Print

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

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Having been doing so much work on my new Models by Design 1/12th scale Shannon Class lifeboat, though I ought give some time to get some more of my Trent Class posted.
Here I have:

• finished the air-conditioning unit on the stern wheelhouse corner in styrene and temporary fixed.
• made the engine room ventilation pod and temp. fitted, using the etched brass kit ventilation grill
• likewise the etched brass ladder from the kit
• then the towing rope port side locker doorway - fixed on with brass 14BA hex headed bolts with a 12BA thread
• using my mini-lathe cut the drum sides in styrene and then the central spindle in aluminium

This all went well and was a rewarding few days work.

Next will come the XP locker door for the front of the unit above this towing rope drum locker.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

The front XP inflatable boat locker door has been made from styrene and the corners and front edges have had a radius put on them.
Now the towing rope drum has been put together, the spindle end holders have been made and fitted, along with a nylon towing rope.
I have marked up the points where the handles should go on the XP locker and the handrail around the towing rope drum locker.
Finally, the axe holder has been fitted using the one from the etched brass kit set, however it was out on a couple of the places to bend. So all I did was bend it where required and just 'floated in' soft solder to the bend joints given and then flattened them back - when painted they will be fine. The axe I got from [Ted] Radstock Models [or was it Model Slipway?] some years ago, but I think others, including Waverley Models still do them.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

A couple of things I forgot to mention regarding the photos above.

• I have also added the various drain holes where required - notice the various different shapes
• I also added a piece of 'L' shaped extruded styrene and permanently fitted against the stern wheelhouse wall, using this and the brass 14BA hex bolts I have used this to locate the port side towing rope and XP locker unit
• Finally, I made from styrene the basic shaped unit for the shore electrical input socket [finer detail to be added later].

That should be correct now,
CC

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Well, just over a year since my last Post here, but this Monday I arranged a visit, through Ian the Coxswain, for Arno Schnell and his family to visit and board the Trent Class at Ramsgate, mainly because their visit to Dungeness did not allow a visit on board the Shannon as she was out on the hard standing all day.
Phil the engineer took us onboard RNLB Forward Birmingham 14-12, here as a Relief lifeboat while 14-02 RNLB Esme Anderson is away at a boatyard in Ireland having a total overhaul and refurbishment. She will be back on station in September / October with the 'new colour scheme', where the main stanchions are anodised aluminium, likewise the hatch cover surrounds and the flying bridge screen supports. All of this in the name of maintenance reductions on the paintwork. There will be a new top step [larger area to stand on - sorry about my feet in the way!!] fitted to the internal ladder down to the Survivors' fore-peak cabin. She will have a re-fit of the electrics and electonics [screens and all!!] possibly in December.
I have included photos of 14-12, the area covered by RNLS Ramsgate - including the Goodwin Sands and Knoll pictured to the North, some of the Schnell family, the lightning conductor [copper] band that goes through the wheelhouse and down to the earthing plates inset on either side of the keel [Phil tells of an occasion when his Trent was hit by lightning and it took out all the electrics and burnt out everything, with screens on fire!!] and the stern facing searchlight mountain positions [this one on the Port side - there is a similar one in position on the Starboard side] which are not on 14-02. There is also a picture I took off the Coxswain's computer screen of 14-02 stripped in the boatyard in Ireland.
I hope these are of help and I will continue with the build update in the next few days.
Canterbury Coxswain

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Just noticed in the last photo above that the windows have been taken off too.
C.C.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

As I said earlier today on my Shannon 'thread' - 'off to lunch and the Belgian GP on TV'. Well, Lewis Hamilton won, great, and just 7 points away from Herr Vettell!!
Continuing my Trent build - the portable water pump cannister, which in real life is water proof [with seals and lock down vent on some versions] and is often conveyed onto other vessels to either pump water to put out fires or in reverse pump out water from an ingress.
I completed it this way:

• used one of the Speedline vac-formed fender pieces [this was not going to be used on the model] to form a cylinder, placing a piece of styrene in the inside of each to join the two pieces and give some strength
• mark and cut off a top ring by judiciously running a very sharp blade around the top until it came off. this would form part of the lid and, therefore, be a perfect fit
• add the circular lid, cut from styrene sheet
• insert a base and then a 'mezzanine' floor for the switch to be attached to - this will cut off the main electrical source [mine needs to be upgraded to the size that will take the high amps.].
• mark the location on the model's deck from the plans
• laminate two pieces of styrene and roughly trim with shears, then......
• ..........machine to size on the lathe. This will form the cannister's boundary on the deck, to stop it moving around.
• dry fit on deck........
• .......and cut into two pieces as per the RNLI plans. Round off ends and edges.
• fix the stainless steel eyelets.
• I then replaced the styrene tube carrying handles that were fixed on the rope with brass ones [there weight allowed the rope to sit more naturally].

