Young America by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper 1853

[EdT]

I suppose the best way is to post on the book topic, but I do not mind either way.  More people may see it here, but on the other hand if readers of the book get in the habit of keeping up with the book topic, I can use that not only for corrections but for other supplementary information as well.  The book topics are a bit buried in the website, however, so I am of mixed mind on this.  I will definitely post all Addenda on the book topic, but will also respond here.

 

Either way, I appreciate your pointing these out.  I hope there will not be very many of these.  However, with several hundred complex drawings between the full sized prints and the CD - and only me to review and correct them as the build proceeds - there will be some.  I will make every effort to make and post corrections to these as soon as they are detected - by me or readers.

 

As a matter of interest and for some insight into the issue, I am currently working on the windlass - a complex piece of machinery with a number of small machined brass and wood parts.  The windlass construction is shown on a single letter-sized drawing, one of many that will go on the Volume II CD.  This drawing has been revised 7 times so far as the work proceeds and is due for at least a few more changes to reach its final state - at which point it should be usable by readers.  I normally make sure the drawings reflect the as-built model and also the learnings from the process - not always perfectly for sure.

 

So, thanks again.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 127 – Main Fife Rail

 

The completed main fife is shown in the first picture.  It consists of two fore and aft rails, joined by a long athwartship rail.  All are supported on turned pillars and are drilled for belaying pins. The ends of the fore and aft rails are set in slots in the topsail sheet bitts and secured with wire bolts. The pillars also are secured top and bottom with wire bolts. The fore and aft extensions aft will eventually support the bearings for the bilge pump.

 

 

When making and fitting the sheet bitts, I neglected to cut the slots for the rails,  so these had to be cut in place.  I would normally do this with the serrated edge of a flat file, but none that I had would fit between the bulwarks, so I used a piece of hacksaw blade, sharpened up a bit to cut cleanly.  This is shown in the next picture.

 

 

The blade is supported on a sized pine block to ensure parallel cuts at the correct height.  It was also rounded to match the deck, and although not shown in this picture, it was fitted with a stop block between the bitts to keep it in place.  It would have been much easier to do this before setting the bitts, but doing it this way I can at least be assured that the rails will be at the same height.

 

In the next picture, one of the rails is being test fitted on one of the pillars.  The block used to guide the saw also proved useful in sizing the pillars.

 

 

The pillars were turned by the method used on the deck beam pillars – shown in an earlier post.  In the next picture, one of these has been turned and awaits final sanding/polishing.

 

 

The pillar is held on center by a brass tube in the tailstock chuck and the depth of cut is controlled by the larger brass tube fitted over the cross feed rail below the tool.  The next picture shows the two fore and aft rails fitted temporarily.

 

 

In the next picture the athwartship rail is set down on its wire bolts and the rails below are being marked for the lap joints that join the rails.

 

 

The rails were then removed to cut the joints.  In the last picture the completed assembly has been installed and polished.

 

 

The rail assembly was glued down and to the bitts using medium viscosity CA.  I was not confident that all these endgrain joints would stand the pressures of rigging using wood glue.  The structure is quite strong.

 

Ed

Edited December 1, 2015 by EdT

[rwiederrich]

Beautiful work Ed.....

 

Rob

[ianmajor]

​Ed,

 

Stunning work. You make it look so easy - and then I try it  - gulp. ​ 

[albert]

Hi Ed, fantastic work.

[druxey]

Excellent save there, Ed!

[dgbot]

Ian, Ed is an artist who speaks with his hands.  A masterful job.

David B

[Mahuna]

Great work Ed, as usual.  I'm surprised you used CA instead of epoxy when looking for a strong bond.

[EdT]

Thanks again, everyone.  I appreciate the comments and likes - and best of all questions.

 

Frank, I could well have used epoxy.  The CA penetrates better to hold the wire "bolts" in the wood.  It was also easier - and also, considering that my aging epoxy has turned into a solid mass ....

 

Ed

[ScottRC]

Ed, again, thank you for giving us such a wonderful tutorial on how you do such craftsmanship.

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 128 – Windlass 1

 

For some time I have been anticipating (or perhaps dreading) making and fitting the windlass that was used to raise and secure Young America’s anchors.  Like many of the model’s details, the windlass is one that was typical of the time.  It is a fairly complex piece of equipment with a variety of mechanical parts.  Not everyone will be familiar with this device, so I will start with a picture and description of the assembled windlass and then work through its construction.

 

 

The assembly shown is still only pinned together temporarily.  The windlass axle was supported by the two stout “carrick bitts” on either side.  The large, central “samson post” supported the seesaw brake lever assembly and also the anti-backlash stop shown engaged on the central ratchet gear.  The anchor chain was wrapped around one of the wood spindles on either side of the central ratchet parts.  These spindles were fitted with iron cogs to engage the chain links. The spindles were turned from the forecastle deck by means of the seesaw brake.  This was connected to two ratchet mechanisms that engaged each of the two large ratchet gears – turning the gear on the up stroke and ratcheting back on the down stroke.  These ratchet mechanisms are not visible in the picture, but one is shown in the next picture.

