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[craggle]

Right then, Another quick update, Yay! I hear you all cry...... 

Been a bit quiet recently but have been working in the background on some very tricky exhaust pipes! Short story is the lids and the flange were supplied etched brass in the kit but the tube and collar around the tube I made myself from some turned down 22mm pipe (made 21mm) and the collar is cut from some brass 0.3mm sheet.
Lots of swearing, soldering, burnt fingers and more swearing resulted in pipes I'm happy with. (My girlfriend thought they were the toilets in the boat when she saw them and lifted the lid!    )






You may think that the lids look a bit more silver than they should. Well, the main reason I persevered with the soldering and made the pipes entirely from metal was to try out my plan of nickel plating the finished items to replicate the stainless finish of the real things. I had the nickel plating kit left over from a Land Rover restoration I did many years ago so dug it all out the garage again, Cleaned it up, bought some new supplies and had a go again. I'm rather happy with the results and it seems to plate over the solder, copper, brass equally well.






And I thought it was about time I tackled stage 1 in the build manual and drill the Bilge keels and fit them on the bottom of the boat. These were drilled in my mill to keep the holes nice and square and 3.2mm brass rod was bonded into the holes using a carbon loaded epoxy we use at work. Stycast 2850 if anyone is interested, It's messy stuff being black but does dry very hard. These have been bonded into the hull with the suggested body filler around the base and will be reinforced on the inside over the next few build days.






Phoned up Paul today who is the very friendly Coxswain of the Newhaven boat today and arranged a visit for next week so I can photograph the real thing. Thanks to Kim for giving Paul the heads-up that I'd be calling and for giving me the phone number.    Be great to see what I'm really building but fear I may look at it and think, "How am I ever going to complete this thing!"

Craig.

[Captain fizz]

Those exhausts are a work of art Craig
I'm not so sure about the comfort when used as a toilet though


Simon

[Delboy1958]

Hi Craig
Coming along well , looking nice mate 

Derek

[craggle]

Well, Been a bit quiet recently but I haven't been sitting around watching the snooker......

Couple of weeks ago I took myself to Newhaven and knocked on the door of the station. Met a lovely chap called Paul who is the Coxswain of the boat there and he showed me around the boat then left me alone for a couple of hours to take photos. It was a great experience being able to look about the boat and it's really a magnificent machine. You can tell they are not built to a budget but built to last as every detail is perfect. Paul left the boat on shore power for me too so the lights were on below deck and all the instruments were powered up. I so wanted to start the engines and go out for a sail! 

Only small problem was they currently have 17-38 which is a relief boat. Their boat 17-21 is back at Poole with a few engine mount issues after the recent refit with MTU engines. Paul hopes it will be back and he said to come back again when they are back to normal.



As for the model I fancied a change from all the brass trim tab and hull work so turned my attention to the cabin. I have sanded the cabin base so it fits the hull moulding a bit better and built the stern boxes (as I call them) which was good fun using some very smelly Tensol 12 adhesive.
A Piece of Acrylic rod has been purchased and added to the top angled faces on the boxes and I have made some thin sheet triangles for the inside as they seem to be present on the real thing. Started adding the base of the crane too and will start working on the crane itself soon.
Makes a nice change to start thing about detail after all the hull work.








Craig.

[craggle]

Well, I'm not one for following instructions in the correct order and I get easily distracted so two evenings work and I have a Hiab crane. 

Have to say I really enjoyed building it too. The etched parts are a perfect fit, bend nicely and make a very sturdy structure when soldered together. A few more burns on the fingers but think it's worth it.
I'll start making the rams and pivot pins soon.






Craig.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Hi Craig,
You really are producing a superb model there, with great photos to accompany your build. I also like the way you are deviating from the normal standard build processes and materials, at the same time explaining your methods and reasons why and also naming your products so we can hopefully find and use them too. This is a very refreshing build insight being given to the rest of us - thanks.
Alan and I missed you today [I know you had a previous commitment in the modelling world], but thought of you as 17-21 is now back on station with the handrails, salvage pump cannister, telecomms tower, flying bridge window supports, door and hatch cover surrounds, aerial bases and steps all in a galvanised finish!! All in the name of saving money on future maintenance. Are you going to be the first modeller to build something different in its finished 'colours'? By the way, think I might need to come over and see you cast your spells on some of my brass fittings with that plating finish set-up!!
Dates for the trip out will be forthcoming this week.
Keep up the very good work. Kim 

[17-21]

