tkay11

I am looking to adapt my Proxxon DB250 wood lathe to accept ER16 collets because although this lathe comes with some collets, there is a gap between the 4 and 6mm sizes. The Proxxon lathe has an M16 spindle, and I already have a 3/4-16 adapter for ER16 collets on my Taig Lathe which uses an ER16A clamping nut on the adapter.
 
So the question is: does anyone know of a supplier of an adapter
 
(a) from M16 spindle to 3/4-16 nut, or
 
(b) from M16 spindle to any kind of ER16 collet holder or to an ER16A clamping nut?
 
Another question would be if there is anyone willing to machine such an adapter for me, for which I would willing pay the fee.
 
Thanks
 
Tony

Well, I have fiddled with adding brass shims, and I am totally surprised that a 0.05mm shim has fixed the problem.
 
I managed to squeeze it in on one side of the tailstock holder as shown in the photo, and this has not only reduced the play to almost nothing, but I am now hitting dead centre.
 
I might now exchange the paper shim underneath the holder for a brass shim of the same size (0.1mm) but possibly I'll wait a bit before doing this as I try to hold to the motto 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
 
My estimate of 0.2 must have resulted from the distance of the holder from the end of the drill point -- thus increasing any angle of deviance.
 
Tony
 

Well, people tend to confuse 'scale' with 'size'. It doesn't really matter at what scale you are working, the size of features, both small and large can matter ...
 
Obviously, the thicker the material, the more difficult it is to cut it with a scalpel. On the other hand, with thin material, it is more difficult to correct cuts by filing or sanding. If you are working at 1/200 scale a sheet of 0.02" (=0.5 mm) thickness would translate to walls o 4" (= 100 mm) thickness, which would be quite formidable, even if in wood. So chosing thinner material will make your life easier from a cutting point of view.
 
Perhaps you should reconsider your construction technique. I assume that you use the styrene sheet as structural material, i.e. you are building a hollow structure? Unless you want to show some interior details, it may be a good idea to build a structure from wood or thicker styrene and clad this with 0.01" styrene sheet into which you can cut the window etc. openings.
 
For me the reason to use styrene sheet would be mainly that it looks more like steel when painted, than most efforts of filling and sanding wood.
 
When laying out the styrene for cutting, I would use a sharp scriber to mark the window openings. The scribed lines form a guide for the scalpel cut, even if you use a ruler. Make an incision in the corners first from both sides in order achieve crisp corners.
 

I continue to admire the way you open the world of card modelling to others. Thanks.
 
Tony

Sorry for the vary long absence .  family and moving stuff around...takes time.  I'm not all back together again...but getting there. 
 
I see what you are talking about.  when you drill a hole through a thin mast or yard...the point where you drilled becomes vary thin and fragile.  especially along the edges on either side of the new drilled hole.  this hole make the remaining material very weak and apt to breakage.  What I do in this case is drill the hole.....then...fill the hole with CA glue.  letting it set hard by using an accelerator.  I then redrill out the hole.  The Cured CA strengthens the fibers of the wood on either side of the hole by soaking into the wood fibers and aids in preventing the wood from fracturing again at this point.
 
Rob

I continue to admire the way you open the world of card modelling to others. Thanks.
 
Tony

I continue to admire the way you open the world of card modelling to others. Thanks.
 
Tony

I continue to admire the way you open the world of card modelling to others. Thanks.
 
Tony

I continue to admire the way you open the world of card modelling to others. Thanks.
 
Tony

I continue to admire the way you open the world of card modelling to others. Thanks.
 
Tony

One thing I have learned over two decades of building card models is that it pays to study and re-study the diagrams. The part I mentioned in post #12 is not a false air inlet -- it's the interior nose wheel well color. Also, I noticed that the pilot's seat protrudes above the level of the fuselage, so it can't be glued into the cockpit tub until after the tub is in the fuselage.
 
Here's a couple of simple modifications I made to the bulkhead before proceeding. First, I don't know how much of that bulkhead will be visible on the finished model, so to be safe I added some interior color to it. It's not an exact match for the cockpit tub, but at least it's not pulp board colored. Second, I added some scrap card along the lines that indicate where the tub is to be glued. This will make neater and stronger joints between the tub and bulkhead.

