michael mott

Fixed
a new piece of 1/4 inch with a 1/8th hole offset.055"

pivot end turned down to .125" then parted off the original shaft slipped into hole, it will get fixed with some locktite.

now it is parallel in the engaged position

just need to make the locking carrier for the finger control end and a couple of stop collars at the pivot.
 

Michael

It has been a busy couple of week but I wanted to be able to drill small holes with very small drills in metal using the 3/32 shank and 1/8th shank drills.
After looking around at what is available I decided I would build my own.
 
It went through a number of iterations during the build
 

The first version had a round quill but i was not happy with it so went for a square one with a dovetail slide.
 

The other thing i was not happy about was the mistake of putting the rack at the front, this created an issue of direction so added a second pinion, needless to say is was beginning to feel like a rabbit hole that was getting deeper.
 
This is the current state of the press the motor is a 9v dc one and seems to have enough Jam for the tiny drills.
 

 

 
I have been drawing it up as a design build and making the changes as things change.
 
Michael
 
 

About 42 years ago I made a small commission for a chap who was giving a gift to an owner of a swan yacht, it was a small brass bracket with a chunk of the deck of the clipper ship the Lightning which sank at Geelong. In payment for the work I asked for the balance of the piece of the deck. it was granted, here is the piece that I have.
 

 

 

 
Michael
 
 
 

Hi Nils just finished going through your build, wonderful creative work. I’m amazed by how fast you get the work done. 
Michael

Love the lines drawings Keith, it is so satisfying hearing a pencil slide across the paper! And congratulations on the new addition to your family keen looking lad.
Michael

These sorts of little jigs are so satisfying because as you demonstrate they are so helpful and easy to make. 
Michael

Love the lines drawings Keith, it is so satisfying hearing a pencil slide across the paper! And congratulations on the new addition to your family keen looking lad.
Michael

Hi john, 
Thanks for your post.  Post 14 on Page 1 Is by a descendent of Theodore Grant who was the Noble’s master prior to her final voyage.  Interesting reading!  Do you have any additional information about your grandfather’s ownership interest or the structure of the Capitol Transport Company set up to own the ship?
 
The Benjamin Noble’s loss stands as one of the most misunderstood events in Great Lakes history.  I first read about it in a book published in the 1960’s by Dwight Boyer, the long standing marine reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Of course at that time she was still a “Ghost Ship.”  I met him in the 1970’s at an event in Vermilion, Ohio never dreaming that I would live within 20 miles of her loss and would sail scores of times in and out of the Duluth Ship Canal that she was trying to reach.
 
Of course, her wreckage was found and surveyed in 2004, but authors are still cranking out Dwight Boyer’s 1960’s story in new books.  I will be the first with a Naval Architecture background and a set of her original drawings to logically analyze her loss.  I would like to set the record straight.
 
Stay tuned,
 
Roger
 
 

These sorts of little jigs are so satisfying because as you demonstrate they are so helpful and easy to make. 
Michael

I agree Michael.  Many years ago Eric Ronnberg, a model maker and historian who I greatly respect wrote that jigs and fixtures should not be too nicely finished as they risked being kept and for something that they were not designed for later on.  I find them indispensable.
 
Roger

These sorts of little jigs are so satisfying because as you demonstrate they are so helpful and easy to make. 
Michael

These sorts of little jigs are so satisfying because as you demonstrate they are so helpful and easy to make. 
Michael

Hi Nils one method I have found for creating curved U channels is to first anneal some thin wall brass tube then fill it with the appropriate diameter of styrene rod then bend it to the curve with finger’s then use a torch to burn out the styrene the file away the top slowly. And it would also work by just filing the top without the burning anyway.
 
