Roger Pellett
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Everything posted by Roger Pellett
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During my working career, I saw a number of these Jarmac saws in use at model ships operated by large engineering firms (Bechtel, Fluor, etc.) to build models of industrial installations. The saws were used to cut plastic scale pipe and structural shapes to length. Ripping would not have been required. In the case of piping, the fittings all had sockets cast into the ends. The cut length was slipped into the socket and glued so the length of the assembly could be adjusted slightly before gluing. End play of the blade was therefore not a problem. Roger
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Paul, Have you looked at the build log for Ed Tosti’s Young America. If not, I recommend it. If you’re not familiar with it is a meticulous build of a Clipper of the same era. See how he handled this. Roger
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As Welfack points out these lights like much else aboard ship required maintenance. They also had to be refilled with fuel (whale oil and later kerosene), and the wicks had to be trimmed. Ships were therefore equipped with Lamp Rooms, an enclosed space where lamps could be worked on and stored out of the weather when not in use. Roger
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Great work bring this old kit back to life John!.
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Unless you live on the East Coast or highly populated areas of the West Coast everything that Ian posted about totally Electric vehicles also applies to the USA. I don’t foresee that these cars will ever be practical for the long distance driving and weather that we encounter in the Northern Midwest. Roger
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This is supposed to be an activity that’s enjoyable so if planking is a problem, choose a project that doesn’t involve it. If you are limited to kits check out solid hulls. Bluejacket offers some, as does A.J. Fisher. A well made solid hull model is no less authentic than a planked POB one. The important thing is correctly reproducing the hull shape. OR. Find a POB model that is easy to plank. How about a Skipjack? There is at least one Skipjack kit on the market and their relatively small size allows modeling at a scale that allows detailing. Roger
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A very strong El Niño has given us a record winter; much above average temperatures and almost no snow. As a result, the SOO locks intend to open several days earlier than planned. Noteworthy this past month was the recent announcement of the discovery of the SS Arlington sunk in 600ft of water off Lake Superior’s Kweanee Penninsula. Arlington, sunk in 1940 shares several similarities with Benjamin Noble. Both were close to the same size and were designed for the pulp wood trade. Both were built by the same yard (five years apart). Arlington was loaded down with a late season grain cargo. Heavy seas washed off hatch bars, tarpaulins, and la least one hatch failed entirely flooding her hold. Work since my last post involved assembling the hatch covers on a backing piece of 1/64” plywood and fabrication of the hatch bars. Wooden hatches float, so hatch bars were fastened atop to restrain them. These were pieces of 3” steel angle bolted at the ends to padeyes attached to the deck. For the model I used 1/32” square brass wire. At each tip, I soldered a short piece of I/16” brass tubing. A #75 hole through the top of the tube will accept the simulated hold down bolt. A fussy detail requiring a frustrating amount of time. Roger
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Silver soldering
Roger Pellett replied to Dziadeczek's topic in Metal Work, Soldering and Metal Fittings
Underhill appears to be doing it the hard way! Of course he was writing many years ago and new tools and materials have become available since. Unless oyou are planning to put your chain under considerable tension, high temperature silver solder is not necessary. Lead free solders are now available in a wide range of diameters. I have recently been using .010” diameter solder with good results. Like Underhill, I like the liquid fluxes applied with a small brush. They do a good job of drawing solder into the joint. Finally, I prefer a fine tipped electric soldering iron to a torch. With the very small sizes involved here an electric soldering iron will fuse the joint instaneously. Roger -
Andy, really nice work. In the years before Covid, my wife and I went on three Sisley Garden Tours to different areas of rural England; a wonderful experience. We heard from more than one gardener maintaining these magnificent gardens that there is an Asiatic blight killing the Boxwood Trees. It would seem that someone could scavage some nice Boxwood before it’s too late. Roger
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Definitely not splitting hairs, apples and oranges! Allan refers to sailing warships of the 17th and 18th Centuries. These vessels had large permanent lanterns affixed to the transom; one to three depending on the status of the ship. Samual Pepys bragged that one on the Royal Sovereign was large enough that he kissed a woman while standing inside of it! The main purpose of these lanterns was to allow formation station keeping at night. Much later in the Nineteenth Century, maritime nations developed “Rules of the Road” in an attempt to eliminate collisions at sea. These would not work at night if the vessel’s could not see each other. This lead to the legal requirement for vessels to carry navigation lights, specifically red (port) and green (starboard). These would have been attached to the lower mast shrouds on sailing ships. Exactly when did this happen? I don’t know. Roger
