Carrie Price by thibaultron – Lindberg/Pyro – PLASTIC – 1:64 - Small - Skipjack

[thibaultron]

Mahuna;

 

Thank you!

[thibaultron]

Part 15

 

I started on the fore upper rails next.

 

 

 

I clamped a block at the top of the bowsprit, where the railings would meet it. This is a little high per the plans, but the kit railings are high. In fact the new sections dip a little between the old rail and the bowsprit. Maybe no one will notice. I also placed a block between the lower rail and the new piece. I glued on the port extension first.

 

 

 

The starboard rail extension followed.

 

Then I trimmed the starboard rail, and found a problem.

 

 

It’s hard to see in the photograph, but when the new section was sanded to match the old, there was a kink right at the joint. The old railing tilted inward about a ¼ of its width. It was much more visible when looking at the ship from above the bow. As this was right in the area that you would first see when viewing the model, I decided to correct both rails before continuing.

 

 I would need to cut some stanchions and move the old section outward. This involved what I have been trying to avoid, drilling a small hole in a small part.

 

I removed the first stanchion and cut loose the bottoms of the next two, and cut off the bump at the top of the rail that represents the top of the stanchion rod, where the head of the rod/bolt is. I also broke the joint between the old and new sections.

 

I used a piece of wood clamped to the deck to push the old rail end outward, and stuck a 1/16” piece of plywood between the upper and lower rails to support the upper rail during drilling. Then I drilled through the upper rail in the former location of the bump, with a #76 drill (about .020” in diameter, the railing was .060” wide). Once I had the hole through the upper rail, I removed the ply block and drilled the lower rail, also in the center, sort of. When I was done I found that the drill bit had wondered and cut down the outside of the lower rail, rather than the center. So I drilled a second hole a little further back.

 

The second hole was a little off at the top rail, but spot on for the bottom. I decided that it was good enough.

 

I used a #73 drill to open the holes for the pin used for the new stanchion.

 

 

You can see the two holes at the upper right of the picture.

 

For this operation I used my Optivisor (with its greater magnification), and went slowly.

 

I inserted a pin into the upper and lower  holes as the new stanchion, and secured it with thin super glue. I also used the super glue for the railing joint.

 

 

I cut the pin off with rail nippers. They are like heavy duty sprue nippers. They are used for cutting the track rail on model railroads. I then filed the protruding portion, leaving a little at the top to represent the bolt head I had trimmed off before.

 

 

On the left are the rail nippers, on the right the regular sprue nippers.

 

 

You can see that I managed to knock off the port rail extension during this process. A pain, but I would have had to break the joint between the new and old rails anyway.

 

A little further sanding and the rail was finished. I used thin plastic cement to reattach the bottoms of the other two stanchions I had cut earlier, they were shifted a little but still looked centered.

 

 

 

I repeated the process for the other rail.

 

While trimming the rail I held the bowsprit, reversed, in place to reinforce the railing, and hold it in place at the tip. This is not how I held it and the file during the trimming, but I had to use my other hand to snap the picture

 

 

I used the large file to remove the bulk of the material, then switched to a needle file to finish.

 

After trimming the rail, I glued the stub of the incorrect bowsprit in to protect the rails while I do more work on the hull.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2015 by thibaultron

[thibaultron]

Part 16

 

The transom on the model is notched where the rails end. On the plans the transom goes up “straight" and the rail ends butt to it.

 

It took leftover pieces from the railing stock and glued then in the notches, after cleaning them up a little bit. The pieces were larger than the notch on all sides.

 

 

 

After letting the glue dry for several hours, I filed the plastic to be flat with the front and back of transom, and with the edges of the transom in line with the hull.

 

 

 

A couple notes on this:

 

1. I used the “Fingernail Test” to determine when the new parts were flush  with the old. This involves running your finger nail along the seam. If it slides past the seam without catching, the seam is flush. Machinists used this test on their parts.
2. Look at your files, some of the flat ones will have a “Safe Edge”. There is one thin side with no teeth. This allows you to have this edge against a surface that you do not want to remove. I had the safe edge against the top of the railings. Not all files have this, so check yours.

