Gerhardvienna

Hi again& many thanks for your interest and so many likes!
 
Made some progress for the paddlewheel, just on the PC. First parts are ready drawn in 3D but must be transformed to 2D Drawings for photo etching.

 
BUT; could not stop myself and try to draw it as close as I can to the plans I have. The shaft and some other shims are not made at the moment, will be made later the day!
 
Regards
Gerhard

Gerhard,
I will be very interested in following the design of your live steam propulsion for your model. Will it have 2 engines?
You probably wouldn't need them for the model, but I'm sure you know that the original Cairo had balance "buckets" to offset the eccentricity from the heavy weight of the 2  iron engine input bellcrank arms  on the axle which were at 90-degrees to each other causing the wheel to vibrate. This was normally done  on stern-wheelers by doubling the thickness of the paddle planks (Buckets) opposite from the bellcranks. However, this wheel, having an odd number of spokes (17) doesn't have any paddle planks exactly opposite the bellcranks so it probably needed 4 spaced double planks to achieve real balance. All the other stern-wheelers I've studied had an even number of buckets but the City Class designers must have had some good reason for 17. Or perhaps, the Cairo wheel was just "borrowed" from a side-wheeler steamboat which only has a single engine bellcrank per wheel and therefore had the wholly different problem of maintaining power thru the end of its engine stroke.
 
johnhoward

As I was told by doctor, now is a new medicine doctrine on - surgery immediately, no waiting for cataract to "mature". If I want to/have money to go to private clinic, I can resolve this next week (1500-2000€ per eye !!!). But, if I want to do this under roof of health insurance, I have to wait - not enough doctors of this kind and not enough specialized clinics for ophthalmology which are under roof of health insureance in Serbia. I`ll see what ophthalmologist surgeon will tell on Friday when consultation is sheduled

Hi johnhoward
MY decision will be to make that small change in the wheel setup. It`s no big deal to do it, but had no time to do it right now. For the parts themselves it does not matter, just for the soldering work when all of the photo etched things are arrived. The screenshot above just shows the state of how it is at the moment, when it would be correct to have the same space between the discs, so I NEED to have it changed! Thank you for your really worthful hints to make a good model of the Cairo. She`s the last of her kind and deserves to be made correct.
 
Regards
Gerhard

Hi All, again
 
Thanky so much for your nice likes!
Next thing was to "superimpose" the engine to the wheel, looks good for me. Cylinder length will be 50mm, with a stroke of 38mm and bore of 12mm.

 
Best regards
Gerhard
 

Just when I thought you are nearing completion, you pull another fast one. More beautiful details, and an unexpected fully fitted "monkey island". Any other surprises ...? Lovely work on this majestic ship, she isn't only named after an emperor, but she even looks emperical

It`s just that tiny bits that make the model a real ship! The details bring life to a model....................................
 
Best regards
Gerhard

WOW...............................

Regards
Gerhard

It`s just that tiny bits that make the model a real ship! The details bring life to a model....................................
 
Best regards
Gerhard

Hi johnhoward
MY decision will be to make that small change in the wheel setup. It`s no big deal to do it, but had no time to do it right now. For the parts themselves it does not matter, just for the soldering work when all of the photo etched things are arrived. The screenshot above just shows the state of how it is at the moment, when it would be correct to have the same space between the discs, so I NEED to have it changed! Thank you for your really worthful hints to make a good model of the Cairo. She`s the last of her kind and deserves to be made correct.
 
Regards
Gerhard

Hi johnhoward
All is drawn for the etching process, but I will have to make a slight change when soldering the parts. In the Bob Hill plans the hubs are in opposit position, but as I will make them one by one this would not be to hard to make. Even the other (now correct) way will be the same work to do, so there is not too much difference to make the wheel. The Bob Hill plans show the spaces between the rings different, the outer are a bit wider than the inner one. I`ve made a screenshot from my 3D Program, to take it to my lathe for turning, but in the "old" version. The drawing is in 1:50 scale, measurings are in 1/10mm!

Best regards& many thanks!
Gerhard
 

@druxey
Thanks for the positiv comment.
 
The railing is finished except for the blackening.

It`s just that tiny bits that make the model a real ship! The details bring life to a model....................................
 
Best regards
Gerhard

Thank you very much Gerhard,
words, much appreciated....
 
a helmsman is climbing the "monkey island" for the feeling of freedom under the wide ocean sky and calm weather, and is preparing to steer the 14,300 tons and 31,000Psi here from this point for a while...
 
