Keith_W

Arr. I did not do away with them temporary tabs. Shiver me timbers that ye might have thunk that. Them planks will bend, if ye applyest thy steam iron and maketh sure thy grain is in the correct direction. If thou attemptest to bendeth thy planks in the wrong direction, thy planks shalt splinter - but in the opposite direction, they shalt bendeth nicely.

Hi all, My led project was tackled today amongst other things, quite a success..  I purchased a remote controlled 'led candle' off ebay for $11 delivered..
 
I gutted it and re wired and modified to suit, lost the progress pictures unfortunately.
 
Remote works from a bout a metre, but it will need some kind of 'line of sight' (you cant box the electronics completely if you want to remote to work properly.). It is housed inside the unit originally so it does work somewhat inside a model, but in a closed timber hull may be a bit much i think..  I get a pathway through my cut-away... 
 
How long this setup lasts in the long term is unknown. But it will get used rarely..  And if fails its no big loss or can be replaced..
 
The light is appropriate looking, dim and flickers well... I may put a lantern over it instead of just a crude bulb...   If anyone wants a link send me a msg i can provide one for Australian or NZ memebers.. 
 
NOTE - it would be safest to contain batteries in plastic bag or container in case of future leakage..
 
I had to make a video to help show the result..Excuse my mumbling..   Ollie
 

Arr. I did not do away with them temporary tabs. Shiver me timbers that ye might have thunk that. Them planks will bend, if ye applyest thy steam iron and maketh sure thy grain is in the correct direction. If thou attemptest to bendeth thy planks in the wrong direction, thy planks shalt splinter - but in the opposite direction, they shalt bendeth nicely.

That one is a cyanoacrylate. Go to this page: http://www.titebond.com.au/products/index.htm
 
It is near the bottom. Download one of the PDF's and it will tell you it is a CA glue.
 
I haven't used it, but I do use the Titebond PVA glue. It is very fast setting, about 5 minutes of clamp time required with full strength reached in 12-24 hours. The downside is that it dries into a yellowish residue. It can be scraped off, but it is far better to wipe it off when it is still wet. Because it sets so fast, I also keep some normal PVA glue at home when I need more time to adjust things after clamping.

Good luck with your build! I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Arr. I did not do away with them temporary tabs. Shiver me timbers that ye might have thunk that. Them planks will bend, if ye applyest thy steam iron and maketh sure thy grain is in the correct direction. If thou attemptest to bendeth thy planks in the wrong direction, thy planks shalt splinter - but in the opposite direction, they shalt bendeth nicely.

Arr. I did not do away with them temporary tabs. Shiver me timbers that ye might have thunk that. Them planks will bend, if ye applyest thy steam iron and maketh sure thy grain is in the correct direction. If thou attemptest to bendeth thy planks in the wrong direction, thy planks shalt splinter - but in the opposite direction, they shalt bendeth nicely.

Arr. I did not do away with them temporary tabs. Shiver me timbers that ye might have thunk that. Them planks will bend, if ye applyest thy steam iron and maketh sure thy grain is in the correct direction. If thou attemptest to bendeth thy planks in the wrong direction, thy planks shalt splinter - but in the opposite direction, they shalt bendeth nicely.

Does Anyone Else Hate Vacuum Formed Parts as Much as I Do?
day 57, 101 hours
 

I jumped a little ahead and started to build the fore and aft cowlings, The parts are made from vacuum formed polystyrene plastic. I always cringe when I open a kit and see vacuumed formed parts, for the following reasons:
1. They tend to be flimsy.
2. The mold lines are indistinct and hard to cut to.
3. The edges are thin so there's not much glue surface.
4. Static causes plastic dust and shavings to stick to everything.
5. If you screw up, you're screwed.
 
That said, the cowling parts were fairly heavy and well formed. You can see some photos of the molded parts on the first page of this blog. I cut the parts very carefully with an X-acto blade, sanded them, and glued them with CA for plastic. The long joints have thin reinforcement strips on the inside. I cut additional holes for the air intake and exhaust headers. There are several more holes to cut, panel lines to incise, and a few cast resin parts to add before I can paint the cowlings.
 
But it's sure starting to look cool!

The discount has been going all week, Brian It was only the 20% discount that pushed me to order the Royal William. I have previously expressed my concerns to you about this kit. I would have preferred to take a look at yours before ordering it, but hey. 20% discount is a 20% discount

Brian, I told you the other night that I had ordered one from Euromodel. I did it earlier this week. I'm not sure how kumamax was able to buy one - what I got instead was an email informing me that there are no more left and it will take 2 weeks for them to restock. Maybe he snaffled the last one

Hi Tony.
Do NOT even try.
It will snatch and take your head off.
It can be used for putting in very fine details with a lock bar.
Turn your cannons out of timber and gilding them with brass.
Someone else is using this idea on the forum ... Not sure who . I will get back to you on who it is.
 
