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Author Topic: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane  (Read 109696 times)

Martin (Admin)

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #175 on: June 28, 2010, 10:28:47 pm »

Looking good Mike!

 Don't worry, it's building much faster than my current project.  <:(
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Corposant

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #176 on: June 28, 2010, 10:56:12 pm »

Thanks Martin,

I cannot believe you're slower than me! Look at all the other stuff you do - Wicksteed for example - and you're a young man in gainful employment, I'm an old git in retirement!

Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #177 on: June 28, 2010, 11:20:10 pm »

Thanks Martin,

I cannot believe you're slower than me! Look at all the other stuff you do - Wicksteed for example - and you're a young man in gainful employment, I'm an old git in retirement!

Mike

Oh belive it , he is THAT slow. %% %%

Peter {-)
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Corposant

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #178 on: June 29, 2010, 09:02:57 am »

Oh well, we'll just have to share the motto "Slow and steady wins the race".
(If you believe that you'll believe anything!)

Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #179 on: March 27, 2011, 05:31:06 pm »

My normal snail's pace came almost to a standstill last Summer. In June Mrs Corposant broke her wrist and then, in August, underwent major abdominal surgery, followed by more in January. The good news is she is now fully recovered and virtually back to her old self so here, at long last, is a progress report.

The process of transferring the mock-up to the hull is finally under way.



Several tasks need to be completed before permanently fitting the main deck:

Mounting the winch.
Considerations:
                     1. It needs to be easily removeable (in case there's a tangle below deck) but also secure.
                     2. One needs to be able to easily disconnect the wiring. (Relay control of the piston driving motor makes this a bit untidy.)

So...
Firstlly the aperture in the deck needs to be as large as possible (the winch has to be turned through 90 degrees during insertion and removal) which means the base plate cannot be directly bolted down. Solution: Use 1/4 turn clips.




In place:


and it looks plausible!


At this point, it might be worth mentioning the slipping clutches for the winding drums.
Cover removed from servo:


showing wiring to the motor:


The friction adjustment needed lock nuts, so a threaded shaft was inserted in the splined final gear. The picture shows this drilled and "morticed" to receive the shaft's shoulders:


Shaft inserted:


Cover back on and bits ready for assembly. Slip is provided by the celluloid washer and pressure by the spring (cut from copper out of an electrical contactor).


Assembled:


Finished product:


Back to the deck! Next came making the holes for the boom lines to get below. (These had glass beads glued into recesses on the underside.)

Deciding on the exact positions for the holes was difficult because the ideal siting would mean the lines would foul the shrouds. (See the last bit of my post #160 on 20/3/10.) A much greater difficulty was caused by the chap in the drawing office. He thought it would look good if I created a couple of crew members who appeared to be hauling in/ paying out the boom lines. The thread would pass through the fists into the chest, round a pulley wheel and through the deck via the feet. Mounted on a cranked shaft, the pulley would thus push and pull the arms using thin, flexible "con rods".


It took him several weeks to get this hair-brained idea out of his system. Factors like "How do you find a suitable plasic crew member to disembowel?", "You do realize all this has to fit in a figure about 2" high!" and "How long will this idea take to develop?" entered into the equation.

The saga contiues!

Mike
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farrow

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #180 on: March 29, 2011, 11:34:53 pm »

Many years ago I watched one of the last puffers discharging coal in the western Ilses, she had a single whip wire rigged to the anchor winch going through a single block on the Jib head to the cargo grab. Waqs interesting to watch as the only one person operated the gear and consequently discharged her.
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Corposant

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #181 on: March 30, 2011, 05:05:59 pm »

Hi Old Dodes

You lucky chap! My experience is limited to the VIC32, which has been converted to holiday accommodation, so is not quite the same as a working puffer. Having said that, it makes for a brilliant "holiday"!

Mike
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dodgy geezer

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #182 on: March 30, 2011, 07:44:40 pm »


 A much greater difficulty was caused by the chap in the drawing office. He thought it would look good if I created a couple of crew members who appeared to be hauling in/ paying out the boom lines. The thread would pass through the fists into the chest, round a pulley wheel and through the deck via the feet. Mounted on a cranked shaft, the pulley would thus push and pull the arms using thin, flexible "con rods"...


If I were doing this I would make figures whose arms were springy and centre-biased. I would pass the rope through a very narrow hole in their fists. Then I would tie a succession of small knots in the rope at 2" intervals.

