timboni

OK, these pictures are from February 2020. Again, apologies for the delay. And thanks to John (Howie) Smith for his clarifications of issues regarding several topics, for example the Doctor Engine and the rudder assembly. Photos and text by Bill Kammermeyer. Stern hurricane deck cap strap in place and view of Scribed sheets of Formica glued to thin plywood to make a scale 2½ inch sheet of armor front casement armor for the side casements Bow casement armor glued in place and cut to fit gun ports and descriptive opening. Long chain pipes to guide steering from the underside of the Hurricane Deck down to the Aft Deck pulley system for the rudders. The Hurricane Deck cap strip cut and glued in place. Both bow Just in from Fred Hecker, nicely gunport hinge straps made from ½ inch wide copper with a and stern deck cap strips had to follow the camber rolled and soldered bottom edge that fits the hinge pin. They will be cut to length and drilled with the Hurricane Deck. A tricky bit of fine work! and snugly fit the casements, yet still be able to be removed for attachment to gun port lids. These are only the first six of many from February of 2020. More to come later. Tim

Well, it looks like those photos will work fine. Again, apologies for the graininess, but hopefully the pictures will give the general idea. Still from January, 2020: Armor for front casement cut, fit, glued and clamped in place. Glue was allowed to dry overnight with clamps. With gun ports and cutaway cut and filed to shape. The short side A close-up of the texture of the Formica armor which shows up pieces were added and clamped with tape until the glue is dry. much better when primed and painted flat black. This texture will have The chain pipe holes were cut to shape. a very nice effect on the scored armor plates. 32 pounder cannon implement rack made by Tim that will attach to Parrot Cannon implement rack by Tim. the interior casement walls. 45-degree setup on drill press to drill elliptical holes in armor plate This is how you drill an elliptical hole with a round bit so that that goes around the forward chain pipes. the angles chain pipe fits in a snug fashion. These plates will be cut in a rectangle a bit larger than the chain pipe and fit into a recess in the armor on the casement. OK, that's all fro January 2020. February 2020 coming up soon! Tim Jovick

OK, these pictures are from January of 2019. Going to post a couple of them to test if they get saved. Unless otherwise note, pictures and captions are by bill Kammermeyer. Apologies for the graininess of some of these photos. A new and improved method for cutting the armor plates in a Using a hacksaw blade with a knife edge blade in a first cut slot, consistent width and depth using a flush cutting tool mounted in an the adjustable fence allows the next repetitive cut. The elevation screws elevating jig. keep it at just a few thousandths of an inch deep. Fast and accurate!

OK, a few more pictures before we go on to the next group. And keep in mind that our progress and meetings were very uneven due to the Pandemic. here we go! Waterline masked befoe painting back portion of the hull. Painted rudders and steering assemblies in place. Parrot rifles on carriages for another test fit. Cord from dot on rear casement (out of picture)to roller to second roller and Detail of cams and drive linkage on the paddle wheel shat. then to tiller. The cord will be chain on the finished model. Dr. Mike Orgel and Bob Keeler work to set up drive rods Steam engine in place with Pitman arm and drive linkage for paddle wheel. and cams off the Pitman arms. Doctor Engine parts soldered together (N.B. Parts and assembly by Doctor Engine and condensing tanks primed with petroleum-based primer. Howie Smith) Doctor Engine painted fat back as a base. Cylinders and pumps will be painted a dark green along with frame as was frequently the custom for steam engines at the time. All right, next installment in a few days. Please to enjoy.

OK, more cannon pictures! Lugs cut to consistent size on my mini chop saw. Turning elevation lugs for 42 pounder and 8" cannon on lathe. Finished lugs to the left of the cutting tool on the lathe. Next time, pictures of rudder mechanism and Doctor Engine! Lugs being tapped with 4/40 threads. The hull is canted to a 45-degree angle with the use of angled supports while the portside ceiling is added around the open sections of the casement. (sorry for the small picture) Breech rope guides, as well as nuts and bolts for carriages. Elevation wedges for 32-pounders. Green wedges for greater suppression Detail of elevation wedges. of muzzle. Scale (1/24) man next to 32-pounder. Cannon in place looking at port side of gunboat. (again apologies for small size of picture and pixillation) Cannons in place looking at starboard side of gunboat. Note racks filled with rolled/folded hammocks on hurricane deck.

Got it! Thanks, Stephen, for your guidance in getting rid of unwanted pictures. I'm sure I'll use it many times over.

Again apologies for the "three sizes of picture" of the cannon barrels. Somehow can't get rid of 'em. We'll do better next time.

