Young America 1853 by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper

[Mahuna]

Beautiful work.  All of your work appears to follow processes that have been thought through before the final work begins - this shows in the results.

[EdT]

Thank you all for the comments and likes.  They help a lot in the post holiday doldrums as i try to get energized for the work ahead.

 

Druxey, the head height under the forecastle beams is only about 4'6".  The height in the lockers is closer to 5' but with the step over coaming the door height is also about 4'6".  I'm sure dragging the anchor chain over that unidirectional winch from under the forecastle was no fun.

 

Frank, you are quite right about my desire to have a process nailed down beforehand and I try to work that way once I have a process that works well.  However, each process takes at least some development and that usually involves an iteration between work and redrafting - and often some scrap.  For example, for the past week or so I have been working on the two capstans.  They are different from the usual 18C  Admiralty types and smaller than those on the Naiad model s there has been a lot of trial and error - and a drawing revision about once a day.  Hope to show these soon.

 

Crackers, from trying to comment on so much of the great work on MSW, I know it is often hard to keep finding nice things to say.  Its much easier to hit the like button, but I do appreciate the comments and the time taken to make them.

 

Ed 

[GLakie]

Amazingly clean and precise as usual Ed! Beautiful!! 

[druxey]

Thanks, Ed. I guess to get in to either the locker or the head, one would need to crouch over like Igor. "Walk this way."

Edited January 12, 2016 by druxey

[albert]

Hi Ed, your work is fantastic.

[EdT]

Yes Druxey - or like me making my way along Victory's gun deck.

 

Grazie, Alberto.

 

Ed

[Erik W]

Ed,

 

I've been following this build closely, and reading through both of your Young American build logs.  You're doing superb work.  It's a testament to your enthusiasm for this project, your writing style, and you photographing every step, that someone like me, who always was interested exclusively in naval subjects, now has an interest in clipper ships! 

 

Do you plan on rigging both of these?

 

Erik

[EdT]

Thank you Erik,

 

I am delighted if you have become a convert.  Clipper ships are good, especially the many lesser known American greats.  I too like naval subjects, but he world has plenty of model warships - including two from me.

 

I plan to rig the 1:72 version and that will be the subject of Volume II of the book.  However the rigging information in the book will cover both scales.  The 1:96 POB model was done as a demo model for Volume I of the book and is finished as far as planned.  The build log on that will be winding up with the next post or so.The design/drafting work for the rigging is well along, but that work cannot really start until I complete the deck "furniture."

 

Ed

[Erik W]

Ed,

 

Great.  I look forward to you progressing onto the rigging phase.  The physical size of these ships is impressive when compared to the 18th century British warships I'm more familiar with.  Your 1/96 scale build is a good size model in it's own right!

 

Erik

[EdT]

1:96 is a great scale for one of these models - large, but not excessively large. The model can be realistically rigged at this scale. I think 1:72 is a better scale if the model is to be fully framed, but the 1:72 model is quite large. For these reasons I included both scales in the book, with the 1:96 model based on a POB design that I had been wanting to try out. The design uses an erection process for the bulkheads that is very similar to that used in upright full framed construction that I think is a good learning step for builders who may not feel ready to jump right into full framing.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 133 – Capstans 1

 

Young America had two capstans, one aft of midship on the main deck and one on the forecastle.  These were lighter and smaller than the massive two-deck capstans we are used to seeing on 18^th century warships.  Since the windlass handled the weighing of the anchors, the two capstans were used for lesser loads, for example mooring, raising spars or heavy cargo handling.  These were often ornate, featuring polished brass rings and made of decorative woods like mahogany.  I based the design of the model anchors on American styles described by Campbell in his China Tea Clippers and by Crothers on his drawings of the ship.  I will try to provide an (admittedly incomplete) overview of how these were made.

 

The first step was to make the drumheads.  A picture of one of the finished drumheads mounted on its spindle is shown in the first picture.

 

 

The drumhead, and indeed all the wood parts for these are cherry for the darker color.  The rings and cap are polished brass.  The holes for the capstan bars are 3” square.  The parts are laid on a copy of the drawing made for these – one of the earlier of many revisions.  The realities of working many of the planned details at this scale – like mortises for the whelps, etc. caused me to simplify some of the construction while retaining the essential appearance.

 

The first drumhead parts to be made were the brass rings and caps, so these could be fit to the wood head as it was machined.  The next picture shows one of the rings about to be parted off in the Unimat® lathe.

