thibaultron

Haven't abandoned this build, been working on shop. The major renovation is done, and I can start moving stuff back onto shelves. Then modeling can resume.
 
 
I sent out the rigging details for printing, and they came last week. 2 of the 4 bowsprit braces were warped, but the other 2 look useable. I broke my magnifying lamp light bulb, so I can't take pictures right now, nor can I see how well they turned out.

Part 29
 
Just in case you thought that I have abandoned this build, here is some progress.
 
I have not done anything physical to the model, but I have made some 3D drawings of some of the details.
 
Why the lack of progress?
 
A friend gave me some thick foam board insulation sheets, that I will be using as the base for my model railroad, so I have been concentrating on getting the shop reorganized, the layout leg/book shelves/computer desk/workbench assembly put up, lately. I just got the workbench cleared, so I will be doing more work on the ship soon.
 
Well the news from Shapeways on the Dredge Frames was bad. Because the frame is made of round bar shapes, the tolerances on minimum size are larger than for square shapes. The 1/64th scale frames are just too thin to print, period. The 1/32nd scale ones can be printed by increasing the size, they will be a little over scale, but not too bad. Back to square one on these.
 
The new parts I drew were the trailboards, and some rigging fittings.
 
I submitted the trailboards to Shapeways, and they were good, I should have them next week.
 

 

 
I tried to create a 3D eagle head, but it was just too small, so I’m going with just the outline. It’s so small that I don’t think the detail would show anyway. I also had to make the molding boards a bit thicker at the end where the eagle head is. I’ll sand them when I go to install them.
 
I have not submitted the rigging details yet, I’m still having trouble with the Horse Block. This is a special block for the jib traveler. More later.
 

 
Here is a picture of the rigging detail drawing. All the parts except the Horse Block (top, and upper left) pass the initial inspection.
 
At the bottom are braces that go between the hull and the side of the stem, just below the bowsprit (circled in red below). The model had these cast on, but they were warped, and one was broken, so I’m going to use these. I could have fabricated them, but I wanted to print the fittings anyway, so I included them.
 

 
At the top right are cleats, 10” and 21”. The larger cleat is used for tying off the center board lift line.
 

 

 
The larger rings are mast hoops. The fittings just above the braces, on the left, are the bowsprit cap fitting (below), and the mast head fitting (above). Here is a close-up.
 

 
Along the right are cheek blocks, for the lazy jack lines. They attach to the sides of the boom.
 

 
The horse blocks are shown below. I am having a hard time getting them right. I’ll have one configuration pass, then when I add the two larger sizes, all fail. The center sheave also has a distressing habit of disappearing when Shapeways checks it. I need to work on these more. I have three different sizes, so that I can pick the one that I can work with better. Ideally the smallest one (which is scale), should be used, but I may have to use one of the larger ones, just so I can handle it. One of the larger ones may also look better on the model (better detail, or appearance), even if a little large.
 

 
The hole below the center sheave, is drilled diagonally through the block.
 
I used the drawing in the book as a basis, and used the general size on the Bennett drawing to get the dimensions. The Bennett block is shorter, so I matched distance from the bottom of the block to the axle of the center sheave on the Bennett to scale the Carrie Price one. The hole in the strap at the bottom created walls too thin to print, so I will drill it out later.
 
Carrie Price block
 

 
Bennett block
 

 
The present configuration of the part for printing is below. I have to print the strap as a separate part, otherwise it is a projecting wall, and must be twice as thick as the minimum .3mm tolerance.
 

 
I will be using the cleats, cheek blocks and the horse block, at a minimum. I’ll decide about the others when I get the actual parts. I have included several extras of each part, just in case.
 
For those of you who are following my 2D to 3D tutorial, I will soon be adding sections on drawing the horse block.

Well after looking at the 1/64th scale frame and the requirements for the minimum thicknesses Shapeways requires, I don't know that I can 3D print it. I have two options:
 
1. Print everything with square cross sections, and scrape them to round.
 
2. Print a pattern to be used as a mold for a RTV jig, to hand build one on. I can't just print the jig itself, all their plastics are porice (sp), and thus would absorb any glue I used while building the frame parts. It also does not have the heat capacity, to be used for soldering the parts. The RTV would allow either option. I might try an experiment with using a wax coating to seal the plastic, maybe a couple layers of future floor polish, would do the trick.
 
I'm going to redraw the 1/32nd parts this weekend.

I contacted Shapeways, and found out the trouble with the dredge frame designs. Their page shows limits of .3mm for walls supported on both ends, and .6mm for those that are hanging in mid air at one end.
 
This applies to square/rectangular shapes only! For round cross sectional parts the limits are .6mm and .8mm respectively.
 
I can redo the 1/32nd part, with work, by increasing the smaller 5/8" scale frame parts to about .8", not bad. I just wish I had known this when I started!
 
For the 1/64th parts, I will have to get creative. I think that if I design the parts to lay flat in sections, with the bottom square, I can do it. I will then have to scrape the flat parts of the sections round, like if I was scraping wooden parts to a shape for molding, or other formed surfaces.

Part 28
 
I finally finished the drawings for the dredge frames in 1/32 and 1/64th! I just sent a sample off for printing. I assume I’ll have to make some changes once the sample comes back. The 1/64th model is pushing the 3D printing to the limits of Shapeways standards.
 

 
The smaller 1/64th model, had to have some changes, over what I did for the 1/32nd one. The horizontal cross braces were too thin for printing (not sufficiently supported), so I printed the two horizontal bars, too be used as stock for adding them, when I build the frames. I’ll have to fabricate the bottom brace from wire, It was far too thin to print, without being far too large proportionally.
 
