Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines
Builds, Repairs, Show Your Machines! => Boats, Pond Yachts => Topic started by: Tony Bird on November 15, 2023, 03:06:08 am
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Hi,
This really is the last post on this subject for some time.
The end of the boiler casing was rusty and rather fragile; to compensate for this a wider steel strap than Stuart Turner used was fitted. First after dealing with the rust, inside the casing a brass strip was bedded into some Araldite and clamped in place. While the Araldite set, the strap that the boiler sits on was cut, bent to shape, drilled and when the adhesive cured riveted to the boiler.
The boiler was fitted into the hull and an air-line was connected to it to do an engine test. A bit of a video is at:
https://youtu.be/ur4u981HgeQ
Other than painting the hull the only other jobs to do are making some unions for the steam and exhaust pipes, but as I am out of suitable copper pipe, this might wait until the re-assembly after the painting is done. Also, finding a suitable replacement for the asbestos blanket insulation that was glued to the hull’s side to protect them from the heat of the boiler needs to be done.
It has been an interesting build; as always if certain things were done again they would be done slightly differently; the funnel is a bit high, I think it is close to the correct size, the joggle in the boiler strap could be larger so lowering the boiler and possibly the front deck might be higher, which if thinner aluminium becomes available might be done.
Anyway with luck and a following wind sometime next year I might be boring you with the finished product and finding out if it sinks or swims. It would be nice to run it under steam in my test tank but the oil and water thrown about by the engine would be difficult to remove for painting.
Have a Great Christmas and a Healthy New Year.
Take care Tony.
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It sure has turned into a proper little boat Tony, work well done !
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Hi,
I tell fibs this won’t be the last post I had forgot that the fore deck to allow for fitting had been made too long and needed to be cut back. Also the temporary 8BA nut and bolt drive pin on the coupling needed to be replaced before attempting to fit the boiler.
Take care Tony.
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Sure looks like you have a boat there now Tony!
Can't wait until the Spring boating season opens up for a launching a some trials.
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Hi,
With the Henley’s fore deck made, there was the first attempt at fitting out the hull with the other parts of the model. The only major part needing further work is a means of securing the boiler into the hull. This done the model will be left until the warmer weather arrives in a few months so that it can be rubbed down and painted. With this achieved the hull can be fitted out again and hopefully a test in some water will take place. So, to the great relief of all, the next post on fitting the boiler will be the last one about the Henley for some time.
A video of checking out the engine propeller shaft connection can be seen at:
https://youtu.be/wcxTordBraY?si=mepPgwsI_nzw9VTM
Take care Tony.
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Hi,
For a bit of a change yesterday’s project was to make the aluminium fore deck for the Henley. The thinnest aluminium in stock was used, which is thicker than the original would have been, if some thinner stock becomes available another deck will be made.
A cardboard template of the Henley’s bow was made, some sums were done to calculate how much larger the base of the template would need to be to raise the deck in a curve. A cardboard copy of the template with a larger base was made. A section was cut from a sheet of aluminium and a set of rolls was used to create a tapered incomplete tube.
The larger of the templates was held around the aluminium tube with clear tape. A set of metal shears was used to cut the aluminium to the shape of the template. With a certain amount of persuasion with a file and leather mallet the aluminium deck was fitted to the hull.
There was evidence on either side of the hull for supports for the deck and a couple of screws were used for this. The aluminium deck had cut-outs made to locate on these screws. Whether the deck was supported in this way isn’t known.
Take care Tony.
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Hi,
With the boiler test complete the safety valve was taken apart and clean and the stainless steel ball had its mineral deposits removed. With this done the boiler was put back in its casing, filled with water, and connected to the engine for the first steam test of boiler and engine for many years. A shot video is at:
https://youtu.be/IhhmAmt1DR4
Take care Tony.
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Thank you for the detailed reply Tony ....... "Right as Rain" in your usual fashion, which is why I enjoy, while often also learning, by watching your threads!
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Hi Daniel,
"I do realize that hard solder makes a much stronger and higher temperature joint, but at that nipple's location, away from any flame and only likely to experience steam temperature, I would think that a soft solder joint would work just fine. Am I missing something, or are you simply being certain that everything is done as right as rain?"
