Here is a list of all the postings Tim Rowe has made in our forums. Click on a thread name to jump to the thread.
Thread: Galileo - A resurrection |
01/06/2020 07:48:07 |
Hi Chris Much of my traditional work has dried up but I am running a refit on a 1948 Owens 40. A wooden yacht built in Baltimore. That will finish mid July. Tim R |
01/06/2020 07:21:00 |
Hi Ray Thanks for the comments but didn't quite understand your launching procedure. The tang of the keel goes up into a matching tapered slot in a fibre / epoxy box. The top of the tang is drilled and tapped M4 and one of those screws goes through a carbon fibre plate at the top of the keel box and pulls the taper up tight. The taper is a non-locking taper unlike Morse. More like an ISO taper that I copied to make sure the keel would not jam in place. All the screw has to do is hold the weight of the keel in pure tension. M2 would have done it but the thread would be a bit flimsy in the alloy. Here is the hole for the retaining screw on the carbon plate on the centreline. |
31/05/2020 22:21:06 |
If you remember my keel. it is quite heavy, strong enough but strangely fragile and liable to surface damage from knocks and scratches.
Pre-painted and nearly finished with the felt bed. Felt complete and the sides and base made up. The sides are two pieces of 3mm MDF stuck together with one 3.5mm wider than the other. This make the slot for the slide in cover. The catch is a chromed fitting costing a few cents from a Craft shop. This built-up MDF block locates the alloy tang of the with matching tapers. Clamp now fitted to the retainer and the keel cannot go anywhere. The two cross points are M4 machine screws to hold the keel in the boat. One to use and the other in case I lose! The screws are fitted into blind nuts. The sliding door nearly shut showing the two parts of the clip. And here is where the keel has been hiding since Novemberish last year. Must have a look. Tim R
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Thread: Fairey Huntsman 28 |
31/05/2020 19:58:33 |
Another option to think about some time is to use a bell crank. This converts the motion by 90 degrees and using a pushrod between the servo and the bell crank you can have a much greater choice of where you locate the servo. Tim R |
Thread: TYNE Class Lifeboat build |
31/05/2020 07:02:37 |
Interesting trim tab Neil. Looking forward to seeing how it operates. Tim R |
Thread: Galileo - A resurrection |
30/05/2020 22:32:46 |
Thanks Ray and Chris Just to prove there really is one. Here are the topside in primer with everything else masked off. I use a Spanish brand high build spray primer. It goes on beautifully and dries quickly so it can be sanded the same day. It doesn't like overcoating too soon or it can blister as I found some time ago on another model. Getting on with something else or being very patient is the by-word. Now I know how it behaves I use a lot. And now with the third coat of top colour. Burgundy was the unusual colour of big Galileo and the defunct model. I did wonder about other colours but I have other model to try some favourite colours on. Eddie was asking what paint. It is a Spanish brand again Titanlux and the colour is Burdeos 524. It was an end of line offer and I only have a small 125ml tin. I am not convinced of the shade as I think it is coming out a bit to "cherry". To get a good final finish I would have to thin it a bit but I think I may call a halt at the 3 coats and just call it an undercoat. I think the real colour should be RAL 3005 and I think I will get a lager tin blended. First choice is brush finish. The varnished deck is with brush and no post-finishing. I get involved quite a lot with painting of large yacht hulls and spars. These get tented up with extractors and often we use a special plastic film to make a tent within a tent. The film has a side that has to face the work and has a static charge that attracts dust particles and to a lesser extent overspray when you get going. Even using airless spray only about 40% of the paint you buy actually gets to stay on the job. Some kind person is going to give me a couple of metres. I have a love / hate relationship with painting. Tim R
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Thread: Huntsman 31 |
30/05/2020 20:17:15 |
Great stuff Eddie That deck going to look the business. Work is seriously getting in the way of modelling but I did get another coat of paint on Galileo and some marking out for some more wood removal on the Huntsman. If I am feeling brave enough I might stick the forward bulkhead in place. Cracking pace. Tim R |
Thread: Galileo - A resurrection |
29/05/2020 20:06:39 |
Goodness Gracious Me Last post in October last year. At this rate Galileo will be old again before it is new! Time to bump the thread so I can find it again. I did a bit more research on sail making and getting down to scraping performance out of sails (ie the engine) the shape in the mainsail will be slightly different to that in the jib. Going a step further the shape of a sail or the camber can vary from top to bottom of the sail so ultimately the combinations are infinite and why sailmaking has an art as well as science. With this in mind I have made two more blocks, one with the maximum camber at 40% of the chord and another at 33% to bring the draft well forward. The block I have will make fairly full sails so I probably need another set of three at a shallower angle. Apparently making good flat sails it harder than full ones. I have yet to find out why. Galileo is in paint and in the gap I have been working on the rigs and a carry case for the keel. Instead of watching the paint drying I will catch up on the spars, rigging and the case. I am dying to get the boat on the water and it is absolutely going to get there before the Huntsman 31 and the flying boat. Tim R Edited By Tim Rowe on 29/05/2020 20:07:39 |
