Schooner Altair by KeithAug - Scale 1:32 - 1931 - Finished

[KeithAug]

Richard, Thank you. Yes - unfortunately no photos. Being at the top end of the mast its usually in the distance and masked by sails. Sometimes guesswork is the only way forward. At least I have the advantage that the subject still exists. Many modellers on this forum seem to do very well with old drawings of ships long since departed.

 

Ian, Thank you for your very nice comments. Its sometimes good to get another perspective. The builders eye can tend to focus on all the mistakes and miss the bigger picture.

 

[KeithAug]

A lot of effort for such small progress...............

 

I made a few more fittings for the masts.

 

I turned the 4 winches for the lower spiders, 2 winches per mast,  fairly straightforward turning task. The winches started as 1/4 inch brass bar and are approximately 1/4 inch long.

I then needed to make the 16 cleats that fit on to the 4 spiders - these are quite small and involve turning and drilling balls of a little less than .100 inch diameter on a stem of .040 diameter by .200 long. I made the form tool for the ball out of a broken centre drill. The balls / stem components stared as .125 brass bar. Cuts had to be small to prevent breakage - typically .005" (on radius) for initial cuts reducing to .002" for finishing.

 

I drilled the hole through the balls on the mill - using a centre drill followed by a .030" twist drill. All balls were drilled on a single setting using a magnet on the vice jaws as an end stop. The balls were drilled while still attached to the bar and parted off with a slitting saw thereafter.

 

The initial ball / stem took about 3/4 hour to make. At the end of the run for 16 I was making them in a little over 10 minutes.

The cross member of the cleat was wire, cut glued and then filed to length. The aluminium plate in the photo has a small hole and this was slotted over each end of the wire as a filing guide. The thickness of the plate giving the required arm length of the cleat.

 

 

 The end result will look something like this.

[Jim Lad]

Just delightful, Keith!

 

John

[michael mott]

Very nice Keith

5 hours ago, KeithAug said:

I made the form tool for the ball out of a broken centre drill. The balls / stem components stared as .125 brass bar. Cuts had to be small to prevent breakage - typically .005" (on radius) for initial cuts reducing to .002" for finishing.

I am not sure I quite follow this Keith, was the form tool the full round or half would you not plunge the form tool in to the required diameter then remove the stem material, then it makes sense to me.... perhaps my meds are dulling my thinking LOL

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

Michael,

 

Sorry my explanation was not great. I did form the ball by doing a plunge cut as you surmised. The stem was cut in the conventional way using a small parallel turning tool. It was this second operation where I needed to take small cuts.

 

John. Thank you.

[rwiederrich]

Fantastic metal work...  Looks like a spider band for the masts and with belaying cleats/pins affixed. 

 

Love it.

 

Rob(Oh what was your method to keep the balls all the same size?)

[KeithAug]

Rob,

 

Thank you. The balls were made by plunging a form tool into the brass bar. On the first ball I repeatedly checked the diameter with a calliper, advancing the tool (with the cross slide hand wheel) until the correct diameter was achieved. I then set the cross slide hand wheel scale to zero. For all subsequent balls the had wheel was advanced until it reached the zero setting. This meant that the tool always returned to a set position and hence cut the same diameter as on the original ball. I hope this makes sense.

 

 

[michael mott]

Keith it all make perfect sense now.

 

Michael

[rwiederrich]

17 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Rob,

 

Thank you. The balls were made by plunging a form tool into the brass bar. On the first ball I repeatedly checked the diameter with a calliper, advancing the tool (with the cross slide hand wheel) until the correct diameter was achieved. I then set the cross slide hand wheel scale to zero. For all subsequent balls the had wheel was advanced until it reached the zero setting. This meant that the tool always returned to a set position and hence cut the same diameter as on the original ball. I hope this makes sense.

 

 

I see.... I wasn't sure if you used a ball fixture mounted in the tail stock....but the method used is what I would have done.  Very nice..indeed.

 

Thanks for the updates.

 

Rob

[KeithAug]

Im finding that the mast fittings are gong on a bit. Each time I look at the plans and photographs I find something else to make. Anyway here I go with another update.

 

Today I decided to start by joining the upper and lower main and foremasts. This involved joining 8 mast collars (making 4 fitting in total). I wanted to make sure the the upper and lower masts lay parallel to one another and as the upper and lower collars were of different diameters this involved accurately sizing and making the spacers that joined the collars. The spacing pieces were profiled using differing sizes of end mill which were plunged into the 1/4" square brass bar stock.

 

The components were then assembled for soldering. Initially I tried wiring the parts together to retain them during the soldering operation. It worked but it required a great deal of dexterity and created much frustration. I then bent a nail to form a clamp, this proved to be a much better solution.

 

The soldered collars were then parted from the bar with a razor saw before being polished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rwiederrich]

Wonderful!

 

Rob

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Looking good Keith. How did you centre the end mill on the square bar?.

Cheers Richard.