A soft soldered nipple would be more than adequate and possibly originally used by Stuart Turner. It would have been left had the solder not boiled during the annealing process. The nipple was hard soldered as it is my default when soldering all boiler fittings, possibly because in the days of gainful employment I rarely used anything else.
Have a great Christmas and a Healthy New Year.
Take care Tony.
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Fully awesome work as usual Tony.
I do realize that hard solder makes a much stronger and higher temperature joint, but at that nipple's location, away from any flame and only likely to experience steam temperature, I would think that a soft solder joint would work just fine. Am I missing something, or are you simply being certain that everything is done as right as rain?
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Hi,
Before taking the boiler apart to work on it; the burner was refurbished and tried out. A bit of a video at:
https://youtu.be/h25qej22QN0
The boiler was removed from its casing and the water tubes and steam pipe were annealed and tided up. The boiler then spent overnight in a citric acid pickle bath to clean it. After the annealing and cleaning it was found that the nipple on the end of the steam pipe had been soft soldered on, so it was removed and a new nipple was made which was hard soldered in place. As work had been done on the boiler and given its age and a bit battered condition it was decided to do a boiler test. Stuart Turner advertisements stated that the boiler had a working pressure of 30psi, so the test pressure was times 2, which set a pressure at 60psi, well just a tad more which then had to be held for 10 minutes. There were no problems and the boiler was left under pressure to see how much it had dropped by the next day.
Take care Tony.
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Hi,
A bit of luck, I am now the proud owner of Stuart Turner boiler. A swap was done with the owner of the boiler that was left with me to copy. This is good as now the Henley will have all Stuart Turner products even though they didn’t start life as a unit. It is the correct boiler for the engine but it does not have the fittings to hold it in the Henley hull, which is no big problem.
But before starting work on the boiler, a bit of a disaster on the coupling front, when the engine was run on air the coupling wobbled a lot, far too much to work well. The engine had been overhauled years ago and never used, what had been forgotten was that the threaded end of the crankshaft had a sleeve screwed onto it. This sleeve though reasonably concentric for use with a usual type of coupling, having a 38 mm diameter disc on it accentuated its errors. So, it was plan ‘B’, the hole in the coupling was plugged and drilled for 7 BA. Everything went well and running the engine on air little or no wobble of the coupling disc was visible. A short video can be seen at: https://youtu.be/s4jkU8Avkck
The boiler was missing its funnel so some sums were done to see what size copper tube would be needed to make one. Having decided on the size tube that was needed, a length was cut, this length being decided by using the proportions of a Stuart Turner advertisement for their boiler. The tube had its ends machined square. The tube was then annealed and squeezed in a vice roughly to shape before being finished using a round and square wooden formers and a leather mallet. The result was quite pleasing and hopefully the photographs show how it was achieved.
Take care Tony.
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Hi,
The outside of the hull has been sealed, filled and has now had four hand painted undercoats that were rubbed down after each coat and it is looking reasonably good. It still needs probably more coats of paint and rubbing down with some fine wet and dry paper. Alas now in early December in Old South Wales it is cold and damp, not good for spraying the final top coats. So the hull has been hand painted with a white top coat until the spring when I can sit in the garden with a bowl of warm slightly soapy water, wet and dry paper, and the hull. Also hopefully the temperature will be more contusive to spray painting in the garage.
Back to a wet December; coupling the engine to the propeller shaft, a helical spring seems to be the usual coupling, but photographs of other types of probably replacement couplings have been seen. As the propeller shaft came with half of one of these other types of coupling it was decided to make the other half of it.
The couple made consists of a 36 mm disc of 2 mm brass sheet hard soldered onto a 10 mm diameter boss that fits on the engine’s crankshaft. The hole for the drive pin was marked out from the original part of the coupling using a jig. Hopefully the photographs will show how the coupling was made. The coupling cannot be completed until the new paint on the hull is hard enough to handle probably about a week. After which we will find out if the measurements taken before painting were correct. Until then something else will have to be found to play with.
Take care Tony.
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Wow...!!!
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Hi,
The next job was to make a mount for the engine. It is the first totally new part to be made for the model; previously it has been just refurbishing existing parts. When scratch building a copy of a Bowman Swallow knowing what a part looked like was relatively easy as they only supplied ready to run and other than minor modifications made by Bowman they all started off the same. Also there are relatively plenty of the models still around to copy.