Thread: Fairey 23 River Cruiser |
29/05/2020 19:43:42 |
Just a wee small point Chris. Probably not that important in this boat where the rudder is likely to be quite lightly loaded but servos are more stable in their mountings if the long axis of the servos is at right angles to the tiller arm. In your case and particularly with these small units, the single screw at each end on a rubber grommet, the servo can rock. Nice photos and interesting commentary to complement your models. Tim R Edited By Tim Rowe on 29/05/2020 19:44:56 |
Thread: Fairey Huntsman 28 |
29/05/2020 18:40:38 |
NIce work Chris Are you secretly building under a sun ray lamp. Just for your info I am hand painting Galileo and the topsides not have their first two top coats. Quite a few more to go. Tim R |
Thread: Thames Sailing Barge Stuff |
29/05/2020 07:20:16 |
Hi Ray I wold say it is a barge with considerable attitude. Tim R |
Thread: Huntsman 31 |
26/05/2020 22:12:20 |
That was a very good plan for the rubbing strip Eddie. I am impressed (and slightly envious) of your progress. It's all looking very good indeed. Not sure how I am going to tackle my deck as the panel supplied in my older kit is just plain plywood. Looks like I may have to invest in a decent pen! And borrow some of Job's patience. Tim R |
Thread: Hunstman 31 by Tim Rowe |
25/05/2020 07:49:17 |
Thanks Chris I will do some research. I think I have to use something better than I have got Tim R |
24/05/2020 20:22:34 |
Some more layout work before sticking anything together. Actually the two halves of the keel have been stuck together and apart from the cockpit that's about it. Here's the shadow engine on the bearers. The bearers have been spaced quite a bit wider than the actual engine mounts and the idea is that the engine sits on two aluminium plates to make up the difference. The fixings to the bearers will always have the same pitch but if I ever want to change the engine, all I have to do is make another set of adaptor plates. The plates are 3mm thick and I have allowed that thickness when setting out the height of the bearers. The bearers are beech and as hard as nails. They had grooves in them because they are for aircraft undercarriage piano wires but they have been repurposed by filling the groove with some hard white wood hence the two-tone effect. Here is the silencer and the silicone tube exhaust tail. The silencer arrived in a lucky-dip job lot I bought some time ago. It is aluminium. I have no idea how it will affect the performance of the engine but that's for later. Same job lot and I have a rather nice exhaust riser. I have to adjust the pitch of the holes on the riser to suit the engine or I may make an adaptor. The flange on the silencer will be cut off and the two parts joined with silicone tube. I am going to bright polish the exhaust parts to add a bit of bling. There were bright shiny parts on the Ford Mermaid and Sabre engines that went into a lot of the Faireys. The rudder is as far aft as I can get it. It overhangs the lower part of the transom but is inside the top line of the transom due to it being raked. This has allowed me to get the engine further aft and to tweak the shaft angle. I like to try to arrange things to have dual purpose and in this case the bulkhead avoids me having to make a separate cradle and keeps everything nice and simple inside. I'll have to do some more building now as this is about where I am. Tim R
Edited By Tim Rowe on 24/05/2020 20:26:19 |
Thread: Fairey 23 River Cruiser |
24/05/2020 18:44:36 |
Two lovely boats Chris and an exiting moment. Tim R |
Thread: Hunstman 31 by Tim Rowe |
24/05/2020 18:04:31 |
Chris You know you are always most welcome in my threads and congratulations. Tim R |
24/05/2020 13:40:36 |
Hi Ray That's what I am doing. There will be a belt permanently tucked under the flywheel so that I can pick it up with an electric starter. I have a few of those at various sizes. This is not a big engine either. Tim R |
24/05/2020 10:59:50 |
Thanks Chris and Eddie. That's the key to the whole concept. Individually the parts are weak and floppy but when assembled they are support each other. The tricky thing sometimes is the bit in the middle and why I am so keen on jigging. I have done the same thing on the keel of the Sealane. Galileo has no internal keel or chine stringers although those joints were reinforced with glass and epoxy. Initially it had no internal structure until I added it but only where I reckoned it was necessary. Bet your boats will last longer than mine in the long run Chris Tim R |
23/05/2020 21:45:33 |
When I wear out my little drill chain drilling it may be wise to invest in a scroll saw - maybe Continuing now with the bulkheads and making a lot of sawdust. On the plus side I am collecting some nice little bits of Lite ply for use elsewhere.
