Iowa Class Engine Room #3 Model for BB62 Permanent Display

[Builder2010]

When I said that the panel came out well, I was not kidding. Both copies are as good as I can expect. The printer still amazes me as to what it resolves and how stable those micro-details hold up. I hope my painting skills are up to the task.

I finally got around to doing my lighting test. I want to apply the copper foil for the surface mount LEDs directly on the UV resin with the assumption that since it does not melt—like sytrene does—so I should be able to solder directly on it. I wasn’t going to try this on a good part. I tried it on a scrap main steam pipe. Here’s the foil well adhered to the cured resin.

And then with an LED soldered to it. These LEDs are cool white which should replicate florescent lighting pretty well. Not only was the resin unaffected by the solder operation, the tape was actually stuck tighter after solding.

These LEDs were 200 for a little over $6.00 USD. That’s about 3 cents/LED… almost free!

I also wanted to light the electrical panel just for fun. I made wire access available in the design. I thought I had tiny clear LEDs that were pre-wired, but could only find the colored ones, so I tried it with an incandescent grain-of-rice bulb… strictly old school. Took a bit of work to get the wiring fished to the bottom, but the experiment worked. The copper foil is serving as a light block since the resin is a bit translucent. I may use the foil block even on the real one before painting just to ensure that the light only goes where I want it to go. This is a junk part.

With the experimental success I got to work doing the actual lighting on the undersides of various frames that will have equipment lying below that I want seen. The first is the underside of the upper mezzanine to light the lower level electrical cabinets. These tiny LEDs have a polarity marking on their underside and a tiny green mark denoting the positive pole on the top. I mistook this mark as the negative pole at one point and kept fussing until I finally figured it out.

The first image is the circuit trail showing the 1mm gaps where the LEDs will go. I tin the gaps and the ends where the power leads will go.

I trimmed the foil so it just covers the beam, although this frame gets a solid “Linoleum” decking so seeing the underside will not be easily seen.

After putting the LEDs on I tested it. My 12 VDC source can only drive 3 LEDs in series. I could run many more in parallel, but the CL2N3 LED driver chips don’t like parallel circuits. If I need more LEDs I wold have to run another series string driver by another CL2N3.

After the test, I put a tiny piece of Tamiya masking tape on each LED so I can paint the frame. When painted, the lighting circuit will be almost invisible.

Next up was the turbogenerators frame. This required only two lights to illuminate the underside. It was more difficult to run the foil and I broke off one of the support poles. No problem, it will be pinned and reglued tomorrow. Normally, when I make corners with the foll I do it like I learned to do it when putting foil on windows when i installed burglar alarms in the 1970s (moonlight job). But when I can’t fold the foil and do the corner bend, you just lay the new foil over the old and apply some sollder just to make sure that there’s a good circuit.

While this work was going on the printer was creating another masterpiece: the upper mezzanine electrical cabinetry. Armed with Ryan’s latest images I was able to finish up the design. The printer reprocded every hand grab and toggle. It’s draining on the machine and will be cleaned up and post-cured tomorrow.

The last thing on today’s report was finalizing the screw system on the Main Reduction Gear housing. I am not gluing this assembly. The screws extend down below the lip. I will trim them off after final assembly—if I can do it without wrecking anything. I will try it first on the scrap housing.

I was hoping to paint the hold floor panels today, but the weather got bit wild with lightening at the time I wanted to do it. It was a busy and successful.

[Builder2010]

Added lighting to the last support platform; the evaporator frame. I woke up thinking about how to neatly hide some of the wiring and came up with a scheme to use hollow columns with access ports for the wiring. This will at least hide the wires as they’re running down to the deck below. I still have lighting to install on the big steam pipes to illuminate the two cutaway propulsion turbines. Getting wiries down from them won’t be as easy, although I may run the circuit with the foil directly.

There is a side benefit in hollowing them out; they won’t be as prone to warp. I have some warpage problems with the solid-printed columns. Tubes are always stiffer than solid rod. I may change out some of the others an replace with hollow ones.

I did a light test with the room lights on and the lighting works as designed in illuminating the equipement below. In this case, the lube purifier.