I still have a couple details to add to the 1/64th model, but will wait to see how what I have now turns out. I also added a support/sprue at the nose. The two bars run between the outer skid, and the first dredge tooth on that side. I may have to add a support for the nose of the 1/32nd part. It may help with the printed shape of the part (orientation of the bar to print path). They may lay the part down with the nose on the table for printing, without the support.
 
I ordered the prints today, and should get them back mid April.
 
I’m drawing some detail parts to use for cleats, etc., to see if they can be printed. My hands are a lot shakier now, than they were 40 years ago, so making really small parts is difficult, some times.
 
Now that my shop is somewhat back in order (well at least I can get to the work bench), I can soon start back on the model.

Here's another set on dredging, taken in 1991. Thanks for the first link Frank!
 

Part 27
 
The wood for the mast and boom have not arrived yet, but I finished the drawing for the dredge frame in 1/32nd scale. I’ll order a set at the beginning of the month.
 
This is the frame drawing from the Willie Bennett plans.
 

 
It has decent detail, but not as much as I think it should.
 
This is from an old stereographic print
 

 
Of course there is the dredge in the hand winch photos.
 

 
And even a picture of a dredge that was on sale on EBay! Wish I could have bought that one.
 

 
This is the print from the Fisheries' book, that I showed in a previous post.
 

 
I bought a book “Images of America Maryland’s Skipjacks” that had several photos showing a dredge. After looking at these pictures, I decided to draw a more complex frame, using some of the details from the pictures.
 

 

 

 
What I got from these pictures, is that there were many different designs, and just about anything resembling a dredge would be correct on a model. In the first book picture, showing frames at the docks in Baltimore, some of the dredges have bottom braces, and some don’t.
 
I particularly like eyelet and hook arrangement for the bottom brace on this last picture, and decided to use this on my dredge. The dredge in the winch photo also has a hook and eye arrangement, though of a different design. Having the dredger bar bolted to the frame, then welded to the bottom brace, making removal impossible, also did not make sense to me.
 
What I settled on was a frame like the Bennett drawing, but a bottom brace like the last picture above. The front of the dredge in the Bennett drawing is a blunt end, with a ring. I made the front end a mass of the upper and lower bars welded together, with a blunt point which is the common configuration in the pictures. I will still use a ring, rather than a welded eye for the cable connection.
 
This is my completed dredge frame drawing in 1/32nd. I have to redraw almost all of it for the 1/64th one, as I will have to make the diameters of the bars larger, to meet the printing requirements, though not a whole lot. The 5/8” upper frame bars will only have to be made a little large than ¾”. I want to increase the size of the rest of the bars, to keep the proportions correct.
 

 

 

 

 
Close ups of the bolt area and the nose.
 

 

 
This is a screen shot from the Shapeways site showing that everything is acceptable (all green, no yellow, or red).
 

 
The only thing that worries me is that the model may sag during the printing process. If that happens I will have to break it up into sub-assemblies.

Had more success with the dredge frame drawing. It will now print out as one part in 1/32nd scale. I still have to add details, but most of it is done.
 
Here are two pictures of the progress so far.

Part 26
 
The 3D printed parts for the winches came in last week, both the 1/32 and 1/64 sizes.
 
Today I took some pictures. The first couple are the “raw” parts, as they came, and unpainted.
 
I primed the 1/32 scale parts using Badger Stynlrez gray primer, with my airbrush. The primer dries very fast, so fast that I managed to clog the airbrush. I took about ½ hour to clean it, and then I finished painting.
 
The problem is most likely mine. I’m new to airbrushing, and there were a couple other factors. Some time ago I banged the air pressure gauge on my airbrush supply regulator. This is the first time I have used it since then. Yes, the gauge is broken. I had to use the regulator on the compressor, which has courser measurements than the airbrush one. So I’m not sure exactly what pressure I was using. Somewhere between 20 and 30 psi. The airbrush is both a cheap one, and brand new, so I am inexperienced with it. I think I may look into a decent external mix airbrush for priming. Even with a large (.050) needle, it was slow going.
 
The pictures of the primed 1/64th parts will be next week. I have to figure out how to hold these very small parts, without them blowing away.
 
Anyway here are pictures.
 
To take them I had to put my magnifying lamp between the camera and the parts to make them large enough to see in the pictures. The camera was set for close up shots, and I even had to zoom in some, using the telephoto feature.
 

 
These are the 1/32nd scale parts, with a quarter for comparison. At the left is a part that combines the clutch and the end of the winding drum that the clutch engages. There is a groove to guide the saw so I can separate them. I had to combine them, as the individual parts were too small to be printed separately.
 
Going clockwise, the next two parts are the crank handles, then the other side of the drum. There is a hole through this part for the axle. Strangely, even though I drew a hole in the clutch side flange for the axle, it disappeared when I loaded the file to the 3D printing company checking software. I tried several different ways of putting the hole in, none successful. I finally gave up, but was able to draw a circular depression to use as a guide to drill the rest of the hole out.
 
Next is the sprue with all the nuts on it. Once again the individual parts were too small to print separately. I had to leave the back of the legs flat, the smaller nuts will be attached behind the pawl, and clutch arm, to simulate the other end of the bolt holding them on.
 
Next is the plain leg, this is the one opposite the clutch drum position. If you look closely you can see the four pads that the support rods will bolt through, They are on the back web, along the inside of the vertical webs.
 
