30ft 1890's navy steam launch 1/6th scale

[crueby]

Really looking great!   

[tghs]

just pistons,piston rods, valve gear, links and eccentrics,, there is light at the end of the tunnel,, most likely an on coming locomotive (I'll take pictures of the smokebox door)

[10KPete]

 

 

Pete

[tghs]

turned a fixture to help bend 1/4" copper tubing for the exchange pipe,, lots of learning here today, lots of annealing,, getting good bends in the correct spots proved to challenging,, thankfully you can recover cerrobend and use it again,, after filing things to fit all was silver soldered together and it still fit afterwards.. no where near as tight to the engine as the prototype but not to bad..

[tghs]

ordered up some more ME taps and dies this morning along with some others stuff to flesh out the order,, will end up with a good selection by the time I've completed this engine..

[tghs]

the stuart block casting was made for an oval exhaust flange, the navy engine has a triangular flange,, a mating flange is the connection to the large pipe leading down to the keel condenser.. I think I came up with some parts that will look correct and work as well, plus I got some more rotary table practice before starting things like the box links..

[tghs]

frame tops were trimmed to the engine block profiles, valve shaft guides have been bolted up to the valve chest, cylinder tops and block have been drilled and tapping started, the lower covers still need a few more holes drilled,, still looking at the cylinder cocks and wondering if a fitting with a threaded hollow bolt might make a more compact unit,, the cocks I have could always get used on the boiler..

[zeeprogrammer]

Coming together well!

I may have missed it earlier...is this intended for that lovely ship?

[tghs]

that's the USS Raleigh 1/96th scale, she did have a 30ft steam cutter as part of her small boat compliment, these boats had ID numbers stamped  into the brass cutwater on the bow,, many searches, emails and museum quires have not been able to get any numbers. USS Raleigh underway with a friends exceptional USS Maine..

[tghs]

lots of drilling and tapping,, cylinder covers top and bottom all taken care of, the top studs are close to the navy bolt pattern,, the center stud and nut on the low pressure cover is in the cover for scale looks,, a full stud would have been into the steam passage,, I've used up all the studs that came with kit,, but do have some 7BA threaded rod on hand,,

[Admiral_dk]

Looks like you're making good progress and the result looks great too 

[tghs]

slow but steady progress,, all the glands and guides reamed,, milled the valve castings,, made up the retaining blocks and threaed up the rods,, pistons next, the castings have been cleaned up are turned close to size,, (I tried to import some shop elves for help,, but they either ran off or were victims to groat,, he's the saber toothed mutant dust bunny that has moved with my shops many times,, most often he eats those small needed parts that hit the floor... working more with metal over the years it is my belief that shavings and chips have been carried off,, most likely he now has some form of chainmail armour)

[crueby]

Engine looking terrific!  Stay safe from that bunny though, sounds really nasty! Was he the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

[tghs]

was test fitting the rings in the bores this morning,, low pressure cylinder looked great,, first ring in the high pressure great, second ring was over-sized and looks rough and cragy on the inside,, it fell apart while trying to sand the end gap,,  sent a photo to stuart,, most likely will let groat feast on the remains,, maybe it will stop him from grabbing a needed part for a while..  groat most likely saw the killer rabbit back in the early 80's when he was just a small fluff of a dust bunny..

[crueby]