USS Maine by Haze Gray - 1/72 scale - RADIO - 3D printed

[Haze Gray]

Hello all,  I’d like to share a project I’ve been working on for the past month.  I chose to start with the USS Maine in 1/72 scale but in truth I’m captivated by just about any pre-dreadnaught design especially some of the tumblehome hulls like the USS Brooklyn and the French Massena, Carnot, etc.

 

Most of the work accomplished thus far has been in the cad program (fusion 360) but I’m just about to start printing parts as I move through  and complete the design.  

 

I am including the torpedo boats that were meant for the Maine, and hope to eventually figure out a way to launch them while underway. 

 

 

 

[Haze Gray]

Hello all, 

 

Things are moving along quite well in the design and build of the USS Maine.  I've been concentrating on the hull and the control mechanisms and preparations for running in the water.  I'm just about ready to start printing the hull - but have started with the turrents. 

 

Speaking of turrets here's a shot of the internals of the hull showing the servo pockets and a pulley on the turret support that will be used for rotation (along with mock ups of the propulsion and some exterior shots + a pic of a printed turret!

[Roger Pellett]

Where did you find the lines drawing for the torpedo Boats?

 

Roger

[alde]

I'm not up on the technology but that is really incredible. I'm looking forward to seeing this progress to sea trials.

[Haze Gray]

14 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

Where did you find the lines drawing for the torpedo Boats?

 

Roger

Hi Roger, 

 

the magazine Marine Modeling International Nov 2013 issue (page 44) had a nice write up of the guy that made the plans (Rene Lefarve or something like that) and a 1/12.5 running steam boat model of the boat.  The plans Rene made were available at some point - I was able to find a usable set.  I've actually found a pic or two in the US national archives also. 
 

Attached a picture of the first torpedo boat that was produced for the USS Maine (as published in the Scientific American Navy boat Special Edition) that Google digitized - I think it was from about the time period of the USS Maine so 1898 or so. 

[Haze Gray]

6 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

 

(message meant for AL actaully...)

3D printing is simple technology in that it lays down a layer of plastic type material at a thickness you specify. There's tweaking that needs to be done but once that's completed you can get reliable prints again and again.  

poor video but this camera is attached to the bed of my printer and shows the vertical build-up of a part (shroud the turrent spins inside). 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/baGSAz0jqbQ

Edited April 30, 2018 by Haze Gray
responded to wrong poster

[shipmodel]

Hi there - 

 

Another very interesting build using modern technology.  I will be following with lots of interest.

 

I did a USS Maine in the same scale some time ago and found out two things that might be useful to you.  First, although authorized, the torpedo boats were never carried by the Maine in the two years between her commissioning in 1896 and her end in 1898.  I had to scrap the ones that I started.  You can certainly add them to your model, and they look good, but not historically accurate.

 

Also, there were a series of photographs taken of the entire ship from various angles and others taken on deck in several places.  These are in the Library of Congress and have been scanned at 1200 bpi, so they can be enlarged to an amazing degree, which can show many construction details that do not show up anywhere else.  They are free to download from the Library's website, which I don't have at the moment.  Let me know and I can dig it up for you.  In the meanwhile, below is what can be done with an enlargement of one of the overall shots.   Hope it is useful to you.

 

Dan

[yvesvidal]

Very interesting project. 

 

I was just at the Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis this past weekend and they have a beautiful model of the USS Maine. Yours may be even bigger, as most modern models do not have the scale clearly specified, in that museum.

 

Yves

Edited May 1, 2018 by yvesvidal

[Haze Gray]

2 hours ago, shipmodel said:

I did a USS Maine in the same scale some time ago and found out two things that might be useful to you.  First, although authorized, the torpedo boats were never carried by the Maine in the two years between her commissioning in 1896 and her end in 1898.  I had to scrap the ones that I started.  You can certainly add them to your model, and they look good, but not historically accurate.

 

Also, there were a series of photographs taken of the entire ship from various angles and others taken on deck in several places.  These are in the Library of Congress and have been scanned at 1200 bpi, so they can be enlarged to an amazing degree, which can show many construction details that do not show up anywhere else.  They are free to download from the Library's website, which I don't have at the moment.  Let me know and I can dig it up for you.  In the meanwhile, below is what can be done with an enlargement of one of the overall shots.   Hope it is useful to you.

