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Fire Monitors Part 1

The white metal items supplied are OK but really don‘t lend themselves to being working items. Graham93 has already completed a version which looks just like the drawing and photos available, and are the best I’ve seen. The bar has been set so here goes, whenever an item like this is been contemplated it’s always good to spend some time in planning a sequence of operations and assessing the problem area’s at the start of the work and if possible dealing with these parts first. Failure of the difficult process doesn’t mean you have wasted work on other parts that are now scrap. I think the most difficult and problematic piece is the pipework that sits at the top and curves round in two halves, this in reality is a casting, however replicating it can be done using brass pipe. Brass pipe can be purchased in annealed form; however my stock wasn’t so the first job was to anneal the tube. Heating to a dull red heat and allowed to cool, this treatment will soften the metal completely. In some books it is suggested that the brass should be quenched in water (which is what I do) after heating but this is to speed up the commercial process, and quenching has no effect on the annealing process. So tube annealed we need some method of retaining its tubular form during bending, in plumbing I use a spring but when you compare wall thickness/dia a spring would have to be mighty strong and so small. An easy alternative is to crimp one end of the tube and put some soldering flux down the tube, follow this by heating with a low temperature blow torch to melt solder and fill the tube, then allow to cool. You now have a soft tube which when bent will hold its shape. That’s the next challenge, the shape, and being able to replicate it twice, so an easy jig is required. Having marked out a scrap piece of hardwood I cut the “U” shape using the band saw and filled a groove along the top edge, this was then placed under my drill press with the appropriate dia bar (this must be calculated accurately as it helps to create the final form) on top of the tube, then just pull gently down (it takes very little force) this jig leave a small amount to finish bend to a complete a circle, the excess length is trimmed off and then I used a piece of hard wood with a small radius on the end to tap the final curve. Next the circle needs to be cut into two pieces I used a small slitting saw in the milling machine. Now it’s time to remove the solder, simply heat up holding in plyers and then shake vigorously to expel the solder. (Make sure you do this on your own and wear safety glasses.) The white metal “main pillar fitting” and the monitors final “exit pipe” will be used in the unit and all that is required is to mount them in the lathe and drill a 4mm hole through each and up the casting. Next I cut 4 pieces of 4mm brass pipe; these will form the main water passage. Two more machine turned items are the “pivot post top” that feeds water through the 2 brass pipes into the “junction block” which then feeds into the exit pipe, sounds all very simple? Having made all the components, it’s time to think about fastening them all together. First items to be joined are the “upstand pipe” to the “pivot post top” X 2 also the “feed to exit pipe” and the “junction block” X 2, these four joints are all to be silver soldered. I mounted them in a piece of wood and placed a tight spring brass ring around the upright pipe to stop then sliding down when heated. Having the joints spotlessly is paramount, the flux is added, I insert very small pieces of silver solder into the holes at the top cross holes (less is more) a gentle heat, and watch as the flux goes “glassy”, this is closely followed by the solder melting, watching at the lowest point of the joint for the tell-tale shinny liquid metal. No fettling is required so the 4 parts are dipped for 45 minutes in masonry brick er (dilute hydrochloric acid) the parts are now and ready for the next soldering activity. See part 2

5 years ago by mturpin013

Response

Re: SEAPLANE TENDER TANK TEST 2

Could do Martin but it's something I might only use once a year, and the drums are hard to find and expensive (I got mine while working at Toyota - 20yrs- as they were used for floor er). Took me a few years to save 5! I do have 4 of those big blue drums hooked up to the down pipe and interconnected. They fill up and overflow through a loop to the stormwater pipe and I use those for the garden in summer, as it gets pretty dry where I am. The 'tank' I made is just a 4x4 frame and a small $4 tarp, which can be just folded up, and the frame stood up by the shed. Only has about 4" of water at present which I'll release into the blue barrel under the deck. JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Work with Balsa wood

"I have repurposed a cheap Argos steam er works admirably " Now why didn't I think of that!?🙄 Somewhere in the cellar I have what was called here a "Dampf Ente" Steam Duck! Must dig it out and have a quack at it 😁 OK OK I was just leaving anyway! (Slopes off to the cellar to go duck hunting😉) Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Work with Balsa wood

I have repurposed a cheap Argos steam er works admirably

5 years ago by GSNMeyer

Response

Re: Evolution

"Even had to make my own vacuum forming machine/device and heater just to make the canopy" Hi John, Any chance of some build instructions? Especially the heater! A vacform box is something I've been considering. Got enough powerful vacuum ers kicking about in the cellar😁 What do you use to make the forms? Put it in a Build Blog or even perhaps 'General Resources'. (Was he perchance the CO of Colonel Sanders?😂) Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