Regards Antony
Edited ... Found the idea on using gilding here.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/300-le-bonhomme-richard-by-jeronimo/page-28

Well I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Byrnes disc sander. There seems to be precious little information on these things, or even how they work. Perhaps Jim should consider making the manuals available online, and making some Youtube videos on what you can do with these machines. 

Well, I received my order today. In the box:
 
- Proxxon MF70
- Proxxon precision vise
- Dividing Head for MF70
- Engraver GE70
 
I also received my DS-E belt sander. I am already thinking of making some accessories, but for that I will have to wait for my lathe to arrive.

Actually, you don't. This suggests to me that your planks should have been placed further aft. Too late for that now - as long as the planks reach the transom you should be fine. When I placed my planks, I clamped the fore end to the bow and stretched the plank till it overhung the transom. Each plank was tight to the bulkhead, and if it wasn't - I shaped it.
 
Anyway, you might be doing something right because you completed your planking without having to use any stealers. I did

Alde, if it's not smooth then sand it even more When I sanded my hull, I used successively finer grades of sandpaper - 80, 120, 180, 240, 400, 800, and then finished with 1200. The coarser grades (80 and 120) are only used for removing material. Be careful, because they may leave gouges in your wood.

The fun stuff.
Small details that were left unfinished earlier.  The chain from the spectacle plate acted to  secure the rudder when it was unshipped as well as provide another method for emergency steering.  The end was left free to avoid interference with the gun port lids.
 

 
A hook connecting the chain with the line (made from an eyelet).
 

 
Lashing the hook
 

 
28 G. dark annealed wire through a hole in the channel, to allow seizing the line at the eye formed in the wire, and to act as a messenger to pull the line up to the channel.
 

Keith,
 
Noted. Thanks for the nice words. In retrospect I would have opted for the Sergal/Mantua. It is larger, but much closer to the 1-1
I have seen your previous work. You are so talented. A Wasa, other than the Corel, would be much better for your needs.
 
If were to start this project again I would also use this absolutely beautiful Sergal example as a guide. This artist is about as good as it gets for this ship, and this hobby.
 
(Moderators! I hope that I'm not breaking any rules by posting this link, if I am please let me know and I will re-write this post.)
 
http://warshipvasa.freeforums.net/thread/84/shels-vasa-completed           such a beautiful example 
 
PS: Hindsight is always so 20/20 
 
Regards,
 
Michael

And this year's "Cannon Award" goes to ......
 

 
Getting better but a couple of fixes to make yet. Finish was ruined because, as I found out, turning the thin area behind the breech causes the rest of the barrel between that and the tail stock to move slightly .... tarnation! I will have to make that step happen after the fine finishing turn of the barrel.
 
To give an idea of accuracy, I had the lathe turn a length of brass down to 0.2mm. The rod connecting the barrel to the pedestal in the attached picture is .9mm
 
Cheers
Rob
 

Thank you for posting this most excellent and informative review. Your pictures and demonstration really says it all. 

Having cleared the cupboards of some my old unmade plastic models and generated some spare cash, I finally splashed out and got a metal lathe, so I thought I might make a couple of notes about it. I am a lathe novice, so if I get terminology wrong, I apologise.
 
My requirements included:
Light weight so it can be stored in a cupboard or moved outside for use Able to turn 45 mm diametre (I hope to make a 1/24 scale cannon and a carronade) Able to use a variety of tools Able to take a CNC kit to repeat jobs accurately and to cope with tapers and curvey bits Locally in NZ, the Sieg machines and a lot of clones are available. They are cheap but quite heavy at between 35 and 55kg for the small ones. So in the end I chose a Proxxon PD230 which weighs in at 10kg with its clothes off, can turn up to 56mm, can use small lathe tools (up to 8x10mm tools) and has various CNC kits available on the market.
 

 
Technical specifications: centre distance: 230mm swing: 52mm height over cross slide: 28mm cross-slide travel: 60mm top slide travel: 45mm steel toolholder: accepts 8mm x 8mm cutters spindle bore: 10.5mm thread cutting capability: 0.5mm, 0.645mm, 0.7mm, 0.75mm, 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.25mm, 1.5mm spindle speeds with reduction: 3,000rpm, 900rpm, 300rpm automatic feed resolution: 0.05mm/rev or 1.0mm/rev tailstock spindle: MK1 bore (short) tailstock travel: 30mm internal chucking capacity: 2mm - 35mm external chucking capacity: 24mm - 68mm handwheel resolution: 1 revolution = 1mm feed (40 divisions) mass: 10kg dimensions: 530mm x 250mm x 150mm  
The lathe came with 3 jaw chuck and live centre and a few bits and bobs for threading and gear cutting, which I do not plan on using.
 
