USS CAIRO, Plank on Frame, RC, Live Steam

Joined
Mar 27, 2020
Messages
26
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Location
Vienna Austria
Hi everyone

As I wrote, I`m currently working on a 1:50 measured model of the USS CAIRO. Planned is to build her with a full working steam engine, the build started around 2 years ago. So there will be a lot of older photos, I`ve made during the build. I`v made about 200 pics of the build so far, but had to make a longer break from model building, so I have to make a complete estart with it. The following posts will show how far I was until today, newer stuff will follow. But I do hve one issue, by a major computer crash I`ve lost almost all of the Bob Hill plans I had. I do kow the great build made by Gene Bodnar, and some other builds, but cannot find the plans anywhere in the world wide web anymore! SO, if anyone has the plans, PLEASE give me some PM, THANK YOU!!

Best Regards
Gerhard
 
is this what you are looking for?


I worked with Bob Hill on the Cairo project and have a pile of research and images I also have the original plans by the National Parks.
one note of interest is the doctor engine in the plans is not correct I will look up an image of the doctor engine that is most likely correct. The original engine was lost so the one in the plans is sort of 'made up"
 
Hi Dave @Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)

I have some of Bob`s drawings printed out for my build, but not the full set he made. I fell over your thread by searching for them, This was the reason why I decided to become a member of the SOS ForumThumbs-Up! But I never would have known, that you were working with him on the CAIRO-Project, that`s the best I could get! I do have the 21 pages set from the National parks, but not the most worthful plans from Bob on my PC, they were all lost by computercrash! And I could not find them anywhere.....................
To the Doctor: I have some photos from the doctor of the USS. St. Louis, as you surely know she was on of the seven sisters. I would believe, that they all were the same? Would be nice to have much more infos to the ship, so if you (or Bob himself) can help me and all other interested model builders with informations, THANK YOU!!
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So, here we go with the first set of pics from the build. First things first, so I started with the hull, alot of frames were to make, and even the keelsons.

Frame under construction
017.jpg

Most of the frames are set to place

039.jpg

All frames I need for the build are in place, the mid section does not need more of them, but the bow and stern have all drawn frames. I could make them, before my PC crashed down..........
043.jpg

The Mid-Section, in the front you see the boilerroom, in the middel the engine room ans the machine stands
050.JPG

The same from a different angle
051.JPG

The same from the stern, Engine room with space for the wheel, Boiler room, and the smaller pace for the gas tank.
054.JPG

And the hull with the bottom glued together, took me about 6 weeks to make the frames and the rest!
055.JPG

Next things to show are some detail parts I made for the CAIRO, as there were the small 12-pounder gun, the carriages for the big guns, and some more of the small stuff. The engine is still under planning work, it will have 11mm bore and 36,6mm stroke. I found some good infos about the engine in the www, so I`m sure I can make it a working engine.

Best regards
Gerhard
 
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As I wrote, I`m currently working on a 1:50 measured model of the USS CAIRO. Planned is to build her with a full working steam engine,


for everything you ever wanted to know about designing, casting and building steam engines


you can check out the building of the steam engine and boilers for the Mississippi on both forums
 
So here we go again

One of the things I made for the CAIRO was the samll 12-pounder gun, shown in some pictures on the hurricane deck and even in the museum`s entrance
museum-entrance-mural 12-pounder.jpg

The measuring was a bit hard to do until I found the websites from Civil War Navy: http://www.civilwarnavy.org/?page_id=321
and Markefrhunter: https://markerhunter.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/dahlgren-12-pdr-small-bh/ , with that information I was able to scale the gun to correct dimensions.
Here come some pics of the progress

First to build was the carriage, made from 1mm brass sheet
002.JPG

004.JPG

007.JPG

And the wooden boat carriage too
008.JPG

The wheels were a bit hard to make
The small rear wheel in production
011.JPG

and set in place
013.JPG

The barrel was turned on my old GDR-Lathe
020.JPG

The finished 12-pounder gun
023.JPG

Best regards
Gerhard
 
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Next thing I made was the skylights. I made them from 1mm plywood and from 3mm hard wood, maybe it was Oak, but not sure. The hardest parts to make were the "glasses". But here come the pics:

