SJSoane

David, nice idea about checking with the dead center. That would be much faster than my approach. I'll try that on the final 14 front axles today. Michael, you are a master machinist, including holding to tolerances I can only imagine doing; I look forward to your thoughts. Mark

Siggi, You know, I never thought to look behind Mars; all of our lost pieces might be hiding there! Mark

HI Gary, Thanks, that is very helpful. Those metal parts are very impressive! I am still struggling a little with casting the guns, and so then it is a nice break from that to work with another set of challenges, the small metal pieces. I look forward to seeing your progress on the Alfred when you can break free from work. Mark

I finished up the rear axles and trucks, except for drilling the retaining pins and rear eyebolt. I learned something interesting about much repetitive use of the four jaw chuck. I assumed that as long as I loosened and tightened the same adjacent jaws when changing blanks, the setting would always hold. But over time, the setting slipped and the cylinder was no longer centered. I had to throw away a number of pieces after I realized what had happened. So I had to check every five or so and readjust. Does anyone know a trick for tightening and loosening a four jaw chuck to keep the settings over a large number of pieces? I had backed off one side while tightening the opposite to center the piece, but then I tightened both towards the center before cutting. After time, one of the jaws definitely felt like it was backing off. I wonder if I should have left one backed off, opposite the one I tightened and loosened while changing blanks? Mark

Druxey, so that explains why neither neither rubbing sticks nor peddling got me very far....;-) Greg, thanks for the Nobel prize. It is still a little fiddly to renew the double sided tape on the end of the small stabilizer piece of wood every 6 cuts or so, but it reliably keeps the cutoff on the table and out of the way of the sawblade after the cut. I once got lazy and did not renew it even when it was no longer sticking, and sure enough the snake on the wall ate my flying piece. I wonder what archaeologists in the distant future will make of all of the tiny abandoned machined pieces found lying around in the remains of our houses. I purchased the lathe depth stop from a small firm in Denver. It works really well. I also bought the additional end pieces, so I could stop very small parts. You can find it at: http://www.a2zcorp.us/store/category.asp?Cguid={E7EADB42-05AE-43E9-965E-4A4011A47E6A}&Category=LatheDepthStop:Sherline Best wishes, Mark

Doris, beautiful, beautiful work! Mark

Gaetan, Gorgeous, spectacular craftsmanship by you and spectacular French design by the shipwrights! Mark

Hi everyone, I purchased something to melt my pewter; will try tomorrow and see what happens. Druxey, I wasn't peddling, I was rubbing sticks together very vigorously... Meanwhile, I kept working on carriages. I learned a few helpful techniques. The photos of the saw sled are showing how I have a flip-up stop to cut each truck to the same width. The stop has to flip up after setting the blank against it, so the cut off part doesn't bind against the sawblade after it is cut. But the parts fly away if not retained in some way. I finally hit on putting double sided tape on another small piece of wood; I push this up against the blank after flipping up the stop and just before cutting. When cut, both the truck and the small piece of wood gently slide aside, but don't fly. Ignore the snake on the wall in the background in the 3rd photo; it has nothing to do with where the loose pieces fly, I keep telling myself.... The photos of the lathe are showing a nifty setup for cutting the rear axles. The cylinder is centered in a rectangular but not square blank, and so a four jaw chuck is needed to hold the blank. Rather than trial and error getting the center of the cylinder aligned with the center of the lathe, I set it up with a dial indicator. I used the Sherline quick change tool post boring head holder, to mount my dial indicator to the Y table. I could then swing the opposite sides of each side of the blank towards the indicator, measure the discrepancy between the two sides, and then dial in the jaws until they were equally distant from the center of the lathe. The last image is showing an A2ZCorp attachment for the Sherline. A shaft goes through the center of the lathe head, forming a stop so that each blank can be inserted exactly the same distance into the chuck for repetitive cutting. All for now; thinking about melting pewter tomorrow at last. Mark

Thanks, Ed, this is very helpful. I think it might be the hotplate. I "borrowed" my wife's hotplate that looks like something from the 60s.....

