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JSGerson

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Everything posted by JSGerson

  1. JSGerson
    Scott - I'm blind as a bat. I wear trifocals all the time (wearing glasses since I was 7) and when I work on the model I add a clip-on eye loupe. I've heard all kinds of stories about doing those ratlines and none of them favorable. I still have some work to perform on the bowsprit but after that I will have to take the plunge and work those ratlines. Wish me luck!
  2. JSGerson
    The deadeyes were blackened the same way as before and put in place. I have been advised that they should be glued in place but I’ll decide if that is necessary when the rigging is attached.
  3. JSGerson
    These deadeyes are now complete. I had to increase the teeth depth on my “knife” which I now understand is technically called a broach and was held by a hand pin vise. I also had to introduce the use of an abrasive cord. The cord was immeasurable useful in its ability to help increase the width of the slots.
  4. JSGerson
    I made a similar mistake with the Mizzen mast as well and had to enlarge the top hole. Luckily the mast wedge that I had made covered just about all of the excess hole that was left when the mast was finally seated. Those tops really gave me all kinds of trouble. Yours look quite nice. The ships boat that came with the Mamoli kit was a pre-cut wooden shell and would have worked quite well and appeared to be a lot easier to use than MS's bread & butter version. Even still, I felt like it was cheating to use it since I had made most of the model from scratch once the keel and bulkheads were used. When I found the ship's boat model on Model Expo for $5 I had nothing to lose but try. Bending the ribs is the hardest part as the wood will kink rather then bend. If I could have figured out a way to draw the ribs to make a template, I believe it might have been easier to cut them out of airplane plywood. Sometimes I feel like I should have gotten a commission from Model Expo for the number of sales I inspired. 8-) Jonathan
  5. JSGerson
    Martin - Thanks for the warning on loose straps, I'll keep that in mind. Ah yes, the souvenir. There was/is no chance of radioactivity because when I obtained the bar of stainless steel, the power plant was under construction - no nuclear fuel was on site. For those of you who didn't click on the provided Shoreham link, the plant was finally completed and even got up to 5% power for testing but was never commissioned. This was around the time of the 3 Mile Island incident so a lot of people (politicians, anti-nukes, pro-nukes, etc.) took a second and third look at the emergency plans if the plant went operational. They didn't like the evacuation plan. Trying to evacuate the population from Long Island NY is messy at best on a good day, never mind during an emergency. So the fully functional, brand new nuclear power plant never went on line.
  6. JSGerson
    Once the “saw” was able to pass through the opening I tested the deadeye again. Success, it fitted! Now I have to do it again 17 more times only this time, I don’t think it will go as quickly as their fabrication. The pictures below show the small deadeye slots as well as the one deadeye that I was able to insert into the top so far.
  7. JSGerson
    Before I decided to blacken the straps, I test fitted them to the tops. They didn’t fit into the fine holes I created for them. I was too conservative and made the openings a bit too small. The stems of the straps are about 0.5 mm x 2.0 mm. The strap openings are about 0.5 mm (max) X 1.75 mm (or less). Obviously it would be very simple to fix the openings if the tops were off the model but I can’t remove the tops without disassembling all the rigging I’ve done so far. I don’t have a knife or other tool that can be used widen the width of these very tiny strap slots. So I’ve attempted to make one. Using the excess tail of a completed strap, I’ve filed it down to the proper dimensions and then tapered one end so it could at least fit part way into the hole. In addition I filed some notches on one side to act as saw teeth which you can barely see in the image below. This is a fragile copper and silver solder tool (to be held with a pair of pliers) bends quite easy if not held just right. Using a hand drill to act as a rudimentary file, I moved the drill up and down against one end of the strap slot. This slowly made the hole longer. Using my homemade “saw” ensured the cut was straight.
  8. JSGerson
    Well, I’ve completed all 18 deadeye straps except for the blackening process. Once I got into the routine, I reduced the time to create one from a half hour to ten minutes or less and they got better. Practice makes perfect. But there is a problem.
  9. JSGerson
    My, you've been busy! You are moving right along which I can't say for myself. She's going to be a fine model.
  10. JSGerson
    The whole assemble was given a blacken bath and water rinse which didn’t affect the wooden deadeye. Now all I have to do is make 17 more without going crazy.
  11. JSGerson
    Once the deadeye was positioned, the wire was squeezed closed. When installed into the top, the unsoldered area will be covered by the top and secured closed by the small opening. The tail was then trimmed to length and a 1 mm hole was drilled at the end of the tail for the hook connection.
  12. JSGerson
    After a couple of attempts, I was able to solder the legs together yet leave enough unsolder so that I could pry the opening wide enough insert the deadeye.
  13. JSGerson
    The deadeye was removed and the wire was then given its acid cleaning bath and water rinse. The wire was then placed on a very simplistic jig consisting of three pins and a 3-pound hunka-chunk of nuclear grade stainless steel…scrap (approx. 1” square x 6 inches). This was my souvenir that I liberated from a scrap heap at the now brand new, never used, decommissioned Shoreham nuclear power plant on Long Island NY were I was a Nuclear Quality Control Inspector back in the late 70’s. But that is another story (see link). The metal chunk kept the wire tail flat and butt-up together while silver soldering.