I will later add some weld lines, as suggested in a method by DelBoy 1958 [similar in process to one used by 17-09 too on his similar version for his Severn class lifeboat - see my Shannon 'thread' for photos and method].
Kim [C.C.]

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Final ten photos. Off to do more gardening!!
C.C.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

As I am tidying up my workshop and checking what is in some of the boxes under the work benches [!!*?], I thought to give myself a break, I would start Posting a little more of this build - awaiting some miniature taps and dies to use in the manufacture of the VHF aerials on my Shannon Class build.
You will see the need of attention to detail on this small item covered here. This is the handrail that goes around the towing rope reel enclosure on the stern Port side of the wheelhouse exterior. It has three different shaped location flanges - the first has its left side flattened off, the middle one is a complete circle and the third one has a flat edge top and bottom. This is the only Trent that has this configuration of all the ones I have come across. Most have a circular flange for each. I have made these from brass and then used brass washers of the correct size and filed each to its correct shape - the actual shapes can be seen on 14-02 at Reply #47 above. These have then been soft soldered into place, having first tapped a thread onto each end of the rail [and the corner one] for fixing at a later date to the enclosure sides.
C.C.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Got a problem with left leg [calf] at the moment - ongoing for years - thought to be DVT, but this time appears to be soft tissue damage! So doesn't like being used to stand at the moment, neither is it comfortable to sit - c'est la vie. So I thought I would catch up a bit more on the Trent build, to stop me feeling sorry for myself. And yes, the grass keeps growing and needs cutting, but that too is going to have to wait - alongside the Shannon build which, contrary to someone's thoughts, has only been on the go for sixteen months [not two years - give me a break]. As you will see from the following the fun is in the research and making items for yourself - once finished you can only look at it and 'play', end of story!
I decided to have a go at making the water-cooled exhaust outlets at the stern of the Trent from stainless steel rod and put to test my newly found 'skills' with my miniature lathe. The shots will definitely show I have not been an engineer, but I eventually achieved my aim.
The following is explained by the photos in three Posts:

• Having fixed the length of stainless in the headstock I started the machine and faced off the end - THE NOISE!! Then I remembered my engineer tutor's words when he gave me a few lessons on using a lathe - 'if it sounds right and feels right, there's every chance it is right'. So I played with the cutting too'sl amount, angle and the speed. After a while it settled to a nice sound and feel, although very little was being removed on each pass, so I just had to be patient! The first one took 7 hours in all! That's where the time goes. The second one [the next day before I forgot how I had done it] took six hours.
• I bored and then turned the back flange width, then the collar width.
• Then I drilled a hole in the end to enlarge the hole, using the tail-stock chuck, then a boring tool to get the internal section to the correct diameter.
• This done I parted it from the original piece of rod.
• The next photo will show temporarily fitted to the boat with a commercially bought threaded water cooling outlet and nut.
• Satisfied I made the second one.
• Now wanting to put the angle on the end [rightly or wrongly] I drilled and tapped the piece of rod, bolted the 'exhaust' to it and then fixed it in the milling machine and took several passes to get the correct amount removed.
• Again, another fit to see it in position and back to the other one and complete in similar fashion.
• Then came the 'fun' part - hand tapping 12 x 12BA holes into each unit with a carbon steel [brittle!] 12BA tap.
• Prior to that I had used a laser 'spotter' and turntable to get the exact marking for each hole - marking with a permanent marker pen - and followed up by drilling and then using a centre drill to put a small countersink in each.
• Several prayers and cups of teas later it had all worked - both done without breaking one tap!! That's 24 holes [threads]. I have a small box full of these costly little 'blighters' [14BA and 12BA] - broken, but on this occasion they were not added to.

That was it. When I do them for the Shannon I might do them in aluminium - I'll see.
C.C.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Next batch.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Final batch.
Next will come the shafts and shaft tubes and bearings.
C.C.

[BFSMP]

some beautiful lathwork there, especially with aluminium....


superb.


Jim.

