Part 9a.

Making of tree nails/pins using a draw plate.

I do not profess to be an expert on making tree nails, my experience so far is fairly limited.

This is simply the way I do it.

Firstly the material; I use bamboo I have red that fine grained hardwood such as Boxwood can be used. I have no experience outside of Bamboo.

The Bamboo that I use is either satay skewers or tooth picks. Satay skewers being preferred due to their length.
In my opinion there is a difference in grain density between different packs a tighter grain being preferable.
A pack of skewers will provide a very large amount of pins therefore quite economical.

Using a sharp knife I split the skewer down into strips a little bit bigger than the end size, easier said than done. I tend to have a fairly high reject rate until I have got my “hand in” so to speak.

Once I have some material ready I sharpen one end and feed it through a suitably large hole in the draw plate. The draw plate being held in a vice preferably.
Grabbing it with pliers and pulling all the way through, then using the next smaller hole in the draw plate until I reach the required size.
Until I have done a few I have a fairly high breakage rate winding up with a much shorter piece than I started out with, again practice makes perfect or so they say….

I have 2 draw plates on is home made from gauge plate hardened and tempered the cutting side being surface ground, that is what I did because I have access to the equipment, it is not entirely necessary to do that.
A home made draw plate can be made from spring steel or other steels the down side is fresh holes will need to be drilled once the original holes become blunt.
The other draw plate was bought from Byrnes Model Machines who make some lovely equipment, there are probably other draw plates available from other manufactures.

Here is a photo of my draw plates.
In use the side opposite to the countersink is the cutting edge.

I hope this is of help.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 10.

After planking had been finished came removal from the building board then removing all the former's from inside the hull, and at last time to separate the upper and lower parts of the hull (that’s if I hadn’t accidentally glued them together).

I used small wedges to force the parts apart and to my relief after some initial reluctance to move with a pop the two parts started to separate.

I continued carefully prising the two parts apart taking my time to ensure I didn’t damage anything.

I would have to say that I was very happy with my effort so far, I quite like the lines on this hull.

I used a rasp and sandpaper on a stick to carefully trim down to the sheer line.

I put the hull back on the building board temporally using a couple of former's to hold it in position this was so I could make and fit the “sand band”.

The sand band on the real thing was a “D” section made of mild steel.
After looking around I couldn’t find any brass “D” section the right size so I decided to make my own from brass strip shaped into a “D” section.

After contemplating how I could do this I came up with attaching the strip to a flat board with double sided tape.

Then using a file and sand paper producing the required shape.

After bending to shape the sand band was glued with Titebond 3 and pinned using brass pins.

I did some experiments gluing brass to wood using Titebond 3 with great results it adhered very well, I scratched up the brass before gluing with coarse sand paper, then chemically cleaned using thinner or isopropyl alcohol to remove any contaminates.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 11.
I got a bit excited and posted more photos than than were required in the last post, mainly referring to deck beams.

So here is the discription.

I made up a cardboard template for the deck beam camber and using some Kari pine made up a batch of deck beams.

Using my newly acquired Byrnes Table saw I cut and fitted the beams placing them in reference to major deck openings.

The width of deck beams is close to scale, though the number is not correct. Depth of these beams is not to scale due to a desire to stiffen up the removable structure.

Then my focus turned to how I was going to attach the removable section and how I was going to secure it.

What I came up with was a system of cams and push rods, having 4 sliding pins on each side for a total of 8 pins.

To achieve this required a lot of components, once again taking a lot longer than first thought.
The main motivation for this design was my distaste for removing 6 to 8 screws each time I wanted to remove the top section, I wanted to just turn 2 screws and then be able to remove the top section.

You may ask why so many pins, in my opinion the top section is not a stable structure by it self, if it is not held in place properly it will move out of shape over time, hence all the pins to hold it in place.

When I was making the components, in the back of my head was if any of this fails removal will be difficult in the extreme. With this in mind all rotating elements had bushings.
Pivots for linkages on the pins were “riveted” using a watch makers staking set to ensure no pivot falls out.

Locating pins were also fitted to ensure alignment when putting the top on, hopefully eliminating possible damage to planking when replacing the top section.

The inside was given a couple of coats of epoxy resin. I am happy to say that very little epoxy ran through to the other side as there were not many gaps in the planking.

I then installed the pin guides and sockets, not relying on an adhesive alone I used small brass wood screws to mechanically fix the components.

I started with the pin guides mounting then to the removable section.
Then aligning the sockets using a tight fitting pin together with a spacer between the two I initially glued the sockets in position with Milliput once set I screwed them in just to be sure.

Thanks for looking in.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 12.

I decided to leave planking the deck and making the bulwarks until later, my main reason is ease of positioning equipment when I have clear sight through the deck beams, this turned out to be a really good idea.

Back to the steam engine. The following steam engine issues happened over a number of years, not necessarily in order with building of the hull as presented in these articles.

To recap from part 2; first run showed that it took a very very long time to raise steam and once it did raise steam the engine didn’t run for long before the pressure dropped.