This is the engine space aft bulkhead. Here I need the clearance for the flywheel and starting cord. I am cutting things as fine as I can here. There is not much wood above the keel but it will be fine when all glued up. Just hoping not to break it by being clumsy. The notches support the aft end of the engine bearers. This bulkhead supports the aft end of the fuel tank. When I have done a trial fit of all the equipment there will have to be a hole on the port side to take the exhaust hose. It is a lot of fun planning where the bits will go and balancing up the weight distribution as far as possible. Easier now and I can be more predictive thanks to DM and the drawings. Tim R
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Thread: SIG Sealane |
23/05/2020 21:18:48 |
The laser cut fuselage parts assemble with tabs and slots which is helpful as they were quite accurate. It goes with saying that both pieces of ply for the main body were curved the same way so I could not "hand" them to cancel out the bend. Even with the tabs it would be very easy to build in a bend and a twist. Nobody would want that in a boat - unless of course they were building a Gondola - but in something that hopefully is going to fly, it is very bad news as it affects the incidences and could induce some very unpleasant characteristics. Actually the instructions are quite and stress the importance of accurate alignment. Here is the first former going in. The big round weight is holding the fuselage locally flat and two engineer's squares are holding the former vertical. I needed two because guess what - the former was twisted. The miniature anvil is simply pushing against one square to keep it in place. Incidentally I am using aliphatic glue which I decant into one of those individual portion jam pots and brush it on the joint using a small brush that lives in a jar of water which gets changed every week or so. The aliphatic I use is not water proof and is at best water resistant when fully cured. I like it though because it grabs very quickly and it is light. Most of the weight is water and evaporates away. It is unlikely that this model will spend huge amounts of time on the water but nonetheless I am brushing the glue on both side of all joints as this will provide some semblance of sealing as I go along. I don't bother doing this on normal aircraft. We are now on the SLEC fuselage jig. It's one of those things that make you wonder how you managed before getting it. You have to buy a board to put the vinyl sticker on and I bought maybe three times as many blind nuts and screws as supplied to increase the number of jig position options. Since I bought it I don't think there is a single model that hasn't been on it. In this photo you can see the step and the bow is off to the left. This forward section is the one that will get most of the pounding taking off and landing. I wasn't keen on gluing the bottom sheeting to the edge of the ply alone. It would be a bit like building a chine but omitting the chine stringer. On the fore side of the step I have glued a balsa doubler and later I did the same all around the front end. I now have a decent gluing area with a ting fraction of weigh gain. Here is the aft end showing the keel in place. On the water at rest all this has to do is keep the thing afloat and hold the tail in the right place. Very quickly the hull will be riding on the step and this bit will just be receiving spray. I have glued the bottom skins to the ply edges with the doubler following the instructions this time and to keep to the them of keeping the aft end as light as possible. Near the bow you can see the doublers down each side. I did not try to bend these from stock but cut the curve out of sheet. Medium soft balsa, light and very easy to sand. Tim R
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