Missouri is sinking (sort of)

[JAD_333]

Originally Posted by RustyBattleship

Actually, given the resources of Pearl Harbor NSY across the channel and the proper budget, directing/designing/monitoring the repairs is right up my alley. Been there, done that.

Only problem is finding somebody to take care of our dogs while I'm climbing around in one of my favorite ships (in 39 years in the shipyard) and the wife is using the Hawaiin climate to heal the incisions in her leg and the cancer treatments of her breast. If anybody needs a break, she does.

Rusty:

Sorry to hear about your wife's health struggles. I am at the point where I know how hard it must be. Dogs do have a way of constricting our freedom of movement. Maybe you could act as a consulatant. Let em know you're around. Ought not waste a good resource, eh...

[RustyBattleship]

Originally Posted by JAD_333

Rusty:

Sorry to hear about your wife's health struggles. I am at the point where I know how hard it must be. Dogs do have a way of constricting our freedom of movement. Maybe you could act as a consulatant. Let em know you're around. Ought not waste a good resource, eh...

Thanks for your concern. But we'll make it. It's just a day dream of mine that they would call us over to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. It was Captain Hess who recommended me to inspect the Iowa last year up in Benecia.

So they know I'm available. But there are some very well qualified ship repair people in Pearl Harbor NSY as well. I wouldn't mind being the overseer of the repairs however and if I bring my welding hood with me they might even let me strike an arc on the shell repair.

[RAL's_pal?]

Originally Posted by Gun Grape

All the exposure to the elements would make it worthless for large projects, and I'd hate to run it through a planer. No telling whats embedded in it.

I have a couple of chunks of teak from the BB's that are in excellent shape, nothing embedded in them and one piece still has some of the caulking on the side.

Originally Posted by Gun Grape

If nothing else, imagine a former Missouri sailor recieving a plaque to commemorate his time aboard. And that plaque being made from actual deck boards of the ship.

The Battleship Engineers of the Jersey presented my dad a block of teak with a brass ship emblem on it and an inscription. It's a nice keepsake

The shipyard woodworkers also made a plaque by cutting out an image of the BB out of thin teak and putting it on a regular section of plaque wood with an engraved brass plate with the Misery's name and the re-activation overhaul dates. I have one on the wall and another out in the garage somewhere.

Originally Posted by Gun Grape

Seems to me a worthy item in the gift shop. Plaques or packages of 1-2 board feet of wood.

At LBNSY, the woodworking shop took a bunch of teak from the Misery and cut and planed it into pieces of approx 3" x 2" x 1/2", stamped it USS Missouri, and gave them out during Visitor's Day. Before the yard closed, the Serivce Group Shop Planner found a stash and gave them to me. I was passing them out to people for quite a while. Remember, TopHatter?

[Dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Gun Grape

I wonder what they will do with the Teak they remove?

I'm sure some BB loving woodworkers would pay a good price for a chunk of it.
All the exposure to the elements would make it worthless for large projects, and I'd hate to run it through a planer. No telling whats embedded in it.

If nothing else, imagine a former Missouri sailor recieving a plaque to commemorate his time aboard. And that plaque being made from actual deck boards of the ship.

Seems to me a worthy item in the gift shop. Plaques or packages of 1-2 board feet of wood.

I have a fairly original slab that was given to me from one of the sister ships. I'm waiting to have the model finished and then will be mounted on said teak slab.

[RustyBattleship]

Another of my Battleship enthusiasts sent me the full original copy of the article with the attached diagram.

The bottom drawing shows the decking to be laminate on top of the steel structural deck.

IF the decking is laminate - then that's the problem. That's only 1/2" of teak glued on top of Douglas Fir. That was tried on New Jersey in 1968 and turned out to be a horrible idea.

But as usual, the younger "engineers" and bean counters will not learn from history. As usual they will repeat not just history, but mostly its mistakes.

However, the photo in the upper right corner shows a piece of decking being removed with a pry bar. And it doesn't look like laminate. But the color is not reddish enough to be Teak and may just be Douglas Fir.

Also the bottom drawing is totally incorrect in identifying the type of steel the deck is. The "armored" portion of the Main Deck is 1 1/2" thick Special Treated Steel (STS) that is chemically almost the same exact composition of Class B armor. But it is rolled steel plate and not cast steel slabs as Class B. Nor is it face hardened by heat treatment as Class A.

PS: Notice the era difference between the perspective drawing and the real ship?

[JAD_333]

rusty,"However, the photo in the upper right corner shows a piece of decking being removed with a pry bar. And it doesn't look like laminate. But the color is not reddish enough to be Teak and may just be Douglas Fir."

Seems to me teak gets gray when weathered; it could be laminate in the picture; some laminate needs a real close inspection to detect the layers; wonder why they used a doug fir/teak laminate when everyone knows the two woods have different shrinkage properties; besides doug fir will rot a lot sooner than teak compared to woods such as redwood, cedar and locust...now a locust/teak laminate would be tough...if you can find locust that isn't diseased.

[Gun Grape]

Originally Posted by JAD_333

Seems to me teak gets gray when weathered; it could be laminate in the picture; some laminate needs a real close inspection to detect the layers; wonder why they used a doug fir/teak laminate when everyone knows the two woods have different shrinkage properties; besides doug fir will rot a lot sooner than teak compared to woods such as redwood, cedar and locust...now a locust/teak laminate would be tough...if you can find locust that isn't diseased.

hey, I was going to type the same thing. Camphorwood (kapur) would also work well.