 
Here's the fuselage section glued into a ring. Try to get the ring as round as possible -- it will make fitting the bulkhead easier, and the ring will be more difficult to shape once the bulkhead is in.

 
A couple of tips on the bulkhead. Notice that the fuselage section isn't a true cylinder -- it's a conic section. Beveling the edge of the bulkhead will make it easier to fit and enable it to make better contact with the fuselage skin. Only a slight bevel is needed, so don't go overboard. If you want, you can soak some thin CA into the bulkhead to stiffen it.
 
With the joiner strip in place, it can be difficult to align the bulkhead properly, unless you were careful in aligning the joiner strip to the fuselage piece first. If you were careful, then gluing the bulkhead flush with the ends of the darts cut into the joiner strip will also make the bulkhead flush with the cylinder opening. You can see here that the dart tips just touch both the fuselage skin and the interior bulkhead.

 
Tip: With a large bulkhead like this one and any type of fast-setting glue (such as canopy glue), you may not have time to adjust the part if you apply glue to the entire rim of the bulkhead first and then try to position it within the cylinder (or vice versa). What I do in such instances is position the dry bulkhead first, then run a bead of glue around the interior seam -- like caulking a tub.
 
That's it for this session!

A marine dictionary, such as Paasch's 'From Keel to Truck', that in it's 4th edition of 1908 not only covered English, French and German, but also Spanish and Italian, might help sorting out questionable machine translations. I think it is available as PDF.

No worries! Yeah I've definitely learned my lesson on this and will be getting the english version for future purchases. 

Thanks @JacquesCousteau, for the clarification. I had read your original post too quickly and thought you were referring to the Ancre translation! I had been so shocked by the translation you found that clearly I couldn't believe it.
 
The English version provided by ANCRE reads as follows: "The rectilinear sternpost is fitted by a tenon into a mortice cut on the upper rear face of the keel, a small knee acting as the angular link between them." I have both French and English versions of the monograph and to my mind the English translation is fine. (The capitals for sternpost, by the way, are in the English version).
 
I could never use an online translator for such technical work about boats of the age of sail. I agree they are next to useless other than in modern narrative passages where even there they just provide a guide to literal meaning. If you can't read the French it's definitely worth forking out for the ANCRE translation for the background history which I find most interesting, although as you're a craftsman you would easily get by just by using the lovely plan set.
 
Sorry again for my confusion.
 
Tony

Shrouds fitted to fore mast
 
The mispositioned shrouds came off the masthead with no problems at all and I re-used them starting from the aft end of the foremast. The first pair is a pendant and one shroud, both fully served by painting the linen thread, set to aft and starboard. Then follows a similar pair to port, then two forward pairs of shrouds to starboard then port. The final pairs use Ropes of Scale 0.6mm thread with the middle section painted to represent serving. The lay of the thread shows through the paint and I might give it a few more coats or learn to live with it. 
 
The pictures show the masthead from aft and starboard

The holes in the back of the masthead were predrilled to take three eyes for blocks; the lowest of these is now covered by shroud ropes and I will probably put a new one between the two existing, exposed holes. So much for planning ahead and preparation. 
 
Sails
Currently I have been drawing sails which is an iterative process with the yards from which they hang. The lengths of the yards are based on drawings for another schooner, but a sail is an integer number of cloths wide, and the distance from the top corners of the sail to the cleats at the end of the yard depends on which sail it is and the notes provided by Steel. So I start with a yard of nominal length and see what width of sail fits it best, then adjust the yard so that the sail sits properly on it. It gets more complicated for a gaff sail where the runs of cloth are not necessarily perpendicular to the yard and you can also adjust the angle of the gaff. Computers do make this step easier and I use Powerpoint simply because I am familiar with it from work. (Work is no longer a distraction for me 😁.) I know that there are better drawing packages available but I would have to climb another learning curve to use them. 
 
