michael mott

Very Nice Jay. Yes Knex and Lego are great ways to build stuff. I am curious about the twisting at the rope forming end. Why does it need to be twisted. My own experience has the rope twist as a natural effect of the three lengths twisting up. I am not suggesting anything just curious about the method. Michael

Wow Remco very nice joinery indeed.I like the flourish on the cross beam, lovely touch. Michael

Rob perhaps if you cut them into shorter lengths then you could first of all split them in half with and ax and a small heavy hammer. Take say an 16 inch pieces which is approx 600 mm place the axe squarely across the centre of the log and hit the back of the axe with the hammer this will split the log lengthwise into two halves, take each of the halves and split them up into quarters. you can then set your axe to a position that is about 30mm parallel to one of the first split faces and repeat the splitting. I have done this on quite a few occasions, and the advantage is that the wood slits along the grain which relieves some of the inherent stresses the wood dries quite well this way. Here is a series of pictures that i just took perhaps 15 minutes worth of time to cut a 200mm log of wet aspen sorry I did not have any other on hand. 1 chainsawed the knot off the end 2 chainsawed about 14 inches of straight grain 3 Set axe across centre. 4use hammer to split wood 5 two halves ready to be quartered 6 set axe to approx 30mm and split again 7 and again 8 veiw showing the quarter cutting no sawdust yet other than the chainsaw 9 Piece clamped ready to smooth out a little prior to sticking few wet shavings the piece is ready to dry. Ron think about how long you really need the wood to be, most of us cut the wood up into shorter lengths anyway and a 12 -15 inch 300 to 400 mm length is easy to split with an axe. I hope this helps. good luck with the wood. Michael

Gaetan, thank you for the clarification. Michael

Gaetan, Thank you for your notes on soldering, If I understand correctly you are using lead free soft solder, or are you describing hard solder? Your photograph which includes the paste flux leads me to think you are using soft solder. Michael

Making the shrouds requires quite a bit of whirl turning and so I made a decision to build an improved head end for the rope walk, which basically means building a new walk. I first raided the scrap box es for suitable items. a slab of 1/2 inch thick aluminum that was 5 3/8 by 2 2/8 inches. fine tooth gear that was 2 1/2 inches in diameter, another gear that was 1 5/8 inches and a length of the pinion stock that was long enough to make the whirls from. A small surplus motor from Princess Auto (a surplus and tool store) and a 1/2 inch diameter gear that fit on the 1/8th shaft of the motor. 6 3/8 x 3/16 shoulder ball races. The first task was to machine the pinion stock into the whirls, I made 5 so that I could set them all up in the headstock and not have to reconfigure them switching from 3 to 4 whirls. By setting the 4in a square and the 5th at the top it is easy to set up the 3 or 4 hooks. The 2 1/2 inch gear and the 1 5/8ths gears were sandwiched to form a way to keep the whirls from falling out. figuring the height of the motor relative to the big gear. A scrap of Maple from a pallet formed the block for the motor and after sanding it was bolted to the aluminum slab The front side showing the ends of the whirls, these will get a small cross hole drilled to accept the hooks made from bent 1/32nd brass rod I will also use a double wire guide level with the top block which will keep it moving more smoothly when forming the rope. The first top was made from wood the new one will be Nylon or some Delrin which is a more slippery plastic Finally a spot of oil on the gears and hooked up the motor to the speed controller (model train Track II ) and a test whirl.... this will ease the burden on my wrists. I will do a drawing when it is all finalized. Michael

Mark, thanks I am happy that it will work for you. Michael

Guy, earlier I said this I think this will be enough a few more servings will let me know if it is in fact enough. Michael

From Marks Idea I have done this drawing of a micro adjustable stop. The main body can be made from a small block of 2x4 and the adjustable bar can be metal or wood dowel The threaded screw in the end is a 4x40 but can virtually be any small machine screw, in fact the smaller it is the finer the adjustment. The main bar has a flat cut or filed on one side to prevent it rotating as it is clamped The other two screws clamp the block to the table. Michael micro adjustment.pdf

Mark I have done a drawing that I will post over in tolls and equipment. I think you have a neat idea. Michael

Here is a drawing with an inch scale for proportions, of course these can be modified to suit anyones purpose. Michael serving machine_1.pdf

Druxey, the wood wedge was Dafi's Idea not mine, I used his method of securing the rope. So I cannot take the credit. I am putting together a drawing so that anyone can build one similar. michael

Hello Mark, I did add a little more about it in tools http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1410-another-serving-machine-and-universal-clamp-for-seizing/ Not a lot more than her but a little more. I could do an as built drawing and post it if you think it would be of benefit. It is one of the things that i enjoy so much about this forum , all the wonderful sharing of Ideas that happens almost daily. I was in town today and picked up a few more different threads to try. The Black Gutermann upholstery thread look very promising, it is polyester so a little less fuzzy. Michael