As the rope went through the hole in the fist, it would catch and pull the arm back. Then the knot would squeeze through the hole, and the arm would spring back, ready for the next knot......
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Corposant

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #183 on: March 30, 2011, 10:34:06 pm »

Hi Dodgy

That's a goodly thought! It would need a bit of experimentation - I suspect the knots would cause a problem going through the sheaves on the end of the boom, they're only 2.5mm in diameter. I'll mention it to the chap in the drawing office - but it will have to be kept secret from Mrs Corposant, she'll go potty if I re-visit the idea! She keeps saying "Why don't you just get on with it?"

Mike
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dodgy geezer

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #184 on: March 31, 2011, 12:02:12 am »

I was imagining very thin dacron, where a single loop knot would be pretty indistinguishable from the rest of the line. But I am not sure how thick your rope is. You might be able to thicken the rope at 2" intervals with a spot of glue, or, if it's quite thick, put a little pinhead inside the rope at intervals and have a fragment of niobium magnet in the fists of the figures.

Easier than working the arms with rods.....
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Corposant

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #185 on: March 31, 2011, 12:11:07 pm »

Dodgy

I had ditched the idea of rods in favour of pulling sprung arms with thread but then came the realization that I wouldn't be able to fit a crankshaft with a long enough throw within the chest cavity. Your idea of moving the arms with some form of latching arrangement at intervals along the rope would solve the problem. I think using magnets would be better than snatching knots. I'm using 0.25mm polyester rope from Miskin Models - probably a bit thin for ferrous inserts. Definitely food for thought though!

Mike
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dodgy geezer

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #186 on: March 31, 2011, 02:43:57 pm »

0.25mm IS a bit small, though we are only talking about pushing tips of needles in - 0.5mm would be much better. And even small fragments of neodymium magnets have a fantastic strength...   Dots of glue would work well for any diameter, however....
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Corposant

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #187 on: March 31, 2011, 05:06:11 pm »

Dodgy

We'll just have to see if the chap in the drawing office comes up with something feasible! ...Unless you produce a working prototype!!

Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #188 on: April 03, 2011, 07:56:34 pm »

Back to the build...

At this stage I decided to bite the bullet and change the prop and prop-shaft. This is rather boring (even more than the rest of the build) but is included for the benefit of first timers like me. I had fitted the originals at the start of the build but after only two brief sessions in the domestic test tank, the shaft became "crunchy" to turn. Yes, I had thoroughly greased it but it was a rather loose fit in the tube.

The old tube came out fairly easily by first removing the epoxy from the motor end seated in a bulkhead and as much as possible from the point where it went through the hull and then, after tapping out the aft bush with a rod, using a round file in a hand brace turned anti-clockwise.

The valley in the bulkhead got a bit damaged in the process, so I made it larger and filled the gap with silicone sealant when the new tube was inserted. (Making removeable, non-stick shuttering for this taxed my little grey cells!) I thought the resilient nature of this would be an advantage but now I'm not so sure.

Re-mounting the motor also presented problems. My first installation had been rather crude, so I decided on a bought mounting bracket, seated on a plywood plate glued to the bottom of the hull - but because of the uneven surface, it had to be very thin to get the motor low enough with the result that I ended up using a brass plate with 6BA holes tapped in it.



The siting of this was designed for the use of a universal coupling.


However, I decided to abandon this coupling in favour of silicone rubber tubing and for this I had to make this adapter:


The length of this is such that, if I change my mind again, there will still be space for the previous coupling.



Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #189 on: April 25, 2011, 09:21:40 pm »

The transfer of the servo for lateral boom movement from the mock-up to the hull went smoothly.

The mounting bolts also hold the additional gearing in place so tapped holes were needed. The upper two were simply tapped through the ply bulkhead, hardened with superglue. (Nuts could be added on the other side if necessary.)

An extra piece of ply, backed by a brass plate, was mounted in the gap of the bulkhead for the bottom holes. This was kept as small as possible to allow access through the gap. (Also for wiring.)







The last picture also shows the pulley wheel for maintaining tension on the secondary line attached to the boom. This was mounted on a shaft using a 12 BA stud sleeved with stainless steel. Shirring elastic will be used pending the finding of a sufficiently weak spring. (I would love to try making my own, as per Ian boatmadman's advice [Reply #143 27th Feb. last year] but the management's reaction to using the domestic kiln for this purpose doesn't bear thinking about!)

The pulley wheels used in maintaining tension on the lateral boom lines, caused a few problems.

The mock-up had no hull sides and the pulley wheels had been mounted inside out for ease of access, so mounting them required the making of plates with new shafts which could be glued in place.





Bits of cocktail stick were superglued to the backs and pared down to adjust the angle against the hull. This was necessary to align the larger wheels with the lines coming through the deck and to keep the lines coming off the small wheels clear of the hull sides back to their anchorage points on the rear bulkhead.