One other change I have to make to 'finished' tasks is about the number of hoops on a mast for a gaff sail. I had allowed for two hoops to each cloth in the sail which gives about a dozen for the fore and main gaff sails. Steel in his drawings of gaff sails shows one hoop per cloth so my preloaded mast has far too many hoops on it. They are easily removed with a snip and this is much easier than trying to fit more hoops on at this stage. 
 
The pictures below are the fore gaff sail and the completed lower section of the fore mast


 
George

Could you let me know where in the book you found these sentences? I have not found them in mine. Nor could I find "Let's move on to the description of the hull of the boat with various drawings". The photo you show at the start of the book cover is the ANCRE French original. The cover of the book I have has the words: "A Lanvéoc Boat, Small boats of the 17th - 18th Centuries, Surviving from the Middle Ages" followed by the author's names.
 
Thanks
 
Tony

Ok, this log is going to be very brief as it simply highlights the work I've done over the last week. 
 
The subject of this is the 33' Royal/Admiral's Barge that I've built for the Vanguard web store, hence why this has been brief. The kit itself has been designed using Admiralty drawings and has minimal construction save for the essentials which would otherwise impede the painting job you'll need to do. The hull is very much complete and is printed in 3D.
 
The hull is printed in grey resin, and they are ultrasonically cleaned. It's still prudent to prepare the surfaces with a good quality primer. I use Tamiya Fine Surface which etches itself into the surface to create a stable base for your paint.

 
Now this is where, in my opinion, I went wrong. The hull needs to be painted to represent a wood colour, and my choices wee too 'orange' in appearance. If I was to do this again, I'd use Desert Sand Yellow instead of Flesh, and a warmer oil paint. The grain is created by dragging the oil over the acrylic base colour, using fine sponge.


 
The first timber parts are now added to the bow, with the vertical part needing bevelling on the rear face. This can now be painted in red.

 
 
The hull now has the exterior wood finish masked off. For this model, there wasn't a waterline added, but instead the first two lower strakes are masked off. You can see I used the tape for a convenient place to remove excess paint while painting the black and red colours. The internal panels require a tactic to make sure they are properly painted. Firstly, they were entirely painted in gold. When dry, the red was added as a thin red wash which floods around the lower areas of the relief. Cheating? Yes, but the results are easy to obtain.


 
 
Paint is removed from the inside keel so that the pearwood floor will adhere properly.

 
 
The rear seating is now fitted, along with the two parts which sit at the end of the seating. All this is now painted in red.

 
 
The floor is now fitted.

 
 
Breaking off the hull to get the base built. This is simple, and the supports are handed, so there's a front and rear. I mark which is which on the underside of the base. You can leave this in natural pear, or paint in a suitable colour. For mine, I decided to blast it in Games Workshop Chaos Black spray. 


 
 
The rudder is made up as a typical sandwich. This is then painted and the card hinges are fitted. These hinges are only applicable to the 1:48 version.


 
 
The rudder is now fitted and the other end of the hinges glued to the model.

 
 
The oars are now shaped and fitted to the model. I sat a sanding sponge along each side of the hull in a suitable place so that the oars could droop onto it evenly along the length. 
 
And that folks, is it! My shortest build log, but you may find it useful if you wish to build this gorgeous little model kit.

I have browsed through a downloaded copy of Steel's Masting and Rigging, 1794 edition, and he does provide corroboration for Marquardt. There is nothing specific for schooners but I looked at the main (aft) mast of a brig and the only mast of a cutter which have similar layouts to a schooner mast: gaff sail and no square sail. 
Pages 220 and 222 in Steel have the relevant entries and one states ‘The after-main-shroud must be served from the mast-head to the dead-eye, to prevent its being chafed by the main-boom and gaff.’ It seems that the model which Petersson used for his excellent book was not aware of this. 
 
I will be making changes to the fore mast when I get back home. In the meantime I have the slowest internet connection which is similar to the pace of life while on holiday. 
 
George

Tony, Phil,
Thanks for your comments and information. It is a puzzle with incomplete evidence for either option. 
I'm off on holiday for a while (no grandchildren this time) and will ponder the alternatives over a glass of something fizzy. Perhaps someone else will join in with a definitive answer 
 
George 

Well George,
 
You have come up with a puzzle there!
 
