wefalck

Slitting saws have standardised dimensions, starting with 20 mm. In the watchmaking industry supply, you may also find smaller ones, with 3.5 mm or 4 mm holes, but they tend to be pricey. Thickness starts from 0.2 mm, but some suppliers also have 0.1 mm. 20 mm Ø - 5 mm hole 25 mm Ø - 8 mm hole 32 mm Ø - 8 mm hole 40 mm Ø - 10 mm hole 50 mm Ø - 10 mm hole 63 mm Ø - 10 mm hole Larger sizes then have 13 mm and 16 mm holes.

The Allen-key diversion makes me think - I have whole bag of them, as each piece of IKEA furniture comes with one and I didn’t know what to do with them - until now. The steel is reasonably hard.

Michael, the guy here shows (about mid-way down the page) how to make a holder for grinding relieved cutters. This is important, when you require exact curvatures on the final product (such a gear teeth), but not relevant for rectangular ones. Still an useful holder that could be used on different arbors. In my case I used solid collet blanks.

Using cutting tools with a defined geometry definitely results in crisper parts. Slitting/slotting saws is one option (and I have a whole collection of diametres and thicknesses), but fly-cutters are another option. Watchmakers use very small fly-cutters to cut the teeth in watch and clock wheels. They are cheap and easy to make from HSS bits or broken drills, when you don't have the right thickness of slitting saw or want another profile than a rectangular one. Just back from weekend in London to visit the Model Engineering Exhibition in Alexandra Palace. There were a couple of guys who demonstrated their 'ornamental lathes', which in fact are a combination of lathe and milling machine. The milling is done with miniature fly-cutters set up in a cutting frame on the lathe cross-slide. Otherwise, the MEE is a far cry from what is was 20 or 30 years ago. The number and quality of the models and tools on display has gone down considerably. Haven't been to the show since the late 1990s or so and probably won't go again.

Thanks. I am not so terribly familiar with all the companies selling products for modellers. They seem to have quite an interesting range of paints. Next time I'll be in Spain, I will have look in the modelling shops I know.

I had contemplated various options involving wire and blobs of glue (see the article on my Web-site from 2006: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/tips/SteeringWheels.html), but it is difficult to give them all the same shape. Who are AK ? I have very good, finely dispersed, gold bronze paste from the Czech manufacturers AGAMA (http://www.agama-color.cz/en/products/colours), but for the brass rim, I will try out gold leaf.

Druxey, actually one has unlimited time in principle, as one can always add a bit more lacquer or solvent in order to ‚re-float‘ a part. The parts quite feel like wood afterwards, but don’t sand very well. I am not completely happy with the result, as the handles look a bit too chunky. Should have used only one central layer.

Steering wheels The WESPE-Class boats had two sets of steerings wheels, the main one on the bridge and the emergency one in the stern. Both had double wheels that worked in the traditional way on drums and ropes. There is a rather good photograph of the emergency steering position, which allows to deduct the details of the wheels. Emergency steering position in the stern After some tests with the laser-cutter, I finally chose 120 g/m2 Canson-paper, which is 0.15 mm thick and has a smooth surface. It cuts well with the laser-cutter, as it is not ballasted with inorganic material, such as barytes. Some trials were needed to determine the right cutting parameter combination of contrast, laser-power and cutting depth. One should assume that for a simple B/W-picture the contrast should be 100%, but somehow changing the contrast setting changes the width of the cuts. For this reason the final dimensions of the parts depend on the contrast setting. Laser-cutting is contactless and the cut-out parts are not moved during the cutting process. Therefore, it is possible to cut them out completely and in contrast to the photoetch-process they do not need to be attached to some frame. When designing the image with which the laser-cutter works, one needs to consider all these factors that sometimes can only be determined by trial and error. The laser-cut parts of all four steering-wheels The wheels are built up from several layers in order to simulate the joinery work and to arrive at the necessary 3D-rendering. Two core parts are thickened by two more layers the outline of which was drawn a bit smaller to simulate the profiling of wheels and handles. A further layer on each side simulate the rim and hub. The individual layers were cemented together with zapon-lacquer, which impregnates and stiffens the cardboard. Unlike many other glues this lacquer only forms a very thin layer, not adding to the thickness of the wheel, and the parts can be adjusted, as long as the lacquer has not dried. Assembled wheels before finishing (the grid on the cutting mat has 5 mm spacing) Handles and spokes where ‘rounded’ with some thinned PVA glue applied in several layers. The prototype steering-wheels were re-enforced by brass-rings screwed on each face. My intention was to make these rings from real brass shim (remember: only real metal looks like real metal ...). However, I did not manage to cut so narrow rings from 0.05 mm brass-shim. In the end, I cut the rings from cardboard. They will be covered, after the wheels are painted, in in gold-leaf. The idea was to produce the rings on the lathe. To this end a dozen small squares of brass-shim were glued together and stiffend by squares of 0.5 mm bakelite. A central mounting hole of 2 mm diameter was drilled through the package and mounted onto the lathe on arbor. The package then was turned to the required outside diameter. The 1.5 mm thick package then was transfered to a ‘wheel-chuck’ on the watchmakers lathe. However the attempt to bore out the inside diameter did not work. The next step will be the construction of the steering-wheel stand To be continued ... hopefully soon ...

