steamschooner

I needed some deck cleats for my current build. There are many ways of making cleats this is just the method I used. 
I started by carving a master pattern and in this case out of wood. Once the size of the master was determined I could size the mold former. I use sections of copper pipe of various lengths and diameters. The basic setup is shown in the drawing. I start with a layer of vulcanizing rubber on the bottom. I than locate and install a couple of short pieces of copper wire to use as vents. Insert the master pattern and fill mold former the rest of the way up. Next set is to place filled mold former between a couple of metal plates with a C clamp for the oven baking time. Once it has been baked and cooled down I take a razor knife and cut a parting line in the mold to release the master pattern.  The mold is placed back in the mold former and a small amount of casting metal is poured on top. I than press a flat wood or metal plate on top and press the metal into the mold. That is why you need vents so the trapped air has some place to go. Let the filled mold cool for a few, taking them out to quickly can damage the parts. I than like to lightly sand blast the parts to give them some texture and to dull them down some. Once that is done a coat of india ink is applied 
and let dry for awhile than rubbed down to get any extra ink removed. I kept the base of the cleat thick on purpose so that I had a handle to hold them. I than used a saw to cut off the base to the thickness I wanted. As can be seen in last photo the master pattern does not allways come out in one piece.

I needed to make a half dozen fire buckets for my project so I took a few photo's to show how I made mine. Once I had a size in mind I made a pattern and cut some thin brass to that shape. I than tinned opposite ends and opposite sides. So that when the brass is rolled into a cone the tinned ends will be face to face. I used a tapered dowel to help form the rolled cone shape for soldering. The rolled forms are a little long/tall for triming down later. Using a block of wood with a hole drilled just shy of bucket height and snug at the top i than placed a ring of wire around top of bucket and soldered in place. using the tapered dowel while soldering ring in to place helped line things up. Should come out looking like this. the next step was to cut out small disc of brass that was just a bit bigger than the bottom of bucket. with the disc on the end of the tapered dowel a bucket was lower over the end and pushed the disc to the bottom of bucket but not clear thur. Just enough of a lip to solder it in place, Some clean up with files and paper is next. Lastly some paint and install handle. Not sure when it became the practice of painting fire buckets red or if there ever was a rule to do so. 

I needed some deck cleats for my current build. There are many ways of making cleats this is just the method I used. 
I started by carving a master pattern and in this case out of wood. Once the size of the master was determined I could size the mold former. I use sections of copper pipe of various lengths and diameters. The basic setup is shown in the drawing. I start with a layer of vulcanizing rubber on the bottom. I than locate and install a couple of short pieces of copper wire to use as vents. Insert the master pattern and fill mold former the rest of the way up. Next set is to place filled mold former between a couple of metal plates with a C clamp for the oven baking time. Once it has been baked and cooled down I take a razor knife and cut a parting line in the mold to release the master pattern.  The mold is placed back in the mold former and a small amount of casting metal is poured on top. I than press a flat wood or metal plate on top and press the metal into the mold. That is why you need vents so the trapped air has some place to go. Let the filled mold cool for a few, taking them out to quickly can damage the parts. I than like to lightly sand blast the parts to give them some texture and to dull them down some. Once that is done a coat of india ink is applied 
and let dry for awhile than rubbed down to get any extra ink removed. I kept the base of the cleat thick on purpose so that I had a handle to hold them. I than used a saw to cut off the base to the thickness I wanted. As can be seen in last photo the master pattern does not allways come out in one piece.

Hi Piet,
 
yes sorry, I should have explained a bit better.......
The pic now should be self explaining. The sample bag foot button in the middle still has the fastening device..
 
Nils
 

 

 

 

Mast Houses
 
The mast houses are made up of 2 stacked laser cut pieces with the holes for the masts and ventilators pre-drilled.
 
Given the rough faces from the laser cutting and the need to eliminate the seam between the pieces I thought that sanding them smooth would be tedious and might result in rounded corners so I decided to face them with sheet styrene. Doing so gave a nice smooth “steel” finish, sharp corners and a slight coaming along the deck edge.
 

