Charles Green

With Hahn's method of framing, there is a lot of wood trimmed away but it should not be categorized as "waste".  There will be plenty of opportunities to use the pieces further on in the build. 

BobG

Fellow climber and modeler: Rock, wall or machine - all are incapable of making mistakes!

As well as NO GLOVES - NEVER - with any rotating power tool or shaft (think being wrapped around a PTO) add: long hair tied back; no open cuffs on long sleeves; no jewelry on hands, wrists or neck; shirt tails in; aprons tied in back.  And while I'm at it, have a fire-extinguisher handy.  Compare the pain, time lost, function lost and money associated with an injury to the cost of push-sticks of various forms, feather boards and the time in making one-off holding jigs.

Try using garnet paper with various backers shaped to the hulls contours. Balsa would be easy to shape.  The garnet pieces are sharper and harder than what is used on run-of-the-mill sand paper.

Another type of sanding medium would be pieces cut from a belt for belt-sanders.  It's stiffer than sheet paper but it holds up a lot longer. 

BikerMart:

Visualizing the method suggested, I see a possible chink in the system.  The center's of the gun-ports themselves must all line up and uniformly follow the deck shear.  If the port's don't line up fair, then centering the barrels in them will only reproduce the error.   Critically sight along the hull and determine if the port sills make a fair line.  If not, no matter how you attach the barrels, some adjustment will be necessary. 

Great!  That will simplify everything.

I've been wondering if the gun barrel strip lays vertically along its length or does in roll with the contours of the bow and stern?

Another idea.  Make thin, fitted patterns (squares, more or less), one each for each port.  With the patterns off the model, center and glue the barrels on them, then glue the barrel/pattern assemblies to the gun barrel strip.  You may have to shorten the barrels to allow for the thickness of the patterns.  

Good idea.  The dowels must be close fits, fitting each to its port may be necessary.  The dowels must not tip up or down or the center-lines of the holes (their longitudinal axes) will not lie in the same plane, your marks will vary up or down and the muzzles will not line up.  Is the hull thick enough at the gun-ports to act as a guide to aid in alignment of the dowels? 

Keith:

That would be a nice touch and one that is seldom seen.  It would require dead-soft wire, hard to handle, but would look great.

Keith:

I was way off.  I misunderstood you.

Good Morning Keith:  

A false-muzzle to make up for irregularities in the castings?  Centering the hole in the false-muzzles and then centering them on the cannons while making a smooth transition between them, and keeping the glue out of the bore holes; at this scale it sounds like a gluing nightmare!  

At that scale, the tiniest error in centering of the bore hole will be glaringly obvious.  Are the muzzles truly circular or are they jogged due to the mold halves being off a little?  Are all the muzzle diameters uniform size? You should use a caliper graduated in 0.00X inch or 0.0x mm to determine this.  If the mold was true and the muzzles all the same diameter, I would recommend spending the time to make a jig for accurate centering of the bore hole drill.  If the muzzles are out of round or vary in size, I would skip the bore holes.  With either of those problems present, it will be futile trying to center the bore holes and the holes will draw attention to those imperfections.    

Third page down: the Dremel Moto Shop.  I had one of those and I pity anyone else who had one.  My parents bought mine for me at serious expense to them.  The disappointment that saw created in the three of us is felt by me to this day.  It ran at one speed - too fast.  Enough noise to startle anyone not ready for it - think "lawn mower over gravel".   Hand numbing vibration that made following a line impossible.  It used pinned blades that came in a variety of sizes, all too large.  The flex-shaft accessory in use in the photo was useless.  The motor speed, while too fast for scroll saw use, was too slow for a flex shaft tool.  The "flex-shaft" was one in name only.  Trying to flex it would create enough friction within the shaft to drop the motor speed and then pressure on the cutting tool would bring the motor to a near stall. 

Hello Greg and Welcome:

 During WWII, my Dad fought in the Battle of Milne Bay in Eastern New Guinea.  Consequently, I have great interest in that part of the world.  Coming from Queensland, may I ask of your knowledge of the Torres Straight and types of vessels used to navigate that water?

