A Port Dredger 1750 by Greg Davis - FINISHED - Scale 1:36

[Jim Lad]

Always nice when things line up properly, Greg. You're making good progress.

 

John

[druxey]

Beautifully done, Greg.

[Greg Davis]

Today I finished shorting the pillars, as well as making the mortices and tenons. All the pieces fit together nicely.

 

So after I gaze at the current state for a while, it will be time to take the superstructure off and get work on the hull done.

[druxey]

Bee-utiful, Greg! Everything aligns just so.

[Greg Davis]

Doing my best, but a great deal of credit needs to go to Gerard Delacroix for the amazing accuracy across the plans he drew for the dredger.  

[Greg Davis]

Over the past week, I've completed attaching all of the plank doublings. Along the sides, there is a single stake at deck level made of two pieces joined with a scarf; whereas at the bottom there are three strakes of two pieces that meet with butt joints. Similarly, at the bow and stern, there is a single doubling piece at deck level and three planks at the bottom. Here are pictures of the starboard side, port side, and one showing the bow with its doublings:

 

The bow and stern needed to be planked first, followed by the two sides. But before the lowest bow and stern stake was attached the keel finally needed to be attached as it is partially locked in place by the aforementioned strakes. I also added a pair of bolts (epoxied in place) to later use for display mounting purposes.

 

  

Once again it is time to drill a lot of holes and insert a lot of bolts.

[Charter33]

Stunning work Greg. The detail and accuracy is very impressive. I'm really enjoying following your progress......

[James G]

Looks so good, Greg! I especially like your copper treenails.

[Jim Lad]

She's really looking 'the goods', Greg.

 

John

[Greg Davis]

John -

 

I had to look up what 'looking the goods' actually meant - not a phrase used in this neck of the woods. I was really pleased when I found out what it meant!

 

Thanks,

 

Greg

 

[Greg Davis]

I have nearly all of the fasteners for the doubling planks in place and smoothed. There are a lot of them, especially below the waterline where they are spaced just 5mm apart as you go down the length of a strake. In all there must be nearly 1000 in this operation. Here's what it's looking like now - I'll do a bit more fine smoothing before applying the oil finish.

 

Once I got temporarily tired of sanding little copper nobs, I decided to start working on the bitts. One set of uprights have been fitted so far. The two bitts stand vertically and square with one another when clamped to the rectangular spacer. The spacer also marks the bottom of the cross-bar that will be fitted to the uprights.

 

 

[Greg Davis]

Here's how the fore bit system is looking. All the pieces have been fabricated and now fit together properly. Now they just need to be drilled for their fasteners before they are attached to the model. 

 

Druxey, I have remembered your earlier comment and made sure to adjust the direction of the wood grain when making the knees - thanks again.

 

The aft bitt is coming together as well; just the knees need their final shaping.

 

[Jim Lad]

A very neat piece of work, Greg.

 

John

[druxey]

Yes, those knees are much less likely to fracture. The copper bolts look very pleasing, if tedious to do.

[Greg Davis]

Since the knees went pretty well for the bitts, I decided that I would stick with making more of them. On each side are 5 knees that join superstructure pillars to the deck. The 5 for the port side are now done, and blanks have been made for the starboard knees. These all require more delicate fitting than the ones for the bitts as there is additional deck curvature near the pillars to accommodate for. 

[Greg Davis]

After shaping the starboard knees, today I went on to create the opening in the deck for the big wheel. I am pleased to say that the surgery was a success!

 

I have material milled for the edging and plan to fit those pieces next. There are a number of fasteners that will then need to be added to the edging. When I do that, I will also put in the missing fasteners along the other edge of the deck.

 

There is now little that needs to be done to the hull before attaching the bitts, the superstructure pillars, and their associated knees. I think just the final shaping of the bollards needs to be done first.

 

Getting close to being able to oil the deck and the hull exterior.

[James G]

I bet that surgery was a bit nerve racking! Well done 👍.

[Greg Davis]

Because there was a straight planking edge on the port side, I had a good guide for making the cuts there. For the starboard side, I clamped a strip to act as a fence and got a nice straight cut there as well. So while I had kept putting the operation off, it turned out not to be any where as nerve racking as drilling holes for the fasteners!

