WackoWolf

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to bend cast metal parts?
 
Whenever I have tried in the past to either bend them or straighten them I managed to break them and then had to make substitutes, usually out of wood because I am much more comfortable working with wood than metal.
 
I hope I am using the correct terminology when I say cast metal.  I am referring to the white metal parts supplied in most kits that usually have a little bit of flashing on them and are quite brittle.
 
Thanks in advance.

For what it's worth Joe, the best place to buy tooling like this are engineering supply shops. They tend to sell only good brands. Having said that, they may be outside of budget at times! I have done the same as Michael and only bought the sizes as I've needed them.

Hi Gaetan, your model is wonderful! I'll follow your posts with great interest.
It´s incredible how the light effect modify the colors of the wood. And the photos of the 74 cannons ship are also amazing. The cooper sheathing is superb!
 
Mauricio

A little update for this Friday, I did retouch horizontal curving alignment of the tiles for the windows, I still will have to do some realignment. Now working on port and taking pictures give no mercy. On the second picture I draw a red line to show that some realignment will be needed.  Nothing is glued yet, so that realignment can be done when necessary. It is easier to see on a picture of the model than on the model itself.

Ed, I was about to ask how you kept the ribands wide enough between the frames forward and aft, and then you show the spreader.  You make it seem simple, yet I know the accuracy you achieve is far from easy.
Maury

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 40 – Aft Half Frames 1
 
As in the forward section, the aft half frames lie between the cant frames and the aftermost of the full square frames.  They bolt to the vertical side of the deadwood and are square to the line of the keel.  When installed they will be hard to distinguish from the full frames that rest on the keel.  However when the horizontal bolts are installed the difference will be more obvious.
 
I installed the first of these following the method used on the forward frames.  As shown in the first picture these, although separate, were fabricated as a single assembly held together with temporary cross-spalls.  This assembly would then be slipped over the deadwood at the correct height.  The breadth at the top is held by the spalls and alignment set using the center string line.
 

 
The next picture shows the erection method.
 

 
The sides are contained by the two clamped squares located at the line on the base drawing.  The center of the spall is marked and aligned with the string.  The height on both sides is set using the vertical caliper based on heights taken from the drawing.  This worked well except that gluing and accurately clamping at the deadwood was a bit involved.  I soon adopted the simpler method shown in the next picture.
 

 
In this method the two frame halves are installed separately.  The ribbands at the planksheer were extended back into the cant frames.  These ribbands are then used to set the height and breadth of the frames at the top, where they are pinned tightly through the ribband as was done for the full frames.  This method roughly mimics actual shipyard practice.
 

 
This turned out to be a very much simpler method with equal accuracy.  In the next picture a half frame has been lightly clamped at the bottom and the frame is held so the top of the aft top member is at the top of the ribband. The ribband has been marked with the joint line of the frame for fore and aft alignment.  A pin hole is being drilled through in the picture.
 

 
Once pinned at the top it is an easy matter to rotate the frame to apply glue to the face, then position and clamp it in place by one of the methods shown above.  This process is almost too simple.  However, it does depend on an accurate ribband line.
 
To help assure this, a spreader was inserted and pinned at frame 33, about midway in the remaining open space.  Sized from the pattern for 33, this helps maintain the correct curve of the ribband breadth.  This spreader and two measured strips are shown in the next picture.
 

 
The strips are loose and were merely used to check the breadth at the last full frame and the last installed half frame.
 
The last picture shows the hull at present.  The remaining gap in the framing should soon be filled.
 

 
Apart from the clutter of my workshop in the background, this picture gives an idea of the length of this hull – and of the L/B ratio.  This is one long slim ship -  roughly 240 feet long by about 43 feet broad – about 6/1.  Naiad:  3.7/1.
 
 
 Ed

Two days and no guesses. 
 
She's a US Navy side-wheel steamer with four stacks arranged in a rectangular pattern. Three drawings of her in this early configuration were made over 100 years later and were based on written descriptions and a simple contemporary line drawing. Two of those three are from the beam and fail to show the four stacks; the third reconstruction drawing is from the port bow and clearly shows four. She was extensively rebuilt several years later into a more familiar and better documented configuration with one stack.
 

Port bow view showing four stacks.

I have been following this build avidly, although I haven't commented so far.  (not much to add, except "fantastic!") 
 
Earlier you had mentioned making decals--I don't know If you need graphics or have already made them, but I whipped up the "19" based on the conning tower shot--If you're interested, I can send you any size or resolution you want, or if you have autocad or a graphics software program I can send you compatible files...

A milestone has been reached - I have finished the standing rigging and all the ratlines except the standing rigging under the bowsprit.
 
I have finished the second motor boat. The photo show all of the four boats in place on the deck. I'm currently in the process of making the lashings for these so they can be fixed in position permantly. They should not interfere with the running rigging.
 

 
The next picture show the quarter deck where I have installed the first stanchions to hold a safety line (I belive that's what it's for).
 

 
Finally a couple of overall photos
 

 

 
/Lars Peter

Thanks Sherry. My method also gives you something to clamp the Channels to. This prevents them sagging downward whilst the glue dries, if you can't position the hull so they point straight up.
 
  Danny

Yeah John, I'm full of them (it??? ).
 
Here are a couple of pics of the Channels fitted to the Port side :
 

 

 
 
Sheer Rails
 
The Channels intersect the Sheer Rails, which is why the channels had to be fitted first :
 

 
An unusual way to hold the end of the sheer rail whilst the glue dried - clamps were ineffective in this situation, so I've temporarily glued a piece of scrap to the end of the channel :
 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you very much John, Colin, Doris and Popeye .
 