The smaller pulley wheels had been secured to the mock-up with PVA but epoxy was used in the hull.



Incidentally, I have been wondering if "pulley wheels" is the correct term. Should they be called sheaves? I have assumed that, to be called a sheave, the wheel needs to be mounted in a block.

Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #190 on: May 08, 2011, 10:19:02 pm »

My current posts for the build are a bit boring as they are simply describing the transfer of bits from A to B. I include them for completeness.

This stage covers the steering gear.

For the mock-up, I had made a frame to mount the steering servo using odd bits of "doll's house ply".



The plan was to make a "proper" one when fitting into the hull but finding suitable ply (without actually resorting to buying it!) proved fruitless. Those pieces thick enough fell apart in water.
So... having removed the tempory frame from the mock-up, it was time for re-assessment. Slightly out of square but, below deck, not going to show! The doll's house ply survived a long soak in water, so decision made! Here it is in the hull (with rear deck also in place).



The siting of the steering chain necessitated a re-arrangement of the apertures in the sides of the deck-house.



The next pictures show the method of mounting the pulley blocks.

View from inside, before fixing:


View from outside, after fixing:


This one shows the other two pulley blocks mounted in the deck (Secured from below by 10BA nuts.)


The need for access to the steering gear governed the decision on how much of the deck-house needed to be removeable.

Sorry! I've just realized I haven't got any pictures of this - so more shortly. Meanwhile here's a video of it working:



Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #191 on: May 09, 2011, 07:47:20 pm »

Here are the deck-house pictures:



The extra arms on the servo will be used for turning the steering wheel (which I shall have to make as the white metal one from the kit is equivalent to about 1.4 metres in diameter!).

The brass strips are designed to grip the removeable section. Being thin they can be bent slightly to allow for wear and thickness of paint/varnish (if I ever get that far!).







The next job will be sorting out the ballast. For the initial floatings a block of Lead weighing 2.5 Kg has been required but I decided to weigh all the bits that weren't present at the time. The white metal bits, funnel, mast and boom weigh 580g and the winch weighs 296g, making a total of 876g! This was a bit disconcerting as a lot of this stuff will be mounted quite high up (needing only about 1.6Kg in the bottom).

I was encouraged on reading the excellent article on ballasting by Richard Simpson in the Model Boat Construction Special supplement. The crew members are particularly heavy, so I will replace those with plastic and I was planning to make the stern grating out of wood anyway. The trouble with making new fittings is the time it takes! I was hoping to mount the radio-control gear quite high up for ease of access but that is something that can be dropped down.

Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #192 on: November 09, 2011, 10:28:34 pm »

I had promised myself that I would not update this build until the main deck was glued in. However...

The decision to add a bilge pump (just in case!) has caused a dilemma (see September's post for that saga!), so I thought I would wait until Warwick before making a final decision.

Thus it came to pass that the steering wheel project was started. The white metal one seems too large, so a wooden one has been attempted:

Four pieces of teak were used for the felloes (eight being deemed too fiddly!) superglued together and stuck to a bit of broom handle with PVA for mounting in the lathe.




A 1/4" oak dowel was made and glued into the centre to form the nave. A central hole was then bored.




Not having a suitable tool to remove the waste material, I used an unsuitable one!




Eight holes were then drilled round the periphery and into the nave. This went very badly! It was not possible to keep the holes aligned going into the oak, the lignified bits being very hard and the vascular bits being soft. (I had used lignified bits from the same piece of old furniture when making the pulley blocks described earlier but the annular rings were not wide enough for the nave.)



A rummage in the box of scrap wood produced another piece with finer annular rings and after turning it down, the holes were drilled directly into this and a section inserted where the failed one had been bored out. This time it was left as a sliding fit and not glued.






Oddly enough, the new piece of oak proved unsatisfactory for the spokes, so strips from the original were cut, sliced and sanded down to 1.5mm. (A bit painstaking!)



After cutting into 17mm lengths, the inner tips were rounded, the holes in the teak made square using a piece of fretsaw blade and the spokes inserted thus:



A lberal coating of cyano was applied and the wheel sliced off in the lathe.




I wondered whether to make a new frame but thought it would be simpler to use the white metal one supplied. By the time I had finished hacking it about and coping with its softness, I realized this was a big mistake! It needed to be de-mountable and had nothing with which to fix it to the deck. The only good thing about this was that, to make a bracket, it forced me to do some milling on the lathe (for the first time - previously I have used the pillar drill!).






Next, the spindle with pulley for turning with thread from the rudder servo:







The wheel needs finishing off and a less fiddly means of attaching the thread to the servo arms but it seems to work!



