gjdale

Brilliant work Ken!

Your gonna be delighted Bill. The Sherline machines are a real joy to use. And buying accessories for them is an endless hobby in itself - one that's bound to keep you broke. Don't ask me how I know..................

Beautiful work, as always Nils. What a pleasure it is to read your updates!

Nice Kevin, very, very nice.

Jon, If its flexibility you want in wood, then try using Holly. After a short soak you can tie into a pretzel!

Derek, B.E. mentioned this in the original post: http://www.tbs-aachen.de/Proxxon/table_top_tools/scroll_saws/Proxxon_28092_2-speed_scroll_saw_DSH_i2477_42308.htm A lot of UK members have commented that buying from this site provides significant savings over UK distributors, and with excellent service and delivery times.

More great work Nils. So nice to see you back again. I hope the medical issues are fully behind you now.

Exquisite work Druxey. I like the rack/baseboard display idea, but tossed would also be impressive. Sign me up for a copy of the book!

I have a cunning plan.................

It’s been a year since any progress has been made on the Runabout! What can I say, work, life, and another modelling project all conspired to put this project on hold. But we’re back now and ready to continue. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to get my head back into the project with all the additional modifications I wanted to make and trying to remember where I was headed. Some small progress has been made though. First up was the Rudder Block and Rudder Tube. Fairly straight forward and shown here epoxied in place. The Rudder itself was next. The kit provides a brass blank for the Rudder and a short brass rod for the Rudder Post that is pre-split to slide onto the rudder. All that is required is to radius the corners of the Rudder and silver solder the Rudder to the Rudder Post. I gave the Rudder and post both a good sanding first to remove any coating prior to soldering, and again after soldering to remove residue and excess solder. I polished it up with successive grades of sandpaper, although it has since tarnished somewhat. I will clean it up again in due course – haven’t decided yet whether to paint it the same colour as the bottom of the hull, or keep it shiny brass (in which case I’ll polish it up and clear coat it). Next up was to cut the slot in the hull for the drive shaft, and to shape and install the engine mount blocks. Cutting the slot was a little nerve-wracking, but turned out to be quite easy – drilled a hole at either end and then used an Exacto knife with a saw blade to cut through the Sintra and Butterfly Keel. The kit provides balsa for the engine mount blocks, but I decided to replace this with something more substantial to screw into. I used some offcuts of pine that I had in the workshop and cut/sanded these to shape. They were then epoxied (with a liberal amount of epoxy) to the base of the hull and the frame immediately forward of them. And here’s a close-up of the Engine Mount Blocks: The Engine Mounting Brackets were then bent to shape around the motor, screw locations marked and drilled, and then the motor re-inserted and clamped down to test the mounting arrangement. The screws were then loosened off and the motor removed. At this point, it was necessary to deviate from the kit instructions as I planned to install a “working” steering wheel – that is, to set it up such that it turns when the rudder turns. The idea for this, and some of the technique were “borrowed” shamelessly from couple of other builders on the RC Groups Forum. It involves installing a servo with a spline-mounted gear wheel, and some plastic link chain to connect it to the drive shaft of the steering column. After several days of thinking about exactly how I was going to do this, I decided that I would cut an “Access Panel” in the frame. I then made small platform for the bottom of the servo mount to sit on, and I epoxied some nuts to receive the Access Panel Cover. In this picture, you can see the Access hole, the platform and the epoxied nuts. The servo itself needed to be mounted at an angle to ensure that the Servo gear and the driveshaft gear remained in the same plane. Having measured the angle of incidence from the plans, I constructed a small block sanded to the correct angle on the Byrnes sander, and mounted the Servo on this. This assembly was then epoxied to the fore side of the Access Panel Cover (this step was completed with the panel in place to ensure the correct location of the servo mount) Here is a view with the Access Panel Cover now in place. Also in the above photo, you can see the steering column driveshaft (the brass rod) and the steering column sleeve (the shiny silver thingy). Finally, the driveshaft gear was fitted, the chain measured to length and fixed (the links are really easy to snap apart to add/remove links), and the two gears connected. In the photo below, you can also see where I cut a bit of a scallop in the top of the keel to ensure there would be no interference with the chain. And finally, a shot from above showing the whole assembly in place. I originally made the access panel with the thought that I might be able to access the setup should a part fail. However, I now think that it will be impossible to replace things through that hatch as there is no access from above once the decks go on (at least not without adding an access hatch, which the original boat didn’t have). So, once I’ve proved it running, it will get sealed up inside the boat forever! Next step will be to build a number of shelves/racks to house the electronics. Again, I’m departing from the standard kit here, so want to make sure I get all of this sorted before I close up the hull any further.

Give the gnomes a double rum issue Sjors - they've done a great job!

Great work Antony. She's coming together beautifully.

Great job on the ratlines Sjors.

Well worth the effort Mark - looks great!

I've got this one in my stash too Brian, so I'll pull up a chair and follow along as well.

Great work. She's looking terrific.

Outstanding work my friend - looking gorgeous!

Beautifully done Toni.

Just beautiful Johann - thanks for sharing!

Okay, got my seat in the front row! Great choice Bob, and with your planned additions/variations, I'm sure it will be something very special. I like your idea of using Holly for the lower hull, even with extra work that will cause.

Great work Bob. I look forward to following your Granado build.

Hi Thistle, What a great project to do with your grandson! Regarding your problem, I bought some aftermarket stuff from MACK products (http://www.mackproductsrc.com) to replace the kit supplied part. I obviously haven't used it yet, so can't comment on how good it is. If you haven't already found them, there is a very good RC forum (http://www.rcgroups.com) where you will find a number of build logs for this boat, some of them quite outstanding. Like MSW, they are a very friendly and helpful bunch. For anyone else following this build, I hope to re-commence work on this next weekend.

Oh boy! Hey fellas, over here! Come and see! Druxey had a re-do!!! Seriously though Druxey, it's very re-assuring to know that even the Demi-gods have re-dos. Outstanding work all round, Sir.

Nice to see you back at the bench Danny. Great looking hammock battens and gratings too.

Congratulations on a truly fine build Nick.