Dunbrody by Mahuna - FINISHED - 1:48 - Cross-Section - Irish Famine Ship

[Omega1234]

Hi Frank

 

Wow!!!! I know I've commented on the quality of your work and the care that you put into each aspect of the ship, but seeing you milling the mortices for the framework, really takes the cake!

 

Lovely. If it was me, I'd have been lazy and simply butt-jointed the framework, but you went the extra mile and made a brilliant job of it.

 

Milestone's reached and conquered, I'd say!

 

Cheerst

 

Patrick

Edited July 18, 2016 by Omega1234

[druxey]

You've done a beautiful job on the platforms, Frank. Are you planning on showing paliasses (mattresses), etc as well?

[EdT]

Very fine work, Frank.  Very nice.  Wonderful detail.

 

Ed

[Jack12477]

WOW, nice work on the sleeping platforms, Frank.  I'm with Patrick's comment on milling the mortises - very impressive.

[Mahuna]

You've done a beautiful job on the platforms, Frank. Are you planning on showing paliasses (mattresses), etc as well?

Thanks Druxey.  No, no mattresses - there weren't any.  The emigrants slept on the bare boards if they didn't bring any bedding for themselves - and most were too poor to bring much of anything.

[Mahuna]

Hi Frank

 

Wow!!!!  I know I've commented on the quality of your work and the care that you put into each aspect of the ship, but seeing you milling the mortices for the framework, really takes the cake!

 

Lovely.  If it was me, I would've butt-joined the framework, but you went the extra mile and made a brilliant job of it.

 

Milestone's reached and conquered, I'd say!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick 

Thanks, Patrick.  Mortises were used on the replica ship I visited, so I figured I should mill them.

 

 

Very fine work, Frank.  Very nice.  Wonderful detail.

 

Ed

 

Thanks Ed.

 

 

WOW, nice work on the sleeping platforms, Frank.  I'm with Patrick's comment on milling the mortises - very impressive.

 

Thanks Jack.  I never would have tried doing the mortises without a milling machine.

[captainbob]

I'm reminded of the sleeping platform in the concentration camps.

 

Bob

[Mahuna]

I'm reminded of the sleeping platform in the concentration camps.

 

Bob

Hi Bob - yeah, not very user-friendly or comfortable.  According to the book by Colin Mudie (the designer of the replica ship) the voyage to Canada took three to eight weeks, depending on conditions.  During this time the emigrant passengers were generally confined to the Accommodation Deck and only allowed on the main deck for limited cooking.  With 176 people in that small space they probably spent a lot of their awake hours in their sleeping platform - a family of four in a 6x6 space, and many of them seriously ill as well.  Lavatory facilities (which I'm currently drafting) consisted of 4 small rooms, each with a simple bucket for waste - ugh. 

[HIPEXEC]

Wow! Very depressing. I'm glad you started this project. It's more than a model ship. It's a great history lesson.

[Omega1234]

Wow! Very depressing. I'm glad you started this project. It's more than a model ship. It's a great history lesson.

 

Hi Rich and Frank

 

Couldn't agree more!  My thoughts are along the same lines, too.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Canute]

Wow, what cramped conditions! All four of my grandparents came over from Europe in the 1870s and 80s; I hope the conditions had improved by then. They all wanted a shot for their families, so I guess the trip had to happen. Not like jumping on a jet and getting there in hours instead of weeks.

Thanks for the history lesson, Frank.

[Mahuna]

Rich, Patrick, and Ken - glad you're finding this build interesting from the standpoint of the living conditions, which was my primary motivation for the model.  There are some very good articles on the web about 'steerage' conditions on sailing ships, which is essentially what the emigrants' accommodations were.  Dunbrody was a fairly small ship, and it seems that on some of the larger ships the number of steerage passengers was much higher - 500 or more.  The physical accommodations were essentially the same.  I think the main difference was the passengers themselves - many of the irish emigrants were starving and very sick when they boarded, and the crew did not prepare their food or provide other kinds of services as would be provided on other ships.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Mahuna

[Mahuna]

Hi everyone. We've headed out on a 3-week vacation, so there won't be any Dunbrody updates during that time. I will be online once in a while just to keep up with some of the logs that I follow.

