BANYAN

Ed, watching the recreation of your build is a pleasure, the quality of your work, especially at the scale you work is exceptional!  As Druxey has elegantly put it: 

Watching your progress is most enjoyable and almost makes me want to be an arm-chair modeller! ......

Druxey - we know you better

regards

Pat

Your build is looking great Toni; and a very interesting way to measure progress.

cheers

Pat

Crackers, this may be the topic for another thread.  The RN had some great names for some foods (Devils on Horseback, toad in a hole, etc)

In our outfit we were always wary of anything coated in breadcrumbs as the chefs were usually trying to 'mask' something (old food generally)   We called this food in "night clothing" as usually this was served for the evening meals, and we had to shift into "night clothing" at nights to show their lordships how hygenic we were

cheers

Pat

Hey have you Swan Class builders got a conspiracy going? Toni and you both building the same class, both finish the recovery of your logs on almost the same day ...

Mate a major milestone, achieved with some satisfaction I am sure (along with putting the lost work (several times) tribulations behind you).  I think a celebration may be the ticket especially while you wait for the the rodent issue to resolve

Pat

A significant milestone and major effort - many thanks Toni.  I look forward to seeing your "de novo" updates.  I think a small celebration may be warranted

Pat

It's always sad to see an old lady of the sea meet such an end; it is even harder to accept when you have served in them.  The Australian Navy has a habit of using former ships for all sorts of purposes.  Two of the ships in which I have served are now recreational diving wrecks, one was blown up in all sorts of ways as an experimenta vessel, another two sold as scrap.  One is now a fine museum ship in Darling harbour.   Sigh!!!!

cheers

pat

Great detail as usual Paul.  Now mate, we do expect to see a highly detailed mouse or two and ship's cat also (or was the German Navy too efficient to allow mice to get aboard?) - everything else seems to have been covered

cheers

Pat

I haven't caught up with your build for some time Wayne; youve made great progress and she looks great.  Interesting comparison you have there.

cheers

Pat

When you learn that trick Andy you can make a fortune selling the idea to all of us   Nice work on the masts though!

cheers

Pat

Thanks BE and Daniel; yep we have to assume artistic lisence.  As you have said things changed with the ages and if you accept the 'lisence' there is much to learn from these.

cheers

Pat

Hi Mark, according to Jim the freewheeling is only until the motor and whorls come up to speed; from that point on it should be held stopped while making rope.

WRT to the die; after much similar frustration I stummbled on a 'trick' which is to get two of the threads through (reasonably easy), then wet the area behind the die on the feed side (I use spit ) and lay/place the damp end of the third at that spot (the damp holds the third end in place and pull it through with the other two.  Works for me

cheers

Pat

Thanks for the links Daniel; some interesting illustrations there.  I have not looked at them all, but it is surprising to see that although space is tight around the tables etc, that the overheads are quite high.  They are shown to be just above ther doortop for headline in the cabins etc, but much higher on the gundecks.  i was always under the impression that although people were in general shorter back then, they would still have had restricted headroom 'tween decks.  These illustrations would appear to show different (and assuming that in the cabins people could walk through a doorway without bending)?

cheers

Pat

Hi Floyd,

Mate, agree the difficulty of seeing the lay-up point especially with lighter coloured thread; with black thread I find I can see the form-up point easier against the polished aluminium but cannot see how well it is laying up.  I have a couple of coloured bits of card (flat finish) I have cut to width and bent into 'U' shapes to place in the top of the channel between the two holes to enable me to see the lay-up point a little more easily.  This is one area I think Jim could make an enhancement    Perhaps adding a magnifying glass with a articulating arm (from a third hand?) may assist.  I have one of those ring lights around a larger magnifying lens type desk-light I have recently started using so I will experiment with that also.

I am assuming you are referring to the friction wheel and not the centre/core line spool feeder.  The idea with the friction wheel is to let the motor and larger diameter whorl plate spin up to speed forming a basic twist in the feed threads before applying friction (by holding it still).  At that point the whorl spools themselvs start to spin and lay up the rope.  If you hold it still from the get-go you may be applying too much pressure to the lines and the motor?  I think Jim may be best placed to answer this though.

cheers

Pat

A lesson I learned with using balsa for filler blocks is to ensure they are sealed when you have finished sanding them to shape; otherwise the planks will not stick to them.  I used a simple 50/50 PVA to water diluton and painted it on.

cheers

Pat

Your build is coming along very nicely Toni, some great joinery there.

cheers

Pat

You're making great progress Greg; she looks good!

I am rebuilding my upper masts at the moment - that'll set me back another month

cheers

Pat

Hi Mark and David, I was simply showing a picture to confirm what Adrieke was trying to name   I agree, some of them are pretty bad, I tossed one and then took a small (certified) engineers square to the shop next time .  I don't use these for squaring.  I have invested in several cheap engineer squares (Indian made) which I check against the precision one.  I have not found one of these not to true yet -  not all cheap stuff is clumsey or imprecise it seems

Someone has posted the following before, but I don't know if it has been caught-up yet?

A quick way to check if the square is true is to draw a baseline on your bench or a piece of paper.  Line up one edge of the square and draw a line down the other edge.  Flip the square horizontally, line up the base edge again and try to have the other edge align with the vertical line just drawn.  Draw another line down this edge and the two should be coincident if square; if it is not, then the degree of imprecision can be easily determined.  Another way is to use a hard straight edge as the baseline (make sure it does not move )

A similar process can be used to determine if a straight edge is actually straight also.

Hope this helps?

cheers

Pat

Apart from the excellent build quality of his machines, the single other quality that sets them apart is his service.  As another example, I purchased one of Jim's earliest ropewalks.  While the build quality was great I rapidly became very frustrated with the quality of the rope it was producing.  We corresponded for some time and Jim was quite patient.  It became evident that trying to sort the problem by email was not going to work out, so Jim asked me to return the machine (at his cost) for him to have a look at.  Now remember I live down under so this was not cheap   In his words " I can't have a customer on the other side of the world unhappy with the product".

It turned out one of the pulley belts had stretched (was too slack) and was causing inconsistent lay up of the rope.  Jim returned the machine to me (again at his cost) and all is working fine now.  Not too many companies would go to that extent!  I have every machine Jim has built and none have let me down yet - that is simple testimony of the quality of his products.

Jim you can pay me later - two crates of beer should do it  - sorry folks being flippent - just a very happy customer!

cheers

Pat

I had forgotten how nice that pear wood looked Gary; thanks for reposting.  It sure highlights your excellent craftsmanship.

cheers

Pat

Hi Sarah, i am slowly getting to read more of the build logs, and I am glad to have found yours.  Some nice work there at the scale you are building to (not familiar with the size of the US cent but I assume the divisions on your cutting board are 1 "?).

cheers

Pat

Lookin good Popeye.  Mate, do you eat, sleep and socialise in the workshop.  Your work pace is almost the same as Danny (is this a special club?)

cheers

Pat

Thanks, sounds like a combination square - that'll work

like this?

cheers

Pat

Thanks for the update Alistair; as other have said, the level of finiosh is very good.  I would also say that having to redo the research on your other projects would be twice as much fun but joking about such a 'painful' experience is not going to improve the situation   I hope you eventually recover from your lost work, but at least the first time around will have provided you with some pointers as to what to follow-up and whatg not too.

cheers

Pat

Nice to see this masterpiece (radar assembly) again mate.  I look forward to your further updates.

cheers

Pat

A good start then mate - the buiding berth is becoming busier.  What technique are you uising to ensure the bulkheads are true upright and perpendicular to the spine?

cheers

Pat