 

The next order of business, was the chain plates. The kit had a couple problems with these. The chain plates, deadeyes, and shroud lashings were all cast as one piece. To use them as is safely I would have had to attach them after  I painted the hull, and was installing the spars and rigging. I would rather paint the chain plates with the hull.

 

 

Hole in hull where chainplates attach.

 

The kit parts also had a bar between the chains at the bottom, and a coil of rope suspended between the shroud lashings (see the left hand red circle on the box art, below). If you look at the second red circle, you can see there was a similar rope coil on the railings, I removed this too. The rod was not shown on my plans for either this boat, nor the Willie Bennett. A circular coil of rope is not something you would find on a real boat, that is not how real rope hangs.

 

 

A couple months ago I carefully used a razor saw and knife to remove the coil. I decided to cut the chain plates free and, if I decide (likely) to use the rest later, I will remove the lower bar, and thin the upper. While the shroud lashings are crude, I don’t think I could do any better with real scale deadeyes and thread. The running light boards are also attached the these parts, making keeping them more attractive. I may scrape groves in the cast lashings with a knife to make them look more like separate lines.

 

 

After I cut the chain plates free I removed most of the casting lines. I left a little to represent the line between the part attached to the hull, and the cap bolted to it to lock in the deadeye straps.

 

I drilled shallow holes in the tops of the chain plates where the cast straps had attached, to mark their locations, only to find that stock positions of these joints did not match the locations of the straps cast on the hull. I’ll fill them later.

 

I glued the chain plates onto the hull.

 

 

 

I've been researching the Skipjack Push Boats a little more, and will be talking about them next time.

Edited August 27, 2015 by thibaultron

[thibaultron]

Part 17 A

 

The ship’s boat could be built one of three ways. Just use the stock parts, this would represent a modern push boat, with a big engine.

 

I could scratch build an oar powered skiff (really small work).

 

I decided to go with an intermediate type, inboard powered, but using an one cylinder engine of around 1900. This would use most of the stock parts, but remove the seats and engine box. I would install a little exposed single cylinder engine (or at least something that looks close). This type and the oar powered skiff, are closer to the period I’m modeling, when she was built in 1895, and used hand cranked dredges. In this case the boat is used only for transportation, not pushing.

 

The traditional modern Push Boat I’ve talked about previously, but will detail some more.

 

I was not completely correct about its use before. At that time I said that it was used for pushing the boat while dredging in light or no winds. While this is correct, after more research I found some restrictions that have changed over time.

 

1. Before the 1960s, the boat could only be used to get the skipjack to and from the oyster beds, but not used during dredging.
2. In the 60s this was changed to allow its used while dredging, but only two days a week. It was further restricted in that the two days were specified as Mondays and Tuesdays. Monday and Tuesday were the only days allowed until the 1990s.
3. In the 90s, the law was changed in that, while they could still only dredge two days a week, the crew could pick any two days each week. This allowed for changes in wind and weather during the season.
4. When not in use the boat had to be stored in the davits, so that law enforcement could easily see that it was not being used. They, of course, kept a watchful eye on the dredging operations. In recent times by plane, to cover a larger area.

 

These pictures are of a modern Pushboat for the skipjack Rosie Parks. This is during its recent restoration. The Rosie Parks is a restored skipjack at a the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

 

 

 

The engines in these are huge, compared to the hull. This one is a turbocharged diesel. Note also that, the man on the left seems to have been doing a lot of restoration work outside.

 

Here is a drawing of another Pushboat from the National Archives.

 

 

The intermediate type that I am trying to shoot for, is when small inboard gas engines were first being used.

 

 

You can see a small marine engine in this picture. The most visible clue is the large flywheel. There are no seats, and it looks like there is a tiller and thus a rudder.

 

This boat is on a model of the J T Leonard, an Oyster Sloop. These were the immediate predecessors to the skipjacks, built from about the 1840s until the 1890s, when the skipjacks took over.

