Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[kiwimodeller]

Regarding the Polly steam regulator I have used one on my single cylinder Graham engine (VR1A) for about three years and have not had the slightest problem. I also sold one to a customer with a TVR1A and he just replied to my email question to say he is having no problems with that one either. Price is reasonable (about GPB19 from memory) but they do seem to run out of stock at regular intervals. Hope this helps, Ian.

[KNO3]

Thanks.

[SailorGreg]

Latest instalment - I have completed and installed the insulated pipework along with any remaining bits and pieces on the steam plant, and it is now ready to go into the boat, once I have run it all a couple of times to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.  I rather wish I had had Derek's bright idea about using nylon washers at each end of the insulation to give a guide to thickness (http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,43627.0.html), but I didn't so it's a little bit random in places.



I have also finished the varnishing of the decks.  My mend of the failed joint in the foredeck seems to have worked fine, although there are signs of similar failures in a couple of other joints.  I am not going to do anything about those now, but will see how they look when I start sailing the boat for real.  If they fail completely then I will have to re-do the foredeck, but at least by then I will have had a few steaming sessions under my belt.



As you can see, I have also got some paint on the hull.  I used Halfords cans throughout, and started with their filler primer for plastic.  When that ran out (those cans don't contain much paint do they?) I put a few coats of grey primer on top, then the top coat (2 cans used! ).  I haven't done the underwater parts yet, so they are still grey primer.  That will be completed in the next few days, weather permitting (I do my spraying outside).  So this is what she looks like at the moment.  (Reminder to self - got to christen her sometime soon!  )



That's it for the moment.  I am off sailing (full size) next week, so the next update will be a little while coming.  Enjoy the summer everyone - I hope your local lake is in better shape than my home waters - unuseable due to low water level and rampant weed!  It had better be deep and clean by the time I put my final post here!   

Greg

[Jerry C]

It looks ok to me.
Jerry.

[SailorGreg]

Thanks Jerry - not sure if you mean the pipe insulation or the foredeck - they both look fine in the photos but on closer inspection could do with some improvement.  But then I guess that's true of all our models - they are never perfect, are they?     I'll do better next time!

Greg

[pettyofficernick]

Looking good Greg, Will we see a video of it on the water?

[Jerry C]

Those are the bits only you can see. The camera never seems to flatter perfectionists.
Jerry.

[pettyofficernick]

Those are the bits only you can see. The camera never seems to flatter perfectionists.
Jerry.

I agree.....

[derekwarner]

When are you going to re-paint the top of the de-oiler?...........looks like one of the crew set fire to it....
That tube lagging looks pretty uniform & smooth from 22,000 km away .......Derek

[SailorGreg]

Yes Derek, the crew has been reprimanded for their careless work, endangering the ship and embarrassing the skipper 

Actually, there is quite a bit of paint touching up to be done as my careless handling (and poor quality painting) means I have a fair number of chips and rubbed corners where bare metal is showing through.  At the moment I am focussing on getting the whole thing afloat and running, so the rather tatty appearance of the engine will have to stay for a while.

Video Nick?  Never done that before, so I guess I'll have to experiment with Youtube to see how that is done.  Not sure how you video and control a boat at the same time - my second pair of hands seems to be absent at the moment!   

Greg

[pettyofficernick]

Take an assistant to do the filming. I would not worry about the tatty apearence of your de oiler, I personally prefer the 'lived in' look rather than having a pristine boat, I have been running my Victoria now for a good 18 months now and have only cleaned the engine bay out once......

[steam up]

I clean my engine bay after every trip out I enjoy the routine

[Bernhard]

Great looking Launch......

[SailorGreg]

Thanks for the  Bernhard, although I've a long way to go to reach your level of skill!

Time slips by, but I haven't been entirely idle.  In fact, I have now reached a major milestone.  She's finished!   

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.  I really wanted a red ensign at the stern so I made up an ensign staff.  The socket is just a brass washer soldered at an angle around some brass tube, the staff itself is a piece of walnut dowel from heaven knows where, and I made a button for the top by spinning a scrap of sapele on a small bolt in the drill and sanding it round.  The ensign itself is silk and came from The Model Dockyard (http://www.model-dockyard.com).





After that little diversion I completed the painting of the hull (2 more cans of Halford's finest), left the paint to dry for a few days then cut it back and polished it.



And that was the hull pretty much done.  I then set about installing the steam plant, getting the servo connections the right length and making sure connections were tight and everything was working smoothly.  Here's the finished article.  I still haven't settled on a name.







And what's more, she floats! 



She sits marginally lower than her painted waterline with an empty boiler and water tank.  However, she has plenty of freeboard, and is plenty stable (at least as far as I can tell with the waves I can generate in the bath!).  I am very happy with her.  I have run the whole thing on air today (and found a leak  ).  Tomorrow I plan to raise steam, get out the video camera (I have cracked Youtube  !) and spend some time standing there and enjoying.  Well, that's the plan, but this is a steam engine and who knows what will happen?

The end is in sight, and the getting there has been enormous fun.  A year ago I had just ordered the TVR1A kit with precious little knowledge and zero experience of running a model steam plant.  Since then I have built and run the steam plant (not without a few hiccups along the way), built the boat and met a lot of great folk on this site - thank you all!  I now have a lot more knowledge (courtesy of you lot) and a tiny bit more experience.

I hope tomorrow will bring news of running under steam and a video.  After that it will be a case of finding some local water that isn't clogged with weed.  I live very close to the sea and there are sheltered areas locally that I could use, so that might be the way to go.

Anyway, until tomorrow 

Happy Greg

[Jerry C]

Superb paint job! Get some fenders sharpish.
Jerry.