 

 

I had considered the possibility of making this a working model – until I printed off the first copy of the scale1:72 drawing.  A working model could be made from the drawings but not at this scale by me.  I am sorry to say that this lovely little bracket mechanism is virtually invisible below the forecastle – a persistent dilemma for below-deck details.  The operating principle can be seen in the picture and drawing.   The connecting rod that passes vertically up through the deck pulls or pushes on a bracket that is fitted with bar that is pinned through the bracket, allowing it rotate out of the gear teeth on the down stroke, but engage on the up stroke.  The bracket rides in grooves on each side of the gear wheel.

 

Before dropping anchor, the required length of chain was hauled manually – the windlass worked in only one direction - up through the chain tubes, along the deck forward, across the top of one of the spindles, around the spindle, then laid on the main deck forward under the forecastle until relased

 

I decided to start construction with the two large (36”, 1/2” actual) ratchet gears.  The first step is shown below.

 

 

In this picture some ¾” brass bar is fixed in a self-centering 3-jaw chuck in the Unimat lathe.  It has been center-drilled for the 9” (1/8”) diameter shaft, faced off square on the end and turned to the 36” gear diameter – enough to make two gears.  The chuck and the piece were then removed without disturbing the centering to a rotating head on the milling machine as shown in the next picture

. 

 

After carefully centering and aligning the setup, the cutter was set to mill the 36 evenly spaced ratchet gear teeth.  The teeth have 90 degree points that are offset – angled to one side so the ratchet bar will engage tangentially.  To do this one side of the cutter was moved off-center based on a digital measurement on the CAD drawing then lowered by another measured amount.  Each of the 36 teeth was then cut by stepping around the piece in 10 degree increments. 

 

The central stop ratchet was cut by the same method – with different settings – at 20 degree increments to yield an 18 tooth gear – as shown below.

 

 

The next photo shows the mill setup for cutting the groove in one side of the first ratchet gear.

 

 

A 1/32” square end mil was used to cut the 2” depth in two passes.  After this the chuck was returned to the lathe for parting off of the gear as shown below. 

 

 

The piece was then returned to the mill to cut the groove in the second gear.

 

The parted off gears were then chucked on the mill to cut the grooves on the other side – in progress in the next picture.

 

 

Simple spacers were also made to fit between the gears.  All these parts are shown set up on a temporary axle in the last picture.

 

 

With the aid of precise dimensional adjustments from the CAD drawing, making these was less difficult than I expected.  I did reject the first two gears, for - of all things - mis-centered axle holes.  There is no doubt that accurate centering for all this work requires care.  It is made simpler by keeping the piece chucked as long as possible.  For this reason the Unimat chuck was also used in the Sherline mill without removing the parts – once the mill setup was aligned.

 

Making the spindles and brackets will be described next in Part 129.

 

 

Ed

[Maury S]

Simply amazing!  Now repeat at 1/96th scale.

Maury

[GLakie]

Great machining work Ed.  Thanks for sharing! 

[michael mott]

Nice work on the gears Ed.

 

Michael

[druxey]

Adroitly done, Ed. A nice piece of machining ratchets.

[Remcohe]

I understand why you dreaded this part, yet you executed it beautifully.

 

Remco

[gjdale]

Well played, Sir! A beautiful piece of machining Ed.

[Mirabell61]

Beautiful work Ed,

 

the belaying crossbanks around the mast, the horizontal cutting with the sharpened bit of sawblade, and the brass machining, all superbe !

 

Nils

Edited December 6, 2015 by Mirabell61

[EdT]

I really appreciate all these comments and likes.  I will try to get the remaining parts on the windlass out quickly.  I think I may need to do some woodwork before attacking the next metalwork job - the bilge pumps.

 

Ed

[giampieroricci]

Your work on the gears of the winch is simply wonderful!!!

[Capt.Bob]

Hi Ed,

The top piece of the 1:72 Deadwood pattern.  Check it against the assembly template.  Seems to be cut short.

Just got a new milling machine.  I've stated a new folder with your machining thumbnails. So much to learn, so little time.  Something about a man's reach exceeding his grasp.

 

Take care,  Bob

[rwiederrich]

Excellent machining Ed....and at this scale.

 

Rob

[Erebus and Terror]

Gorgeous, Ed!

[EdT]

Thanks, again, everyone.

 

Bob, again I appreciate your pointing out this problem and regret that my checking did not pick all this up.  There is certainly an inconsistency in the pattern sheet.  The template is correct.  I initially intended to keep the deadwood below the middle deck, buteventually decided to bring it up through the deck as is shown the template and the large printed elevation drawings.  As with the inner post, I then failed to update the pattern for the top piece of the deadwood on the pattern sheet..

 

 In a quick review of the drawings and the full set of photos taken during the period of interest, I well remember uncertainties I felt about the heights of the deadwood and the inner post.  In fact, you may see in some of the photos that my original inner post was too short and had to be lengthened.  Work on the drawings and the model was an iterative process in some areas areas.