 

 

This is the full model. While these had a similar deck arrangement, they were built in the traditional framed hull method, with a rounded hull form. As you can see she still had the hand cranked dredges, when her boat had the old type engine. She was formally at the same museum as the Rosie Parks, but no longer exists. She was acquired when the museum first opened in the 60s, and at that time funds were short. By the time enough funds were available, she was too far gone to save. This is a model at the museum.

 

The original ship’s boats were oar driven. Flat bottomed skiffs being popular. This is the kind shown in the photograph below. This is one of the pictures used in the hand dredge post.

 

 

The drawing for the Carrie Price shows this type.

 

 

I did not want to scratch build a skiff, and the supplied parts in the kit are for a modern Pushboat. The hull of the kit parts does, however, resemble that for the one on the J T Leonard model. So I decided to scratch build an engine, and modify the kit boat.

 

I researched early inboard gas engines of around 1900, and found a wealth of information on the internet. What follows are some of the pictures and advertisements I found, for engines about the right size.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the engines and transmissions are not complex. In this small scale, I plan to leave out most of the small details, and just build the basic flywheel, engine, and transmission housings. The engine will also be mostly hidden by the deck and combing, and my model is of the skipjack not its boat. Superdetailing the ship’s boat would draw the eye to it, not the larger model.  The fact that superdetailing the engine  and Pushboat would probably take as long as the rest of the model (and drive me insane), never crossed my mind. J

 

After consideration I decided to go with a Detroit type motor, with a lever for the transmission like the one on the Kowalski engine.

 

I measured the space available between the kit boat’s stem and rudder, and the largest prop I could fit was about 8” in diameter. From the chart below, that puts an engine in the 2 to 4 HP range as scale. I think for a 12’ boat, this would be right for the era.

Edited August 31, 2015 by thibaultron

[thibaultron]

Part 17 B

 

 

The smaller engines were all similar in size, based on the bore, stroke, and prop size. I based the engine I drew on the Detroit add for the 2 HP engine. I thought that is squarish crank block and side located engine mounts looked more “engineish” than the Kowalski’s spherical crank block and circular bottom mounts.

 

Also most of the base of the engine will be either hidden, or not modeled. As it turns out, due to the way the kit hull is cast, the bottom of the engine and flywheel will be not modeled, or will be cut off afterward.

 

To get a basis for the size of the engine, the only reference I had was the bore and the overall diameter of the outside of the cylinder block below the water jacket. I found a cylinder block for a period engine with a 3 ½” bore on EBay. The pictures allowed me to determine the cylinder wall thickness to be bout ¼”, giving me a 4” diameter on the outside of the bore.

 

 

I scanned the Detroit 2 HP add into my CAD program, and set the width of the bore sleeve to 4”. I did the same of the Kowalski engine. After using the CAD program to dimension the other parts, I drew my own engine, using those proportions.

 

 

 

I scanned the kit parts and made a drawing of them. This allowed me to see if my engine would fit, how it looked, and a realistic position for it in the model.

 

 

After finishing the drawing, I then looked a bit closer at the kit hull. I had assumed that the hull was about the same cast thickness. I was wrong. I had failed to notice that the slat flooring inside was cast as a flat surface (the red horizontal line). This is why I mentioned earlier that I will not model the bottom of the engine.

 

I printed out the engine on paper to scale, and glued the top and side views into a 3D pattern.

 

 

Yes, that is the end of a reversed clothespin holding the tab of the scale pattern! Like I said, superdetailing the engine model would be a near miraculous task!

 

I placed the pattern into the hull to see how it would look.

 

 

This satisfied me that it would fit.

 

I also found some pictures of a similar Detroit engine installed in a period 18’ launch.

 

 

 

 

As well as a picture of the same size launch from a factory add.

 

 

Ok. How I will go from here. The Leonard model photo shows flooring at the level of the engine mounts. I will carve out the kit hull flooring to the outline of the model engine, plus a little. I will build the engine, and make a simple prop. I Will Not obsess about the engine being in perfect line with the prop center.

 

My truck died 2 weeks ago, far from home, rather fatally . I have been feverishly working on getting our car running, and the next installment may be a week or so.

