canoe21

Thanks everyone for stopping by and for all the likes, it is very motivating.
 
I have been out of the shop since Thursday evening I went to Calgary to visit my grandsons and play "electric trains"
 
Today I did a little more work on the water jacket, I finished shaping the insert for the bottom of the jacket sweated it in place and bored the holes for the sleeves.
 
Also did some shaping of the top part of the cylinders. after making a second milling cutter for the curves on the top.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The stainless sleeves are reamed and fitted, they are a press fit.
 

 
Michael

Thanks for all the likes, and to Row ,Mark, Druxey, and Andy thank you for your kind remarks they are very encouraging.
 
Began working on the new head part today but first I needed to make a couple of tools to help with some of the tasks.
 
first one was an end mill that was .155 in diameter and with a .015 radius at the cutting edge this was to ensure that the combustion cavity had a bit of a cove rather than a sharp corner.
 

 
a test cut
 

 
 
The second one was to make a collar for the 6 x .05mm tap so that I could tap in line accurately without taking the drill chuck out. It is just a disk of 1/2 inch aluminum with a couple of grub screws at right angles I ground a couple of 1/16th flats at the threaded end of the tap then I could use the drill chuck as the guide by releasing the tap from finger tight this way the drilled hole and the tapping are able to be accomplished without moving the work.
 

 
Then a lot of fiddly settings to shape the cavities.
 

 

 

 

 

 
next comes a lot of filing to finalize the shape.
 
Michael

TAKE... ME... TO... YOUR... LEADER
 
Sorry I couldn't resist, I just showed this to Jude and she said hey it looks like a face then in a robotic voice said "take me to your leader" I laughed out loud.
 
Just a bit more fetling and then I can move on to the next piece. I need to add a couple of relive grooves so that the jacket clears the valve springs, I will use an .093" end mill. lay the block on the top face and centre the end mill over the valve guide holes and just take a whisker off down to the holes.
 
Bob thanks for your very kind comment.
 
Thanks also for all the likes.
 
Michael

Denis ,Row, Dan, Carl, thanks for looking in and for the kind words. 
 
I am beginning to wonder about this engine business.
 
The three cylinder blocks so far!
 

 
The one in the middle was the first one I was getting more dissatisfied by the hour, because the little break through into the water jacket area was nagging at me all the time. It was actually the second of the things that was bugging me and the top part had its own error I realized the oval water area was too long. also I decided that the bottom mounting lugs needed to be an integral part instead of part of a plate that was going to be fitted to the bottom somehow?
 
So I started over and was merrily milling down into the water jacket area when saw the cutter making it way down the outside of the jacket....... yup I set the cuts on the mill from the wrong side of the block after working the outside dimensions.
 
you can see the clean little slot on the one in the back, right down the middle.
 
The one in the front is version number three, according to folk lore it should be lucky.
 

 
The most tricky part was drilling the inlet and exhaust holes (still a bit gun-shy after the first mistake) I had to set the block up with a compound angle, for each hole the inlet ones on the outside and the exhaust ones in the middle. Now the hand work filing the surface shapes is under way. I also increased the size of the valve heads to .125 from .093 inches. The bore of the cylinders is reduced to 5/16 from 3/8ths in order to get more space for water circulation.
 

 
Carl in answer to your question why brass instead of iron, it is because brass is easier to work and I have the material. I have noticed that some of the engines on the engine website are brass and they seem to run fine as long as there is a steel or iron liner and an aluminum piston. this is the route that I am following.
 
Michael
 
 

Thank you all for the likes.
Brian, Jack, Mark  thanks for the kind comments.
Ed the more I think about laminating the ribbands the more I like the idea.
 
I discovered that at this small scale there is little room for error. When I removed the support plugs today after finishing the shaping and a few more holes for the water inlet and inspection hole in the front side, I saw that the port holes had in fact penetrated the wall of the water jacket. the space inside the jacket is large enough that I decided to add a plate that will get sweated in place.
 
the first picture shows the two crescent shaped holes from the port drill breaking through the wall.
 

