# 72' Pennsylvania standard wooden derrick project



## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

This one may take me all winter, so be patient. 

I've wanted to do this project for several years -- actually I WANT to do 3 of them eventually. The first one will be a pretty scale 'operating' foreground model version - to help figure out what corners I can cut on the other two which will be static. 

The Oil Heritage folks were nice enough to scan some Jerecki (Erie, Pa) standard rig info;

















plus I've scrounged some old photos like these.

















If I get stuck, I'll take a ride up to the museum at Titusville.
http://www.drakewell.org/

Right now there isn't much to show. I have a largish pile of various sized lengths of wood. I have hand copied the Jarecki bill of materials onto a sheet of paper so I can scribble notes as I cut stuff (besides the scan is blurry when you blow it up!) One probable change from true scale will be square stock for the derrick legs rather than built up angle- simply for strength. I'll also have to come up with a way to lay the derrick down for easier transport....

More later.....


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Did I happen to mention that this thing will be uncompressed and is gonna be HUGE? This is just the main sill and mud sills. But this part alone is 15" long. 









Assembled drill floor sills... 10" x 10-1/2" 









Already 2 feet long, and that's only the derrick section! Sampson post and headache post are installed, so I'm at a stopping point for the night. 









Tomorrow I'll figure out how to cut the walking beam.


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## chrisb (Jan 3, 2008)

A 23 guage pin nailer may be a help with this project


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

I was down with the crud for a couple of days, so I didn't feel like doing much. Today I felt a bit better, so I shaped the walking beam and started to put down the drill floor.... and promptly ran out of coffee stirrers. We're having a bit of lake effect snow, so I'm not quite dumb enough to run out for them.









The pivot for the walking beam (upper left in the photo below) will be in constant motion for hours at a time on the model. It needs to be something that will last with little attention. I don't have a milling machine to mill Delrin. Brass on brass would probably wear out too fast. Any ideas?


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## DKRickman (Mar 25, 2008)

Mik, 

If the pressure on the bearing is low, then I would think that brass on brass would last almost indefinitely when properly lubricated. Think of HO scale brass models - there is usually a steel axle running in a brass or bronze bearing, and many have lasted for decades of regular operation without a bearing failure. Just make sure there's a little oil in there and let it go. If you're really worried about it, use a steel axle and make the bearing replaceable.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I am very interested in what you are doing. What scale are you building this for? Narrow Gauge? How tall is it? 

I need a dareck for the NR&W 

JJ


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

JJ, I'm building in 1:24... makes the math easy. A 72 foot derrick is then 3 feet tall... and fairly inexpensive stripwood is available to me in 3 foot lengths.... except this thing is eating up what I already bought like crazy. This one will be framed and board on board. I've already come to the conclusion that the others will use plywood for the drill floor and walls.


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

Hey Mik, You are off to a very nice start. Can't wait to see your progress. I'm not sure if Titusville or Pittsburgh is closer to you. But there is a derrick down here that is still intact too. I've been meaning to go get some pictures of it before it disappears any way. Oh, and we have much less snow to deal with.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

13 months? Really? WOW!! 

Picking up where I left off 400+ days ago.... cutting coffee stirrers. 









The derrick floor alone required 80 coffee stirrers. If Kim only grabs a dozen or so extra ones with every cup of coffee, this thing will cost a bloody fortune! (good thing a few other folks scarf 'em for me too!) 









Bored with match cutting, I decided to start work on the derrick itself. A bit of coroplast worked quite well for drawing a template upon. The legs SHOULD be L shaped, but I figured the 1:1 world would be too hard on it, so solid 3/8" square will serve 









small nails are used for locating pins and to help give the joints strength 









I got two sides to this point before I ran out of the 3/8" stuff. I'll need to take a ride to Grove City (14 mi away) to get more.... hopefully not a year from now, Maybe Tuesday?


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

This morning I found 2 sticks of 3/8" stock (4 feet total) that had fallen behind a dresser... Yay! Not enough to finish the derrick, but enough to complete the two sides with some left over! 