Personally, I would go with putting the tackle pendants on first, and not last. Why? You are modelling a British ship, and the Admiralty was notoriously conservative about how things were done - and any change to the "right" way was resisted. And on their ships the mast tackle went on first.
 
Marquardt was German and most familiar with northern European vessels - and those in Australia after he moved there.
 
Petersson's rigging was based upon a model of the American made schooner Experiment, built in 1808 and sold to Sweden. He says the model was not an exact replica of the Experiment. Many in America followed Royal Navy standards, but each ship yard had their way of building vessels.
 
The only certain thing I have found about rigging for sailing vessels, and especially schooners, it the it is probable that no two were built and rigged the same - not even in the Royal Navy. Ship owners, Captains and bosuns all had their "right" way to rig things.
 
Unless you have the actual rigging plan for the Ballahoo, for the time period you are modelling it, I think you can do whatever you want with your ship!
 
I agree with your reasoning for serving the after shroud to avoid chafing with the gaff sail. The fore course wasn't commonly rigged so it wasn't a concern for chafing the forward shrouds, and the spreader yard was usually fixed in position and not raised or lowered, so it wasn't a chafing hazard.

Contemporary documents often copied each other (and still do) so mistakes were repeated and became a truth (and still do). One example that I took a while to get past was the Wikipedia entry for HMS Whiting 1805 which states that at one time Lieutenant George Roach was her commander. Wikipedia gives its references and being a doubting soul I follow them up; the chain ends with Winfield's great history and begins with the Naval Chronicle. The Chronicle got it wrong and the person who should have been named was Sub-lieutenant John Roach. Why am I so confident? Because his log book says so.  The commander at the time of Roach's appointment as one of the first sub-lieutenants was Lt John Orkney. 


There was a George Roach who was in command of a force of Fencibles at the time. 
Lloyds register in my experience is another reputable source which copied news articles without fact checking them. 
 
George
 
 

Second thoughts about the shrouds
 
Having fitted the shrouds to the mast head of the fore mast I checked my references again and now doubt my interpretation. I followed the drawings in Peterssen (pp 74, 75) with the pendant at the fore end of the group, then a served shroud, then two more shrouds which were only served over the top quarter as for square rigged vessels. Marquardt (pp 171-3) states that the order was reversed on schooners with the pendant set at the aft end of the group and the aft-most shroud fully served. The justification he gives is that the aft shroud would be in contact with the gaff sail and had to be protected from wear. This sounds quite logical to me, especially since a lower square sail was unlikely to be carried below the spread yard. The rake of the mast also makes it less likely for a square sail to touch a shroud on its mast. 
 
Option 1. I trust the model that Peterssen has drawn and ignore logical arguments, and leave my model as it is. 
Option 2. I assume that Peterssen's model does not necessarily represent all schooners or might be mistaken, and the logical arguments put forward by Marquardt prevail. I strip off the shrouds from my model and reposition them. 
 
The repair is more irritating than difficult if I follow option 2 and at the moment I am leaning towards that choice. Does anyone have evidence that the shrouds and pendants on a schooner mast were positioned in reverse when compared with a square rigged vessel? 
 
George
 

Next up was the problem of wood stock preparation.
Majority of the interior construction is made out of relatively small lumber, 2-4mm in 1:48 scale.  I could never cut those perfectly on a table saw, they always need a lot of finessing later on, resulting in an uneven strip. The wood sheets I have are 1 or 2 or 3mm thick, so more sanding is needed if you need something in between. The strip preparation was taking too much efforts.
A thickness sander would be ideal, but the only one in a small scale is Byrnes, which is rather a collector item nowadays.
DYI options are not appealing either, and they are still noisy and dusty.
Another alternative is a thickness planing jig. Most of them are too complicated for my task - with knobs and adjustments leading to inaccuracies, so I decided to use spacers. The range of required thicknesses is rather narrow - on of the largest parts (gun deck beam) is just around 4mm thick. 
 