 

Stay well!

[druxey]

Have a great time and look forward to your return, Frank!

[Omega1234]

Hey Frank

 

Have a very well deserved vacation.  Enjoy!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[GuntherMT]

Have a great trip Frank!  See you in September if not before.

[captainbob]

Have fun. Hope to see you when you get back.

 

Bob

[ggrieco]

Wow! Your miniature joinery is just incredible. Your posts are always inspiring!

[Mahuna]

Thanks Druxey, Patrick, Brian, and Bob - we've been looking forward to this trip for a long time.  Lots of driving, but seeing parts of the country that are new to both of us.

 

 

Wow! Your miniature joinery is just incredible. Your posts are always inspiring!

 

Thanks Glenn.  I'm learning as I go along.

[Mahuna]

Part 34 – Mast Wedges

 

Hi Everyone – back from vacation and back in the shop.

 

The mast wedges for the Accommodation Deck can be seen in the following photo taken of the actual replica ship in New Ross, Ireland.

 

                        

 

In the photo it can be seen that there is a rim around the mast wedges, which looks to be approximately one inch thick.  The mast wedges for the model will be made out of a single piece of stock.

 

Making the mast wedges begins with turning a piece of stock until it’s the correct diameter.

 

                        

 

A center hole is then drilled using a very small center drill.

 

                        

 

The chuck is then transferred to the milling machine.  The setup on the milling machine consists of the lathe chuck mounted on top of the rotary table, which is mounted on the tilting angle table.  The tilting angle table is set at 3 degrees, which is the angle of the mast rake.

 

The setup is properly centered by aligning the center hole on the workpiece with the axis of the milling head, using the laser center finder.

 

                        

 

A small end mill was then used to bore down the appropriate distance, and then was used to enlarge the hole to the appropriate diameter for the mast.  To accomplish this, the x-axis was locked in place, the y-axis was advanced .025 inches, then the rotary table was turned the full 360 degrees.  The y-axis and rotary table movement was repeated until the correct diameter was reached.

 

                        

 

Unfortunately I neglected to take a photo of the next step (sorry, still recovering from vacation!), which was to lower the tilting table to 0 degrees, center the end mill outside the workpiece on the y-axis, then advance the x-axis for the depth of the chock ends.  The outside edge of the wedges was then cut off, the rotary table was advanced 30 degrees, and the cut was repeated.  The depth of the cut was calculated to leave a thin rim around the wedges.  The final result can be seen in the following photo.

 

                         

 

I had a slight problem with parting the wedges off the work piece on the lathe.  The parting tool shifted, and I was left with a small piece on the bottom of the wedges.  I removed this by sanding, using some sand paper glued to a flat piece of plywood.

 

                        

 

The mast wedges were then slid down the mast, and lightly cleaned up with a round file until they fit properly.  In fitting the wedges I discovered that the mast was not properly tapered – there was a slight high spot that the wedges needed to clear before reaching the deck – this left a very slight gap between the wedges and the mast that is visible in the photo, but not at actual size.

 

                        

 

Once the mast wedges were completed, the mast stub was cut down to its final size of approximately 7 ft at the main deck.

 

                        

 

None of these pieces has been glued in place, since there is a lot of work that still needs to take place in that area and working around the mast would be an issue.

 

Thanks everyone.  It feels good to be back to work on Dunbrody.  I’m not sure how much progress I’ll make while the Olympics are on TV, but I’ll keep on plugging away. 

[Omega1234]

Hi Frank

 

Welcome back from your vacation!

Lovely work on the mast steps and wedges!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[GuntherMT]

Welcome back Frank, and nice job on that mast wedge, looks very nice.

