'WIDE A WAKE' a steam launch tale

[mike mott]

Ramon I am also glad to see more progress on the project. and congratulations on the three score and ten.

mike

[metalmad]

Happy Birthday Ramon
Your build is incredible, a real Inspiration!
Pete

[fumopuc]

Hi Ramon, Happy Birthday. I like your boat. Good to see some progress is done.

[K.B.C]

Ramon,
Glad to be of help with the tapered F/Wheel.
You will have plenty of space at the rear end of the engine and the boiler end to fit the drive for an engine driven feed pump on the Ali bed plate.
I hope that there is a 3/16" dia x 7/16" deep hole in the end of the engine shaft to fit the 3/16" dia extension to carry the worm wheel and shaft.

Your workmanship with wood and metal is an insparation which makes me try even harder.

Best wishes on your 70th.

George.

[Ramon Wilson]

Hi Guys, Thanks to all of you for your kind emails, PMs and posts as well as those comments of support on the project. I'll keep you well posted on the progress 

I had a very quiet but pleasant day with Sues family - the gift of a nice peaty malt went down really well  but now it's time to get back into the workshop.

Back a while later then,

Thanks again - Ramon

[Ramon Wilson]

Hi Guys - just a short update on present 'state of play'.

After making the tapered flywheel mount to George's design I had to remake the bearers as the previous ones were too shallow and slightly the wrong angle - what comes of 'cut and try' I guess as there are no drawings of such.


The flywheel mount works very well and locks very tightly with little torque on the nut. Once the bearers were right the whole thing aligned well and turns over very smoothly - it was given a good test run on air


With the engine and boiler positions well established it was time to start back on the build proper. First up was to cut some strip wood for the stringers - it came from a piece of parana pine shelf that I put up in the kitchen when first moving in here in 1975 - well seasoned then  The strips were a bit small to run through the planer so a jury rigged one was cobbled together on the mill using a three pieces of ply and a 6mm FC3 cutter run at top speed - it worked very well providing the cuts were kept around 0.1- 0.15 mm



These strips were from the outer surface of the shelf and were going to be discarded because of the varnish but this little 'planer' made short work of that without the anticipated clogging
A light sanding was all that was required to finish and they were ready to fit - more rivets to form and point though

With the two lower stringers in place, today saw the final rivet (I think) get peened over when fitting the two top stringers. No - I haven't counted them 




And so the 'fitting out' can begin  The bearer for the gas tank shelf was glued in and the main deck beam and the mooring post and carlings trial fitted....


...then finally tonight the main deck beam was glued and clamped


It's been absolutely great to be able to get back onto this - the last few days a complete change from machining and very satisfying.  I'm certainly looking forwards to seeing it develop over the coming weeks

As usual, hope that's of use or interest to some

Regards - Ramon

[Maryak]

Hi Ramon,

Beautiful work I am in awe!

With such a magnificent wooden hull do you intend to make, for want of a  better term, some form of drip tray and splash guards to  stop lubricant and the inevitable condensate from staining/being absorbed into the hull and engine mounts?

An old wooden hull paddler which I operated a few years back had no such barrier and some of the metal/wood interfaces were in less than pristine condition as a result.

Best Regards
Bob

[Robert Hornby]

Very nice work indeed Ramon, I can only hope my efforts are a fraction of your skills/quality build and then I will be most pleased. I am very close to recommencing on finishing the boiler.
Robert

[Don1966]

That is one beautiful looking vessel you have there Ramon. Looking at it without size reference you would thing it was a full size vessel. awesome work my friend! 


 

Don

[derekwarner]

Ramon...thankyou...this is a superbly detailed viewing of Georges taper lock mounting method for the flywheel  etc

One question....... does the inboard face of the drive dog coupling 1/2 press squarely against the outboard face of the brass hex compression nut when fully assembled?

The reason I ask is that whilst we can see the dimple in the shaft for the coupling to lock into, the actual length of the shaft journal to the length of the coupling 1/2 seems short

Again beautiful work and clear descriptive images  ... Derek

[Jasonb]

I'm certainly looking forwards to seeing it develop over the coming weeks

I don't think you are the only one looking forward to it Ramon, comming along nicely.