The Stuart Turner Henley is totally different, it was available ready to run, but each individual component was available separately; the hull painted or not, the boiler and boiler fittings, the propeller shaft and propeller, rudder shaft and rudder and the engine was available ready to run or as a casting kit. So this begs the question when is a Henley a Henley? The factory made one, yes; but if home built; do all Stuart components need to be used? Another problem is that there doesn’t seem to be many Henley’s about to look at; at least I haven’t found one yet.
Back to the build, photographs show that usually the engine propeller shaft coupling is a coiled spring and the engine sits on what looks like an aluminium plate held by screws to the hulls longitudinal battens. Also photographs and drawing show that the engine is at an angle so that it is in line with the propeller shaft; though some photographs show quite a curve in the coil spring taking out the misalignment.
Hopefully the photographs will show how the first attempt at mounting the engine was archived. It might not be how Stuart Turner envisaged it; but it will work. If further information comes to light the engine mount might get changed.
Take care Tony.
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smashing progress so far Tony.
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Those Stuart ST engines are great little runners!
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Hi,
The hull has had two coats of undercoat applied; it will need at least several more before a top coat can be considered. The hull however is pretty smooth and as the next major job is to mount the engine in the hull it was decided to fit the propeller and rudder tubes in place. An old ST oscillating engine restored many years ago and not used had it's colour changed from red to Brunswick green which is sort of a Stuart Turner green? Whether the engines were painted I don’t know, possibly as many were home built if they were painted they might be any colour. The propeller and rudder tubes were glued in place and clearances checked. As yet I haven’t been able to figure out from photographs how the tiller is connected to the rudder shaft. There is a 3/32” (nearly 2.5mm) plain hole in the rudder shaft, so a 2mm brass rod threaded 8BA on its end was fitted, held in place with a couple of nuts. There is a cunning plan to maybe leave the stern deck loose so that another deck fitted with rudder only radio control could replace it and having an easily removed tiller might help this. This I had done on one of the Bowman Eagle copies I made some years ago and it worked really well.
Take care Tony.
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I agree, the wood work you are doing is amazing! I love watching the progress.
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Looking good!
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Great progress, Tony..!!
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Hi,
The inside of the hull was sanded to remove the old varnish. Some of the varnish almost flaked away, the sections around the boiler the varnish was baked in place, and not wanting to use paint stripper it was just smoothed down and varnished over. The filler used on the outside of the hull was smoothed down and a first while primer/undercoat was applied.
Between painting and sanding I have been playing with an old Stirling engine that didn't work to get it going. https://youtu.be/_3pT8m0bXe8
Take care Tony
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Hi,
With all the cracks in the hull being filled, the stern deck was filled to size and all the holes in the hull bottom being filled with wooden dowel; a start was made on finishing the hull. It isn’t a good time of the year for this sort of job it being cold and damp. So, it could take some time.
A bit of luck I found a photograph of how the engine is mounted in the hull; on an aluminium bridge, the spray sheet appears to rest on screws fitted in the inside of the hull. So far I haven’t found any photographs of the engine not being connected to the propeller shaft with anything other than a spring. Equally I haven’t found any photographs of a wooden cover for the end of the propeller shaft such as is fitted to this hull. I am inclined to think that the cover is original because of how it is made with matching wood and the way it attaches to the hull. I believe the means of connection from the propeller shaft to the engine is an alteration. Thoughts?
Take care Tony.
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coming right along Tony. you're doing some really nice (& smart) work to the vessel.
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Hi,
While waiting for the Araldite that was being used to fill the various slots in the hull to cure, other work was started. Because, the sides of the hull were not being pulled in against the transom, the splits having been filled with Araldite the stern deck had become a loose fit in the hull. A piece of what might be mahogany that once did service as a slat in a door was used to make two fillers for the deck. A tile cutter fitted with a blade that would cut wood was used to cut the two filler pieces. A PVA glue was used to hold these fillers to the edge of the deck. Then the adhesive had cured the fillers were filed to size and the deck was varnished along with the wooden propeller shaft cover.
Take care Tony.
