CDR_Ret

FYI, Shapeways, the 3D printing company, shared an email today that lists five popular (and free) 3D drafting programs that you can use to create models suitable for 3D printing.
 
They are:
TinkerCAD
Sketchup (good for creating deck furniture, rigging components, etc. Frames and planking are more difficult)
Sculptris (a free version of Zbrush)
3D Slash (not recommended for ship modeling; too blocky)
Ultimaker's Cura (checks models before 3D printing)
 
And there are always Blender and DELFTship. These are also free, but their learning curves are pretty steep.
 
Terry

FYI, Shapeways, the 3D printing company, shared an email today that lists five popular (and free) 3D drafting programs that you can use to create models suitable for 3D printing.
 
They are:
TinkerCAD
Sketchup (good for creating deck furniture, rigging components, etc. Frames and planking are more difficult)
Sculptris (a free version of Zbrush)
3D Slash (not recommended for ship modeling; too blocky)
Ultimaker's Cura (checks models before 3D printing)
 
And there are always Blender and DELFTship. These are also free, but their learning curves are pretty steep.
 
Terry

Hi Matle,
The items you labeled "1" and "2" in your original post are probably chesstrees. These are vertical timbers of wood fastened to the inside surfaces of bulwarks (or frames) for the purpose of redirecting the tacks and sheets of the lower courses for belaying. Their designs appear to be quite variable. Some have sheaves incorporated into their upper ends. Others seem to be more like vertically-oriented, one-ended cleats, with the "thumb" of lower end used to change the direction of the line. They are described in The Art of Rigging by George Biddlecombe and in The Ship Model's Assistant by Charles G. Davis, as well as on-line. Davis's book includes a diagram of a typical chesstree found in a 17th-century sailing vessel.
 
Matthew Turner's Galilee (also a late 19th century, West Coast merchant) had four chesstress on both bulwarks. The Smithsonian plans identify them and show a cross section, regrettably not very clearly.

The photo below shows a pair of chesstrees on Galilee's port bulwark.

Hope this helps answer your question.
 
Terry

Hello all,
I'm  building a 19th century Norwegian yacht, Amundsen's Gjøa. 
 
I'm trying to identify some 3 things on the bulwark stanchions, two of them repeated both on port and starboard. The number '3' and maybe '2' I guess are some holders for the pump handle (can't see where else they could have put it, except below deck). Number 1 I can't begin to guess. It's no big deal if I never find out, as they are so small modelling them as they appear on the pics would be no problem, but I'm curious to know what they were used for. 
 

 

Aaannd .... here is the final image in this topic showing the capstan and windlass in the context of the forecastle space. Based on my reconstruction of the Galilee plans, there will be about 39 inches of room between decks, so I had to downscale the windlass machinery to fit. I also flipped the clutch actuator so that I could maximize the size of the rest of the equipment.
 
The image seems tilted because the equipment rests on the extreme forward sweep of the deck sheer. There is a 4-degree slope at this point on the deck. Anchor chain comes up from the chain locker through pipes in the deck immediately below the wildcats and lead forward through chain stoppers (not shown) to the hawse pipes in the bow.

Here is my reconstruction of the Galilee's capstan, based on the DTM photo of the upper 2/3 of the actual capstan, with reference to a 1915 Hyde Windlass Company catalog and a random photo of another similar capstan I found on a photo sharing site.
 
While Sketchup can support creating such models, there is a lot of fiddly mesh editing that is required, involving many hundreds (thousands?) of faces and edges. To minimize this cleanup, I created a clean version of a one-sixth sector of the capstan, then did a rotational copy five times to duplicate the sector, resulting in a complete model.
 
The next step will be to marry the capstan to the windlass, then place them in context with the decks and structural members as they would have been on the ship itself. This will help me work out the details for framing in the vicinity of this machinery.
 
Terry

Aaannd .... here is the final image in this topic showing the capstan and windlass in the context of the forecastle space. Based on my reconstruction of the Galilee plans, there will be about 39 inches of room between decks, so I had to downscale the windlass machinery to fit. I also flipped the clutch actuator so that I could maximize the size of the rest of the equipment.
 
The image seems tilted because the equipment rests on the extreme forward sweep of the deck sheer. There is a 4-degree slope at this point on the deck. Anchor chain comes up from the chain locker through pipes in the deck immediately below the wildcats and lead forward through chain stoppers (not shown) to the hawse pipes in the bow.

This project has been on hold for the past 14 months, while I was caught up in a family housing project. I have hopes of resuming training on and use of Meshmixer very soon. 

