straight and square face planned on using a jack plane, then the width marks would be marked at each frame along with the overall length.

Next rough cut on a scroll saw finishing to the line with rasp and sand paper making sure the edge remained square, in the end it became a process and I got faster and better as I progressed.

I would go out to my workshop on a week night after dinner for an hour or so and from memory I could make steam then fix two pair of planks in a week.
I planked from the keel and deck edge meeting in the middle.
Planks were made and attached in pairs, when needed they were steamed, waiting a few days after steaming then glued, drilled and having bamboo tree nails knocked in.
The tree nails are a lot bigger than scale mainly to improve strength and seeing that the hull will be painted you probably wont see them.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 7.

Returning to completing work on the removable section once that was done I could start on planking.

After adding some keel doublers, fairing the frame’s checking progress with a fairing batten until I was happy that my planking would sit flat on the frame’s and into the rabbet.

From Tree to Sea tells me that LT 100 had 22 strakes on each side of the hull. Following Harold Underhill’s instructions to work out the run of planks I ran 3 temporary battens starting around mid ships on the turn of the bulge on each side of the hull to divide it into 4 areas, the other two battens halving the area left.

The objective is to get these battens to sit flat on the frame doing this without bending up or down pull them around the hull so they sit nicely, a fair bit of fiddling around is required, adjusting looking from different angles until you are happy with there appearance, then walk away for a while come back and check again!

I ended up changing the run of these battens several times, ending up using a red pencil to mark the final run because there were too many pencil marks! Once these 4 areas had been marked out accurate measurements were taken along the circumference of the frames.

Two of the areas would have 6 strakes each, with the other two areas having 5 strakes. Proportional dividers were used to divide these areas to give the plank width at each frame.

Before going any farther a “butt diagram” was worked out to find where the plank ends would fall, as it turned out this was a very handy thing to have.

I made a plank holding clamp that made it easier for me to hold and trim down planks.

I also made a steaming apparatus, an old electric kettle being the steam source a length of galvanised down pipe with a “T” put into it at one end and a piece of mesh bent to form a shelf for planks to lay on while being steamed.

I intended to plank this model in a fashion similar to the real boat, for the most part I think I have achieved this.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks to all those who have commented, liked and are following my build.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 6.

Before I had finished fitting off these little pieces for the removable section I reached a point where I needed a break from this work.

I decided to make the working Port and Starboard navigation lights, these were made from brass, perspex and wood.

Brass parts being machined to shape in the lathe and milled then silver soldered together to form the light housing.

Perspex was turned to shape polished then cut into segments to form the lens and fitted into the housing.

Backing boards were made of Huon pine glued together. Next came mounting pieces, I machined some brass bar into angle for mounting to the galley side, then bent some brass wire to shape, more parts were made to enable my working lights to look prototypical, while still operating.

I think these lights used either calcium carbide pellets in the light fitting or acetylene piped to the light from a central generator.

Though I think it more likely they were self contained therefore having no leads running to the light, this makes things a little more difficult when making them working.

What I came up with was to connect positive to one of the movable arms and negative to the other insulating each arm where required with small black nylon bushes and running very small wire to the LED, all being well I will have navigation lights that can be swung out into there working position or left stowed being turned on and off by an RC switch.

On reflection I am not 100 percent happy with the light housing or lens they may get scrapped, at a minimum the lenses will be painted the appropriate colour inside.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 5

At this point a change was decided on, I was no longer happy about trying to remove the larger steam plant through a deck cut out, remember the rash decision a while back!

Firstly I would need to cut the deck as there was no way my steam plant with cradle/frame was going to fit through the wheel house opening, secondly I would need to un-rig then re-rig the mizzen mast shrouds every time I steamed, or reposition the shrouds on the mizzen mast for easy removal of wheel house.

So what to do, in the end I chose to remove the entire deck and bulwarks with a small part of the hull all in one assembly, thus enabling correct rigging of mizzen mast, another benefit is all details are removed in one assembly that can be placed safely away from big thumbs, enabling un-restricted access for maintenance of steam plant.

Now to bring this idea to reality, this is probably a very good example of what not to do, as I probably couldn’t have picked a worse type of hull construction, by using bent frame method. There were two main points in considering what to do.

One was to camouflage any join lines, my hope being that when the model is on dry land it will be hard to tell it’s a working model.

Secondly to have a watertight seal along the join line, I decided to go with a fairly basic coaming with the possibility of including a flexible seal running in the bottom.

Firstly I studied the plans to find a suitable location for a join line, the best location was under the lower edge of the rubbing strake, hopefully the thicker rubbing strake will help to hide most of this line.

In the end I felt it was not possible to have an uninterrupted line therefore there is a point when the line forward raises one strake giving a broken line, then after marking some new lines on the plans, a couple of problems arose when trying to make this happen, one being an inability to remove the midsection pine former's once stringers, bent frames and planking were installed, this was overcome by making removable sections in the required former’s.

The former’s forward and aft could slide along to clear their respective cut outs before being removed, another problem was, at this point I struggled to figure out how to plank the stern, I couldn’t see how I could plank on my original pine former’s while having a parting line, in the end a pair of horizontal “frames” were my solution to this problem.

I next marked cut-outs on the pine former’s and cut them, then refitting all former’s back on the building board with the frames and carefully marking then cutting at the point of separation with a Japanese pull saw.

I carefully fitted Sellotape or Tamiya masking tape around any areas where I didn’t want things to be glued, yes the glue doesn’t stick to Sellotape or Tamiya tape I tested that! Spruce stringers were next fitted one continuous stringer at the shear/deck line, other stringers were short filler pieces between frames then using the off cut frame pieces carefully fitted in between, all very very tedious work.

Cheers,
Stephen.