gjdale

Great progress Aydin.

Fabulous Danny, as always! Hopefully, Australia Post won't let us down and you'll have the extra rope in a couple of days.

Did someone say popcorn? I'm in. Where's Mark with the bar? Looking forward to following your next adventure Sjors.

Thanks guys, Mobbsie - I get what you're saying, but I don't think it will be possible without spoiling the overall appearance. I'll just have to drive carefully and avoid the shallows and snags (famous last words!) Gerard - overall length is 28 inches. Mark - yeah, crap happens, but at least the broken die was only a $20 piece of crap! The replacement in HSS cost me three times that. The upside is that my home-made die holder worked exactly as planned.

Thanks for the kind words Zoltan. If you PM me with your email address, I will send you a copy of the materials list spreadsheet. Might take a couple of days though as I'll be travelling at the beginning of the week.

Drive Train Progress continues, albeit very slowly! My new stainless steel drive shaft arrived and I was ready to cut the 5-40 thread with my brand new self-made die holder………or so I thought……. I was having trouble getting a thread started and being completely new at this, I decided to pop in and have a chat to my new best friends at the local machining supplies shop. Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious #347: using a carbon steel die to cut a thread on stainless steel is probably not the smartest move known to man…. Doh! However, it might work once or twice before the die destroyed itself, they told me. By the way, that’s a nice looking die holder you’ve made there, they said, but it’s missing something…….it needs another hole tapping to take a tapered grub screw to open the die up a bit. That way, you might stand a chance of getting your thread cut. Doh! Back home, tapped another hole, tapered a grub screw, forced open the die a little (actually as much as I could), and after some Herculean efforts managed to complete a test run on a piece of brass rod of the same diameter. It took two passes, but once the first one was done, the second went much more easily. Okay, so much for trials…onto the real McCoy now. Once again forced the die open as much as possible and with even greater effort managed to cut my thread, again using two passes. Tested with a standard nut and all was good. Feeling very pleased with myself, went to take the die out of the holder, and it came out in two pieces….. Needless to say, I am now the proud owner of a (very expensive) HSS 5-40 die. With that vital task completed, I was able to assemble the drive train. In this picture, you can see the drive shaft screwed into my after-market brass propeller and protruding through my new stuffing box with sintered bronze bearings. You can also see the brass strut that is silver-soldered to the stuffing tube. This replaces an ugly plastic skeg provided in the kit. The rudder is temporarily mounted to check for clearance between prop and rudder. At the other end, the motor has been temporarily mounted and a dummy dog-bone has been used to create a rigid assembly. After this picture was taken, I subsequently decided to shorten the stuffing tube by about 5 mm in order to bring the motor further aft in its mounting, to provide additional clearance in front of it. At this point the stuffing tube was tack glued in place with epoxy and once set, the running gear removed and the stuffing tube permanently set in place by filling the slot around it with a mixture of epoxy and micro-balloons (a polyester filling compound). Electronics Housing Then it was time to make up some shelves and racks to hold the various electronic components. Space is very limited and with the extras that I am adding to this model, the positioning of the equipment needs to be carefully thought through. Fortunately, someone else has been there before me and I have basically followed his placement. In the next picture, you can see the two side-racks that will be inserted and glued in place shortly. Inside the engine compartment, you can see the Battery shelf at the aft end, a mounting to take the fuse holder on the port side, and the tray for the Electronic Speed Control (ESC) in the forward cockpit compartment (it will be under the front seat). And finally, here are a couple of shots with the side racks dry-fitted in place. It’s now time to fit the underplanking on the sides of the hull and start closing this baby up!

That's great news Jim. At least now Donna want need to put you on half-pay to cover the costs!

Mike, It might be a good solution if budget is your driving concern. However, don't overlook the (in)convenience factor. Mr Murphy stipulates that when you want to use the Mill, it will be configured for lathe work, and when you want to use the lathe it will be configured for mill work. And then there are those occasions when you will want to go straight from lathe to mill. If you can live with this, then go for it. Otherwise, splash the extra cash and buy the separate mill. I have both and don't regret a cent spent on either. Go on, you know you want to.........

