gjdale

Thanks again one and all for all the encouraging comments and the "likes". Life's been a bit hectic lately, so it's been a little while between updates. I also needed to do some thinking about the next stage, as well as acquiring a new "secret weapon" (more on that later). At last, this weekend I got to spend some quality time in the shipyard and am well pleased with the results. I have completed the making of the Mortar Barrel, and documented my process fairly thoroughly in the hope that it may help others who progress down this path, or who (like me) are still novices in the world of machining. This post will therefore be in two parts. The Mortar Barrel The Mortar Barrel is another challenging but fun mini-project in its own right. I decided to turn the Barrel from Ebony, so the starting point was a 1” square piece of Ebony about 90mm long. I chucked this in a self-centring 4-jaw chuck, drilled a centre hole in one end, and mounted it with a live centre. The first job was turn the square to a round, with a diameter equal to the maximum diameter of the Mortar Barrel. Not having much experience in turning Ebony (or anything else for that matter) I used only very light cuts of about 0.25mm depth – it took a while! And here’s what was removed to allow the cylinder to emerge: Once that little mess was cleaned up, it was time to cut in the various sections of the barrel and reinforcing bands. I had spent quite a bit of time with the drawings and a ruler measuring where all of these went, and writing myself a set of step-by-step instructions to make the task easier. This paid off and all went well. I had to do quite a bit of swapping out of cutting bit from right to left hand bits, and while this is no big deal, it did illustrate the advantage of having a quick-change tool post. (Something to add to the never-ending “accessories to purchase” list!). At this point I decided it was a good time to drill the holes to take the “handles”, so the whole piece was transferred in the chuck to the Milling machine. I mounted the chuck directly onto the rotary table, which itself was mounted on a right-angle attachment. A right angle tailstock completed the setup, and we were ready to use the sensitive drill attachment, equipped with a No.67 drill bit. The rotary table was used to position two sets of holes, 60 degrees apart. While still in this configuration, I swapped out the drilling attachment for a 3/32” end mill, rotated the piece so that bottom dead centre was facing up, and drilled a hole near where the bottom of the barrel bore would be (more on that shortly). Then it was time to transfer the workpiece, still in the chuck, back to the lathe, where a 5/16” end mill was used to bore out the bore. An end mill was used in preference to a drill bit for this as it has cutting edges on the sides as well as the end, and so makes a very neat job. The bore was taken down to the bottom of what would become the mid-section of the barrel. (It was very difficult to get a decent photo of this on the lathe). Continued next post........

Nice to see your adaptation on this one Jay. I would be a little concerned about using climb cutting for this though, because of the danger of the cutting bit "grabbing" the stock and pulling it through. I agree with you on your thoughts for a hold-down featherboard (or two) of some description. I have the kernel of an idea wafting through my head at the moment. As soon as I get a bit of time, I'll have a crack at this one too.

Sweet!

Another engineering masterpiece Ian - no less than we have come to expect from you. Marvellous job Sir!

Your daughter is a lucky girl indeed Richard. Simply lovely work. Well done Sir!

Thanks Frank - I suspect you're right on both counts.

Frank, Thanks so much for posting this. You've answered many questions and your pictures illustrate your explanations beautifully. I think I can now follow suit. One question I do have though. Do you think there would be any benefit in using a bearing on the end of your "feather board"? I'm thinking that it would hold the timber against the fence while still allowing to move freely past the end of the feather board (much like in my thin ripping guide for the Byrnes saw). Or would that just be overkill and difficult to make?

Nice to see an update Sherry, and what a lovely update to behold! Wonderful work.

John, An interesting review - thanks for sharing. Can I ask why you opted not to buy Sherline's own QCTP?

Very nicely done Erik - neat and precise!

Sorry to hear you've been in hospital Charlene and do hope that all is well now. I look forward to the continuation of your build. You're certainly in good hands with Jerry to guide you (and to make sure you don't over-do things post-hospital!!!).

Thanks for the update Slog. Good luck with the house move - I know just how traumatic they can be at times! I look forward to "resumption of play" once you're settled in.

Glad to hear that Frank! I look forward to seeing/reading about your results. It's been one of things I keep thinking, "surely there must be a fairly simple way to do this". I'm just glad that you are a little further down the path with this one. (BTW, I too have the Sherline Mill, upgraded to the 10,000 rpm pulley set).

You don't believe in making things easy do you Danny? This I've just got to see!

Frank, Do you have any more pics of your 'router table' in action? I've been wondering how this might be possible and clearly you've solved the problem.

Congratulations on getting underway Tom. I'll follow along with interest too. This one is on my bucket list of builds.

Looking pretty darn good from here Bob!

Hey Slog, Any action on the Bismarck lately? It's been a while since the last update.

Nicely done Danny. Enjoy the Scotch!

Nice looking ratlines Ken. Your build is looking great!

Great looking paddle wheels Cathead. Hope you have an enjoyable holiday.

Carvings look great Nigel. I'm with Nils though, it would seem a shame to paint them now. "Painting with wood" is very effective in its own right.

That looks great with all the deck fittings in place Marc. Interesting choice to leave them off until the rigging is in place - I'm sure that will work very well.

Have to agree with Mark, Nigel - excellent work and a great start on the carvings. If this doesn't drive you mad first, they will be a lovely addition to your model.

Thank you so much one and all for the very kind comments and all the "likes". The next job is construction of the Mortar Bed. The Mortar Bed The Mortar Bed is an interesting model in itself, although it is quite straightforward thanks to Jeff’s excellent drawings. All of the components are made from Swiss Pear of varying thicknesses. The side pieces are each comprised of three ‘strakes’ and after cutting stock to the appropriate sizes, these were made as a pair by spot-gluing the over-length stock together and completing all drilling and milling operations together to ensure symmetry. The groove for the trunnion was cut on the mill, and holes of various diameters for bolts and eyebolts were completed on the mini drill press. Three pieces in the base have a 1/8” hole to take a brass spigot which goes through into the deck below to allow the turntable to turn. Centring these holes was probably the trickiest part of the operation. Here are all the components overlaid on the drawings (a few of these ended up with a re-do): The rear of the mortar bed is rounded and a bevel is added to the top edge just to add a slight degree of difficulty. The rounding was done on each component piece individually using the Byrnes disc sander, and then the whole piece was touched up once assembled. The bevel was achieved by first marking the inner edge of the bevel by tracing around the edge of both top and side with a compass point set to the appropriate distance and then carefully filing to shape before finishing with a sanding stick. Eyebolts and Ringbolts were then added according to the drawings. I will leave the cap squares until the mortar and its trunnions have been fashioned. Finally, here’s a few shots of the mortar bed in position: