Part 18.

Testing of steam plant!!

I started testing and rectifying problems and it still continues, both my feed pumps decided they didn't want to work after sitting for quite a while, I discovered that both of the inlet check valves (3mm  balls) were sticking / jamming in their housings so I changed them to 1/8" balls problem fixed.

Unfortunately it does my head in when I run into problems, in my head it should just work!!!
This is something that is improving as I get older, I am now less likely to throw my hands in the air so to speak.

Then on testing for gas leaks using compressed air I found that the gas regulator I bought didn't have the output fitting soldered on properly and was leaking quite a bit, I have now soft soldered the leak.

Then the output from my gas shutoff valve would not seal and after many headaches later I made a new output fitting machined off most of the old on then soft soldered the new one on problem fixed, looks like the guy in quality inspection was asleep on the job.

As testing progressed the gas metering and shutoff valve's work a treat. I didn't find out there was a problem with the gas shutoff output until I lit the burner and after a minute I had flames where I didn't want flames. This was quite alarming though all was under control after flicking the switch on the transmitter that closes the shut off valve.

A few days later things didn't improve much when I tried to run the steam plant  (I went out with the expectation everything would work, this being the main problem) and nothing seemed to work apart from feed pumps and gas valves that is.
I tried lighting the new burner that was now in it’s correct place for the first time and it would not run when inside the generator ( I have probably made the flue diameter too small, I did think of a temporary fan to induce a draft through the generator, though I didn’t try it ) when I got it to run by removing the bush that centralises it in the generator it didn't seem to do much. Not happy!!!

I went inside for a while to settle down and start to think about what had happened.

I thought I would try the old Cheddar steam burner ( I had made up pipe work to try it anyway) what a difference things started to happen, I discovered that I had filled the entire system with water including the engine which I think sort of hydraulic’ed and locked up I had hot water coming out all over the place and not much else happening.

I was ready to give the whole thing up and either buy a commercial steam engine or just put an electric motor in and be done with it. To say I felt dejected would be an understatement.
I went back inside again. I even had a look at a beautiful Martin Baylis Engineering twin slide valve engine, I hate to think how much one of those is….

Once I started to rationalise the whole thing I started to calm down, I decided that next morning I would run the engine on compressed air first  to prove that it would run.

So next morning I hooked compressed air up to my engine and it ran, I found that the main leaks were from the forward/reverse valve, I removed it then pulled it apart flattened both faces reassembled and ran with compressed air, the engine seemed to run well.

I changed the feed pump curve on the transmitter and halving the feed pump max speed to reduce water flow.

I tried running the plant again and to my joy it ran, still pumping too much water though. It has run several times now still reducing the amount of feed water.

There is still more to do on the plant, like adding temperature sensors to monitor steam temperature and maybe ambient inside temperature.

I did a couple of short videos of the plant starting and running, copy these links into your browser and hopefully they will work!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nNLcLTmSRDOMlJ7Jjs0bv1l5hN-iuO1K/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WGQriB00oJrtE_C3jLLSrfDeEt_Yn7T8/view

Thanks for looking in and Happy New Year to all the crew at Model Boats Website.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 19.
With things settling down in the engine room, and having run my plant several times without any real drama I started looking at what next.

Early in this project I decided that a forced ventilation system would be something I would try, seeing I don’t like the idea of letting convection move the hot air out of a fairly enclosed area.

To make this happen I wanted to fit a fan at either end of the boat with one in the bows pushing outside air in and the other pulling air out, or maybe pushing air in creating a combined flow up the funnel, ventilators and any other opening.

Luckily there is a hooded companionway in the bows under neath which I can hide a fan.

With the rail back in the hull, I worked out the fan’s location on the deck then made a card board representation of the companionway opening.

All of this work was made a lot easier due to there only being deck beams, therefore I could clearly see where things could go.

A cardboard mock up was made of the duct that would connect the fan to the deck beams.

Then once the shape was settled these shapes were transferred to ply wood cut out and glued together. The whole assembly including fan is easily removable.

I then made a stand to sit the rail on when out of the model, while designing this I decided to make it multi purpose, one other use being to keep the lower hull and upper hull separated for unplugging a multi pin plug another use being to display the model.

In the removable deck section there is a bit of wiring that in my opinion needed to be done now while there is easy vision and access. Wiring is needed for lighting, power to a voltage multiplier to run the 2 fans at up to 24 volts, for 2 servos to control the mizzen sail one servo hopefully to raise and lower the other for sail trimming.

All of this going through a multi pin plug, the plug I bought is only an audio plug but seeing that I think there will only be about 1 amp running through any one of the pins at any one time I think it should do the job.

With the rail in there is not a lot of room for much else, funny how it has filled up with equipment considering I thought there was plenty of room in the beginning.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks for looking in.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 20.

I turned my attention to deck planking and did some experiments with regard to the caulking.
I have not planked a deck before though I have read plenty of great articles on this site and in books.

In Ted Frosts book From Tree to Sea when it comes to deck caulking he says that the caulking was not scraped after being applied, just left in an uneven way to be worn off by the crew as they walked on it, he also says that the deck wasn’t planed only the high spots removed, making a comment that “it is a working boat not a pleasure yacht”.

With this information I though that a slightly in-perfect deck would be more realistic.

In my first experiments I used black paper of varying weights this worked well though a little to consistent for what I was looking for.

These experiments were done whilst Melbourne was in one of it’s hard Covid 19 lock downs during 2020, therefore I used what was to hand.

I am not saying that this is an original idea though I don’t recall hearing of it being done like this before so after some thought I tried mixing artists oil paint with Titebond 3 glue, this took far too long to dry.

I then tried artists acrylic Gouache a thick acrylic and Tamiya acrylic mixed with Titebond 3 (separately that is), this worked alright but was too runny so I tried adding a filler, in this case West Systems 406 because I had some in stock, I also tried Micro Balloons however they didn’t mix in all that well, the West Systems 406 mixed in nicely.

Doing some more experiments, I found that adding a spacer between the planks was even better, an unexpected bonus is that once dry the joint has some flexibility.

I settled on a mixture of Titebond 3 with Matisse, Mars Black, flow, artists acrylic and West Systems 406.

The best thing is that I have a lot of control over how neat or messy the caulking is, my hope is to leave areas where I am guessing that the crew wouldn’t normally walk in a messy condition, that’s the plan time will tell how it works out….

I have also played around with weathering the deck, still more to be done on that.
I did find out that you cannot leave steel wool in vinegar for to long as it goes a rusty colour.

Before I can start planking the deck I need to make up the planks, I have a couple of blocks of Huon Pine that are awaiting being turned into sawdust and planks.

The next thing I looked at were what Ted Frost calls Binn Irons or Bend Irons there are 3 of these on each side of the hull, mounted one on each of the top 3 strakes. Giving some protection to the hull.

I couldn’t find a commercial Brass 1/8” “D” section so I thought I would try making some, this would need to be machined from 1/8” diameter Brass rod.

I know from previous experience that machining long thin material in a conventional setup, for example holding in a vice or clamping at either end is not possible made worse by the material I wanted to hold being round and of small diameter.

I pondered on this problem for a while and came up with an idea of making a jig to feed the material through with a milling cutter around midway to remove half of the material therefore round bar in one end and “D” section out the other.

This jig is basically a piece of mild steel with a hole drilled right through, the diameter of the material with a slight amount of clearance to allow the material to slide through easily, then around the middle milling a pocket to the desired depth for the milling cutter to do it’s work, then on the output side I drilled and tapped a hole for a screw adjusted to stabilise the “D” section as it comes through.

I tentatively started machining and was surprised how quickly I was able to manufacture all the “D” section material I required.
SAFETY WARNING: This sort of setup is not without it’s risks there is potential risk of personal injury or damage to the cutter.

This post brings my build up to date, the glacial speed that I progress at will be more evident from now on.

I am currently working on a router table now that my long awaited Incra jig has arrived this is taking up my hobby time at present.

Thanks for looking in, for all the likes and all those that are following, I do really appreciate them and hopefully you will remain following once the pace of posts slows dramatically.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 21.

Hello once again, at last some more progress, yes the Glacier has moved.

After making the material in the last part.

I had decided to fit the “Binn irons” before starting work on the bulwarks and deck planking thinking it would be easier to to in this order.

At the time the idea of making Brass “D” section for the “Binn Irons” seemed like a good one, it fitted in with the overall build, though I would have to admit to not really thinking it through, as I found out it takes a long time and a lot of work to do this in metal.

After making the “D” section material I noticed there was quite a twist in it and that it was quite “springy” making it difficult to bend to shape leading me to anneal the brass this improved things a lot.

I straightened the “D” section as best as I could.

Then using the drilling jig drilled a series of holes for brass pins, getting the right size hole took a bit of fiddling a light press fit was what I was aiming for.

I made lots of pins by hand, sharpening one end with a file, 2 different lengths were made, this was a good after work job not requiring much thought.

The “Binn irons” were roughly shaped by hand to get them close to the hull shape before starting to fit them, they were cleaned with thinner then etch primed just using a brush instead of spraying.

Once that was done I installed the pins so they are flush with the flat side of the “D”.

Next came the hard part, final installation with glue and pins what could go wrong!!!

The biggest difficulty being getting a “fair” run when looking along the length of the boat this problem I didn’t really solve, there is a slight wobble when sighted along the length of the boat, all a bit late to rectify once pinned and glued in position.

I resisted the urge to remove the “Binn iron” and try again fearing that I would do more damage than good, at present I am running with the thought “it adds character” the error only being seen when sighting down the length of the hull.

Thank you for looking in and my apologies for such a lengthy gap between posts, although this is more like the pace this build progresses at.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 22.

Making up material for deck planking, stanchions and covering boards.

I had a couple of blocks of Huon pine that I hoped would at least be enough for making the deck planking material, although I had real concerns whether there would be enough material.

