Roger Pellett

Some time ago as part of a build log of the USS Constitution, someone was building one of these "cages" and doing a beautiful job of it. Actually, I believe that these are frames for supporting canvas canopies for bad weather. He left them as bright brass as they are on the real size USS Constitution today. These ships had very large crews with plenty of time on their hands to polish the brass.
 
Roger

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 189 – Lower Mizzen Fittings
 
The mizzen mast has some additional hardware not found on the forward masts. First, there is a belaying ring, or spider band around the mast instead of the fife rails of the forward masts.  The design of this is not documented, but from the work on the rigging list, at least 16 lines should be belayed here.  The ring for the model is a simple circular flange around the mast bored for 16 belaying pins.  The unblackened part is shown in the first picture.
 

 
This was made as a turning from a solid brass billet to fit over a brass tube mast ring that was silver-soldered in.  The pin holes were then drilled in the mill using the rotary table.  The ring will be a tight fit over the mast about 39" off the deck.  This is a pretty piece that will be completely hidden under a mass of rope.
 
In the next picture it has been blackened and installed on the mast.  Above it is a reinforcing hoop and above that will be a bracket that will support the spanker mast.
 

 
 
A start on the spanker mast bracket is shown in the drawing.  The mast band part of it has been shaped to fit the mast and will be soldered with other parts added progressively.  The finished bracket is shown in the next picture.
 

 
This piece is of thicker stock than the normal mast hoop, as were the bands for the lower yard trusses.  The small eye will support the goose neck of the spanker boom.  Both pieces are shown on the mast in the next picture. 
 

 
The spider ring was pre-blackened, but all the copper work will be blackened later as was done for the other masts.  The third piece to be made was the wood stool for the spanker mast.  While the bracket maintains the horizontal position, the stool will take the weight of the 9" diameter mast.  The next picture shows the stool parts.
 

 
For strength on the model, I set the stool itself into a mortise in the mast that will give it the appearance of a surrounding piece but the strength of the mortise joint.  Two triangular gussets that will reinforce the stool are shown.  The last picture shows the three items installed.
 

 
Shaping and polishing of the stool assembly has yet to be done.  The gussets were glued to flats filed on the mast.  The remaining hoops may now be installed on the mizzen mast.
 
Meanwhile, work has begun on the fore top.
 
 
Ed

Hello Captain Poison, E. J, Mark, Chris, thank you for the generosity of your comments, warm regards to the companions who quietly pass by and visit my shipyard, thank you all again.
I pass below images of the stern almost finished, only in the absence of small details.
A hug, Liberto

A "must" attachment for the Sherline mill is their Sensitive Drilling Attachment useful for drilling holes with very small wire sized drill bits. This is particularly useful for making blocks and deadeyes and essential if you don't have a drill press. I don't know if the other mills that you are considering can be used with such an attachment.
 
Regarding size of milling cutters. With the Sherline mill and the right collets you can always use the smaller mills (1/8in shank) but with the smaller mills you can't use the larger ones.
 
Roger

If the Proxxon milling machine is limited to cutters with shaft diameters 3.2 mm and under that is a major limitation. I have a Sherline Milling column that converts my Sherline lathe for milling. I have a 3/8in tool holder that (I think) came with the column and a set of milling collets that I bought. This allows me to use standard 3/8in and 1/4in spiral end mills available from any local industrial supply house.
 
Roger

Maury,
 
I would like you to encourage to not use spar tables but to model the spars as shown on the drawings. There are two reasons for this:
 
First, the drawings are documentary evidence of the way this craft was intended to be built. They were carefully drawn, if not by Grice himself, than by a skilled marine draftsman who knew what he was doing. There is no reason that the rig and spar dimensions are any less accurate than other features shown on the drawings that you have incorporated into the model such as the gear arrangement or the hull lines.
 
Second, it is logical that the mast would be heavier than one shown in spar tables for a sloop of this size. Spars on an ordinary sailing vessel would be sized to support the sails. Thie mast on this vessel served as a derrick lifting very heavy loads like the anchor shown on the drawing. This would place a large bending moment on the spar. While the array of backstays was intended to counterbalance this, I believe that the mast would have been beefed up to resist these bending moments as well.
 
