Roger Pellett

As an author of a published maritime history book, I feel that you guys are mistakenly picking on the publisher. Criticism of this sort should be directed at the author. The author is responsible for the book’s content including factual errors. The publisher is responsible for turning the author’s manuscript into a book. The publisher will usually provide an Editor but these people are experts in English Grammar, not necessarily the book’s content. A good editor can do his or her Job without the author ever realizing that changes have been made. Roger

If you are limiting your drilling to #60 - #80 wire sized drills or their metric equivalents I cannot believe that you are loading things to the point where you are flexing the pedestal. I would think that you would first be buckling and breaking the drill bits. Ignoring carbide, there are only two types of HSS drill bits: those that cut and those that don’t. Trying to drill a hole with a bit that does not immediately cut is a waste of time. Unless you are equipped with some sort of powerful magnification there is no way to tell how sharp these small bits until you use them. I recently bought a new stand of wire sized drill bits. Even with significant pressure it didn't cut brass so I consigned the entire stand to drilling holes in wood. A sharp HSS bit of the same size drilled 50 holes in the same material with virtually no pressure. I f something is flexing check your drill bit. Roger

Wow! Hull looks great!

Many, many years ago a dentist gave me a handful of steel dentist burrs. They have sat in a 35mm film can ever since. These have a 3/32” shaft with a “snout” tapering to a ball shaped cutting head. I recently found it necessary to drill a series #75 of holes through a piece of 1/16” diameter brass tubing. I first filed a narrow flat along the top of the tube. I have been unable to find a center punch with a really tiny point so ground one on the end of a piece of piano wire but actually using it fell short. I then dug out my dentist burrs and found a really tiny one. Chucked in my sensitive drilling attachment this did a great job in a accurately grinding a tiny depression at each location. The job was then easily finished with a conventional HSS twist drill. Roger

Those are all good books that would be a nice addition to anyone’s library. Roger

My current modeling project has recently required me to drill 100’s of small holes (.010”- .025”) in brass. I am fortunate to own a well equipped Sherline lathe and milling column. My Sherline tool kit includes a sensitive drilling attachment. Using this fitted with a sharp HSS drill bit, I can drill holes in brass like it’s butter. Structurally, drill bits are columns. These small drill bits are very slender columns. When subjected to axial loads, columns fail by buckling. If the load is not truly axial, (the load does not pass down the longitudinal center of the column) even less load is required for the column to fail. So, how does this theory effect us? First, any force in excess of that actually required for the drill to cut can cause the bit to buckle and fail. Second, anything that results in an eccentric load will dramatically reduce the drilling force leading to failure. This latter could either be caused by the center punch not being correctly lined up beneath the drill chuck or by the drill bit skating when trying to drill without first center punching. Structural theory would, therefore, indicate that these micro drill presses could be blind alley. While an x-y table can allow proper alignment of the drill bit with the work piece, the mechanical advantage of the lever actuated quill does not give one the sensitive feel needed when using tiny bits. While I realize that many do not want to Spend 1000++ for a Sherline mill and accessories, a better option might be one of the full sized house brand drill presses now sold by home improvement stores, and fitted with an x-y table and separate sensitive drilling attachment. Roger

British ship modeler Brian King has written a number of interesting books about building 1:100 & 1:200 Royal Navy steam warships. One book focuses on what he calls Model Engineering, the topic at hand. In typical model ship book fashion he includes chapters on useful hand and power tools. He has a few short comments about a tool that he calls a ”Linisher.” This is the same as the small bench mounted vertical belt sanders sold everywhere in the US. These typically use a 1” (25mm) wide belt. He claims that this is a metal working tool with no real woodworking applications. I bought one of these many years ago at a hardware store that was closing. Like Mr King I did not find it to be particularly useful until taking his advice I used it to grind a HSS lathe tool. I personally found it to be much easier to use than a conventional bench grinder. It produced a well shaped tool quickly.

Very nice looking model!

Correction of my post from this AM. The knockout bar furnished by Sherline for removing tools from the #1 Morse taper headstock is 5/16” diameter, not 1/2”.