 

An easy immediate solution would be to make the top aft section of deadwood from a pattern cut from the template.  I will post a corrected pattern sheet, shortly - here and on the book topic.

 

Ed

[EdT]

A corrected Sternpost-Deadwood Pattern Sheet is attached.

 

1to72 Sternpost-Deadwood Patterns.pdf

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 129 – Windlass 2

 

After the ratchet gears, the wood spindles seemed an easy task.  The first step was to turn the o.d. and bore out the center to fit the axles.  The first picture shows this work completed.

 

 

The wood was first turned between centers.  This helped ensure centering for the axle hole.  The piece was then chucked as shown, the hole drilled and the o.d. finished.  The piece is long enough for both spindles.

 

To save myself the trouble of resetting the rotating head vertical and repeating all the alignments, I decided to mill the cog slots vertically as shown below.

 

 

There are six milled slots 2 ¼” deep and 2 ¼” wide – a convenient design for the 1/32” end mill.  The next picture shows the two spindles cut roughly to size with the other parts made so far.

 

 

These parts were then test fitted to a central shaft as shown below.

 

 

Because there is not enough space for one single shaft to be inserted between the carrick bits and the side bulwarks, the shaft is made in three pieces.  The rotating parts fit over a central shaft that reaches to about the midpoint of each wood spindle.  Short axle stubs are then inserted from outboard of the carrick bits to hold the assembly in place.

 

The next picture shows the assembly fitted with the frames of the two ratchet assemblies.

 

 

These assemblies were made from some ¼” x 1/8” rectangular brass tube.  The extended ends of the frames were made by slitting off some of the tube on the circular saw.  This capping piece was then silver soldered to a full section of tube as shown below.

 

 

In this picture the pieces have been pinned in place and silver solder paste applied to the joint.  After soldering, holes were drilled for pins to hold the connecting rods and the ratchet stops.  Then shapes of the frames were then cut off as shown below.

 

 

The gear end of each of these was sliced open and fitted into the grooves on either side of the ratchet gears.  In the next picture the wood spindles are being marked for final sizing to fit between the carrick bits.

 

 

The sides of the ratchet frames are very close to the central samson post.  To avoid contact between these parts, the two spacers between the gears needed to be replaced with slightly thicker versions to separate the large gears a bit.  In the last picture this has been done and the assembly set up on the bits.

 

 

The tops of the ratchet gears are very close to the underside of the breast beam – about 1”.  In retrospect, I would have paid more attention to the height of the carrick bits holes relative to the deck.  However, this clearance is sufficient – as is the clearance between the ratchet frames and the samson post.

 

The next task was to position the vertical connecting rods, cut holes for them through the deck, and install the seesaw brake.

 

 

Ed

[ianmajor]

Beautiful work Ed.

[dgbot]

Nice job Ed.  I thought my windlass was decent but after seeing yours I do not want to look at it to closely.

David B

[albert]

Hi Ed, very nice work.

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 130 – Windlass 3

 

The first picture shows about as much of the ratchet mechanism that will ever be visible on the model – below the open forecastle deck on the port side.

 

 

This was taken just before the opening of the holes in the deck for the connecting rods on either side of the Samson post.  The rods were then sized, flattened and rounded at the ends, and drilled for connecting pins.  The next picture shows the handbrake being made.

 

 

A brass rod was inserted through a brass tube and silver-soldered in.  The outer tube was then squared off and center-marked for the three pin holes.  These are shown being drilled in the next picture.

 

 

The brake was then bent to conform to the final shape. A reinforcing strut was soldered across the top as shown in the next picture, taken after initial pinning together of the parts.

 

 

The brake handles have also been soldered on.  The brake assembly is temporarily bolted through the Samson post, which still has to be cut down to its final height.  In the next picture the windlass has been disassembled and the parts pickled and chemically blackened.

 

 

Both the connecting rods and the ratchet stops were fitted and bolted to the ratchet gears before treatment.  The parts were pickled in Sparex® and blackened in a 3% solution of WinOx®.  This is always a chancey process with me, mainly because of my impatience with pre-cleaning and pickling.  However, the results in this case were acceptable and the preassembled, finished parts are shown below before mounting.

 

 

The next picture shows work on the spindle cogs.  There are six on each spindle that fit into the milled slots.

 

 

Six brass strips were ganged in the vise as shown and roughed out with files.  They were first mounted on masking tape to help them behave when placing in the vise.  The final shaping and rounding was then done on the individual pieces as shown below.

 

 

The cogs were then blackened and epoxied into the slots.  The complete windlass is shown in place in the last picture.

 

 

In this picture the Samson post has been cut down to size and the woodwork given a wax finish.  Note that a backlash stop is installed over the central gear.  This is pinned in a small bracket that is bolted into the Samson post below the deck beam.  The installation is still temporary.  I expect the end axle sections will be wooden in the final installation.

 

 

Ed