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Hi,
The saga continues. To clean the debris from the splits in the hull a broken piece of a hack saw blade suitably sharpened was used. Not to put any strain on the hull it was decided not to try and pull the stern and bow sides together just fill the gaps. These gaps were filled using a standard pack of Araldite, which after being applied to the splits was heated with a hair dryer when it becomes very liquid and with the help of a thin piece of wood to get rid of air bubbles flowed to the bottom of the split. Some masking tape was used to stop the adhesive from coming out of the side of the split. Alas as the Araldite is very liquid it has to be held level for a couple of hours until it starts to set. This means that almost every split has to be done individually, so it will take some time to complete this part of the restoration.
Take care Tony.
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Hello again,
Forgot a photograph!
Take care Tony
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Hi,
The propeller shaft tube has been removed from the hull. The rudder had a bent shaft so the blade was removed the shaft straightened and the blade soldered back in place. The remaining metal pieces were cleaned and the wooden cover of the propeller shaft was taken apart and put back together again.
Question time! Does anyone own a Stuart Turner Henley or have photographs of how the engine and boiler are attached to the hull? The last two photographs show the screw holes that did this on the hull I own. For the engine it looks as if there was a bracket to hold the engine that rested on the two longitudinal battens that run the length of the hull, this bracket with engine being held in place with two screws in each batten. To hold the boiler in place there seems just two screws in the battens and a pair of screws on the centre line on the bottom of the hull towards the bow. Any suggestions?
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That's a start.
It does all look surprisingly good, at least as far as I can see in the photos.
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Hi,
A start was made on the dismantling the hull by removing the fittings; the rudder and its tube along with the rear deck, the propeller and its shaft. The wooden cover which was over the end of the propeller shaft and the asbestos sheets that protected the inside of the hull from the heat of the boiler were also removed.
Take care Tony.
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You are a braver man than I, Tony.
Or perhaps it is just that you are far more capable and confident!
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Hi,
The Stuart Turner Henley steam launch hull had been collected at an exhibition in mid-August and in the nearly three months since then it has been kept slightly warm to be sure that it had completely dried out.
Prior to starting work on the hull it was checked over. It had been re-painted and was in pretty good condition, except for several of the seams being split, the bow and stern being particularly bad. Having said that the hull was very solid and none of the mahogany that the hull is made from is spongy.
It is hoped to make a start on the project sometime next week. I will report progress.
Take care Tony.
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Hi Bruce and Daniel,
All the information helps, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the Henley about. There appears to have been two models made, one with a flush deck 1923 -1929 and a later one with a spray cove which is the one I have. Both seem to have used the same ST engine and boiler. I found that I still have an early ST engine which I restored years ago, painted red but I expect I can manage to change that to Stuart Turner green or similar. A friend has a boiler which he will lend me so I can make a copy. There is a unused boxed boiler and burner available which I suspect will be above my budget, I know it is daft but given a choice I would probably prefer one I had to work on.
I will report progress which will be slow as there is still some work to be done on my model engineering club's garden railway ready for next years running season. There is also a re-design of our own garden railway due to the age and condition of both railway and operators.
Take care Tony.
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Hey there Tony
I've also found an old Stuart Turner ad for the Henley, which shows a straight profile view that might be usable for dimensions!?!?
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Hello Tony
Just like Bruce, I feel your contributions here deserve all that we can put forward to assist you!
Sadly, in this particular circumstance, I fear that all I can do is offer a couple of images I found on line as seen here:
http://www.antiquemodelaircraft.co.uk/uploads/1/7/8/6/17868131/album-p23-no-1-and-3_orig.jpg
Oh wait ..... here's another one that is probably a bit more like what you have:
https://toysteamengine.net/circa_1920_s_stuart_turner_henley_launch_alcohol_fueled_steam_engine.html
Hope that can help you out a little at least.
Cheers ... and keep us informed of progress. ;c)
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Sorry I can't help you with your quest Tony, I wish I could because I feel like you give us all so much without ever asking for anything in return. I hope someone has what you need.
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Hi,
I have acquired the hull of a Stuart Turner Henley steam launch, it has it's rear deck, rudder (no tiller), propeller shaft and propeller. It is missing it's engine, boiler and forward spray sheet. I have a suitable Stuart ST oscillating engine and a friend is lending me a ST boiler to copy if I cannot find one. What I am looking for, is photographs of inside the hull showing how the engine, boiler and spray sheet are held in place, along with any other information available.
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Take care Tony.