Edited August 31, 2015 by thibaultron

[Mahuna]

Hi Ron:

 

Great research.  You've answered a lot of questions I've had.  I'll be visiting the Maritime Museum in October, and this post makes me look forward to it even more!

[captainbob]

Ah, the Detroit 40 hp for only $29.50.  I'll take one.

 

You're push boat should be a fun build.

 

bob

[thibaultron]

$29.50 sounds good, until I found out the average yearly income was around $400. So that's about $2500 to 3000 today. I'll take a couple myself though.

[thibaultron]

Detroit Marine Engine video

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FbLzBkH4Ic

[thibaultron]

Part 17

 

A quick interlude from the 1900s engine.

 

I reread the section of the book I am using the plans from, “American Ship Models and How to Build Them” that covers the Carrie Price. It had been so long, I forgot how much info was scattered in the text. Based on this I redrew the boom and added the fittings to the masthead.

 

One piece I decided not to use was the length of the octagonal section to round transition from the deck. If it used their figure, the boom jaws would be riding just above the octagonal section, with the boom crutch in that area. I decided to leave the bottom of the mast as I originally drew it, which matches the plans. I think the book dimension is a misprint.

 

 

Here is the redrawn boom. The boom itself is not changed, but some of the fittings are. The changes are in green:

1. I added a band for the main sheet
2. Four cheek blocks for the lazyjack rigging
3. Removed one of the 10” cleats
4. Moved a pair of 10” cleats a few inches, per the book text
5. Moved the boom haul eyelet a couple inches
6. Moved the topping lift sheave from the side of the mast, to the center.

 

I did well on the rest of it. The lazyjack cheek blocks may become eyelets on the model, they are very small.

 

The book had a diagram of the masthead fittings. I scanned it in and scaled it as close as I could get to the book plans.

 

 

The letters are from references in the text in the book detailing the rigging, line by line. I still have to add the lower mast fittings, but that will be quick there is only 3 or so, I just ran out of steam today.

 

I’m a little down today, as we got a call from my stepdaughter that her home burned down last night, with her 2 dogs and 2 of her 3 cats inside. One cat was outside, because it did not come in to eat, and the neighbors were able to rescue her parrot, who was on the porch. Doing the drawing changes helped get my mind off it.

Edited September 4, 2015 by thibaultron

[Omega1234]

Hi Ron

 

This was my first visit to more build log, only to hear of the sad news of your daughter's house and her cats and dogs. My thoughts are with you, your daughter and family. I hope she was insured and that she is able to rebuild and recover quickly.

 

Take care

 

Patrick

[Mahuna]

Sorry to hear about your family's troubles.  Sometimes a hobby is a good way to take your mind off hurtful things.

[thibaultron]

She did not have insurance. Due to the city wanting to get rid of the trailer park she was in, she can't put another trailer in to replace hers. She's staying at her boyfriends place.

[thibaultron]

Part 19

 

Back to the engine.

 

I started with the flywheel. It is 14” in Dia., at full size. The rim inner dia. Is 10”, and ideally is to be 2 to 3” thick. I used a Harbor Freight hand punch to make the parts. First I punched out 7/32” disks from .020” styrene modeling sheet. Then I punched out some from .014” plastic from a hardware store “For Sale” sign. I tried using .010” styrene, but the pieces came out too ragged.

 

Normally I avoid using the sign plastic for modeling, as it is too soft. But in this case it punched well. I normally use it for airbrush painting practice. For a $1 or so a sheet it gives a lot of surface area to play with. I can also try out colors and effects, before I use them on a model. I’m just starting out with the airbrush, so cheap practice material is helpful.

 

The punch leaves a small dimple in the center of the disk. I used this to help center the piece when I punched out the center to make the rims.

 

I glued the disks to a piece of sign plastic with white glue, and let it dry overnight.

 

 

 

The white on white is a little hard to see in the photos.

 

Then I used the center dimples to locate for the 5/32” hole. The .014” plastic had released somewhat making the center harder to find on some of the disks. I had to used both hands and magnification for this, so no pictures.

