Roger Pellett
-
Posts
4,519 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Roger Pellett
-
I think that I still have a large scale set of plans for Dorothy. Back in the ‘80’s NRG held a conference at Point Comfort, VA and I met someone from NNSD who sent them to me. If you decide to build a model of her I would be happy to send them to you. Roger
-
Chesapeake Bay was home to a large collection of unique watercraft: Skipjacks, Bugeyes, Log Canoes, Schooners, Sloops, Buy Boats, Ducktails, etc. Some like Shipjacks were specialized craft designed for dredging oysters in the open waters of the bay but the others were equivalent to today’s short haul trucks carrying seafood and agricultural products to and from the markets, so they certainly would have appeared on the York River. Fortunately for model builders, Chesapeake Bay craft have been extensively studied and Documented by knowledgeable Naval Architects and historians: Howard Chapelle, MV Brewington, Robert Burgess, and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum at St. Michaels, MD to name a few. If you are willing to dig a little you can build one of these craft to whatever level of detail that you might wish. Also, the craft are relatively small with compact rigging so your your daughter will not have to move out of the house to make room for the model. Pride of Baltimore II is a replica. Her underwater hull lines were drastically modified following the loss of Pride I to improve transverse stability. She, therefore, cannot be considered to represent an authentic Bay built sailing vessel. As Chris points out there are kits purporting to build authentic models of Bay working craft. But why not scratch build a unique and authentic Bay Working Craft. Roger
-
Battle scenes with real soldiers, cannons and lots of action is expensive. A love story with a couple of sex scenes tossed in for good measure is cheap. Roger
-
Google 1:48 scale car tires. Lots of sources.
-
My opinion, not researched fact. Separating coatings of topsides and bottoms at a designed load waterline required knowing the weight and buoyancy at the load condition at which the vessel was intended to float. Some shipwrights could calculate buoyancies at different waterlines using similar numerical approximations as those embedded in today’s Computer systems. They lacked, however an accurate way to determine the weight of the vessel prior to launch. Prior to coppering there was also little need to paint the topsides differently than the bottom. The logical place to end the (cheap) white or black stuff would be just below the Wales. Prestige vessels might have been treated differently. Roger
-
There appears to be a pecking order with Swedes and Danes vs the Norwegians and Finns. We used to hear lots of Sven and Oley jokes but not so much any more. In Grand Maris MN on Lake Superior near the Canadian border there’s even a Sven and Oley’s Pizza. Roger
-
This looks like an interesting project. Looking forward to future progress. Roger
- 100 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- Red Jacket
- Marine Model Company
- (and 2 more)
-
I would assume that machining your Aluminim bar would also require turning of the drum to get concentricity with the shaft and to remove the as delivered tolerance on the aluminum bar. While you can probably order different grades you need tolerances in the thousands, not hundreds. You would want both ends of the cylinder faced off square to minimize vibrations of the rotating mass. Roger
-
Dean, Price points: Dewalt portable planer. Mine is mounted atop a plywood box with castors. I move it outdoors for planing it’s very noisy and can quickly make a wheel barrow load of shavings. Capacity about 1in. Cost $500 +-. Corrosion- Store In plastic snap on lid box w/ zrust. Space- not much larger than what you have. Byrnes sander- Enough already said; if Company resumes production. Cost $650? Full sized drum sander: $1500 and large. Improving what you have: The speed issue should be easily solved by swapping out the pulley combination. I would swap out the bearings with new ball or roller bearings. These are not expensive. So, it is certainly possible to upgrade what you have. The question is cost. I doubt if any custom machine s hop can machine the shaft and drum for anything close to the $500 spent on a small portable planer. Roger
-
Light table question
Roger Pellett replied to GrandpaPhil's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
Yeah, and today the temporary crown popped off ! -
Light table question
Roger Pellett replied to GrandpaPhil's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
I spent an hour laying on my back at the dentist’s this PM so had plenty of time to examine the fluorescent fixtures in the suspended ceilings. The glass in my light table is exactly the same as used to filter the light. It must have been available from glass shops as I don’t remember canabalizing a fixture. Roger -
Jon, The extreme western end of Lake Superior is only about 10 miles wide North to South. Duluth MN is on the North shore and Superior WI is on the South. Referred to locally as the Twin Ports they actually form one huge harbor complex, by far the largest on the Great Lakes. News media notwithstanding they still ship and receive enormous quantities of bulk cargos; iron ore pellets and coal outbound and limestone inbound. Both the Superior and Duluth sides of the harbor connect to major rail lines forming an active transportation hub. Roger
-
Light table question
Roger Pellett replied to GrandpaPhil's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
I looked at my light table yesterday and realized that contrary to my above post I did not use ordinary plate glass. The top side of the glass is smooth but the under side is embossed with a diamond shaped pattern. This acts to diffuse the light. Roger -
A number of years ago I bought shellac flakes to make my own shellac. I still have most of them. Here in the US, ready mixed Shellac is widely available at paint, home improvement, and hardware stores. It is not expensive. It can be easily thinned with alcohol if necessary. I, therefore, see no need to make my own stuff or to worry about the Cut. For most applications the eyeball can be a good guide to thinning. Roger
-
Jon, You might want to take a peak at my Benjamin Noble build log. Same scratch built 1900 and later subforum. This is a steel hulled Great Lakes Steamship launched in 1909. Like you I used paper for plating but I first saturated it with shellac. It holds up much better than plain paper. Roger
- 41 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- steel
- beam trawler
- (and 2 more)
-
Light table question
Roger Pellett replied to GrandpaPhil's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
I never gave it much thought to diffusion. It seems to work well enough for my needs. -
The point on top of the Washington Monument is a block of Aluminum, considered to be a semi-precious Metal when it was built. The process of electrolytic refining was discovered and developed by Charles Hall in the 1880’s. He was a resident of Oberlin, Ohio and a student at Oberlin, College. He set up a lab in his parent’s woodshed using homemade wet cell batteries as a source of electricity. At the exact same time, a scientist in Europe discovered the same process. Hall’s process was industrialized by forming a corporation in Pittsburgh, and a large scale production facility in nearby Kitkanning, PA. Electricity was generated by newly developed Westinghouse steam turbines. The Corporation became Alcoa. Oberlin college’s large endowment is from donated Alcoa stock from Hall’s estate. There are, or at least used to be, several Aluminum plants on the West Virginia shore of the Ohio River downstream from Pittsburgh. Built there to take advantage of cheap electricity from coal fired mine mouth power plants. Roger.