I wonder what Big Brain thought of the DougFur/Teak laminate?

[JAD_333]

Originally Posted by Gun Grape

hey, I was going to type the same thing. Camphorwood (kapur) would also work well.

Figured you'd pop up on this one.

Camphorwood has the same hardness but rots really easily...5 yrs in frequent contact with a wet surface and it's a gonner...it's not used for flooring as far as I know. But it's great for jewelry boxes and fine carving. The sacreligious would use Trex.

I wonder what Big Brain thought of the DougFur/Teak laminate?

Yeah, it would be interesting to see their bid papers.

[RustyBattleship]

Originally Posted by JAD_333

Quote:
I wonder what Big Brain thought of the DougFur/Teak laminate?

.

Hope you're sitting down when you read this. Better yet, buckle up a safety belt.

The "order" to use laminate came directly from Buships in 1968 for the New Jersey deployment to Viet Nam. Engineers who minored in bean counting while in college came up with that.

During the 1980's reactivations, they still wanted to order it and I argued against it. Due to "budget retrictions" Douglas Fir was put on New Jersey.

Later Navsea (formerly Buships) wanted to use Hec-Pec (sp?). To this day I still don't know what THAT is.

And don't care either.

[RustyBattleship]

Okay. I have the solution for them.

1. Remove all wood decking from Main Deck, 01 level, 02 level and 03 level.

2. Replace with Terazzo to cover all butt straps, rivets tripping hazards, etc. Terrazo is the common deck covering in galleys, reefers and heads. It is tough, durable and easily applied with a wheel barrow and trowel.

3. After Terrazo is set, cover it with 1/4" thick imitation hardwood. It is relatively very cheap and easy to replace or patch.

See attached photo of my kitchen floor.

[Gun Grape]

Originally Posted by JAD_333

Figured you'd pop up on this one.

Camphorwood has the same hardness but rots really easily...5 yrs in frequent contact with a wet surface and it's a gonner...it's not used for flooring as far as I know. But it's great for jewelry boxes and fine carving. The sacreligious would use Trex.

I've used it for a few adirondack chairs and patio table.

The chairs are a beautiful grey color (close to teak) the table gets a nice rubbing of oil twice a year.

Trex- OMG people down here love that stuff. And I hate using it.

[JAD_333]

Originally Posted by RustyBattleship

Hope you're sitting down when you read this. Better yet, buckle up a safety belt.

The "order" to use laminate came directly from Buships in 1968 for the New Jersey deployment to Viet Nam. Engineers who minored in bean counting while in college came up with that.

During the 1980's reactivations, they still wanted to order it and I argued against it. Due to "budget retrictions" Douglas Fir was put on New Jersey.

Why am I not surprised. I guess they were trying to get around a budget shortfall...fix it for a few years and then do it all over again...

How'd you make out in your opposition?

3. After Terrazo is set, cover it with 1/4" thick imitation hardwood. It is relatively very cheap and easy to replace or patch.

Surely you jest. That's a formica-like surface...fine for the home and some commercial uses, but wouldn't stand up under heavy machinery and shop work environment. And the substrate swells when it gets wet. We're very reluctant to use it in a basement prone to flooding.

Maybe one of the new synthetic decking materials would work. The original was Trex...plastic and sawdust, but now companies like DuPont, Reynolds and Alcoa make a knock off that's pretty good and it takes a beating.

[JAD_333]

Originally Posted by Gun Grape

I've used it for a few adirondack chairs and patio table.

The chairs are a beautiful grey color (close to teak) the table gets a nice rubbing of oil twice a year.

I didn't know that. Sounds like a good idea. Any less expensive than teak which if memory serves is around $22 a bd. ft.??

Trex- OMG people down here love that stuff. And I hate using it.

Me too. Heavy as concrete. Heavier than wet pressure treated. Best to predrill all the fastener holes and use anti-mushrooming screws. And it's non-structural, so you're still using wood for joists and posts. There's another type--can't recall the name--that's half the weight of Trex and shaped like half a narrow I-beam. Pretty nice, but pretty expensive. But you know all that. .[/quote]

[TopHatter]

Originally Posted by RAL's_pal?

IAt LBNSY, the woodworking shop took a bunch of teak from the Misery and cut and planed it into pieces of approx 3" x 2" x 1/2", stamped it USS Missouri, and gave them out during Visitor's Day. Before the yard closed, the Serivce Group Shop Planner found a stash and gave them to me. I was passing them out to people for quite a while. Remember, TopHatter?

Oh I might have placed it in a prominent spot in my library or something...

Pretty well floored me (no pun intended) when I got that in the mail.

[RustyBattleship]

Originally Posted by JAD_333

Why am I not surprised. I guess they were trying to get around a budget shortfall...fix it for a few years and then do it all over again...

How'd you make out in your opposition?

I lost of course. They didn't think that a Structural Hull tech who spent the first 10 years of his civil service as a Ship Fitter would know anything about wood.

When I applied for a job at the shipyard (waaaaay back in 1954) I wanted the wood shop. But there was only one opening and the guy ahead of me took it.

As I implied earlier, the younger "balls-of-fire" guys are too young to pay much heed to older and (much) more experienced seniors. Therefore when they repeat history, it's usually history's MISTEAKS.

(miss pelling deeliberatedly dun)