-Dallen

Thanks, Mark. Even I was surprised at the change a drop of oil makes. Turns it from banal to something even my wife liked! I'll have to try some on myself.
 
Tony

Just "Wow!!!"   The oil really makes this section pop into pure eye candy.

Thanks to various comments (notably Dirk's -- thank you Dirk!), I decided to experiment a bit with oils. I decided in the end to make up my own Danish oil, seeing that I already had the ingredients. I followed the advice given by Bob Flexner at http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/finishing/oil-finishes-their-history-and-use The recommended dosage to start with is one-third of each, so that’s what I mixed.
 

 
I liked the results, so that’s what I’ll stick with for the rest of the build.
 
I planked just over half the gun deck, along with the lower strakes of the gun deck walls. I then oiled the inside of the lower walls and the two decks -- leaving the outside of the frames and the wall planking above the gun deck.
 

 

 
I need to finish the planking of the gun deck walls, sand down the fore and aft section faces, and then I’ll be working on installing the eyebolts for the cannon and making up the gangway brackets.
 
Tony

Thanks for the likes!
 
Dupree: TurboCAD is for me an almost essential aspect of the model as it allows for accurate part making, dimension checking and making all sorts of jigs. As for making mistakes I agree they're an essential part of learning. That's why I try to highlight the ones I make for others to learn from as well.
 
Dirk: thanks a lot for the suggestion. It's a good one, as always. I'd thought about oil but then was worried about putting it on surfaces that were to be glued. Anyway, when I've finished assembly I'll practise with oil as you suggest. I always enjoy learning!
 
Tony

Looking very nice!

COAMINGS AND GRATING
 
The joints were made as usual with the Proxxon saw. To cut the angles (63 degrees) I first inscribed the top edges by 1.73mm using dividers with the measurement derived from the TurboCAD programme.
 

 

 
This then allowed me to use the saw at an angle which has a nicely accurate indicator in degrees. I edged the coaming towards the saw until it cut right at the line.
 

 
By the way: if you do this, WATCH OUT FOR YOUR FINGERS AS YOU MAY FORGET THE EDGE OF THE SAW COULD BE CLOSER TO THEM THAN YOU THINK! I was wary of this, but thought I’d better mention it in case others might not have thought about it.
 
Having made the coamings, I could now install the grating I made earlier. I now realised that the long edges could not be the same width as the grating battens if they were to fit into the coaming I had made. I reckon I must have made a very slight error in cutting the strips, but thought that I might well make the same kind of error again so I went with the grating as made.
 

 
You might well note that I've not curved the top of the grating to match the deck camber. My decision was the lazy one -- I followed the plans! As for the base of the coamings, where curvature would come into play, again I was lazy -- the tiny cracks at their base sides will be covered by the planking.
 
One small point to watch out for is that if you stick too closely to the plan measurements it is vital to check these against the actual measurements you achieve on the model. In my case the forward hatch I made came out 0.5mm less wide than on the plans, but as this was not going to affect anything except the width of the ladder, I kept the hatch I made.
 
LADDER
 
I debated a while as to how to make the ladder. Essentially the choice was between table saw, hand saw and mill. I decided the easiest would be to use the modified Proxxon drill stand that I made for the Sherbourne. You can see the design at http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/4539-how-to-modify-proxxon-mb-140-drill-stand-to-act-as-mill/?p=130660.
 
I made a very slight modification to that modification by adding a locking nut below the screw adjuster. This was because I found that vibration during milling made the screw gradually move upwards. You can see this further modification in the following pictures:
 

 

 
The next question was how best to hold the ladder rails in place while milling. I made a paper template and glued that to a rectangle of fibreboard using water-based glue (Pritt stick).
 
After fiddling around clamping the rails to the template I decided to experiment and see if gluing the rail to the template would allow a sufficiently strong bond for milling. I used PVA to do this and it worked very well indeed – allowing me to remove the rail easily after milling with full-strength isopropanol, and allowing me to remove the paper templates from the fibreboard and the rails with a damp sponge.
 
An additional benefit of this way of clamping is that it allows an uncluttered view of the rails whilst milling.
 

 
I could then proceed by clamping the board to the micro compound table.
 

 
To make the rails equal in height and at the correct angles, I bound them together with a couple of spots of PVA, then used the disc sander for the angles. I was really thankful that the Proxxon sander’s degree marker was accurate!
 

 
I then made a simple jig for placing the steps. I again used the idea of gluing a template to the fibreboard base, then gluing battens to the template. To keep the rails apart while fitting the steps I made two temporary and removable battens from old plywood.
 

 

 
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
 
This allowed me to assemble the coamings, grating and ladder.
 

 

 
I can see from the results that I should really spend time sanding to achieve the glassy kind of finish that others have done, but for the moment I’m just pleased that I can make and put together all these pieces!
 
Next I’ll do some planking.
 