J

PS I hope Sue won't miss here shelf too much

[b.lindsey]

Beautiful Ramon. I am very much looking forward to your continued progress as well. Your attention to detail is amazing!!

Bill

[Ramon Wilson]

Hi guys - thanks for looking in 

Nothing done today as we were sailing - first time on the water since last November when the pond was drained for cleaning. Had to break the ice on half of it first though but we had one of those lovely bright, clear, but very cold January days - it was good to be back on the water after such a layoff.

Bob - I share your concern over the effluent that gets thrown around. The whole boiler/engine package should come out with just four screws to undo but there will be the linkages to the reverse and regulator plus gas and water pipes to consider - haven't given that too much thought at this stage. I intend to fit a drip tray between the bearers to catch engine oil but the stuff that gets thrown around - well  I usually enjoy the painting stage of modelling but admit I'm not looking forwards to doing the inside of this with all it's nooks and crannies etc. I intend to epoxy coat the area inside the lower stringers and then paint that over with the rest being varnished - hopefully that will
prevent too much ingress of oil and water. I can see that the one stage that will take some time on this model is going to be the painting (varnishing)

Derek - yes the coupling half backs right up to the nut but there is only a very small land for it to sit on on the engine side of the relief groove. The coupling has two grubscrews set at 90 degrees - we'll have to see how it holds up before shortening the thread and nut and making a longer coupling if required.

Don - this is the first time I have made anything like this though have done an awful lot of 'balsa bashing' over the years. However I'm trying to emulate the full size where skills allow without resorting too much to the aeromodeller's 'cut and stick in place' approach.

Robert - you've had a long break with that house move - good luck when you do get back on to your boiler

Jason - the shelf was removed in '97  it's been sitting here waiting for something to be made from it since  .

As usual, thanks for your comments guys - hopefully I'll get a good day on it tomorrow.

Regards - Ramon

[LittleGhost]

Hi,
I dont really know what to say! Another long read that was well worth it, utterly mind blowing work and it makes you want to go and give it a try, I am not saying I could even get 10% near to that quality but I would love to have a go with something a bit smaller.
Utterly fantastic write up and well worth the 6 hours it took to read it all carefully, thanks alot for sharing this it has been nail biting in places lol.
I cant add anything that hasnt been said already but as a complete newby just starting on the first treads its helped focus me alot on what I would like to build.

[Ramon Wilson]

Hi - Having not been on here for a while I was surprised to see this last post. I didn't recognise the user name so have spent some time searching.

Logan, Thank you for your comments but what you see here is what has taken many years to achieve - it didn't happen overnight but, very much as you appear to convey I was always inspired by the work of others and have always tried to continually improve on whatever it is I have aspired to. That this thread seems to have had the same affect on you gives me great satisfaction and I truly hope that a modelling 'career', wherever it takes you, will prove as enjoyable to you as it has to me over my lifetime.


Well guys I've had a reasonably productive few days and the boat has leapt forward another stage. Here are a few pics to bring you up to date (as of yesterday)

With the for' beam in, the support blocks for the coaming were next to be tackled. This was a somewhat tedious cut and trial fit, cut again etc., one block at a time to get the curve right - it increases in width slightly from stern forwards


Once in (glued and screwed) they then had to be faired to the sheer and camber. Problem with this op was the constant kneeling down and consequent getting up to check the sheer - I really am beginning to feel my age in the oldpins 




Finally the (false) coaming could be glued in situ. The mahogany coaming proper will be glued in turn to this at a later stage after the decks are laid.


The curved fore piece was laminated from two thicknesses of thin birch ply


And so after a good hoover out  the hull is ready for the next stage






I took a break today but will start next week on getting the cockpit bulkhead in and fitting an aft compartment to house the rudder servo and R/C gear as well as beginning to get those first layers of 'varnish' on before fitting the deck and planking it.

It's really beginning to take shape now - when I think it's taken forty three years to get round to making it I still can't quite believe its gone so well.

Regards - Ramon