exwafoo

A bit late to join the conversation, however, measure the thread on the drill that the collet retainer screws onto and buy an after market mini 3 jaw chuck that will fit. That's what I did. The only adjustment I had to make was to use a small washer in the thead of the the new chuck as a shim to make the jaws travel the full distance when closing, as the threaded portion of the drill is about 1mm short. No problems with it. Hope this helps. Alan

for small bits - http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=77_122&products_id=434 for PE tools in general - http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=77_79 Alan

Hi All A number of years ago, I bought the first copy of a part works magazine on building a 1/96 HMS Victory. The reasons were, it was only £1.99 (starter price) and it had some nice colour pictures for reference, some nice pieces of thin plywood (always hard to find in the UK) to be used as bulkheads. It also had a gun kit comprising barrel, carriage (in 3 pieces), trucks, capsquares, a length of brass rod for axles and some small brass nails to hold the capsquares on with. This kit has been sculling around in the bottom of my toolbox for a while now, so I thought I’d have a bash at a bit of a diorama in a bottle as a side project. This was just meant as a general ‘illustration’ of a gun station, no particular ship in mind, and I fully realise that some parts are not to scale or particularly accurate. A bit of fun really. I used oak strip from www.stripwood.co.uk for the deck and hull, and the Salt Box. The Sponge Tub was made from 1mm wide strip cut from a piece of veneer (not sure what wood), coloured black on one side then stained Light Oak. Similarly the Match Tub, although this was easier as it has a solid wood former under the strips. The Handspikes were carved from dowel and stained. The Rammer was bamboo stick thinned down with the Rammer part turned and stained, similarly for the Sponge, however the head was painted white to simulate fleece. The Powder Scoop was bamboo stick with the scoop fashioned from pieces of styrene tubing and then painted; the Worm was bamboo with a coiled bit of wire painted black. I turned the Cartridge Case from a bit of Elm, as I believe the originals were. The piece of Grating was made from some mahogany strip and some white wood strip, the cannonballs were self coloured air drying modelling clay, the rack was a bit of mahogany strip. As to the gun itself, the carriage took a bit of rework to get the parts to fit and then be shaped so that it looked ok. The supplied trucks were enameled metal, so I used them to get dimensions, and used these to turn some new trucks from Elm, as this was used in the real thing. Brass wire painted black was used to make the ringbolts on the gun carriage and for the lashing points on the hull. I carved the blocks from a length of mahogany strip, used some thin brass wire to strop them and used thin thread for the rope. Once in place I soaked the thread with dilute PVA glue to stiffen them in place. I showed the tackle loosened on the diorama. The breeching rope was a thicker bit of thread; it was thick enough so that I could actually whip the eye (with a spot of glue just to make sure) after passing through the ringbolts. The small brass nails supplied to put the capsquares on were far too big so were replaced with smaller ones. The Capsquares were actually too big for the trunnions, (the barrel could fall out), so I shimmed them with some thin walled brass tube. All painted black. The bottle is a small spirit bottle, probably quarter size, about 6 inches long overall. The inside is about 3 inches long, with a top to bottom taper that caused a bit of fettling to get the deck to fit. It then took a bit of trial and error to get the deck fixed in position. CA didn’t want to know, I tried UV cured glue, but that was curing too quickly in the bright daylight (it does happen in the UK sometimes) so I used a couple of bits of Milliput in the end – not the prettiest solution – I would rethink this bit if I ever try something like this again. The stand is a piece of MDF covered in Oak Veneer, and the bottle supports are Oak strip. Turks Head knot to finish off. A work colleague suggested I name the pieces, so from left to right: Salt Box - wooden box with leather hinges to hold a couple of cartridges - the salt soaked up any moisture Cartridge container - lidded wooden container used to carry the cartridges up from the magazine - usually by the ships boys, the Powder Monkeys Handspikes - resting against the cannon - substantial shaped levers used to train the gun carriage around Sponge Tub - filled with water - used to sponge out the barrel after a shot to make sure no burning debris before putting in the next cartridge Match Tub - conical, half filled with water. A fire precaution on ships. The burning ends of the match were fed over the top. If knocked over the water put out the match. The match was used if the flintlock on the gun failed. Rammer, Sponge, Worm and Powder Scoop Happy Modelling All the Best Alan Trial fit with a pen for scale The Bad Guy's View The layout And again All Done

yep. Had this book for years. Updated to the latest edition a couple of years back. Cost me about £12 new. Worth every penny. Alan

Hi Dan, Sympathies - been there as well. You'll get there Alan

Sorry to hear this Jesse; my condolences to you all Best Alan

keep going Jesse, its nice work to watch. Sorry to hear about the health. All the best Alan

Sorry Doug, Ships in Bottles. Keeps the dust off of the finished model. Adjustment is by slackening the nuts and bolt and moving the blade away/closer to the edge of the right angle strip, using a drill bit of, say, 1 mm as a gauge to set the gap so a 1 mm strip will be cut. Then tighten. May have to do this a couple of times to 'fine tune'. The blade rotates around the bolt so that depth of cut of a pass is adjusted by finger pressure. A couple of attempts will let you know how the wood cuts and how many passes are required to cut through. I've found 3 or 4 light cuts produces nice even strips. The SIB shown has 1 mm decking of a light coloured veneer stained with oak stain. Sorry its a bit blurred. Hope this helps Alan

Doug, I model SIBs, for the deck planking, I cut strips 1 mm wide from some light coloured veneer using a strip cutter I made a few years ago from a piece of aluminium right angle, nuts and bolts, and a single sided razor blade. Thickness of cut is set by using a drill bit as a gauge and a bit of trial and error. The only downside is that you need a straight edge on the veneer to start with and the cut strip is what the cutter is pressed against, but a bit of care and two or three light passes works OK. The square section on top of the blade is to allow a bit of pressure without getting a grove in a finger. Cheers Alan

Proxxon do one - search under Proxxon Router Base OFV I've got one - its well made and is certainly worth having Alan

A number of years ago I thought to buy a set, but cost put me off. So I made a set. Not as accurate maybe, and with fixed ratios, but they worked until I found a 'real' set on ebay at a good price. I wrote it up as an article for 'Bottleship', the quarterly magazine of the 'European Association of Ships in Bottles'. This subject cropped up on 'Bottled Shipbuilder' a few weeks ago as well. If memory serves me, I believe that this article was uploaded to this site as well before the crash, so here it is again. If you want the quick way, skip to the end. Regards Alan Proportional Dividers Kind Of.pdf

Jesse, A genius bit of improvisation for a square - far better than standing barefoot on one of the little blighters best Alan

Prof, Not a USA site, but may narrow the search. http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/mantua_plans.html Alan

Mark, Thanks for that. Nice to know. Al

I came across this book a few years ago, but did not buy it - just added it to the maybe list. But the work looks very good. It may help out http://carvingbook.weebly.com/english-pdf-version.html Al