Next is the 6” diameter 18 tooth pawl gear. I was pleased to see that the teeth were “pointy” I thought they would print out as blobs I would have to shape by hand.
 
Lastly is the complex leg. This has the pawl gear support, and both the clutch handle, and pawl gear attached. Again the clutch handle and pawl were too small to print as separate parts, and putting them on a sprue left relatively large areas that would have to be shaped, once they were cut from the sprue. So I just had them printed in place, on the leg. The pawl gear fits between the leg bearing and the support arm (See the primed part photos below).
 
Here is the picture of the 1/64th scale parts. It is hard to see details on these, even with magnification and zoom.
 

 
At the top is the sprue with the smaller parts, the drum halves, crank arms, and the feet for the legs. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to make the vertical web on the legs thicker to meet the minimum that the company can print. I will sand the web to thickness then attach the feet to the thinner web. If I had printed the feet on the legs, I would have had to leave the webs thick, as the foot detail would have covered some of the area I have to sand. The nut sprue is attached to the rest of the sprue, not separate, as in the larger model. Even with the minimum wall thickness, I was able to have the hole through the larger nuts. I will use it as a guide to drill them to size.
 
I was able to still have the hole through the large drum part. As mentioned below the clutch drum has the “left side axle. The hole in this large section will have a metal stub axle inserted, for the other end. The hole is long enough to allow me to adjust as needed, during assembly.
 
Below these is the clutch drum on its mount. The circular mount makes the whole thing large enough to print. The vertical rod portion will be trimmed and used as the axle on that end.
 
Next at the bottom right is the simple leg. It has a depression on the flat side, to accept the metal axle stub. On the front side the portion of the axle that the crank handle attaches to is printed in place. Even at this small size, the pads for the support rods could be printed.
 
Last are the two parts on the left. These are two complex legs. I have the one turned to show the detail at the top (at least as much as can be seen). Once again the clutch handle, and the pawl are printed on the leg. I had to make them thicker, but did so in a way that allows me to thin them down. After looking at the part, I think I will leave the pawl, as is, and just file the clutch handle.
 
To save a lot of hassle, the pawl gear is also printed in place. I can’t see it well enough to determine how it looks, but I can feel the teeth with my finger nail. I’m quite pleased with the detail that can be done.
 
The other leg shows how the gear, pawl, and handle turned out. Those with good enough eyes, can see some indication of the teeth.
 
As with the first leg there is a hole in the back for the axle, and the crank handle end is printed in place.
 
Here are some shots of the primed 1/32nd scale parts.
 

 
An overall shot. The ends of the handles were stuck in the foam to hold the parts and did not get painted, nor did the one side that faced the foam get a good coat.
 
You can see that the vertical web gets taller as it approaches the bearing casting at the top. This transition is curved, not just a straight line. This came out in the print. You can also see the support rod pads, better.
 
The gear teeth are “sharp”, as printed, no shaping needed.
 

 
This one shows the back of the parts, and the top of the complex leg. It shows the crank handles, pawl, and clutch handle better. The support for the pawl gear (arm coming up from web), was printed as part of the leg, in both scales.
 

 
This is a close up shot of the nuts and complex leg.
 

 
Here is the pawl gear inserted into place.
 
There is some roughness as you drag your figure nail along the parts, but a little sanding will fix that.
 
I do not think I could fabricate these parts in 1/32nd, it would be pushing my skills to the limit, especially getting the leg webbing to match on all four legs. I know I couldn’t fabricate them in 1/64th! I’m glad that 3D printing is available! There are some modelers out there who could do this, and I applaud them!
 
Next week I’ll prime the smaller winch parts, and post them.
 
After some experimenting, I will be printing out the dredge frames, also. Even in 1/64th, the detail will be good enough, almost scale thicknesses on the frame bars, at this scale. They will look much better than ones I could make by hand.
 
I found some pictures of the dredges, and have adapted details from them. The drawings for the Willie Bennett, simplify the detail somewhat. Every dredge I found differed in detail, so mine should look just fine.
 

 
This is what I have so far.
 

 

 
One major change is the bottom support bar. Rather than being welded in line with the cross pieces at the bottom, it runs along the top, and has a ring and hook arrangement, at the front. I'm not sure what this does, but all the pictures I've seen show a similar set to this.
 
On a side note, at this time someone is selling real oyster dredges on EBAY! If they were not a 10 hour drive away to pick up, and my truck was not acting up, I’d buy one! What a display base/case I could make of one of these for the four boats I’m planning on, as well as other Chesapeake Bay models! The dredges for sale are smaller versions, than those commonly used on the skipjacks, but for my use, that would be better.
 
The plastic material that the parts are printed in, is described as stiff and fragile. I have been playing with the parts, and there is some flex, and they seem quite strong. Not construction grade, but not delicate either.
 
P.S. I had four of each winch printed. I’m glad! While getting the parts ready for painting, one of the crank handles flipped onto the floor, never to be seen again, at least until I step on it, and hear the crunch!
 
All this would be so much easier if I was 40 years younger, and my hands didn't shake.

Part 25
I spent the last couple of weeks translating my winch drawing from the 2D CAD drawing to a 3D drawing acceptable for the Shapeways company to print. I choose Shapeways because I have heard about them often on my model railroad forums. There are also other companies that do the 3D printing.
 
I used the Google SketchUp  program to create the 3D drawing. This program is available as a free version, with some of the features of the purchased program disabled. The disabled features are not needed to create a drawing for a modeler.
 
I have both an older Pro version, and the latest free version. The only Pro feature I used was the importing of the 2D CAD file. The free version will only import picture format files. You could convert your CAD to one of these formats to use with the free version, or just start from scratch using your drawing for reference. After importing it I switched to the newer free version.
 
