Thursday, March 3, 2011

tiny tug boat part3

I really felt inspired today and have done sum more and here are the photos. The clamps are where one of the fingers delaminated and it has been re glued.

The photo below shows on the right where the triangular piece has been cut to allow the shape to be made.
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tiny tugboat part 2


I cut a heap of Origon to plank the boat and it needed steaming to get the shape. I thought that custom wood would take the bending with out steaming so I gave it a try. It works like a dream and here is the result of about 3 hours work. This is going to be a plug for the tug. The top photo shows the bow section with the planks on it. 

This photo shows the stern note the craft wood has had fingers cut to ease it into the curves.

Note the fingers cut into the wood.
This shows a block screwed into the back to give it some strength.This shows some of the Origon planks used to support the sides from the inside.

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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Ride in model tug boats have been put in the one place.

I have transferred all videos and photos of  ride in models to,
http://rideinmodelboats.blogspot.com/
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Sunday, February 27, 2011

New Tugboat under construction. Part1

 I have laid the keel to a new tug boat, It is seven feet long with a beam of 24" and a depth from the deck to the keel of 19" This will be a series of construction notes and photos of the build. I have no plans and is being built from my head as I go. So what it is going to look like who knows not even me. Please feel free to share but I would like the credit thank you all.
This is a close up of the bow section,it has been cut from craft wood which is a particle board.
It all slots together and is really strong the glue is liquid nails.

This has just been taken as the rain falls.
 
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Monday, February 7, 2011

Model tug

This is my tug boat that I built 40 years ago, It is older than my youngest son. I will let the photos talk, The real tug was sailed from South Shields to Australia as a top sail schooner, the propeller was removed for the trip. It also towed the last sailing ship into Sydney harbor. It was sunk twice during its life once under Sydney harbor bridge and was lifted 3 years later with the death of a diver ,she was the first tug to work in Pt Kembla and worked in Newcastle as well. The last time she was sunk was trying to help a ship in Port Kembla harbor and was cut up on the spot. I dived in the sight and found a copper fitting very eroded by time and cast the bell for the model from the remains.So here are the photos.

 This photo shows the forty year old electric motor which incredibly still works

 The skipper was one Jimmy Robinson who I meet and was the skipper when she went down the second time I was nine at the time and my dad took me to see the boat upside down in the water . Jimmy liked the model/Note the bell..
 The figure of the skipper was carved out of wood and was unbelievably like Jimmy the skipper.
 Life boat made from paper
 These are the tow hooks the closes one has the release handle broken off.
 The real tug was a riveted hull
 Many years of dust and the last photo shows the knortz nozzle which on the on the model and the real tug made both more maneuverable. The bollard pull rose from three tons to nine tons on the original.
 The next three photos show the switching and after forty years definitely need renewing.  The thing to note is the way the wiring is set up for forward and reverse.
 The larger blue and white wires are from the battery supply and the other two go to the motor. The blue and white are taken the the other switch with link wires to the same terminals (they the link wires do not touch)

this is a bit hard to see on the photos.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Tiny tug


I took the little tug out today for a run and it performed very well. This is a photo with the roof off,  It is surprisingly hot in the cabin with the roof on.

The jetty was built by the residents in the area many years ago, This is near to where I got the recycled boat from.

I went over to the end of the point to the left of the photo. The waves were coming over the deck at the front and I stayed dry inside.. When I was coming back this bloke saw the little tug and thought she was a big one coming towards him and he waited to see it run aground and then realized it was small but not this small that's when I had the roof on.......It is very stable with the roof and was a joy to be in....
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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

recycled boat

Recycled organic boat part 1

This is the start of a new project, an electric boat from the swamps! Its amazing when you can see good in every thing. Just have ago you will be amazed what you can do. I called this post recycled organic boat as you can see it was over run with organic matter of all sorts. I will post more images as the images become available on this post.
Posted by imagineering at 8:10 PM
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Recycled organic boat part 2

The photo above shows the patch with the timber supports removed
This photo shows the interior before glassing with silicon smoothed over the timber as a release agent
This is the hole with the timber attached to the hull before glassing the gaps were filled with some of the old gunnel timber. More photos will be posted when available. Does any one out there in computer land have any photos of my entry in the solar boat race in Canberra of a few years ago. cheers Stewart Posted by imagineering at 2:54 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Recycled organic boat part 3

The tops of the seats were cut out to find the treasures within. "Compost"
This is a religious boat cause its pretty holey

Posted by imagineering at 8:01 PM
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Friday, October 16, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 4

The new stem post being fitted along with the gunnel timbers.

