Heracles
(Steam crane inspired by Tuba Cain’s Hercules)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia:
"Heracles ... was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon. He was a great-grandson and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae ... and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters.
In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well."
Heracles Steam Crane
Hercules was the name given to the steam crane designed and published by Tubal Cain. Heracles is the proposed name for the proposed steam crane planned by Roly Williams, which is inspired by, and partly based on, Hercules. It will use some major Wilesco parts, along with some Meccano parts (as recommended by Tubal Cain) and some scratch built parts. It is hoped that the scratch built parts will closely follow the Tubal Cain design. Actually, the Tubal Cain description is deliberately flexible. He suggests many alternatives and encourages improvisation.
As is my usual practice, I don’t have any drawings or firm plans. I have a rough plan in my head and the details I will make up as I go along.
Hercules as per Tubal Cain’s design
(Photos of the completed Heracles can be seen at the end of this document.)
I have to hand a twin cylinder engine unit from a Wilesco D48 and a boiler from a Wilesco D455. I also have a wide selection of Meccano gears.
Wilesco D48 engine unit
Wilesco D455 boiler
Selection of Meccano gears
I decided to start with the easy bit - the firebox / boiler support.
Firebox / boiler support
The boiler sits in the top of the firebox quite loosely. The boiler is supported on the lower row of bolts, which extend about 10mm inside. The upper row of bolts are used to locate and hold the boiler by it's end cap. I was hoping that it would be held firmly but, in practice, the firebox is springy enough so that the boiler can be pulled out quite easily. This could be an advantage for future maintenance but could be a nuisance. The pipework will, of course, add sum support at the top of the boiler but it still won't be enough to allow the whole thing to be lifted by the boiler. I'm trying to work out something to rigidify (have I just coined a new word?) the junction; maybe by adding a thin brass ring between the boiler and firebox.
The extra length of the upper bolts will be cut off eventually. There will be a cut-out in the bottom for the burner (still to be determined).
The firebox will be attached to the wooden base with a jam jar lid with the lip trimmed to fit and probably fixed with bolts or maybe self-tapping screws. I'm finding that jam jar lids can be quite useful! (I used one as the top cap for my Empire B33.) I'm rapidly running out of 2mm nuts and bolts! I can see an order on ebay coming up soon.
Firebox fitted to boiler
Jam jar lid used as base for firebox
I’ve added a couple of Meccano brackets to the base of the engine unit, to attach the two sides of the winch frame. I made a start on adapting the winch design to incorporate the Wilesco engine and sketched out a layout with the same gearing as in Tubal Cain’s design. However (fortunately before I started cutting metal) I realised that I had not taken into account the flywheel, which was just a few mm larger than the distance between the crankshaft and the intermediate gear shaft. I will have to rethink the gearing, either changing the order of the stages or by using a larger first gear on the crankshaft. The latter alternative would end up closer to Tubal’s design but it would mean reducing the gear ratio. I don’t want to do that so I shall probably go with the first option.
Engine base with added brackets
I couldn't go with Plan B (reversing the order
of the gearing stages) because the winding drum would get in the way of the
large gear. So the large gear has to be outside the frame. This means it
can't be in the first stage, which has to be inside the frame. So, I had to go
to Plan C; using a larger gear on the crankshaft. This does reduce the total
gear ratio but I'll have to live with that. The big 2.5" gear will now be
back on the drum shaft, outside of the frame as per Tubal's plan so that it
clears everything.
Working out the gear layout precisely was tricky
so I ended up drawing it out properly. There is a mixture of metric and
imperial dimensions because the Wilesco parts are metric and the Meccano parts
are Imperial. The overall frame size has to be larger than the original
Tubal Cain plan because of the different engine dimensions, but the general
shape and proportions are near enough for me.
Winch gear layout
For the winch frame sides, I used 1.5mm brass plate. I marked out and centre popped on one sheet, then clamped the two together and drilled through both.
Two plates drilled
Then just a quick alignment check to make sure I drilled the holes in the right places!
I did have to ream out some of the holes a bit,
for two reasons. Firstly, Meccano shafts just don't fit in 4mm holes. Secondly,
the first stage gears meshed just a bit too deeply so I enlarged the holes for
the base to give a bit of play to position the intermediate shaft correctly
relative to the crank shaft. This was something I was expecting and I was
happily surprised at how close they were.
The next step will be to clamp the two sheets
together again and saw out the frames to the correct overall shape and size. It
will have to be a hacksaw and file job. It would be nice to do it with
something like a bandsaw but I don't have anything that fancy.
I have now cut the two plates to shape.
Plates cut to shape
I could then assemble the winch, apart from the drum itself, ready for running test.
Winch assembled waiting for drum
The next step will probably be the winding drum. That will be a bit tricky without a lathe, but I have a cunning plan!
Well, the cunning plan for the winch drum actually worked, surprisingly. It consists of a brass tube with a pair of Meccano flanged wheels glued into the ends.
