BANYAN

Hi Greg, Yves has offered a really nice option cheers Pat

Beautiful work Eberhard; miniature perfection You don't happen to have a spare around do you? Just the other night I cam across a reference somewhere which I will need to find for you again; unfortunately just as I found it our woeful National Broadband Network (NBN) which is MANDATORY her can you believe, played its usual trick of losing connection). Hopefully I can find it again and I will copy, not that is much except a description which describes a similar horizontal tabl;e (as they called it) for communicating with the engine room - 1940s I think and it was under a patent listing I think. cheers Pat p.s. This is another one I had found c1858, similar bit a little more refined. Not sure where I found this as it was in the days I hadn't realised how important to note the source withing the image title - possibly from one of the contemporary 'The Repertory of Patent Inventions ' periodicals? I will need to try and track down the other one referenced above, but not so confident in finding it as it was one of those random things that popped up while doing another search.

Beautiful result, and thanks for the step-by-step for us mere mortals to follow cheers Pat

The bulkheads look good Mark, practice makes perfect huh? I could not make it out for sure but have you cut the rabbet yet? cheers Pat

Nice job and clever idea Pat cheers Pat

I can empathise Keith, our second grandchild arrived just three weeks ago Enjoy the moment and congrats to all cheers Pat

aghhhh no I wasn't - SORRY - I feel a twit.... Works well. many thanks cheers Pat

Thanks, still no go this morning but I am sure it will appear cheers Pat

Nice work Steven - unfortunately no matter how good the brush my hand shakes too much these days to do such fine artistry cheers Pat

Thanks Richard, I did, and I tried a direct access from your earlier link and no go - no biggie, just may take a while to filter through? cheers Pat

I also made my own using Druxey's published idea and pictures. I experience the same finish results and restrictions pointed out by Wefalck and Druxey, The greatest problem is getting the blade for the tracer to be fine enough to allow a precise copy. I am in the process of modifying my tracer rod to accept interchangeable blades which will be ground with a left flat, right flat etc. This will not eliminate the 'rounding' issue needed on the tracer blade but will make it a little more precise. Not great for smaller jobs but work fine for larger copies such as columns/pedestals etc. Note this design removes the need to free the cross slide as the cutting tool is ground to match the blade and is part of the duplicator. The template is held within the duplicator also as shown. I have also redesigned the way it is fitted to the bench since I took these photos. It now sits on a much longer aluminium base plate drilled with equally spaced holes (matched to the current mounting slot space) allowing me to better place it relative to the work. I have invested in some travellers and jackstand to support longer work also. The longer baseplate has also allowed me to utilise it to support an off lathe 'stop'. I am still adapting that to hold a micrometer head to allow repeated cuts to the stop. PLEASE ignore my learning 'whoopsie evident on the Y table - hence my need for a stop - major embarrassment) cheers Pat

Many thanks Richard, appreciate that as it is a very handy tool. Have you uploaded the new version yet. I tired through my bookmark this morning and no change? The reason for my asking for the decimal is that many calculators etc now out put inches as decimal as it was 'too hard' for them to do the fractional readout. As a result I have several sets of dimension that are all printed as decimal inches I'll see if I can find some data on the other national metrics and forward to you if I do. It was just a suggestion which I am not sure how many will use. I know I have been bitten once or twice thinking I was using a standard foot but it was something entirely different. Perhaps a straw poll here using the polling option may help identify identify which dimensions would be more useful? to modellers? Many thanks again. Pat

Must have used 'Jeffrey's compound (marine glue) or the like? Either that or a very talented carpenter plugging the 'nails' with very tight plugs with grain oriented in the same direction. Either way the deck looks very 'clean'. cheers Pat

The skills will come back to you as you progress Joss; bit like riding a bike after putting it in the garage for many years The tops look great, must have been a tedious process doing all that drilling? cheers Pat

Thanks Richard. I will go back and recheck again, but it does not seem to work for me - the values under the input box does not update when entering the decimal as shown in the screen grabs (even if I click on the Convert buttons). I am using Chrome browser on a PC running Win10 pro 64 bit. Not intended as a complaint, simply raising a potential bug (probably my end) and appreciate your continued support. Thanks again. Pat