Chris's New Steering Engine

[crueby]

The Pun Police have been notified, they are on the way to hit you over the head with a rubber chicken...



Again? 

And again...   

[crueby]

Got the spokes for the steering wheel turned up and installed, each section was turned on all the spokes before moving on to the next section. The spokes are a close fit into the holes in the hub and rim, and held with some wicking loctite.

and installed on the steering shaft...

Rather than listen to the shop elves doing their pirate imitations and pretending to steer the workbench around the 7 seas, I turned my attention to the control valve steam chest parts - with the hearing protectors on to drown out the singing...

The square chunk on the right is the piece cut out of the middle of the chest. The piece on the bottom left will be the valve face, and the one on the right is the top lid.
They were stacked up and clamped together, and I have begun spot drilling for the studs to hold them together. I'll drill down through the lid and chest and just into the base with the clearance drill, then go back around with the tap drill through the base. After doing the holes down the sides, I'll bolt them together so the clamps can come off, then do the end holes.

Getting down to the final parts before the steering engine is functional: this control valve chest and the slider, glands for the ends, the pipes to connect to the steam/air, and the sprockets/guides for the lower end of the chain loop. Probably will finish up next week sometime, there is another event I'll be attending this weekend, so no shop time later this week.
 

[mklotz]

Now that the steering wheel is finished, perhaps it's a good time to intrude with my question.

On large ships, I presume there was some sort of electrical connection between the wheel on the bridge and the compartment where the steering engine was housed.  How was the bridge-desired rudder angle communicated to the steering engine?  Did a sailor view some sort of bridge-desired angle display (perhaps along the lines of an engine telegraph) and operate the engine wheel to achieve that angle?

[crueby]

Now that the steering wheel is finished, perhaps it's a good time to intrude with my question.

On large ships, I presume there was some sort of electrical connection between the wheel on the bridge and the compartment where the steering engine was housed.  How was the bridge-desired rudder angle communicated to the steering engine?  Did a sailor view some sort of bridge-desired angle display (perhaps along the lines of an engine telegraph) and operate the engine wheel to achieve that angle?

Hi Marv,
It varied a lot. On the first steering engine I built, based on the one Michael has from the paddle wheeler in Germany, the steering engine was actually in the pilothouse in the middle of the ship, with chains running back to the stern where a quadrant on the rudder post was moved by the chains. On the Liberty Ship in Baltimore I took the cruise on, the steering engine was geared directly to the rudder post, with a remote wheel up in the pilothouse. Some of the other Navy plans I have show the steering engine down behind/to one side of the main engines, with long shafts running back to the stern and the rudder post. And everything in between. The big Navy ships usually had several independant systems in case of damage to one or more of the others. They often even had a row of giant ships wheels on the final shafts to the rudder post, so teams of men could steer manually via commands from up top (no, the OTHER starboard!). On the big battleships, they did not have a quadrant/chains, but instead had a huge yoke connected to pairs of arms with giant trapezoidal screws, all driven by a shaft out the back of the steering engine. That system is shown here, in the CAD model I did of the one in the USS Kearsarge battleship:
The Kearsarge system had several different ways to connect the wheel input up to the main bridge, the combat bridge, and the backup bridge lower down in the superstructure. Some shaft linkages, some telemotors.

Sometimes the remote wheels were sections of shafts with bevel gears down to the engine, other times it was chains around the ships wheel barrel leading down/back to the steering engine, some had electric/hydraulic telemotors for the connection. Many ways they did it on different size ships over the decades, very interesting to research. Most had the wheel driving things up in the pilothouse, other than the emergency backup systems that would have required voice communications of some sort. I have not come across one yet that had an engine-telegraph-style communications, but there may have been some. Its fascinating to dig through the old Navy blueprints that show all the systems used for steering, some show the charts of what positions different clutches had to be in to connect up just the one system desired at the moment.

The steam powered steering engines lasted right through WW-II, when electric/hydraulic versions took over, which are still used in new ships today.

The engine I am making now is of a style used on medium/small ships/boats like the early Torpedo boats, which were a little bigger than the WW-II PT Boats. Ones like this did not have a built-in backup set of gears like the German one I built, if they had a backup then there would have been an external disconnect on the chains.