 
The sleeve insert is machined from some  hard 3/4 brass rod the wall thickness was .020"  I sliced off two rings then cut those further to just fit enough that the curve is slightly greater than half the diameter inside. By doing it this way they are snug enough that they do not fall out.
 

 
The next picture shows the inspection hole which still need cleaning up and the cylinder liner positioned to show the water circulation cavity. I will make the base plate before the liners are finalized. It has occurred to me that I will need a pretty good filter system to keep any debris out of the water system.
 

 
The next photo shows the top of the cylinder with the head removed the holes still need to be reamed 13/32 for the stainless liners. I am still contemplating making these two parts able to be separated I think I have enough space to add some small long bolts up through the water jacked that way they would be hidden.
 

 

 
I think I need a break from metalwork and do a little whittling of the boxwood stem and sternpost.
 
Michael
 
 

Thank you for all the likes, And Bob and Steve for your comments, its been a long couple of days fiddling with some finicky numbers, I had to make a couple of small modifications to my Mill Drill so that I could use some dial verniers as read out dials for the table travel. I had already set up the depth one a few years ago and because I have slip dials on the mill I have been able to manage up until now . However machining these tiny dimensions with a centre Zero was challenging to say the least. so now I can clip in the vernier and use it as a poor mans DRO (digital read out, only this is an Analog read out )
First I cut a piece of 1 inch square brass and then re cut it to 1.375 x 1 x .625 inches the first task was to bore the main holes to form the inside of the water jacket shell these are .625 diameter and almost 5/8 deep. then bored the holes that will mate with the combustion chamber in the top piece. After the big hole were machined I flipped it over to reduce some of the metal and then machines the small holes for the valves and water passages to the top part of the head.
Next I made a couple of support keepers out of some 3/4 diameter brass rod to fill the bore holes and reduced the diameter at the top to use as location stubs for the top part this also allowed me to thread some 10 - 32 cap screws through the spark plug holes  to hold the whole shebang together. after the inlet and exhaust ports were machined which seemed to take forever, I was finally able to get on with some finish filing.
 
 

 
I like to have a ground safe edge on some of the files it really helps to keep things square
 

 
The parts are beginning to look like the top of the engine.
 

 
The valve rods will be fabricated from some largish sewing needles these are .046 inches in diameter which works perfectly, they obviously need some work yet.
 

 
Time for a break.
 
Michael

I have been doing some research into the whole engine building aspect of this little launch. I made the top part of the engine this evening it still need a bit more work to add the top plat to seal in the water cavity the spark plugs will thread through the plate into the main body thereby allowing water to circulate around the part that goes through the cavity.
 
This drawing shows the section through the engine and sections through the cylinder head.
 

 
Buffalo 3HP sheet 1.pdf
 
this is the top part of the head
 

 
Buffalo 3HP sheet 2.pdf
 
And the brass part I made today
 

 

 

 
Michael
 
 

Just a little more progress carving the sternpost on the port side, I am taking this very slowly.
 

 
This feels like a tricky detail but to all you full keel three mast shipbuilders it probably looks like child's play. this is much more difficult than the keel on the pilot cutter.
 

 

 
Here is a drawing showing the keel at each of the building stations
 

 
A sincere thank you to all who have pushed the like button, I really appreciate it.
 
Michael

Mark sorry I did not answer your question about the glue, it is LePages Carpenters glue. thanks to all who posted likes .
 
today I joined the keel plate to the keel with some 3 inch screws, first I marked the station positions on the plate and the keel, I don't want to glue them together just yet. I am going to do the rough shaping of the plate and the stern post first.
 

 

 

 

 
The stern post is a little more complex than the stem so I am proceeding very cautiously.
 

