JSGerson

The last bit to complete the rocker arms were the extension joints. This is where the extension arm slides into a short pocket to create the extension. I though about gluing 1/16” piece of wood to simulate the “box” bracket, but in the end. I just wrapped some thread around the arm with a dab of CA glue to create the illusion of a boxy bump on the arms. Most of imperfections will disappear under black paint and low light viewing conditions.

First, I tapered the rocker arms, then I created the handle brackets out of 1/16” brass tube. The problem that presented itself and which drove me crazy was that there was extraordinarily little surface area to bond the bracket to the arm. I threw away my two-part epoxy and bought fresh. The bond failed again. Once more the cured epoxy was more like a hard rubber. I could peel the epoxy off the brass with a dull knife. So, it was back to solder. Before every attempt, I cleaned all the surfaces with mild acid. It took nearly three tries per bracket till I finally got a solid bond. Almost as frustrating, was the Y-branch bracket – how to make it and keep it strong? How do I create a 3-part joint and then connect it to the rocker arm? I came up with a solution but there is probable a better solution out there. I just didn’t think of it. My solution was to double twist two brass wires and create a kind of brass rope. I could then open up the braided strands to insert the rocker arm and handle. Once I had that, I lathered the brass rope with solder flux and solder paste and fired up the torch. The idea was the solder would fill in the voids in the rope making a solid piece. This too took numerous attempts. The excess solder was then filed off. I had to be careful here because I didn’t want to remove too much solder and weaken the bond…again. I almost forgot, the handle material is music wire, very stiff. Wood would have broken, burned, and it doesn’t solder very well.

The bilge pump rocker arms have arm extensions so that the ship’s crew can consolidate the pumps for more working space when not in use. The photos of the actual ship show the bilge pumps in their stowed configuration with the rocker arms extensions removed and lashed to the pumps. I plan to have the arms fully extended so the typical viewer can understand their function better. There are two kinds of rocker arm handles. The double pump has a “Y” branch to a double brackets for the handle while the quad pumps have a single bracket and a long handle connecting two pumps. To top it all off, the rocker arms are tapered to the handles from the extension joint. These details required me to further refine my bilge pump plan.

Using a metal cutting #53 drill bit and my old Dremel drill stand as a drill press, I attempted to drill the 1/16” hole into the rocker arms where the re-enforcing discs were located. The #53 bit is just a tad smaller than 1/16” which give me a bit of a cushion when making the final hole adjustment. The precision of the stand leaves a little bit to be desired. My first attempt on the first bar worked in so far as making a hole. The problem was the hole was off just enough (about 3/128”) that it cut through the edge. This was repaired with more solder. The results are not polished products yet as there is still much to do.

A hole at the center is required for the pump axial to pass through. My best guesstimate for the axial diameter worked out to be a 1/16”. You can see the problem here, If I drill a 1/16” hole through the 1/16” x 1/32” bar, it will cut the bar into two. The actual pump rocker arm has re-enforcing at this juncture, and I had to come up with something like that. Using a 3mm punch, I made eight brass discs from 0.005” brass plate. This is the same brass plate I used to make the “bolt heads” on the bulwarks. The discs are wider than the rocker assembly. The trick here was to solder a disc dead center on either side of the rocker arm’s 1/16” face. Solder paste was placed on one side of a disc and positioned into place using solder paste like a glue. On either side of the solder area the aluminum clamps were attached to act as a heat sink to prevent the bars from heating up, melting the previous solder and thus come apart. The flame was focused on the disc and as soon as the solder melted, the heat was cut. Then the assembly was flipped over, and the other disc was position opposite the first one. The gap in between the two discs which extended over the bar was to fill with solder when the second disc was soldered. Again, the excess solder was filed away. This worked well enough for this scale.

This next part of the bilge pump part deals the two longest rocker arms and the one short one from the quad pump, and the one slightly shorter long arm from the double pump. At first glance I thought this would be relatively simple. It wasn’t. Instead of making the rocker arms from 1/32” plywood, I decided that the arms would be durable if they were made of brass bars. Because I didn’t have rectangular cross-section bars, I made the rocker arms using two, 1/32” brass bars stacked upon each other. The two bars were clamped together with two aluminum pinching clamps. A bead of silver solder paste was applied along the junction of the two pieces. This by the way was my first-time using solder paste. The advantage of paste is that no addition flux is required. Using a small Butane torch, the solder melts into the seam in a matter of seconds. The excess solder was then filed away.

