wefalck

Are the sides etched or sawn out ? Looking good anyway !

I think they were rather gunmetal (a kind of bronze) or bronze. Although there were surely enough guys to keep them bright on top, they would still rust underneath and begin to discolour the deck planks (kind of chromatography effect). Painting them doesn't make much sense, as the rollers of the guns would peel the paint off quite quickly. I seem to remember that the tracks on HMS WARRIOR were some kind of bronce.

I think that at least since the middle of the 18th century they were made from forged iron.

Ad Q1: my gut feeling is that the stops would be perpendicular to the masts. It will always be a compromise and if you look at it from the front, you may see and equal bent for the shrouds and backstays. There are (at least today) rules for minimum radii through which wire rope should be bent, so that it does not split open and loose strength. The parcelling and worming would to some degree counteracting the splitting of the rope. Ad Q2/3: Perhaps one should draw a parallelogram of the (static) forces that act on the different parts. That gives you some idea for where the strenght needs to be and where there is a risk of splitting the wood. When the downward force of the topmast pushes at an angle against the cross-pieces on which the fid is resting, this means that the force that would tend to push forward the heel of the topmast needs to be counteracted somehow. Either there needs to be a notch in the member on which the fid rests, or there needs to be some kind of wedge between the heel and the forward cross-piece. If the fid had a round bottom, rather being square, and the trestletree had a corresponding round notch, this would make it probably less likely that the upper part of the trestletree splits away, compared to the a square bottom and square notch.

Pat, I out something together on these tools: Staking and jewel-setting tools In watch- and clockmaking connections between parts are frequently effected by processes that broadly fall into the category of rivetting, i.e. the mechanical deformation of a part in order to effect its locking with one or more other parts. Watchmakers use for this process a tool that is called staking or rivetting tool. It consists of a body shaped a bit like a pillar drill. It has the purpose of guiding the rivetting punches or stakes absolutely perpendicular to the plane of the anvil underneath it. This tool can be used for all sorts of rivetting, punching, pushing-in, pushing-out and similar operations. To this end a set is equipped with a wide variety of flat, domed, concave, hollow and other, specialised punches. There are also varies types of anvils, flat, domed, with notches for watchwheels and –hands, etc. The anvils fit into a rotating plate and can be centred with a pointed punch under the guiding bore for the punches. The rotating plate has also a set of holes (or dies) that are mainly used to support wheels, while the arbors are being pushed out. There were/are various manufacturers for these tools in Europe and the USA (and I guess now also in China and India). Notable brands are Boley and K&D. The sets were made with different ranges of punches and anvils. Mine shown in the picture is one of the bigger sets. About 25 years ago it set me back the equivalent of 250€, if I remember correctly. Related to the staking tool is the jewel-setting tool. In fact, some manufacturers offered jewel-setting attachments for their staking tools, but these are rare today and to tend to fetch high prices on the second-hand market. In order to reduce friction the hardened steel axels in a watch are set into bearings made from hard semi-precious minerals, the ‘stone’, ‘rubies’ or ’jewels’. The jewels in turn are set into the watchplate and locked into place by friction only or by a light rivetting, i.e. closing-in the metal around the jewel with a pointed hollow punch. Incidentally, the same technique is used to lock watch wheels and pinions onto their axles. The ‘jewels’ are made by specialised companies to standard sizes and tools to make the respective holes in the watchplate are made to the required tolerances. The ‘setting’ of jewels has to be done with great care to ensure that their axes are exactly perpendicular to the watchplate. They are rather brittle, so one has to make sure that no pressure is applied to them once they reached the bottom of the hole into which they are set. To achieve this the jewelling or stone-setting tool was developed. Like the staking tool, this comprises a guide for the punch and a seat for anvils. However, the runner for the punches is fitted with an micrometer stop, preventing the punches from being pushed down too far. The punches in this case are actually inserts for the runner. The body is usually die-cast zinc, rather than steel, as not much force needs to be applied during the jewelling operation. Perhaps the best-know manufacturer is Seitz. Normally, complete jewelling tools with punches, reamers for the holes, anvils etc. are rather expensive. Some years ago I acquired cheaply just the basic body of a Seitz tool with the runner, but without all the attachments. The idea was to use it as a light press to allow e.g. squashing wire to a predetermined thickness with the help of the micrometer stop. The target thickness can be set with the help of feeler-gauges or pieces of wire. Over the years I made various punches and anvils for particular forming purposes. When making the brake-handles above, I should have used this tool, but was too lazy to turn up a 0.8 mm insert punch. Overall, I think these are quite useful tools for the modeller, although I have been using so far only a small number of the many punches provided in the staking set, but one never knows what task comes along.