All started with the basic frames from 3mm wood, this will be the smaller skylight in front of the wheelhouse
Oberlicht 003.jpg

Then I made the window frames from 1mm plywood
Oberlicht 004.jpg

All the windows needed to be cut out
Oberlicht 005.jpg

The frames were cut to half from the inner side
Oberlicht 006.jpg

Then I soldered the window grille on a paper sheet, the grilles were made from 0,8mm brass
Oberlicht 007.jpg

As next I cut grooves into the frames to place the grilles
Oberlicht 008.jpg

And after that the glasses are set in place
Oberlicht 013.jpg

The skylights are prepared for painting, final colour is flat black
But that was not all to do, I needed some hinges!
Oberlicht 015.jpg
They are made from 0.5mm brass sheet, 1mm brass tube and 0,5mm brass thread. The needl before them is a common needle, so you cn imagine how small the hinges are.

The completed small skylight, the large was made the same way.
Oberlicht 018.jpg

Both skylights with their final painting, all hinges work as they should!

Oberlicht 038.JPG

Next post I will show up with the gun carriages,

best regards
Gerhard
 
And here we go again, now with the larger carriages and the gun barrels. While the larger carriages are made from wood, I decided to make the barrels as 3D printed items.

All the wooden parts for 6 carriages
001.jpg

Glued together and milled to shape
006.jpg

the raw carriages without the metal parts
009.jpg

A lot of small parts to add.............
013.jpg

and even more............
014.jpg

and still some more! Handcut shims from black cardstock.
017.jpg

Lots of holes were drilled, to set them all in place
018.jpg

Finished fromone side
022.jpg

All painted flat black
026.JPG

The barrels are made as printed parts, and so the wheels
028.JPG

The smaller carriages are planned as printed parts too, the first set of two is currently printing, tomorrow I can show them!
In the meantime I have to search, what kind of model rails I can use for the superstructure, to make that as accurate as possible.

Best regards
Gerhard
 
Back after a short break, filled up with some helping works for my old parents, 89 and 87 years of age. Necessary inthese days of Covid-19............
Here are the completed smaller carriages and guns, all printed from ABS.
One of the 32-pounders
030.JPG

And the full set of guns, at the rear the big guns, left the 8 inch 63cwt smoothbore, rear right side the 42-pounders
in the middle the 32-pounders
in the front the single parrot gun
031.JPG

STL-Files can be sent to interested members by PM!

Best regards and stay healthy!
Gerhard
 
Hi @Jay

Nice to have you aboard! Tryin hard to make a "small copy" of the CAIRO but still a long way to go. With all the restrictions we do have here in Austria it`s not so easy to get all the building materials i need. If you have some good pics from the engines, I would be glad to see them, every photo will help to build them!
Many thanks in advance!
But thats another thing, to show where I had the measurings for the guns, they came from the historic structure report
Geschütze Cairo.jpg

Regards
Gerhard
 
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Hi @Jay

Nice to have you aboard! Tryin hard to make a "small copy" of the CAIRO but still a long way to go. With all the restrictions we do have here in Austria it`s not so easy to get all the building materials i need. If you have some good pics from the engines, I would be glad to see them, every photo will help to build them!
Many thanks in advance!
But thats another thing, to show where I had the measurings for the guns, they came from the historic structure report
View attachment 141996

Regards
Gerhard

I will try to see if I have an SD card with those photos. My computer crashed and can’t access those that were on the hard drive.
 
So you had the same issues as I had:eek:. I still search for all the links I had before, most of them are lost forever...................
Regards
Gerhard

I checked and don’t have it on a SD card. Probably on a DVD but I have nothing to check those pictures with no computer now. Sorry.
 
I am searching my archives for images of the Cairo steam engine.
I know there is a collection of images of the engine when It was first salvaged and put in storage. The engine was all apart and scattered in a field

these are poor images but they were part of the collection i will see if i can get the high resolution pictures.

engine1.JPG

engine2.JPG

e1.jpge2.jpge3.jpge4.jpge5.jpge6.jpg
 
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