Roger

A "must" attachment for the Sherline mill is their Sensitive Drilling Attachment useful for drilling holes with very small wire sized drill bits. This is particularly useful for making blocks and deadeyes and essential if you don't have a drill press. I don't know if the other mills that you are considering can be used with such an attachment.
 
Regarding size of milling cutters. With the Sherline mill and the right collets you can always use the smaller mills (1/8in shank) but with the smaller mills you can't use the larger ones.
 
Roger

A "must" attachment for the Sherline mill is their Sensitive Drilling Attachment useful for drilling holes with very small wire sized drill bits. This is particularly useful for making blocks and deadeyes and essential if you don't have a drill press. I don't know if the other mills that you are considering can be used with such an attachment.
 
Regarding size of milling cutters. With the Sherline mill and the right collets you can always use the smaller mills (1/8in shank) but with the smaller mills you can't use the larger ones.
 
Roger

The most important thing is to do your homework. First of all make a rational decision as to how you want to use the mill. I say "want" because once you have one, you will expand your uses to things that you can't imagine yet. The worst thing that you can do is buy a machine today and wish you had something else tomorrow. All the brands listed so far will work for you, so it is a matter of what you want to spend. Mills generally don't work out of the crate. Tooling and accessories will run at least the cost of the machine and likely quite a bit more as you learn and do more projects. For example a 4in rotary table will easily match and exceed the cost of the mill. Personally I went with Little Machine Shop. The initial purchase was reasonable and they carry parts and accessories for anything you purchase there. I too am new to this group, but did a tremendous amount of research prior to purchases. Hope this helps some.
 
Dupree

If the Proxxon milling machine is limited to cutters with shaft diameters 3.2 mm and under that is a major limitation. I have a Sherline Milling column that converts my Sherline lathe for milling. I have a 3/8in tool holder that (I think) came with the column and a set of milling collets that I bought. This allows me to use standard 3/8in and 1/4in spiral end mills available from any local industrial supply house.
 
Roger

Why not put your bench where you intend to do your detailed hand work under the window so at least part of the time you have natural light? I find that bench top power tools work quite well with light from overhead recesed overhead fluorescent fixtures. I second having a dedicated circuit breaker box in your shop and you can't have enough outlets. On the other hand, I run a 10in contractors saw to mill hardwoods satisfactorily on 110v.
 
Roger

I agre with Chuck, I just made some thimbles from standard hobby shop K &S brass tubing although I used a somewhat different method- I hadn't seen his post at the time. From some solid brass round bar I machined male and female dies. The male die was just a cylinder with a nipple machined on one end. The diameter of the nipple a slip fit for the id of the brass tube thimble stock.. I left a small radius between at the shoulder between the nipple and the round bar. As long as the diameter of the round bar is larger than the of of the brass tubing the actual diameter is unimportant.
 
The female die was just the same round bar stock with a hole center drilled. The diameter of rhe hole a slip fit with the male die nipple.
 
To make,a thimble,I first chucked the tubing in my lathe's head stock with only a sixteenth or so protruding. I chucked the male die in the tail stock. After turning on the lathe I fed the male die into the hole in the tubing. When the shoulder between the nipple and the round bar came in contact with the tubing it flared it. I then parted it off with a razor saw.
 
I then reversed the piece of tubing on the male die so that the flared end was pointing towards the lathe headstock, and I chucked the female die in the headstock. I started up the lathe and fed the male die into the female die, flaring the second end.
 
It was much easier than it sounds.
 
 
Roger

I agre with Chuck, I just made some thimbles from standard hobby shop K &S brass tubing although I used a somewhat different method- I hadn't seen his post at the time. From some solid brass round bar I machined male and female dies. The male die was just a cylinder with a nipple machined on one end. The diameter of the nipple a slip fit for the id of the brass tube thimble stock.. I left a small radius between at the shoulder between the nipple and the round bar. As long as the diameter of the round bar is larger than the of of the brass tubing the actual diameter is unimportant.
 
The female die was just the same round bar stock with a hole center drilled. The diameter of rhe hole a slip fit with the male die nipple.
 
