Sandcasting a Propeller

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Merlyn
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Re: Sandcasting a Propeller

Post by Merlyn »

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This a mark eight J. J.? You sure you were on these? Read this cover to cover three times and nary a mention of Jolly Jack?
Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.
Big Pete
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Re: Sandcasting a Propeller

Post by Big Pete »

So you can pull the tailshafts without dropping the rudders.
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Merlyn
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Re: Sandcasting a Propeller

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Brilliant BP, I knew you would get there in the end? A lot of those gunboats/ torpedo boats/ fancy yachts had major problems removing the rudders should you have to do so in order to draw the shafts for chattering couplings, cutlass bearing renewal or ropes round the props causing the "P" brackets to be cranked inwards, and rudders off centre allowed the shafts to be drawn without touching the rudders. It was not unusual to gain access to the rudder tops for a load of steelwork or fancy teak tops to be stripped out using the services of a shipwright ( not a chippy, allways a row when you called them a chippy ) and this could result in several more days on the slipway thus blocking its use age for further arranged slipping. I well remember the tops of the rudders on some installations having U.J's or ball joints with greasers attached, on splines or tapers. Remove a knockout panel for greasing but any more access required a major woodwork / steel strip out. The phosphor bronze collars on a lot of installations had three Allen set screws inside the thrust collar locating into three centre drillings in the rudder shaft. Many years of non removal required at least a small extension bar on your Allen key and if you were lucky out they came. Very confined area for heat, and if they ( and it was as usual, always the last one ) did not want to come out you were in for a major strip out. Sometimes they would not all come out and as they were top grade S.S. even when finally they were all exposed to try and drill them out was a very difficult task. Extreme cases would necessitate the cutting through the retaining collar which was a pig of a job owing to restricted access , not being able to dolly the taper release, seized U.J.' on the shaft, waiting for the shipwrights/boilermaker/welder crew allways made for this to be a very unpopular job and one to duck if possible. I remember many problems matching the dozens of teak dowlings over the woodscrews securing all the woodwork dismantled , the colour, grain directions, PCD ( so to speak ) and owners refusing to accept the nearest match as the original teak you were trying to match might be 20 years plus old. So any boats/ships requiring stern gear overhauls allways had several pairs of eyes closely watching for the stern gear to be exposed on the slipway in order to hopefully reduce the no of persons allocated the job throwing a " sickly " next day.
Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.
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Merlyn
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Re: Sandcasting a Propeller

Post by Merlyn »

Sorry to hear of your redundancy but I understand things are bad up your way work wise all round. So back deep sea maybe? Who knows when oil prices will come back up. I wish you well for the future.
Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.
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JollyJack
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Re: Sandcasting a Propeller

Post by JollyJack »

That's an RPL (ramped powered lighter) Merlyn, crew of 6. They had 2 Rolls Royce 6CFLM medium speed diesels, pieces of crap which put ships in danger on two occasions that I know of. In fact, one of the Union Castle mail jobbies, Good Hope Castle, I think, burned out because of a major fire in the aux genny room, stemming from an inherent mechanical fault on one of the RR gennies. The other time was when one of the RPLs was en route from Bahrein to Dubai. Port engine quit because the Gilkes water pump kept losing mechanical seals (this was the time mechanical seals were more or less experimental) then the stbd engine sheared off the two screws securing the Bosch injection pump Vernier timing flange. Drive shaft for the pump whipped around, took out the main lub oil line to the filter and the engine was screwed. I was on radio watch at Bahrein that night, when the skipper informed me they were dead in the water, I asked him if he wanted assistance. His reply? "Put it this way, Mayday, Mayday Fu***in MAYDAY!"

You'll have to read Hammond Innes's "Atlantic Fury" to get an idea of life on an LCT. He did a trip to St Kilda on the L 4041 Abbeville to do his research. He spent a lot of time in the crew's mess and, by the stories in the book, listened to the Mk VIII stories from the crew. I could identify at least 2 of the boys just by his stories! LCT Mk VIII (crew of 36) were around 1200 GRT, 4 Paxman TPMs, 2 shafts, broad beam, shallow draught, could land 7 Chieftain tanks on a beach (or 4 Conquerors) and would roll on wet grass. Great bunch of guys though, a real "family" feel about it. Still have a reunion every year.

Here's a link to a wee movie about transporting a boiler to Islay for Bowmore distillery. The navy had nothing to do with it, it was all Army. You'll see the guys wearing berets, not flat hats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd0wVjr ... F9A17CA34C
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Merlyn
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Re: Sandcasting a Propeller

Post by Merlyn »

Yes, I well remember those horrible RR C series and Eagles engines. Down our neck of the woods we have a large tank firing range operated by the British army. They took over a small village called Tynham in approx 1944 ish under the promise of returning the village to the inhabitants after the WW2 , they never did and it's still in the major firing area preserved exactly as it was then open to Jo public when there is no firing, it's on our Jurrasic coast in Dorset , the schoolyard, cemetery, church and all the cottages are left exactly as they were, it's spooky alright. Anyway the reason I tell you this is the RCT ( Royal Core of Transport ) had in the sixties ( and replacements today ) four offshore patrol boats, about 70 footers with those horrible RR engines fitted which our firm ( when I was doing my time ) looked after. Each was staffed by Army boys or ex Army who lived on board and every day of firing patrolled offshore for about eleven miles long by about six miles to seaward to keep any craft from copping any shells missing the targets and heading seawards. These engines were always in trouble, liner changes were a favourite and of course those drive couplings you refer to. Some we did in situ and some it was off with the wheelhouse ( shipwrights job again ) and ashore with the engine for piston/ liners change. Biggish jobs each time. Now those pump couplings were trouble on other engines too, those two bolted twin "discs " and the Tufnol type vernier couplings were a common failure. Some were marked up 20/21/ and 23 BTDC for pump timing settings. A lot of these over the years had that Rootes two lobe Rotary turbo fitted, lovely ally rotors I remember when stripped. But all in all they were not a success and only put out around 200 BHP as I remember. From memory those old water pumps had a spring loaded carbon faced thrust pad which ran against a metal face, the carbon would crack and wear and of course the seal would leak although you could sometimes fit a spare. I recall the oil feed pipe and from memory didn't some of these inline pumps have a feed and return oil pipe fitted ( instead of as most makes had the governor box and camshaft/ gallery oil sealed with no external feed. Again from memory the front oil pipe was routed only just above the pump coupling drive assembly so I know the pipe to which you refer. Still got Atlantic Fury as although I don't read a lot of books I do favour Hammond Innes style of writing probably as a lot of them are in and around the sea. I have come across the Bowmore trip probably when trawling the net out of boredom whilst travelling or being stuck on holiday with the wife. Seem to remember it was a bit of a cockup job winch wise etc? People raved about Rolls Royce over here but when you look at the hundreds of millions of pounds awarded against them not only for Mermaid Anzipods, the aircraft turbine engine that had a leaky oil pipe and wrote the engine off whilst loaded with passengers at about 40,000 feet ( reportedly cost £45 million quid ) and other claims we don't know about it seems a miricale that they are still trading. If you look it all up on the net they are not doing very well at all at present and if you read Judges comments it was stated that they knew there were problems with their Anzipods and yet as such went ahead and sold several sets to Carnival in the knowledge that they were substandard. Worked on a few landing craft engines in the early sixties but never went to sea on them.
Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.
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