Congratulations Dan, and thoroughly well deserved too!

That is really beautiful work Antony - well done!

Nicely done Mike.

Well done on the repairs John. I think the cat may have been suggesting a need for a re-do..............? Whatever the cause, the latest work looks great. So, I guess the cat is down to eight lives?

Nice job on the seat coverings Aydin - it's looking great. I absolutely agree with you about propellers. I got a nice brass one from Dumas as an after-market addition. I know that MACK products also offer a range of nice brass props. I think that the ones offered by Dumas are actually made by Raboesch.

Looking good Mark. The liquid glazing is very effective.

Great to hear the good news on the work front Andy, but timing really sucks! We'll still be here when you get back, though I can't promise the same for those beer cartons..................

Yep, spouse approval factor is very important! My Chris Craft build is already designated as my wife's boat - it will even carry her name!

Beautiful looking deck Rusty. Good luck with the move and I look forward to your return to the work bench.

Great progress Aydin, she's going to be a real beauty! Have you given any thought to placement of electronics/RC gear? I've no idea what the Amati instructions say about this, but it's worth giving some thought to before closing up the hull. I'm building a few support shelves/racks for mine using scrap material.

Thanks Mobbsie and Mark, Mobbsie - the mounting plate does allow for some adjustment. As for the Die Holder - I wasn't confident of being able to cut the thread accurately/square, hence was looking for a way to achieve that. Mark - the lathe doesn't spin at all for this operation, it's all done without power - just using the capability of the lathe to align things properly. The head stock (with a collet holder) will hold the stock piece, and the Tailstock Die Holder will present the Die centred and square to the stock. The Die Stock is then rotated by hand, or with the assistance of some tommy bars (you can see the holes for the in the centre section of the holder). Because the Die Stock is mounted on a central shaft, it is able to advance itself as the thread begins to cut.

Time has been at a premium lately, but some progress has still been made. I started making shelves and racks to house the electronics but soon concluded that I would need to install the drive line before I’d be able to complete that task. I made a mount for the rudder servo, following the lead of some other builders and making a more secure arrangement than a simple Velcro attachment. I fashioned a hold-down strap from some brass sheet, and used some captive nuts to make it easier to insert/remove multiple times. I have decided to replace the drive shaft and stuffing box. The drive shaft supplied was slightly bent, and as I’m using an “after-market” propeller, it made sense to just replace it. Also, based on advice from Pat Matthews in his book “Mahogany in Scale”, I decided to replace the stuffing box with a larger diameter brass tube and some sintered bronze bearings. All this meant that I would need to cut a new thread on the new drive shaft. Thinking about how to go about this, I came across an excellent video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmGzzZEFSJU) on machining a Tailstock Die Holder for the Sherline Lathe. It seemed to me to be the ideal solution to my problem, so work on the model came to a temporary halt while I spent a couple of weekends manufacturing my Die Holder. The video is excellent and there is a link to purchase the drawings (for not very much at all). I have to say though, I did not find it quite as easy as the video suggested – the presenter is obviously an experienced and skilled machinist (unlike me). Anyway, here is my completed Tailstock Die Holder. I’m very pleased with the end result. The body of the Holder is machined from Aluminium and will take a 1” Die in one end, and a 13/16” Die in the other. The short end of the steel central shaft has a No. 0 Morse Taper to fit the Tailstock of the Sherline Lathe. Okay, now I’m ready to start work on the model again!

Nice start Aydin, think I'll follow along too. I'm building a similar boat myself - the 1949 Chris Craft 19' Racing Runabout by Dumas models. Like you, this build holds many firsts for me. I'll be interested to watch your progress.

That's just stunning Nils!

Welcome back Andy. Nice to see you posting again. I'll look forward to following along with this one.

Congratulations Mike. That's a really significant milestone to reach and she looks fabulous. Well done!

Nice to see an update Danny. Lovely work as always.