[mklotz]

Thanks very much, Chris, for that very thorough answer.  The take-away seems to be that everyone did it the way that best fit their vessel design which makes a lot of sense.  Modern electronics have saved a lot on actuator weight and by running redundant paths provide much better reliability.

[redhouseluv]

The CAD drawing looks amazing, and thanks for the explanation; I never realised they had so much redundancy built into the systems in case of damage - makes sense!!

[crueby]

Thanks very much, Chris, for that very thorough answer.  The take-away seems to be that everyone did it the way that best fit their vessel design which makes a lot of sense.  Modern electronics have saved a lot on actuator weight and by running redundant paths provide much better reliability.

Exactly  right Marv, every builder did things differently,  even when buying an off the shelf steering engine. There were a lot of companies  building the engines, lots of patents on different  designs. Very interesting  topic!

[crueby]

The CAD drawing looks amazing, and thanks for the explanation; I never realised they had so much redundancy built into the systems, in case of damage - maked sense!!

From what I have  seen, the Navy ships had the most backup systems, which makes sense to handle battle damage. Even today, there have been accidents with cargo ships where a backup could have helped, though accidents like the one that took down the bridge in Baltimore probably  happened too fast.

[crueby]

Got the holes for the steam chest bolts all drilled/tapped, and laid out the locations of the ports for the throttle/control valve.  As you can see, the ports are a lot farther apart than on a steam cylinder. This will allow for a much longer throw on the valve rod, letting the helmsman get more turns ahead of the engine/rudder before the control nut catches up and re-centers the valve. The valve slider will also be longer than normal, with a long recess underneath to connect with the exhaust port over the whole range.

Then switched over to make the valve rod and steam inlet/exhaust pipe glands. The bar was drilled on the lathe for the center opening, then centered up on the rotary table to drill the mounting holes and mill the sides down. This one piece will make all three glands needed. The first one is for the valve rod, and is thicker with a larger hole for the rod, and will be counterbored on the back for the o-ring seal.

Here they are after the rest of the shaping and parting off from the bar:

Next time I'll get the ports milled in to the base block and start on all the passages and mounting the glands. That will not happen for a few days, I have an outside event to attend over the next few days so will not have playtime in the shop till Monday.
 

[cnr6400]

 

[crueby]

Back home again after a trip up to the middle of Maine for the Summer At Leonards Mills event at the logging museum. GFreat time, great weather, great group of people. Spent most of yesterday driving this steam Lombard log hauler around

as well as these two, both gas-engined Lombard trucks:

Time for a nap out on the front porch!

[redhouseluv]

The log hauler looks like an amazing beast, I had to Google it - built from 1901 - 1917, great to see it still operational, too fast for me 

[crueby]

The log hauler looks like an amazing beast, I had to Google it - built from 1901 - 1917, great to see it still operational, too fast for me 

Wonderful machines, the first commercially  successful  tracked vehicles. Holt took it to the next level with independent  power to each track for steering without front wheels. Lombard made 80-some steamers, and also licensed the patents to the Phoenix  company in Wisconsin  that  built its own version with vertical engines on the sides. The museum also has a second steamer on loan from the Crooker family,  but its boiler doesn't  meet modern code so we just run the museum owned one, which had a newer boiler made so we can  run it at public events.


I first went up there to measure it for a working model, got hooked, and have been volunteering  there ever since. Its about a 10 hour drive from home for me but well worth it! I've  become thier main steersman at the events, also have run the throttle position too, but more recently  had to give that up when the state licensing  rules tightened up to make it so only licensed boiler engineers could run the throttle. I'm starting the  paperwork to get that, at least for a year or two. Can't  run the boiler itself, but we have a great couple that come up from the Boothbay Railway Village  where they run the locomotives.


Great museum, all volunteers.  They have several sawmills, blacksmith shop, line driven machine shop, and a little village  tucked way back in the woods outside Bangor. Google the Maine Forest and Logging Museum for details. The website will be updated this coming month with lots more info on the machines. Our next event is in July,  with the big two day event first weekend of  October.

[crueby]

Here is the thread with my Lombard model...


https://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,7528.0.html

[cnr6400]