Peerless 1893 by Cathead - 1:87 - sternwheel Missouri River steamboat

[mtaylor]

Excellent solution, IMO, Eric.  I think they look great.

[kurtvd19]

The sign fix is nicely done.  Neat project.

Kurt

 

[Canute]

Good save on the signage.She's looking good. 👍

[Cathead]

Well, I quietly missed the one-year anniversary of this build, but I have made some progress by starting on the final "big" project, the paddle wheel. First I cut a whole stack of cherry lumber (same as that used for the main deck) on my Byrnes saw. This is more of the material I harvested here on-farm.

Then I laid out a pattern by estimating the size I wanted the wheel to be, from the one decent photo I have, and fiddling with different round objects until I found two diameters that were close enough. Once this was drawn, I set down tiny patches of double-sided tape on each leg's location and began laying out the wheel:

 

Each leg is hand-tapered to fit its neighbors using a sharp knife and sandpaper. I didn't worry about the exact outer length as I'll trim them all down later. I was most concerned with a consistent inner pattern and leaving a clean hole for an axle at the center. When I had them all dry-fit to my satisfaction, I removed each one, put a dab of wood glue on its inner surfaces, then re-assembled the wheel and let it dry.

 

Once this was solid I began hand-cutting the outer circle, formed from a series of small wedges custom-fit between each leg. This is all slow, fiddly work that goes well with a baseball game on the radio. Here's the final result:

And here it is test-fit on the vessel:

As previously discussed I'll be cutting off a small portion at the waterline but intend to do that once I have all three rings made and can be certain I do them all consistently in the right place. I think it's easier to build the whole wheel and cut it down than try to guess ahead of time exactly where I want the cutoff to be.

 

Overall I think it looks pretty good! Thanks, as always, for the kind comments and support.

 

 

 

[mbp521]

Looks great Eric! Tedious work to say the least. One down, two to go. 
 

-Brian

[FriedClams]

Time consuming and repetitive, but a very nice result, Eric.

 

Gary

[Ras Ambrioso]

Eric, I am getting close to your stage in the build of our respective paddlewheel. My last challenge is the paddle wheel itself. My little Unimat cannot swing the 2 5/8" diameter of the outer tire of the wheel. You have given me a great idea of how to build mine. Thanks.

[KeithAug]

A wheely good start on that paddle Eric. It does seem like quite a tedious job.

 

[Cathead]

Ras, happy to provide inspiration! I used a similar method on my other steamboats and it's become a comfortable approach for me. This time, as you'll see below, I only used one pattern and built successive wheels on the first one. Another approach would be to computer-design a pattern and print out a whole series so that each wheel can be assembled on its own pattern, I think I did it that way before too.

 

Here's some more weekend progress. I built the other two wheels directly over the first one, to ensure that they all matched. I'd rather have them all consistently eccentric than near-perfect but not matching. So I laid small strips of double-sided tape on the first wheel, then started hand-cutting and shaping each spoke to fit:

When they were all shaped, I glued the assembly together and used clamps to ensure it stayed parallel to the first pattern wheel while the glue dried. One thing to be careful of here is not to let glue squeeze out below such that the two wheels get glued together right at the hub where it's hard to get to. I tried to avoid this but it happened slightly; I was able to separate them with a thin knife. It would probably have made sense to put a thin piece of tape or other masking at the hub area to avoid this. But it worked out fine.

 

I then marked the locations for the spacers and slowly assembled those, too. The end result was three wheels that match pretty nicely for hand-made assemblages. At this point I also trimmed all the ends to be reasonably consistent in length.

I wanted some "hubs" to help bind these together, so cut a stack of thin discs from a dowel, painted them black, stacked them together with strips of double-sided tape, and drilled down the middle to create a consistent axle hole:

 

Then I painted the wheels and assembled each one with a hub on each side. Here they are threaded on an axle for show, but not in any final orientation:

 

Next up will be working on the "buckets", the proper name for the horizontal slats that actually grab the water.

 

It's nice to feel like I'm making some regular progress again. Thanks for reading!

[KeithAug]

They worked out pretty well Eric - very precise reproductions.

[Ian_Grant]

Paddlewheels like that strike me as an ideal candidate for 3D printing. Then again I have 3D printing on the brain now. 🤪

[Cathead]

There's a clear argument for going that direction, but I currently have no interest in 3D printing. I enjoy working with my hands, using mostly natural materials. I spend enough time on a computer professionally that about the last thing I want to do in this hobby is spend more time staring at a screen doing computer design!

