VinceMcCullough

I have a Sherline lathe that I subsequently equipped with their DRO as an add-on. It's a huge improvement on counting the number of times that I've cranked the handwheels. I end up with fewer parts spoiled when I lose track of the number of times I've turned the crank. With regard to portability, the wires unhook readily, so that's not a problem.

Dave As Mickey Martell used to say, " t'aint a hobby if you gotta hurry." You'll be back up and making sawdust soon enough. Vince

Great looking space, Dave! I'm envious!

I'd like to have his contact info as well. vince

Allan is correct. The model of the FA at the Naval Academy museum is the basis for all existing model plans. I believe the model is still on display, but if not, I'm sure the curator (Don Preul) would be willing to pull it from storage if you decide to visit. Vince McCullough

I've been silver soldering for several years now using a butane "pencil" torch purchased at one of the big box home centers (Lowes or Home Depot). For solder and flux I buy silver solder paste from a jeweler's supply. I use Rio Grande, but all of the online suppliers carry it. Like the wire, it comes in grades from "extra easy" to "hard," with increasing melting points. The paste itself is a mixture of flux, very fine solder power and an inert grease, and comes in a hypodermic style tube. For most small fittings, I take a fine price of wire and pick up just a trace of paste and apply it to the workpiece where I want the joint (the work should be as clean as possible), hit it with the torch and pickle it once the bond has been made. You can make EXTREMELY small joints this way, like soldering a .3mm ring to the end of a peice of wire to make a railing stantion for a 1/16 scal model. The pencil touch works for almost every job, as long as it's fairly small. However, if you're working with a larger peice of brass, use a regular plumbers torch with propane or MAP gas. I had to do this to solder blades onto a heavy propellor hub for a 1:64 scale sub. The hub was just to heavy. BTW, if you are looking for butane, the big box stores sell it where they stock the torches. Same kind of can that you use for lighters.

Also, I think it's more than a modeling convention. I looked at photos of several other models as well, and they all have that elongated slot. I think that this represents actual practice.

I think you're right - the barrel tapers to a cone outboard of the square section. However, I have a hunch that the cone flattens out to a cylindrical cross section that is slightly smaller than the slot it rides in - small enough to fit through the vertical opening. I will probably model it that way. BTH, I bought four kits. Will be building three as gifts for family members. I should finally know what I'm doing by the time #4 is done. Vince

Chuck/All, I've been studying photos of prototype models of longboats on the National Maritime Museum web site, specifically focusing on the windlass and it's mounting. In all of the photos that I have seen, it looks to me like the windlass is mounted to a separate board, located below the risers and attachted to the frames under the adjacent twarts. This board has a horizontal slot, rounded on the ends, into which the windlass barrel fits. It also appears that there is an opening in the top of the board at the center of ths slot.In some cases this opening is rectangular, but in one case it is keystone-shaped. In most (but not all) examples it seems to be filled with a "stopper" of wood. I SUSPECT that this stopper could be removed, allowing the windlass barrel to be unshipped. This would provide greater space for things like water casks or other cargo. Once installed, the barrel would be slid to either the front or back of the slot, depending on the direction of the line being managed. Tye rounded end of the slot would provide a bearing surface for the barrel to turn against. The pictures also seem to show that the windlass barrel tapers down to fit into the horizontal slot. I suspect this means that there is no separate "axle" for the windlass, but instead that the windless is simply turned down to a diameter that can serve as the axle. There might have been an iron ring sweated onto the end of the barrel to reduce friction and wear against the supporting slot, but this is conjecture on my part -- there is no evidence of it in the photos. Vince McCullough

I suspect that you have two problems. First, I've tried the type of solder that you are using, and also had problems with it. It seems to have a much higher melting point than the silver solders (ranging from "extra easy" to "medium"). That in itself is probably only part of the problem. The other is that copper is a VERY good conductor of heat, which is why ReverWare pans have copper bottoms. They distribute heat evenly over the pan. So I suspect that the copper is wicking the hear away too quickly for the solder to melt. Personally I would stick with silver solder. If you use the paste, you can put minute amoumts of paste on the tube, so that it does not spread out much. Vince McCullough