Jaager

Paul is dead on about the MicroMark 5 inch disk sander. It is the one that I have and it is noisy and the RPM are too high. I slow it down a bit with an old Dremel Solid State speed control - from before Dremel rotary machines had on board speed controls - but the loss of torque follows a curve function instead of a straight line so it does not slow down all that much. I only work with wood so the speed is acceptable. It does run true though. One addition I made was to use cardboard from a box to enclose all three sides of the underside of the table and behind the disk and insert a crevice tool thru a slot to vac the copious dust produced. A simple port under the table is not as efficient. I also agree about the tilt function for a spindle sander being an essentially useless feature. Frame bevels follow a continuous change and free hand is about the only way to shape them. I can see no utility for the up/down oscillation function though. Harbor Freight has a 4 inch belt sander (I ignore the disk part) back on sale for $60 - but Paul is also correct about real estate needed and it being useless for inside curves. With 60 grit medium - it will eat thru wood fairly fast. The combo sander with a 1 inch belt and disk would be of questionable utility if it were $10.

Here is another "denken experimenten" (thought experiment): After the lines are taut - What would be the long term effect of treating them with a liquid that hardens - making them stiff? I am not sure what it would be - it would need to have a flat finish, not promote (and inhibit if possible) oxidation. An alternative would be to have the central core of the line be a thin copper or brass wire. Natural vegetable fiber is going to react to changes in heat and humidity as well as undergo some relaxation of friction at the micro level of the fibers. Synthetic substitutes would also be subject to oxidation as well as continuation of the original polymerization reaction that produced it - the rate may be much slower but the "plastic" characteristic will become more rigid and brittle over time. So these are not really superior to traditional fibers.

To answer your question about the vac pipe - doing it now would be easiest. If you do not ultimately install a remote central vac, all you will be out is the fee for the time it takes the carpenter to drill the holes and the cost of the plastic pipe and cement. I would use at least 2.5" if not 4" pipe. Run the pipe to three locations: the wall with the window and each of the walls perpendicular to that wall. There will be several "T" connectors and right angle units involved but again, now is simple, after it is finished, it can get ugly to retro fit. Run some 12 G Romex along with the pipe. That will make easy to supplement your power needs in the future.

1. From my research lab days : bench space, bench space, bench space -- you can never have enough bench space. Three walls and you have space for 3 benches. Have one higher than desk height. Inexpensive flush interior doors - make good bench tops - glue on a plastic/vinyl surface. They come in variety of widths. The deeper - the better you will like it. Cheap cabinet units and 2 drawer file cabinets make good bench top supports. The tools you have will produce a LOT of dust. 2. If you can manage it - have the vac as far away ( and outside if possible ) I have no experience with Festool - but everything else is noisy. I have to use occlusive head phone type protectors. You can have ABS piping in the ceiling going to the vac. One of the guys here has photos of his setup with the solid vac pipes - with shut off valves since he has exhaust dedicated to each machine. 3. A cyclone trap in line will save you from having to clean the vac filter very often. You will probably be glad you did, if you get a vac that is more powerful than you think you will need. 4. You can never have enough light. 5. Lots of shelves - high up on the walls.

Too late, but a stress free and precise way to drill the holes: For small subjects, temp bond the piece to a base, mark/start the holes with a very sharp awl and drill the holes with a drill press. It avoids the twitch problem with free hand drilling as well as doing the hole perpendicular. I find that the bits want to dance on the surface, and the awl produced pit avoids that.

Mike, Swiss Pear is not a variety of pear. Pyrus communis is the common European Pear. It is used as root stock for fruit pear varieties? The tree itself does not produce desirable fruit but is a horticultural specimen? If the wood is steamed, it turns a uniform pink. This treatment is the "Swiss" part. I believe that the wood from any type of pear - Asian or European is excellent for any part of a wooden ship model: from keel and frames to spars. If your stock did not split and check into useless fragments as it dried or bark beetles did not mine it out , you may come to regret shortening the pieces. Most any pear wood has a color that looks good as keel, frames and planking. It is hard, tight grained, does not easily split if you carve against the grain - and seems almost ivory-like in consistency. When I posted earlier about Bradford Pear not having tight grain, that was the wrong term, what I meant was that the tree grows rapidly - so the bands of Spring and Summer woods are wide. For some parts it is possible to have what shows be grain free - all of one season. I have a bit of Boxwood from an old hedge that had grown very slowly. The rings are very narrow and very close together.