Michael

These sorts of little jigs are so satisfying because as you demonstrate they are so helpful and easy to make. 
Michael

These sorts of little jigs are so satisfying because as you demonstrate they are so helpful and easy to make. 
Michael

Hi Nils one method I have found for creating curved U channels is to first anneal some thin wall brass tube then fill it with the appropriate diameter of styrene rod then bend it to the curve with finger’s then use a torch to burn out the styrene the file away the top slowly. And it would also work by just filing the top without the burning anyway.
 
Michael

Freeing Ports:
Scratch Building is a series of small models within the overall model.  Each of these small models involves the following thought process:
1.  Identify the item to be built as a small model
2. Determine what the item looks like or in some cases what did known items used on this other vessels in this same time period look like.
3.  How do you plan to represent the item at the required scale; ie how much detail to you plan to include.
4.  What materials and techniques will provide a quality reproduction.
 
The following project completed during the past several weeks illustrate this process:
 
Bulwark Freeing ports
The bulwarks are pierced with eight freeing ports.  These are rectangular, each closed by a flapper plate hinged from the top so a head of standing water on the deck would push the flapper open and drain the deck.  Gravity would also open the flapper if the vessel heeled.  At 1:96 scale, these flappers are quite small 7/16” x 3/16”.  The plates were made from .010” brass which was temporarily glued to a piece of craft plywood.  They were then easily cut on my Byrnes Saw.  At the small scale, I could only simulate the hinges.  I decided to show strap hinges. The straps were made from 22 gauge square copper wire.  The two straps needed to be precisely soldered to the flapper plate.  Once located they had to be rigidly held in place while being soldered.  I therefore made the fixture shown below from a block of wood.
 
The large groove was cut with a 3/16” milling cutter in the Sherline mill.  The strap hinges were to be 5/16” apart so two groves spaced at this distance were cross cut on the Byrnes Saw.  The plate and straps were then dry fitted in the fixture and the plate was shifted until the spacing from the strap to the plate edge was exactly the same on each side.  A wooden stop to register the plate in the groove was then glued in place.
 
The square wire strap material was tinned with solder.  When heated with the soldering iron I got a sound joint.  The copper straps will be trimmed to length when they are finally soldered to the bulwarks.
 

Hi Nils one method I have found for creating curved U channels is to first anneal some thin wall brass tube then fill it with the appropriate diameter of styrene rod then bend it to the curve with finger’s then use a torch to burn out the styrene the file away the top slowly. And it would also work by just filing the top without the burning anyway.
 
Michael

Hi Nils just finished going through your build, wonderful creative work. I’m amazed by how fast you get the work done. 
Michael

Hi Nils just finished going through your build, wonderful creative work. I’m amazed by how fast you get the work done. 
Michael

Hi Nils just finished going through your build, wonderful creative work. I’m amazed by how fast you get the work done. 
Michael

I think one should make a distinction between 'weathering' and painting to achieve a weathered look. The former tem is applied by various modelling communities to a variety of techniques using materials other than paints applied after the main paint-job to achieve an (ab)used, chipped, worn and weathered look. However, weathered wood planking on ships' decks can be achieved by using different transparent layers ('washes') of paint only - very much as the painters of old have done. There is, of course, a gray-zone between the two approaches.

Yes, that's how to cut thin aluminum soffit; just turn the blade backwards and it gives a clean edge. And many many little aluminum slivers to pick up. Last time I did this I forgot to turn the blade back around when next using the saw. Couldn't understand why the wood seemed so hard.....😆

I like working with brass.  I find copper too soft and in fact don’t anneal the brass for the same reason.  I was concerned about the longevity of plastic.  When I started the model, I was not familiar with Bakelite coated paper.  I also avoid anything that requires use of CA glue as I am allergic to it.
 
Roger
 
 

Nice work Roger. How fine a blade do you have. My finest blade is a 108 tooth x 80mm x O.6mm kerf but even this is a bit “choppy” on thin brass. I frequently revert to gluing brass sheet to 1/8” ply and filling circular and square sections will wood to get smooth cuts. It would be good to hear how you do it?