Josie Olsen.

[DamienG]

After U-33 bought the Forrest Classic's box of wood & a plan to the board I recalled a plan I bought some time ago.
And have decided I'll have a go 31.5"
Josie Olsen from  Air Trails American Modeler Annual 1960. The paddle drive is through a worm gear arrangement,driving imitation Bean Engine, but was designed but before slot cars really hit the market, so a slot car or R/C car rear drive gear set could be easily adapted. The boat is not a particular actual ship, but captures the essence of the New England island steamers, such as the Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. I The superstructure could be modified to develop a very scale-like model of one of these boats.

Has any of our members built or come across this interpretation of a Paddler?
I'd like some info before shelling out for a Taxi to printer and paying for printing.




Damien.

[Barry]

 See Spankbuckets build of the Queen of the Esk in the photo gallery.
I believe it's the same boat.

[DamienG]

Thanks Barry, It is indeed the same model I bought the plan on CD some time ago and now after fiddling with photo shop can only get it to print one A4 section at a time I calculated that cost of commercial printing plus taxi to business would cost more than buying a paper plan on ebay so I purchased his last one. 2 sheets plus 6 pages of the original article.

I'll contact Spankbucket to find where he sourced the paddle and beam gears etc.

[Spankbucket]

Hi all

Yes I built her about 3 years ago as a 'training' exercise before attempting a ACW blockage runner (also in the picture gallery'.

I bought the plan from the Ebay seller whose name doesn't immediately come to mind.

I also had problems in re-scaling it using my photocopier/printer and one or two details are still wrong but acceptable.

The paddle wheels were the biggest challenge, but having made 3 to get 2 just about acceptable, if I were to start againg I would rebuild them in styrene sheet probably using my Robocutter to cut/outline them. The extremely thin balsa specified warps like crazy!!

I used a meccano gearwheel as the main drive crank.

I haven't had her out on the water since those photos and the dummy steam cylinder/piston mechanism has fractured and needs rebuilding...I didn't think this through carefully enough. Getting the geometry of this mechanism accurate I found impossible so this put strain on the assembly.

It was a fun project and the boat sailed well at the end.

Cheers.......Bernie

PS:I recall another member here has also built on and he used styrene for the paddles.

[DamienG]

I like to do the hard stuff first so it will be wheels then motor/beam mechanism first where did you get the gears and worm pinion Bernie? and what diameter are they please?

[Spankbucket]

Hi Damien

They are standard Meccano parts bought on ebay but I don't immediately recall the sizes. The gear wheels are around 2in I think....I will check on this later and come back to you. I think the worm gear is in one size only which matches the gear wheel. Because it's Meccano the wheels come pre-cast with standard holes and these worked fine as crank pin locations. In fact there are two wheels mounted on a split axle so that the worm drives one wheel and the axle gap straddles the crank. (If you see what I mean).

It's around 4 years ago that I built this and I am having problems relying on my memory for the details!!

All the best...Bernie

[DamienG]

  Bernie.

[Spankbucket]

Hi Damien

I just got the boat out to have a look.

They are plastic Meccano 95 with 36 teeth...nominal diameter 2" but I measure them as 6cm diameter. I looked on ebay uk but cant see any for sale immediately.

Here's a link to a NZ Meccano site covering the range:
http://www.nzmeccano.com/95.php

This shows historic metal parts but the plastic newer ones seem to be the same dimensions for the same type 95.

The worm matches the 36 teeth and also a standard Meccano component...in fact I have a spare one somewhere which, if I can find it, I can let you have if you decide to go this route. However my success at finding things is not rated high!!!

Cheers...Bernie

[DamienG]

Hahaha same here Bernie,
I bought some gears and worms on ebay I hope they're correct I couldn't find a price or seller who had meccano that stocked them.
I'll look closely at the plan when it arrives.
Damien.

[DamienG]

[Spankbucket]

Yes...that looks very familiar!!!

[DamienG]

 

[djt]

hi Damien

looks like you have a lot of work comeing up soon is your shed warmed up yet

david

[DamienG]

Have a heater but have a cold or flu the plan will be at least a week from Canada & I still need to finish my lathe mod's tomorrow I'll see warm day expect 14c lol I have placed an order with Float a boat for the swag of brass tubing i'll need lol.

Have the balsa on hand and i'll replace the bass wood specified with marine ply.

[DamienG]

Went through my balsa box I have more than enough for the frames, hull bottoms superstructure and hull planks Just needed .6mm and 6mm ply which I've ordered from Balsa Central in Sth Aust.

I'll cut all the strip wood myself.
I hope the i can get balsa glue local even on ebay it's expensive and postage is worse I usually use super glue these days but Josie is mostly 1/32, 1/16 and 1/8th balsa and super glue will make it near impossible to sand. eg. the hull is planked with 1/16th then poly resin coated later a tad out of my comfort zone on this one just makes me more determined though.


Damien. (Mc scrooge lol)