Posted by imagineering at 7:36 PM
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Recycled organic boat part 5

There is one thing I was told when I was younger by a friend who made steam engines. Is to make one piece a day. In a steam engine there is about 360 pieces and at the end of the year you had the best part of that engine. Some parts took longer to make that is the boiler, and if this took another two months then you had an operational locomotive in fourteen months. Same goes for boats its just one piece at a time, and in a boat there is about two months worth. Note there are two pieces made and glued on to the hull. I will try to keep up dating this every day so you can check on how long it takes to restore a boat like this one. cheers Stewart.
Posted by imagineering at 5:05 PM
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Recycled organic boat part 6

Today I managed to get the timber on the gunnels. The stem post was glassed in yesterday and it will be another day to do the final of the under deck timber work. Note the joins in the timber on the gunnels, If I was using new timber I would not have to have done this. This is the drawback of using old or recycled timber. On the middle photo it shows timber clamps with wedges to hold the timber while the glue dries. ...cheers Stewart
Posted by imagineering at 9:17 PM
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 7

Transom deck beam and fore deck beams made and placed on boat today.The timber came from an old double bed from the tip.Tomorrow I will have to scrounge some more timber for the deck beams.cheers Stewart
Posted by imagineering at 7:34 PM



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Recycled organic boat part 8

Got the timber and have made some frames and glued them in. New transom beams. The deck is not far away. cheers Stewart
Posted by imagineering at 11:35 PM
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Recycled organic boat part 9

Found this chairon the materials quest and glued it back together and glued in the knees on the cross beams Im not sure if the cross beams are strong enough so I think I will reinforce the beams to the hull with more knees.cheers Stewart


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Monday, October 26, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 10

I put in a couple of beams today
I put in a couple of beams today, some of the joint from yesterday failed and needed doing again. more glue was needed total cost to date is.
$ 97 for fibre glass.
$5 for timber
$17.85 for glue
$30.00 for deck timber
total=$149.85

Got some good spotted gum for the deck at Isons hardware store old stock and discontinued. I took the lot. cheers Stewart
Posted by imagineering at 11:05 PM

Tuesday, October 27, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 11

The planks on the deck have started to be laid. There are gaps in the deck and two planks will be glued to the deck timbers to keep them in line. The rest of the timbers rely on the first two to keep them in line

cheers Stewart
Posted by imagineering at 5:46 PM

Wednesday, October 28, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 12

Just a few more photos, you will notice the timbers have been routed on the edge for more deck beams. The centre line deck beam has been fitted and glued. I spent the rest of the day with a mate and went to the tip and scored some great items, which included a bench grinder and a three horse power robin engine and a cylinder for a bush stove, which I will post about in another post. The new vise glue foams more than the last lot and seams to bind better. cheers Stewart


Posted by imagineering at 10:30 PM

Thursday, October 29, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 13

As seen in the photo the deck beams have been laid and the deck is being glued down. It was a good day and a lot was accomplished.The deck material is spotted gum.
cheers Stewart

Posted by imagineering at 9:33 PM


























Friday, October 30, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 14




Well you wouldn't believe it , I didn't have enough timber for the deck and the stuff I have used is old stock and out of date. Its enough to make you throw your hat in the river and jump in after it. So its back to scavenging and Kmart and Bunnings don't have the stuff. So where do you get the timber to finish the deck, I goes into Independent Floors across the road from Bunnings and wallah and low and behold they have some stuff that can be milled down to size it is the same spotted gum as the last lot but a different colour, The top photo shows the colour difference and the bottom photo shows the difference in thickness the centre piece is the milled one. The centre photo shows today's progress. I also got the hinges for the stove for free. So tomorrow I have some work ahead of me.

A few years ago my mate Ray worked at the rubbish tip as a professional scavenger and this bloke rang him on his mobile and was placing an order for his requirements and the list was about as long as your arm and Ray finally stopped him with the words,"this ain't Kmart its the f#%&^*# rubbish tip for Pete's sake" when Ray got off the phone he said to me that he would fill the order without trouble and that it happens on a regular basis..
So now I expect things to come to me as required and it works. I started this project on the 13th and wonder I can get it in the water in a month from start.
cheers Stewart
Posted by imagineering at 9:05 PM  


Sunday, November 1, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 15



Got the deck on I now have to trim the edges and put some coming timber on.cheers Stewart
Posted by imagineering at 9:49 PM
























Monday, November 2, 2009


Recycled organic boat part 16

The deck is now on and trimmed to size .cheers Stewart


Posted by imagineering at 5:27 PM

























I have turned the boat to fix some of the smaller holes in the hull. I used the hoist on the trailer to do this.







