I am leaving the house in about 20 minutes for my first and last camping trip of the Summer. SOAK is our regional Burning Man event and the one weekend I said I would take off and not work on the Ship.

http://www.burningmanportland.com/

So I’m going to have a great weekend and I hope you do as well. I will leave you with this very happy making video.

Captain Andy

A lot has happened since we sold all our Tripods. Our 3 cylinder Kubota Engine was removed and is going to get rebuilt. Andy L cut the frame around the engine mounts on the scissor lift. We plan to reuse the frame to save time because we won’t have to drill new mounting holes.

Josh, Aaron and I got the steering joints taken apart.

They were rusted in place, it took the 20 ton press to break the “pivot point” free. We are going to replace the bronze bearings with new ones. This was about 10 hours of work between the 3 of us, one of those things you don’t plan for but has to be done.

We made the the hydraulic motor mount for the front drive motor. It is made from 3x8x1/4 tube. The mounting bolts are 3/4″ grade 8 because they go through a slotted hole. The slotted holes through the tube were reinforced so that we don’t crush the tube. I am going to add another set of screws to to help pull tension on the chain as well. We don’t need it super tight because we have nearly 180deg of chain wrap on both sprockets, but I would like to get it set right.

Jules has been working on the lathe all week. We need (8) more 4″ roller wheels to guide the huge 10ft diameter front wheel. There are a lot of steeps involved to make those.

A few years ago I made some Steam Punk Goggles that had spinning gears that did nothing. The 17 second video on YouTube went a little viral but the non-functioning gears always bugged me.

The Pirate Ship is about functional gearing and the steering system is perfect place to use them.

Turning the Ships Steering Wheel drives a whole series of gears that move a “rack” up and down. The rack is connected to a hydraulic ram. As the ram moves oil is pushed through a hose that then pushes and pulls another hydraulic ram which will steer the ship.

There are 78 pieces in the steering column, 32 of them were custom made including the gears. The gears are made from 3/4″ plate steel, there are a lot of brass and copper spacers and pins. The column is made from 3/16″ thick 4×6 steel tube. All the gears are supported on a shaft and pillow blocks on both sides for the column.

Initially the Steering was going to be done with a tiller, but as the ship got bigger a wheel became to way to go.

More Photos

Monday I drove up to Vashon Island in Washington to meet with Bob Powell. Bob was in the process of water jet cutting the gears for the steering system and the two sprockets for the front wheel drive.

I got there in time to see the last sprocket being cut.

The water jet does in incredible job cutting these parts out of 3/4” plate steel. With the last part cut Bob and I got lunch where I had the biggest chicken burrito I’ve ever seen.

Today I got to work finishing up these parts. The parts need an accurate hole bored through the center. Bob left me just enough metal get a clean cut without spending forever getting the holes in.

The sprockets needed a lot of work, the nearest size the plate steel comes in is 0.75” and the sprockets needed to be close to 0.68”. I have a small lathe but it was up to the job.

The bigger sprocket was bigger than the chuck but with a dial indicator I was able to tap it into place and then face the plate and put the relief angle on the teeth.

There are still some key ways to cut and the teeth need to be deburred but some major progress in the last two days. I’m not sure if I’m going to finish up the chain drive tomorrow or start working on the gears for the steering system. I should know by the time I wake up : )

Captain Andy

There are many prefixes associated with boats, probably the two most know are H.M.S. for “Her Majesty’s Ship”, and S.S. for “Steam Ship”.

The Pirate Ship has a lot of gears, the same type of gears that made clocks possible, it was our Navigator, Happy Mel that came up with the prefix C.S. for “Clock Ship”. I particularly liked this and it works well with the rest of the name.

I wanted to wait until the time was right and here on Mother’s day I am announcing that the ship will be named after my Mom and will be know as, “The C.S. Tere”.

My Mom (now retired) was a high school teacher where she changed hundreds if not thousands of people’s lives. The movie “Stand and Deliver” could have been made about my Mom, she took students that were never expected to accomplish anything and are now college graduates, business owners and other contributing members of society. The influence and positive changes she has created in the world can never be measured. She deserves more than a ship named after her but for now this is her Ship.

In a few hours form now I will sit her down at the computer So she can read this.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom, I love you.

Andy

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