The upper electrical switchgear cleaned up nicely, but I lost one of the very find pull bars. I hope folks don’t notice this… Ryan likes how they look. There will be a faux linoleum floor under this equipment. I honestly didn’t expect all the details to reproduce as they did.

The weather was lovely today and I did get the hold floors painted. Not glued in place yet, but they will be shortly.

I placed the condenser on the floor just to see how it looked. Looks good… eh? To get this beast installed, I’m thinking that I’m going to have to assemble at least part of this structure in situ because I can’t seem to get the two pipes into the flooring due to their opposing angularity.

I’m reaching the point quickly where I have to actually figure out how this 3D puzzle is not only going together, but in such a way as to stay together. I knew when I drew some of the more frail sub-frames. One in particular was the frame that holds the main gauge board. I had removed the inner two H-beam columns which were not clearing the #1 prop shaft. I had to devise a way to support this. The massive HP frame is sitting right there so all I had to do was devise a way to do it. A styrene plate will do the trick. In the 1:1 engine room this platform didn’t have any columns so removing two of them wasn’t to far fetched. In the 1:1, much of the outer load was supported by the side bulkheads which I’m not modeling. I checked level and it came out really close.

I then glued the light weight frame into the girder on the evapoator frame. I needed to do some minor trimming to give clearance for the H-beam mounting. I also had to set it back a bit so the columns on both platforms aligned and not extending past the model’s edge. I added a cross bar between the H-beam columns. They were way too wiggly and weren’t holding plumb. This is a result of the very scale-sized I-beams making up the structure.

Just for fun I sat the main gauge board in the approximate location. There will be floor grating coverings all of this area and beyond.

Finally, the next print completed on the Machine are the lower mezzanine elecrical cabinets. These are simpler than the ones above, but they came out as the photos showed. This is getting way too easy. The uncured resin on the surface hides a lot of the detailed beauty, especially that knob on a bracket that sticks out from each cabinet.

​Right now I’m designing the escape trunk. There appears to be just one in this engine room. Strangely, the plans show it making a slight dogleg towards the ship’s centerline. The bend occurs at the 2nd platform level in the engine room. The entry hatch is at the first platform level right off the lower mezzanine electrical deck. I have to start painting stuff really soon, which I’m looking forward to. The model really doesn’t look ‘real’ until the paint goes on. I have to decide on what to do about the lube oil reservoirs. And I need to reprint the lube oil cooler with some piping going somewhere. And that’s it for part creation. That said, I haven’t actually counted the number of diamond plate and grating floor panels I will need. I produced some, but will simply create more as I need them. Ah… the benefits of creating your own, on-demand, parts.

[Dioramartin]

Indeed. I have to ask (given debate on another thread about scratch-building), do you think you would have attempted this, say, 10 years ago? Meaning pre-3D printers?

I think it’s a pertinent question – without pre-empting your answer it seems to me 3D printers have given old-school scratch-building an enormous boost. While some may lament the likely decline of hand-crafting components, I think it’s a fair trade-off if the consequence is that more model-makers will build to their own designs rather than slavishly making spoon-fed kits. (Ouch I know “slavish” is an incendiary adjective – for the record I like being slavish sometimes (!), I don’t mean it’s a bad thing)

[timmyp]

Cool build! I wish the engineering drawing in your first post was either downloadable or able to get magnified - I find the design of boiler and engine rooms absolutely fantastic!

[Builder2010]

They are available, but they’re large and probably have to send via Drop Box. If you want them, send my a private message with eMail info.

The lower Mezzanine Electrical Cabinets came out well and are ready for paint. That handwheel at the bottom is delicate. I printed three units (need two), but broke one of those details in clean up. I have two good ones left and need to be careful with them.

While I was very anxious to get the floors glued down, I realized there’s one other detail that’s quite obvious when visiting the real space; the two duck unders that permit crew passage athwartship under the two spinning propeller shafts. In addition to the step down into the hull, there are two three-step ladders on each side and a railing system that protects the space. The railing will be the last things I add to the floor.