Wednesday, November 25, 2009


recycled boat part 17




This shows one of the smaller holes in the bow

This is one of the stress holes in the bottom from the seats  at the rear of the boat




Thursday, November 26, 2009


recycled boat part 18


I got to thank the little chinaman who makes  these bungs by the thousands so I can put one of them on me boat. I buys it for $2.50 so the little worker gets less than that. So he says the greedy bustards and I sympathises with him cause its all relivent to where you live.
Posted by imagineering at 2:59 PM



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Saturday, December 5, 2009


Recycled boat part 19


It came time to turn the boat again and without the use of the crane on the trailer it would have been impossible by myself..

the next series of photos shows the process.
There it is easy done. I will put the outboard bracket on tomorrow.




Posted by imagineering at 9:10 PM


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Monday, December 7, 2009


Recycled boat part 20



I went out today to get four bolts for the boat and came home with a sail board. What do you do when you see a bargain. Well I got the bolts and will do some more work on the boat tomorrow..
Posted by imagineering at 11:37 PM

Recycled boat part 21

Today I took the boat down to the water and put her in the liquid stuff. It floated well and when the motor was started it took off like a rocket even with the three hp motor. There was four tiny leaks in the hull and these were blocked up with some twigs pushed into the holes. The motor mount that I made bent under the strain of the motor and it tilted enough to send the fuel to the back of the fuel tank and the motor stopped,  I was unable to get a real good idea of the performance but it will be good.  I got out a paddle and it paddled so easily. I think I will make one of them single rowing oars that I read about as this boat will fly with one. The first sight of the hull and her lines suggested that she was fast and stable in that swamp. Turns out that I was right. This boat is a real goer. Sorry that there is no photos as I left the camera behind..The sail board that I bought yesterday turns out to be two sail boards and have all the equipment with them,  I will make them into a land yacht.  Remember the stove I was making it failed to burn properly but makes fantastic charcoal. Thanks for reading the blog,  there will be no posts for a while as I am going to be busy for a while, probably a week....  Have a great Christmas and new year if I forget.... cheers Stewart
Posted by imagineering at 9:01 PM

Sunday, December 20, 2009


Recycled boat part 22

I decided that the glue alone was not strong enough to hold the deck down and bought some stainless steel screws  to hold it on. Total cost $103 + previous costings149.85 + bung 2.50 = $255.35.  Then there is the bolts for the outboard brackets $42.00 + $255.35  =  $297.35.  Two spoons from the tip to make washers $1= Total to this point $298.35.    I have been given some paint to paint the hull so what I got is going to be the colour of the hull.

This boat building is costly for a free boat.  I haven't factored in time at commercial rates which would be roughly 22 days x say $15 per hour x eight hours per day  would equal say 22 x 15 x 8 = $ 2640

Then there is electricity fuel to get parts cost of car and insurances tools and there depreciation add say $100 insurance fuel say $100 tools say $100 use able things like sandpaper  and saw blades especially when I hits a nail.  This total = $300

Add to that administration charges, using the trailer as an example. Cost of article + 10 % and this would be.

2640 labour

 298.35 parts


$300 for fuel etc.

sub total $3038.35

Add administration charges $3038.35

grand total = $6076.70

Free boat not so free. Worth doing probably not but it is different. New laws in Australia require new boats to be engineered and certified, making the building of new boats impracticable for the armature
Posted by imagineering at 10:35 AM

Tuesday, December 22, 2009


Recycled boat part 23

This is the bow with the gunnel rail screwed on. The stainless piece to stop the wood splitting is a cut down spoon screwed on.

This is the transom with the outboard motor bracket attached.  Note the gunnel rail to the left also the bolt has a spoon as a washer to stop the bolt pulling into the wood. I was a bit dubious about hthe strength of the glue and screwed the deck down with stainless screws.
Posted by imagineering at 10:07 PM

Wednesday, December 23, 2009


Recycled boat part 24

Getting there the deck is on and screwed down and the gunnel rails are screwed on I used 2" by 6guage decking screws in stainless





The hull has just been painted and the rain started but I think it is dry enough all is looking good for a launch in the new year...The total days worked on the boat is to this day 24. Not bad from the first photo which I will display when the boat is totally finished on the same page for comparison..Crikey its two days till Christmas..cheers Stewart
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