Thanks to all for your kind words ! @mtaylor, I probably could have made the gear really working, after all, it is about the size of a ladies' wristwatch, but making the propper gear-cutters would have been very time consuming @Bedford, I am not sure, I understand what you describe there. I think, there was a reduction gear-train on the inside of the upper carriage with a ratio that made the indicator disc do perhaps one revolution for the elevating range of about -5° to +20°. It was fed somehow by the elevating mechanism. The disc would have had engraved the different ranges with different charges for the different elevations and different projectiles (solid armour-piercing shot and granates), being some sort of simple circular calculator.

Thanks again, gentlemen ! *************************** Completing the upper carriage 2 Owing to the lurking second Corona-wafe we cut our stay in Spain short and returned to Paris early in order not to get stuck at the border. The government were indeed pondering a renewed closure. Whether Paris was the better choice remains to be seen, as case numbers are soaring here too. At least I have my workshop here and I was able to spend some holiday time in it. It continues to frustrate how little I have to show for a few hours of toiling in the workshop, but I keep telling myself that I am single fighter, while in real life large shipyard crews from various specialist trades would have worked on such a project ... The gear segment for the elevating mechanism of the barrel was produced by turning a short piece of aluminium pipe that I happened to have in stock to the correct inside and outside diameter. The teeth then were cut on the micro milling-machine using the dividing head in a horizontal position. Then slots were sawn at the angular distance required and then a slice of the required thickness parted off. The ends of the segments were finally filed to shape. I did not take pictures of this process. Aluminium is a bit bright, but I will at the end tone it down with a soft pencil and it will also dull with age. Below one of the sections of the gear segments for the elevating mechanism For the brackets with which the gear segment was attached to the reenforcement ring of the gun barrel a piece of brass rod was turned out to the correct inside diameter. On the mikro-mill with the dividing attachment in upright position the other faces were milled to shape. Finally, the individual bracket were sawn off with a circular saw at the correct thickness. The parts, which are just over 1 mm long, were chemically tinned to adapt them somewhat to the steel colour of the barrel. As they will not have to withstand any mechanical forces, they were glued to the reenforcement ring with zapon lacquer. Indicator disc for the elevating mechanism on the instruction model in Copenhagen There were still a few details missing on the upper carriage, for instance the indicator disc for the elevating mechanism. How this indicator is coupled to the elevating mechanism I was not able to find out. It is not shown on the drawings, it is not visible on the model in Copenhagen, and the respective parts are missing from the guns in the Suomenlinna fortress. There was probably a gear train on the inside of the carriage. For this indicator disc a piece of 2 mm brass rod was faced off and a mock gradation engraved with a toolbit turned onto its side in 6° steps. There is a steel indictor lever (the function of which is not clear to me, either the disc turned or this lever, probably the former). For this a steel disc was turned with a short arbor and transferred to the micro-mill, where the shape of the lever was milled out. This indicator disc seems to have been fitted only to the starbord side of the carriage. Engraving the indicator disc for the elevating mechanism on the lathe Furthermore the brake-handels for the elevating mechanism were missing. A short piece of 0.25 mm diametre copper wire was flattend in the middle with a 0.8 mm diametre punch in the watchmaker’s staking tool. The resulting round flat part was soldered to a short distancing bushing and turned cap glued on from the other side. The elevanting gear provisionally assembled To be continued ...

There is always the risk to over-engineer things, which is alright, if you have large enough precision machinery, to produce all the parts with critical dimensions to the right tolerances. Otherwise it is good design practice to try to limit the number of critical dimensions, even, if the design in the end looks less sophisticated. Guess, how I know this ... Having a stage moving up and down perfectly square to the sanding drum is a manufacturing challenge. With four pillars there are two many degrees of freedom that need to be controlled, particularly, because they are not completely free, but connected by the gearing mechanism. The simplest DIY designs for a drum sander involve a hinged plate, angle of which is adjusted by a simple elevating screw. The angle under the sanding drum determines the clearance and hence the thickness of the material that comes out at the other end. The only critical dimension is that the axis of rotation of the hinged plate is absolutely parallel to the axis of the sanding drum. This can be controlled by having common brackets for both, one on each side, that are drilled as a parcel, tightly clamped together.

OK, the fishermen were/are tough guys, but how would they have man-handled a 140 lb anchor, an anchor of almost the weight of a man ?