 

Dan

 

 

 

Hi Dan,  I most of those pictures also, and I love it when I find a good crisp large format film photo that's been digitized (some from the library of congress are over 100mb!). I'm definitely trying to get things right but (confession time) I'm totally new to fusion 360 so limited skill set - and most of the "plans" out there on the internet for the USS Main, while good when compared to photos are also clear that they are "general arrangements" and deviate from the "as built".  

 

I do plan to go back in the future and turn some iterations to get as accurate as possible - 

As for the Torpedo Boat being on the USS Maine (or not),  is actually an interesting topic to me - I have not yet found any photos with the torpedo boat mounted. I've seen websites that mention the Main was not equipped,  the second boat was not completed, the first just became a training boat and "most likely ended as scrap".   I've not seen any primary source of merit mention the fate of the torpedo boats.....except one. I actually posted that a few days ago up in the thread but the end got cut off so attaching the relevant portion to this post.   The Scientific American journal says it was destroyed along with the Maine!  (key ominous music) 

 

(please don your aluminum foil hats!)  Perhaps the little torpedo boat that was built was loaded up on the Maine just prior to the departure to Cuba.... and just maybe it was launched far off from the harbor as an insurance policy - if the Maine came under attack at night the torpedo boat would make for the harbor to try and attack the aggressor (large cruisers and battleships were easy prey for such a torpedo boat - especially in a harbor at night before "torpedo nets" were adopted).  Possible that a small torpedo boat which can turn off it's boilers and run slow and silent into the port under remainder steam and pressure and either a) execute a hidden agenda to to torpedo a Spanish ship but mistake the Maine for it's target, or b.) slipped into the port in darkness with plans to be hoisted back on board when a lever, thought to be the one to discharge the air that would launch the torpedo , was in the utterly necessary and lightless stealth of darkness mistakenly the lever that actually launched the torpedo. 

 

ha!  gets you thinking!  

 

Actually the whole reason I'm building these two torp boats is because, at 1/72 scale, they are just big enough for light weight RC gear and propulsion and I hope to be able to launch and recover them! 

 

 

[shipmodel]

I wasn't aware of the Scientific American article, but I doubt that the torpedo boat made the trip to Cuba.  It is clear from the photo of the Maine entering Havana harbor that it was not aboard at the time.  Nor was it on the ship in later photos while moored.   Conspiracy and cover-up speculation aside, I don't remember it being mentioned at any point in any of the testimony during the several inquests following the explosion.  I opted not to mount either one in the display for the Brooklyn Navy Yard museum.   

 

As they used to say - "Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice."

 

Best of success.

 

Dan

[Haze Gray]

Yes, I’m certainly in agreement, there’s nothing out there to suggest one was ever loaded on the Maine. In the photo of the main entering the harbor they are absent clearly.  

 

I am am currently printing the stern of the main, should be done around 7pm tonight!

Edited May 1, 2018 by Haze Gray
Added photo

[Haze Gray]

Well got a good part out, saw a few things to change (move the slice point & put in the rear firing ports & the ports for the stern lines).  

 

There was a lot of support to remove (extra plastic material deposited to support overhangs) but I’m actually pretty pleased with how the portholes turned out.   

 

I added the rudder I printed out previously in one of the pics - fits perfectly.  When you print parts that need to interface you have to establish what tolerance your printer can hold reliably. For some interfaces I can go down to 0.05 mm but I usually stick with 0.1mm.  

[GrandpaPhil]

Very cool build!

[popeye the sailor]

amazing what there is out there now for the modeling community       really cool process......although I got dizzy watching the head move around the part    I did a quick search........there is  a lot of articles out there about her.......book marked some for reading in my spare time      following along with interest! 

[Roger Pellett]

The design, construction, and history of USS Maine is well covered in American Battleships 1886-1923 by Reilly and Scheina.  This book includes a photo and outboard profile of Maine’s Torpedo Boat.  The authors state that when the boat failed to make its design speed of 18kts it was towed to the Newport, RI torpedo station and used for a while as a training vessel.  Unfortunately, the authors do not attribute this statement.

 

The book’s bibliography includes two references specific to Maine:

 

”Contract Trial of the Machinery of USS Maine,” ASNE Journal 8 (February 1896)

 

”The Steel Ships of the United States Navy” SNAME Transactions, Volume 1 (1893)

 

Roger

 

 

[hexnut]

Very cool project!  Are you printing with a Taz?  The parts look very nice.  What extruder nozzle dia. and step are you running?