 

 

The central shaft left in this picture would be used to make the caps.  The next picture shows the rings made for the two capstans plus a spare.

 

 

In the next picture a cylinder is being turned that will be used to make the two cherry heads. 

 

 

The excess length was provided to allow for chucking pieces for each head.  The grain direction of the piece shown is perpendicular to the lathe centerline.  The turning is centered at the tailstock.  Precise centering of these for turning the ring seats and boring the hole for the spindle was critical so that all would be concentric.  The cylinder at this stage was left larger than the 34” diameter drumhead.  In the next picture the first piece is being parted off.

 

 

In the next picture one of the cylinders has been placed in a three-jaw centering chuck on the rotating table on the milling machine and is being centered on the spindle.

 

 

The dial indicator mounted in the spindle was used to center the cylinder within one or two thousandths of an inch using the cross feeds on the mill.  In the next picture a center hole has been bored and the 1/8” milling bits is being used to enlarge the hole to the 14” diameter of the capstan spindle.

 

 

This was done by offsetting the y-feed to the enlarged size then boring the hole by rotating the table.  The rotating table and the y-feed were then used to cut mortises for the capstan bars as shown below.

 

 

The 1/32” end mill was lowered 3” into the end and set using the vertical calibrated mill wheel (z-axis).  When the four cuts (8 slots) were finished, the piece with the chuck was returned to the lathe as shown in the next picture.

 

 

In the picture an oversized top piece is being parted off.  After cleaning out the slots with a small square edged file, the cap was inverted and glued to the cylinder in the lathe as shown below.

 

 

The glue joint is clamped using the flat end of the drill chuck screwed tight with the tail stock wheel.  When dry, this piece was ready for turning the final diameter, fitting the rings, shaping the top, and parting off to yield the piece shown in the first picture.  To be continued…

 

Ed

 

[Mahuna]

Excellent work Ed!  I'm learning new techniques each time you post some machining work.  In the last photo, did you use the jaws of the drill chuck to align the two pieces, or was there an appropriate sized rod held in the drill chuck?

[gjdale]

Ed,

 

I too learn many valuable tips and techniques from your explanations of your machining methods and set-ups. They make perfect sense when you explain them, but nevertheless fit firmly in the category of, "ahhhh!, Now why couldn't I think of doing something that way?" Thank you for sharing your knowledge, skills and techniques so freely.

[EdT]

Thanks, everyone.

 

Good to hear from you, Robin.  I hope you will soon be feeling better.

 

Frank, a good question.  I believe the best way to have clamped these two pieces would have bee to chuck a length of the spindle and use it to precisely center the two pieces then push up the chuck to clamp them - hopefully not gluing in the spindle piece.  Unfortunately I had not yet turned these, but an improvement would certainly be to turn them first and then use them when boring the hole and in the chuck to clamp the pieces.  I aligned them by feel and this seemed to work OK, but using a positive alignment in the hole would be better.  A good fit here is necessary so the head fits squarely on the spindle.  In retrospect I might also have bored the spindle hole in the lathe either before parting off the top, or after gluing it back on.  The actual spindle could then be used to size the hole.  Good question.

 

Grant, I am no expert and sometimes need to try different things - and scrap some work - to find a solution.  There are some good tips in the Unimat and Sherline instruction manuals and there is also a useful manual sold that uses the Sherline tools in its examples.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

Clippers are the majestic *Bells* of the nautical world.  Ed's contribution here, reinforces my own 45 year love affair with American clippers as well as  inviting to those new to their elegant attractive lines.  Their brief colorful history plays strongly into their overwhelming attraction.

 

Personally..I love em to death.

 

Rob

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 134 – Capstans 2

 

In the last post the top, mortised section of the drumhead was inverted and glued on the base turning to produce the square mortises shown in the first picture.

 

 

In this picture the piece has been turned to the final 34” diameter of the head. The top part was then turned carefully to fit the 32” i.d. of the top brass ring.  When a snug fit was produced at the end of the turning, that diameter was taken down to the seat of the ring – about 2” above the mortises.  The excess material was then parted off the top of the head as shown below.

 

 

Enough was left to produce the rounded up top of the head which was then turned.  The cutter was then set at the depth of the ring seat, backed off a measured amount, moved to the left to cut the lower ring seat, then dialed back down to that diameter.  The head was then parted off and the rings pressed on as shown below.

 

 

In this picture the rings have been cemented with thin CA glue and the top polished.  The next step was to make the 14” diameter spindles.