The position of the wheels should be quite well defined by the swing-arms. Perhaps it would be a good idea to drill them through at the car end and pin them to the chassis ... one could make them even working by replacing the plastic spring cylinders with lengths of brass tubing with real springs inside

Some more clutter and dirt around it ?

Gratulations to the completion ! I noticed two things that may have to do with the design of the kit: - the 2CV didn't have an actual dashboard; there was a sort of open 'glove-shelf' stretching across the whole width of the car; close to the box with the speedometer and by the side of the steering wheel the characteristic gear-shifting stick was sticking our near horizontally, with a crooked handle and a ball at the end - the umbrella stick - this seems to have been missing from the kit ? Interestingly, Renault's R4 copied this arrangement, but they inverted the sense of the different speeds, which was very confusing, when you were switching between the two cars, as I did during a certain period. - The front-wheels don't seem to be centered in the wings, they seem to be too far back ... Looking forward to the building of the other kit then.

I believe there are also filled acrylic resins for such purposes, but have no practical experience with them or know of any sources in the USA - just in case you are concerned about the epoxy fumes. Both, acrylic and epoxy, resins can be filled with 'micro-balloons', which are microscopic hollow glass spheres. They can be bought in small bags.

Supposedly ...

Priming has the purpose of reducing corrosion (probably not relevant in our context) and to increase the adherence of paints. Copper and brass quickly develop a very thin oxidation layer that feels slightly 'greasy' and to which water-based paints do not adhere very well, particularly, when brushed on. In such cases a primer might be useful that makes the surface somewhat porous, improving the adherence of particularly acrylics. However, for small parts that are not handled priming in most cases is not really needed, particularly on models that are put under glass immediately after completion. In the case of working models, the situation may be different. Every layer of paint will obliterate detail and make the appearance of parts less 'sharp'.

We had this discussion at other places I think already. Acrylic paints are dispersions of acrylic acid molecules in water (possibly alcohol) with finely ground pigments suspended in them. The curing of these paints happens in two stages or perhaps parallel processes: the solvent, the water evaporates, and the molecules begin to intertwine, trapping the pigment in between. The first process happens within minutes (when spray-painting) or an hour or so (when brush-painting), while the latter process will continue for days or even a week or two. It is not possible to redissolve acrylic paints without breaking up the molecules, i.e. destroying the binder. You can, of course, grind up the dried paint, but all you get is a slurry, but not a paint. You would need to really finely grind it and then add new binder, i.e. acrylic acid solution - but this is not really worth the effort und almost certainly will not yield a satisfactory product. The same considerations apply to dried out oil-paints. Here the binder is lineseed oil and the curing process an oxidation induced by short-wave radiation, namely UV-light. Once oxidised, the process cannot be really reverted. Again, if you grind up the paint, you will end up with a slurry and would need to add more lineseed oil as fresh binder. Not sure that making your own paints from scratch is really an efficient process. Of course the painters of old did this, but then jumped onto the confectioned paints, as soon as these became available around the middle of the 19th century (facilitating the open-air painting of the School of Barbizon and somewhat later of the Expressionists). You are not likely to arrive at the same level of homogeneity and dispersion of commercial products. The resulting product may be ok for painting by brush of small areas, but probably nor for painting larger surfaces, let alone for spray-painting. This is one reason why the technique of painting, sanding, painting, sanding, and finally polishing was developed.

Was there a specific reason, why you used Novotex (bakelite with cotton fabric) for the drums ?

Varnish essentially is a 'paint' without pigment. The purpose of varnish is to protect (wood) surfaces. Modern acrylic paints are acrylic resin suspensions that have also very finely ground pigments suspended in them. They will form a uniform layer of physically (not chemically) cross-linked and intertwined strings of acrylic resin with the pigment imbedded. So, under normal circumstances no 'varnish' is required. However, if an item is to be handled frequently, an additional layer of varnish will be a sort of wear layer, protecting the actual paint. But this is likely to be relevant only for RC models and the likes. Most acrylic paints dry up with a satin sheen. If you want to have a high-gloss or real mat surface, one could apply respective acrylic varnishes to obtain the desired sheen. It is always wise to stay within one paint/varnish system. If you use acrylic paints, use acrylic varnish for the above mentioned reasons.

Funnels were double-walled from about the middle of the 19th century on. For two reasons: in order to keep the flue-gases hot to provide a better draught and to prevent the burning of adjacent materials. The internal flue was held concentric by spreaders.

