Ian_Grant
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Everything posted by Ian_Grant
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Hi Bill; I think it would be unusual to be sailing a square rigger on topgallants only. If there's a strong breeze, the topgallants would be the first sails furled since (a) they exert a lot of leaning force, being high up, and (b) the spars are smaller and weaker up there. If there's a light enough breeze to use topgallants, then other sails would be unfurled before them. Typical situations for you might be topgallants furled, one reef in the topsails, courses furled; or maybe courses set, two reefs in the topsails, topgallants furled. As for the staysails, if you have them set then the square yards should be turned far to one side for sailing close to the wind.- 1,508 replies
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- Le Soleil Royal
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Yes, they are double expansion.
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A few more pics, including better shot of the double-acting engine, for John's interest. They were busy "restoring" a barge of the type she was designed to tow. Actually the only original part is her red bottom, all else is obviously new timber.
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This past summer we took a trip to the Yukon to raft down the Tatshenshini River to coastal Alaska. While in Whitehorse I boarded the SS Klondike paddle steamer which is a Parks Canada national historic site. Here are a few photos. Unfortunately the upper decks were closed to visitors; maintenance is ongoing.
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More laser-cutter work. I realized the twin steering platform components could be easily done on the machine. It also etched the plank pattern for their decks. This technology could turn me into a lazy worker - since I was cutting out the 1/16" ply layer panelled parts I also cut out the blank rectangles for the 2nd ply layer as opposed to manually making them to fit. Here is the result: Also started to add trim timbers at the bow. There is a panelling effect remaining to be added below the bulwark rail. Sanding of the u/w epoxy resin not yet done. Finally, my "ship bling" arrived from Etsy!! There are two patterns of "strip" material to place along some of the trim timbers, and two types of decorative medallions, one pair to place each side of the disc at the top of the stem, and another (with eyes to be cut off) to maybe be used as shield motifs along the main bulwarks. Oh, and also added the first "bling" - decorative element around the "hawses" where the anchor ropes come out. External-tooth lock washers epoxied to flat washers, then epoxied at drilled holes at the front of the outriggers. The outrigger front panels have their trim; more will be added along the upper and lower edges of the outrigger sides. Thinking about going to Evergreen styrene strip for this as 1/16" x 3/32" wood strips are kind of small to cut on a 3hp table-saw ......
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I did at one point contemplate trying to solder it together from brass, but I regained my senses. 😏
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Very good idea with the fife rail posts. And the boat looks great! 👍👍
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- Colin Archer
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Electronics skills really aren't required; one simply plugs servos into receiver, plugs battery into receiver, powers up transmitter and receiver, and the entire RC set works. You only need to plug an ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) into a receiver servo slot, and connect the ESC to the motor, and your entire drive system works. But it is a different "endeavour" from static building ........
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Looks great Bill! I can't believe how quickly you tear through a build, even with bashing included. What's next on your agenda? An RC boat perhaps? Come over to the dark side ......
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I can't seem to find it. TVO broadcast it a couple of years ago; I thought it was on the "Impossible Engineering" series but googling that did not reveal an episode on this ship. There are, though, some interesting youtube videos on her.
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Yes. Have you seen the "Great Engineering" series at all? Very very good, ranging from constructing a 19th century offshore lighthouse on a wave-swept rock off Scotland, to building the "Great Eastern". Fascinating ship. I wouldn't mind making an RC model of her, complete with side paddlewheels and stern screw and masts too.
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It's incredible to me that they worked that way .... I wonder about the attrition rate due to falls ...
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Having a primary loop on the winch is the right approach for the drum type. Look forward to seeing your sea trial video in the spring. We will both have a new boat to debut.
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Printed the ram. It came out pretty good except for some of those curved decorations I added between the ball projections (I added some more of these to the design which are not in my TinkerCAD screen grab above). They started to fail because the printer was trying to deposit them on a slope, as I printed the whole thing standing up. I need another print anyway because as it turns out my pins projecting from the hull are not quite symmetric, and also I need to ask the Imagine Space staff about making the base part solid to allow me to use melt-in threaded brass inserts in order to attach the ram with a couple of set screws from below. This original print is all default settings, 0.2mm layer and 10% fill. I will take the opportunity to beef up those arc segments so they can print better, I hope. I also started to clean up the deck beams by framing in the three removable deck areas (bow, stern, entire engine room). The stern framing is very heavy since this will form a handle for picking her up out of the water.
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Yes, that tapered base with rounded corners is a mess of tilted cylinders and planes. I cannot figure out how to remove, say, an unwanted corner of a plane sticking out from the side of a cylinder. Maybe TinkerCAD lacks the complexity, or maybe it can be done but I don't know how. We'll see about the print. I had to be at the library printer to get the print time estimate and while there we discussed what orientation to try. I want the decorative elements to be clean. If they come out a mess I may split it into three parts but hope not to have to go there. BIll, TinkerCAD is not too hard to use and as you see it can generate intricate shapes. You might want to look into the whole 3D thing and see if you have any access to a local printer. For example, Heller's "Preussen" has nonsensical kit ladders but my brother printed new ones for me from a TinkerCAD file I sent him. Handy for modelling!