 

 
I noticed that whole assembly has straightened out a small amount, about 1/32 or a 1/4 inch scale size. I shall have to make sure when I do the final gluing that the curve is maintained.
 
Michael
 
 
 
 

Mark and Steve, folk have been building model internal combustion engines for years this page illustrates just a few
 
and here is a water-cooled one

 
I don't think I will have any trouble getting it to work. Mine will look a lot prettier than this one though. I am presently researching the Buffalo 3HP motor.
there is a lot of very interesting information in this book
 
Mark the glue is LePages Carpenters glue.
 
Thank you all who took the time to read the last entry and for posting the like.
 
Michael
 
 
 
 

Thanks Bob, I roughed out the stern today and glued it to the keel.
 
first pic show the patterns on a piece of 1/2 inch thick Castello. The stem was curved enough that I thought it best to scarph a couple of pieces rather than cut it out of one piece.
 

 
Glued to the keel
 

 

 

 

 
Before I finalize the carving of the sternpost I will add the keel plate.
 
Michael

Thanks for all the likes.
Steve Thanks for the kind words, the proof will be in the pudding.
 
I began cutting the keel and stem today
I did not have any paste to glue the paper to the Castello so I did a test with the speedsew and it worked and the stuff works like rubber cement, and rubbed off the wood leaving no residue.
 

 
used the bandsaw to rough cut the keel
 

 
and the jewelers saw to cut the stem
 

 
then used a 3/4 inch paring chisel to rough down the stem before gluing it to the keel for final shaping.
 

 

 

 

 

 
There is still some final paring to do between station 1 and 5 but it is shaping up well. I can see why now the preponderance of Castello used in model boats, this is the first time I have used it and I'm lovin' it, what a joy to carve.
 

 

 
I will leave the stem for now and get the stern fitted, after that I will add the keel plate then shape them together for the garboard, once that is done I will be able to attach the assembly to the station bulkheads on the frame, then the ribbands for the ribs.
 
Michael   

I agree Bob, that is why I cut my teeth on projects like this and this
 
I am up for the challenge I figure it will be about as tricky as building this was.
 

 
When I was 17 I built a working overhead valve internal combustion engine model using off the shelf bits and pieces. it was crude but it ran. I have learned a few things since then though so it should be fun, I am glad that I did not choose one of those large runabout racers with the big engines though, Like the one in the Gar runabout I posted on the other thread.
 
today I finished the molds and mounted them
 

 

 
Two of the cross beams were not exactly extruded square so I had to add some .008 shims to counteract for it, to get the mold to be square with the base.
 

 
Also cut a wider piece of the Castello for the keel, since it is only 17.3 feet long I wanted to make it out of a single timber.

 
Thank you to all who "liked" the last entry.
 
Michael 

Steve, Omega, thanks for your great comments here is a link to an overall shot at the Port Carling boat show where I first saw a picture of Skipjack.
The Port Carling boat site includes a lot of pictures of the classic wooden boats, Skipjack is near the bottom half of the pictures and this Gem near the bottom of the page.
 
It would be fun to visit the show and see some of these boats in person, but i am lucky enough that Roger is being very helpful in sending me pictures and taking measurements of various details for me.
 
This is Skipjack's engine that I also propose to make.
 

 
And an overall of Skipjack in her boatshed.
 

 
Michael

Thanks for looking in Ed, sometimes I wonder how I get anything done because of the clutter. My wife does yoga ,I do my stretching stepping around over and between stuff which amounts to the same thing.
 
Today I made a few changes to the way the cross beam are attached to the frame. I thought it better to make it less cluttered by fixing the beams with some 5x40 allan head cap screws rather than the big wooden clamps. The frame will be easy enough to add new locations for further beams down the road on the next boat to use this frame. the present locations are spaced 4 feet apart (6inches). By bolting them it avoids any possible slippage, and helps to increase the overall rigidity.
 