Thanks, 

Charlie  

Roger:

FYI on the Sears molding heads - Carob Cutter makes 38 different shapes of knives for the Sears tool and Woodmaster Tools of Canada will custom make any shape within the size limits of the Sears tool.

Ten years ago, and depending on the particular knife, Carob charged me between $18 to $27 for a three knife set.

Three years ago, Woodmaster charged me $90 for a custom three knife set. 

Carob Cutters: 1 800 745 9895.  Carobcutters.com.  They are in NH.

Woodmaster Tools:  1 902 893 1915.  Woodmaster is in Nova Scotia.   

Since we are talking of old drill presses: 

I've got one, bought new that's 45 years old now.  It was starting to rattle and I began looking for a new one.  The only one similar to it is made by Enco, sold by MSC and sells for $820.00. 

About that time I came across drill press rebuild videos on U-tube and decided to go that route.  Motion Industry is the only source I came across that sold all the various types of bearings necessary for the rebuild. 

All bearings have a universal ID number on them.  I ordered new, high quality, ones as per those numbers and I was in business.  There is plenty of metal in those old drill presses.  Replace the moving parts and you've got, essentially, a new drill press.  I also replaced the solid V belt with a segmented type to minimize vibration. 

All this was done with much less expense than a new Enco and it's more massive/ridgid than any of the other new ones selling for less than the Enco.

I will add that the drill press's original price was $175.00.  The rebuild cost under $200.00.  I could have gotten by much cheaper with less expensive bearings.  It would have been counterproductive but they can be had for as little as $5.00 a piece.  The segmented belt was the most expensive component.

RE: Gaetan's comments

Depth of field increases with focusing distance.  This explains the great DOF in his outdoor photo.  At the other extreme, DOF in an image from a common desk-top microscope may be measured by the fourth decimal place.  Regardless of the optical instrument being used, lenses of the same focal length, at the same focusing distance, and at the same f#, will all produce the same DOF. 

I have a friend in Mars Hill.  His health may get in the way but I'll see if he is up to communicating with you.

Welcome, and are you anywhere near Mars Hill?

I'm not familiar with this wood - had to look it up.  Brazilian Ebony, Swartiza tomentosa vs. the various species of "real" ebony, all from the genus Diospyros.  So we are not talking about a variety of ebony, but something that resembles it.  Very dark brown to nearly black with not so dark streaks.  Newly cut wood is yellow/orange until it oxidizes to the dark color.  It works well.  Dust hazard was listed as unknown - don't take this to mean there isn't one; protect yourself. 

The highest quality ebony will be solid black but will still have streaks/pockets of brown that will decrease the yield of solid black wood.  You must protect your self from ebony dust.  The oil in most most tropical hardwoods makes gluing problematic unless you wipe the surface to be glued with acetone just before the glue is applied.

For detail work, I'm with Roger on this.  Nothing beats a file for fine, finish work, especially when getting into corners is involved.  Purpose-made sanding sticks are an economical alternative but I find files leave better edges and internal corners.

As enlightening as this manuscript's content may be, the NRG's inflexible stance on revealing it reflects two things: absolute fairness to the author and absolute terror of ruinous legal costs over a copyright dispute.  

As interested as I am in seeing this manuscript's content, I side with the NRG.  Perhaps some other agency may be interested in pursuing its publication

Lest anyone gain the impression I am advocating someone else publish this manuscript, I am editing this post to state I am not. 

Both Fein and Festool make a line of shop vacs that are noted for HEPA filtration, plenty of power, long life and they are quiet.  Both are European based companies.  I am supposing they produce versions of their vacs compatible with your needs. 

I will suggest you consider "Tru Vue Optimum Museum Acrylic" for your case.  It's expensive - but - it's antireflective; you may not appreciate the difference this makes in presentation.  It makes an amazing difference.  It is also thinner than most acrylic sheets or glass.  This minimizes the refraction effect as light passes through the inside and outside surfaces.  It does not out-gas and has antistatic, scratch resistant and UV blocking coatings.  It is also much lighter than glass or thicker acrylic. 

Framing shops will handle this acrylic for you.  Considering its cost, I would let them do the cutting.

And as mentioned above, the case's design must allow for ventilation.