Decided to build the jig out of scrap piece of walnut. Did not want to risk using plywood, the grooves might end up on a wrong layer, resulting in an uneven surface. They are tiny, but need to be smooth. 
 
Cutting precise grooves on a table saw is not so easy, but slow and steady does the job

Router plane helps to clean up the bottom of the groove:

Resulting jig, custom made for the miniature Veritas bench plane:

Spacers are made out of styrene, very good material for that. Easy to get in a variety of thicknesses, affordable, does not warp with moisture, fairly hard (to avoid compressing too much when planing). I have cut a bunch of spacers with a smallest increment of 0.25mm, should be enough for the range of thicknesses I need.

Jig in action:

Quite happy with it! Simple jig, but very effective. And perfectly quiet  
The finish is incredibly smooth out of the box, so I can use the part right away with no further surface cleanup or sanding. If necessary - should not be hard to add a sanding block for the same jig. 
I could easily get down to 1mm thickness, anything lower - and it is better to hold the "tail" of the strip rather than push it into the stop, otherwise it might get wavy.
 

Tony, Phil,
 
Thank you for your comments and the tutorial on sizing photos. I had spent a long time searching for menu options and right clicks to do this, and now have also found that CTRL with a right click opens up a new world for me. 
 
Here are a couple of pictures of the topmast to show what can be done with laminated paper. The first shows the heel which has a square section, 4mm to a side, which I built up on a 4mm diameter dowel and then carved back. The second shows a hound of a different colour that sits halfway up the mast and is the locator for a lot of ropes. The sheave for the topsail halyard is drilled through its base. The mast truck at the tip of the mast is another paper winding (not shown here).
One piece of advice for this technique is to use plenty of PVA and let it soak into the windings otherwise they can start splitting off. I had a couple of casualties with the heel of the topmast but they were easily fixed. 

Here are the hoops for the gaff sail waiting to be sliced off - just cut along the dotted line. 

 
George
 

Foremast under construction
 
I have been whittling away making lots of bits for the fore mast and have mostly completed the lower section now. The topmast 'stick' is ready to be attached and rigged but that will be a job for next month. 
 
This is the lower section. From left to right we have 
Step for the mast cap
Masthead with shrouds looped over
Trestle trees and cross trees
Cheeks (hounds)
Copper plate for gaff jaws
Mini clothes peg to hold the shrouds
Hoops for gaff sail
Pin rail and belaying pins
Single cleat
Waterproofing ring over the partners

The photos below show some of the details. I have not found out how to reduce their size so please forgive the messy look in places from the magnification. 
 
The cheeks (or hounds if you prefer) have simulated bolts on the sides. I finally have found a use for the little brass nails in the Caldercraft kits! The copper plate is half of a plate I used for the hull (Amati) and I imagine that a coppersmith would have used the same thing. John Roach's logbook records visits by a coppersmith. 

I put bolsters on the trestle trees and a rope grommet over the bolsters and here is the first pair of ropes: the pendant and first shroud seized together. The rope is 0.6mm linen thread that I painted brown to simulate serving and the seizing is 0.15mm fly tying thread. I also realised that the cross trees I had drawn were too long so I reduced them for the model. 

Four loops go over the masthead and this has to be done before fitting the mast cap and topmast. The second pairs of shrouds are from Ropes of Scale 0.6mm dark thread. 

The hoops for the sail are from laminated paper. I chose a cream colour which provides some contrast with the mast and suggests new wood. I calculated that I would need 11 for this sail and have fitted 13 just in case. 

The mast ring with belaying pins was inspired by the schooner in Peterson's book on Rigging Fore and Aft Craft. I added one cleat below it because I needed one more belaying point. 

The design of the 'partner ring' comes from my imagination as a way to waterproof the gaps between the mast and the partner planks in the deck. I guessed tarred canvas which is held in place by turns of rope. 

Next jobs on this mast are to drill holes for eyes in the back of the mast head. The ones I had predrilled are too widely separated and the lowest of them is covered by shroud loops. The topmast and mast cap are ready and waiting. 
 
George