I have a brass hammer that I use to dislodge the cluck from my Sherline Lathe, but I have never had to repeatedly pound the bar. And the knockout bar is just a piece of steel. If the end gets peened, file it off. Normally when you dislodge the chuck you are not transmitting the full impact of the hammer to the headstock bearings. The knockout bar rests only on the end of the tapered shank holding the chuck. As soon as the chuck begins to move there is no load on the bearings at all. You are not pounding on the spindle itself. The tailstock on the Sherline lathe is fitted with a #0 Morse Taper. Tools in the tailstock are removed as Alan O’Neil writes; by retracting it completely. This is not true of the headstock. Sherline uses drawbolts to snug the Jacobs Chuck and milling tools into the threaded socket. It is necessary to use the knockout bar to dislodge them. Other Sherline chucks and tools are thread onto the headstock spindle. Give it a good hard smack. It should pop loose. Roger

When you buy something from Sherline that fits into a Morse Taper it usually comes with a steel pin to tap it out of the tapered socket. The threaded bolt is to be used for drawing it into the taper, not driving it out. A piece of steel round stock larger than the hole in the tapered tail of the chuck with the two ends machined or filed square is the correct tool to use. I believe that the pin supplied with my Jacobs Chuck is 1/2in dia. A good hard smack should dislodge it. Keep in mind that since it’s tapered, as soon as it starts to move it should drop out. Roger

I would second the use of Aluminum for homemade tools. It is of course way too soft for cutting tools but is easily machined with hobby sized machine tools to make jigs and fixtures. Many of these are “one off” for solving a particular problem and sometimes they can be re-machined to suit as the part evolves. Here in the US, hardware and home improvement stores stock several sizes and shapes of inexpensive Aluminum and I always keep some on hand. Being soft, Aluminum jigs and fixtures may not have a long life but a new one is easily made. Solder does not stick to Aluminum and its high thermal conductivity makes it a good heat sink. Roger

Wood is a confusing subject as commonly used names can have no connection with the actual species. Examples: Poplar, pine, fir, lime, sycamore, and yes cedar. I have no experience with Yellow Cedar but I have used three other types of wood called cedar, the aromatic type, red cedar, and Northern White Cedar, each with very different properties. The Northern White Cedar found here in Northern Minnesota, also known as Arbor Vita is used for ribs and planking of Wood Canvas Canoes. It is a light, fine grained but very soft wood. It splits easily. It is becoming increasingly hard to find. There is also an Atlantic Cedar but it could be just another name for the Northern White Cedar or a completely different wood altogether. Roger

These dories were mass produced by specialized boatbuilders and furnished as “outfit” to owners of the fishing Schooners. This would have allowed use of stock moulds, patterns, etc. Two highly regarded maritime historians; Howard Chapelle, and John Gardner have published information on dories. Both explain that they were available in standardized sizes from 12 to 16 ft in 1 ft increments. Length was that of the bottom of the boat. The length of the dory carried depended on whether one or two men fished in the boat. Roger

Since you are gong to paint the finished model, why not just spray it with a pigmented primer. This will highlight and allow you to deal with all sorts of blemishes that you will not see with a clear coating such as Shellac. This first prime coat is sacrificial. Once you have filled blemishes and sanded the hull there should be very little left. You can repeat this prime/fill/prime process until you are happy with the results. If you use a water based primer (many acrylics are thinned with water), it will raise the grain in the wood creating a rough surface. That’s OK because you are going to sand the primed surface anyway and the water’s effect on the grain will disappear after a few applications of primer. Fillers: To a large extent, the primer will fill the grain, but you will need some sort of filler to fill nicks, planking gaps, etc. Everyone seems to have their favorite. Mine is Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty. This can be found in hardware stores. It comes as a powder to be mixed with water so you can mix it to different consistencies. Roger

What does Bates’ Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopedium say about these weather exposed decks? Tar paper or canvas, if you paint It black, it could be either. Coal firing was a messy business. With soot from the stacks the deck was likely to get black anyhow. Roger

Tia and Dave, Ship model building tools cover a wide spectrum so let’s limit your choices to woodworking bench top power tools. The gold standard is the family of tools manufactured and sold by Byrnes Model Machines. IMHO nothing else come close. Unfortunately the owner of this small business recently died. His widow is trying to sort things out and the word is that she plans to reopen in the near future. The model tool company Micro-Mark offers a line of power tools superficial similar to Proxxon, branded as Microlux. I have no experience buying or using their tools. Roger