[KeithAug]

Richard,

 

I measured the bar (.250 x.250) and then used an edge finder to locate the edge. Having fixed the edge I indexed the mill over to compensate for the edge finder diameter. This set the mill spindle directly over the edge. I then moved it over a further .125 to set the mill directly above the centre of the bar. This video does a passable job of depicting the process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_qiPE5z7SE.

[michael mott]

Sweet.

 

Michael

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hello Keith, Thank you for the video link and explanation, I understand.

Cheers Richard

[KeithAug]

Thank you all for you feedback and likes.

 

I'm still on mast related features. Altair has wear / pressure plates attached to the mast where the gaffs intersect the masts. These are in the form of 1/2 cylinders. On the main mast there is an additional plate about 1/3 of the way between the gaff and the deck. This is not on the plans but is very evident on photos. I am guessing its function relates to a reefed main setup. There are also a number of other smaller plates where blocks come into contact with the mast.

 

Fortunately I did not have to bend up flat plate as I had some thin walled tube of marginally smaller diameter than the mast. I reasoned that once cut it could be pressed on to the mast to form a good fit.

 

I wanted the tube to be neatly cut so I started by wedging it on to a dowel of correct dimeter. This was then put on the lathe and the lengths required were cut using a very sharp angled "V" tool (just about visible on the following photo). The tube (still on the dowel) was then moved on to the rotary table on the mill and lateral holes were drilled to take the mast attachment nails.

 

Having drilled the holes the tube/dowel was moved back to the lathe and the sharp "V" tool was turned horizontal to be used as a plane to score the lateral parting line.

 

The scoring action was repeated with .001" advancement of the tool on each planing stroke, alternating sides, until the tube parted.

 

I then started work on the goosenecks - this is only partial complete.

 

I started by taking the basic dimensions from the plan and then doing a better job of detailing the design.

 

I started with the mast bracket - cut from .250" square brass bar. The bracket was machined on the mill using end mills of various diameters. The photos tell the story.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Riccardo1966]

A good solution using the tube, looks like it has resulted in a perfect fit to the masts. The milling on the bracket is superb, I think the last two photos  may be out of sequence perhaps.

Regards Richard

 

[KeithAug]

Thanks Richard - yes wrong order - now corrected.

[dvm27]

Lovely work, as ever, Keith. Your brass work is polished to perfection. What steps do you take to achieve the mirror-like finish?

[robnbill]

Greg you asked the same question I had. Keith your work is superb!

[KeithAug]

Greg / Bill. Thank you.

 

Re brasswork polishing - have a look at post 393.

[KeithAug]

I got a bit of time today to finish the goosenecks. Machining followed a similar process to that used for the mast bracket.

The rounding of edges was done by hand filing.

I then made the pivot pin - turned on the lathe out of .090" bar and drilled with a .040" hole on the mill. I then did a bit of polishing.

I am accumulating a lot of mast fittings - but it will be soon time to get on with assembling the masts.

 

 

 

[rwiederrich]

Keith..those goosenecks are fabulous...I had to make similar items for one of my telescopes...sweet work

 

Love it, love it.....

 

Rob

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hello Keith, a lot of beautiful fittings, the mast will look amazing with that attention to detail and so very well made. as Rob said "love it".

Regards Richard

[Jim Lad]

I continue to be amazed by your beautiful metal work, Keith!

 

John

[Julie Mo]

Keith, as always, simply gorgeous work!  Do you have any videos of the process of making these parts?  That would be something to see.

 

I'm glad I popped in because I am reminded of the importance of taking your time and being patient if you want something you can be proud of forever.

[KeithAug]

Rob, Richard, John. Thank you.

 

Hello Julie - welcome back. I assume its getting a bit too hot to be outside in sunny Florida?

 

Today I had a go at a bit of precision wire bending but first I wrote myself a list of the mast fittings I still had to complete. 

I broke the first rule of lists. According to my wife all list should start with stuff already completed. This is so the first activity can be to cross them off. If you include enough "already done" stuff you can congratulate yourself and take the rest of the day off.

 

Anyway on with the wire bending.

 

I needed to complete the components to fabricate the assembly where the yards attach to the mast - as per the attached sketch.

I wanted to bend the "core" brass wire very accurately as this would set the 7 degree up angle for the yards. I calculated the bending set up that I was going to use on the mill.

The datum was set up as the corner of the milling vice and the mill spindle was offset in both "x" and "y" directions to setup the angle.

 

I "borrowed" the vice end stop and mounted it to support the wire and thus prevent bending in the z plane.

The spindle was then moved to the calculated x and y positions.

The wire was then bent at the corner of the vice using a metal bar and hammer (to achieve a tight bend).

Light tapping on the bar continued until the wire touched the spindle - and at this point the bend was the required 7 degrees.

I also used the vice set up with slightly different settings for assembling and gluing the brass inset, ferrule and wire.

This may look a bit complicated but the set up was quite quick and the results were consistent and accurate.

 

 

 

[michael mott]

Nice use of geometry Keith.

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

Yes Michael, I thought it might specifically appeal to you.

[dvm27]

That's what makes you you Keith. Most of us would have eye-balled that until we were close. Does anybody still remember geometry after high school?