My first attempt using the epoxy method was a failure,...not due to my concept but seemingly due to the epoxy. I made a very simple jig which laid on a piece of wax paper. The wax paper prevented the epoxy from sticking to my work bench surface and it would easily peel off the fastened joint. After the epoxy set after six minutes as indicated by the epoxy instructions, I had expected the epoxy to be rigid. Instead it was like a slightly flexible hard rubber. The epoxy did not adhere well to the brass pieces. The brass legs were easy to pull apart from the epoxy. Even after four hours, which the instructions stated it needed to cure, the epoxy remained flexible. Maybe I had the wrong type of epoxy. My second attempt was with the glazing putty. This actually work somewhat. However, the putty shrinks as it sets up after about a half hour, so that the web in the A-frame apex had a concave surface and thus additional putty would be required. On the plus side, trimming the excess dry putty was easy and quick. My last attempt was with the silver solder. It worked. I had to condition the bras pieces with acid to clean the surfaces and work off a heat resistant surface. Trimming the excess solder with a hand file was a bit more tedious. As a bonus, the solder apex web appears to be strong enough to have a hole bored through it for the axial, which I not sure the glazing version could do. In the photos below, is the set up for the solder process. The wooden jig is removed of course before I hit it with the torch. The last photo shows the comparison between the soldered version and the glazing version after I trimmed off the excess materials. I’ll redo the glazing version with solder. One down, 11 more to do.

My first thought was to create the A-Frames and rocker arm assemblies from 1/32” and 1/64” spruce plywood; that or boxwood. But cutting such small delicate pieces with precision daunted me. My next material option was for the most part, brass bar and brass rod. If I make the frames right, they should be sturdy enough. This brought up the next question, what method should I use to fasten the brass pieces together, specifically at the apex of the A-Frame? I though of a few choices that I could use. Epoxy, glazing putty that I use as wood filler on the hull, or silver solder. The “glue” would also have to act as the A-frame apex filler from which an axial hole could be drilled. The preliminary plans are shown below. The rest will be developed as I go along.

I tried looking at other builders to see what they did, but the only builder I could find that decided to show the interior of the gun deck as I had planned was SawdustDave . Unfortunately for me, he made his model at a larger scale of 1:60 and he did not provide a lot of detail to the actual construction process of his bilge pumps. He did however have some excellent photos. I hope to do as well but at the smaller scale of 1: 76.8.

Gun Deck Bilge Pumps I studied the photos of the bilge pumps long and hard trying to figure out how to recreate them in miniature. These things were going to be delicate. Therefore, I had to make them from strong material if they were going to survive the rigors of the modeler continuing to work on the model. I had one US Navy Plan No. 50976 which shows the pumps from copper bowls down to the lower decks. The A-frame mechanisms were not shown. With this plan, the plan view of the gun deck, and the photos (one of which is shown below), was all I had to work out the details.

The rings of this section were a bit more delicate. They are only 1/32” thick with the edge about 1/32” and 3/64” wide. The trick to making them is to drill the center hole first in the wood stock, then cut the circle around the hole. That way the stresses of drilling won’t break the ring. The whelps were almost too small to handle. Those were roughly shaped and glued into place, then filed into its final shape. In the first image, you can see the bottom ring partially in place on the capstan. The capstan axle will be trimmed later. All the gun deck items will be glued into place after the guns have been fabricated. The pumps are next.

The color of the interior of the bar holes is red, so I painted the interior of the notches and one side of each of the other rings. I got a bit too sloppy with the paint. The excess paint, that wasn’t covered during the assembly, was sanded off and covered by the brass tape. As it turn out you can’t see any color because it’s too dark. A strip of brass tape was added and pressed on real hard to ensure that it would not come off and to show by indentation where the openings were. Using a couple of fine chisels (1/16” width) I cut the clean square openings. Then I inserted six small pieces of wood into every other opening and stained it with a fine drop of the same Minwax I used before. One more section to go.

This time I constructed a third, 1/16”, thick ring. Guidelines were laid out for the purpose of making twelve 1/16” notches. Why twelve you ask? If you look closely at the actual capstan, every other square cutout in the brass plating is not hollow, but solid wood. Why it was constructed this way, I don’t know, but there it is. My brass “plating” is brass tape I got at Hobby Lobby, a crafts store. And attempting to cut out 1/16” x 1/16” openings cleanly directly on the tape is almost impossible for me at least. It is much easier to cut out the squares if there is an opening behind the tape that a sharp tool can easily pass into using the opening as a guide for the blade. The Byrnes saw was perfect for the job for cutting the notches. The cuts were made by eyeball following the guidelines. This notched ring became the “meat” in my sandwich.

This next section had a false start. I started to construct the section where the capstan bars are inserted to rotate the capstan. (God, I wish I knew what the name of the various capstan sections are called). And I started to make these parts the in same manner I made the previous section with the whelps. I formed two discs and drilled out the centers. In lieu of whelps I started to make the pieces in between the capstan bar holes. These worked out to be twelve 1/8” x 1/8” x 1/16” pieces which I quickly realized I had to taper into a trapezoid shape to make them fit around the ring to leave a proper opening for the bars. It just became too much fiddley work. A quiver of a fingers, or an ill aimed breath would set the tiny piece out of alignment during the dry fit. I didn’t fight it and immediately tried another solution, which I think was much easier and had better results.

The base was painted black so what little detail I added here for the chain notches has vanished. This was expected and was the reason I did not add any other detail. Next, I carved the whelps using a Dremel tool and files. The upper support ring was fabricated just like the previous discs I made for the base. The whelps, the upper- and lower-disc support rings, and the dowel were stained with Minwax Wood Finish Golden Pecan 245. They all glued into place.