The bottom 3 sections of cross bracing were all longer than your standard coffee stirrer, so I did what the old timers did... splice 'em long enough 









Derrick going up! 









Once more, I used nails for locator pins on the corners. Hopefully it never gets whacked hard enough to split the legs. 









While all that was drying, I decided it was time to start on the steam drilling engine. These engines came in sizes from about 8"b x 10" s to 12"b x 15"s... the most common in this area were 10" x 10". 

















A couple typical identifying features of a drill engine were the large, narrow rim flywheel, and the big vertical lever connected to the link reverse (a reach rod connected to this and ran out to the drill floor) 

One of the neighbors was tossing out a broken r/c car (no remote), so I decided to narrow up the rear end to motorize this thing. The flywheel and pulley are Ertl. I'll mount this to a block, then fabricate the rest of the engine around it.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

All I got done on this today...


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

Wow. looking good. You blended in the motor block of the car really well. Have you thought of the speed that the little car probably went? How do you plan to slow it? Apply very low voltage? The whole thing really looks good. I've been looking forward to you hopping back on this horse and riding her to the finish for a while.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm thinking about a solar panel, but I'm not sure if it'd work. They have 2v and 3.5v ones on fleabay pretty rreasonable. 
Option 2 is I have a Lemax wall transformer that puts out 3v. 

One drawback with this particular drive. The car must have been ancient. the gears are all metal, it's NOISY


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

15 sec vid of the engine running. I've been trying to get rid of that #$&@ wobble all afternoon... turns out the hub is cracked. I made a compression band from a bit of Plastuct tube, and manage to get the runout down to 1/16" 
http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j371/AlleghenyValley/?action=view&current=P1180001.mp4


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Neat project Mik. With all the work you will put into it, I think I'd get a better motor setup.


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Cool project!


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Jerry Barnes on 18 Jan 2012 06:49 PM 
With all the work you will put into it, I think I'd get a better motor setup. 




It's what I have. That and about $6 to last until the 3rd.-- “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” wasn't just for WWII


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

I'm sure will have lots of life left in it. It was meant for some kid to beat on. I think it's new life will be much easier than it's old one. The speed shown in your video looks great. Besides when it's outside you won't hear it with all the other sounds around.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Fill, sand paint, repeat -- until you get it right, or in this case, close enough. 









backhead detail from brass nails and beads 









Smokebox door is Kalamazoo. It's a little fancy for an oil field boiler, especially after about 1880, but it was here. 









Stack transition started. I'll use a 2" sanding drum in the drill press to shape the bottom to fit the boiler. 









Hard to believe, but that tiny bit of progress was 3 hours work.... much of it spent just scratching my head and disturbing the termites (aka thinking how to proceed)


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

For your amusement, here's a few more ancient photos I found.. 
Some real early rigs were as short as 36 or 40 feet tall 

















Rigs under construction 1865ish 









drying laundry on steam lines in Cali 









Another wooden rig in Indiana 









A period sketch. And yes, many folks DID drill for oil in their back yards, literally.... imagine what your average HOA would have to say about THAT! 









An early tank farm for loading oil 









Antebellum "tank cars" were just barrels on flat cars 









Followed by the wooden tanks on flat cars


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

If I am not mistaken, those barrels were the start of the Rockefeller Fortune!


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

I haven't been procrastinating, exactly - more trying to figure out how to do stuff that simply hasn't jelled, even yet... But here are some progress pics of the various bits, anyway 

My big problem was, and still is the bull wheel... I need to make the two wheels about 3" or 3-1/4" in dia x 3/8" wide, but haven't quite figured out how to make the rims without a LOT of work -- any ideas? 









Easier to make was the well jack... 









A chopped up Ozark railroad jack and a bit of 2mm square Plastruct worked really well. 

















Getting the center irons to look right stumped me for a few days as well... 









But in the end, I think they came out OK - and it works free and easy 









The big bandwheel was cut by hand, and sanded round... and it doesn't wobble too badly, so the belt should stay on 









I could only afford 5 pulleys off Ozark, so my crownblock is freelanced - and summat simplified. 

