The pro version is $700, so you will most likely be using the free one.
 
There were some pitfalls along the way, as the parts had to be drawn in a certain “philosophy”, for lack of a better word. I may be doing another thread on just this process, if I find any interest.
 
The files still have to go through their manual check process. I do not think there will be any problems that will make them unprintable. If there are, they will refund your money, and tell you what has to be corrected.
 
Anyway here are some pictures of the finished drawings.
 

 
This is the drawing for the 1/32nd parts. There are enough for 4 winches in this one. It only cost a little more than just printing two winches, and allows me to break something while assembling the model. Shapeways charged about $20 total + shipping to print this one.
 
Here I found a mistake after paying for a copy. SketchUp has a feature (one of the free plugins) that checks for problems and corrects them. You have to recheck your drawing after doing this, as sometimes it “corrects” the drawing, by deleting offending parts! This happened when I checked this drawing, and I missed it.
 
Look at the leg at the lower left. The bosses for the support rods are missing at the bottom of the legs. Compare it to the leg on the right.
 
Rather than correct the file and print a new one, I corrected it, and made a new file with just the four corrected legs. This print was about $9, and I got it in soon enough that they will include it with my first order, so I didn’t have additional shipping.
 

 
Back to the first drawing.
 
The handle for the clutch mechanism, and the pawl were too small to print individually, so I added them to the one leg. They are small and have a lot of curves, so attaching them to a sprue would have left a lot of trimming to do. Likewise the clutch end of the drum, and the clutch were combined (the thing that resembles a hat, above the legs. When I go to assemble the model, I will separate them. I left a “channel” between the drum and clutch parts to aid in guiding the saw.
 

 
The long “thing” between the legs are the nuts for the model on a sprue. Once again an individual nut was too small to print. Some of the nuts will be attached to the back of the legs, which for printing have flat backs.
 
There is also a foot at the handle to crank arm joint, to support the part during printing. I will sand this off of the finished piece.
 
The 1/32nd model is designed to have an axle to string the drum, clutch, pawl gear, and crank handles. The supports and axle will be metal rods.
 
The leg webs on the 32nd model are about scale ½” for the “walls” and back. This is close to the minimum requirements for printing (.3mm).
 
The 1/64th scale version had to have some major modifications done, to satisfy the minimum thicknesses that could be printed (.3mm).
 

 
The leg webs had to be thickened. For the plain leg this was not a problem, I just made them thicker. I will sand the back and straight sides to thin them closer to scale. Notice that the axle, is cast in place for the handle. There is a hole in the back for the clutch and drum assembly. Both legs are setup this way.
 

 
The pawl gear end leg presented some problems. The top of the leg has bosses for the pawl and clutch handle. Thickening the whole length would have destroyed the leg to boss transition curves. At this transition area, though, the scale leg was already thick enough. I therefore only thinned the lower straight section of the leg, and will sand this straight section to thin and blend it.
 
The web at the back of the leg also had to be thickened to about 0.9” in scale. It is flat on the back, so sanding it down to ½” scale will not present a problem. Once again the final print is four winches, to allow for mistakes.
 
Unfortunately the pawl and clutch handle had to be significantly thickened.. For the pawl I will just leave it as is. For the handle I thickened it on the inside so that it will be somewhat easier to thin it, and errors will be better hidden.
 
Trying to use a metal axle for this scale was an unreasonable (for my skill level) fiddly idea. So for this leg I inserted the pawl gear into the assembly.
 
The clutch is now on its own base. Trying to cut it from the drum would have been tricky, and now the axle is cast as part of it. The drum end has a hole for the axle to fit in, and the back has a recess for the drum shaft.
 
The shaft end of the drum is hollow. Here I will use a short piece of metal for the axle, but I will have that long hole to allow for adjusting the rod.
 
For both legs I made the little decoration at the foot separate parts. They will be attached after the leg webs have been sanded (he says confidently. Hope springs eternal).
 
I was able to also print the nuts, but had to use a much smaller hole. I will drill these out to scale, using that hole as a guide.
 
The supports will be metal, but simply string through everything
 

 
Here are the small parts on their sprue. The handle for the cranks are square at the end, for printing. I will round them off. The clutch axle is overly long, and will be trimmed to fit.
 
On both models I have a surplus of nuts, as I’m sure some of them will disappear or be damaged during assembly.
 

 
This file cost about $8 + shipping from them.
Shapeways still has to do the manual checks, which I should get a, hopefully, OK this week, and they will be print sometime in the following week.
 
I just hope my building skills are up to the 1/64th winch assembly. The plastic that these will be printed in is somewhat brittle, but the only one with fine enough detail to do the job. I would have to significantly thicken everything to use a different plastic, and the 1/64th parts would not be printable at all.
 
If there is interest I will make these available publicly from Shapeways.

Part 24
 
Over the last few days I learned enough about SketchUp to make these drawings of the hand dredge as a solid model. Real SketchUp draftsmen would probably cringe. I had to go back and redraw many of the parts several times, trying different ways of creating them.
 

 

 
The next step is to contact the 3D printing company, and see if the drawing can be printed. I’m sure there will be more needed before they are acceptable.
 
There is an extra pawl support arm (the one sticking vertically out of the one leg), as I’m not sure that the leg can be printed with it attached.
 

Here are the drawings with labels, to clarify the construction.
 

