cradle design | The RELIANCE Project

As seems to happen often on the RELIANCE PROJECT, kind people are attracted to the model. So, I’d like to speak of one in particular – Andrew Wright and his team of AMA Engineering. AMA Engineering has a wonderful machine shop in its Smart Move Modular Conveyors Division in Westport, MA. (We are very jealous of the machines and capabilities in this shop. A candy store for machinists! BTW, they make conveyors for cruise ships and navy vessels, among other things. www.4smartmove.com)

As we started our cradle, we were looking for a machine shop to drill holes and weld rods to blocks when we stumbled upon him.

Not only did his shop consult with us on cradle materials and our manufacturing and installation concerns, but they drilled the holes and welded the rods in place, and then cut the rods to final length — all at no charge. On top of that, when we were at loose ends about the drilling bit, they procured and modified one complete with fabricated extension – again at no charge.

With these savings we were able to complete our wooden spar displays. These exhibits which surround the model are so important to the RELIANCE story and bringing her alive.

So, our deepest appreciation to Andrew and his crew at Smart Move/ AMA Engineering. You made a very difficult production step easy and our exhibit much, much better. We’ll make sure your contribution is noted in our final display.

Thanks from the whole RELIANCE team

We’re finally doing it! Drilling the holes in the solid keel for cradle support rods.

It took us days to get the alignment as accurate as we could. We’ve used laser leveling and good old geometry with string and tape measure in a modern and old school “belt and suspenders” approach. We hopefully have measured twice and drilled once to get this accurate.

We are drilling three 2-1/8″ diameter holes up through the keel, spaced 12″ apart. We’ll insert three 2″ diameter steel rods up through these holes. Gaps will be filled with epoxy.

Our first hole took 2 1/2 hours to drill using a diamond tipped drill. The second hole seems to be going faster.

We are constrained where we can drill by the thickness of the keel. The keel must be at least 2-3/4″ so we’ll have 3/8″ wall thickness. So, all we could get was a length of 24″ to support RELIANCE.

Enjoy the pictures which show progress to date. Hopefully sessions Saturday and next Tuesday will conclude drilling operations!

1-3. Steve Siok measures keel thickness with our high-tech measuring device – home-made wooden caliper with arms 2 3/4″ apart. (validated by drilling small holes and measuring thickness and keel material composition. These holes also confirm that the keel is indeed solid). We also confirmed that the fore and aft balance point” BP” will be “between the pipes.”

4-7. Our drill bit assembly – note the card showing the comparison of size of RELIANCE to the Space Shuttle – done by our RWU intern Aaron Towers 8. Picture of the three 2″ o.d. rods with attachment plates that will inserted into the three holes we are about to drill. The attachment plates will be bolted to a 6′ x 6′ a 1″ steel road plate weighing about 1,500 lbs. Before assembly, we’ll put oak “keel blocks” on top of the attachment plates. These will be conformal to keel shape and angle of heel, and the keel will rest on these rather than on steel.

9-10. Keith Bradley, Sandy Lee, Steve and Bill Lawton measure face and butt height alignment of the drill from base of drill rails to height of level laser line. This culminated many measurement activities. First, fore and aft RELIANCE hull levelness as well as her sideways levelness were checked by laser. Then the drill assembly was aligned to be perpendicular to the waterline which had been marked on the upper part of the keel and the drill bit was centered to the hole to be drilled. Finally, we then ensured that the drill bit and drill assembly were level. These last steps will be repeated as we go to the second and third holes.

11-17. Various pictures of crew drilling. Note the road plate mentioned above gives a steady base for the drill