Hasn't that change the way she looks with all that galvanized finish  much better the way she was before.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

I think I know another man, 17-21, that feels the same way as you [17-09], I'm 60:40 in favour - I like the look around the flying bridge - especially as I think it is in the areas where the bolts are, and hence removal won't damage the paintwork. It also has that 'Shannon' look, from where I think the original idea came. Remember that Severn at the Excel Centre London Boat Show some years back when the logos and lettering were all given new positions and areas of prominence? That one never did materialise.
Some of the crew and ex-crew have given me messages for you 17-21, but not for these hallowed pages, I'll pass them on soon - personally. Kim

[spongie]

I'm not sure it's a galvanised finish as various items you've shown are actually alloy components not mild steel.

I believe they are shot peened aluminium with a clear coat of anodising. But may be wrong! The same finish is being used on the Shannon's & Atlantic roll frames too.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

You are most likely correct as you seem to know the process, it's just the words that the crew and mechanics were using yesterday, saying the 'previous original rails and fittings were removed, shot blasted and then galvanised'. I will find out. Thanks.

[craggle]

Hi Kim

Shame I couldn't make it Saturday but was playing with model steam engines all day, 1:3 scale traction's engines are really good fun if a little grubby!

Thanks for the photos and, Yes, I was wondering if I imagined the galvanized finished but when I went to photograph 17-38 at Newhaven but looking back at my photos that too has the grey finish. I was in Dover last week taking a few images from the dock side and got talking to a crew member who said he works with the Newhaven boat occasionally. I asked about the railings and fittings on their boat as they are still white and orange and he said Newhaven has been updated with the latest finish and too said it was galvanized. No reason to doubt him as the railings are clearly welded steel, Not sure about the flying bridge screen mounts though. Both sets of steps up to the flying bridge are galvanised as well now.

I will be building my model to the latest standard as it is now and when I build the model so yes, I should reproduce the galvanised finish I feel. I quite like it myself and adds another colour to a mostly orange object.

If you need plating doing or assistance please let me know, no problem at all helping out with that.

I will update the build thread soon but been away working in France for 4 weeks and then on holiday last week so not much progress made. Did manage to buy some brass tubes today though so the rams for the Hiab crane may be built soon.

Cheers

Craig.

[spongie]

Most of the hand rails, radar arch and flying bridge items are aluminium to keep weight above deck level as low as possible (for self righting purposes.

[craggle]

Oh right. I was sure they looked like steel when I visited the boat. I will have to take a magnet next time.


If they are alloy I wonder what the finish is. I shouldn't think there are many places that would have an anodizing tank big enough to take those bits.


Craig.

[spongie]

I could be wrong but I know on tynes nearly everything is alloy (used to do refits on them)

I've got a set of tyne stanchions in my garden, which are cast alloy and the mast and MOB recovery A frames off our Thames class and they're all alloy tube.

I would suspect it's a clear anodised finish or a clear powder coat, but I see little benefit from clear powder coat over orange other than the (lack of) UV resistance of the orange pigment.

[craggle]

Well, While I'm here lets do a quick update.

As I said, I've been away for a while so little progress has been made but I did fire up my laser cutter before I left and cut some triangles out of 3mm plywood. These were then epoxied around the four sides of the 8 posts that stick up inside the hull from the bilge keels. I could have used a strip of wood with holes to achieve the same thing but I really wanted to justify buying that laser cutter. 

In my spare time I have mixed up some white epoxy using epoxy pigment and epoxy resin from Easy Composites. Really easy to use, just mix up the resin in the correct ratio then add a few scoops of pigment and stir it all up. Makes a nice finish and adds to the strength of the hull no doubt. The motor mount is painted in the same resin but without the pigment as I thought it looked rather nice in wood finish.

Next will either be the rams for the Hiab crane or maybe I'll figure out some laser cut, plywood battery trays.








Craig.

[craggle]

Another quick update

Made myself a battery tray over the weekend using my new laser cutter.
First thing was to use the CAD system to design a tray all based on 3mm plywood. It has space for two Li-Po batteries and a tunnel down the centre for cables to run and a space on the top between the batteries to place anything else I may need to fit there.

Once I was happy with that I laid all the parts out on A4 drawing template and saved them as a DXF file to import into Coreldraw for cutting.

Really good fun watching the laser do it's thing and it produces such nice, clean cut parts.


Once all the parts were cut I gave them a gentle bead blast on the edges to remove the soot and then slotted the tray together. I'd designed it to slot together with tabs so once assembled it held itself together. I have run PVA glue along the joints now though and painted it with clear epoxy resin to seal it.

