wefalck

I looked at the Vanda-Lay contraption years ago. Essentially it is what watchmakers call a 'rose-cutter' and as I have a set going from 0.4 mm upward, there was no need for me. However, it should not be too dificult to make such rose-cutters yourself. You need to drill a hole of the diameter of the tree-nail into a piece of silver-steel, file the cutting teeth (like saw teeth) and then harden it (heat to a red glow and drop into water, then temper to a straw colour). These cutting teeth should be sharpened/honed at their breath, not at the sloping back.

Thank you very much, Brian, for your kind words ! ******************************************* Steady work, but somehow slow progress ... Anchor stowage and release gear The Inglefield-anchors are stored on sort of recessed slides and released by a traditional form of gear. This gear consists of a rotatable iron bar with a couple of thumbs welded on over which the securing chains are hooked. The chains go around the anchor and the other end is shackled to the wall of the recess. The bar is prevented from rotating by lever that is also welded to it. The lever in turn is locked by a rotating claw at the end of a second lever. I suspected this mechanism from the available drawings, but wasn’t shure about it – a German colleague had better eyes than me an could confirm this indeed on the not very clear photographs. The slide is protected by three T-rails on each from the weight of the heavy anchors. Recessed slide and anchor release gear – close-up photographs are terribly sobering 😞 The release gear was fabricated from 0.3 mm diameter tinned copper wire and assembled using varnish. The rails in turn are fabricated from laser-cut strips of Canson-paper that was soaked in varnish. They also function as bearing for the bar of the release gear. I suspect the bearings were a bit more elaborate on the prototype, but I don’t have more detailed information. The locking claw is also a microscopic laser-cut piece. As usual, I had to experiment with different variants of the drawings and settings of the laser-cutter until I managed to produce reasonably clean parts. Recessed slide with Inglefied-anchor put temporarily in place Also visible on the photographs are the foundations of the anchor-cranes that will be discussed in the next installment. View of the bow with the anchor stowage To be continued ...

MARIUS is a good film. We just bought the DVDs with the whole trilogy.

No Glögg ? 😞 Oh, yes, the planking came out very nicely !

But I believe, neither topping-lifts nor the boom-tackles would be belayed on the boom itself ?

Very nice effect of the pigment. Should have done this on my botter sails too, they were kind of rather delicate. If you spray acrylics in thin layers on paper, so that the paint dries immediately, there is little risk to disturb the paper. I have done this on several occasions.

On the large Arab-lateen rigged boats of the Arab-seas there were no shrouds, only the halliard for the antenna. Arab and Indian seamen would 'shinny' (as John expressed himself) up the antenna to put in reefs. The rule was 'One hand for me - one hand for thee (the shipowner)' ... Dana's book is always a good non-fictional read of sailing-ship practice around the middle of the 19th century and the hard-ship the men had to endure.

Me also missed this interesting project so far. Building clinker boats has always fascinated me. To date, I have only one small-scale specimen (downscaled from the paper model in Eric McKee's 1979 brochure on clinker planking) to my record. Will be watching this now with interest.

Interesting project ... Normally, stainless is softer than other types of steel used for scews, as the alloying elements interfere with the hardening process.

I have been working with brown Canson-paper, which highly calandered, but only lightly bonded paper of 0.13 mm (=0.01") thickness. I cannot adjust the speed, only pulse length and energy, and there is no vector-cutting option. There is some charring, but it comes off quite well. Here is an example of what I am getting: The anchors are 11 mm (= 7/16") long. I manage to cut down to about 2/100" widths, sometimes less, depends on the orientation of the part with respect to the axes of the machine. Assembled anchors: I have been looking for some material that is bonded, but still can be easily laser-cut, hence my interest in the PolyBak. I normally soak the Canson-paper in shellac after cutting.

Thanks. I figured indeed from the Richwood Web-site that different qualities (densities) come in different colours and different thicknesses. What laser power did you use ? I found that most bonded materials don't seem to cut very well with my little 6W laster, presumably because the resin etc. needs more energy to evaporate/char. The problem is to find an equivalent brand over here in Europe, though obviously there are similar applications, such as the backing of laminated woods.

Where these parts actually laser-cut /-engraved ? What PolyBak(?) thickness did you use and what laser power ?

Agreement or not, the fact is that some fairly big vessels did not have ratlines. On this kind of vessels sails and yards set flying were operated from the deck.

I really would like to know what it actually is, so that one can look for alternative brands ...

Nice, clean work ! I never seen belaying pins on booms, I think, only cleats. Interesting. What goes onto the pins, the clew outhauls or the flag halliards ?

I don't think that boiler feed-water from the condensers would be be fit for drinking considering even that seamen at that time were less picky then we are today. To my knowledge distillation apparatus were installed on such ships from around the 1860s on. I seem to remember that there is a drawing of such apparatus in the Danish Naval Yard archives, but I could not find it in my files right now. How did you make the pump, looks quite tiny.

I understand that point. On the other hand, the dedicated fora, such as MSW, open up the way to obtain informations and directions that in those dark pre-Internet ages would have not be so easy to come by. With this one can improve on kits, if necessary. This should give much more satisfaction at the end. There are many examples here on MSW, where people made magnificent and historically quite correct models out of the kit material. Why don't you rephrase your question and re-post it to attract the attention of people who have more specific knowledge of HMS BOUNTY ? You could ask in the title of the post something like "How were the yards of HMS BOUNTY constructed ?". The answer may well be that they were hexagonal in the middle ...

I think what we meant, was whether you checked against historical sources or reference books based on historical sources. Interpretations of kit-makers are often not very reliable and dictated by kit-production convenience.

Somehow I missed this building log so far ...

Where did you double-check ? And what kind of ship are you working on ?

I said this before, but it may help sorting out one's mind: there are basically two types of models or two types of intentions. One type is the artesanal type, where you try to show of your skills in the various trades, woodworking and/or metalworking, and this case (your) aethetics are the guiding principle. The other type is a model that tries to represent the ship as it actually might have looked like. The latter most likely does not show any untreated wood visible and historical correctness (as fas as we can know) would be important. In the former type historical correctness in detail, but not appearance could also be considered important. These, of course, are extremes, and there may be transitions between the types.

Thank you very much and Merry Christmas to all the others too !

The frames look pretty massive ... they must cut down some decent trees for them.

A systematic approach always helps !

I think the model in the link above is one I seem to remember, not the 'seaman's' style one.