 

 
 
I will not be posting a 3D drawing. My CAD program leaves lots of lines that should be "hidden" in the 3D drawings, and it takes 10 to 20 hours to erase them from the 2D views. I will be using SketchUp to do the 3D drawings, so that I have the option to send this out for 3D printing. First I have to learn SketchUp though, so it may be a while.

Part 24
 
Finished the 2D drawing of the dredge winch using the measurements Mahune posted.
 
In the original drawings I assumed that the width of the legs was the same as the length between them, a square footprint. With the new measurements, this made the legs quite clunky, and squat looking, not like the spindly legs shown in other photos. So for this drawing I just rescaled the legs to 33" between the base and the center of the axle. The legs looked better this way.
 
I did redraw the legs so that the edges were on reasonable inches and fractions likely to be used at the time. ie. 23 1/4" (24.25") as opposed to 23. 234". The legs had been drawn this way, but when rescaled the measurements got funcky.
 
The rest was redrawn per the new dimensions.
 
Here is the drawing. I broke it up into 2 pictures for better viewing.
 

 

 
The scale of the two drawings is not the same, as I was trying to get maximum size per drawing within the 1600 X 1200 pixel site limits.

As far as frapping the gun lines. Remember, it could be hours between sighting an enemy ship, and actually engaging her, so plenty of time to get ready.

Part 17 B
 

 
The smaller engines were all similar in size, based on the bore, stroke, and prop size. I based the engine I drew on the Detroit add for the 2 HP engine. I thought that is squarish crank block and side located engine mounts looked more “engineish” than the Kowalski’s spherical crank block and circular bottom mounts.
 
Also most of the base of the engine will be either hidden, or not modeled. As it turns out, due to the way the kit hull is cast, the bottom of the engine and flywheel will be not modeled, or will be cut off afterward.
 
To get a basis for the size of the engine, the only reference I had was the bore and the overall diameter of the outside of the cylinder block below the water jacket. I found a cylinder block for a period engine with a 3 ½” bore on EBay. The pictures allowed me to determine the cylinder wall thickness to be bout ¼”, giving me a 4” diameter on the outside of the bore.
 

 
I scanned the Detroit 2 HP add into my CAD program, and set the width of the bore sleeve to 4”. I did the same of the Kowalski engine. After using the CAD program to dimension the other parts, I drew my own engine, using those proportions.
 

 

 
I scanned the kit parts and made a drawing of them. This allowed me to see if my engine would fit, how it looked, and a realistic position for it in the model.
 

 
After finishing the drawing, I then looked a bit closer at the kit hull. I had assumed that the hull was about the same cast thickness. I was wrong. I had failed to notice that the slat flooring inside was cast as a flat surface (the red horizontal line). This is why I mentioned earlier that I will not model the bottom of the engine.
 
I printed out the engine on paper to scale, and glued the top and side views into a 3D pattern.
 

 
Yes, that is the end of a reversed clothespin holding the tab of the scale pattern! Like I said, superdetailing the engine model would be a near miraculous task!
 
I placed the pattern into the hull to see how it would look.
 

 
This satisfied me that it would fit.
 
I also found some pictures of a similar Detroit engine installed in a period 18’ launch.
 

 

 

 
As well as a picture of the same size launch from a factory add.
 

 
Ok. How I will go from here. The Leonard model photo shows flooring at the level of the engine mounts. I will carve out the kit hull flooring to the outline of the model engine, plus a little. I will build the engine, and make a simple prop. I Will Not obsess about the engine being in perfect line with the prop center.
 
My truck died 2 weeks ago, far from home, rather fatally . I have been feverishly working on getting our car running, and the next installment may be a week or so.

Part 17 A
 
The ship’s boat could be built one of three ways. Just use the stock parts, this would represent a modern push boat, with a big engine.
 
I could scratch build an oar powered skiff (really small work).
 
I decided to go with an intermediate type, inboard powered, but using an one cylinder engine of around 1900. This would use most of the stock parts, but remove the seats and engine box. I would install a little exposed single cylinder engine (or at least something that looks close). This type and the oar powered skiff, are closer to the period I’m modeling, when she was built in 1895, and used hand cranked dredges. In this case the boat is used only for transportation, not pushing.
 
The traditional modern Push Boat I’ve talked about previously, but will detail some more.
 
I was not completely correct about its use before. At that time I said that it was used for pushing the boat while dredging in light or no winds. While this is correct, after more research I found some restrictions that have changed over time.
 
Before the 1960s, the boat could only be used to get the skipjack to and from the oyster beds, but not used during dredging. In the 60s this was changed to allow its used while dredging, but only two days a week. It was further restricted in that the two days were specified as Mondays and Tuesdays. Monday and Tuesday were the only days allowed until the 1990s. In the 90s, the law was changed in that, while they could still only dredge two days a week, the crew could pick any two days each week. This allowed for changes in wind and weather during the season. When not in use the boat had to be stored in the davits, so that law enforcement could easily see that it was not being used. They, of course, kept a watchful eye on the dredging operations. In recent times by plane, to cover a larger area.  
These pictures are of a modern Pushboat for the skipjack Rosie Parks. This is during its recent restoration. The Rosie Parks is a restored skipjack at a the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.
 

 

 
The engines in these are huge, compared to the hull. This one is a turbocharged diesel. Note also that, the man on the left seems to have been doing a lot of restoration work outside.
 
Here is a drawing of another Pushboat from the National Archives.
 

 
The intermediate type that I am trying to shoot for, is when small inboard gas engines were first being used.
 

 
You can see a small marine engine in this picture. The most visible clue is the large flywheel. There are no seats, and it looks like there is a tiller and thus a rudder.
 