[Mahuna]

Thanks Patrick and Brian.  As much as we enjoyed our travels, it's good to be back to the shop.  So much to do, so little time 

[Mahuna]

Part 35 – Bucket Lavatories Part 1

 

The Dunbrody had 4 ‘Bucket Lavatories’ on the Accommodation Deck, as shown in the central part of the attached drawing from the book by Colin Mudie, the designer of the replica ship.  These 4 buckets serviced the 176 emigrants.

 

                        

 

The next photo was taken on the replica ship, showing the type of primitive buckets that were allowed for the emigrants.

 

                        

 

The Dunbrody web site gives the following:

 

Lasting up to six weeks, the Atlantic crossing was a terrible trial for those brave, or desperate, enough to attempt it. Packed cheek by jowl below decks, the steerage passengers barely saw the light of day. Allowed up on deck for no more than one hour a day, in small groups, they would gather around open stoves to cook. When their time was up, it was back down into the dark, dank hold. During the regular storms the hatches were battened down, and the passengers would subsist on hard-tack biscuits.

Hygiene was notoriously poor aboard most ships. With nothing more than buckets for toilets, and only sea-water to wash with, disease was rampant. Cholera and Typhus accounted for a great many deaths. Those who died were buried at sea. With death rates commonly reaching 20%, and horror stories of 50% dying, these vessels soon became known as ‘Coffin Ships’.

 

The living conditions are hard to comprehend.  My objective in building this model is to show the nature of the living conditions, so these lavatories are an important part of the model

 

I’ve found that the various plans for the Dunbrody are not all in synch, and the arrangement of the bucket lavatories shown above will not fit on the model built from the available plans, so the arrangement I will build is somewhat different from the above drawing.  These bucket lavatories were temporary and were built from rough lumber.  The design of these lavatories for the model required a lot of drawing and redrawing.  My opinion is that they were probably built with fairly light lumber and were probably thrown together in as simple a fashion as possible.  I’ve tried to design them in that manner.

 

                        

 

One pair of the bucket lavatories fits between the main mast and the forward companionway.  The available space is limited, so this dictates the size of both sets of bucket lavatories – one pair forward of the main mast and one pair aft.

 

                        

 

I want to leave one of the doors to the lavatories open so the viewer can see a bucket in place, so I decided to start with building one of these buckets.  They’re very small, so I wanted to make sure I could actually make one that looks fairly realistic.

 

The process started with turning a piece of stock to the appropriate size (1/4 inch diameter)

 

                        

 

then drilling a center hole in the workpiece

 

                        

 

The setup is similar to that used for the mast wedges: The 4-jaw chuck holding the workpiece was moved to the milling machine and mounted on the rotary table, which sits on the tilting angle table.  The table is inclined to 5 degrees to conform to the shape of the bucket.  The center hole was centered under the milling head using the laser centering device.

 

                        

 

The outside of the bucket was shaped first.  The cutter was positioned to the outside of the workpiece at the appropriate depth, and the workpiece was brought to the cutter until the cutter barely touched the top of the workpiece.  Then the rotary table was turned the full 360 degrees, resulting in the outside shape of the bucket.

 

                        

 

The cutter was raised and the workpiece centered under the cutter.  The cutter was then lowered to the appropriate depth for the inside of the bucket.

 

                       

 

This started the hole for the inside of the bucket.  The cutter was advanced on the y-axis and then the hole was milled by turning the rotary table through its full 360 degrees.  This was repeated until the wall of the bucket was approximately 1/32 thick.

 

                        

 

A blank 3/32 shaft was mounted to the mill head using a collet, and the tilting angle table was lowered to 0 degrees.  The blank shaft was used as a guide to mark the edges of the bucket’s slats by turning the rotary table in 30 degree increments and using the shaft as a guide for the pencil.