I finally finished drafting up my reconstruction of a Hyde windlass that could have been installed in Galilee. It uses components from Hyde and windlasses found in ships contemporary with Galilee that served on the West Coast of the USA. Since the prototypes were found on ships larger than Galilee, I will likely have to scale this down to a size that will fit in her forecastle. I am hoping to develop a model of her capstan, then show the combined capstan/windlass machinery as it might have been installed in the ship, with appropriate timbers and decking. Oh yeah, and that band brake operator contains a true 2-inch trapezoidal ACME thread developed from ANSI references. Quite fun to make!
 
So far, most of the major components have been separately built in Sketchup Make 2017, and are manifold, which means they could be 3D printed if desired.
 
Terry

I finally finished drafting up my reconstruction of a Hyde windlass that could have been installed in Galilee. It uses components from Hyde and windlasses found in ships contemporary with Galilee that served on the West Coast of the USA. Since the prototypes were found on ships larger than Galilee, I will likely have to scale this down to a size that will fit in her forecastle. I am hoping to develop a model of her capstan, then show the combined capstan/windlass machinery as it might have been installed in the ship, with appropriate timbers and decking. Oh yeah, and that band brake operator contains a true 2-inch trapezoidal ACME thread developed from ANSI references. Quite fun to make!
 
So far, most of the major components have been separately built in Sketchup Make 2017, and are manifold, which means they could be 3D printed if desired.
 
Terry

Exactly! The character was a perpetual busybody.

You are correct, Druxey . Never heard of the play Paul Pry I wonder if that is where the phrase "prying into someone else's business" came from?

Update on my reconstruction of Galilee's capstan. I am three weeks out from a repair of a 25-year-old hernia repair, so I've been recuperating rather than sitting at a computer... (for you older guys, my surgeon informed me that redos of inguinal hernia repairs in men are quite common. The joys of aging!)
 
These images show progress and corrections from the previous post. I have most of the key components modeled in Sketchup Make 2017. The only things left for the windlass are the controls (ratchet pawl, wildcat band brakes, and capstan clutch lever).
 
I realized after the fact that the double pawl wheel shown previously was applicable to the lever-style capstan I was using as a reference. It has been replaced with just the windlass pawl ratchet wheel.
 
Please feel free to ask any questions.
 
Terry

Note that Sketchup's default image import resolution is pretty low. To maximize the line sharpness of imported images, which is essential for tracing plan lines, do the following (applicable to Windows systems):
 
1. Navigate to Sketchup Preferences. (Window|Preferences)
2. Select OpenGL
3. Check Use maximum texture size.
4. Click OK.
 
I included a screenshot of a windlass plan in the default and max resolutions so you can see the difference. These are rendered using a high-end graphics processor, so you can see that it is Sketchup that is affecting the appearance. Large images at maximum texture sizes will slow down the editing process without a good graphics card. See the Warning screenshot.
 

Note that Sketchup's default image import resolution is pretty low. To maximize the line sharpness of imported images, which is essential for tracing plan lines, do the following (applicable to Windows systems):
 
1. Navigate to Sketchup Preferences. (Window|Preferences)
2. Select OpenGL
3. Check Use maximum texture size.
4. Click OK.
 
I included a screenshot of a windlass plan in the default and max resolutions so you can see the difference. These are rendered using a high-end graphics processor, so you can see that it is Sketchup that is affecting the appearance. Large images at maximum texture sizes will slow down the editing process without a good graphics card. See the Warning screenshot.
 

Here is the current status on reconstructing Galilee's windlass using the resources I have available. The diagram is constructed in Sketchup Make 2017 using the basic tool set. This part is probably the hardest to create, with all the curved surfaces in the wildcats and the crown gear. All that remains is creating the operating gear and the mounts to the ship's frames. I suspect that the windlass was mounted to the deck structural timbers, similar to the Lucerne and Thayer, rather than having a separate metal foundation like the Balclutha.
 
I'm hoping that this will be 3D-printable, but the level of detail at the anticipated scale of the model will probably be lost or not printable.
Terry
 

Here is the current status on reconstructing Galilee's windlass using the resources I have available. The diagram is constructed in Sketchup Make 2017 using the basic tool set. This part is probably the hardest to create, with all the curved surfaces in the wildcats and the crown gear. All that remains is creating the operating gear and the mounts to the ship's frames. I suspect that the windlass was mounted to the deck structural timbers, similar to the Lucerne and Thayer, rather than having a separate metal foundation like the Balclutha.
 
I'm hoping that this will be 3D-printable, but the level of detail at the anticipated scale of the model will probably be lost or not printable.
Terry
 

Thanks Roger—good call. Sadly, the Thayer's windlass is actuated by a rocker-type mechanism. It has a standard capstan forward on the forecastle, but there isn't any indication it is linked to the windlass.
 
However, it is a Hyde windlass, so I should probably be able to pattern the wildcats and related hardware based on these drawings. It seems this type of windlass was bolted to a pair of bitts. However, Galilee had only one large bollard samson post located centerline and forward of the capstan. Evidently, the windlass supports were incorporated into the forecastle deck framing.