Mike
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Ferry Across The Mersey

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #193 on: November 10, 2011, 07:42:08 am »

Hi Mike,

Just watched your video clip and it looks fantastic. A work of art. I bet you're pleased with the result so far, from design to seeing it actually work must be really satisfying.

Thanks Antony
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Corposant

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #194 on: November 10, 2011, 09:21:46 am »

Anthony

Many thanks for your comments. Just a bit of delicate carving of the spokes and a brass boss left to do! Mrs Corposant says "But who's going to see it?" I have big problems with the chap in the drawing office - he comes up with these bright ideas, which look simple on paper. I then get the job of trying to make them!

Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #195 on: November 11, 2011, 11:31:08 am »

Mike.

You are doing a grand job of making all the bits and pieces to make the boat fully operational.

May I suggest that on viewing the rudder bar that you make some small changes.
As the arm is quite short the sweep of the arc is to the opposite of that to the chain drive and will give limited rudder movement.
If you lengthen the arm to be in line with the chain coming from the 2- pulley wheels you will come more in line to the arc of the chain drive, it will be even better if you lengthen the arm to go beyond the straight line between the 2- guide pulleys  of the chain drive you will get an even better rudder movement and as you will be putting a grating over the chain drive it will not be noticed as being out of scale.

When I built my Skylight I put a spring on either side of the servo arm, although this was to stop any hitting of the rudder in transport it worked out that it allowed the tension on the chain drive to work better.
Here is a couple of pics of the rudder set up, unfortunately I don't have one of the rudder bar with the grating removed, the wheel house on the pic isn't on straight, I missed that before photographing.
George.
P.S.  I can't find your video pics, can you give me the link.








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Harald

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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #196 on: November 11, 2011, 09:12:25 pm »

Hi Mike,
just saw this thread the first time - unbelievable, what you achieved with the working derrick!
Concerning the rudder, I also added two extra blocks and lengthened the rudderstock on my MFM Highlander.

You can see more in thread 'Mountfleet Highlander' (Sorry don't know how to create a link).

Harald
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #197 on: November 12, 2011, 08:23:03 pm »

George

Thankyou for your words of encouragement!

When I made the brass rudder bar, I copied the white metal jobbie that came with the kit. The chap in the drawing office came up with several ideas for the steering geometry and his underling produced mock-ups. It has to be said that bits of cardboard, cotton and drawing pins always work much better than brass pulleys and chain! The end result was the rudder turning through 90 degs.

So, my reaction to your suggestion? You're absolutely right! It had never occurred to me to deviate from the Caldercraft design but being a "generic" puffer, there is no reason not to - and the wheelhouse is going to be a different shape anyway!

I did try including springs but found they had a tendency to stretch when the rudder was being pulled (rather than taking up the slack in the other half of the circuit). The rather long route over several pulley wheels seemed to be the reason for this - they worked well in the mock-up!

It will be a simple task to make a longer rudder bar, so I will definitely give it a go! Many thanks for your advice.

When you say you can't find the videos, do you mean all of them? All the pictures and videos come from "Photobucket" and the videos should run when the cursor is clicked on the image. I have developed a strong dislike for the website, especially the advertising, and Martin had to sort out a major problem for me some time ago - but it's a bit late to change now!

Sorry about the delay in replying - been to the show at Warwick,

Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #198 on: November 12, 2011, 08:36:16 pm »

Harald

My apologies to you too for the delay in replying - the boat show was well worth the visit!

Many thanks for your kind words. I'm hopeful of making better progress now the weather gives me the excuse not to work outdoors!

Thankyou too for confirming Geoge's advice on the steering geometry.

Yes, I have been following your build with interest!

Mike
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Re: Caldercraft Northlight Puffer with working Derrick Crane
« Reply #199 on: November 22, 2011, 07:53:00 pm »

A mini update: I've finished the steering wheel!

Before:



After:



Simple as that ......... Well, not quite!

I had debated, at an early stage, whether to shape the spokes in the lathe before inserting them but not having a revolving tailstock, I decided this would not be feasible. So, here's a picture of me beavering away with scalpel and needle files!



I didn't want to reduce the spokes too much at their thinnest points, for obvious reasons. The oak seemed reasonably robust - but it's easy to become complacent!



I thought "Oh bother" (or something very similar).

It was obviously not going to be possible to glue them back. I thought about inserting bits of wire but decided it would be easier to make new ones with pegs on them:







I.e. Taken down to 1.5mm, then a 0.75mm peg formed and finally chamfered with a tool having about the right angle.





0.75mm holes were drilled in the broken spokes and the new handles glued in, followed by shaping to match the others:



And finally dabs of stain on the spokes:



Mike
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