The grain looks bold and distinctive. I am thinking that it would not scale all that well and could distract from the actual model it would be used on. It may make an interesting base for a display cabinet. It is hard enough to be used for structures that would be hidden or if it is closed pore - painted. It contains a toxin, so you may wish to avoid burning it -if the combustion products can enter your breathing space.

The original Model Shipways had a catalog with methods included. One of them was to attach copper plates to a hull using Weldwood contact cement. They also suggested heating the plates in a flame to give each plate a different shade and remove the new penny look. I did both to the hull of the schooner Eagle. The look was attractive to me. Then... after several years the plates began to fall off. The wood behind the copper was copper colored. I do not know if it was the copper or the oxidized layer that caused the bond failure. I will not do that again though. If I were of a mind to try that again, I would use a clear thin epoxy - as much of a PITA - doing that much epoxy would be. It is definitely more involved than fixing eye bolts and such. My current thinking is to use 100% rag bond dissertation paper, sealed and painted with actual copper paint and attached with PVA. Then do the verdigris reaction step. The adhesive backed foil looks much easier, but I do not trust the long term bond and it can't be heated because of the adhesive.

The components of the wood are not soluble in water. The function of water in bending wood is: to transfer heat more efficiently to retain the heat longer to inhibit the cooking or charring of the surface of the wood where the heat is applied. With thin wood, the difference in heat transfer with and minus water may not be significant. The balance is to apply enough heat to liquefy the lignin without oxidizing the wood. The negative effect of water is that it swells the wood fibers and leaves a previously sanded surface uneven. Most of the time, this swelling effect only occurs with the first exposure to water, if water is applied, allowed to dry and then sanded - subsequent water usually does not swell the wood any further. To readdress a subject of folklore: aqueous/household ammonia does not help in bending - other than what the water it is in does. The ammonia part only has negative effects. It takes liquid ( anhydrous ) ammonia to debond lignin for bending. This is an industrial chemical: even if a civilian could obtain it - that would be a really bad idea.

I believe that the swabs are 70% Isopropyl OH. That is the concentration that is most harmful to bacteria. The 91% probably works better for cooling and as an after shave- if you are a nonsmoker and do not need perfume. I predict that the cost per volume will weigh heavily against the swabs. If removing the top layer of the planks does not work out, you could always drop back and punt: Stop by Wood Craft - get a packet or two of thin veneer with an appropriate grain and cover the soiled planking with a new layer. If you choose Maple,Birch,or Beech, it can be dyed or stained and sealed before it is attached. Just protect the glue surface side with masking tape or painters tape during the stain and seal steps, not necessary if you dye. The veneer - you should be able to cut with scissors and a metal straight edge and #11 blade.

Barlett pear is a variety of eatable pear. It is actually a variety of Pyrus communis - the tree that is the source of what is called Swiss Pear. Swiss Pear is not a tree name or growth location, it means that the wood has been steamed. I believe this oxidizes the polyphenols in the wood - in any case - it turns the wood into a relatively uniform pinkish color. Bradford Pear is a cousin that is a horticultural specimen. It does not produce significant fruit, but it is urban hardy, attractive flowers and grows relatively fast. Was or still is popular as a street tree. It has one unfortunate characteristic - the branches leave the trunk at an acute angle - rather than horizontal. The more vertical form looks good and is predictable from design point of view. The problem is that when the larger trees experience wind storms, the branches peal like banana skins. A good way for us to get a lot of sizable lumber stock. The other part - if you self harvest it - because of the branch angle, it is difficult to get much stock with right angle grain for knees or breast hooks. Actually, I think most any species of Pear would produce excellent wood for our purposes, the problem is obtaining it.

Dogwood I have. A relative owns a tree farm in Caroline Co. and I have Dogwood and Holly from there. The Holly has a yellowish tinge so even if there was interest in marketing that difficult species, the available strain does not seem to be a desired one. For me, even the billets that have Blue Mold should be usable, since the pure white version is not really appropriate for any ship timber. The Dogwood was about as large as that species gets, so my billets are fairly large. Not large enough for frame timbers at 1:48 or 1:60 scale, but I could use it for most any other part. I am not sure that Crab Apple is all that different from regular Apple wood. One species that may be surprisingly useful is Bradford Pear. It has anything but fine tight grain, but it is much harder than Black Cherry to carve, does not want to split, and has a wax-like nature to it.