Fitting the crossbracing is a much bigger PiTA vertical like this than it looks... I've been doing a little off and on for 2 weeks. It's about 3/4 done. 









The enginehouse side walls have been framed for about a week. 









This morning I added the windows. Tonight I'll cut a mess of coffee stirrers to plank them 









And that's where it stands tonight


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

Allean can you section some PVC pipe for the rims of the wheels you need?


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Framing for the beltway extension. On the model it's just a big empty, but on a real rig not only would the 'telegraph' rope to the engine throttle, reverse reach rod, and sand reel lever run through it, but stuff like fishing tools, spare jars and coils of extra wire rope would be stored in there as well. Handy for when you need them, but otherwise out of the way. As usual, I'm allergic to making too many details nobody will see. 









Planking going on... 









Jumping around a bit, the side walls of the enginehouse went up... 









My usual cheater roof trusses. 









The bull wheel. A big thank you to Steve Widener for the hint I needed! I remembered this morning that I had a 3" pvc pipe couple in my scrapbox (to make traction engine wheels). The spokes are tongue depressor size craft sticks. 









mounted and braced. Now I just need to find the ball of surveyor's string that I put somewhere obvious so I wouldn't lose it........................... 









The freezer is about 6" too short! 









Trying to visualize the layout of the boiler and enginehouse 









Sand reel is a spool and two wooden nickles. I really wanted to roof the beltway with corrugated sheet. But I never got around to buying a crimper, so 'tarpaper' it will be - once it stops snowing long enough to spray the aluminum furnace tape flat black (or maybe flat olive green) 









The derrick itself is probably 95% done now. The only major bits missing are the wire ropes, the walking beam stirrup and pitman, crank, and temper screw... Another day or two (or maybe 13 months!) and maybe $5 worth of parts will probably finish it. The enginehouse needs the siding on the end walls and roof. plus a bunch of details... And the beltway needs built. But first I really need to find a piece of decent plywood for a base (about 15" x 40"!)


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Mik, 
Interesting build. Old oil town in Oklahoma, where my parents retired to had the remains of one of those, I got some pix, but later it burned in a fire, sad....The museum in the town has a model of it, and it is big! Nice work you are doing. 
jerry


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Mik, you are one hard-workin' guy. That's a fine derrick. Now if ya built a bunch of them to "populate" a whole oil field, ya could avoid planting trees as part o your landscape.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

I've gotten more accomplished, but have to wait a few days to post them because Photobucket is threatening to take away my birthday again for using too much bandwidth


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

Sweet! Appreciate all the research, diagrams and pictures. Gotta make a PDF of this thread!


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, Photobucket is being a pain again... about once a year I supposedly come close to or exceed their bandwidth limit, and try to pressure me to buy their upgrade... nevermind that if they averaged it, it wouldn't even be close. So if many of the pictures disappear, they'll be back on the 2nd. But these photos are on my old account 

In the past couple weeks I did a little bit more on this. 

I built the (static) valve gear for the engine. Yes is has an Allen straight link, not a curved Stephensons, but once it's in the engine house you won't really be able to tell. 









I framed, then planked the engine house end walls with coffee stirrers. Rather than try to cut each piece of the gable part to exact size, I cut them "close enough" then trimmed them to final size after the glue dried - using the plywood 'truss' as a guide. 









Then everything got a coat of vinegar/steel wool solution 









The derrick got a coat as well. It looks a little less brand new now 









I also found a piece of OSB to use as a base, but need to buy paint for it.... and unfortunately, I can't do a whole lot more until I do.


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## dieseldude (Apr 21, 2009)

Looks awesome, so far!!!! 


-Kevin.


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## general1861 (Jan 22, 2010)

Looks really great Mik!!... How long does it take the vinegar steel wool mixture before it is ready to use. I used white distilled vinegar and mixed on saturday morning...Travis


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

here's some more oil field info: http://www.petroleumhistory.org/OilHistory/OHindex.html

Sam Pees has a copy of the Jarecki catalog. Sam is a super nice guy. He'll send you anything you need.


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