The starboard side duck under isn’t straight. it bends 90º that complicated the build a bit. Using the floor plan I located each prop shaft and note its location on the floor, then I used a square to layout the cuts. While the shafts are traversing the space on an angle, the duck unders are square to the ships bulkheads. There was no floor under them on my model. In the real ship, the 2nd skin buried in the triple bottom probably suffices as the floor. I had to build (old school) styrene assemblies to add floor and, eventually, walls on all sides. I first tried to just wall in the parts that didn’t have lattice framing surrounding the opening, but found it wanting. This image shows that problem clearly.

The initial box was only partial.

​

I went back and retrofitted sides—all reinforced with 0.188" Evergreen Styrene Angle—to fully enclose the space. Lots of precision cuts, but fun.

This view before full enclosure shows how the two steps align.

After enclosure, the space is now shipshape.

The second, Port-side, space was simpler, being straight and only four-sided. Took half the time to build it out.

And from above;

It was warm, not windy so I was able to get the paint back one without delay.

Meanwhile, underneath I was doing some surgery. At first I tried to be cute and just nip away at parts of the lattice that interfered with the duck under boxes,

But after fussing with the fits, I just removed those lattice pieces completely. It was more trouble that it was worth to try and trim it close and it was all invisible. I sprayed the underside of the floor box areas to keep white styrene from showing when folks peered down the holes in the lattice.

Finally, I laid down the copper foil circuit tracks for the main steam pipe LEDs. The current load of these LEDs so minuscule that i have no doubt that cutiing the foil width in half shouldn’t affect performance and it enabled me to run the entire curcuit on the bottom of the pipe out of view. I using three LEDs placed in strategic locations over the turbines. With all this light, I better do a good paint job.

[Builder2010]

Quick update: The tubular, resin-printed columns printed perfectly, but they won’t work. There’s just not enough structural stability in a 4mm resin tube. Good idea, but the wrong material. I just ordered 4mm thin wall brass tubing from Amazon that will work just fine. I’m going to eliminate those cute little gussets at the top. Folks won’t notice them gone. If I wanted to be anal about it, I could solder brass gussets on them, but I’m not. I do have a soldering system that could do the job… I have more important things to do.

Also, a couple of weeks ago I had an “event” in my right eye. It’s called an Amaurosis Fugax. It’s a transient stroke of the optic nerve that can cause partial blindness lasting a short time. In my case it appears as a small, black Roshach Inkblot Test. It was unnerving and lasted about 5 minutes. A week later I told my son, the ophthalmologist, about it and he named it for me and told me to get it checked immediately. He said it usually occurrs when there is plaque that breaks off from somewhere else and ends up in one of the retinal arteries. It often disappates shortly as mine did, but it portends bad things. It can be a harbinger of a bigger stroke waiting around the corner.

To that end, today I had an echo cardiogram and bi-lateral carotid ultrasound. The result was good for the heart, but my right carotid does have plague, but it is less than 50% occuluded. They don’t attempt surgery unless it’s above 50%. I will discuss the results with my internist to see what the next steps are. He did double my lipid meds and put me on an 81mg aspirin. I’m already on a blood thinner for AFib. The AFib has nothing to do with this situation. It was good to find the source. Once you know where it is you can do something about it. My son had much more urgency than the ophthalmologist that I saw last week. My internist, on the other hand, was as concerned as my son and was glad I had already seen my cardiologist. Needless to say, it could have been a lot worse.

Have a good weekend. We’re expecting a serious line of thunderstorms within the next couple of hours with large hail and tornadoes possible. Wish us luck.

[Builder2010]

So with all the work to do those duck unders, they are completely WRONG! They’re on the wrong level. The duck unders are on the 4 foot elevated crew floor, not the hold floor. And they have no walls, just a floor. I travesed those steps, but didn’t pay attention to their construction. I asked Ryan the other day to tell me their construction and he told me about no walls. While the construction is now easier by far, it’s complicated by having to deal with the flooring while doing it. All the catwalks and flooring represents the most craft intensive aspect of this build and and also the most ambiguous. We’re making a visit back to Philly at the end of June and I may take another shot at visiting the engine room to clarify any of the outstanding issues. The model, as best as i can project, won’t be done until sometime in the Fall. I was thinking about filling in the openings in the hold floor, but you won’t see it so I’m going to leave it alone.