 

 

The punch “stud” has a small point. I partially pressed the handle until there was barely clearance to slide the plastic in, then I squeezed until there was a little drag, and tried to get the dimple to catch on the point. Out of 10 or so pieces I managed to get two or three acceptable rims.

 

 

As you can see at the left, some were close, but still too much off center.

 

I punched out some 7/32” plain disks for the center web of the flywheel.

 

I glued a rim on either side of a web, and placed weights on them so that they would be flat.

 

 

I made flywheels out of both three layers of .020” (about 4” total thickness scale), and .014” (about 3”) and will pick out the one that looks best with the engine body.

 

Unfortunately the punch did not have the dies for the 4” axle boss I want, and I don’t have any really small metal rod or tubing. I’ll see what I can do for this, as I go on.

 

Next I shaped the cylinder head. I chucked a sprue piece in my battery drill, and using a regular small flat file, and a flat needle file, I reduced the diameter to 3/32” (6” scale) for the cylinder head where the water jacket will be.

 

 

For doing this I placed the drill on my lap and held it with one hand, and filed with the other. Not the best way, but it worked.

 

 

I had left the blob on the end to shape the crankcase with, but messed it up. So I cut it off and reduced the end to 1/16” (4” scale) for the non jacketed bottom of the cylinder head.

 

 

The picture is a little blurry, my camera has problems with these small parts.. The black section is the water-jacket area. I colored it with permanent marker before starting the filing for the smaller section. The white upper part is the section I reduced to 1/16” (4” scale) for the exposed area of the cylinder head.

 

For the crankcase I printed the pattern and glued it to a piece of .040” plastic sheet. The final thickness will be greater, but it is easier to cut a series of thinner sheets than an .080, or .100 thick small part.

 

 

After the white glue was set, I rough cut the piece along the sides, leaving a long tab at what will be the bottom of the engine. This will be used as a handle until most of the other operations are complete.

 

 

This is the second attempt. The first time I cut it too close to the lines, and the top was not wide enough to match the cylinder head.

 

I read an article several years ago about a highly detailed and highly complex armor model that had been built from scratch. The builder said that during the construction, he had probably thrown away another model’s worth of unsatisfactory parts. I try to keep this in mind. I stop when mine are only slightly unsatisfactory. :-)

 

Then I glued this onto another .040” piece.

 

When the glue had dried I cut off the extra at the sides, and sanded them square. Using the cylinder  head part as a guide I cut the top flat, leaving some on either side to represent the mounting flange.

 

Looking at the final width of the top verses the thickness of the crank piece, I decided to add another layer of .020” plastic. A little final shaping and the top of the crank case was done.

 

I did not have any small 1/32^nd rod (2” Scale) for the crankshaft, but found a “T” pin with the right diameter. I reattached the paper pattern, which had come off during the shaping, and used it as a guide for drilling the shaft hole in the crank case. I used a #70 drill, but the size would depend on what you had to use. This left a tight fit to the pin.

 

To smooth the outside of the flywheel  rim, I cut down the end of a dowel to fit inside the rim, and glued it to the flywheel.

 

I will admit to cheating a little here. I used a metal lathe to accurately reduce the dowel diameter, as I did not have a dowel the right size. I’ve avoided using it before in this build, as many do not have one, and I am selling mine, so will not have one in the future. In this case the dowel’s large diameter was the same as the outside of the rim. If I had the right size dowel, I would have used a piece of scrap under the dowel while sanding, to bring the edge to the proper level.

 

 

An advantage to gluing the flywheel using the inside of the rim as a reference, is that the outside will be concentric with the inside, giving an even rim width.

 

After smoothing I used the dimple in the center to drill the flywheel shaft.

 

To check the parts out I temporarily assembled the crank case and flywheel. In the end I chose the flywheel made from the .014” sheet, the other looked oversized. Glad I had those signs laying around.

 

 

I did not worry about shaping the bottom of the crank, as this area will be cut out when I fit the engine to the boat. The bottom of the flywheel will also be removed (see Part 17).

 

Next time I’ll work on completing the engine, and perhaps the chiseling out of the boat flooring for the engine compartment. I may even get extremely brave and drill three holes in the flywheel web, like those shown in some of the pictures I found. These were used to lighten it somewhat.