[rmaddock]

Very nice.  I have to say I love the cream hull; very elegant 

[SailorGreg]

Thanks for the compliments guys.  Fenders Jerry?  I'm relying on everybody and everything to get out of my way     (Actually, I admit to being a bit funny about fenders - on full size boats there is nothing less attractive than a boat sailing along dragging its fenders in the water.  I have a similar view about models, and in particular about those string vest affairs that some people seem to favour.  Yuk!)

Well, Murphy stayed well away today, just to prove that sometimes things really do go to plan.  I had two sessions running the whole shooting match.  For the first time the boiler was topped up from the water tank and the propeller turned under steam power, and the engine ran fine, slow and fast, forward and reverse.  In fact, nothing went wrong  and 





The first session lasted about 25 minutes, the second, with more water in the top-up tank, 35 minutes.  The only issue is that my de-oiler fills up after about 20-25 minutes, so for anything longer than that I will have to bring the boat alongside and drain that off.  Not too difficult - I have a nice long tube on the drain I can hang over the side of the boat into a container. 

I took some videos which are now on Youtube (well, those worth watching are).  The first is the very first running of the engine in the boat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DJ3mLKaAZ8 and the second is a little longer and shows the controls in operation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTE1BzM1T04.  (I hope these play a little more smoothly for you than they do for me.)

I also did a flotation test with a full load of everything.  No problems there.  The whole package weighs 19.5 lbs with full tanks (although this was on the bathroom scales which, according to my dear wife, don't tell the truth  ).  I have also begun adapting an old golf trolley from the local tip to move the boat around -



I will build a cradle onto the spine of the trolley and add a higher handle at the front so I can wheel it around keeping the boat level.  The front support is just a piece of water pipe epoxied into one of the holes where the golfer keeps his balls  , with a Disaronno bottle cap stuck on the bottom (no, I do not drink the stuff!).

So apart from the small matter of actually going sailing, that would appear to be it.  I'll post again when I finally launch the [insert boat's name here] and give her a taste of her natural element.  In the meantime, good sailing to all and here's hoping for an Indian summer  .

Greg

[steam up]

Looking really good my compliments One question is that the only coupling connecting to the prop shaft?
If the answer is yes I think you will find that this set up demands a great deal more from the engine.Just a thought.

[Jerry C]

I understand about the fenders and any Irish pennants for that matter. However needs must. Where I sail frequently have to lie alongside some concrete before I can get bent down to lift her out. When you say the oiler fills up in 30 minutes do you mean all the oil is gone and only water remains? If so that's far to high a consumption. I've run mine continuously on a canal for 3 1/2 hours and not emptied mine. I have the needle open 1/4 turn. Nearly finished my second season. Had a look at the bores and don't even seem fully run in yet, ditto cross head guides. Still showing machining marks. Only place I have wear is the sliders and what they slide in on the reversing gear but she still seems to run better than ever.  Looks terrific anyway. Proper job.
Jerry.

[pettyofficernick]

Excellent job! are you talking about the condenser /oil separator tank or the lubricator, as Jerry says, the lubricator should last for ages on one filling, nice work and hope to see on the water video soon.....

[Jerry C]

Doh! Sorry mate, missed the de- and read oiler. Disregard my comment.
Jerry.

[derekwarner]

Yes well done Greg  ........possibly the issue with the de-oiler is that 1/12 scale crew haven't fixed the damage from the flame job.... .
Must agree with Jerry & Nick.......30 minutes to fill the de-oiler does imply a great volume of condensate  & from the video you are running @ just over 40 PSI
Looking forward to seeing her on the water  ..............
Just digressing on "wear".........in our OZ steel industry we had great debate of what constituted wear in hydraulic cylinders as a Mechatronics engineering cadet has chosen that same subject for his thesis.....cut a long story short.....we finally agreed that visual polishing of a piston rod or a chromed bore was just that ...a visual......& did not constitute the term of "wear"
From this I am guessing that Jerry is talking of polishing of his engine sliding components which is a natural phenomena with mating mechanical components even when adequately lubricated.......Derek
Derek

[Jerry C]

Derek, I had a senior moment and didn't read his post properly and so thought he was consuming too much oil.
On the subject of "wear", I agree about polishing but my hacker gear slides are getting a bit floppy now and I've changed one slider but it only tightened it up a tad. When at Coniston Regatta I saw a full size engine with a similar part that really flopped around. The owner wasn't concerned in the slightest which made me feel a bit better.
Jerry.

[SailorGreg]

Senior moment Jerry?  Had a few of those myself!     Yes, it was the condenser/oil trap/thingy I was talking about, not the lubricator (which is doing the business just fine).  I guess a boiler full of water plus the water from the tank is a bit much to ask of the size of thingy I have, but as I said a quick drain after 20 mins is no problem, and gives me a chance to check everything else is OK.  I am probably running the whole thing a bit flat out and could probably wind back the gas a little without affecting performance too much (I get to 40 psi in about 7-8 minutes from lighting), but that fine tuning will have to wait until I am getting her wet.

Steam up - yes, that is the only connection between engine and prop shaft.  I did contemplate doing a "pin and wheel" connection as others have used but thought I would try this first.  There is no room in my setup for anything longer than that connector I have or a pin and wheel.  I assume you expect a lot of friction for the engine to overcome, but it doesn't seem to be too bad (I say that based on zero experience of course, never having had a model boat before).  The engine runs smoothly, although it is true that at very low revs it tends to stall.  As with the gas supply and other subtle adjustments, I will have to see how things go when I have run the boat a few times to see if I think it is all working OK.  For now, I am happy that it has all come together and I can plan a few outings.

And I hope I'm a good way from needing to worry about wear on my engine.  It's barely run in!

Happy sailing

Greg

[KNO3]

Congratulations, it looks very nice. Have you thought about adding a steering wheel or a tiller for the rudder?