 
The details are a combination of kit items, scratch, and after market. Between them they are the anchor point for 15 masts, booms and cranes so there will be a lot of rigging around them.
 


 
Next will be the start of adding the 160+ bulwark braces (maybe not tedious but certainly repetitive).

So another mind boggling miniature, I'll hang around and watch with the rest of them.

I needed some deck cleats for my current build. There are many ways of making cleats this is just the method I used. 
I started by carving a master pattern and in this case out of wood. Once the size of the master was determined I could size the mold former. I use sections of copper pipe of various lengths and diameters. The basic setup is shown in the drawing. I start with a layer of vulcanizing rubber on the bottom. I than locate and install a couple of short pieces of copper wire to use as vents. Insert the master pattern and fill mold former the rest of the way up. Next set is to place filled mold former between a couple of metal plates with a C clamp for the oven baking time. Once it has been baked and cooled down I take a razor knife and cut a parting line in the mold to release the master pattern.  The mold is placed back in the mold former and a small amount of casting metal is poured on top. I than press a flat wood or metal plate on top and press the metal into the mold. That is why you need vents so the trapped air has some place to go. Let the filled mold cool for a few, taking them out to quickly can damage the parts. I than like to lightly sand blast the parts to give them some texture and to dull them down some. Once that is done a coat of india ink is applied 
and let dry for awhile than rubbed down to get any extra ink removed. I kept the base of the cleat thick on purpose so that I had a handle to hold them. I than used a saw to cut off the base to the thickness I wanted. As can be seen in last photo the master pattern does not allways come out in one piece.

So another mind boggling miniature, I'll hang around and watch with the rest of them.

I needed some deck cleats for my current build. There are many ways of making cleats this is just the method I used. 
I started by carving a master pattern and in this case out of wood. Once the size of the master was determined I could size the mold former. I use sections of copper pipe of various lengths and diameters. The basic setup is shown in the drawing. I start with a layer of vulcanizing rubber on the bottom. I than locate and install a couple of short pieces of copper wire to use as vents. Insert the master pattern and fill mold former the rest of the way up. Next set is to place filled mold former between a couple of metal plates with a C clamp for the oven baking time. Once it has been baked and cooled down I take a razor knife and cut a parting line in the mold to release the master pattern.  The mold is placed back in the mold former and a small amount of casting metal is poured on top. I than press a flat wood or metal plate on top and press the metal into the mold. That is why you need vents so the trapped air has some place to go. Let the filled mold cool for a few, taking them out to quickly can damage the parts. I than like to lightly sand blast the parts to give them some texture and to dull them down some. Once that is done a coat of india ink is applied 
and let dry for awhile than rubbed down to get any extra ink removed. I kept the base of the cleat thick on purpose so that I had a handle to hold them. I than used a saw to cut off the base to the thickness I wanted. As can be seen in last photo the master pattern does not allways come out in one piece.

I needed some deck cleats for my current build. There are many ways of making cleats this is just the method I used. 
I started by carving a master pattern and in this case out of wood. Once the size of the master was determined I could size the mold former. I use sections of copper pipe of various lengths and diameters. The basic setup is shown in the drawing. I start with a layer of vulcanizing rubber on the bottom. I than locate and install a couple of short pieces of copper wire to use as vents. Insert the master pattern and fill mold former the rest of the way up. Next set is to place filled mold former between a couple of metal plates with a C clamp for the oven baking time. Once it has been baked and cooled down I take a razor knife and cut a parting line in the mold to release the master pattern.  The mold is placed back in the mold former and a small amount of casting metal is poured on top. I than press a flat wood or metal plate on top and press the metal into the mold. That is why you need vents so the trapped air has some place to go. Let the filled mold cool for a few, taking them out to quickly can damage the parts. I than like to lightly sand blast the parts to give them some texture and to dull them down some. Once that is done a coat of india ink is applied 
and let dry for awhile than rubbed down to get any extra ink removed. I kept the base of the cleat thick on purpose so that I had a handle to hold them. I than used a saw to cut off the base to the thickness I wanted. As can be seen in last photo the master pattern does not allways come out in one piece.

So another mind boggling miniature, I'll hang around and watch with the rest of them.

I needed some deck cleats for my current build. There are many ways of making cleats this is just the method I used. 
I started by carving a master pattern and in this case out of wood. Once the size of the master was determined I could size the mold former. I use sections of copper pipe of various lengths and diameters. The basic setup is shown in the drawing. I start with a layer of vulcanizing rubber on the bottom. I than locate and install a couple of short pieces of copper wire to use as vents. Insert the master pattern and fill mold former the rest of the way up. Next set is to place filled mold former between a couple of metal plates with a C clamp for the oven baking time. Once it has been baked and cooled down I take a razor knife and cut a parting line in the mold to release the master pattern.  The mold is placed back in the mold former and a small amount of casting metal is poured on top. I than press a flat wood or metal plate on top and press the metal into the mold. That is why you need vents so the trapped air has some place to go. Let the filled mold cool for a few, taking them out to quickly can damage the parts. I than like to lightly sand blast the parts to give them some texture and to dull them down some. Once that is done a coat of india ink is applied 
and let dry for awhile than rubbed down to get any extra ink removed. I kept the base of the cleat thick on purpose so that I had a handle to hold them. I than used a saw to cut off the base to the thickness I wanted. As can be seen in last photo the master pattern does not allways come out in one piece.

I needed some deck cleats for my current build. There are many ways of making cleats this is just the method I used. 
I started by carving a master pattern and in this case out of wood. Once the size of the master was determined I could size the mold former. I use sections of copper pipe of various lengths and diameters. The basic setup is shown in the drawing. I start with a layer of vulcanizing rubber on the bottom. I than locate and install a couple of short pieces of copper wire to use as vents. Insert the master pattern and fill mold former the rest of the way up. Next set is to place filled mold former between a couple of metal plates with a C clamp for the oven baking time. Once it has been baked and cooled down I take a razor knife and cut a parting line in the mold to release the master pattern.  The mold is placed back in the mold former and a small amount of casting metal is poured on top. I than press a flat wood or metal plate on top and press the metal into the mold. That is why you need vents so the trapped air has some place to go. Let the filled mold cool for a few, taking them out to quickly can damage the parts. I than like to lightly sand blast the parts to give them some texture and to dull them down some. Once that is done a coat of india ink is applied 
and let dry for awhile than rubbed down to get any extra ink removed. I kept the base of the cleat thick on purpose so that I had a handle to hold them. I than used a saw to cut off the base to the thickness I wanted. As can be seen in last photo the master pattern does not allways come out in one piece.

So another mind boggling miniature, I'll hang around and watch with the rest of them.

I needed to make a half dozen fire buckets for my project so I took a few photo's to show how I made mine. Once I had a size in mind I made a pattern and cut some thin brass to that shape. I than tinned opposite ends and opposite sides. So that when the brass is rolled into a cone the tinned ends will be face to face. I used a tapered dowel to help form the rolled cone shape for soldering. The rolled forms are a little long/tall for triming down later. Using a block of wood with a hole drilled just shy of bucket height and snug at the top i than placed a ring of wire around top of bucket and soldered in place. using the tapered dowel while soldering ring in to place helped line things up. Should come out looking like this. the next step was to cut out small disc of brass that was just a bit bigger than the bottom of bucket. with the disc on the end of the tapered dowel a bucket was lower over the end and pushed the disc to the bottom of bucket but not clear thur. Just enough of a lip to solder it in place, Some clean up with files and paper is next. Lastly some paint and install handle. Not sure when it became the practice of painting fire buckets red or if there ever was a rule to do so. 

There’s a ladder that goes from the pilot house down to the main deck.  I know that there are companies that make photo etched ladders but I don’t know which ones make good parts or how to order the one that I want.  Then I would have to wait for it and hope it is the right size when it gets here.  I’m just not up to that kind of stress.  So I made my own.  The photo I am following shows the ladder with ten treads.  Measuring the model makes the treads .090 inch.  So I sanded a 3/32 square strip down to .085 inch on one side.  To make the fixture I used a .005” brass sheet as a spacer and  glued the square strips between two supports.  The treads were cut from the .005” sheet and squeezed into the fixture.  The sides are 1/16” brass angle.  Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the ladder mounted in the fixture.  But here is a picture of the fixture and the a couple of the finished ladder.
 