Hello Walter it is great to see that you are progressing with this interesting build. Michael

Well it has been a Good Friday. Sherry, thanks for your comment on the new shroud test. Russ, Thanks, I will need to make enough lanyard now for all four sets of deadeyes, it will be simple 3 stand rope which will be much mor flexible than the 4 rope that I used for the new test. Carl, The jury is still out on the light verses dark rope for the lanyards, I have seen it both ways on the photos of the cutters and smacks. John, thanks for the info regarding the seizings. Mark thanks for your thoughts. I really do like making the small tools and devices. I am interested in your ideas about the adjustable stop. The snow is finally melting here still a fair bit to go yet before the lake thaws out there were still ice fishermen out there this afternoon. Michael

Hi Mario, I really enjoyed this build the first time round, I am happy that you are reposting it. Michael

Karl , Absolutely exquisite!! you inspire me to do better work. Michael

First a modification to the ropewalk by adding some more holes in a square configuration allows for the easy winding of shrouds. A simple and quick change to set up. The issue of the long end is solved by laying it in one of those clear plastic shipping tubes that brass tube comes in , I actually needed 2 of them as the shroud was longer than 36 inches. Procedures become clear as we figure out stuff and the winding was done at the left hand side which although worked well enough, I needed to be careful because the shroud was being wound up to the right it was in an unwind mode to the left . I will swap the rotators end for end so that the winding one is to the right side that way the shroud will be wound up all the time. As the serving is being laid on. This will have the added advantage of allowing the some of the served end to be fed through the winding end if a longer section of serving is needed . The shorter distance between the rotators helps to reduce the amount of tension needed to keep the shroud taught when serving. The other thing I notice was that the bobbin came off the brass centering sleeve, this had the effect of letting the bobbin sit on the wood base, this gave the bobbin enough friction so that the tension of the windings were consistent and also the bobbin was pulled along the length by the thread that was feeding onto the shroud. By doing this work slowly and by simply turning the rotator by hand the lay can be very easily controlled and it really does not take that long. The way of clamping the deadeyes used the basic principle of pegs in a hole. the seizing then went easily, A change I would make on a new one would be to add a little more distance between the aluminum bar and the shroud this would facilitate an easier access for my big fingers, Of course tweezers and dental hooks would also help. Michael

Set the new shroud up in the serving machine and did the serving. Next time I will switch the rotators end for end so that the turning is done from the right hand short end of the shroud this will make the long loose end continually in wind up direction instead of an unwind direction. I also noticed that when the bobbin came off the brass sleeve and was loose on the 3/16 shaft the bobbin sat on the base and created just enough friction that it wound up nicely and traveled along by being pulled by the wind. I will see if this will work for the full length on the next one. The other advantage of switching the feed end is that I can feed some of the served end through the right hand rotator to serve a longer length if needed . laying the loose end inside the clear plastic tube that some of the metal tube comes packaged in worked a treat. The clamping method finally became clear as began working on the setting of the deadeye, simple pegs in the top. I looked at a couple of different weights of seizing thread and also different colours I like the contrast with the lighter colour and I like the heavier Koban next to the deadeye ,so next trip into town I will pick up some tan coloured Koban A quick look at the new shroud in situ, I used some of the first shroud as a lanyard, It is not as flexible as a 3 strand rope so I will make some black rope for the lanyards. Michael

I found a little time this evening to have a go at another shroud. I did not take any pictures this evening I will take some tomorrow. I reset the whirl end of the ropewalk after making the 4 ropes of 3 strand I increased the number of threads in the 3 strand rope to 6 per strand from 3 in the first shroud. I drew a square layout on the circular disc and drill a new set of holes. The rope strands were even now. and the shroud formed up really nicely on the ropewalk. the new shroud is .093 Diameter the first one was .062. In scale the .093 works out to .7 inches which is just under 3/4 inch in scale. it is actually closer to 23/32 in scale numbers. It looks much better on the deadeye. Now I can use the .062 as the lanyard. Also tomorrow I can see how it looks on the serving machine. Michael

Daniel I liked the shape of the first hull better, although the lpanking on this one is a little crisper. Michael

Nice Russ, sometimes i have a difficult time sorting out the size of some of these parts. Close up photography creates the impression that so much of this model work is big, when it is not big at all. Michael

Doris I have to echo what Anja said I cannot think of anything else to say. Michael

Dee Dee, your rudder fix is good, Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build. Thanks for the kind words about my build. Michael

Pretty neat Bob, I too thought that you had used brass even though you said it was card. Michael