40'' Seaplane Tender, new build M

Prop shafts positions are set up and shafts ready to epoxy in. Have made the brass coil motor cooling tubes and just for fun (and a bit of an experiment) closed circuit heat exchanger so I can use it in salt water, Probably not really necessary but why not,? real boats have them!. The body is part of an alloy bicycle pump and the core is copper tube soldered into 1/2" copper water pipe, crushed down in the vice onto 4"nails to make spaces for the small copper tube to solder into. End piece is a blanking plug for Buteline polybutene house water pipe ground down to a tight press fit in the open end of the pump tube. Exchanger internals look a bit rough but you don't see them. All sealed in with auto gasket silicone. Motor coils are made of brass tube (can't buy 1m lengths of copper tube from the hobby shop any more, as I found out while doing my 60km round trip) so went with brass. Annealed the brass and wound it tightly round a vacuum er tube which was 10mm smaller in diam than the motor. Once wound they were unwound slightly as they were fitted/screwed onto the motors, giving a good tight fit. Also made the oiler tubes for the shafts which will have a reservoir tank connected. The heat exchanger will have its own pump and the main raw water feed will as well. Might have to fit a small header tank above the exchanger if it's needed, but it will never get hot enough to need one .

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Blog

New drive Train and Oiler

Most of this actually took place last August / July! Regular readers may have seen that when Dad built this boat in the 60s he put a Taycol Target field motor in it. About 25 years ago I put a Decaperm and 'modern' transistor ESC in her to provide forward and reverse. Performance was sedate to say the least. I have since modified the Taycol (see below) so it can be run forward and reverse and decided to put it in an ancient Billings Boats Danish fish cutter (Gina) that I inherited from an Aunt. The cutter is badly in need of renovation (see pic 1) and the Taycol will be more suited to her performance requirement! On advice from Canabus in Hobart I obtained a Propdrive 2830 1000kV brushless motor, appropriate ESC and a 35mm 3 blade prop from Raboesch. Pic 2 shows the old and new motors. Next step was to trial fit new motor mount, coupling and prop. Pics 3 &4. While doing this it became obvious that a new shaft was in order, as mentioned in last update. Soooo, - appropriate stainless steel rod, thrust washers and set ring were acquired and back to the workshop. After cutting to length to accommodate the new coupling type a 3mm thread was cut a the prop end. At the inboard end I milled recesses for the grub screws in the set ring and the coupling, pics 5 - 7. I don't like to just file(or even mill) flats for the screws cos they have a tendency to slip and work loose😡 Trial fitted the new shaft and found I'd boobed a bit with the measurements and need extra thrust washers to make up the difference. 😲 Pic 8. No sweat, they came in a pack of 50 anyway😊 You can also see in this pic that I decided to fit an oiler pipe while everything was in bits anyway.😉 To solder it on in a cramped space without setting the boat on fire 😡 I packed a wet rag underneath and used a gas Kitchen Torch! Known as a 'Gas Gourmet Burner'. Yep, those handy little gas torches like your Missus uses to melt the brown sugar on her Crème Brûlée!! So do I, delicious 😜😉 The torches are not expensive, small, very handy, refillable with lighter gas and can be adjusted to a very small hot flame. ideal for this job. See pics 9 & 10. Pic 11 shows the new motor & mount, shaft and coupling all trial fitted after using a brass alignment tool I quickly made up on the lathe. Pic also shows the trial electrical installation after ing up the 'machinery compartment' a little and painting with silver Hammerite. A Quickrun BL ESC is sitting in the bottom in one of the trays my Dad originally fitted for the 2 wet cell (very wet!) 6V lead acid batteries. The home made board on the left carries the battery and ESC connectors, main ON/OFF switch with LED, blade fuse holder with a 20A fuse and a green LED which tells me if the fuse is blown! Stuck on the walls (OK Bulkheads!) with so called Servo Tape are a 6 ch Turnigy iA6 2.4Gig RX and the arming switch for the ESC. Battery compartment is sized to fit 2S and 3S hard case LiPos. For trials I can fit my Wattmeter forward of the switchboard and splice it into the battery supply using Tamiya connectors. Might change these to XT60s later if current drain is more than 12 to 15A. All for now, all this was pulled out again preparatory to cosmetics on the hull, decks, cabin roof and walls inside and out. But that's another chapter so, 'Tune in next week, same time same channel when once again it's time for 'WHAT DO YOU MEAN BUCK RODGERS IS APPROACHING!? 😁 Or 'The Saga of the Cabin Roof' 😉 Cheers Doug 😎 BTW: After drilling the shaft tube for the oiler pipe I flushed it out with light machine oil (pumped in from a big syringe) and shoved a few pipe ers through (rotating them on the way) to remove any remaining drill swarf!!