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I used the library 3D printer to make a few test shapes to match the bow cross section where the ram meets it. The third try was pretty good. I then used the final shape as a base, and drew the rest of the ram. Being inexperienced with TinkerCAD this took me 1.5 days which seems ridiculous given the result, however if I had to do it again I'd be much faster knowing what I now know. Here is the full ram. I decorated it using the shapes library. The top contains two lightning bolts where the stem enters the "casting" and I added a sun symbol on the top surface of the topmost fin. The machine predicts 2hrs43 minutes to print. Hoping for a good result. 🤞
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Off topic but this reminded me ....... Remember the Aubrey book where Jack buys some gunpowder from a firecracker company going out of business, to use for great gun practice because the Admiralty doe not allot enough extra powder for training? He has Bonden and his gun crew demonstrate how fast a cannon can be reloaded and fired, but the gun crew is stopped in their tracks when the gun fires a great cloud of brightly coloured smoke with an unusual bang? Then they go down the side firing by turns, in green, blue, red, etc, with the onlooking crew in stitches? One of the great scenes O'Brien made up. One of my other favourites is the time at Sunday Divisions when Jack is pacing before the ranks of the crew for inspection, with the bosun's cat pacing in front of him.
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Kevin, you and I are on the same voyage of discovery, realizing just how laser cutters can simplify model-making! Will enjoy seeing what you do with it ..... Regards, Ian
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Keith, that's high praise indeed, thank you very much! I made electric RC boats in my teens, had no time for decades, wanted to get back into it but do something unique. This will be great looking on the water but will be a bear to get there. Long, wide, and heavy. And where to store in winter? I may have to sell it. Actually BIll people do build RC models of such ships. The secret is to have a relatively long fin keel amidships with a lead bulb ballast on the end to "stiffen" the ship. When this galley is done, and "Preussen" is finished, I would like to build an RC square rigger; not a warship with cannons but something along the lines of a windjammer. Here is a link to a very informative and interesting site about Mr. Neville Wade's fleet of such ships. I would like to build something like his "Judith Kate" based on the actual ship "Herzogin Cecile" which ran aground off Devon in 1935 under a new captain who had replaced a highly experienced captain who retired. Apparently she had just arrived to the UK and was veering inshore to receive signalled orders when she hit a rock. Of interest is that the owner, Gustav Erikson, dismissed the new captain for losing his favourite ship even though the captain was as I recall a relative. He ended up farming sheep in South Africa! http://www.cocatrez.net/Water/NevilleWadeShips/index.html
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Thanks Bill; it's been quite a saga but now that the finishing stages have arrived I'm really looking forward to painting it up nice. I joined the local RC model boat group; apart from monthly meetings in the winter, I think they usually have one session at a local indoor pool. I'm hoping to be ready for that evening.
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I'm building up the hull sides above the outrigger so we can now see how the hull looks with wood added to deck level. I think it looks proportional. My one doubt is that I began the upsweep of the bow bulwarks too early; I may revisit the curve though it will be painful to cut off my painstakingly laminated false top rails. Here are some pics. I used the library's laser cutter (60W Epilog Mini) to etch some planking for the outrigger tops. My mind is opening to the possibilities of this machine. I didn't want to form all the "X" shapes in the ventilation course with bits of wood; thought I might 3D print it in sections; finally used the laser to cut them out. I ordered some decorative brass strips from Etsy to dress up the hull but now I'm wondering if I could just laser etch patterns. The ventilation is lasered out of 1/8" cherry and will be painted white. The pine wood behind will be painted black to simulate openings into the hull. I'm wondering how to finish the planking; spar varnish would look like a bowling alley lane. I'm reluctant to use water-based because it will bring up the plywood skin's grain and I don't want to sand much and perhaps damage the etching. Also pondering dry-brushing another colour on the planks for some aging. Does anyone have any ideas?
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Back in the 70's I was into RC boats. Here is an old Dumas speed controller, with proportional forward, stop, reverse (complete with a blob of epoxy from almost 50 years ago!). I remember dismantling it to clean the exposed element in the wire-wound ceramic resistor, and the contact arm, to keep current flow steady. What wasted power in the resistor! As I mentioned you had to have a throttle servo to run it, unlike today's ESC's plugging directly into the Receiver. I pity my kids who'll have to sort through all my old hobby junk when I'm gone. Or maybe I will one day dispose of stuff to ease their load. I seem to recall there's an apple basket somewhere full of old 0.049 airplane engines and parts, and I also have two 0.35 Enya engines which the hobby shop tells me are worth zero now. He did say the 0.049 engines are in demand though! 🤔 Fond memories .............
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There are several videos in my rather long build log; those at the start showing the process of refining the oar mechanism and writing software for it, while the last two or three are sea trials in the pool. Now I am satisfied it will work I am working on finishing, painting, and decorating the hull. Below is the build log. I got through about 5 pages before even starting to build a ship. 😊🙄 The most recent video is here:
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Yes, I have an SR in my stash. I was going to build it after the "Preussen" but that build stalled when I became distracted for the past two years by my Radio-Controlled Roman Galley; designing and refining an oar drive mechanism, writing Arduino software for it, and for the past six months designing and building the hull, culminating in "sea trials" where I had it rowing around our pool. Now that I know it works I am starting to complete and pretty-up the hull. I can even laser-etch decking boards using our library's laser cutter, and the more I use it the more possibilities open up before me .... it's an amazing machine! Will also be using the library's 3D printer to print a ram for the bow, once I draw it in CAD.
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