Before the Dockyard tools - the suggestions involved making your own from steel rod or knitting needles. Amazon sells packs of steel rods - some quite small. The heating and blacksmithing and grinding edges onto rods as well as Rockwell scale tempering and quenching is getting into a whole new set of skills. Dockyard did most of that for us, but if they are gone, the tools can be home made. As far as wood - I have my eye on genuine Boxwood and Dogwood. One that I not been able to source is Hawthorn. There is a material that flashed in our world a while ago, but did not take for some reason: an ivory substitute - Targa Nut.

I checked our hermit crab - Mondfeld - and he does not seem to have this. One of the oldest sources - Furttenbach - has an early anchor and a "D" shaped component, but the two are not related directly and exactly where the "D" goes is not illustrated. A possible way. Make a mock up of the bow area of a vessel of the era and use the published dimensions of a D block to make one and try various locations for it pulling up a model anchor. Whatever works for you has a good chance of being right - or it may at least stir the pot. You could also see if anyone in the Nautical Archeology department at Texas A&M has any data.

CAD - Computer Aided Design - I have tended to focus on the design factor after not being able to find a way to extract frame timber outlines after inputting Waterlines - and Buttock lines. I think that this would be possible but time costly using a vertex or NURBS modeling program. My Ultimate is to use A Deane instructions and recreate his Royal Charles ~ 1673. CAD seems to be the way to do that. But I suspect that I would be starting too late to be able to finish. But, otherwise, I am using existing plans. Vessels that have already been designed - a long time ago. I find a drawing program to be more useful. I have found a way to avoid having to loft individual frames to do POF. A drawing program gets me there and I only use a small fraction of the program tools. The important part is that it allow large files with a ton of layers and not crash. You do not really need to learn more that a limited number of functions. The bulk of the tools deal with painting and photo manipulation and color distortion - none of which are relevant to our needs.

If you do as much as possible in CAD and save that in PNG or 100% JPEG in as many different parts as you need, the files when opened and compiled as layers in a drawing program like PaintShop Pro or Gimp will do as you wish. To remove the white background, select it with the wand tool and Cut the selection. Duplicate the layer before you do this and work on the copy - in case. Use CAD as a preliminary tool rather than the main one.

I only use mine for model work also. I just have to shape frames and cut bevels in fairly thick stock. Even at 1:60 Commerce de Marseille has timbers that are 1/4" thick and sanding a station of them is over 2 inches of Hard Maple. That needs an adequate motor. 60 grit paper does not take too long to remove the bulk. When I do the sanding, I tend to go in batches, so a session can go for a couple of hours, which does heat a motor.

I would think that the designed unit that is the subject of this thread : is under powered. could over heat unless better ventilation is allowed. does not offer a large enough surface for sanding - especially for changing bevels on frames. I have built two drum sanding tables. The spindle sanders I checked use drum with sleeve sanding media. I dislike being tied to using disposable media that is expensive and has limited sources. When I found sleeveless drums at Peachtree that use 9 x 11 sheet sandpaper I built to use them. The variety od sizes is good. At one end is a 3" dia. that is 6 inches high and the other is 1/2" dia that is 3 inches high. To get down to 1/2" - the rubber layer making it 3/4" is removed. The first unit had a 1/20 HP motor 1700 rpm but the shaft is 5/16". All but the two smallest drums have 1/2" sockets. Then the two small drums had 1/4" sockets. Now, they seem to have changed manufacturers and the two small ones now also have 1/2" sockets. I had to drill and turn adapters from cold rolled steel rod. That is messy and requires an involved cleanup to remove the steel turnings from the lathe. The 1/20 HP motor did not have enough power to mount the 6 inch drum and was weak in removal with the others. I thought I might get the motor that Jim Byrnes uses for his sander but it turns out to be a 3500 rpm motor pullyed down to 1700 rpm. I did learn about two pole motors from the exercise. I bought a 1/3 hp 1700 rpm motor from Grainger that has a closed fan internal cooling component and ball bearing mounts for the shaft. Good bearings and ventilation for cooling is important. It is also best to develop a design that keeps saw dust out of the motor - which is a challenge when the motor is under the drum. The motor has a 1/2 shaft so all of the drums will mount directly ti it. The motor is two pole, so I wired it to a drum switch so that the drums can rotate CW or CCW. With a 1/2" shaft, I also mount burr cutters and micro planers - but with a threaded mount , reverse rotation does not work so well. The commercial spindle sanders that I have looked at appear to have a proprietary method to mount their drums that limits their versatility. The belt sanding attachment on the Rigid model looked interesting, but when Harbor Freight had a stand alone 4 x 36 unit on sale for $60, I calculated it was easier and cheaper than trying to adapt that ability to my unit.