Took a few hours today to do a detailed search of the Web on this topic. The only things I came up with were the following.
 
Balclutha, which is one of the premier museum vessels held by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, is extremely well documented through the National Park Service HAER program. Several of the scale drawings in that program include diagrams of the anchor windlass, which is shown below. Though the Balclutha is much larger than Galilee, she is almost contemporary to the brigantine. The following diagram shows Balclutha's hand-powered anchor windlass.

The photo below that I found on Pinterest of capstan/windlass of the sunken Lucerne (check out the Wikipedia article) is probably more similar to the one Galilee carried. Since there doesn't seem to be any contemporary diagrams available of a Hyde windlass, I'll have to approximate one when developing the ship's plans.

Bill, thank you for the link to that HWC catalog. It is my impression that, by 1917, Hyde had dropped their manual/hand-operated windlasses for all sorts of powered types, which are described in the catalog. During the transition period (probably around the time this ship was built), steam windlasses still had a capstan for motive power when steam wasn't available for some reason. That is why the capstan is geared into the windlass from a point above the unit, as shown in the brass model I posted above. Still, the book is  an excellent reference, which I will definitely save.
 
Roger, any windlass originally designed for operation by steam won't work for my purposes. Galilee was one of the last of the sail-only brigantines built on the West Coast for merchant service. She originally had a small steam donkey engine amidships for handling cargo and boats, but that was removed during the time my grandfather sailed in her. The crew operated the capstan/windlass by the traditional means—capstan bars and hard work!
 
I'm pretty sure the windlass was operated from the capstan above. As the photo below shows, there was no room for the crew to operate the machinery for raising and lowering the anchors between decks.

[Looking forward toward the forecastle on starboard side during heavy weather.]
Photo courtesy of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution, Washington DC.
 
Thanks again for your responses and interest.
 
Terry

Took a few hours today to do a detailed search of the Web on this topic. The only things I came up with were the following.
 
Balclutha, which is one of the premier museum vessels held by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, is extremely well documented through the National Park Service HAER program. Several of the scale drawings in that program include diagrams of the anchor windlass, which is shown below. Though the Balclutha is much larger than Galilee, she is almost contemporary to the brigantine. The following diagram shows Balclutha's hand-powered anchor windlass.

The photo below that I found on Pinterest of capstan/windlass of the sunken Lucerne (check out the Wikipedia article) is probably more similar to the one Galilee carried. Since there doesn't seem to be any contemporary diagrams available of a Hyde windlass, I'll have to approximate one when developing the ship's plans.

Thanks Roger—good call. Sadly, the Thayer's windlass is actuated by a rocker-type mechanism. It has a standard capstan forward on the forecastle, but there isn't any indication it is linked to the windlass.
 
However, it is a Hyde windlass, so I should probably be able to pattern the wildcats and related hardware based on these drawings. It seems this type of windlass was bolted to a pair of bitts. However, Galilee had only one large bollard samson post located centerline and forward of the capstan. Evidently, the windlass supports were incorporated into the forecastle deck framing.

Here is the current status on reconstructing Galilee's windlass using the resources I have available. The diagram is constructed in Sketchup Make 2017 using the basic tool set. This part is probably the hardest to create, with all the curved surfaces in the wildcats and the crown gear. All that remains is creating the operating gear and the mounts to the ship's frames. I suspect that the windlass was mounted to the deck structural timbers, similar to the Lucerne and Thayer, rather than having a separate metal foundation like the Balclutha.
 
I'm hoping that this will be 3D-printable, but the level of detail at the anticipated scale of the model will probably be lost or not printable.
Terry
 

Here is the current status on reconstructing Galilee's windlass using the resources I have available. The diagram is constructed in Sketchup Make 2017 using the basic tool set. This part is probably the hardest to create, with all the curved surfaces in the wildcats and the crown gear. All that remains is creating the operating gear and the mounts to the ship's frames. I suspect that the windlass was mounted to the deck structural timbers, similar to the Lucerne and Thayer, rather than having a separate metal foundation like the Balclutha.
 
I'm hoping that this will be 3D-printable, but the level of detail at the anticipated scale of the model will probably be lost or not printable.
Terry
 

Here is the current status on reconstructing Galilee's windlass using the resources I have available. The diagram is constructed in Sketchup Make 2017 using the basic tool set. This part is probably the hardest to create, with all the curved surfaces in the wildcats and the crown gear. All that remains is creating the operating gear and the mounts to the ship's frames. I suspect that the windlass was mounted to the deck structural timbers, similar to the Lucerne and Thayer, rather than having a separate metal foundation like the Balclutha.
 
I'm hoping that this will be 3D-printable, but the level of detail at the anticipated scale of the model will probably be lost or not printable.
Terry