michael mott

The model is looking great Geert. Michael

Grant just finished going through this build log, what a nice model. Also very impressed with you shop organization. Michael

Beautiful work Steven. Michael

Mark thanks this was the handle I followed. Michael

Thanks again for the kind remarks, I settled on the oval handle I found a classic one that was for sale on Ebay so used that one as a guide I liked the 2 inch square plate and the oval head screws. I set up the 1/2 inch collet in the square collet holder and made 4 cuts The parted them off on the lathe Next I turned up a ball and filed the sides to create the oval shape it took a bit of fettling to get the correct shape. It occurred to me that it would be best to make the square key part integral to the handle so after shaping the handle I reduced the diameter so that it could be filed square. Slowly I filed down to the 1.2 mm to fit into the square hole in the lock, I used a bit of the same square tube as the gauge while filing to dimension. then slid. the handle into the lock, just need to drill the screw holes in the plate and figure out the second handle for the back side of the door. Michael

Remarkable work Eberhard! Michael

Thanks for all the nice comments and likes. the oblong plate has now been attached to the lock body and the lock is now fitted to the door next is the handle. when filing the hole for the slide plate (Latch) in order to be able to file just the right amount ie file only a particular amount away it occurred to me to use something of a known thickness as a guide. (The jaws on my Grinding vice are hard, not cutting tool hard but hard enough that they only need to be dressed occasionally.) I put the blade of the thickness gauge ont the jaw and pushed the piece to be filed down to the surface of the gauge with a flat block then tightened up the vice leaving just .008" to be filed down to the jaw. when filing the actual hole I used a different thickness the photograph was to show the principle. After getting the plate shaped and drilled I set it up in the third hand to be soldered to the main plate of the lock. Then rotated the set up over so that I could add the solder to the back side . a small sliver of solder placed with some cleaning type flux (duzall) After heating with the air soldering gun rotated it back up and released A couple more 00x90 screws to hold it into place. I I have been thinking about the handle and I am leaning toward an oval shaped one not a lever, the oval feels a bit less harsh than the lever . Michael

Grant it is part of this set that I made back in 2006 for my son in Victoria. LOL I actuall only made a couple of giant HB pencils for a display at the Edmonton Science Center that framed a customer comment station, at the end of the display I was able to keep the pencils, my son is an artist so I gave them to him he now has a studio in Whitehorse and has it hanging as a sign. I like to draw as well here are a couple of my drawings that my son has in Whitehorse. They are imaginary gourd type harps loosely based on the instruments that were catalogued in a book that was of the instruments of the peoples of the Congo area in Africa in the early 20th century Every once in a while I will sit and draw . So there really are giant drawing tools out there. Thank you Gaetan, I have drawn inspiration from your own work. Steve, when you get round to making shackles let me know I have a lot of pictures of the process. Ah but then I would need to install a sound system and electronics is one of those mystery subjects all I know is there is a + and a - And thanks to all who have added likes and a are following along. Michael

Steve sorry I missed replying to your comment, I actually did a lot of work on different ways of making shackles earlier on the build I cannot remember where in the sequence 6mm is basically a 1/4 inch no problem that's only 1/32" Kurt I have thought about a book, it would need a fair bit of work though because of all the two steps forward and one back that seems to be my way forward. LOL Thank you Druxey and Gary for your kind words. A bit more progress on the lock, first I turned a bit of hard brass to the width of the slot in the slider part then sliced a bit off on the mill then used the jewelers saw to cut the small bit to fit between the ends ready to solder in place. After the slider was filed to shape, it was placed into the body to position them ready to be glued together for drilling and tapping then I used a Walthers 00x90 tap for the screws to clamp the body halves together. I cheated and turned the 00x90 hex bolts into some small head flat head screws Next the lower body plate and the slider were drilled for the spring, I ended up with about half a dozen springs before latching onto the correct design. With the spring in place (.011) music wire spring I have miles of the stuff in anyone needs any. the door is mortised and the retaining plate is ready to be slotted and drilled then be soldered to the lower body plate. And the pencil for scale Good night Michael

Exquisite! Sir. I cannot imagine what you would get up to at 1:8 scale. Michael

Thank you Valeriy for your explanation, I will see what is available in Canada. Michael