Such rings would only be needed, if the covers actually sit completey inside the hatches. It they are designed to overlap the coamings, one can lift them off by just reaching under the edge. I seem to have seen this design at least in the second half of the 19th century. This would not prevent the tarpauline to be battened down smoothly.

Shellac is being used, e.g. by watchmakers to glue parts for turning operations onto flat discs, so-called wax-chucks. It is quite strong, as long as you don't jerk or bang it. It has the added advantage that you can take it off with a drop of alcohol, if you are not happy with the result.

Thanks, gentlemen, for your kind words. @Roger Pellet - from the early 1860s on, the experiments by various gun manufacturers to produce a gas-tight breech lock slowly bore fruit, notably those of Krupp in Germany. They constructed a lock that was based on a cylinder in a cross-bore that wedged the actual lock part in place. The key to success was a gasket made from hardboard. In the mid 1860s this principle was replaced by a system, whereby two wedges in a square cross-bore were pulled against each other, thus safely closing the chamber of the gun. The Danes, the Austrains, and then the French found that out to their detriment in the wars between 1864 and 1871 how effective these designs were. The French company Schneider began to develop breech locks in the mid 1860s, based on a segmented screw, which was the design kept for heavy guns and until the drop-block locks for cartridges were introduced for QF guns, based on a design by the German company Gruson. Krupp continued their developments and developed what is called a 'round wedge' lock (Rundkeilverschluß). Hereby a sligtly tapered lock-block is pulled into a correspondingly tapered cross-bore using a thin transport screw, while a short, coarse locking-screw pulls the block tight. The gas-tight seal is provide by a copper gasket that has to be replaced every few shots (while the hardboard gasket had to be replaced during loading for each shot). This remained the Krupp-design until WW1 for heavy guns. The 30.5 cm RK/l22 had this kind of lock and you can see the locking piece in the picture below: The screw that moves the block into place is the thin one on top, while the heavy locking screw is on its back.

A belated thank you ! *********************** Completing the upper carriage 1 With the lower carriage basically ready for painting, I turned my attention back to the upper carriage. The structural elements made from photo-etched parts had already been constructed many years ago. Dito some of the details had been fabricated more than ten years ago, or at least partially. The previous state of the upper carriage I had also turned and cut the gear wheels for the elevating mechanism, but they had not been finished. The back side, after parting off had not been shaped, which was done now and they were also chemically tinned after degreasing and pickling in citric acid. The gears as cut The elevating mechanism consist of a double reduction gears and is driven by a deeply dished handwheel with six spokes. These reduction gears are duplicated on each side of the carriage. The last wheel in the drive has a pinion on the inside of the carriage, which acts on a gear segment that is attached to the gun barrel. How the gear segment is guided is not clear from the available drawings and the model in Copenhagen. On the Russian Krupp-clones the arrangement is slightly different. The elevating gear train in GALSTER (1885) The elevating gears on the instruction model in Copenhagen The gear segment and its attachment to the barrel on a gun in the Suomenlinna fortress Krupp factory photograph of the same gun, but in coastal mount (from the collection of the Architekturmuseum TU Berlin) There is a friction-brake on the axle of the last large wheel of the gear train, which is worked with a cross handle. How this functions is not clear, but it presumably just pull the gear onto the frame via a short thread that is cut onto the end of the axle. On the starboard side of the gun there is a brass disc and an indicator lever that somehow shows the degree of elevation and presumably the range of the gun with different kinds of projectiles and charges. Again, how this indicator disc is coupled to the elevating gears is not clear, as I do not have any suitable photographs. In any case, the respective gear train will not be really visible on the model. The dished handwheel started life as parts photoetched from 0.2 mm brass. In order be able to bend each spoke into the dished shape, a former was turned from some round steel and set up on the watchmakers ‘staking tool’. The spokes were pre-bend by hand and then finally pulled to shape using a hollow punch. The parts then were chemically tinned and soldered together with the aid of some flux. The step-wise forming of the dished handwheel The remaining parts, such as the axles, are simple parts turned from steel rod for strength, as they are quite long compared to the diameter. (Almost) all the parts of the elevating gear laid out The elevanting gear provisionally assembled To be continued ...

OK, this is replica, but I think dark decks, at least for ships built in non-tropical areas, are quite unusual and often a sign of poor maintenance. Most decks are made from some sort of pine or perhaps teak. If not 'holy-stoned' regularly, the wood will attain a sort of greyish colour the older it gets.

Many people don't appreciate how much time and work goes into a job well-done. At least the community here does