USS MONITOR
ENGINE BUILD
Part 3 by Vince Cutajar
USS MONITOR
ENGINE BUILD
Part 3 by Vince Cutajar
The USS Monitor was an ‘ironclad’ steam ship which famously saw service in the Civil War in the early 1860s. The ship's engine was designed by John Ericsson as a "vibrating side-lever engine." He had created similar engines before and decided to use the design again because of its advantage for a small, low-riding warship.
Most steam engines of the time had vertical pistons, which occupied a lot of space and made them vulnerable to enemy fire because they were partially above the waterline. In contrast, the Monitor's 30-ton, 400 horsepower engine had pistons that moved horizontally, which reduced the height of the engine and allowed it to be mounted below the waterline.
Although a successful fighting ship the Monitor was not stable in rough seas due to its formidable rotating turret and sank in the early hours of January 1, 1863.
The engine was recovered from the Monitor's wreck site in 2001. It is now resting upside-down in an alkaline solution to inhibit corrosion. Over the coming years, conservators will continue to clean and separate the many different pieces of the engine to preserve them properly.
The first model Monitor was shown at Harrogate in 2014 by Brian Stephenson to the design of Bob Middleton. It was built without castings, like Bob’s other designs. Julius de Waal has produced these CAD drawings for both metric and imperial (see here) versions. A double sized version can be found here. Drawings can be downloaded for personal use only.
This one is built to Julius’ metric drawings.
I made both rocker shafts (item 35) from 12mm silver steel. I also made some spacers that go on the rocker shaft. These are items 36 (2 off), item 50 and item 51. Wanted to make them from 303 stainless but could not get a short piece. Was offered 304 or 316 instead and made them from 316.
Wanted to do something easy on return so I chose items 40 and 41 which are the rocker shaft arm centre spacers. I would have liked to do them with 303 stainless but my usual supplier refused to cut me a piece but he was able to cut me a piece from 316.
Machined to length and drilled and reamed a 12mm hole.
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