[swiftdoc]

The outlets really look the part - absolutely magnificent   It was worth the effort spending so much time on the details. Get well soon!
Arno

[Starspider]

Very nice machining, think I would have taken the easier aluminium route lol
Colin

[derekwarner]

Interesting to hear of what type of coolant used to attain the surface finish CC....and also the Grade of stainless material?

The 316 Grade's can be difficult to attain a good finish ....the 400 Grades to a lesser degree

Many of our mere mortals  , would have machined a very light witness PCD reference for the 12 BA clearance holes......I do not see this, so could you throw a little light  ....on your laser spotter in the mill......and did this replace the need for that PCD witness ring?

With your 12 BA tapping's, did you have a reinforcement plate on the inner hull surface, or just tapping the fibreglass shell?

Derek

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Jim, Arno, Colin and Derek - thanks.
Half the fun is learning new skills [since I took early retirement some twelve years ago] and the lathe and milling machine has provided that - alongside a lot of frustration, due to my complete ignorance on the subject. However, an overview from books and then paying an engineer to give me three two hour sessions on my own lathe in my workshop helped make some proper practical sense, but I can see that an 'apprenticeship' would certainly have knocked in all the lessons I needed [and still need!] to learn.
It does allow me to make some of my own parts, but I seem to forget most of my learning from session to session! But I will persevere.
Derek, I like the questions you ask as I don't usually understand them until I have done some research. But I have now found a great guy at one of my Clubs, Bill, and he has helped and given me the odd end mill and coolant fluid and will be coming over soon to re-adjust both machines for me, to give me back smoothness and accuracy [remove the backlash and 'wobble']. So I now know PCD stands for Pitch Circle Diameter. What I did was buy the laser centre / edge finder from SDA Manufacturing in California, this fits into the chuck, switch on laser and then turning the X & Y cross vice so it is on that PCD trajectory, plot the twelve 'spots' by turning an exact number of degrees on the turntable. These were then lightly marked using a Centre drill end and then finally drilled using the correct width tapping drill. As far as stainless steel grade qualities, I just buy odd end pieces from Acton Bright Steel, Noggin Ends and a chap called Jo at the St. Albans MES Show each year - the latter being the cheapest. I get stainless, ali, brass, phosphur bronze, Delryn, Butylate and Teflon. This all goes into my stock boxes in the workshop, waiting to be used. The one I think I used here has the number 9859 written on the end. The coolant I use is from a spray can and is Templex Blue foam [when I remember - I can hear all the proper engineers wailing], however, Bill has given me a couple of bottles of a brown viscous liquid, which he says is superior. In my small defence, it's normally the small 'ali' jobs that I forget to use it on. Finally, the exhausts are held in place by the central cooling tube that sticks out and ends in the nut that's visible. The other end has a turned series of 45 degree circles to hold the silicone tube on. This will be attached to the water pick-ups on the hull bottom to give the appearance of a water cooled exhaust when under way or maybe aided by a pump when static in the water. However, I can use longer 12BAs and thread them through holes drilled in the transom and through a plate as you suggest at a later time - you will see in one of the photos that I machined them flat to the back of the flange.
I think I have covered most matters, Thanks again to each of you for your comments and interest. Best I get off to bed!!
Arno - I'll reply to your email on 'technical' matters later today.
Kim

[McGherkin]

I would recommend a pump (or two!) for the exhausts. It's often quite hard to see the water flow whilst underway, so to make most use of your handiwork I would pump it :)


A little peristaltic pump like this should work fine for the purpose, hunter systems used to sell a pump like this but seem to have gone out of business now, sadly. It makes a 'throbbing' jet of water similar to that of a watercooled engine.


I plan to pump water and smoke out of my Tamar, althouth I think the mister type unit I purchased will struggle to push mist through such a small hole in conjunction with water - each on their own is doable.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Thanks McGherkin,
I have many such little pumps in my Stores, as I used to run a Model Boat Building Course from my home for the U3A [University of the Third Age] for five years, and it was my wife's idea! Hence a license to spend money - who wants to listen to theory, when they can be given the actual items to look at and handle and even see demonstrated! It's like an Aladdin's Cave out there, especially now that I have stopped [some two years ago] - so the 'shop' comes into its own when friends and colleagues come round and items are needed. I come across boxes of new items [usually x2 in each case as most of my lifeboats are twin shafts] which I have forgotten I bought, but as the lady of the house used to say - 'it's money in the bank'. Long may it continue.
But your input is very helpful, especially as you included a photo. I think I have two of those units...............now which box are they in? Those 'mist' units do work quite effectively - even together - and Lifeboat Paul [as he was once known and no doubt will soon return to!!??**] has had them on his boats, we even came across a box of new units at a Bring & Buysale at the St. Albans MES Show last year - he bought up the lot!!
Kim