 

 

As shown above, a cherry turning square was fixed in a four-jaw self-centering chuck and held for turning with a dead center at the tailstock end.  In the next picture one of the two drumheads is being test fitted over its spindle.

 

 

The head was then glued to the spindle and the brass cap cemented into place.  In the next picture the flats for the 8 whelps are being filed on the spindle below the drumhead.

 

 

 

I had initially intended to mortise slots for these but the small size and the relative softness of the cherry left an undesirable result after milling, so I decided to simply file flats using the spaces between the head mortises as a guide.  The whelps were then made and glued on.  After the glue dried the whelps were secured with two epoxied bolts each. Lower disks were also made and fitted to each.   The two capstan assemblies at this point are shown below.

 

 

The whelps on the left capstan in the picture have been rounded concave and the wire bolts have been filed off flush.  The spindle on this capstan has also been cut to final length and a pin inserted in the bottom that will secure it at the step on the deck below.  This will be the main deck capstan.  The one on the right will be mounted on the forecastle.

 

In the next part the iron baseplates with their pawl stops and the underlying wood bases will be made.  Some details of the baseplate can be seen on the drawing in the above picture.

 

Ed

[ianmajor]

Ed,

 

Beautiful work. The brass bands are superb.

 

Interesting that milling mortises in the cherry did not produce good results. What type of cutter did you use? I did the same operation on a 1:75 capstan using a home made keyway cutter which produced (to me  ) ​good results on some distinctly average walnut.

Edited January 17, 2016 by ianmajor

[EdT]

Thank you, Ian.  I could have said more about the whelp mortises.  I initially cut these with a 1/32" square end mill - 8 of them, about .025" deep around a cherry spindle roughly 3/16" in diameter.  The setup had to be very precise because the slots are very close together, too close in fact for a strong structure or a really clean result.  I could have persisted with this or gone to a harder, stronger wood like Box, but since none of this detail is visible - or even necessarily authentic, I decided to simplify.  Another reason to simplify is that I would not like to make a milling machine a prerequisite for builders of the model from the book, so I usually try to find other methods, or at least suggest alternatives.  For example, the ladder slots and the capstan bar mortises could be filed out in a pinch.   I believe the work described in Volume I could be done without a lathe or mill.  A lathe is probably needed for some of the content that will be included a future Volume II - but I hope to avoid the necessity of an expensive tool like the mill.  We'll see.

 

Ed

[Erebus and Terror]

Superb work as always, Ed. Thanks for sharing.

[dgbot]

I like the way you made your capstan Ed.  A different way of doing it than what I have seen before.

David B

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 135 – Capstans 3

 

With the capstan upper works mounted on their spindles, the next task was to make the baseplates and underlying timber supports.  Lacking cross-sectional details for these, I decided to mount them on an iron baseplate that would incorporate the anti-reversing pawl ring.  The appearance would be as shown in pictures of this type of capstan.

 

The iron baseplates with a groove around the outer edge were made first.  Stops for the pawls would later be soldered into the groove.  The first picture shows a baseplate being turned in brass.

 

 

A hole was first center marked and bored to fit the spindle diameter.  After turning to the final outside diameter of 44”, a 3” x 3” grove was then face turned as shown in the above picture.  The inside of this groove will be flush with the o.d. of the capstan bottom disk with its ½” thick iron rim installed.  In the picture this baseplate is being parted off.  The baseplates will be used to gauge the fit into the wood bases that were made next.

 

In the next picture, a pear block has been turned to the outer 54” diameter of the round wood base and the seat for the iron base plate is being face turned.

 

 

The grain digestion of these wood bases is fore and aft.  The next picture shows one of the baseplates being test fitted.

 

 

In the next picture the wood base is being parted off.

 

 

The main deck capstan has been temporarily set on these base parts in the next picture.

 

 

The iron band around the lower ring has been fitted and cemented to the disk with CA.  It was made from a leftover bit of hull strapping, measured to the circumference and silver soldered at the ends.