This is how it should look. When you walk down the short ladder you will see the supporting structures holding up the crew floor.

I finished wiring the main steam pipe’s LEDs.

I received my micro-LEDs and tried it on the scrap control panel. I figured a way to fish the wires through the slots and out the bottom. That said, I’m rethinking doing on the good one. There right hand slot is very narrow and the wires may not fit. I thought about removing the top, wiring it up and then gluing on a flat piece of styrene. It would be very bright with three LEDs. I may just light up the central fixture and it will light the whole face. That’s doable.

I’m also modifying the upper framing that’s going to hold up the entry stair. That 3D printed frame is very flimsy and bendy. I was going to solder up a new frame out of brass angle, but reconsidered after finding that it was $8.00 USD for just 12" of the size I needed AND there’s only one vendor who makes model-sized brass shapes. There used to be a company in Chicago called Special Shapes, but the’re no longer in business. Instead, I have a piece of brazing rod (Sil-fos) that’s just the right size to epoxy to the existing frame to reinforce it AND it will provide a solid base to solder the suspension wires that will hold up the catwalk. In the #2 ER, the stairs come down right over the Main Reduction Gear. They don’t fasten the catwalk to it, but hang it from the ceiling. I did the callout before changing to reinforcing the existing frame.

[Builder2010]

Instead of building the entire frame out of brass with materials I did not have, I chose to build a sub-frame out of some flat brazing rod stock that was close to the width of the resin i-beams. I have two tools that facilitate these kinds of projects: a fireproof soldering pad that easily accepts pins to hold parts, and an American Beauty Resistence Soldering Unit (RSU) that heats the soldering zone using low voltage/high current to heat just the spot between the electrodes. With it I can solder literally next to a previously soldered joint without re-melting that joint. It is what’s used in manufacturing those fancy brass model locomotives.

I also have a MicroMark miniature chop saw with an abrasice cutoff blade that made quick work of cutting the bronze rod with nice square ends.

I used the resin part to position the parts as I pinned them to the solder pad. This image is near the end of the job.

I have the Tweezers handpiece and the single electrode. I have never used the single electrode. It has a carbon contact point and then a large spring clip on the other lead. It’s supposed to be used to solder heavier parts, but my unit doesn’t have the amperage to really make use of it. The tweezers, on the other hand, are fantastic. You can use them as the two legs of the circuit, as I did when soldering these parts, or as a clamp to hold the parts together while applying current to create the heat. The real benefit is you clamp the parts, hit the trigger, heat and solder, and then release the foot switch while still holding the parts in the tweezers until the solder cools. It does with one hand what three would be needed with a traditional soldering iron. This is the most expensive tool I own, but it’s irreplaceable in solding difficult-to-solder asseblies. It came in very handy to solder the power leads to the tracks on my model railroad.

After it was all soldered and cleaned up—sanded some of the high solder joints—I epoxied the frame to the resin frame. It provided the strength I was seeking. It’s not perfect, but I was more concerned with strength and a good structure upon which to solder the catwalk hangers.

Underside:

Other odds and ends:

I had to make the PCVC water pipe that I’m using to look like the actual prop shafts. The 1:1 shafts are 32" solid steel with an 8"bore to lighten them a bit. I printed some plugs, epoxied them in place and will sand them off flush with the pipe. I will then fill any remaining gaps and sand again. The shafts will then match the shaft eminating from the main reduction gear.

The last thing I did today was attach the separately printed valve wheels onto the main air ejector print. I realized that I didn’t print the steam lines that run to this appliance. I will do that shortly.

I’m designing the entry hatch now that I have the framing on which to fasten it. I’m not sure about the hinging since my photos don’t show it.