 

 

 
The new station molds are made from 1/16th inch white plastic that is sold for the sunshine ceilings. It will be easier to tie the ribbands to the thinner sheet. here you can see the first mold with the holes marked before they were drilled for the eight ribbands. the drawing is attached with double sided tape.
here is the mold drawing #1
 

 
bulkhead 1.pdf
 
Now to work on the rest, the plastic cuts very nicely with the jewelers saw and require very little clean up.
 

 
Here is the fine bow on the real boat
 

 
Additional thanks to all who have added the like option, it is very motivating.
 
Michael
 

Thank you for the likes.
 
Earlier today I worked on preparing some of the materials for the building. first I made the decision to use Cedar for the planking, because I don't have any Yellow Cyprus, the piece of Western Red had some very tight grain and the board was big enough to give me 38 boards 32 inches long by 3/4 x 3/64 inches.
 

 

 
I also cut some of the Castello Boxwood 28 inches long and then cut some 3/4 x 1/4 and some 3/4 x 3/32 inches this will be used for the keel and keel plate, I will use the bandsaw to cut the shorter taller pieces for the stem and stern. I really liked the way the Castello cut on both the bandsaw and the tablesaw. I ended up changing the tablesaw blade from a carbide tipped one to the hollow ground steel finishing blade
 

 
The Castello is straight off the tablesaw, the Cedar has been sanded because I used the thin carbide ripping blade.
 

 
Now I need to cut some ribbands, I am leaning towards some tight grained Fir 5/32 x 3/32 32 inches long, I will need to check my stock.
 
Michael

Good evening Mark, my thoughts are to add at least 8 or 10 ribands to each side evenly spaced. My understanding is that the ribs on the full size are 3/4 by 1/2 inch. In rereading Roger's notes there is a plate on top of the keel that is 4 inches by 3/4 inches and tapers toward the bow and stern. this plate forms the upper side of the bearding line for the planking and gives a greater area to attach the garboard strake.
 
I am going to make the keel, keel plate, stem and sternpost out of the Castello Boxwood. I need to make the ribands strong enough to not deform when I set in the frames. something that has crossed my mind is to use some thread to hold the frames (ribs) to the ribbands while they set. The fir test frames were pretty flexible, however I am also going to test the Castello for the frames as well, they will be 3/32 x 1/16th full size on the model.
 
I am planning on following the curve at the extreme ends of the bow and stern this will prevent twisting them too much it is hard to tell a great deal from this picture
 

 
Evidently the ceiling boards which significantly strengthened the hull, they are 1 1/2 by 3/4 bead and cove.
 
have to go guests just arrived
 
Michael

After resizing the drawings I needed to modify the building jig, thinking about the sequence of construction I eliminated the keel support for the moment. The white rails were too short so a new pair were drilled.
I had a scrap of Brazilian Rosewood which was just big enough for the new frame end bars. Some wood inserts were driven into the long tubes before the holes were drilled the frame is now quite rigid.
 

 
I have cut the first three new molds for the ribbands and mounted them on the aluminum cross beams.
The molds were cut from 1/4 MDF and are set aft of the station lines, the last two will be set forward of the station Lines.
The molds will not be faired, this why they are placed the way they are.
 

 

 

 
the next pic shows the frame reversed on the build posts. you can see that they are not yet perfectly centered I will do this when all 5 molds are set on the cross beams before adding the keel. I am much happier with the building frame.
 

 

 
I remembered that I had built and stored away a small Dremel routing/sanding table which was fabricated out of 1/4 inch thick black plexiglass.  I used this table a lot when building Architectural models, I set it up for working on the molds along with some curved shaped sanding sticks.
 

 
Michael
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have been slowly working on the drawing for the construction of Skipjack and now I have got the moulds drawn for assembling into the building jig.
 

 
Next task will be to cut out the moulds and the keel and then add the stringers ready for the steam bent frames.
 
Once the frames are formed I will then begin the planking.in Castello boxwood.
 