Again from April 2019, making cannons. Pictures and captions by Bill Kammermeyer Trunnion Drilling Jig "Slugs" on lathe with pattern below it that was under the barrel exactly in line with the end of the pattern. Rough plugcuts are ade to pattern limits and then removed to get a smoother surface. Same, closer to the final contour. After cannons are turned, they are given a coat of varnish and sanded again on the lathe. Here, they are drying with ends still attached. 42-pounders showing what a great job a duplicator A test fit in the custom-made carriages for each type of cannon. The 32-pounders can do, with a little practice. Here with trunnions needed to have inside-of-trunnion area of the carriage reduced for a proper fit. inserted and laying in carriages. All the trunnions for all the sizes of cannons are the same size, which makes for a lot less work. Hole for breech rope drilled in cascabel with hole for removable Detail of the flat taper of the cascabel, before and after. Untapered plug so breech rope can easily slide into the hole for the back. cascabel on jig, coarse file used for tapering below. All cannons are primed with petroleum-based primer using dowels to Primed cannons are handheld to paint the distal end of the barrel let them dry without marks. and the bore and then placed in large holes to dry upright. When the barrels were dry, dowels were used to flip and hold them Detail of painted finish on cannons. It's hard to believe that while the breech end was air-brushed with acrylic flat black paint. this is turned wood and not cast metal. I was pleased with A wonderful finish was produced. the end result. OK, that's all for now. Apologies for inconsistencies in picture sizes and some fuzziness. Still learning this stuff. More on cannons and carriages, placement on the boat, and the doctor Engine next time. Tim

O, here we go! These are from November of 2019. Unless otherwise indicated, photos and captions are by Bill Kammermeyer. Covering the underside of the waterway The open and closed portions of the Waterway finished waterway masked for painting Hull on 45-degree angle lift to facilitate easier access by Tim and Vince in Final fitting aft casement painting the ceiling inside the walls of the sides. Final fitting forward casement OK, I'm going to post these pictures to see if they come through. Next series is of making the cannon barrels and trunnions. Back soon. Tim

Hi all, and many apologies for this two-year delay in posting pictures from the Gateway Shipcrafters' USS St. Louis 1/24 scale model for the Missouri Civil War Museum. I have had considerable difficulty downloading pictures from the Newsletters, and the attempts to copy and paste from the Newsletters themselves have been fruitless. This difficulty will not be present for the more recent ones, as I have pictures from the Newsletters already downloaded. SO, hopefully these pictures will work. I am going to only post a few, as sort of a test, along with captions. These are from April of 2019. If this works, expect a flood of 'em over the next month or so. Please let me know if there is any problem viewing these pictures. And by the way, my current email is timboni7263@att.net. My phone number is 314-761-5435. Please feel free to contact me anytime. Here we go! Tim Jovick These are some random photos of the building of the cutters, using the bread-and-butter method, plus decking and one of the engines.. Photos and captions are by Bill Kammermeyer. Bread and butter layup for cutter mold. Just sand and file the high spots down to the low spots and you have a hull. Bow deck fully planked and trunneled Steam engines with valve lifters in place

All right, here's all the pictures and captions duly redone from above. Grrrrr..... The way the jig was used to drill a 3/16 inch hole equidistant from the edge of the casement at all Davit points. A 3/16 inch long drill bit used in place of the brass rod. (BK05/24/19) With the use of the jig, the stanchions were able to be aligned perfectly. (BK 05/24/19) All four and a half surfaces of deck houses are finished to add visual appeal to the model. (BK 05/24/19) Hammocks (160) are tied and ready to be fitted into the line of hammock stanchions on the hurricane deck (done by Vince and Tim, 05/10/19) Using a 1-in. belt sander, the front casement portholes are rough sanded off the ship. (BK 10/10/19) The horizontal timbers are all fit in place and the port and starboard gun ports are filed smooth and true to the template gauge. (Previous two pictures) Pear slabs are end glued to begin remaking the gun carriages. (BK 05/30/19) Front of carriage locks are trimmed to plan dimensions. (BK 05/30/19) When glue which joined the stacks of cannon carriage sides is removed at plan lines, the stack of gun carriage sides falls apart. (BK 05/30/19) OK, hopefully this will be good. Again sorry for the clunkiness, working to get better. October coming next.

()*%T&)(^#$+#@&(_*!^&!!! Did it wrong again, will duly download and copy/paste appropriate pictures. May take a day or so. Sorry folks, 'twill be done!