[Builder2010]

Had a follow up appointment with my ophthalmologist from the Amaurosis Fugax. Everything looked good. Tomorrow, however, my internist has ordered an angiogram CatScan of my head and neck just to make sure that the plaque in my right carotid is the only thing to worry about. Never had one of these, and I don’t know what to think about it. I have no cerebral symptoms at all, and cognitively, as can be seen by what I do in my retirement, isn’t showing any signs of trouble either. I’ll keey you all informed.

So without any shop work I finished the design of the entry hatch, and sent it to the printer. Right now the printer is making the main steam pipes to the turbo-generators and the main air ejector. The former was a print failure that didn’t get redone, and the latter I missed printing at all.

I’m choosing to include more flooring of deck 3 that surrounds the hatch. It lends more context for it and further stiffens that cantilevered system.

Till tomorrow….

[golikell]

It is better to be safe than sorry… I a check shows up nothing, that is great news. If it shows trouble, at least they can (try to) something about it, before it gets the chance to kick in…

[Builder2010]

Thanks for the thoughts! I kind of feel exactly the same way…

The hatch prints came out perfectly. I will have to either cut the girder structure or some of the counter-balance spring so the hatch can settle down. I can cut the girder without problem if I don’t cut through the metal sub-structure. My girder structure and the real one are not the same.

If you look closely, the spring is actually fully formed.

I spent some time today replicating the hand-drawn graphic on the main reduction gear. I have to wait until I paint the gray base paint to match that for the decal’s background. Other wise I would have to hand trim all the lettering out of the white decal paper. Not going to do that…

The photo shows the first line wrapping over the curve of the housing making it very distorted so I couldn’t draw directly over it. I cropped out that part and adjusted its perspective and then drew over that part.

That gray is just an approximation for purposes of this post. When I mix the real gray, I’ll finish up the decals. There’s also another label on the HP and LP turbines.

[Johnnych01]

Just did my usual binge catch up, wow … what a catch up … this really does continue to be an outstanding build here.

[Builder2010]

Thank you. Sometimes I re-read the whole thread too. It amazes me that I’ve done all this stuff to make this thing. Like childbirth (so I’m told), you forget all the pain. Otherwise, humans would have ended with Adam and Eve.

I never answered the question re: would I have attempted building this before 3D printing. Inconceivable! There is no way I could even approach it. So many of the shapes are full of angles and compound curves that way exceed my crafting skills. Even if I could, it could take years, not just the year+ that it’s going to take. Guys that build live steam locomotives can spend a decade on one engine. That’s with buying commercial castings. Same goes for high scale RC planes. I’m following one build on a dedicated site to large scale RC and he’s in year 12 of the build. Lastly, me 3D CAD skills had to develop to where they are now. So… Nope! Wouldn’t have happened.

[Builder2010]

After my Cat Scan, I actually got some shop work accomplished. I first intalled one of the perfectly formed entry hatches into a 0.020" piece of styrene that would serve as the entry hall floor, to figure out how to successfully cut the curves. I also needed to figure out just how it was going to install. I also cut away a chunk of I-beam to clear the counterbalance spring. It worked out well, so I traced the piece onto a heavier piece of 0.030". After drilling out the round corners with a drill sharpened with a plastic cutting angle, and getting the hatch to fit nicely, I glued the plastic flooring onto the frame and held it down with some heavy angle blocks till it cured. I then glued in the hatch with the same reinforced medium viscosity CA. The frame will be painted white and the flooring linoleum brown.

There are couple of spots around the perimeter that could use some minor filler.

In this image I’m holding it up where is attaches to the rear bulkhead. The left outer corner is resting on the cross-braces of the large center support column. With all the added stiffness, the flooring will work just fine.

The remaining steam pipes also printed perfectly. One was a replacement for a previous failure, the other was forgotten.

[Dioramartin]

@Builder2010

I never answered the question re: would I have attempted building this before 3D printing. Inconceivable! There is no way I could even approach it. So many of the shapes are full of angles and compound curves that way exceed my crafting skills. Even if I could, it could take years, not just the year+ that it’s going to take

Thanks Myles I was beginning to wonder if my question had been in some way offensive I’m not surprised by your answer, it’s not hard to see that doing it old-school would be the mother of all modelling nightmares. Manfred’s Challenger launch pad currently under construction in the Real Spacecraft forum is a shining example though, I don’t know how he sleeps nights. Whatever, you’re a prominent example that 3D printing encourages scratch-building, and certainly doesn’t diminish it.

