7 october 2018

In the past weeks I have been busy making all parts of the Chainpumps and Elm Tree pump. First I had to put a piece of round tube on the wooden square suction tube. I turned brass fittings so there is a nice transition from square to round. After placing the fittings the brass tubes were placed.

Of the 4 Chainpumps, 2 are open at the top, this way you can see the mechanism with which the chain was turned around. Now I have looked at some pictures of other modelers on which they also show these drums. For a long time I had doubts about the thickness of the material they had used for these drums. The drums in the pictures looked lighter than John McKay shows in the drawings. Because the Chain is quite heavy, I decided to just follow the drawing.

So I turned 4 brass discs that are 1.2 mm thick and provided them with the necessary holes and cut-outs. Between the discs are spacers and the discs are connected with pins. I used bolts from M1.

After the drums were finished, I milled 8 brass bearings. The axes of the drums will pass through this later on. Finally the legs of the Chainpumps were made and the holes were made to attach the suction tubes. The suction tubes stick through the bottom of the Chainpumps, these holes I make later square and fit. The suction tubes are provided with wooden round pins at the bottom. This way I can make a solid connection with the lower turning point.

Next to the 4 Chainpumps there will be another Elm Tree Pump on the Lowerdeck. The hinge, etc., I made of brass and attached it with pins.

All parts, except for the Chain, are now ready. I'm still waiting for some parts for the Chain, so I can make them later. The pumps can now be installed.

First I will continue with the planking of the Lower Deck. One part, where the pumps will soon be placed, is slightly higher than the deck. The rear legs of the pumps are on the raised part and the front legs on the Lower Deck level. The pumps are only installed when that part is planked. I can then immediately hide the suction tubes and hang everything up properly.

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Regards,

Henk

22 september 2018

During the planking of The Lower Deck, I spent a long time working on the pumps. It was mainly about how they looked exactly, how I want to build them and what I want to show them.

I finally decided to build all 4 Chain Pumps and the 2 Elm Tree Pumps. The 2 pumps on the starboard side I build completely close and at the 2 pumps on the port side I show the upper inside. The round cap on top of the pump I leave out and the inner wheel with the chain becomes visible.

The base of the pump housings is now ready.

Vic's pump tubes are mostly made of wood, only the lower part of the outer tube is made of steel. I make all steel parts of brass, so this lower part is also made of brass.

First I put all the wooden tubes together, sanded them and then fitted them with brass bands. It is impossible to recreate the tubes 100% on this scale, but I do want to show that the tubes are held together by these bands. The brass bands are, without using glue, stretched around the tubes and are fixed with 2 copper nails.

I let go of the planning now because there is more time in it than I thought. Just applying the brass bands takes more than 4 hours per tube. Luckily I don't have any other projects on the roll now, so I can spend enough time on Vic.

Meanwhile I have also started with the preparations of the Elm Tree Pumps. The base of this pump consists of a tube of 8 sides. I made a mould to sand the extra 4 sides of the pump. In the next report you will see the progress again.

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Greetings,

Henk

21 july 2018

There will be 4 Chainpumps in the middle of the Lower Deck. The water is then pumped out of the hold. One pump has a capacity of 120 tons of water per hour. The pumps can be operated alone or coupled in pairs. The handles were on either side of the pumps and each handle can accommodate up to 30 people to operate it. In order to make all 4 pumps operate simultaneously, 120 people could be deployed.

I haven't finished all the drawings of these pumps yet and I still have to do some research into the inside of these pumps. The intention is that one pump should remain partly open so that the chain operation is visible and the chain itself is also installed.

So this project will start soon.

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Regards,

Henk