 

[Haze Gray]

7 hours ago, hexnut said:

Very cool project!  Are you printing with a Taz?  The parts look very nice.  What extruder nozzle dia. and step are you running?

 

Hi Hexnut, 

 

I'm running a Taz6 with a .4mm nozzle and .18 layer height.    

[Haze Gray]

Short update - just some pictures of 3 of the 9 hull sections laid on top of each other (with a mug of coffee for perspective).  

[Haze Gray]

Hello All - another photo showing 4 of 9 sections completed.  I'm going to switch to a .5mm nozzle and see how that affects the print time and quality. 

 

As I've been printing I've noticed issues that I'm going to correct for when I re-slice the hull.  When I originally sliced the hull I was somewhat purposefully kind of randomly slicing (so I didn't avoid slicing through portholes for example).   Here's some lessons learned thus far:

 

a) I went with an atypical thinner hull wall thickness (5mm) so on really tall hull sections (over 175mm tall) there's some noticeable shrinkage so the hull sections are pulled in towards the center about 1-2mm.  It's not bad but I'm probably going to re-slice for sections in the 125mm to 150mm range to minimize this. 

 

b). I'm going to put in either 3 or 4 tabs to join sections using thin nut and bolts - this will help accurate with alignment  

 

c) I'm going to slice to reduce the need for infill support - basically because some of the surfaces that need to be mated to parts (like the cut-out for the turrents) have edges that need to be properly printed to keep the post labor count low (e.g. as little sanding as possible). 

 

d) The piping around the portholes look great, but if the layering on the hull can't be smoothed out with primer and paint and sanding is needed the port holes will get in the way of that - I might have to remove them.  I'll know more this weekend when I try painting one of the hull sections. 

 

e) PETG might also be a good material to try, I never tried it for something this big but it's a much more stable material and I think it flows just as well if not better than some PLA's  so will give that a go at some point and see if I should look harder for a material that gives superior results when it comes to hulls.  What I use now works well, but I think there may be something better out there. 

 

that's all for now!

Edited May 10, 2018 by Haze Gray
corrected spelling and one wrong word

[qwerty2008]

How's that lulzbot treating you?. I've used a taz6 before but wasn't too impressed. Perhaps I didn't have enough time to get to know it though. All my personal printers have been cheap ones. One I built from scraps and only cost me $30.

[Haze Gray]

8 hours ago, qwerty2008 said:

How's that lulzbot treating you?. I've used a taz6 before but wasn't too impressed. Perhaps I didn't have enough time to get to know it though. All my personal printers have been cheap ones. One I built from scraps and only cost me $30.

Well, the Taz I have should be doing better in my opinion - I'm already planning on building a core x/y  for the next printer.   All in all, considering the boat anchor of a head on the Taz6, it does okay. 

[fnkershner]

What is your fav source for PLA? If you are considering building your own 3D printer at Maker Space they have several workshops to assist.

[qwerty2008]

9 hours ago, Haze Gray said:

Well, the Taz I have should be doing better in my opinion - I'm already planning on building a core x/y  for the next printer.   All in all, considering the boat anchor of a head on the Taz6, it does okay. 

You could plop a Titan Aero on it. That would allow you to significantly up the speed. Lulzbot sells a head with the Titan Aero, so you can probably get the files for the new X carriage off their site.

[Haze Gray]

19 hours ago, qwerty2008 said:

You could plop a Titan Aero on it. That would allow you to significantly up the speed. Lulzbot sells a head with the Titan Aero, so you can probably get the files for the new X carriage off their site.

Thanks QWERTY, Im looking into that aerostruder- I’m also going to do some much needed maintenance and inspection on the taz6 this weekend. 

[CDW]

Looking at all the various 3D printers out there on the market, one of the most obvious differences is in the size of the maximum print dimensions. 

Is the limitation to print dimension due to the size of the printer itself, or is it a limitation due to other hardware/software? What limits the size of print?

[qwerty2008]

39 minutes ago, CDW said:

Looking at all the various 3D printers out there on the market, one of the most obvious differences is in the size of the maximum print dimensions. 

Is the limitation to print dimension due to the size of the printer itself, or is it a limitation due to other hardware/software? What limits the size of print?