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Of course, Constitution has had a very long life during which she has been rebuilt and repaired several times. For a considerable part of this time she sailed as an active unit of the US Navy so until recent times, her refits did not necessarily involve ensuring historical accuracy. Even today, she is a hodgepodge of different periods. Constitution underwent a major repair in the 1920’s. There are photos of her during this repair in drydock with all exterior planking removed. Apparently, during this repair a series of as built drawings were prepared. In the 1990’s these drawings, on a DVD disc, were offered to the public. I believe that the drawing that you have posted is one from the 1920’s. To be useful to the level that you want you would have to be able to determine when different structural elements were added during which historic period. Roger
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Great project, John! Looking forward to following your progress. It is interesting the way that the highly successful paddle steamer design migrated from the Mississippi River Basin to the West Coast. American readers may remember the famous Delta Queen that cruised on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers into the 1990’s (?). Living in an Ohio River Town we could hear her steam calliope from our house each time she visited. Although billed as an “Old South” river boat, she was built for and initially traveled on the US West Coast, in particular, the Sacramento River. Her design resembles your Klondike rather than any than any Mississippi River Basin Steamer. I believe that she is laid up somewhere in Tennessee. Roger
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Paul, From a Naval Architect’s perspective, you are exactly right. Determining the waterline at which a vessel will float requires knowing two things: 1. The weight of water displaced with the vessel assumed to be floating at several waterlines shown on the lines drawing. The results of this calculation can be plotted as a curve displacement vs waterline height. 2. The weight of the ship in different load conditions. With this information, the draft of the vessel can be picked off for any load condition. In 1800 there were several methods for calculating displacement from the shape of the hull. These ranged from numerical approximations calculated manually, but based on techniques similar to the computer algorithms used today to actually measuring the quantity of water displayed by immersing a model in a tub of water. The big unknown for ships built in the wooden ship era was the weight of the ship itself. Shipbuilding management systems were simply not capable of accurately predicting how much of the timber allocated for a particular ship would actually wind up in the finished vessel. Iron and steel construction would eventually change this. The answer to all of this would come when the vessel was launched, and the draft of the floating vessel known. With this they could pick off the weight in the as launched condition from the curve. Adding the weight to be added to complete the ship, the armament, stores, etc. they could get a realistic estimate of the draft of the vessel in various loaded conditions. My suggestion: Coppered vessels- Follow whatever drawings you are using. Vessels not coppered- White or back stuff up to the bottom of the Wales. The stuff was cheap. Roger
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Actually, in the 1960’s there was quite a bit of, for its time, high level Naval Architecture performed to optimize these towboats. Propeller/Kort nozzle combinations, flanking rudders, and even tow sizes were all studied. The University of Michigan operates the second largest experimental Naval Architecture Towing tank in the USA. At 450+- feet long it is about half as long as the US Navy’s 1000’+ long tank. As a student in the early 1960’s I remember a model towboat with various numbers and arrangements of barges being towed. This would have been an expensive project and I don’t remember who the client was. It could have been US Govt Maritime Commission. Someone, however, spent a lot of money determining the optimal way to make up a tow. Roger.
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Your keel rabbit looks like it’s coming out nicely!
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Valeriy, great work as usual. I’m sure that you noticed the split accommodations for the crew; one before the stack and one behind it. This was typical of steamships built in British shipyards for the British Merchant Marine. The reason? The Deck Crew insisted on separate accommodations from the Engineers! At the Beginning of World War II, the famous American Naval Architecture firm of Gibbs and Hill was contracted to modify the design of the the British Ocean class cargo ship design for American mass production, the result being the famous Liberty Ship. The Oceans featured deck crew quarters separate from the engineers. Gibbs and Hill eliminated this silly feature, combining everything into one deck structure. Roger
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Re; Window AC Unit In 1972 I made my first of several business trips to Europe. To visit a nearby Mannesmann pipe forging plant I stayed in a hotel along side the Rhine River in Düsseldorf. I was fascinated by the variety of river craft passing by. These vessels of several European Nationalities were often crewed by families and had potted flowers at the windows, laundry drying, bicycles and occasionally a small car stored on board. My point is that riverine craft are often an interesting mix of maritime culture and down home amenities. While the modern US towboats are usually corporate owned they do not hesitate to utilize shoreside gear. Roger
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