[Builder2010]

Building largely from scratch without benefit of my technology can take years. I’m following a scratch-build of a high scale A1H Skyraider on RC Scalebuilder. net that is a running thread that’s over 12 years and running. The model will fly, but Barry Dalwig, the builder, hasn’t committed to doing that. It’s a museum-level build. I also know folks who’ve been large live-steam loco models where it takes the better part of a decade to build.

Before I get started on today’s post, I need help. I’m trying to locate some passable US Navy crew figures in 1:48 that ARE NOT pilots or deck crew for pilots, nor gunners with helmets on them. There was a company marketing a line of naval figures that included many in fatigues for below deck jobs, but I can’t find them. I want to include some crew in the model to show scale.

For my US Based readers, Happy Memorial Day.

On this day, I am declaring the drawing phase of the project complete! I added the lube oil settling tank and the bilge receivers at the hold floor’s corners. All that’s left is painting everyting and building the model. Now the fun really begins.

I had an idea that using some of SketchUp’s features to make an animated walk through of the entire entire room. It would take quite a while to produce, but might be worth it for folks who can’t ever visit it in the flesh.

Work on this project got underway in August 2024 and there’s still many months to go until it gets delivered.

Before looking at the overall images, here’s a view of the telephone booth. It’s a semi-soundabsorbing space that permits communication by phone is what-must-be a horrendously noisey environment. This was drawn with the last images Ryan sent to me on Thursday.

I also added the Lube Oil Settling Tank. It doesn’t block views and I adapted a mounting so it will “hang” on the subframe.

The first five images are overall views:

This view shows the port-side wall. It’s the only wall where there’s not much going on and could be backed up to a wall without blocking viewers from seeing the model. The lowest level under the lower mezzanine deck is basically bare in the #3 engine room. This is not the case in rooms #2 & #4. Those rooms contain the degausing magnet generators so other apparatus is in that space. More reason why that wall is okay to butt up against a wall.

This next group are more closeups of areas of interest:

Lastly, here’s a few you see when you’re descending the entry ladder.

Now onto Phase 2… Painting.

[steviecee]

Look on Etsy. they have 3D printed figures for sale that you might be able to use

[Builder2010]

I will check them out.

I had to do just a couple more punchlist items to complete the printing requirement. I’ve decided to sit the entire model on simulated concrete blocks a la the ship as it appeared in dry dock. To that end, Ryan sent me the actual dry docking plan showing the placement of all 292 blocks. The blocks are basically cubes 4 feet on a side and place on 8 foot centers longitudinally and five rows athwartship.

In the 1:1 ship, the blocks are kind of rough with varying thickness of shim materials on top to addjust for minor variations.

In my 1:48 world, the blocks are going to be all the same. They are NOT the focal point and shouldn’t attract too much attention. I noticed that I put too many lifting holes in my blocks. I haven’t printed them yet and can fix them before do.

The re-designed central column is much more rigid and will serve as a better mounting point for the entry hall floor assembly. I ribbed the lower and upper angle plates and that did the trick. I also tapered the bottom fins that run athwartship so they nestle down onto the floor angle peak.

I added lighting under this piece since the catwalk below will be in some shadow. Because the underframe is bare metal, I could not apply the copper foil directly or it would be an immediate short circuit. Instead, I attached some thin ply to the metal using 3M permanent Transfer Tape and then did the circuit work on that. I provided access to the hollow central column to bring those wires down more elegantly.

I also prepared and started applying the 4mm brass tubes that will substitute for the solid resin ones. This serves two purposes; they are dead straight and not warped like some of the resin columns, and one of them serves as the wiring conduit. The lead wires are captivated by my “Bondic Liquid Cable Clamp” method. For small gauge wirng it works great.

The twin mezzanine decks are a bit more complicated since in addition to getting the overall length correct, I have to determine the inter-deck spacing. I’m holding the tubes in place with reinforced CA. I used my plan to determine the overall length.