Edited September 10, 2015 by thibaultron

[Mahuna]

Hi Ron:

 

I admire your patience and persistence.  I can't help thinking that this work would be much easier on a small metal lathe using brass or aluminum.  I was surprised to see that you have one and are planning to sell it.  I bought a used Sherline lathe and mill, and wouldn't part with them.  What brand is yours?

[thibaultron]

Mine is an Atlas 12 X 36 one. Finances dictate the sale, unfortunately. Maybe some day I will be able to get a small one.

[thibaultron]

Part 20

 

The next part is the mounting flange at the back of the crank case, for the transmission.

 

I punched out some 3/32” (6” scale) disks from .020 and .014” sheet. The .010” disk again came out ragged, and the disk warped.  Even the .014” disk had rough edges, but I could not figure a way to sand them, the back of the engine will be almost invisible, anyway. Then I drilled the disk, using the center dimple, for the crank shaft/pin.

 

I inserted the pin into the disk, and pushed the pin into the crank case. I then glued the disk, and also glued the cylinder head to the case. It’s starting to look like an engine.

 

 

The photo also shows I still have a bit of sanding to do on the sides of the crank case.

 

I then cut the cylinder head away from its’ handle. Then the engine block from its’ handle.

 

 

 

If you look close you can see that I cut the crankcase just below the crank shaft hole. The top of the engine from the mounting flange up is what protrudes above the hull’s cast in flooring. I also sanded the bottom of the engine block so that it leans toward the back of the boat. The engine was cut just below the crank shaft hole, leaving the hole in the engine block.

 

 

Here the engine block is set in the boat, to see how it looked. I had not yet sanded the angle in the base.

 

For the transmission, I found a half round sprue the right diameter. The bottom of this part would have mostly been cut off anyway, and I did not have any round pieces even close.

 

I glued the engine and transmission to a piece of .010” plastic sheet. This serves three purposes. The bottom of the engine that I did not model, was the section directly below the engine mounts, so the .010” will be cut to model these flanges. The transmission  contact area to the engine is almost nonexistent, the sheet will serve to tie them together. I will leave a piece of the sheet projecting forward, temporarily. This will contact the back of the flywheel, and serve to mark where I should cut it. When I’ve cut the flywheel I’ll remove this section.

 

 

The black mark at the rear of the transmission is permanent marker, used to mark the top of the ½ round sprue. This helped when I was attaching it. With this small a part telling the round side from the flat with just my fingers was hard. I held it in place while gluing with the tip of a modeling knife. The sprue was a little warped, so I glued it in sections from one end to the other. I used thin liquid cement applied with a micro brush.

 

When the glue had dried, I cut the engine off the rest of the sheet. I used a piece of 1/32^nd plywood as a spacer when cutting the engine mount tabs.

 

 

It used the engine to make a cardstock template for chiseling the hole in the push boat floor. I allowed what looked like a reasonable space for a scale hand and arm the reach into the hole and work on the engine.

 

 

I cleaned up the inside of the coaming, removing the last remnants of the seats, and smoothing the inside surface.

 

 

The tiller and rudder are molded in the neutral, straight ahead, position.  This is a standard modeling setup. There is a problem with this on this model. If you look closely, the hole for one of the lift blocks, is in the center of the tiller.

 

I’m going to model the push boat with the tiller lashed to one side. I choose that the tiller would be lashed to the base of the aft lift block, on side toward the skipjack.

 

I removed the tiller from the casting, with a knife, file, and sand paper.

 

 

Then I angled the rudder to match.

 

 

Now what does the rudder have to do with the building of the engine, you ask. Nothing just felt like fixing this now. J

 

On the floor of the boat I darkened the center slat with a pencil, so that I could more easily place the pattern, I also marked where the front of the engine block would be. Then I glued in the pattern.

 

 

You can see the marked center slat behind the pattern. Once again I attached it with white glue, so I can remove any leftover glue, easily.