Ian, Planking a hull is a daunting problem for many modelers. The “correct” way to do it is to use a method called spiing. If done correctly it will provide a pleasing pattern for wooden ships/ models. You are not building a model of a wooden ship so you might want to explore a simpler planking method. There is an alternate planking system for planking full sized watercraft. It is called Strip Planking. It is especially popular with builders of wooden Canoes. It involves planking a hull form of bulkheads with narrow strips of wood and then covering both the inside and outside of the hull with fiberglass. Sound familiar? I have not seen this exact system used for models but it might have some applications. Try looking up strip built canoes on the Internet. Roger

Old Nautical Research Journals, approx 1975-2000 are a great source of ideas for ship modeling projects. In those, essentially all featured models were scratch built so ideas gleaned should not conflict with any kits. In particular I am thinking about a series of articles that Eric Ronnberg wrote about the Boston Pilot Boat Hesper. Pilot Boats are great modeling subjects. They were designed by famous designers, are small enough to be built to a reasonable scale, say 1:48 or 1:64, have beautiful yacht like lines, and nice finishes. Another Pilot Boat subject would be the earlier New York Pilot Boat George Steers c 1850’s; a beautiful vessel. Roger

Much of the craft store “brass” wire is actually brass plated steel wire. Another choice would be enameled copper wire, often called Magnet Wire. I still have a spool from an 8th Grade science project so it’s really old 😀. Wire and coating have not discolored at all. Roger

George, I used to break a lot of blades on my scroll saw. Finally, running it at slow speed, I discovered that the blade was flexing on the “up” stroke. Blades were breaking from low cycle fatigue. I increased blade tension so the blade does not distort throughout the cutting cycle. Blades now last a long time. Roger

There are two different Worlds and to help you we need to know which one that you are living in. A. Full sized table saw: These typically use blades ranging in diameter from 7-1/2in to 12in. Some hollow ground blades made for cutting veneer are as thin as 3/32in. I have not encountered anything thinner. B. Specialty Model Making Tablesaw (Proxxon and Byrnes). These have either a 1/2in arbor or it’s metric equivalent. These saws can use blades sold for cutting metals by machine tools. These are often called slotting blades. These blades usually have a diameter of 4in or less. A commonly used blade is available as follows: Diameter 3in No of teeth. 93 Arbor hole size 1/2in Width. .030in. Much thinner blades are also available Roger

Peerless might not have had expansion loops in her steam piping. The need for expansion loops is dependent on a number of factors; the stiffness of the pipe itself, the steam temperature, the length of the piping runs, and the arrangement of the piping. Changes in direction inherent in delivering steam to the engines add flexibility to the piping. The pipe itself becomes exponentially stiffer as it’s diameter increases. Your piping is small in diameter and since Peerless is a small vessel the piping run is short. Prior to the availability of CAD linked computerized analysis programs, piping system flexibility calculations were very tedious involving trial and error solution of multiple simultaneous linear equations, challenging for most engineers let alone riverbank Steamship constructors SS Meteor built in 1896 is the World’s only surviving Steamship built to a patented Whaleback Design. While her historic significance has been reduced by changes made over her long working life, her Scotch Boiler/ Triple Expansion Steam Engine propulsion plant is a remarkably well preserved example of late Nineteenth Century Marine Engineering. Two fire tube boilers delivered saturated steam to the engine at 170psi, typical for the period. The single short, 10in diameter main steam line was fitted with a flanged slip joint expansion fitting that eliminated the need for an expansion loop. This would have been a patented fitting supplied by an outside vendor to the shipyard. Fittings like this would have been available to Peerless’s builders as well. Photo below: Roger

For small wooden parts like this you might find a harder wood easier to work with. As wooden parts get smaller, it can become harder for soft woods to hold their shape. Using a harder close grained wood can make it easier to make the small cuts that result in nicely shaped parts. To work these harder woods it is not necessary to have access to a fully equipped workshop as there are many commonly available items made of woods that could be used as better raw materials than Basswood for carving these small parts. For example: Tongue Depressors. To get a symmetrical shaped set of jaws glue two pieces together and carve them. When you are happy with the result dunk them in the proper solvent to separate them. Roger

Not a suggestion that you need to paint your piping, just to add to the discussion about insulating piping. Context, or local color? In addition to the reasons discussed already, poorly insulated steam lines can be very dangerous. There have been a number of violent steam explosions in buried underground district steam heating lines. The mechanism is something like this: An insulation failure allows water (or wet air) to come in contact with the surface of the pipe causing a cold spot. Steam begins to condense at this spot. The slug of water is propelled at high speed until it hits the next change in direction. This Water Hammer can rupture the pipe, releasing the contained energy of the steam. Roger