I only ran the engine three times before I had large leaks mainly between the cylinder port and distribution block faces, the leaks being so big the engine wouldn’t run properly!

I wasn’t sure why I was having these problems, I thought I had made the engine as accurately as I could.
I pulled the engine apart and found that the distribution block now had slop in the bearing for the cylinder pivot.

I was puzzled that this should occur with so little running time, at that point I thought either the pivot pin or bearing hole wasn’t square to there respective face.
I couldn’t understand how this could happen, but I couldn’t think of any other reasons either.
So I set up the cylinder in a 4 jaw independent chuck, not easy to do, then took a skim off the face, then repeat again for the other cylinder.

Next I setup the distribution block on a face plate and bored the bearing hole out this would ensure an absolutely perpendicular hole, then made a bronze bush and pushed it in.

I reassembled the engine with high hopes only to have a similar result after a few runs, I had huge leaks again, I started to think this steam thing might not be for me.

Then while I was exhibiting my partly built drifter at a model boat show at the Queenscliff Maritime Museum in Queenscliff a bay side township in Victoria, Australia, I met a guy who had built 2 of the same engines that I had.
While talking he asked me how my engine was going and I told him not so good.
He told me that one of his engines ran beautifully while the other was terrible like mine.

He then proceeded to tell me how he over came the problem also saying he would send me some photos of his modification, photos eventually arrived of his floating cylinder retaining device ( I don’t really know what to call it ).

I proceeded to copy his modification along with another modification on the cylinder faces to under cut between the pivot pin and steam port, reducing surface area.

Then for the second time I set the distribution block on a face plate and bored the pivot hole out this time for DU Glacier bushes.

I re-assembled the engine then put it aside, with the hope those problems were fixed.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 13.

One of the guys at the model boat group I belong to tried a Flash steam / steam generator / mono tube boiler or which ever name you wish to use.

Tom was saying that he should be able to raise steam within a couple of minutes with his new system, this got my attention!

I don’t like the amount of time my boiler takes to raise steam, so I thought I would look into this different way of producing steam for those who may not know a steam generator otherwise known as flash steam or monotube boiler, all the same thing.
You pump water in one end of a tube, heat it and steam comes out the other end, as there is no storage of steam unlike a conventional boiler, when you take the heat off the steam stops, more importantly for me it raises steam quickly.

There is not a lot of information about flash steam. Most information I found was related to steam cars or tethered hydroplanes. Although there are a couple of sites that are of use.

Then once again it is a good thing to read a magazine like Model Boats because in the January 2016 Model Boats mag there was an article about an Edwardian Steam Launch, for those who are interested here is a link to the article;

http://www.modelboats.co.uk/news/article/model-engineer-exhibition-2016/24677

I tried to find out more about this model, eventually I found that Ian Gerrard wrote an article for Engineering in miniature magazine.

By now I was totally sold on the idea of a steam generator.

Below is a link for the article in PDF that goes into how he used computer control to control his monotube boiler!!
Wow I was and still am blown away by his approach to controlling his steam generator.

I am not even close to having the ability to do such a thing although initially I thought I would probably use an Arduino Nano as the micro processor if I went down that path.
Again for those interested in how he made it happen, copy the link below.
http://eddy.dawa.de/DUK-flashboiler/elektronisch_gesteuerter_Durchlaufkessel-engl.pdf

This is a you tube video of the latest boat this guy has made.


From the research I did it appeared that heavy wall 3/16” copper tube was preferable the other important requirement is for the tube to be as long as possible.

I had a couple of ideas for how to improve the insulation of my future steam generator and whilst discussing this at a model boat group meeting Alan came up with the brilliant idea of using a vacuum to insulate the inner from outer.

I found an old stainless steel vacuum flask that looked like the right size, checked it in the hull to make sure.
Holes were cut into the vacuum flask where required then bushes silver soldered in. This really tested my silver soldering ability.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Thanks for looking in.
Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 14.

I decided to build two feed pumps from a Peter Arnot design featured in Model Boats magazine mounting them horizontally this was in an effort to smooth out the feeding of water, my theory being that If you feed a pulse of water into the system it can pulse at the other end.

Funnily I have only just recently found an article in an old Model Engineer that said a 3 cylinder pump was preferable for feeding flash steam systems.
My pumps are driven by a small motor through a speed control. The more steam I want the more water I feed. 

I decided to make a rail to mount as much equipment as possible onto.
Using 2 lengths of ½” SHS (square hollow section) with separating pieces screwed on.
Mounts were made and epoxied onto the keel, using a temporary setup to hold the rail perpendicular to the centre line.
The rail is held down by 3 screws for quick removal.

After the rail was made but not painted yet I positioned all the equipment.
Because the flue/exhaust for my Steam generator is not positioned directly under the funnel I made up an offset flue out of steel pipe.

I made my own stop valve, pressure relief valve, manifold and separator.
Modified model aircraft fuel tanks are used for feed water and recirculating water tanks, a small pond pump is used for circulating water.