 

Originally I planned for the flywheel to be 4 scale inches from the engine block, and put something between them to represent a pump. When I trial fit the flywheel, this area was hidden by the flywheel. I decided to move the flywheel in to 2”, and forget the pump. The pattern was cut to include this change.

 

The cutout for the tail of the transmission will not extend back as far as the pattern, I needed a handle while installing it. I will cut the slot for the flywheel a little wider than the pattern, but I’ll do that during final fitting of the engine. I’m going to try to cut the flywheel slot a little deeper, to keep more of it, on the model.

 

I decided that the engine cutout for the block would end at the middle support, and that the transmission/prop shaft would end at the right hand one, and that all the cutouts would stop on the inside edge of a slat.

Edited September 13, 2015 by thibaultron

[thibaultron]

Part 21

Using a chisel blade and a regular blade I spent some time hollowing out this area.

 

 

For the engine block I removed the center and the two next slats. For the shaft I just removed the center one. For the flywheel, I cut out an additional slat on each side.

 

The chisel blade was just the right size to remove the center three slats for the engine. I cut vertical cut stops where the holes would end, and worked back and forth from the ends and center, to remove the slats.  Unfortunately while doing this, I damaged one of the slats beside the engine area. I will see how it looks with a little paint, later. Hopefully it will not be too noticeable. This would be Really hard to replace.

 

For the shaft, the chisel was far too wide, so I had to attack it from the sides. Not fun.

 

I was going to recess the flywheel hole more so I could retain more of it. Luckily while I was doing this I flipped the hull over. That is when I saw that I was just about to cut all the way thru. I had not noticed the plastic getting translucent as I was cutting from the top! I managed to get the flywheel hole only about .010 deeper than the engine area.

 

 

 

You can see the flywheel area from the bottom. It is the slightly darker area by the bow. Those slats were cast deep.

 

I went back and cleaned up the area, by scrapping with both blades.

 

 

 

I colored in the cutout, roughly, with a pencil to make it more visible. After taking the picture, I thought, “Dummy ,I wonder how well the paint will stick to the pencil graphite!!!” I cleaned it out as best I could with the eraser and window cleaner and a cotton swab. I’ll go back later with paint thinner to see if I can get out more.

 

I discovered while doing the hollowing out that my hands seem to shake concirably more than they did 40 years ago! J

 

To see how things were going to look I set the engine in the hull, and the deck on top. Yes, I didn’t get the deck back all the way, but I had enough trouble just getting everything to stay in place. It was sort of like those toys where you have to get all the BBs into the holes.

 

 

The flywheel is not installed in these shots. To simulate the center hub, I’m going to use a regular pin. The head will be positioned so it is a little away from the center web, and I will add a little glue to fill in the area. But, right now I don’t have a regular pin. I’ll finish this in the future. I also decided not to drill the lightning holes in the flywheel. I do not feel like making another one, if I mess it up, the first was hard enough.

 

I’ll work on the flywheel this week, and post it. It may be a couple weeks after that before I post any more. I will be helping a disabled friend to pack up to move.

Edited September 13, 2015 by thibaultron

[thibaultron]

Kevin from Hampton Roads just posted some pictures of the hand dredge at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum for me on his built "Skipjack Albatross". Has some nice pictures of the skipjack that is there too.

 

His last model was amasingly well done. Wish I could build that well.

[thibaultron]

Part 22

 

I guess I owe Pyro an apology. At the beginning of this build, I commented that the casting they made for the furled, or as it turns out being furled, main sail was incorrect. I think I used a stronger comment. Because I'm used to modern sailboats, I said that they had cast the angle of the leading edge, in the wrong direction, as it angled away from the mast.

 

They had it right!

 

After reading the thread "Furling a boom-footed forestaysail" on this forum, post #14 described how the sail is attached to the hoops.

 

The foot of the mainsail is laced to the boom in such a fashion that it cannot side forward as the sail is lowered. With the steep rake of the mast, the leading edge would jam as the sail was lowered. I have not worked up the geometry for this, I'll take their word for it.

 

To solve this problem, the lower part of the sail is not directly laced to the mast hoops. Instead there is a rope that runs between the sail hanks and the hoops. I'm not explaining this well but the drawing that will follow should clear it up.