Valeriy, beautiful workmanship on the rail assembly. Have you been using heat sinks or different temp solders for the sequencing of the assembly? I understand the small tip in order to transfer heat to a small area if the soldering iron is of a high enough wattage, but will so many small items so close together and the melt point of the solder having a range even a small one I am wondering about the heat transfer to previously assembles parts. Thanks Michael

Eberhard the holder is as it came in the small case I have not changed or added anything, and it also came with a separate set of nylon posts for holding watches in their case the posts I am using are for movements that are not in their case Mark thanks but this work is crude compared to a watch mechanism, think of a ladies 21 jewel Swiss watch. Geert this is absolutely why I enjoy this scale so much, it does allow me the flexibility to try to make parts that otherwise would be too small. Yes Bob and really for me the work is the joy whether it is a hinge or a set of shackles or the rigging for the topmast this scale allows me to try things that would be extremely difficult at smaller scales. I also enjoy the process of documenting the work and being able to share the ways I work, it seems only fair to me because of the immense amount I have learned from following many build logs and other areas on this amazing forum. Michael

A small update I began sorting out the door lock this sketch gives a general overview of the design First some 1/2 inch diameter hard brass was prepped on the mill by cutting a slot across the hole which is .106" in diameter the slot width is .193" The pawl or central spindle was checked for clearance the square 1/16th tube was soldered into a disc of 3/16 brass that had been turned down to create a 1/32 inch flange that was shaped to create the teeth. The slider that will become the latch part was prepped again on the mill creating the tabs to engage with the pawl. The slider was fretted out with the jewelers saw. after some filing the slider was test fitted into the base plate of the lock, I have a watch holder for Bulova watches that I acquired with a bunch of watch making stuff about 10 years ago The pawl was rotated with a watch winding key to check to motion of the slider which has to move .062" back and forth. Then the top plate was fitted to further check that the slider will not jam here the slider is out or in the lock position, the latch will be soldered between the forks And in the open position Still a ways to go but I am confident that it will work. Michael

Nice methodology for the fixture. I often for get the usefulness of gluing stuff for machining. Michael

A very nice looking sail Geert. Michael

Yeah I expected that from you. I didn't even try looking for 1mm tap and die let alone left hand! Yes the first pic was the stock cut to a hex and drilled for the "thread" Well you could wrap a bit of fine wire around the threads and glue it on to simulate them, just remember to make it a double start and then remove one of them to give the correct spacing.😉 nice looking turnbuckles regardless. Michael

I will let you know how I get on with my racks when the materials come, so thanks again Bill for the heads up . Michael

it is great to see the beams cut from your own wood, nicely fitted as well. Michael

Coming together well, I like the flattening of he mono filament idea. Michael

The plating layout drawing is quite interesting Kevin, the shape speaks to the whetted surface area of the hull in a way that I had not considered before, and demonstrates why the sterns of classic racing yachts are the shape they are they have much smaller surface in the water apart from the fin. The model is looking great. Michael