 

Obviously there are arbitrary limits on where any of us draw the line; I won't be hand-carving any 19th century figurines from hand-milled wood. I just find, personally and without broader judgement, that 3D printing takes the hobby in a direction I don't really want to go personally, though I'll almost certainly take advantage of certain products like figures or detail parts that may well use the technology. But I don't want to use it myself.

[mbp521]

Just catching up Eric. Very nice work on the wheels!  
 

On 6/30/2024 at 6:32 PM, Cathead said:

One thing to be careful of here is not to let glue squeeze out below such that the two wheels get glued together right at the hub where it's hard to get to. I tried to avoid this but it happened slightly; I was able to separate them with a thin knife. It would probably have made sense to put a thin piece of tape or other masking at the hub area to avoid this.

What I found is that if you are using PVA or wood glue is to put a layer of Saran Wrap between the pieces to keep them from sticking and it’s clear so you can line up the pieces without anything obscuring your view. If you are using CA, that’s a different story. CA tends to stick a little too good. 
 

As for the 3D printing, I’m with you on that. They are nice to mess around with and can be handy in a pinch if you need small detailed stuff done that is just too much to deal with by hand (I cheated on my Cairo and ordered 3D printed lanterns). But nothing beats creating things by hand. Although, now you have me feeling a little guilty since I’ve been using my laser tool to create many of the parts on my current build. 😁

 

- Brian 

[KeithAug]

5 hours ago, mbp521 said:

since I’ve been using my laser tool to create many of the parts on my current build

Yes, you are on the slippery slope Brian.😬

[Cathead]

On 7/2/2024 at 10:13 PM, mbp521 said:

Although, now you have me feeling a little guilty since I’ve been using my laser tool to create many of the parts on my current build.

Nah, to each his own. 

 

I finally had a relatively quiet weekend here and got quite a bit done! We had absurdly beautiful weather for this time of year, so I got out my portable work station and took the model up to our screened in porch so I could enjoy fresh air, natural light, and birds while working on the model.

For the buckets, I cut some strips of on-farm maple the full needed width, then split them with a knife to make two planks. This looks better visually and milling the thinner strips would have wasted a lot more wood from the saw's kerf.

I then marked the proper orientation for each wheel (to ensure all three matched), then started slowly gluing pairs of bucket planks on.

I also spent time carefully measuring and marking where to cut off the bottom of the wheel. Here's the final product, with the bottom-most spoke cut off entirely and one on either side cut down partly (including their buckets).

The raw maple is visually very attractive but it needed to be painted for accuracy, so I did. In the meantime I'd made and painted two housings to hold the axle, then glued them in place. Here's the current state of the build, with the wheel on its housing (though the axle is still removable and not yet painted). I also glued on the forward timbers. The light's a little wonky but you get the idea. I'll take better shots soon.

Next up is to develop the bracing that supports the wheel housings, and the driver arms for the pistons. I think those are the last structural details. I have some detail parts on order and that'll just about complete her at this time. The end is near! Thanks as always...

 

[Knocklouder]

That is some very nice work. It is hard enough building a riverboat from a kit  I am gobsmacked at yours, truly nice work !!

    Bob  M.

[Keith Black]

 Very nice, Eric. She's looking every bit the part. 

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, Cathead said:

We had absurdly beautiful weather for this time of year,

I am happy to report that after several unusually hot summers British weather has returned to its predictable best. It has rained every day for the past few days and this is due to continue until Thursday. It is also quite cool and my wife is threatening to switch the heating on. Global warming is having a year off. I think I need a trip to Missouri!

Peerless is looking good - nice progress.

[Cathead]

29 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

I think I need a trip to Missouri!

Don't get ahead of yourself, I said we had A day of unusually nice weather. It won't last, we'll be back up into our normally hot and humid conditions by next weekend. Just prior to this briefly pleasant weekend, we suffered through a stretch where we received almost 9" of rain in three days, causing a wide variety of damage. Generally speaking, you do NOT want to visit here from mid June through early September if you're remotely adjusted to a British climate.

[Jack12477]

Yea, here in the Hudson Valley it is hot, humid, rainy, etc. In fact the air is so thick you can cut it with a knife, quite literally As I type it is 90 F