 

The size limitations are mostly due to the size of the machine. Time is also a factor. If you are printing something huge, it can take a very long time to do. I shudder to think of how long a print would take if I maxed out my build volume of 300mm by 220mm by 500mm. Also I should note that my the printer was only 280mm by 200mm by 200mm when I first got it. All you need to do to increase build volume is make the frame larger and reflect the new size in the firmware. 

The main difference I see in the machines is build quality and safety features. Take the Anet A8 for example: though its a decent size it has a flimsy acrylic frame and lack of thermal runaway protection. Thermal runaway protection is very important as thermal runaway is the leading cause of fires with printers. With the A8 this commonly happens if its improperly assembled or poorly maintained. The heater block has little to secure the heater cartridge and thermistor. If one or both works its way out of the block, the heater will continued to get hotter until it sets something on fire. The Ender3 on the other hand has a similar build volume but that frame is made from 2040 and 4040 aluminum extrusions making it very stiff. The Ender3 also has thermal runaway protection and a better designed heatblock.

One thing that's good to look for is the upgradeability of the machine. Extrusion frames are nice, open source firmware is good to have, and if it uses a proprietary slicing software that's an instant no-go for me. Basically, the ones that look less like a kitchen appliance are usually better.

 

[CDW]

I bought my first 3D printer this month. It sat unopened for a week or two while I prepared a place for it to live. My friend with 3D printer experience helped me select it from an Ebay vendor. He says it has new features his doesn't have, so I'll be spending the next day or two assembling this thing and getting it ready to try a test print. I doubt I'll be printing out a ship model any time soon, but hey, at least it's a start.

 

Any tips you guys can give me to start out will be appreciated.

[Haze Gray]

5 hours ago, CDW said:

I bought my first 3D printer this month. It sat unopened for a week or two while I prepared a place for it to live. My friend with 3D printer experience helped me select it from an Ebay vendor. He says it has new features his doesn't have, so I'll be spending the next day or two assembling this thing and getting it ready to try a test print. I doubt I'll be printing out a ship model any time soon, but hey, at least it's a start.

 

Any tips you guys can give me to start out will be appreciated.

Hi CDW what kind of printer did you get?

 

I had to learn the hard way that if you want to remove a stubborn part *heat up the bed* to 60+ celcius, also don't hammer away at it with a removal tool from the side - (if you have a bed plate that you can remove that's great too and I hear putting it in the feezer works) but forcing the part off while the plate is in the printer absolutely will wear out/deform the synthetic bushings almost immediately.  physically treat the printer like a precision instrument as much as possible.  Heating the bed a bit helps if you can't remove it

 

I finally figured out how to remove boat hulls properly - you simply squeeze the sides of the hull inwards and with *zero stress* to the printer, the part pops right off! (note this method won't work with submarine hulls as they hull all the way round in 360°)

 

And......if you Are interested in printing a boat well..... I've got one that's pretty close to being done, has under 20 parts which is waaaaaay fewer parts than the battleships! ((compared to 200+ for the USS Maine).......

 

It is my pleasure and honor to present to you.... Turbinia !!(the world's first steam turbine driven boat!  And, it was un-catchable when it debuted (well, actually, crashed the party) at the Queens Naval review in 1884.   <Wikipedia Article>

 

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Haze Gray
removed 1 picture

[CDW]

Bought a cheap one...but one my electronic engineer friend recommended. It's a Prusa i3

Started putting it together to night. Will probably be able to test it by Thursday. I like it because I will learn from this one and it's easily upgradeable. I feel there's no point in my spending too much for a printer when I have no idea yet how to use it. Will learn and upgrade as I go.

Your steam ship looks great! Would love to try that. 

[Haze Gray]

8 minutes ago, CDW said:

Bought a cheap one...but one my electronic engineer friend recommended. It's a Prusa i3

Started putting it together to night. Will probably be able to test it by Thursday. I like it because I will learn from this one and it's easily upgradeable. I feel there's no point in my spending too much for a printer when I have no idea yet how to use it. Will learn and upgrade as I go.

Your steam ship looks great! Would love to try that. 

Prusa i3 is a great printer from all accounts I have read and seen (and watched) - I think you'll be up and running in short order.  Probably the hardest thing you'll have to tackle is filament settings...