[Canterbury Coxswain]

A friend sent these photos to me that he found of RNLB Esme Anderson 14-02 - the lifeboat I am building here. She has been away in Ireland at a boatyard for a full refurbishment. It can be seen here just which items have been changed [anodised or galvanised] to save on maintenance in the future. Much the same as many Severn Class lifeboats have already undergone.
As soon as she is back on station I will aim to complete another 'photo-shoot' to make another Folder for my DVDs, as an update for those wishing to complete this colour scheme.
C.C.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

And the last three shots. Great information.
C.C.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

As promised, the next bit of the build - the shafts and shaft tubes with 'dry' bearings.
Having first worked out the exit angle through the hull I determined the length of shafts I wanted, against where I was going to position the brushless motors. Then I:

• cut the shafts from 5mm stainless steel rod
• used a 5mm die holder in the tailstock of my lathe and hand cut the thread on one end of each shaft
• then cut the shaft tube from brass 'O' section
• and for a different twist [excuse the pun] researched the use of non-ball bearing races and came up with Igus UK who at the time made DRYLIN R replacement sleeve bearings with an aluminium sleeve. They were 5mm ID with 12mm OD and 15mm in length. I purchased three [keeping one as a spare - they were not cheap] and then cut two in half [giving me two for each shaft] and then machined from the cut end down to tight push fit diameter of the tube.
• Prior to this you will have noticed I drilled each tube and soldered a sprung ball oiling tube to each.

The next post will cover the method I employed to fit these to the hull.
C.C.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

So, with the shafts made, next came the process of fixing them into the hull.
This requires get them in line with the keel, whilst at the same time:

• parallel with each other throughout the length
• and at the correct angle, so that they 'drive' the propulsion through the propellers at the most efficient angle.

For this I made two styrene bars that had:

• the distance between the shafts drilled through them to give the correct spacing
• and also two 'turned' [on the lathe - but could have been cut cardboard] circles [discs] that were just over the diameter of the propellers, hence giving the correct distance of clearance in the semi-enclosed tunnels.

Next, I covered the bottom of the hull in this area with masking tape for three reasons:

• it stopped the gel coating being marked with graphite or permanent marker pen
• lines drawn could be more easily seen
• this would also act as an 'anti-slip' surface for the drilling process.

You will see that I:

• indicated the centre of the keel
• marked out the line of the shafts
• had already cut out the oblongs in the hull for the shaft 'A' frames to be fixed [the light areas under the masking tape]
• marked the exit holes for the shafts [ to be made with a small pilot hole first and then 'opened up at an angle to accept the shafts and their mating to the motors via connectors. This final hole needs to be as snug as possible.
• marked the rudder post positions - here inboard of the shaft lines [in some instances these could be outboard] - this is so that should the shafts need to be removed the rudders do not have to be taken out first, but just have them slide past whilst fitted. As on the real boat, likewise on the model. This is not often carried through onto models, I have noticed over the years.

A few other matters might be noticed from the photos:

• I used BluTac to hold the shafts in placed around the exit holes whilst adjusting and setting up
• also there is the start of the oblong boxes I have fitted around the exits on the inside - I tent to use a double belt and braces approach to these shaft joints areas, in case they get knocked, spot 'tack' into position with CNA [Super] glue, then use a 24hour epoxy glue and finish off with a box surround filled with P38 car filler. [So far I cannot find my photos of the finished job].
• the method of fitting the bilge keels is the same as that on my Shannon class build 'thread'. The brass load spacing bars can be seen on the internal shots.
• you might notice on the outside shots of the bilge keel a strip of square section bass wood inserted between the top of each keel and the hull. This is because they were supplied 5mm too short and 10mm lacking in their height. When these are finally fixed [glued] in place and the 'nyloc' have been tightened, I will then profile the bilge keels and the wood into the hull joins.

Next will come the making of the brass shaft 'A' frames - made on the lathe and milling machine.
C.C.

[Canterbury Coxswain]

Final photos.
C.C.

[Delboy1958]

Hi Kim
Good progress on the Trent and its not grey 
I am sure the cabin has an orange colour and the hull is still blue

Way to go

Regards
Derek
 

[derekwarner]

CC.......do my eyes deceive me? 

Image CIMG6667 = twin in-by fwd rotating propellers
Image CIMG6663 = twin out-by fwd rotating propellers

Derek