To make,a thimble,I first chucked the tubing in my lathe's head stock with only a sixteenth or so protruding. I chucked the male die in the tail stock. After turning on the lathe I fed the male die into the hole in the tubing. When the shoulder between the nipple and the round bar came in contact with the tubing it flared it. I then parted it off with a razor saw.
 
I then reversed the piece of tubing on the male die so that the flared end was pointing towards the lathe headstock, and I chucked the female die in the headstock. I started up the lathe and fed the male die into the female die, flaring the second end.
 
It was much easier than it sounds.
 
 
Roger

I'm amazed that you are able to machine the window mullions without the cross grained areas collapsing, even using the Costello Boxwood.
 
Roger

Gold dry transfer letters?
 
Roger

Don't forget, the weight of the gear and the bending loads from the capstan were in large part, resisted by the ball race below the gear. This very large and (early ?) example of a ball bearing would not needed to be lubricated.
 
Roger

I'm amazed that you are able to machine the window mullions without the cross grained areas collapsing, even using the Costello Boxwood.
 
Roger

I'm amazed that you are able to machine the window mullions without the cross grained areas collapsing, even using the Costello Boxwood.
 
Roger

I'm amazed that you are able to machine the window mullions without the cross grained areas collapsing, even using the Costello Boxwood.
 
Roger

Rob,
 
Have you looked into a model of the whaling brig Kate Corey? This model was based on information developed by Eric Ronnberg. Eric is an excellent model builder and researcher of New England fishing and whaling vessels. I have not built this kit and cannot voucher for its quality but as far as research and plans are concerned what Eric does is more than first class.
 
Roger

Don't forget, the weight of the gear and the bending loads from the capstan were in large part, resisted by the ball race below the gear. This very large and (early ?) example of a ball bearing would not needed to be lubricated.
 
Roger

I finished the deck, well about 90%, and not a time too son. Looking at my log, I started this kit in Nov 2014, but I logged only 227 hours so far. Can't wait until retirement   . Anyway, here a few pics, I will start the masts and rigging next; with a bit of luck, I might be done this Summer...



The seizing on that bowsprit drove me nuts, and it shows. By the time I finished, I was able to do some decent seizing, but i did not feel like going back and redo them all, especially  becaue I had redone most of them already once...





 

Hello everyone,
 
Sorry for not being in touch for a while.  I've had a string of very busy weekends for the Holidays and haven't had the chance to post anything.  The last couple of weeks I've completed the last details that I needed to finish the Hurricane deck.  Hopefully, I'll be able to apply the canvas to the deck this next week.
 
Originally, I was going to try to frame up the skylights with individual timbers but then I wondered if it could be milled from four solid panels.  They turned out ok and it saved me a lot of time.  The skylights on some of the early steamers were glazed with ground glass for privacy.  I will be using sanded mica.
 
Front panel of the skylight in the mill.

 

 
Finished panels

 

 
Sorry, once again I should have dusted the parts before taking the photo.

 
There was probably a large galley stove on the main deck.  Kevin chose this Wilson's patent stove to represent Heroine's.

 
Kevin's drawing of Heroine's galley stove.

 
Freshly milled parts.  I used a block of walnut as a core for the stove.

 
Ceaned parts ready for soldering.

 
 
Finished galley stove.

 
Stove installed on main deck with firebrick lining and stovepipe.

 
One crushed stovepipe cap was recovered from the wreck.

 
Scale patterns for the stovepipe cap.  The top piece was cut from .01 inch brass sheet.

 

 

 
To shape the cap I turned a piece of aluminum with the proper angle.  Before shaping I heated the part to anneal it then I was able to easily shape it to the form without creases.  

 

 
The uprights were filed from an appropriately sized brass tube.

 

 
Finished cap.

 
Cabin stove stovepipes blackened and capped.  The larger galley stove pipe still needs to be blackened and capped.

Gold dry transfer letters?
 
Roger

Hi Roger,
 
I did think about painting and dark blue would be a great choice but I am going to be putting a decal with the name and hailing port on it.  My experience with decals tells me they don't do well against dark backgrounds, even if the text is light in color.