Michael

Skipjack/Floss part 8
 
While I was in Edmonton today picking up supplies for the library event on Friday in the village I happened to be next door to the hardwood store..... well I couldn't resist having a look... Dangerous, very dangerous thing to do
 

 
This piece of Castello Boxwood fell out of the rack right in front of me.... so I had to pick it up and of course once it was in my hands I couldn't put it down... so I had to take it to the counter, (3.7board feet) where they relieved me of a bit of cash... Shhhhhhh
 

 
The wood for the launch is now in hand, it will be fun working with a new wood that i have not used in the past.
 
September will be here soon enough.
 
Michael

I realized that I had not included the half hull model that I had made for this model when I referred to this thread from the Maria theread so here it is .
 

 

 

 
I will be making a new half hull based on the latest information from Roger.
 
Michael

A small update
 
Skipjack/Floss part 7
 
I have received some updated information from Roger this past month I got new dimensions of some critical areas and have been refining the plans which are getting much closer. Roger also sent some great pictures of details and information regarding the sizes of ribs and floor timbers and the way the stem and stern are built.
 
The stem was originally cast aluminum and was more upright than it is currently. The stem was modified after 1912 and a wooden one replaced the original and at a softer angle to the water. This pre 1912 photo shows the original stem
 

 
This next picture shows some restoration work that was done in 1987 showing some of the new floor timbers. and the ceiling boards.
 

 
this is the current itteration of the plans given the new data.
 
Michael
 
 

Bob thanks, I can tell you that fiddling around with this frame has given me a whole new appreciation for all the builders out there building the fully framed models I would be forever turning the thing over to shake out something I dropped into the depths.
 
John, not a chance that this will take away too much from the cutter, I just wanted to get a bit of a start  building the board and doing some tests while researching the launch. 
 
Floss Part 4
 
Made one of the classic mistakes today, I measured off one of my prints and not a dimension, and the scale was off on the print. hence the brass spacer. I kept looking at the keel clamp next to the drawing, and the keel itself all were fine it was a different print that the spacer stand was on.
 

 
The other screw up today was breaking this 5/8ths end mill while making the aluminum keel clamp supports that were too short. I had used a piece of aluminum the same thickness as the piece being machined so the piece was not tight enough in the vice. I was using a climb cut and as soon as the cutter began it started to pull the metal toward itself and before I could turn off the mill the end mill snapped.
 

 
The wooden keel clamps are made from a piece of white Lilac that I cut in 1974 lovely wood.
 

 
The keel test piece is maple and the width is 11/32
 

 

 
The gripe is balancing on the rest of the test keel
 

 
Michael
 

Andy, there are quite a few plans out there for model IC engines, The model engineer featured quite a few over the years.
 
Bob, thanks for looking in.
 
Floss Part 2
 
The next stage of the build board included fixing the top rails together with some 3/4 x 1 1/2 inch U channel this will also hold the clamps for the stem and stern.
 
Also some pictures of the way that the top frame can be flipped over.
 

 

 

 

 
Michael

Hello Greg and welcome to this build. Lunch is fixed, so yes come along for some goodies
 
The Ferro engine will be a working gasoline engine as well. when I was 16 I made a working overhead valve gas engine that ran on lighter fluid the piston was made from an old spark plug and the crankshaft was made from a few sections of bicycle chain soldered together. the points were full size off an old car and the whole lot was soldered together with soft solder. it was very crude but it would run for about 30 seconds  before running out of fuel.
 
I have learned a few things since then so I would imagine that once I have the drawings of the Ferro Engine I will be able to build one.
 
The building board is designed to hold the mould boards while the ribbands are fitted with the boat held up about 2 1/2 inches off the base so that I can get to it all easily. The fixtures for holding the stem and stern posts are not yet made I will work on these as time permits.
 
Today I have a lot of snow to clear and it is -16 degrees and windy.
 
Michael