Parts of the drum
Drum partly assembled
I used Araldite instead of solder because the
tube I had to hand left too much of a gap to be filled with solder but the
Araldite worked fine.
The flanges on the Meccano wheels are not really
deep enough so I added a pair of Penny washers; glued again. In this case
because the heat of soldering would have ruined the existing glue bond.
End cheeks for drum
Drum completed
Here it is fitted into the winch. The hole in the middle of the drum is for anchoring the rope.
Drum fitted in winch
Tubal gives virtually no guidance for making the jib. He says to use whatever you have in your scrap box about 12" long! I didn't have anything suitable in my scrap box so I had to order something. I chose some 15mm square box section steel. It's a bit on the heavy side but it's never going to bend!
The jib
The bottom support is good old Meccano - I could make no better myself.
Bottom end of jib
Top end of jib
A quick lash-up of the pipework to confirm it all fits, before I tidy it up.
Pipework lash-up
There's an ugly mixture of pipe materials and sizes so I might paint them in the end; TBD.
Pipework engine connections
The exhaust goes into the chimney so I hope it doesn't put the fire out!
Pipework boiler connections
It all seems to fit together so the next job will be to start on the base.
Lots of holes drilled in the base - the layout is committed now.
Wood base drilled
The large holes only going half way through are just clearance for the screw heads on the bottom of the winch. The small holes are for wood screws. It's a hardish wood so these are imperative. The medium sized hole in the middle is for the optional turntable base. I'm not making one for this crane because I already made one for the LBSC one which can do for both. It makes the model too wide for a shelf so I display it without, and will do the same with this one.
Here it is all screwed down and the pipework tested on air with the boiler.
Mounted on base 1
Mounted on base 2
Mounted on base 3
The whistle that was with the boiler is a nice bell style one with a not so nice plastic valve ☹ I must try to find an old one with a proper metal valve.
'orible plastic handle
I also need to provide some sort of mechanism to operate the reversing lever from a more convenient location. At the moment, the lever is on top of the cylinders but I'd like it to be at the side near the globe valve, so it will need some sort of linkage.
I made an attempt at making a lever and linkage for the reverser, but it looked a bit naff. It looked very Meccanoish, which is not surprising because it was made of Meccano parts!
Reverser using Meccano
So I abandoned that idea and went for a much simpler solution. I just fitted an extension to the existing lever, which consists of a length of brass tube, flattened at one end and with a bronze ball soldered on the other end. It looks much better and is almost as convenient.
Reverser using extension
All wound up and (almost) ready to go. I had a bit of trouble with the cord rubbing at the top of the jib. This meant I had to partially dismantle and saw off a bit more metal. That's all fine now and steam test probably tomorrow.
Wired and cabled
Jib head and hook
Winding drum and stays
It passed it’s first steam test using a small gas burner. The meths burner I had earmarked for it just wasn’t man enough. I need either a larger meths burner or decide to always use gas.
A couple of things I need to look at before dismantling it all again for cleaning and painting. Some of the wood screws are JUST poking through the bottom and scratching the bench top! No problem on my work bench but it needs fixing. Secondly, I'm still not happy with the fixing of the boiler to the firebox. It has a temporary fix bit it needs tidying up. I'll also have a think about a suitable burner.
I've started dismantling and cleaning ready for painting. This will be a long job!
The winch is in bits ready for cleaning, stripping and painting.
Dismantled winch
The jib has already been painted and is curing on the hot plate (that was the easy bit):
Painted jib
The dangers of steam testing before completion. This is the oil and muck from just one test session of an engine that had been well used and stored uncleaned for years. Hopefully, the worst of it can be removed. Fortunately, most of it is out of sight under the winch.
Mucky base
The base cleaned up easily enough with an orbital sander, when it was dried out. I've now varnished it and I'm now waiting for the varnish to dry. It takes about 24 hrs!
Cleaned and varnished base
Most of the winch parts and base have been repainted and are now awaiting reassembly.
Winch frame parts painted
I've dismantled the firebox and I've decided I want to make a couple of minor mods before I paint it.
Dismantled firebox
I've decided to go with gas firing and have bought a set-up specially for it. However, I might fit the old set-up that I used for testing because it is more convenient for screwing down permanently. The new parts will then become my general test burner.
New gas burner
I've modified the firebox by replacing the jam jar lid with a much more substantial base, consisting of the existing brass ring soldered to a copper disk (copper simply because that was all I could find in the right size and thickness). The jubilee clip was used to hold the two together while soldering.
New firebox base
I temporarily reassembled the firebox with the gas burner screwed down and it all seems to fit nicely. The burner jet assembly overhangs the end of the base board but I can live with that.
Modified firebox with gas burner fitted
I can now carry on with the painting work.
And here he is, Heracles in all his glory!
I shall have to do a proper video some time but otherwise it's project completed :-)