Does the tool have a fan that exhausts air from the port? The manufacturer may have a site and post an IPL for the tool. You could try to find a disposable bag for a vac cleaner that is small enough and has a opening close to the port in size and use a pipe clamp or a cable tie to hold it on.

If you are building in a style that requires a dead flat surface - a piece of thick safety glass with beveled edges makes for a useful surface. I also cover my plywood surfaces with a layer to two of white butcher paper. Helps with light and is handy to do calculations on.

I introduced myself to one property of sulfuric acid inadvertently. It is intensely hygroscopic. That is - it readily combines with water. It takes a lot of energy to remove the water, so when it does combine with water it gives back that energy as heat. On your skin, it feels like a jet of live steam has hit it. Adding water to acid, the water instantly turns to steam and blows out of the liquid - taking some of the liquid with it. I have never added water to acid, but I did discover that reagent sulfuric acid is thick and does not pour like water. It tends to come back down the surface of the container it is poured from. Pouring it from a beaker with your thumb on the bottom of the beaker is really not a good way to do it.

There was one step that did not seem to be presented: Any sharpening would occur due to the acid dissolving an even layer of iron on the file. So the acid must have access to the surface of the metal. Any wax, grease, or oil on the surface could occlude the water from the metal. A pre-cleaning with detergent, water rinse and mineral spirit tx would give a fresh iron surface. The mineral acids discussed can be potentially dangerous and a problem to discard. I am wondering ( as a denken experiment ) if electrolysis would not be a safer method? The file could be wired as the donor and a copper rod to accept. I can't recall ever seeing iron being used to plate another metal, but it should behave as any other metal. The slightly salty water medium should be no problem to discard. I have not looked it up, but I think that since Fe has a positive charge, the copper rod should get the negative charge.

How far are you with HMS Beagle? Since there are no NMM plans specific to Beagle - except the frame construction sheet, I am thinking that the kit is for the 10 gun brig class - taken from Cherokee - Rolla - or another sister. In the refit for the 1831 voyage - the deck heights were changed - the stern altered - a mizzen mast added - AND - if you look at Marquardt, the frame diagram - while all other station timbers were 9" and the space 4" - in section 0 - B - the timbers are 10" and the space 6". On an original build, this would make no sense. If, however, they wanted to lengthen the ship for the voyage, placing a new section amidships would be the way. I am thinking that Marquardt fit 3 is 68" longer than the kit hull. If you have not started, you can patch in an additional mold in the 0 space - just duplicate the dead flat mold. The deck gear should fit better. If you raise the bulwarks and decks , you could mimic the 1831 version by doing it the way the ship yard did.

Looking up what this is: a 20th C. steel warship at a large scale for this type of vessel - A warship has been the most complicated example of technology of its culture for at least 500 years. It incorporates just about everything the technology can build.. All other types of plastic model subjects would rate as a sub-assembly on a warship. What you are doing is all about the detail. You pretty much need to be obsessed and inspired to do it correctly. Unless you are doing this for pay, you don't need to endure the agony if you are not driven to do it. You could work different skills and try a wooden cutter or pilot schooner and see if the inspiration comes back later.

The ocean being unforgiving - rules were developed for wooden ship construction. Very little if anything was left up to chance. from: American Shipmasters' Assocciation - "Record" a set of rules for the insurance companies. also called the "American Lloyd's". My guess is that much if not all was from Lloyd's of London rules. These rules were probably developed " on the job" from about 1550 on. Deck plank .....No butts of adjoining plank should be nearer each other than the space of two beams ( when a strake intervenes the space of one beam will be allowed). No butts should meet on the same beam, unless there be three strakes between them. These are minimum standards. Quality yards may have had four strakes. Using long planks would help.