Best thing is the batteries fit.

This will be epoxied into place in the hull one evening this week.

Craig.

[dpbarry]

Hi Craig..


We have AutoCad and Solidworks in the school I work in plus we have a Versalaser cutter but I'm not sure if they cut plywood with it due to the resins in the plywood clogging the filter systm that we have to use.


What CAD sytem did you use to produce the battery box etc and what laser cutter do you also use to cut it out.


Cheers


Declan

[craggle]

Hi Declan

I'm quite fortunate that my daytime job is designing instruments for scientific and space research with UCL and we use software called Catia made by Dassault Systemes. It's not a particularly common or cheap CAD package but we get an academic license and quite a few of our partners use it too so it makes sense. I have used both AutoCad (2D) and solid works in the past, Solidworks I really liked and found it fairly easy to learn.

The laser cutter is a reasonably cheap one from china purchased on good ole ebay. It's a 40w Co2 laser so it can cut pretty much any material so long as it's not metal. If you do a search on ebay for "40w laser" lots pop up for around the £300 mark.
I use mine in the garage so just leave the doors open and vent the extractor pipe outside. It's not ideal, you do still smell burning timber but it's not that bad really. I have also added an air blast to the laser head so that helps keep a good flow of fresh air into the cabinet.

Sounds like you have everything you need sitting right there if you can convince them that plywood will be fine to cut.... 

Craig.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Craig, that battery box is just so POSH!! I can say no more - except that is is now my turn to go green with envy - Soooooo neat!
Keep up the very good work. Like I've just said to Mk1 on the Shannon build of mine - please seriously consider the Warwick Show in November. Having 'new blood' and models like yours will keep the public's interest and stop visitors saying 'much the same as last year!', especially as you are both now new members.
Kim

[dpbarry]

Yes Craig. I do have a functioning workshop.. In an all girls convent Grammar School.

I'm in IT so, all the CAD software is under my remit an because the laser cutter etc is computer controlled, it also kind of falls under my remit but I don't want to step on the technology technicians toes too much. 

I did see the laser cutters on ebay and was wondering if they were any good.

Cheers for the feedback. Great work

Declan

[craggle]

Well, here I am again.... 

Been a long time since I posted on this thread and all my photos disappeared in that time as well. 

A lot has happened since the last post, moved house, got a garden to look after, house to look after etc so the big Severn has been patiently moored in the garage awaiting time. Today however, found some time so got the Y-boat out, cut out the vac forms and stuck together.
Wasn't too easy, had to cut the tubes as they seemed to be distorted then stick them back together but with some filler, lots of sanding they should look round again.

I'll try to keep the thread updated again and sort out the missing pictures earlier on in in the thread.

Craig.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Welcome back Craig,
So good to hear you are OK and where your priorities have had to be. It's always good to start again on a small part of the 'project' - enjoy it and take it at your own speed. If it's anything like your battery box, then it will be superb!
Regards,
Kim [C.C.]

[craggle]

Thanks Kim, hope you are keeping well too?


I thought the Y-Boat would be a good place to start as it is a kit in itself really, something I can finish and put on the shelf to remind me to get the rest done!


They seem to have changed the Y-boat number at Newhaven as well, I have the markings for Y-199 but in my latest photos, 2018 and the photos above it is Y-231 and in the 2020 Lifeboat enthusiasts handbook it is Y-207.
Guess they don't last forever so get swapped out as needed but will Have a take a trip down there and ask to see under the cover....


Craig.

[17-09]

Hi Craig,
As Kim said, good to have you back, I was wondering where you had gone.
The Y boat is an interesting build, it's a long time since I made mine and it's still not sitting up on 17-09's flying bridge yet.
They do get changed for several reasons over time so you need to see which one is being used for the period you are building your boat. I don't think they change that much apart from updating equipment as new stuff becomes available, I remember Dover's being changed, I think it got damaged but luckily I had built mine by then.
If you need anything, I still have most of the research material. I believe Kim did a CD as well at one time.
With kind regards
 Alan  17-09

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Craig,
Alan is right there, I do have photos of 'Y' class inflatables including one of the Newhaven ones which I photographed on one of many visits. If you want one just send me a PM with your address and I'll get one burnt and off to you, even under 'Lockdown', as I know the cost of P&P and have the materials and correct stamps and there is a Post box on the small green across the road......just ten seconds away!
Kim