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Hints and Tips.

Mate, too many years in salt water . Tips? the secret? I really paint all my wood models so thoroughly and make internal wood coamings inside of the superstructures and actually hose down first thing at home with a soft hose stream to wash off salt. Most of my hulls and decks when the model is finished have been "painted" local hardware paint or sprayed with fibreglass resin thinned down about 50% or so on paint varnished wood ( even polyurethane 50% thinned ) of which BOTH are so clear and some models over 30/35 ( i/c and steam ) years are still impervious to attack and a bit bullet proof and every so often I do a down with say a household (any brand will do) kitchen bench type of er, supermarket spray mist er , you know the ones that smell so fresh and that they kill ONLY 99% of all germs and baddies ( what a crock ) and I then take the model/ bits onto the grass still smelling so fresh (UGH) and gently wash away the germs and baddies and just sun dry for a bit and put back in the shed for another day. I am so petty, I also save up the dry ing flimsy plastic sheets and cut the sides so I have a long sheet to drape over each model till the next run the sawdust of other shed jobs does NOT get on the model. I fold the sheets off with the dust side to the inner fold , hoping I do not forget which side is which ( I think I am getting OLDER )before I check out the model (radio test, fuel ok , just lightly SINGER oil carburettor shaft , rudder post prop shaft bits , check the glow plug works, inline fuel filter is , AND AND leave my engine settings alone year after year AND try to exactly mix the same fuel blend over and over by careful measure but you can slop a tad more oil in as *Oil is CHEAPER than steel , if a bit rich then one click on the needle yet my mates rib me as I leave it *ALONE ). I always check, ALWAYS on the day BEFORE next days run and avoid things that go wrong at the pond side , ( you know the guy who glitches and bleats it was going so well last time ) as I am in OPEN waters I do not chance fails. Regards and good boating Lyle from Oz.

5 years ago by Lyle

Blog

Detailing the cabin – Part 2. The Roof Rails.

Some hardwood dowel is supplied in the Vintage Model Works kit for the handrails that would look perfectly acceptable for most builders but as I’m going a bit overboard with the detailing of my boat I chose to fabricate mine differently to look a little more authentic. This involved selecting some obeche stripwood of suitable dimensions and carefully measuring and marking out the positions of the supporting legs and the spacing between them. Again I used some ‘photos of the NMM model as a guide for this. Fortunately I had previously treated myself to a vertical stand accessory for my Dremmel drill and I used this as a milling machine with the addition of a suitably sized sanding drum and an improvised ‘fence’ attached to the base of the stand. After making a test piece I also chose to attach a vacuum er hose to the stand to extract the dust as the process generates quite a lot! Milling out the recesses in the obeche strip was a remarkably quick process but the subsequent hand finishing using abrasive paper glued around a dowel and some abrasive pads took a great deal longer to achieve the final profiles. I was very pleased with the final result and so I applied several coats of Teak stain before hand drilling a 2mm hole in each of the supporting legs to take a plasticard rod which was superglued in place. These form fixing spigots that will enable me to easily fix the rails through the roof without using epoxy or superglue on the roof surface but on the underside of the roof instead. The legs at each end of the handrails were drilled to take 1mm rods as the legs are a bit smaller. The rails were then laid out on the cabin roof and with the aid of some masking tape the position of each plasticard rod was marked and then the drilling centres marked with an indent through the tape onto the roof. The fixing holes were all hand drilled through the roof and the handrails pushed into place before being secured with a drop of superglue on the underside. When set the excess plastic rod was cut flush with the roof panel. The finished result is very pleasing 😀 as seen in the last pic along with a sneak preview of the searchlight.

5 years ago by robbob

Directory

(Naval Ship) Sir Kay (T241)

This is my Sir Kay (T241) - Round Table Class Minesweeper. it is from the Caldercraft range and I was fortunate to recently acquire it - I would have much preferred to have built it but couldn't miss the opportunity of it being given to me by an old retiring modeller. it just needed new RC throughout, a good , a tidy up and some fresh paint here and there plus a bit of rigging renewal. Not tried it in the water yet but will do tomorrow at our Club meet. (Motor: MFA Geared 2.5:1) (ESC: Mtroniks) (5/10)

6 years ago by ads90