I was starting to get worried whether my drifter had put on too much weight.
So I wrapped the lower hull in plastic film and did a practical test in a wading pool, this showed no problems to my delight.
Requiring some ballast and sitting at the preferred waterline, with no need to go on a diet.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 15.

With most equipment mounted on the rail I pulled it apart and painted it.
Turns out there are quite a few parts!!

I painted the rail parts dark Brunswick green, feed pumps and manifold Blue.
Stop valve and pressure relief valve Red. Parts that are natural brass or copper were clear coated.

Somewhere along the way I dropped the idea of using an Arduino Nano and settled on using a FrSky Taranis 9x plus, programmable radio.
This radio has Telemetry along with the benefit of being able to be programmed using Open TX Companion.
This is an open source program that runs on a computer allowing me to create a program on my computer test it on the computer then download to the transmitter.

I have not tried to copy what Ian Gerrard did in his truly amazing control system however I have taken the concept and adapted it to a manageable level for me.

After the paint had fully dried I reassembled the rail.
I had read that balsa wood has really good insulating properties so I made an insulating tub for my steam manifold from it then painted it silver.

Before I mounted too many things to the rail I set the relief valve using compressed air.

I mounted all the equipment that has been made so far to the rail.

Thank you to those following and for all the likes, I really apprentice them.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 16.

The rudder was something I was looking forward to building for a long time.

Combining a small amount of woodwork with a reasonable amount of metal fabrication, having done a lot of work on the steam plant I chose to take a break from that aspect and make the rudder.

My aim was to build a rudder and rudder post as close as possible to the original using the plan and book From Tree to Sea as a guide, while being able to remove it completely from the boat.

My initial design envisaged a few compromises and alterations the most obvious being distance between rudder shaft and rudder post.

After finding that the rudder shaft tube was not quite on the right angle, I removed it and elongated the hole slightly.

Then I started making up a lower rudder shaft support or “TOE IRON” as this fixes the rudder shafts lower position.
This was fabricated from brass, silver soldered together.

Next was the “T” section rudder post, I tried to find a length of commercially made brass material with no success.

There were two ways I could go, fabricate or machine from solid, I wasn’t confidant of fabricating a “T” to the quality I was looking for so I machined one from solid brass in the mill.

Next, I made the upper and lower rudder post brackets.

Cutting them from brass sheet then folded them to shape. These were silver soldered to the rudder post in a jig of sorts to assure alignment.

Making the hinge like components that bolt to the Rudder post and retain the rudder shaft, proved time consuming.

The miniature HEX nuts and bolts are homemade, commercial ones having too big a HEX for this application.
Turned out the woodwork part of this was not much work.

As my build progressed, I ended up either moving position, remaking or modifying some of the components moving away from my original design and finding that I was able to build a more accurate representation whilst still being completely removable, all taking considerably longer than expected, nothing new there.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 17.

Back to the engineering side of things, next job was gas control.

I had a look around the internet trying to get some design ideas for RC servo controlled gas metering valves to no avail, all I came up with were some commercially made RC servo controlled gas shut off valves.

For one reason or another nothing suited my instillation, in the end I decided to make 2 externally similar valves and mount them on a manifold, similarly to how Hydraulic and Pneumatic valves are mounted in industrial installations.

One reason for this was to reduce overall space taken.

There are some things that I need to draw before attempting to make and these valves fall into this category. Using CAD I designed then built a metering / flow control valve and a shut off valve.
The metering valve allows me to go from an idle flame through to full flame.

I am also using a small commercial gas regulator this should give me a constant pressure and therefore a constant flame.
 
I started buy making the metering needle this was quite tricky, being made from Stainless Steel with a taper of around 2 degrees, this made for a taper length of around 15mm going from a point up to 1mm diameter add a polished finish and this took me around one day to do.

In the end I rejected the first needle and proceeded making up the body linkage and servo horn adaptor.

For the servo horn adaptor I machined a disk with a groove on the lathe, then in the mill I machined a notch finishing off with a file.

The small radius was filed by hand up to a guide turned on the lathe, this made it really easy to achieve a nice radius.

Two pipe’s were made one for each gas burner that I have, when I am making up odd shaped piping I use wire of some sort that is close to the same diameter as my pipe in this case I used heavy gauge soft solder bent to shape as a guide.


I also made up a servo mount for the forward/reverse and rudder servos along with 3 special long screws for holding down the plant rail, these screws enable installation and removal without tools also it is easier.

Continuing in part 17.2.

Part 17.2.

Any non coloured Brass parts were given a coat of clear Lacquer.
Control of the steam engine requires 3 servos, one for gas metering, one for feed pump speed, one for forward / reverse on the engine.

All controlled from a single input on the transmitter, which is a Taranis 9XD+ programmed via OpenTX Companion.

A switch on the transmitter controls a fourth servo for the gas on / off valve.
 
All gas equipment is painted white.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks for having a look.

Cheers,
Stephen.