Siggi, The color scheme is coming along nicely, as you add more detail. Very nice! Mark

HI Ed, I never realized that the cabins on deck also had coamings to seal water. Obvious, once you point it out, but not obvious before then! Your project continues to instruct at all levels! Mark

Hi druxey, I have restrictions on fuel tanks in my workplace, and can use only butane. I can probably wait for the summer when I could do this outdoors, but I am getting impatient to see if the mould works! I learned more today about why this is proving challenging. I purchased the pewter from a local jewelry supply house, and found out today that it consists of 92% tin and 2% antinomy. It's melting point is 525-650 degrees which is why my hot plate did not even come close to melting this. I just re-read the information about the rubber mould material, and it says that unusually hot materials will degrade the mould more quickly. So I am starting to think that I need to find another supply of metal that will melt at a lower temperature, easing the degradation of the mould and perhaps melting on the hot plate as Ed suggested. Druxey, do you know if trying resin in my mould to see how it works, will make subsequent pouring of metal in the same mould more difficult? Ah, the fun of learning new skills! Mark

Hi everyone, I have been working away slowly at the cannon and carriages. I successfully made the mould for the cannon, but have failed so far in my efforts to melt the pewter. I tried melting it on a hot plate, with no success, and am now looking at lead melting furnaces (having a propane torch is not an option for me). Does anyone have experience with a melting furnace? So in the meantime, I continue to make parts for the carriages. 28 guns on the gundeck has an entirely new meaning, as I make all of the parts. One construction method of note: I was not able to cut off trucks from the blank by using the parting tool on the lathe, because it was too flexible. So I moved to the tablesaw with the sliding table and a flip-down stop, which allows me to cut each on at the exact same width. I had to stick the blank to a square extension with double sided tape, so I could cut trucks off all the way to the end of the blank. Mark

hi Siggi, That model of the Royal George convinces me. I will follow you and paint carriage and wheels the same. Thanks! Mark

Gaetan, the carving are magnificent! Mark

Hi Gary, Thanks for re-posting those images. They are invaluable! Can you remember how you did the pins holding the trucks on the axles? And how you did the caplocks holding down the cannon to the carriage? These details are beginning to attract my attention, and yours look great! Best wishes, Mark

Yes, Mark P, I would also like to see a build log as you develop your 74! Mine is a little earlier than both your's and Alan's, and it is always fun to see the similarities and differences. Mark

Hi Siggi, I am starting to think about how to paint my gun carriages, and thinking about whether I should paint the wheels or leave them natural. I see you painted both the carriage and the wheels, and it looks quite good. Did you see some contemporary models with the wheels colored, or did you just decide to do this because it looks good? Best wishes, Mark

Hi Gary, I was also looking back at your section on your gun carriages for good advice around page 10, and the images are not showing up. Does a moderator need to look at this? Mark

Hi Ed, That staircase is downright architectural! Looks great. Mark

Siggi, Your study shows without a doubt that the men lived very, very closely with the guns, the main purpose of their activities! Have you made a paper layout of the table and benches in the center? It would be interesting to see how much space is between the back of the benches and the guns. Mark

Siggi, You are certainly finding the complications many steps ahead of me! My first thought is that the cabin panels would be removed during a battle, so the clearance when the guns are run inboard would not matter, assuming the pantry panels would have been removed. So then there is the problem of when the guns are stowed as druxey described, and the third gun from the stern is mostly blocking the door to the cabin. I seem to recall that the Bellona/Dragon drawings show the doors swinging forward, not astern, and so the outer door of each pair would indeed hit the gun. Could it be that only the inner door of the two would be used, leaving the outer door for decoration (like many french doors on houses, one uses one while leaving the other closed)? And then the final puzzle is the short distance between the two sternmost guns. It does not look like a lot of room for recoil if they had to fire both broadsides at once! I think I read somewhere that the shorter guns were used one deck up, but druxey's question is worth looking into. Something does not quite fit here! Best wishes, Mark

Here is another online version. It is clumsy to click on the main menu to move around, but everything seems to be there, including the scanned images of the pages listing all rigging for different ship sizes. http://www.maritime.org/doc/steel/index.htm Mark

HI Ed, I don't know the ins and outs of the historical evolution of paint, so I defer to other's insights on this. Having said that, the gloss look is very striking, and helps convey the feeling of a sleek greyhound of a hull. Nicely done! Mark

Hi everyone, While waiting for my newer MicroMark RTV rubber, I started on the carriages. I used double sided tape to hold the blanks onto the mill table, and milled them to shape including the rabbets for the axles. I then cut the individual blanks on the table saw, with the mitre set to 2 degrees on each side for the correct convergence of the carriage. I am also showing a jig for cutting the curved lower edge, using a piloted bit on my router table. Best wishes, Mark