 

As the sail is lowered this rope is loosened and the leading edge can pull away from the hoops, letting it slide back.

 

 

Detail A shows how the lower part of the sail is attached to the hoops by a rope running between them and the hoops. Detail B shows the upper hoops laced directly to the sail.

 

So Pyro’s casting with the lower part of the sail pulled away from the mast, as it is being lowered, is correct.

 

 

The jib has only a partial boom, so this is not a problem. It is hanked directly to the stay.

 

Learn something new every day.

 

Edited September 23, 2015 by thibaultron

[thibaultron]

I have not abandoned this build, just had many things get in the way. I have to go out of town, but will restart in Nov.

 

I sold my Atlas lathe, and to clear a path to get it out of the back of the shop, I had to fill up the area in front of my workbench. It took 2 days about a week apart to get it out and loaded onto the buyer's truck.

 

I bought his small 7X10 Harbor Freight (really 7X8 they exaggerate the size) metal lathe, so I will at least be able to make ship model parts. I need to do a bit of work on it, though, to bring it up to what I concider reasonable shape. It is almost new, but needs a lot of tweaking. I may also buy a second bed and extend it for making masts and spars. The extension would not be useful for metal work, but good enough for wood working.

[thibaultron]

No building has gotten done, I'm away from home, but I have been able to do a better drawing of the dredge winches.

 

Thanks to another member, I have some pictures of one in a Chesapeake Bay museum. This was the same one I based the old drawing on, but with a small photo to work from.

 

 

Here is the old drawing.

 

 

An overall of the new drawing, with the better photos.

 

 

The drawing itself.

 

The next task is doing a 3D drawing, then draw it in SketchUp, a 3D modeling CAD program.

 

The crank handles are, I think, overly long. Compared to the old picture they are about half again as long. I think they extended the handles so that the museum could bolt them to the display (see the pictures).

Edited October 22, 2015 by thibaultron

[thibaultron]

PART 23

 

I redrew the dredge winch during my Florida trip.

 

One off the close up pictures I was sent.

 

 

Here is the old drawing from the small photo I had.

 

 

The 2D drawing of the winch and sub-assemblies. I shortened the handles, like I talked about in the earlier post. They are 23" long rather than 36". I think that is more reasonable for one man.

 

 

The drawing of the Clutch engagement lever (left) and the Pawl (right).

 

 

This is the front and back 3D views of the redrawn winch.

 

 

 

Now that I am home again I'll be doing more work on the model. Finishing some details on the hull, and starting painting it.

Edited November 3, 2015 by thibaultron

[Mahuna]

Hi Ron:

 

Great drawings!  They'll be very useful for me when I get around to making a model of the hand winder.  I took some measurements from that winder on a recent visit to CBMM, and I'll dig them out and send them to you.

[thibaultron]

Measurements would be greatly appericated!

[Mahuna]

Hi Ron:

 

I added the measurements to your drawing.  It looks like your handles are probably bigger than they should be.

 

 

 

Hope this helps.  Your drawing certainly did help me.

 

[thibaultron]

Thanks for the info. Looks like I have some redrawing to do, but I think I got it close in most proportions. For my drawings I assumed 36" for axle height, 27" for the base length, and 15 for the drum dia.

 

Now I can get it closer using your dimensions. CAD is sometimes a pain, but a lot easier for making corrections.

[thibaultron]

Nope, proportions are off to much, will have to redraw most of it. I love modeling, I love modeling, sigh.

[KevinR]

Hi Ron,

I came across this on Craig's List and thought you might find it interesting.

http://annapolis.craigslist.org/boa/5301875352.html

 

1952 Skipjack, 22' Bateau Cruiser designed by Howard Chapelle and built by Dick Hartge in Galesville, MD. The "Blue Crab" has been recently refurbished. Previous names included Pearl, Diana D., and Albatross. $2500

 

Edited to add picture and description, since the Craig's List will go away at some point.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Kevin from Hampton Roads

[thibaultron]

Dang! I wish I had $2500, though I live 100 miles from the ocean, so it might be a little hard to sail her.