Hi all, finally getting around to posting the remaining pictures from the June 2019 Newsletter from the St. Louis Shipcrafters on the USS St. Louis. Sorry for the delay, and here we go! The way the jig was used to drill a 3/16 inch hole equidistant from the edge of the casement at all Davit points. A 3/16 inch long drill bit used in place of the brass rod. (BK05/24/19) .With the use of the jig, the stanchions were able to be aligned perfectly. (BK 05/24/19) All four and a half surfaces of deck houses are finished to add visual appeal to the model. (BK 05/24/19) Using a 1-in. belt sander, the front casement portholes are rough sanded off the ship. (BK 10/10/19) The horizontal timbers are all fit in place and the port and starboard gun ports are filed smooth and true to the template gauge. (BK 10/10/19) (Previous two pictures) Pear slabs are end glued to begin remaking the gun carriages. (BK 05/30/19) Front of carriage locks are trimmed to plan dimensions. (BK 05/30/19) When glue which joined the stacks of cannon carriage sides is removed at plan lines, the stack of gun carriage sides falls apart. (BK 05/30/19) OK, that's all for now. The next Newsletter was not done until October of 2019, and those pictures and captions will (well, hopefully should) be coming soon. Any questions, feel free to contact me anytime. Tim

Hi again all, and thanks for your patience. I'll be posting pictures and captions (most if not all by Bill Kammermeyer, noted by BK in the captions) from the June 2019 Gateway Shipcrafters. And here we go! 1/8” brass plate drilled with 3/16” holes to be re-drilled to 45 degrees later. Lower plate was an idea that did not work. (BK 05/06/19) Jig to redrill the holes at 45 degrees on my drill press (BK 05/06/19) Jig used to form the bend in the 3/16 brass rod before tapering or the attachment of the end ring. (BK 05/24/19) Jig used to drill 45 degree angle holes in the casement service to produce an angle perpendicular to the waterline at a constant distance from the edge. (BK 05/23/19) 3/32 inch brass rod was bent and tapered at the ends as per the plans and rings were added to slots in the ends. (BK 05/22/19) Detail of taper process. Sides are sanded on belt Sander to match taper then top and bottom are likewise sanded. edges are rounded and fared into a taper. (BK 05/22/19) Eight 45-degree stanchion supports for the davits have been soldered at the proper angle. (BK 05/21/19) The stanchion as it appears in the pre-drilled hole on the casement. (BK 05/21/19) The pre-drilled holes and the angled soldering of the stanchion sockets made for a very realistic result. (BK 05/21/19) More from June 2019 coming in the next couple of days. Hope these are enjoyable and helpful.

Thanks, James. It worked! Now just awaiting some more photos and we'll be off to the races - again! Thanks again for everybody's help and support.

Well, well, well! Looks like my copying and pasting the original picture from the email ends up as a link, but the download works! Have now finished loading pictures and captions from May 2019. Many more to come! Thank you for your guidance and patience. Any comment from your end?

A few more from May, 2019. Again, pictures and captions by Bill Kammermeyer. Uniform gun-port openings with sills installed. Time consuming task to make sure the gun-port sills were 45 degrees to the casement and that the gauge still fit flush. Lay-out of tiller rollers on plans for the "iron" arcs that will protect the deck. After adjusting the tiller "hinges" and rechecking deck layout it was found that the full arc could be used. 1/16" brass sheet with both arcs glued to it with rubber cement. The concave bottom will be cut and filed to the line first, then the convex top. This order gives me more grasping material. The 2 center cuts are easy but filing the edges is more difficult with less material to grasp. Rear deck finished. Crew and Officer heads, with and without hats. Steam engines with valve lifters in place. Bread and butter layup for cutter mold. Just sand and file the high spots down to the low spots and you have a hull. Plank on Hurricane Deck header that will cover attachments off deck to casement and be a base for the hammock racks. View of port side showing improved interior viewing modifications. OK, next entries will be from June of 2019.

Hi all, hopefully this posting will go through; been having some problems getting the pictures to work. Apologies for the extreme delay, as my previous posting was back in January of 2019. The pictures below are from May of 2019. All pictures and text are by Bill Kammermeyer. And here we go! Stern casement ceiling being installed. Glue , clamps and tree-nails hold the camber (90 degrees off). Removing the interior tabs on all of the front casement timbers to allow it to be installed with the horizontal timber and armor plate in place. As it was this was impossible due to the curve of the bow construction. Bow casement ceiling (1st coat of white wash) has been installed. Edges at gun ports and cut outs to be finished later. Gun port gauge to show the interior shape of the port Fit of gauge in each gun port to insure uniform size and rectangular shape OK, I'm going to post this and see if it goes through. If so, got MANY more pictures for you. Tim Jovick

Well, well, well! Looks like my copying and pasting the original picture from the email ends up as a link, but the download works! Any comment from your end?

OK, here we go: The way I had done it is to take a picture from an email sent to me, click on it and right-click on that picture, click Copy Image, then Paste in this forum. Here's an example: Alternately, I guess I could download the picture and copy and paste from that. Here's the same picture in that format: In this format (which I hadn't used before), the picture comes out bigger and takes a bit of time to upload to this format. The image on the left is what showed up when I just clickedabove and entered Paste. The one on the right happened when I clicked Choose Files and then went to my downloads and found this. Look identical, but I may be wrong. So let's see what we got here!