In addition, I got (over the following couple of weeks)
splash guard/tray Quick tool change post plus extra tool holders Proxxon's HSS tool set (5 tools) Fixed steady Boring tool set Tail stock drill Tool holder for rotary tools (Dremel etc) Set of 7 indexed tungsten carbide tipped tools (on special from sieg shop here)
The 8mm high x 10mm wide tools fit in the tool holders made for the quick change tool post. Out of the box, the PD230 is almost ready to fire up after a quick check on the various fittings. It runs surprisingly quietly, and is very compact (in fact the lathe could sit inside my HMS Blanche).
 
I got some Acetal (Derlin) rod for practising on and created a bit of a mess which pleased me no end. With the tools all adjusted for height and distance from the centreline, it is very easy to swap tools around in the middle of a job. I got used to facing and general turning (the lathe has an automatic feed if required) but the one task I am struggling with is parting and deep grooves. At the moment I am avoiding both tasks by using a saw.
 
The CNC kit came from Ideegeniali.it, and it arrived shortly after the lathe did. They claim it only takes 5 minutes to assemble, but it took me about 10 minutes ... but who's quibbling. Wiring it up wasn't difficult either, and then it was time to consider the control software.
 
I chose Mach3, which requires a PC with an printer port. That took a bit of finding, but after a bit I had everything hooked up and ready to go. Ideegenialli supply configuration files for Mach3, so apart from a couple of minor tweaks the computer soon had control over the lathe, with the ability to make moves in the X and Z axis rapidly or jog tiny distances. With the kit in place, I can still manually work the lathe, although I need to remount the original hand wheels onto the stepper motors to make that easier.
 
I already have a CAD/CAM program, so the next step was to create something. I worked up a drawing of a carronade and a cannon from Wayne Kempson's plans in Allan Yedlinski and his book Euryalus V2 and started testing. The testing taught me a few things about tool selection and pathing, as well as how to cope with the complex shapes, such as the breeches of the cannons and carronades. Under CNC control, the carronade can be turned in one job (several passes) with a single tool, while I am turning the cannon first from the barrel back with one tool, then flipping it in the chuck and turning the breech end using two tools (here the quick change post comes into play). I still do facing, drilling and parting off manually.
 

 
The jobs are not perfect yet, as I have a couple of issues to work out:
When I flip the cannon to turn the breech end, the chuck marks the barrel. I am contemplating leaving a V groove oversized in the barrel to slot the chuck into the barrel, then manually turning that out at the end of the job. The finish is not as good as I would like, which I think is a result of tool choice. When turning from the left or right, it is really nice, but the 55 degree straight tip is leaving grooves. Multiple finishing passes clean these up, but a better tip might be a plan. Parting ... if I can't do something manually, then there is no way I'm going to do it under CNC control. I think I have the height correct (on or slightly higher than centre) and am feeding slowly, but it just doesn't work well for me. This may be due to the plastic bending away from the tip, then trapping the tool as it flexes - brass may be better. Or I am parting to far away from the chuck, or with the part still under pressure from the tail stock it is trapping the tip.  
Conclusions:
Pros:
The lathe is more expensive than others, but meets my requirements for space and capabilities.
Accuracy of the lathe is impressive, but I can't compare to other brands.
The CNC kit works well and lets me do things I think I would struggle with (complex curves and repeat jobs)
Both the lathe and the CNC kit worked straight out of the box.
I spent (and still spend) a lot of time looking for hints and tips on turning - that is time well spent.
 
Con:
The operator is a bit inexperienced and could do with a bit of learning.
 
Overall, a nice machine to have and I am glad I finally took the plunge.
 
Cheers
Rob
 
PS: some wood turned - old walnut dowel from an old damaged kit.
 

OK, I have started with the alcohol application with a fine point syringe. I will let it work in for a while then re-apply. Now I will open a bottle of consumable alcohol in the for of a beer while I have pizza and watch the Boston Bruins hockey game. Life is good.

When sewing, let the machine pull the cloth. You just try to keep it straight. Hope this helps. Good luck . Cant wait to see the sails.

No updates because i've been struggling with my sewing machine Darn, i'm really hopeless! After several hours of having the thread stuck to the machine, I figured out that the thread I was trying to use was too thick. Back to the shops and now i'm back with single stranded polyester thread. The machine isn't jamming any more, but now I discovered I can't sew straight. Good thing I bought a couple of meters of spare cloth (enough to make sails for two Cutty Sarks). I have been practising my sewing. The machine is quite fun to use when it's behaving properly! 
 
Bindy, I was in Chinatown yesterday. I did contemplate buying a Hello Kitty sticker for the sewing machine, just for you  

I have 17 pieces.  Please send me a private message with your shipping address and I will send them right away.