 

The main deck at the capstan location is virtually horizontal, so the issue of capstan rake did not have to be addressed.  This is not the case for the forward capstan that is mounted on the forecastle decking.  There is a lot of sheer on this deck, so the rake question had to be addressed.  I find this to be an interesting issue.  If the capstan is mounted vertically on a deck with considerable sheer the men will be forced to bend and raise their backs as the work their way around.  Making the capstan perpendicular to the deck seems a logical solution.  Being vertical offers no practical advantage that I can see.  However, capstans are shown vertical on many drawings, including Bill Crothers’ drawings that I have as a reference.  On the other hand, one of the Young America photos seems to show the forecastle capstan canted somewhat aft.  To try and resolve this, I looked through every clipper ship drawing and photo in the dozens of references that I have on these ships (Crothers, Chapelle, MacGregor, Campbell and others).  This left me exhausted and not completely satisfied.  I concluded that capstans were generally shown vertical on most drawings, but might be canted aft somewhat on decks with substantial sheer.  I decided to make the forecastle capstan essentially, but perhaps not precisely, vertical.

 

To do this, the wood base must be thicker at the aft end.  To accomplish this, the wood block was canted in the four jaw chuck after face turning the baseplate recess – as shown in the next picture.

 

 

In the picture the base is being parted off in the angled position.  The next picture shows the capstan temporarily fitted on its base.

 

 

It has a slight rake aft that I thought was appropriate given the appearance of the actual capstan in the photo of the ship.

 

In the next part, the pawl stops and ratchet arms will be added and the capstans permanently mounted.

 

Ed

[albert]

Hi Ed, wonderful work.

[druxey]

Interesting solution to your dilemma, Ed. Seems like a very reasonable one, too!

[EdT]

Well Druxey, when you leave the well-documented, comfortable world of the Royal Navy, things become a lot less certain.  So thanks for the moral support.  This would have been an easy decision based on the predominance to deck-perpendicular capstan spindles on RN drafts - to say nothing of common sense, but no less an expert the Howard Chapelle shows them vertical on virtually all of his drawings of large ships of the period.  Campbell actually shows tapered bases in his capstan sketches,  etc. etc.  

 

As a matter of interest, here's the photographic evidence.  The white line is mine.  

 

 

Then there is Webb's half hull model in the Smithsonian.

 

 

Not much to go on.  To say nothing of other inconsistencies.

 

Ed

[ggrieco]

Wow!  I wish I had even half the manual machining abilities that you have.  I sometimes feel a little guilty that I've relied so much on CNC over the years at the expense of my manual skills.  There is definitely a quality to the hand made parts that you just can't get from CNC as your efforts prove!  I can't wait to see what you make next!

[EdT]

Thank you, Glenn.  Most appreciated.  I'm afraid my work pales beside the magnificent parts you are turning out.  The flaws in my pieces are all too visible.  I am fascinated by what you are doing.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 136 – Capstans 4

 

This post will wrap up the work on the two capstans.  In the first picture 4 copper pawls have been added to the main deck capstan.

 

 

These are loosely bolted to the lower disk through the iron (i.e blackened copper) band.  At full scale these would drop easily into the baseplate groove.  At this scale they drop sometimes.  These were made to be reversible.  They could be flipped over to allow the capstan to work in the opposite rotation.  In the next picture the pawls have been blackened with liver of sulfur d and flipped.

 

 

In the next picture one of the baseplates has been removed to add four pawl stops. 

 

 

 

These are small (3” x 3” brass cubes.  the black dabs in the picture are solder/flux paste.  When the four cubes are fitted in place in contact with the paste the entire assembly was torched to flux the solder.  The next picture shows the forecastle capstan set on its blacked, finished baseplate.

 

 

Both the base plate and the wood base were still loose at this point.  The base plates were then epoxied into the wood bases.  In the next picture small wood stops are being glued to the spindle to hold this entire assembly together while allowing the capstan to rotate on the baseplate/wood base assembly.

 

 

When the wood bases are glued to the deck, the brass pins at the base of the spindles fit into holes previously driled in the steps on the deck below.  In the next two pictures the wood bases have been glued to the deck, completing the installation.

 

 

 

The two capstans rotate freely and are pretty reliably stopped when the rotation is reversed.

 

The next task is one I have been anticipating (and perhaps dreading) for some time – the bilge pumps.

 

Ed

[md1400cs]

Ed,

 

Your capstan is a work of art. I seems as though with each new posting your art gets better and better. But that can't be (:-)

 

Also a big thanks for all of your text. SO informative as well. Your build log is just as good as your ship (:-)))))

 

Michael

Edited January 25, 2016 by md1400cs

[capnharv2]

Gee Ed, now I'm thinking about re-doing the capstan on my Constitution

 

Harvey

[Erebus and Terror]

Excellent work. What solder/paste did you use? It seems to blacken well.