Tony

I've always like the look of this one. It has a handy 5000 rpm top speed.
 
http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4700

That looks like the same one I bought from MicroMark years ago.  A bit underpowered and the table is "odd" in that the slots are 4mm and finding hardwae, vices, etc. is a tough thing.  Speed is limited to 2500 rpm unless you're willing to risk the bearings by swapping out the drive pulleys.  There are accessories such as collets (ER-16 as I recall) but most of the other tooling such as dividing heads, rotary table, even vices are too large for the table.  
 
It can be done, but there were times it was a pain to find the tooling to fit.
 
Pity you're not a lot closer... you could have my Micromark machine...    Just sitting in the garage while I figure out what to do with it.
 
 
Disclaimer... I replaced my Micro Mill with a LittleMachineShop Mill.    Much happier.

Specs on this one say it has 8mm table slots (same as Sherline) and a top speed of 2800rpm.  Maybe the Micro Mark model is an earlier model.
 
I would guess that any accessory that works with a Sherline mill would work with the Sieg.  The Sieg is a bit larger than the Sherline and might be able to use some of the mini mill accessories as well.

I'll go out and check that again.  You're probably right about the 8mm and I'm having a senior moment.  It might be an earlier model..  I did some Googling and see several different models with the X0 designation.  
  
 
I didn't have issues using it as a drill press, but turning the knob was a bit inconvenient.  My biggest issues were power and speed.  Speed for the cutting and finish and power as all milling had to be done in very tiny increments.  

I had one for several years. It was a family hand me down. I primarily used it as a drill press. Didn't notice any power issues and I pretty much used it within its limits. In getting into miniature modeling and tool making I decided to upgrade to the Sieg X2 and to retool to that machine. 

Once the wood arrived, I could set about making the frames. I laid the plan on 19mm MDF and proceeded as follows
 

 

 
I decided I'd also cut the gun port sill placements at this stage, and hope to make sure they're all aligned later.
 

 

 

 
The following shows my rough alignment of the frames in the jig.
 
By the way, I used lock nuts to support the ply cut-out. This made sure that there would be no slipping of the cut-out and maintained the height accurately.
 

 

 
So now I can see that at least the frames fit and are roughly aligned. Phew! That means I can now get on with truing up the frames, gluing the keel bits together and the frames to the keel, and making sure the gun port sills are ready.
 
 
A SILENT DRUM SANDER!
 
As a slight aside, my mini-drill made such a noise with sanding the frames that I had to develop a silent sanding drum for night-time work as follows. I used an old broom handle (just under an inch diameter) for the drum, and a one inch spade bit together with a 6mm roofing bolt.
 
 

 

 
Peace at last! (but sore fingers, too!)
 
Tony

What would be achieved by doing this? Models that are over 200 years old are found all over the world and seem to be in good shape if cased in air. Light and "critters" are more of a problem, me thinks
 
Allan

For live fire, try this:

or google vasa cannon.
 
Joel - That's a lot more like what I was expecting. That carriage slamming backwards an almost lifting up when it hit the end of the breech rope. Great video.

Just now received Ed Tostis' book. Looks like the book I'm currently reading about HMS Valkyrie will have to go on hold for a few nights.
 
Dupree

Just now received Ed Tostis' book. Looks like the book I'm currently reading about HMS Valkyrie will have to go on hold for a few nights.
 
Dupree

Very interesting, Dupree. My brother-in-law is going to be carrying over Ed Tosti's two Naiad books for me early in January. Great minds!
 
Tony

Dupree,
 
If you haven't yet, check each plan separately for proper scaling and printing size.  Use your ruler (and scaling tables) and the scale on the plans.  Don't ask how I know this.. but I will say, it was painful.

Just now received Ed Tostis' book. Looks like the book I'm currently reading about HMS Valkyrie will have to go on hold for a few nights.
 
Dupree

I am amaized at the research and prepotory work involved in scratch building. I have just now completed my full set of 1:32 prints for this build. They are printed out on 13 X 19 paper (perfect for this scale) using a Canon IX6820 printer. Since printing a sacrificial set of plans I have cut out the paper and in process of attaching them to wood stock in preparation to cutting them out. Hopefully actual shipbuilding can start this coming week.
 
Dupree

Thank you Mark. Will do and thanks for the education.
 
Dupree

Just now received Ed Tostis' book. Looks like the book I'm currently reading about HMS Valkyrie will have to go on hold for a few nights.
 
Dupree

I am amaized at the research and prepotory work involved in scratch building. I have just now completed my full set of 1:32 prints for this build. They are printed out on 13 X 19 paper (perfect for this scale) using a Canon IX6820 printer. Since printing a sacrificial set of plans I have cut out the paper and in process of attaching them to wood stock in preparation to cutting them out. Hopefully actual shipbuilding can start this coming week.
 
Dupree

Thank you Mark. Will do and thanks for the education.
 
Dupree

I am amaized at the research and prepotory work involved in scratch building. I have just now completed my full set of 1:32 prints for this build. They are printed out on 13 X 19 paper (perfect for this scale) using a Canon IX6820 printer. Since printing a sacrificial set of plans I have cut out the paper and in process of attaching them to wood stock in preparation to cutting them out. Hopefully actual shipbuilding can start this coming week.
 
Dupree