Bob
 
 

Now that the boats for the 'Herzogin Cecilie' are finished, I can finally get back to work on the 'Pritt'.  I've finished the iron work for the masts and the masts are now fitted.  When fitting masts I use a tiny dab of glue on the mast coat that touched only the mast and the deck, so that removing the masts (if ever required) is just a matter of cutting away the mast coat, while in the meantime the masts are held securely.
 
I had held back on fitting the masts as I hadn't been able to figure out from the photos the form of the spreaders that support the topmast shrouds, but a close ponder over a very highly magnified enlargement of the foremast had revealed that the spreaders are iron rods with holes in the end that are fixed to an additional mast band, so these have now been fitted.  By the way, I'm not quite sure why the 'Pritt' had these upper shrouds.  They're attached right at the top of the mast, but that's not really very far above the main shrouds and the 'Pritt' is the only pearler I've ever seen that has them fitted.  She's also the only pearler I've ever seen with the running stays on both masts, as well, so perhaps she was sailed very hard at some time in her life and needed the extra support for the masts.
 
The photos below show the model with the masts fitted and some of the standing rigging over the mast heads.  The third photo is a close up of the mainmast with the spaghetti of partially installed rigging and the spreaders.
 
John
 

 

 

 
 

Little update....
 
Am just starting with fitting the aft part of the (raw and dryfit) boats deck into the metal framework. The lower portion of the aft mast also is fitted in place. The deck is of 0,8 mm thick 3-layer ply, and will be planked with 0,8 x 2mm pine planks with "pencil edge caulking", same as the promenade deck
 
Nils
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

I needed to make a half dozen fire buckets for my project so I took a few photo's to show how I made mine. Once I had a size in mind I made a pattern and cut some thin brass to that shape. I than tinned opposite ends and opposite sides. So that when the brass is rolled into a cone the tinned ends will be face to face. I used a tapered dowel to help form the rolled cone shape for soldering. The rolled forms are a little long/tall for triming down later. Using a block of wood with a hole drilled just shy of bucket height and snug at the top i than placed a ring of wire around top of bucket and soldered in place. using the tapered dowel while soldering ring in to place helped line things up. Should come out looking like this. the next step was to cut out small disc of brass that was just a bit bigger than the bottom of bucket. with the disc on the end of the tapered dowel a bucket was lower over the end and pushed the disc to the bottom of bucket but not clear thur. Just enough of a lip to solder it in place, Some clean up with files and paper is next. Lastly some paint and install handle. Not sure when it became the practice of painting fire buckets red or if there ever was a rule to do so. 

Patrick, check out my post under Making Fire Buckets in the metal working, soldering section. I give a run down on how I made them.

Just got done making some fire buckets for my project now I need a rack to put them in.

You mean like this, Nils

You mean like this, Nils

You mean like this, Nils

I needed to make a half dozen fire buckets for my project so I took a few photo's to show how I made mine. Once I had a size in mind I made a pattern and cut some thin brass to that shape. I than tinned opposite ends and opposite sides. So that when the brass is rolled into a cone the tinned ends will be face to face. I used a tapered dowel to help form the rolled cone shape for soldering. The rolled forms are a little long/tall for triming down later. Using a block of wood with a hole drilled just shy of bucket height and snug at the top i than placed a ring of wire around top of bucket and soldered in place. using the tapered dowel while soldering ring in to place helped line things up. Should come out looking like this. the next step was to cut out small disc of brass that was just a bit bigger than the bottom of bucket. with the disc on the end of the tapered dowel a bucket was lower over the end and pushed the disc to the bottom of bucket but not clear thur. Just enough of a lip to solder it in place, Some clean up with files and paper is next. Lastly some paint and install handle. Not sure when it became the practice of painting fire buckets red or if there ever was a rule to do so.