This boat is on a model of the J T Leonard, an Oyster Sloop. These were the immediate predecessors to the skipjacks, built from about the 1840s until the 1890s, when the skipjacks took over.
 

 
This is the full model. While these had a similar deck arrangement, they were built in the traditional framed hull method, with a rounded hull form. As you can see she still had the hand cranked dredges, when her boat had the old type engine. She was formally at the same museum as the Rosie Parks, but no longer exists. She was acquired when the museum first opened in the 60s, and at that time funds were short. By the time enough funds were available, she was too far gone to save. This is a model at the museum.
 
The original ship’s boats were oar driven. Flat bottomed skiffs being popular. This is the kind shown in the photograph below. This is one of the pictures used in the hand dredge post.
 

 
The drawing for the Carrie Price shows this type.
 

 
I did not want to scratch build a skiff, and the supplied parts in the kit are for a modern Pushboat. The hull of the kit parts does, however, resemble that for the one on the J T Leonard model. So I decided to scratch build an engine, and modify the kit boat.
 
I researched early inboard gas engines of around 1900, and found a wealth of information on the internet. What follows are some of the pictures and advertisements I found, for engines about the right size.
 

 

 

 

 
As you can see, the engines and transmissions are not complex. In this small scale, I plan to leave out most of the small details, and just build the basic flywheel, engine, and transmission housings. The engine will also be mostly hidden by the deck and combing, and my model is of the skipjack not its boat. Superdetailing the ship’s boat would draw the eye to it, not the larger model.  The fact that superdetailing the engine  and Pushboat would probably take as long as the rest of the model (and drive me insane), never crossed my mind. J
 
After consideration I decided to go with a Detroit type motor, with a lever for the transmission like the one on the Kowalski engine.
 
I measured the space available between the kit boat’s stem and rudder, and the largest prop I could fit was about 8” in diameter. From the chart below, that puts an engine in the 2 to 4 HP range as scale. I think for a 12’ boat, this would be right for the era.

Part 16
 
The transom on the model is notched where the rails end. On the plans the transom goes up “straight" and the rail ends butt to it.
 
It took leftover pieces from the railing stock and glued then in the notches, after cleaning them up a little bit. The pieces were larger than the notch on all sides.
 

 

 
After letting the glue dry for several hours, I filed the plastic to be flat with the front and back of transom, and with the edges of the transom in line with the hull.
 

 

 
A couple notes on this:
 
I used the “Fingernail Test” to determine when the new parts were flush  with the old. This involves running your finger nail along the seam. If it slides past the seam without catching, the seam is flush. Machinists used this test on their parts. Look at your files, some of the flat ones will have a “Safe Edge”. There is one thin side with no teeth. This allows you to have this edge against a surface that you do not want to remove. I had the safe edge against the top of the railings. Not all files have this, so check yours.  
The next order of business, was the chain plates. The kit had a couple problems with these. The chain plates, deadeyes, and shroud lashings were all cast as one piece. To use them as is safely I would have had to attach them after  I painted the hull, and was installing the spars and rigging. I would rather paint the chain plates with the hull.
 

 
Hole in hull where chainplates attach.
 
The kit parts also had a bar between the chains at the bottom, and a coil of rope suspended between the shroud lashings (see the left hand red circle on the box art, below). If you look at the second red circle, you can see there was a similar rope coil on the railings, I removed this too. The rod was not shown on my plans for either this boat, nor the Willie Bennett. A circular coil of rope is not something you would find on a real boat, that is not how real rope hangs.
 

 
A couple months ago I carefully used a razor saw and knife to remove the coil. I decided to cut the chain plates free and, if I decide (likely) to use the rest later, I will remove the lower bar, and thin the upper. While the shroud lashings are crude, I don’t think I could do any better with real scale deadeyes and thread. The running light boards are also attached the these parts, making keeping them more attractive. I may scrape groves in the cast lashings with a knife to make them look more like separate lines.
 

 
After I cut the chain plates free I removed most of the casting lines. I left a little to represent the line between the part attached to the hull, and the cap bolted to it to lock in the deadeye straps.
 
I drilled shallow holes in the tops of the chain plates where the cast straps had attached, to mark their locations, only to find that stock positions of these joints did not match the locations of the straps cast on the hull. I’ll fill them later.
 
I glued the chain plates onto the hull.
 

 

 
I've been researching the Skipjack Push Boats a little more, and will be talking about them next time.

Part 15
 
I started on the fore upper rails next.
 

 

 
I clamped a block at the top of the bowsprit, where the railings would meet it. This is a little high per the plans, but the kit railings are high. In fact the new sections dip a little between the old rail and the bowsprit. Maybe no one will notice. I also placed a block between the lower rail and the new piece. I glued on the port extension first.
 

 

 
The starboard rail extension followed.
 
Then I trimmed the starboard rail, and found a problem.
 

 
It’s hard to see in the photograph, but when the new section was sanded to match the old, there was a kink right at the joint. The old railing tilted inward about a ¼ of its width. It was much more visible when looking at the ship from above the bow. As this was right in the area that you would first see when viewing the model, I decided to correct both rails before continuing.
 
 I would need to cut some stanchions and move the old section outward. This involved what I have been trying to avoid, drilling a small hole in a small part.
 
I removed the first stanchion and cut loose the bottoms of the next two, and cut off the bump at the top of the rail that represents the top of the stanchion rod, where the head of the rod/bolt is. I also broke the joint between the old and new sections.
 