Hi Bob thanks for your comments, they are interesting. For the purpose of this conversation regarding design I will add four pictures of the interior of Integrity built recently by Stirling and Son These pictures are from web over the last few years some of these pictures were originally on Stirling and Sons site and a yacht brokers site and do not appear to be there any more. so they have the copyright. and I credit them for that. If this contravenes the law then I will remove them, my only intent is for clarification of this conversation. This is a plan of the yacht Integrity I have been using these images as my guide for the interior of my Model cutter which is a rough example of the cutters of the late 1800's early 1900's it is not a model of any particular boat but draw upon things that I like that are on various cutters. When I began this model back in 2012 I had no idea about plank on frame model boat-building although had many years of commercial model-building going all the way back to 1966 when I built the mechanical arms for the Movie 2001 while working for a small model-building company in Acton called All models Engineering so I figured what could be so difficult about building a model of a sailboat.........Yeah right! did I have a lot to learn, and it is a continuum that is still unfolding everything that I have learned about model boatbuilding I have really learned in these last 8 years. I spent so many years build very accurate models for other people following their plans that were challenging but not in a way that was totally satisfying and during those years I did not do much in the way of model-building as a hobby that was the last thing I wanted to do. My goal is to learn and to stretch my skill level by taking on challenges that I have not done before (probably a character flaw that was programmed at birth) but I have fun following these rabbit holes. Back to this model if you go back over the build log you can easily see that I have redone many things and had to re-thing all sorts of areas this is a result of not having a working background on this particular type of boat. I have designed and built a yawl which I sailed successfully for a few years using an old fiberglass hull as a starting point. This has given me a better understanding of the physics of sailing. Because i lived at the lake when I started building this model. Tthe hull is based on the Model Maker Plans for a fishing smack called Kingfisher which I purchased in 1972 the plans called for the model to be about 18 inches long. Well as soon as an 18 inch model gets 10 feet off shore it looks like a toy I wanted a model sailboat that had some scale to it (I also had lots of room and a 12 foot ceiling) So I chose a scale that would bring those plans up to about 5 feet the hull from stem to stern is 63 inches the bowsprit is an additional 21 inches I chose a scale of 1 1/2 inches to the foot because I knew it would give me the opportunity to make working details and use real nuts and bolts (at least the big ones) 1/32" = 1/4 inch so the ratio 1:8 it is also much easier on my aging eyes. In the beginning I also was going to radio control this model, so the interior didn't matter this was a model of the outside of this boat. As I continued this journey my ideas changed (the beauty of not being restricted to a model of a particular prototype) and so the elements on the model had to change, none of this model is precious its all just stuff that is the foundation for learning what looks good to my eye (sort of like an abstract painting) If I need to change something it get changed I don't have any qualms about that at all. That stuff goes into the used materials boxes whether it be metal, wood, cloth, to be recycled into something else down the road. So I moved away from the lake and back to the city, and the model was put aside for a while while other challenges tickled my mind (now the loco is aside, but it is of a particular prototype even so one has to make compromises because you cannot sale molecules) now that I am back to sorting out this cutter I realized that it will spend far more time on display than in the water why don't I put some interior into it, but it has to be removable in order to put the lead ballast into it when I do get to sail it. As long as it can sail and I sail it at least once or twice That will be good. I looked at many pictures of cutters and smacks and the Gentleman's Cutter by Stirling and Son which is a modern cutter drawing upon tradition values of design and integrity just hit a chord for me in many areas. So I am using its aesthetic as a guide for my own ideas and the limits of what I have to work with. I hope this answers your question Bob about where I am going with this..... its a moving target to coin a phrase. Now that that is out of the way I began fitting the hinges to the forward bulkhead door They are fitted into some chiselled recesses and taped down ready to drill the holes, then when the hinges are complete I can work on the door lock and handles Michael

Thanks all Before finishing the forward bulkhead location and fitting in place I needed to add the hinges to the door, this requires more substantial hinges than for the cupboards so I followed a slightly different approach without annealing I folded some .016" brass in the same manner as before but I cut off one side of the fold with my old No 45 Eclipse razor saw I only cut 90% of the way through then bent it away and down a couple of times to released it through work hardening it. Then instead of using a wood support I used some 1/8th brass. The three hinges are now roughed out time for some lunch. Michael

Absolutely make your workshop a nice place to be and don't set up things that will be difficult to access, I remember somebody saying once do not put one thing on top of another to save space in the drawer , shelf etc, because that means you have to move something to get to something else, it is a rule that most of us break by the way and we admire those that can stick to it. Michael

Thank you everyone for your kind comments they are appreciated. While working on the paneling I discovered that I had in my quest to have the floor and the end wall fit through the opening in the deck I had overlooked the issues of the door opening and not fouling the area below the seat cushions, I had been so concerned with the integrity of the floor component and that it be easily removable that the stile next to the door with the hinges was wrong I had made it too short because I had a bit of tunnel vision thinking about the strength of the floor box. this picture shows the problem My thinking was focused on the side panels and how they would slip in and lock into place. so when I placed the panel into the boat it looked like this. You can see the problem. So I decided to take off the solid end wall behind the paneling and removed the short side walls that gave the inset some integrity and had a rethink. By removing the solid panel it opens up a whole new vista which is better, My it would have been better to have thought about doing the interior before getting to this stage. so now I find myself working in some tight spaces, I need one of those magic reducing spells to miniaturize myself. Oh well! so now without the side walls and end wall. In order to give the floor a better integrity I cut some new maple floorboards that run the full length of the kitchen dining area these are just laid on top of the old fir floor loose at the moment. Now with the port side panel included after adding an extension to the stiles on both sides it looks more like the one inside Integrity which I am using as a general guide. And this then makes having the door opening make more sense, because I can see through into the forward area around the mast. All I need to do now is figure out how to make all this work. I am having a lot of fun even if I take two steps forwards and one step back half the time. Michael