You may have noticed that all the disc parts have a small hole drilled in their centers. This used to align the disc parts with a pin when they were glued together. It then becomes the starter hole for a series of progressive larger drillings to widen the opening to 5/16” to accommodate the dowel. The center hole was drilled after the discs were glued because the assembly would be a solid piece and not subject to breakage during the drilling process. It also ensures total alignment of all the openings. In the images below, the base is drilled, and the dowel has the first support disc (1/64” plywood) for the whelps. The dowel was inserted for a dry fit. The dowel has not been cut to its final length at this point.

The capstan has an area for a chain. (not certain how this is supposed to work) I notched out two discs. The two discs are stacked on top of each other with the notches facing each other and a separator disc in between. That assembly is placed on top first base disc.

I did this for all the dimensions I thought necessary. And yes, I did get lost and confused in the computations and had to constantly check and recheck my math. Once I had my dimensions, I could then figure out what size stock wood I would need. In this case, because there are a lot of small intricate parts, I chose boxwood for its ability to hold a crisp edge which was essential for all the small intricate parts. Normally if the wood were to be painted, I would have chosen basswood. No point in using the good stuff if its going to be covered in paint. In some cases, I used 1/64” plywood for its ability not to split. In the image below, the first four disc parts on the left will become the capstan base The remaining disc pieces will support the six whelps when attached to the shaft. They were all cut from sheet stock and sanded and filed to shape. The shaft is a 5/16” dia. dowel.

Gun Deck Capstan This capstan will be my first scratch capstan construct. I have the US Navy plan No. 29621 “Capstans” with a lot of the detail. It indicates only the major dimensions. If I had the full-size plan, then the scales on the plan would have been useful, but I don’t. Obviously, mine are printed on my home printer so the marked scales are useless. However, the dimensions for various lengths of items shown on the plan can be used to determine the 1:76.8 scale required. 1. Measure the longest indicated dimension (for accuracy) shown on the plan with a ruler. e.g. 5 27/64” measured = 11’ 9 ½” indicated on plan 2. Calculate what 1” or 1/32” would represent on the drawing 1” calculated = 26.1” on plan 1/32” calculated = .816” (~13/16”) on plan 3. Measure a length from the plans with no indicated dimensions and multiple it by the appropriate conversion multiplier then divide by 76.8 e.g. measured 7/32” from the plan: · 7 x .816 = 5.712 · 5.712/76.8 = 0.074” or about 5/64” (0.0781”) scale

The completed chain bitts are just sitting on the model for the photos. They will be installed at a letter date to preclude any damage while I fabricate the other elements of the gun deck.

The rails had three coats of wipe-on poly applied and then I added the eye bolts and rings. The bitts were a bit more complicated. I had to guesstimate where exactly metal cladding started and stopped because I couldn’t find anything on the Navy plans and none of my reference library photos were shot with the purpose of showing the cladding details as their subjects. The navy plans do show the L-shaped bitt “guide” (?) so I was able fabricate those out of stock .016” copper plate which just happens to be almost the exact required thickness scale. The rods just above the guide were not in the Navy plans, so those were just eyeballed.

With the use of a French Curve, I guesstimated the curve shape and end points and drew them onto the rail blanks. Then with my scroll saw I cut them out. You will notice in the photos below, there seems to be a discrepancy with the before and after cut of the short rails. When the “before” photo was taken I had drawn the wrong curve length. This was caught before I made any cuts but didn’t retake the photo.

The next component is what I call the chain bitt rails, the swooping rail forward of each bitt. Scaling down from the Navy plans, I worked out the basic block dimensions I need to cut these rails from. The long pair was 3/8” H x 5/32” W x 1 7/8” L and the shorter pair was 7/8” L. Because the rail was bare wood, I chose to use boxwood, but as it turned out, I only had 3/16” x 5/32” stock. Thus, I glued two pieces together to get the required height.

The lower portion of the bitt worked out to be ½” diameter while the upper portion came out to be approximately 3/8” diameter. What makes the construct a bit more complex is the top surface of the lower wider portion has a tilted surface, a difference in height of 1/8” scale between one side and the other. My solution to this fabrication puzzle was to first drill a hole 3/8” in diameter straight through the ½” dowel on a lathe enough for 4 bitts using progressively larger drills. Next, I sliced 4 pieces off making 4 tall wooden donuts. Then, using my disc sander, I tilted the sanding plate 9° and sanded one surface to create the bitt’s tilted surface. Then I sliced a 3/8” dowel into four 5/8” pieces. Each of the pieces were then inserted into the donuts and voila…I have the basis of chain bitts.

Gun Deck Chain Bitts Working from the stove position, fabricating the chain bitts logically follows. The bitts are somewhat shaped like a small oil drum on top of a bigger oil drum. Using US Navy Plan 22167, I got most of the basic dimensions.