  14. JSGerson
    I finally worked out this method: First I had to sand the strip of wire I was to use to remove its protective coating. That coating would prevent blackening. Then I bent the wire around the deadeye to give the general shape.
  15. JSGerson
    Fighting Top Deadeyes I decided at this point I had better install the deadeyes and straps on the fighting tops before I introduce any more rigging to the masts and make my life more difficult. I had the foresight to install the blocks on the tops before they were installed but in my enthusiasm to start the rigging, I neglected to install the deadeyes and straps as well. When creating the tops, I tried to follow as closely to the plans as I could, maybe too close. I made the openings for the deadeye straps quite small about 1 x 2 mm. I quickly realized that I could not increase the openings now that they were on the model. After numerous attempts to create a strap that would embrace the deadeye and fit through the opening, I had to discard any idea of making a loop at the bottom of the strap for the hook connection, discard the idea of using a larger gauge of wire bigger than 0.5 mm even though I thought that would look better, and finally any idea that this would be easy. The wire I ended up using was 0.5mm “beading wire” (the pkg. did not state its metallic composition). I could not find brass wire at the Hobby Lobby in my town, the only hobby store around.
  16. JSGerson
    The finished assembly is shown in the following images.
  17. JSGerson
    At the other end a large heart had to be installed on the line as well as the deck anchor ring. The kit provided metal hearts that had to be painted or blackened. Since I had come this far making my own, I made these as well. Starting with stock boxwood of the proper size, I drew the outline of the hearts and drilled and filed out the centers. Once completed, I stained them a darkish wood color.
  18. JSGerson
    Main Stay Basically the Main Stay is made the same way as previous stays except the line is thicker (1.2mm). This required a larger mouse. My previous method would not work well at this dimension so this time used the cone method. A piece of dowel was first drilled with a hole that I could thread the line through. Then using hand files, the dowel was tapered at one end right down to the opening and painted flat black. The line itself was sized where it was to wrap around the mast as well as where it would rub against the foremast. The mouse was threaded on into position and sized into the line. During the sizing process, diluted PVC glue was applied over the mouse sizing to prevent it from slipping off.
  19. JSGerson
    Thanks all. I am presently away from the builder's bench for a couple days so it will be a couple of more days before the next installment (not that anyone would notice at my work pace).
  20. JSGerson
    Now for the second learning experience; blackening the metal. The is the other thing I’ve never done. I bought the product Blacken-It. From what I read, you are supposed to dilute it. I diluted it 1:1 with water. Before I dropped in the completed assembly including the deck nails, it got a bath in the cleaning acid and a water rinse. I didn’t know what to expect; I was dealing with four different materials: copper, silver solder, brass, and whatever the nails were made of. The result was interesting. Everything got darker although I would say it was not black, more of a dark brown, a deep rust. This, on a ship, would not be surprising. The deck ring was installed in position according to plans.
  21. JSGerson
    After drilling and filing out the opening, the full ring was added and two holes were drilled for some planking nails. These nails would become the rivets once installed to the model. The full ring was not soldered closed to enable it to be installed to the deck plate. The open ring seam would be hidden by the half ring.
  22. JSGerson
    I had previous purchased the following material for the soldering process: Cleaning acid Silver solder Flux Self-igniting Hand torch Following the instructions on the packages plus reviewing various build logs and other resources; I filled my head with enough facts, processes, techniques, do’s, and don’ts to make my head spin. Still, the only way to learn was to do it. I cleaned the pieces with the acid and rinsed them in water. I coated the area where I was going to solder the half ring with the flux I placed the half ring in position with a small piece of solder under the arch of the half ring Using the torch I heated the loos assembly carefully so as not to knock over the half ring from the pressure of the hot flowing gas Voila! As soon as the solder reached melting point it flowed immediately and locked the half ring into place. Unfortunately I used a bit too much solder because it completely filled in the opening.
  23. JSGerson
    I measured the casting to determine that the ring and the half ring on the deck plate was 3/64” in thickness and I just happen to have some 3/64” brass rod. I had some copper plate and cut it to size to match the cast deck plate. If you look closely you will see two rivets on the deck plate as well. I curled the brass rod around a mandrel to form a ring the same size as on the casting for both the full ring and the plate half ring.
  24. JSGerson
    Now from the Learn Something New Department, in fact two things; first, Silver Soldering. The Mamoli kit provides a deck ring to anchor the Main Stay. It’s not so bad a casting but the ring is frozen to place. Here was a good opportunity to try some Silver Soldering, something I’ve never done.
  25. JSGerson
    I assume you are referring to the gun ports, I copied the elevation (side) view of Harold Hahn's plans and cut and trimmed it so I could lay it on framing to locate each gun port position. The gun ports follow the curved deck line and each are the same height off the deck. I made a mock up of a cannon and placed it on the deck to verify each port height. Don't forget to add the height of the deck planking! You can see how I did it on my log: Starting at Comment 25

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