Western River Steamboat Heroine by ggrieco - Scale 1:24 - 1838 as she appeared before hitting a snag in the Red River. - Finished

[GLakie]

Wow! Amazing detail Glenn, and a working u-joint at that scale.  Outstanding! 

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Glenn

Wonderful work, I like those steamers!

The pitman and full engine lokks like original ones.

Regards

Gerhard

[wyz]

Glenn, you continue on with the build and the rest of us search for new ways to describe its beauty.  I think we may have the harder task.

 

Tom

Edited April 2, 2016 by wyzwyk

[gjdale]

It's all been said already. Just fabulous Glenn and such a treat to watch this come to life before our eyes.

[ggrieco]

Thanks everybody for your comments and likes. I wish I had the opportunity to thank everyone individually. I have never enjoyed building a model so much and been so inspired and I owe it all to the comments and support of the MSW community.

 

Thanks again!

 

Glenn

[Mike Y]

Glenn, your model seems to be built with a much higher accuracy than the original vessel A pleasure to follow.

The use of CNC looks very effective!

Oh, forgot that you also need to make a CAD model before it is machined

 

How noisy is the cnc cutter? Is it something you can tolerare for a few hours, or you schedule some overnight batch and have a freshly baked parts next morning?

[Cathead]

Glenn, by the time you're done, we're all going to have exhausted our vocabulary and be reduced to grunting and throwing bananas in an approving manner.

[ggrieco]

Thanks Mike and Cathead,

 

 

Mike, The mill is very quiet with the small end mills I use. It hums in the background while I work and if I'm wearing headphones, listening to music I don't even hear it. It creates three sounds, the sound of the motor, the sound of the end mill cutting and the sound of the stepper motors moving the table. The motor is extremely quite. The smaller end mills barely make any noise but, as you go up in size, the vibration becomes more pronounced. The stepper motors produce the most noise - a buzzing sound that increases in pitch the faster they go. The feed rate for these smaller parts is slow enough that it is pretty quiet but as the parts get bigger and the feed goes up it can get a little annoying. At certain frequencies, the vibrations from the steppers will travel pretty far through the building so I have to adjust the speed and feed to keep it quiet.

Edited April 3, 2016 by ggrieco

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Glenn

What`s new to me is, is the single cylinder pitman engine, I know them always as two cylinders. One of my planned projects for the future is the USS CAIRO, with working ptiman engine, so I saw she had two cylinders, as the most paddlers had.  

 

Regards

Gerhard

[ggrieco]

Hello Gerhard,

 

USS Cairo with a working engine would be an incredible model. Consider me already following that build - I can't wait!

 

Glenn

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Glenn

 

Be sure I WILL! But there is so much to do for my Danzig, so it will take years until I can start with the Cairo.

 

Lets get back to your build, incredible work even with the smashed wheels and all the damage you show. I would never be able to do that without crying , this is modelmaking at its best!

 

Regards

Gerhard

[Omega1234]

Hi Glenn

 

It's absolutely mind-boggling what you've done!

 

Top stuff.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Canute]

In the words of many of us from our "yout" - Far out! Your workmanship is stunning.

 

Theme song for this could be Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary", done by any number of artists.

[ggrieco]

Thanks Gerhard, Patrick and Ken!

[robnbill]

Glenn,

I just put two and two together and realized it is your work I was admiring on the A&M site. Kevin Crisman pointed it out to me when I was discussing the Brig Eagle.

 

Your work is outstanding.

[S.Coleman]

Great work. Nice clean build. Can't wait to see the boilers being made.

[ggrieco]

Thanks Bill an S.Coleman,

 

I really appreciate the kind words.

 

Glenn

[ggrieco]

This week I nearly completed the feedwater pump.  We know the type of pump and location from a post that is bolted into the cylinder timbers at the after end of the crosshead slide.  A linkage to the crosshead would have moved a lever that activated two pumps.  A low pressure pump (aft side of post) would have drawn water through the side of the vessel somewhat below the waterline and pushed it into the preheater (shroud around steam exhaust).  A more heavily constructed high pressure pump then pulled the water from the preheater and delivered it to the boilers.

 

Pumo lever and linkage.

 

 

 

Support posts for the pump.  I cut these a little long and the cross piece at the top is only temporary.  The top end will be cut off at the upper deck and fastened to the upper deck beams. The plates on the sides of the post will guide the reach rods.

 

Pump lever linked to cross head.  Fitting the shroud around the steam exhaust.

 

 

Determining the run of the reach rods and plumbing.  With the water lines and reach rods it gets pretty busy in this area.  I didn't quite get it all together and will have till next week to finish.

 

The low pressure pump is still a little too tall but I left it in to give an idea about the whole set-up.

[S.Coleman]

Still fascinating! I like how the bearings are sunken into the support posts.

[druxey]

Saturday again already! Thank you for this week's update and inspirational work, Glenn!

[Cathead]

Words of praise and awe. Rinse, repeat.

[ianmajor]

Glenn,

 

Fabulous. A piece of machinery that I would be mesmerised by when watching it turning over slowly.

[Jim Lad]

More delightful work!

 

John

[Omega1234]

Hi Glenn

 

Marvellous, marvellous, marvellous. From someone who can't even bend a wire straight, let alone solder it, you have my upmost respect!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Mahuna]

Your work is outstanding, Glenn, a pleasure to look at.  Wish I could see it in person (maybe the next NRG Conference in San Diego??)

[mtaylor]

I've had to come back and look at this several times.  What appears to be a Rube Goldberg is really a marvel of engineering for the time.  Beautiful work, 
Glenn.

[ggrieco]

This week I finished up the plumbing, reach rods and the other bits that tie the engine to the main shaft.  I decided to go with an oil finish for the wood and was able to oil the cylinder timbers, pittman and flywheel.  It gets a little tight with all the machinery and I wanted to make sure I got everything before moving on.  I'm leaving the throw-out bearings and bearing caps off until the upper works are a little farther along -- I may need to remove the paddlewheels temporarily.

 

Bronze cam frame bearings and caps added.

 

 

Cam rods in to determine the length of the reach rods.

 

Reach rod handles. 

 

 

Engine just about complete.  The steam exhaust stack will be blackened. Next week, on to the boilers.

 

 

Feedwater pump and pre-heater.

 

Starboard side.

 

 

Port side.

 

 

[Jack12477]

Glenn, I've run out of adjectives - Awesome detail and workmanship !

[cog]

Glenn,

 

You are positive it won't run ... it looks ... so real ... scale doesn't come to mind when you look at it ... it seems 1:1 untill you see her on those blocks or with some other reference material ...

 

Miraculous ...

 

Cheers

[EdT]

Glenn, I love it.

 

Ed