To help reassure me there was enough material I went to the trouble of drawing the blocks in CAD to work out the best way to cut out and how many planks I might get, in the end I was quite confidant there was enough, time to start cutting, well not quite more like time to get some straight, flat and square edges, this I did with a jack plane.

After truing I starting off using an 8” table saw with the Incra jig added, I cut the blocks into pieces that could be managed on the router table and Byrnes table saw.

First use of my new router table was to straighten and re square the freshly cut strips.

I used packing pieces when straightening on the router, then sizing the strips.

Next step was to rip down into smaller strips, using my Vernier caliper to set the fence allowing for the 1.5 mm thickness of blade, I found this method quite accurate.

Lastly changing blade and re-cutting using a ·5 mm thick slitting saw, it is this blade that saved a lot of waste and meant there was more than enough material for deck planks and stanchions.

Back over to the Router Table to trim down the width of planks, thickness was good then the stanchions to the trimmed all round.

Next came the covering boards, most of this material was already cut but over size only needing to be reduced to the right thickness.

In the end after a few days work a lot of sawdust I had enough material to start the next phase.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Starting work on Covering Boards and Stanchions.

Spacing of Stanchions is one of the considerations up next, in Ted Frosts book From Tree to Sea he states and I quote, that Stanchion spacing is around 3 feet according to timber or frame spacing, except abreast of the foremast and aft for about one-quarter of the ships length they would be about half that spacing.

All good so far, then I go and check the plans to find that the forward part is to scale as described yet the aft part has Stanchion spacing of around 2 scale feet.

I am not sure which one to follow unfortunately I don’t have drawings for a fully framed hull so I cannot know if frame spacing altered aft of the wheelhouse, part of me says to stick to the drawings while in some ways I prefer to go with Teds description, if anyone has some constructive comments feel free to comment.

My plan at the moment is to cut all the covering boards, (I will have to make a decision about stanchion spacing soon all being well I won’t get bogged down on this spacing issue).

After the covering boards are cut and temporally fitted a yet to be built jig will (all being well) help with drilling a pin hole for attaching the stanchions, yes the stanchions are to be pinned in place.

While yet another jig will drill a pin hole into the stanchions.

No doubt all this careful cutting and fitting will take time.

Time to start cutting some wood.

I have made a start on the covering boards anyway.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Not much progress, a bit more work on the first covering board.
I am viewing this first board as a learning experience.

Trimming the board to the center line.

Then temporarily pinning in place with .7mm brass wire.

I made a couple of very simple jigs to show where the outer edge of the stanchions will sit and help keep the stanchion parallel to the outer hull shape.

Before I go further I will make a jig for drilling into the upper hull.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Making the jig, making the steel bush first.

Using some pine I had lying around, trouble was when I pushed the steel bush into it the end broke out, so I made another one out of plywood.

With the jig temporarily secured using double sided tape and using the “deck planking jig” to find the angle I used an edge finder to fix my position.

Photos show the original jig.
Then centre drilled.
Then spot faced.
Finally drilled.
I drilled and tapped M4 for an adjusting screw and lock nut.

Then the jig in use.
Transferred the pin locations then drilled for the first Knights head.

For the “graining” I have used Rustins Walnut stain I only had the Walnut and Red Mahogany, Rustins are my preferred brand.

I think the Walnut looks good it shows the grain nicely with the Huon Pine.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Both Knightheads temporally fitted.

Drilling pin holes for Stanchions, I was having trouble keeping the drill from not moving the jig when I turned it on, this problem was reduced by using a foot switch instead of the switch on the drill.

The first of the Stanchions and Knightheads temporally fitted, at this point I am very happy with progress, using the jigs I have made.

I have roughed out the covering board, using a scroll saw.

Fitting the covering board.

I made a filler piece to give the first two covering boards and deck planks somewhere to rest on.

So far so good. 😀
Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Covering boards and Stanchions continued, I am generally very happy with the way the covering boards and stanchions are going, though not without some problems.

I ended up using the mill to drill a hole in each stanchion allowing some easy hole position adjustment.
I put some double sided tape onto a bit of scrap to help with positioning the stanchion in the vice, this made the whole putting a stanchion in the vice an easy task.

After the success of the first batch of covering board and stanchions I guess I got a bit excited and ripped into the 2nd batch and somehow the hole positions went a bit haywire, what I mean is the distance from the top strake to the hole centre was changing, I am able to get around this by altering the stanchion hole position, easily done because I am drilling the holes in my mill, still it’s not ideal.

The next day that I went out to my workshop I discovered it is easy to misinterpret what my little measuring jig is saying this is due to it’s short legs that can rock easily, so with the benefit of hindsight I should have waited to install the “Binn Irons” then the jig legs could have been longer reducing any tendency to rock, “O” well live and learn.

I proceeded with a lot more caution for the 3rd covering board batch.
I made up some custom sanding blocks for finishing the notches in the covering boards. Using double sided sticky tape (in my opinion an indispensable thing to have in any workshop) to stick some sandpaper to a block of wood.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.