I used a piece of wood clamped to the deck to push the old rail end outward, and stuck a 1/16” piece of plywood between the upper and lower rails to support the upper rail during drilling. Then I drilled through the upper rail in the former location of the bump, with a #76 drill (about .020” in diameter, the railing was .060” wide). Once I had the hole through the upper rail, I removed the ply block and drilled the lower rail, also in the center, sort of. When I was done I found that the drill bit had wondered and cut down the outside of the lower rail, rather than the center. So I drilled a second hole a little further back.
 
The second hole was a little off at the top rail, but spot on for the bottom. I decided that it was good enough.
 
I used a #73 drill to open the holes for the pin used for the new stanchion.
 

 
You can see the two holes at the upper right of the picture.
 
For this operation I used my Optivisor (with its greater magnification), and went slowly.
 
I inserted a pin into the upper and lower  holes as the new stanchion, and secured it with thin super glue. I also used the super glue for the railing joint.
 

 
I cut the pin off with rail nippers. They are like heavy duty sprue nippers. They are used for cutting the track rail on model railroads. I then filed the protruding portion, leaving a little at the top to represent the bolt head I had trimmed off before.
 

 
On the left are the rail nippers, on the right the regular sprue nippers.
 

 
You can see that I managed to knock off the port rail extension during this process. A pain, but I would have had to break the joint between the new and old rails anyway.
 
A little further sanding and the rail was finished. I used thin plastic cement to reattach the bottoms of the other two stanchions I had cut earlier, they were shifted a little but still looked centered.
 

 

 
I repeated the process for the other rail.
 
While trimming the rail I held the bowsprit, reversed, in place to reinforce the railing, and hold it in place at the tip. This is not how I held it and the file during the trimming, but I had to use my other hand to snap the picture
 

 
I used the large file to remove the bulk of the material, then switched to a needle file to finish.
 
After trimming the rail, I glued the stub of the incorrect bowsprit in to protect the rails while I do more work on the hull.
 

 

Part 14
 
 
I worked on the rails, to extend them front and back.  I did the port side upper railing first. Mistake! After I got it on I realized that the gap on the lower rail was too small to work on with the upper rail in place. Also I just trimmed the end of the rail flat and tried to glue the small piece I needed to fill the gap. The long overhang of the model rail from the last stanchion allowed the joint to flex all over the place, making gluing difficult. I finally managed it, but was smarter with both rails on the other side.
 

 
Notice the short lighter white section of new rail at the top. On the bottom you can hardly see the new piece.
 

 
On the second side I trimmed both the lower and upper rails back close to the stanchion.
 
I smartly did the lower rail first this time. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of these steps.
 
It cut a piece off of .040” plastic sheet to about 7 or 8/32” wide and 5” long. This should have been enough, but I ended up making enough scrap that I had to cut another piece. These parts are very small, and it took a few tries on some.
 
I fit the pieces so that they were even with the inner edge, and the excess width was on the outside. I then sanded the outside to match the existing railing. Lower installed and trimmed, then the upper. With the upper rail trimmed close to the support, this was easier.
 

 
 You can see here that the new section meets the old close to the stanchion.
 
After looking at the plans, I will have to fill in the sides of the transom, it should go all the way to the outer edge of the railings.
 
Next I turned to the railings in the bow. First I temporarily glued the bowsprit in place with white glue. I decided that trying to trim them to fit the spar after I’d installed them would be harder than fitting them with it in.
 

 

 
 
Once again I did the lower rails first.
 

 
The  lower rails installed, before trimming are shown above. The lower one is not off center it just looks that way in the photo. I removed the bowsprit for the shaping.
 
Notice that I also had to add a piece of plastic to the top of the stem. The model piece did not quite go all the way to deck level.
 

 

 
Here they are after trimming. After trimming they look better. At this point I’ve reinstalled the bowsprit for the fabrication of the upper rails. When I do the upper rails I’ll again trim them back to the stanchion.
 
I let the glue dry overnight.
 
For those of you who wonder how I see all these small parts, here is my “eyes”. Using this is somewhat of a pain, as I’m constantly hitting it with the tool handles, but my Optivisors have too close a focus distance for me to comfortably use them for work directly on the model with it on the bench. My hands are not steady enough to hold the model in the air, most times.
 

 
I spent all morning going through the dowels I bought, and a number of my kits looking for the 1/8” and 3/32” stock I needed for the boom and mast. None of the recently purchased dowels (5 in each of the two sizes) were straight for their full length, not even for the 12” I needed. I picked out two of the 1/8” that were warped the least for the boom.
 
Then I went through my kits looking for a 3/32” dowel. After about five or six kits with 3/32” dowels I finally found one that was straight. I need to find a new source. The kits I can understand, they are almost all three or four decades old. Still disappointing.

Part 13
 
I finished the drawings for the mast and boom.
 
The drawing of the Carrie price’s mast was, I felt, too crude for me to just draft off of it. With the original scans being from a page in a book, the lines were quite thick.
 
Luckily the Maryland builders generally followed the same proportional rules when building a boat. Knowing this I took the scans from my Willie Bennett kit, which have about 4 times the resolution, and used them. When I rescaled the Bennett mast to match the length of the Price mast, the diameters fell very close to what was given in the book for the Carrie Price. So using the Bennett as a guide I drew the Price’s mast.
 
To simplify the mast somewhat, I chose to keep it untaperd for part of its length, tapering it at the ends. In real boats the mast was tapered its full length, using a formula that kept it close to the same diameter in the center section, but still tapered. It was not a straight taper, but a curve that increased in taper as you went down the mast. This taper was only fractions of an inch in the center section.
 