But the inter-deck spacing will be set with the electrical cabinets height. The deck height is about a half foot or so above the cabinet height. I will shim the cabinets and use them as the spacer.

Both mezzanine decks are floored with linoleum and in the model with 0.020" sheet styrene held with CA. I glued the columns into the upper mezzanine, but I will wait to do the full assembly until later. The brass columns lack the little angle details I included on the resin prints. If I was more insane than I am, I could have cut some brass pieces and soldered them in place, BUT… they’re underneath and only kids will see them in normal viewing. I have nothing against kids, but it would be a lot of work for very little return.

Lastly, I got good prints of the last parts including the escape trunk, telephone booth and lube oil settling tank. And yes… there is a complete ladder inside the trunk. The printer printed it perfectly with only a few easily removed supports. The trunk DOES make that hitch, but I’m not sure why, but it was clearly noted on the plans. I have to cut out part of the mezzanine decks to accommadate the trunk. It still impresses me that I can draw and print parts with open doors will all the hinge and latch details.

What’s left to print? The keel blocks. On the printer and draining are some last minute additions including bilge receivers, and the support frame for the main air ejector which I forgot to print with the main part.

[Builder2010]

Here’s the tele booth print. One of the cables broke on the back wall. Fix it? I think not.

And here’s a view of the cleaned up escape trunk. You can see the ladder inside… barely.

And I decided that folks needed to get a better view of the 13 foot bull gear in the main reduction gear, so I marked out and did some surgery. I first hacked into it with a 1/16" carbide routing bit followed up with a small Dremel sanding drum. The end result is what I was looking for and it’s going to be very visible looking from the aft end.

The first batch of hull blocks are done and hanging on the printer in the draining position. When I first drew them on the master drawing, I had them at 8 foot centers in both the X and Y directions. After I checked Ryan’s drawing I realized that only the fore and aft spacing is at that distance. Athrwartships is almost three times as wide. So instead of needing 40 of them, I only need 25. I’m printing them 13 up on the platen so two runs will do the job. You set up a single part on the slicer and then using the COPY function in ChiTuBox

I did an inventory of all the completed parts and found some piping that still needs printing. I’m going to set them so by early next week, no more parts will need to be printed.

[Builder2010]

I was working on refining the dimensions of the base and acrylic covers today so my shop time was short. I did accomplish some stuff. First of all, all the printing is done. That said, I may have to print parts that break or more flooring panels. But planned work is finished. In total I consumed about 8kg of resin to print the parts. That’s about $200 worth of just resin. I’m waiting for some more warm days with low wind to do solvent painting outdoors. All of the paint primer is solvent. The color coats are mostly acrylics which I can do in the house.

I decided to print and add the bilge catch basins. There are four of them at the outer corners of the hold floor. When I first cut the floor and glued two of them in with CA, while they were flush with the deck’s edge, they protruded out further down due to the angle of the engine room’s sides. I removed them, cut the slots deeper and re-glued. It works better for me. If I really wanted to do it correctly, I’d redraw the parts with the taper installaed and reprint. It’s not important enough of the detail to do that. Also, there are bilge pumps and piping associated with these, but I have no data on that feature so I’m not inlcuding it.

This was the first attempt:

The new position:

​How they look installed.

I printed 25 hull blocks. Shown here is part of the first tranche. I was able to print 13 at a time. The remainder are draining on the printer.

And the model positioned on them for a test fit. Should work as planned.

I gave my friend Bryant Mitchell, the final measurements for the base. He’s gluing it up this weekend. I may mount the model on the base sooner rather than later to give a nice stable building surface.

I also spent time, but didn’t finish, adding the newly printed piping on the auxiliary air ejectors. It’s a very small pipe system that attaches to BOTH units. This complicates gluing them to the bulkhead to ensure that the piping is nice and straight and isn’t putting stress on the piping. Pictures will come on Monday.

i finalized the graphic for the number key. I’m printing two of them on white glossy photo paper. I’m going to glue them together back-to-back so they can be correctly read from both sides of the model.

See y’all on Monday.