Fitting the Channels perfectly horizontally was accomplished by the use of a couple of specially made "jigs" that sit on the planksheers from one side to the other. Masking tape and clamps hold the jigs firmly in position. The leg glued to the underneath of the horizontal member was measured at the inboard edge and cut square.
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

.. Still waiting for that router bit to arrive :mellow: ..
So in the mean time I practiced a bit on the breech rope. To be honest what you see on the pictures took me quite some time to produce .   Basically I had to reinvent the wheel, as I never did anything like rigging before.. But after having found out how I wanted it and which tools to use, it seems to get a lot faster.    I also spend some time to find out what kind of rope and which color to use for the canon rigging.  I settled with “sand” as the color “brown” seemed to fade away in the background The rope itself I made (on my home made ropewalk) with a total of 9 strings and it measures Ø 0,65mm.      A bit more info about the rope for those who also make their own rope: I made 3 “Hawser Laid” or “Twisted” ropes from 3 yarns and used 3 of these ropes to produce a “cable laid” rope.      Intentionally I also wanted to rig for the “train tackle”  but as you can there’s not really any room for such rigging as the main hatch is right behind it when the guns are in “loading” position..      So i guess i have to give up that idea..

Some weeks ago I started working on the guns for the main deck. Here's short impression of the progress and methods.
 

 
 

 

 
As for the wheels, I have been trying for a while to find a satisfactory way to have them both round, centered, and 'ringed'. Here's what I came up with after some experimenting:
 
I guess the images speak for themselves, If not please feel free to ask any question.
 
They are made of pear, 3mm axis, 6mm ring, 8mm total diameter
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Best,
Michiel

Hi guys.
 
At the front I replace the last pieces of plywood frames by the final ones. 50 pieces of bend wallnut

I also made some first deck beams
 
the view from the outside:

 
 
and the figure at its location

 
all treenailed as well.. close to 300

 
have fun,
Michiel

Dan, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it's just going to be static. Trying to get 100+ individual rollers square, true and turning freely is a task I can well do without. At a larger scale, with Michael Mott's machining ability.... I might have considered it...... Maybe......
 
John, I was originally thinking of using something like construction paper, but I've also begun to think maybe film strip, if I could find some with about 30mm between the perforations (so I could cut the off and still have a belt wide enough).....
 
Robbyn, yeah.. I'm still here.... Although I'm feeling more like a fringe dweller lately. I'm glad you like my progress to date, but I must admit, she still lacking in a lot of essential details. In due time I'll get there, once I get the unloading gear finished I'll have more time to devote to getting the rest sorted.
 
Andy

So..... rolling right along...
 
 
More rollers.
 
Made up the assembly that supported belt under the loop belt hopper. I've also added the heel roller, and drive and tensioning rollers...and a few more small rollers just for good measure. The boom belt drive motors were locaded on a platform atop the boom. You can see where this will be, with the belt chain drive covers protuding up awaiting their respective motors (castings are on order)Aside from some bracing, I'm basically waiting for parts, sheaves, motors, walkway mesh...... maybe next week I might see something arrive.....
 
 
Andy
 
 

I have attached the catwalks along the top of the exhaust funnels and almost completed the aft exhaust stack. they cat walks don't look half bad. there is alot of touch up painting to do. hopefully i will be able to do this tonight. if not it will have to wait till next week because this weekend is busy.


I also started on folding the Mk8 catwalk pieces. these were a little easier to bend because they are supposed to be hard angles rather than a nice gentle bend. i painted these last night and hope to get one more coat of paint and then attach them as well.


I still have to drill the port holes and place on all the hatches. I'm nervous about doing this, guess that is why i haven't tackled it yet. but i have to do it soon because i have to start attaching railings and can't be man handling the model much longer. haha. Stand by for updates.
 
stay motto.

Hej Rob,
 
She's looking great !!, just keep the pictures coming.   By the way: Another way to find out of the (real) diameter of the rope is to wind it around a piece of wood in for eksample “10” turns  Measure it with a  caliper and divide the number by the used number of turns      The diameter of the rope in the picture would be: Ø 0,65 mm  

Wackowalf
 
Here are some photos of the Flexcut chisels.
 

 

 
mij

Funny I had exactly the same thoughts looking at QA's tooling.
Sorry Mike we have wandered completely off topic.
Nick

Ssh Tony, you're giving my secrets away! For model ship making you could always make something like this out of hardwood, it would serve the purpose just as well.
 

I have a variety of vee blocks that I could use but I'd probably use my finger plate. Different size brass bushes can be placed in the clamp. The one pictured is for a 5mm centre drill.
 

 
Or you could just do it with something like a bench block if you can temporarily fix it in place.
 

 
Just a vee cut into a piece of wood will work well enough though as Mark says. Just bring the drill bit down into the centre of the vee first then clamp the wood in place before placing your dowel into it. It's probably worth spending a little time to make a jig that can be kept safely for future use.

If you need to use the drill press, make a jig of a piece of wood with a deep "V" in it.  Lay the part in the "V" and hold it tight while drilling.   Russ's solution is a better one, IMHO.

I have not done it with a drill press. I have always done it with a hand held pin vise. I would use a knife point to to mark the where you want to the drill to bite. Go slow and check several times to make sure you are drilling in the proper direction.
 
Russ