-
Valeriy, Aluminum torpedo boxes: An interesting use for what was then a relatively new refined metal. I don’t know about Europe but the first large scale Aluminum reduction plant was only built in the USA in 1891; seven years after Charles Hall developed the basic process. Was topside weight actually that much of a concern? Roger
-
Light table question
Roger Pellett replied to GrandpaPhil's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
My light table is approximately 48in x 30in. It is made from 1in (nominal) lumberyard pine. The top edge of the pine box is routed to form a 1/2in wide x 1/4in deep rabbet. It is lit by several 1tube fluorescent light fixtures. The top is a piece of double strength (approximately 1/4in) plate glass. This is plenty strong, doesn’t deflect, doesn’t scratch, and doesn’t require internal bracing. It sits in the rabbit. If I were building another one I would again use plate glass not acrylic. Roger -
Axminster 300 mm disc sander unboxing
Roger Pellett replied to vaddoc's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
It looks like a nice piece of equipment sold at a reasonable price. I had not heard of Axminster and was surprised to learn that they sell/ship to the USA. With the sad and untimely passing of Jim Byrnes and hopefully temporary closing of his business this particular tool might be a good alternative. I agree that disc sanders are a valuable addition to the modelers workshop. I have two; a 4” Jarmac used by professional model makers back before 3D CAD when industrial installations were physically modeled to check for piping, equipment , and structural steel interferences. By today’s standards it’s a poor piece of equipment- very high speed, flimsy, and noisy. It conveniently sits on my workbench doing what it is supposed to do on light weight stock. My second tool is a 12” homemade tool that runs on the same shaft as my thickness sander. Operating at much slower speed it works on much thicker material. Like you both are useful for precise shaping of sawn materials. Roger -
Very nice work Javelin. Here in the US, one of the Marine grade Epoxies (West System) is “modular”. The resin can be paired with either of two hardeners; fast cure and or slow cure. Roger
-
An answer to Glen’s question. For every Epoxy brand/ formulation there is a unique density (weight divided by volume) for the resin and for the hardener. The chemical reaction works by the weight of the hardener combining with that of the resin. So weights cause the mix to harden. For many applications, however, volumes are easier to measure so manufactures using the densities of the two components provide ways to convert measurements to volumes. West System, for example, sells calibrated pumps that measure by volume. They also sell a scale for mixing by weight. In a boatyard mixing by volume is probably easier. Mixing tiny quantities of resins that require precise resin hardener ratios weight probably works better. For tiny quantities used for gluing I personally find the hardware store tube resins to be more user friendly as eyeball measuring of drops squeezed from each tube is good enough. Roger Note after rereading Javelin’s post above: He is absolutely correct that mass not weight causes the reaction. For those of here in the USA, (thankfully) still using the Imperial System ratios based by weight (lbs) are the same as those based on mass (kg.)
-
A cautionary note about coating a surface with glass fiber cloth and resin (polyester/Epoxy): You do not “glue down” the cloth with the resin. In other words, you do not first spread the resin and then attempt to attach the cloth. By doing so you trap air bubbles and wrinkles. Instead, you first spread out the cloth and saturate it with the resin. A plastic disposable squeegee is generally used to work the resin into the weave of the cloth. While this may seem obvious, I only learned this after botching many projects. Also, more hardener does not make Epoxy cure faster. It just results in a sticky mess. Roger
-
Actually, the most likely thing about your wife and your workshop is if left unattended for any length of time every horizontal surface will be piled with her stuff. It’s what a female secretary in our office would have called GSB- Gender Specific Behavior! 😆 Roger
Our Emblem ®