Nils
 

 

I got a bit of time today to finish the goosenecks. Machining followed a similar process to that used for the mast bracket.
The rounding of edges was done by hand filing.



I then made the pivot pin - turned on the lathe out of .090" bar and drilled with a .040" hole on the mill. I then did a bit of polishing.


I am accumulating a lot of mast fittings - but it will be soon time to get on with assembling the masts.
 

 
 

Thank you all for you feedback and likes.
 
I'm still on mast related features. Altair has wear / pressure plates attached to the mast where the gaffs intersect the masts. These are in the form of 1/2 cylinders. On the main mast there is an additional plate about 1/3 of the way between the gaff and the deck. This is not on the plans but is very evident on photos. I am guessing its function relates to a reefed main setup. There are also a number of other smaller plates where blocks come into contact with the mast.
 
Fortunately I did not have to bend up flat plate as I had some thin walled tube of marginally smaller diameter than the mast. I reasoned that once cut it could be pressed on to the mast to form a good fit.
 
I wanted the tube to be neatly cut so I started by wedging it on to a dowel of correct dimeter. This was then put on the lathe and the lengths required were cut using a very sharp angled "V" tool (just about visible on the following photo). The tube (still on the dowel) was then moved on to the rotary table on the mill and lateral holes were drilled to take the mast attachment nails.
 

Having drilled the holes the tube/dowel was moved back to the lathe and the sharp "V" tool was turned horizontal to be used as a plane to score the lateral parting line.
 
The scoring action was repeated with .001" advancement of the tool on each planing stroke, alternating sides, until the tube parted.
 



I then started work on the goosenecks - this is only partial complete.
 
I started by taking the basic dimensions from the plan and then doing a better job of detailing the design.
 

I started with the mast bracket - cut from .250" square brass bar. The bracket was machined on the mill using end mills of various diameters. The photos tell the story.
 




 
 
 
 

A lot of effort for such small progress...............
 
I made a few more fittings for the masts.
 
I turned the 4 winches for the lower spiders, 2 winches per mast,  fairly straightforward turning task. The winches started as 1/4 inch brass bar and are approximately 1/4 inch long.

I then needed to make the 16 cleats that fit on to the 4 spiders - these are quite small and involve turning and drilling balls of a little less than .100 inch diameter on a stem of .040 diameter by .200 long. I made the form tool for the ball out of a broken centre drill. The balls / stem components stared as .125 brass bar. Cuts had to be small to prevent breakage - typically .005" (on radius) for initial cuts reducing to .002" for finishing.
 


I drilled the hole through the balls on the mill - using a centre drill followed by a .030" twist drill. All balls were drilled on a single setting using a magnet on the vice jaws as an end stop. The balls were drilled while still attached to the bar and parted off with a slitting saw thereafter.
 

The initial ball / stem took about 3/4 hour to make. At the end of the run for 16 I was making them in a little over 10 minutes.

The cross member of the cleat was wire, cut glued and then filed to length. The aluminium plate in the photo has a small hole and this was slotted over each end of the wire as a filing guide. The thickness of the plate giving the required arm length of the cleat.
 

 
 The end result will look something like this.

Thank you all so much for your words and appreciations,
Gerhard, Kees, Rob, Grant, Patrick, Greg and Johann
and all the "likes"....
 
The last days it was only progress in tiny bits, but that also needs to be done to a certain degree, am pleased you like it..
 
Nils

Hi Nils
 
Teeny tiny work, but massive in achievement!
 
Outstanding, Nils!!!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

WOW...............................

Regards
Gerhard

Yeah - what Gerhard said!!!!!

WOW...............................

Regards
Gerhard

WOW...............................

Regards
Gerhard

Hi again& many thanks for your interest and so many likes!
 
Made some progress for the paddlewheel, just on the PC. First parts are ready drawn in 3D but must be transformed to 2D Drawings for photo etching.

 
BUT; could not stop myself and try to draw it as close as I can to the plans I have. The shaft and some other shims are not made at the moment, will be made later the day!
 
Regards
Gerhard

In addition to our discussion about the auxiliary engine I found some time to study the Cairo Historic Report. On page 34  (pdf page 44) I found some hints to the engines. The so called auxiliary engine was used for the capstan and steam driven pumps, as I understand that. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/vick/cairo_hsr.pdf
 
Best regards
Gerhard