I could not find that general rule, and in 1/64th scale, I think it would not show. I’ll just sand in some additional blending when I've mostly finished the part.
 

 
The upper taper starts at around 218” in full scale. The bottom starts were the octagonal section is. This is a straight taper. The upper one is slightly curved. The main section is 12 scale inches in diameter.
 
I will taper the lower section the full length, even though most of it will not show. This is easier than trying to keep the section below decks a cylinder. I will fit a block in the hull for the lower end to sit in. I will also have to redrill the deck opening. The original plastic mast had a knee at the deck joint and the lower section fit vertically into the hull socket.
 
The mast is 55’ 6” long above deck.
 

 
Here is a close up of the upper section showing the taper.
 

 
Here is the lower end.
 
This is a diagram of the faceted sides of an octagon, and how they would look in a side view.
 

 
From the side the flat section would appear .383” wide if the mast was 1” in diameter. The angled side would appear to be .271” wide. For the 12” diameter at a point on the mast each number would be multiplied by 12. Notice that because of the taper I scaled each end and then connected the points.
 
When I glue patterns to all four sides I can cut down to the lines, and the angled faces will come out the right width, like I did on the bowsprit. Because the bowsprit curved I had to used several points along the length, and connect the points with curved lines.
 
The book gave dimensions for the boom, and when I used these the curve fell onto the plan lines, so I drew it using the plans.
 

 

 
The deck and profile page did not have the boom shown, so I copied it from the sail plan when I finished.
 
As you can see, with the long boom and mast, these boats had quite a spread of sail when working.
 
The plans did not show an overhead drawing of the boom, but the Willie Bennett did. It showed cleats on both sides, so I that is how I drew them for this model.
 
The sheave on the outboard end of the boom is for the topping lift used to support the boom when the sail is down. It also supports the boom while lowering and raising the main sail. The end is belayed to the starboard rear most cleat. The line runs from the top of the mast, around the sheave, under the boom, and then it is secured to the cleat. When sailing this line is loosened.
 
In an article I read on the Grand Banks fishing schooner Elsie, the author said that these long booms sagged on the real boats, and that is how he modeled his. I considered it, but decided that the average person would look at a sagging boom as a modeling mistake. Also the curve in the bowsprit was a pain. So a straight boom will be modeled.

A member asked me about where I got my information on dredging operations. I sent him a reply, and thought that the others following this thread would like the links too. This is the message I sent.
 
Here are some links. I looked them up this morning.
 
Fishing and Fisheries: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/rarebooks/fisheries/welcome.html
 
Kathryn: http://www.loc.gov/item/md1454/
 
E C Collier: http://www.loc.gov/item/md1454/

Part 12
 
Now on to the new bowsprit.
 
I glued the pattern of the top of the sprit, and disk and hand sanded one side.
 

 
Then repeated this for the other side.
 

 
I then glued patterns to the other three sides. The side view pattern is shown below.
 

 
I then shaped the top and bottom of the areas.
 
Next the part was clamped in a small vise, and I beveled the first corner, using a new Xacto blade as a scraper. I watched both sides of the bowsprit to get it even. A little touchup with sandpaper and I was ready for the other corners.
 

 
Here is the bowsprit beveled on all corners.  The transitions from the square to octagonal sections are now even, and where they a suppose to be.
 
The patterns were then sanded off, and using a piece of sandpaper held in my fingers I rounded the end of the part.
 
Below are two pictures of the bowsprit placed on the boat.
 

 

 
Here is a comparison photo of what the old bowsprit looked like when placed on the boat.
 

 
That is just the tip of my finger shown in the photo. The model is small, and this is fiddly work.
 
Next I printed out draft copies of the trailboard, and glued them to the hull. I glued them on in position, so that I could see if they fit, after all this, and so I can locate the position of the molding that goes above and below the trailboards.
 

 
As you can see I still have a little shaping of the stem below the trailboards to do. I did not notice this until I saw this photo. The area where the stem turns to go down the front of the hull is not completely even. The divot on the bottom  at the forward end is the paper of the starboard trailboard. I left the molding border on that one.
 

 
It will probably be a couple weeks before the next installment. I have other, non ship building, commitments.

In the future I plan to scratch built the Carrie Price in 1/32, to match my Willie Bennett kit. 1/64th is small.

Part 11
I decided to shape the stem before puttying it. It would probably have cracked while I was shaping the piece.
 
I glued a paper pattern to the stem, and let the white glue dry over night.
 
I removed the bulk of the excess plastic with wire cutters, and sprue nippers.
 

 

 
Then I cleaned it close to the bottom line with my disk sander. I used a metal block to raise the stem high enough for the hull to clear the table. Unfortunately I glued the pattern to the wrong side, and had to sand it on the side of the disk that cuts upward, and does not have the clearance notch in the shield. Live and learn.
 

 
I staged this shot to show how I held the piece off the table. I actually had to sand on the other side of the disk. This made extra work, as I could not get in as tightly to the wheel as I could on the correct side.
 
I also trimmed the front of the lower stem to match the pattern. The plans show it as being thinner front to back. After shaping this is what I had.
 

 

 
The photo below shows where the old and new meet.
 

 
The new portion is below the red line. As you can see most of the forward end is new plastic.
 

 
Here is the first bowsprit placed in position to test the fit. It still sits a little high at the front, but I left a little stock on the stem for final fitting, once the final bowsprit is finished.
 
Next tasks are to putty and sand this, and making the, hopefully, final bowsprit.
 
I also have to figure out how I am going to built the, very tiny, trailboard moldings that go above and below the trailboard.