 

                        

 

The workpiece was removed form the mill, but was left in the chuck to allow me to hold it.  The slats were then deepened by using a hobby knife followed by a small awl to widen the cuts.

 

                        

 

1/16 black pinstriping tape was used for the metal bands around the bucket, and 28 gauge wire was used for the handle.

 

My first attempt at a bucket turned out pretty well.  I may decide to make a few more to be positioned on the Accommodation Deck and Main Deck.

 

The first photo shows a very rough bucket, but when seen in actual size I’m pleased with it.

 

                        

 

                        

 

Thanks everyone.  Now I can proceed with building the lavatories themselves.

 

 

[druxey]

Rough enough, but looks too clean! Nice millwork, Frank.

[Mahuna]

Thanks Druxey.  I agree that it looks too clean - doesn't tell the story well enough that way.  I may use some weathering on it, or a wash of burnt umber (but I don't want it to get too gross!)

[HIPEXEC]

Unbelievable! You keep topping yourself.

[captainbob]

Nice bucket.  Too bad it gets used that way.

 

Bob

[Mahuna]

Part 36 – Bucket Lavatories Part 2

 

The Bucket Lavatories are made from a combination of beech and cherry.  Because the lavatories were built as temporary fixtures, the plank dimensions were kept to a set of standard sizes that would have been available: 1 x 6, 1 x 8, 2 x 6, and 2 x 8.  I thought about using 1 x 4 and 2 x 4, but felt that the very narrow planks would be difficult to manage.  The following photo is the drawing for the lavatories.

 

                        

 

Most of the planks would be laid vertically, with horizontal planks at the bottom and top to tie all of the planks together.  A jig was developed to keep the planks properly aligned vertically, and to ensure proper spacing between the horizontal planks.

 

                        

 

In use, the vertical planks were laid into the jig, then glue was applied to the horizontal planks and these planks were laid in place over the vertical planks.

 

                        

 

A weight was used instead of clamping.

 

                        

 

The following photo shows 3 of the sides after gluing, along with the drawing of the sides.

 

                        

 

The corners would be made of two 2 x 6’s, offset to each other, as in the following photo.

 

                        

 

A special jig was needed to ensure that the corner posts were straight and the offset was uniform.  The jig was made form aluminum so that any excess PVA glue would not adhere to the jig.

 

                        

 

Four clamps were used with the jig.  The yellow clamps served two purposes: they kept the bottom plank in place, but through sideways pressure they also kept the top plank pressed against the side of the jig to keep it straight.  The green clamps applied the downward pressure to adhere the two clamps together.

 

                        

 

The following photos depict the corner posts after gluing.

 

                        

 

                        

 

The lavatories consist of two back-to-back units on each side of the main mast (forward and aft), and are made from the following components.

 

                        

 

The concept for making the jig shown earlier was carried forward for each type of component.

 

                        

 

The following photo shows a completed double lavatory.

 

                        

 

The two double lavatories are joined by a planked wall that closes off the main mast (and hides the mast wedges previously worked on!).  The following photos show the test fitting of the lavatories and checking their height against the main deck beams.

 

                        

 

                        

 

When it came time to test fit the bucket made in the previous post, it was apparent that that bucket was too large in comparison to the lavatories.  So, a new bucket needed to be made – as in the following photo.

 

                        

 

The new bucket is significantly smaller.

 

                        

 

The doors on the port side are both closed

 

                        

 

But the starboard side, which will be seen through the viewing ports, has one door open

 

                        

 

The following photos show the lavatories in place, but not glued.

 

                        

 

                        

 

There is just enough room between the lavatories and the sleeping platforms for the lavatory doors to open, but this makes for very tight quarters for the emigrants.

 

                        

 

Before gluing the lavatories in place I’ll be working on the mast partners for the main deck, which will be the topic of the next post.

 

                        

 

Thanks everyone!

 

 

[AntonyUK]

Hi Frank.

Totally stunning.

Very nice attention to detail.

 

Regards Antony.