I have ben attempting to enter into the build log for the Gateway Shipcrafters USS ST LOUIS Civil War Ironclad . When I did so previously (January, 2020), it went smoothly. This time, I entered a number of photos and captions, but when I entered "Submit," it didn't work. When I reviewed my entry, the pictures were in the form of links. And I can't submit even with the links. I don't know if this is a login problem because the website seems to recognize me. I sent an email to Kurt, but haven't heard back, perhaps it's an old email address. Any help would be most appreciated.

Well, OK, looks like I ended up with some duplicates of photos at the end of the posting. but if that's my worst sin, I"m OK.

Hi all, this is the first installment of our "catch-up" for our Build Log for the USS St. Louis. This is a summary for our work as of August, 2018. All of the text and pictures are by Howie Smith. I'm going to try to have these pictures with appropriate captions, so here we go! Would be glad for feedback, as this is my first attempt at contributing to this build Log. Apologies for any inaccuracies. My email is timboni@juno.com Tim As part of an overall review of our USS St. Louis ironclad topsides, we focused on the forward 45-degree casement sub-structure with the brass 42-pdr Rifled Cannon Barrel on its carriage dry-fit in the centerline gun port. (Photos 1 & 2). We then proceeded to outline the remaining process for constructing the removable center section of this casement which originally consisted of a solid stack-up of vertical beams(Photo 3) between the outer sides of the P & S gunports covered by similar stacked horizontal beams, and then vertical iron armor plates, which totaled up to a thickness of 25-inches. Our model will duplicate this construction on the starboard side past the centerline structure (Photo 4 ) and then diminish by layers on the port side to reveal the underlying structure. This section will remain removable to maintain access to the gun deck until final stages of model assembly. We also reviewed the positioning of Vince & Tim’s galley stove and associated furnishings on the gun deck (Photo 5) and Bill’s exhaust stack thru and above the Hurricane deck (Photo 6 &7). This was followed by a second dry-fit of Bob’s port & starboard main steam engine cylinder wooden cores in the engine room, on their support ramps (Photos 8 & 9). The first stage of the bow casement, consisting of the vertical beams and gun port framing for the removable center section has been completed (Photos 10 & 11). The red beam edging indicates intentional disruption of structural members to reveal underlying or internal model features The second stage will consist of attaching a layer of stacked-up horizontal beams which include a similar diminishing effect as their ends near the port side. We spent a considerable amount of time discussing Tim & Vince’s problems cutting out the thin triangular strips of .030” thick Fomica substrates for the pilothouse armor plates and after a few experiments, it was decided that rather than sawing or cutting, a belt sander was the best solution and Bill graciously agreed to provide them a 1-inch table model belt sander to use for this purpose..Vince and Tim have made excellent progress shaping and fitting the Formica substrates for the pilothouse armor plates (Photo 12). They also have added .002” thick copper foil to the substrates for one of the octagonal pilothouse’s sides as seen in these photos. The foil will be chemically blackened and secured in place using the simulated ¾” bolts and washers previously stamped from No. 18 Escutcheon pins. The pilothouse has also been dry-fit to its location on the Hurricane deck to verify its proper relationships to the ventilation funnels, galley stove exhaust stack, skylight and forward casement.(Photos 13 & 14) Bill has developed and fabricated a series of improved steam pipe shut-off valves and control wheels (Photo 15) which will be integrated into his steam distribution piping system Activity will now shift to construction of the stern 45-degree casement and laying planking on the stern deck itself. As a pre-requisite, we decided to revisit the stern deck nautical operations, equipment locations, and functional geometry before committing to casement and decking configurations. None of the existing published aft deck drawings appear to depict a completely satisfactory operating geometry that is also compatible with the few existing contemporary photographs. This includes the 4 mooring bitts, 4 tiller control chain rollers, tiller arc of travel , tiller support roller track and bulwark mooring line guides. At the heart of this issue, it appears that the tiller was lengthened sometime during City Class ironclad construction but the resulting mechanism geometry wasn’t adequately documented. Since the USS Cairo iron tiller(Photo 16) was recovered with the USS Cairo and a photograph of the USS DeKalb(Photo 17) locates the bitts, our stern deck reconstruction utilizes these two features to locate the remaining elements to establish rudder travel which was reportedly inadequate in any event. National Park Service (NPS) drawing dated 1967 for the USS Cairo (Photo 18) depicts a short tiller (Colored orange to which we have appended its actual length in green) and its resulting geometry. Our reconstruction geometry is over-laid in red upon the NPS drawing dated 1981 of the USS Cairo (Photo 19) and depicts the maximum rudder travel achievable using the recovered tiller length and will remain the basis for our USS St. Louis model (Photo 20).