 

I 'believe' that all the missing fasteners have been added. I have also added the edging to the deck opening.

 

[Greg Davis]

Had a bit more time to work on this project today, so I oiled the hull. 

Instructions on the can indicate that the oil should be dry in 16-24 hours; however, I'll give it a few days to get really dry before flipping her over and doing anything to the deck. In the meantime, there are many fittings to be made for the superstructure and/or some time could be spent on the wheels ... 

[Greg Davis]

Working on the wheels was the winner. Yesterday I milled wood for the wheels - three 3" x 24" sheets with thickness one each of 2.25mm, 1.5mm, and 0.55mm. This should be more than enough for all of the parts plus a few missteps.

 

Today I was able to start forming the 12 pieces needed for the rims of the small wheel:

Now they need to have scarf joints made to join together. 

 

This is certainly more tedious than building bicycle wheels. Back in the day when I raced regularly, I laced and trued my own wheels. No more racing now, and technology has changed so much that almost all my current bike wheels are factory made. Still follow professional racing closely - VPN software is amazing for picking up live feeds all over the world! But got a bit more modeling minutes today when today's stage of Paris-Nice got cancelled due to high winds.

[Jim Lad]

Looking forward to seeing those wheels come together, mate!

 

John

[Greg Davis]

Me too  

[Greg Davis]

Over the weekend I milled the scarf joints for the rims and assembled them. Next having the wheel timbers milled and connected, they were fastened to the rims - one on top the other so to have well matched pair. Here are a couple of pictures; the first picture taken when the timbers were being attached to the second rim, and the second picture after the timbers had been sanded to the rim's outer contour.

 

There are four timbers still needed for each of these sub-assemblies, they will be doubling the timbers that surround the region that the axel passes thru. After that is done, there is another opportunity to add copper fasteners before the two assemblies are connected via the steps. 

[Greg Davis]

The the doublers and fasteners are in; I made the fasteners using 26 gauge copper wire in #77 drill holes. I'm glad to have had the practice with the stiffer 24 gauge copper before having done this work. The 26 gauge wire must be fed precisely into the drill holes or it will easily bend.

Step locations have been marked on the inside of each rim. It shouldn't be long before they are attached. I'm starting to go back and forth between the two wheels and started to form the rim components for the big wheel today.

[Jim Lad]

A beautifully neat job on those wheels, mate!

 

John

[Greg Davis]

Some more progress on the wheels today. Here is the status of the small wheel. It now has 75% of its steps, the remaining 8 will probably be added tomorrow. They are the ones that need to be cut to exact length before attaching because they fit inside of the outermost timbers. The other steps currently extend beyond the rims and will be trimmed after the wheel is planked. The disk under the cup of steps is not a drink coaster (yet). It is a disk cut to the diameter of the wheel where the planks will be fitted and is being used to induce the proper curvature on the plank material. Here a strip of wetted plank material has been wrapped around the disk and is being held in place with a rubber band as it dries overnight. The 6mm wide planking is just 0.55mm thick and bends easily; however, I want to minimize any strain on the steps as they are fairly delicate.

As far as the big wheel, the rim segments are ready to have their scarf joints milled. I also have made a disk for forming the big wheel planks.

[James G]

Your wheels are looking amazing Greg! When you started this build and I saw the picture of the finished model I wondered how you were going to pull off building these. Well, question answered, you’re doing so successfully in the innovative fashion you often exhibit with your builds. Well done!

[druxey]

I echo James' comments. Lovely job on the wheels.

[Greg Davis]

Thank you all - although I'm not too sure about the 'innovative' part. I read a lot and think a bit to pick what I believe will be a reasonable way to proceed. I know that I have a great deal to learn about the model building process, let alone try out in practice. It is my guess that most everything I come up with has been done before. There have been, and currently are, so many involved in this hobby that it is only natural that multiple people we arrive at / discover common solutions to similar problems. 

[Greg Davis]

All of the foot steps are in the small wheel now. I have gotten the first piece of planking formed and it is now being attached to the wheel.

Here you can also see my progress on the big wheel - one rim done. I've still to mill the joints for the other big wheel rim. Quite a difference in diameters between the wheels!