Nice joinery work. It usually pays off to do things prototype-way, scale permitting, of course. Years ago I picked up this book on a flea-market and found it very help in understanding how things were done and what the typical dimensions of the parts may be: DUCKWORTH, P.G. (1923): Ship Joinery. The Woodwork Fittings of a Modern Steel Vessel.- 215 p., London (G. Routledge & Sons Ltd.). "Sterling silver tea-sets" on a pilot-boat ? I don't think the guys were that rich ! It was more likely some white and blue emaille, like this (in 1:90 scale):

BobG, a rule of thumb would be: sanding sealer on wood, primer on other materials (if needed). Sanding sealer is almost always (except for some very dense and hard woods) required. For primers it depends on the material and what you are doing with the part afterwards. Parts that are to be handled afterwards (as in working model) probably need priming, but for a small-scale show-case model I would rather not do it, because priming may flood details. To some metals (e.g. brass and copper) aqueous paints in particular do not stick very well, because they form a slightly hydrophobic oxide layer very quickly. Here priming may be really needed. The same may apply to plastics, particular, when one brush-paints. I normally air-brush plastics without priming and have no problems with that. I also air-brush brass and copper without priming and it works very well. However, I found it quite a challenge to brush-paint with acrylics on these materials. For me the base coat of paint kind of acts like a primer before applying washes, wheathering and dry-brushing techniques. Acrylics stick well on acrylics. So once the first layer(s) are on, it is easy to put in the details with a brush. As an example, this resin hull with brass and steel parts was first spray painted with acrylics and then finished off with washes in acrylics:

I have learned things the hard way, before the Internet-days with all these instructional videos, a global market-place with access to all sorts of fancy tools and in country (Germany), where model engineering and workshop tips books hardly existed. I realised soon that the relationship between the number of teeth and the thickness of the material to be cut is important. Ideally, one should have more than one tooth of the saw in the work-piece, otherwise the saw may hook, but obviously that often is not possible. One day I wanted to cut a whole series of bulkheads for a new project from 0.25 mm thick brass sheet, but did not have access to very fine piercing blades. In my desperation, I turned the blade I had upside down, i.e. I was sawing with the back of teeth - against all expectations it worked like a charm. I gather, I was kind of scraping the brass, rather than cutting it, but was able to cut out the complex shape of the bulkheads with little effort and distortion of the material. An acquaintance of mine, who worked in a manufacturing company, got the apprentices under his supervision to make a 'bench pin'/saw table from a thick slab of steel and got it hardened. I think this was an excellent idea, as the piercing saws barely would be able to touch it and get get caught by sawing into it.

Beware that there is a difference between 'priming' and 'sealing wood'. Primers are meant to increase the adhesion of paint to particular surfaces as a sort of physico-chemical go-in-between between the surface and the paint. Filled primers (as the Valejo Grey one is) also levels the surface, i.e. it covers up some of the surface roughness. Wood sealers penetrate into the wood, filling (partially) the pores in the wood. They are essentially a kind of lacquer filled with say pumice dust. Thes normally dry quite hard in order to facilitate sanding. Aqueous sealers work best on dry and low-resin wood. For more resinous woods you better use an organic solvent-based sanding sealer. Hence, I would prepare wooden surfaces with sanding sealers, rather than 'primers'.

My point was that the self-levelling of certain acrylics are not very good, which is related to the viscosity of their medium and hence also the capability to keep the pigments in suspension. It seems that the Valejo hand brush thinner overcomes just that problem, if it congeals wiithout drying and initiating the cross-linking of the acrylics particles. Acrylic paints are actually very complex gels (in the physico-chemical sense).

It takes him 12 minutes of talking, before doing the first cut ... Actually, I think his 'bench pin' is not very suitable for the purpose, it its actually the kind used by jewellers for filing. The variety with a hole at the end gives better support to the material being cut. Here you constantly run into the ends and sides of the wedge-shaped slot. It also springy, which is not good. It also better to have the 'bench pin' a bit higher above the workbench (depends on your size and the lengths of your arms of course) - you should be doing this in a very relaxed position.

Perhaps you should have had breakfast first ... I am terrible without breakfast ... I gather you used PVA glue ? That will swell the paper. I can think of two solutions, either take something very thin as backing, such as silk-span, or to use a non-waterbased lacquer/glue for the purpose. If the panelling is to be varnished without dyeing, you may want to apply sanding filler on the 'good' side first to avoid uneven spotting while the parts are glued together. The sanding filler can also be used to stick the panels to the paper backing. Once dry turn the whole thing around and give it good coating with the filler from the back, that should result in a pretty solid assembly.

Looking over the fence is sometimes useful as well: the railway modellers tend to work a lot in metal (brass, copper) and you will find all sorts of advice on the Internet. Another fraternity that does a lot of metal work are the fashion-jewellery makers ... For solders with melting points below 450°C I use a hot-air soldering gun, that I got for less than 50€ from China. You don't mess around with an open flame and don't need to physically touch your soldering set-up.

As for replacement motors in general, it may be a good idea to look into the high-torque motors for electro-scooters. Their arrival on the market means that spare motors are now cheap and easy to come by. There seem to be 12V, 24V, 36V and 48V brushed versions available on the wellknown on-line market places. High torque means chunky motors, so you will have to see, whether it fits into your existing equipment.

As stated above, cast-iron cannon balls were sand-cast, which results in approximate diameters only. Hence, cannon-balls had to be calibrated using specific sets of calipers (for larger balls) or wooden screens. Undersized or oversized ones were returned to the furnace. Sand-cast balls also had to be cleaned carefully from any adhering sand (a process which appears to be depicted in the 18th engraving shown above) to avoid eroding the gun-bores. They would wear oval quite quickly by any adhering sand. The cannon-balls would be calibrated again upon arrival on board by e.g. the master-gunner in order to make sure that they fit the guns of the ship. I believe some sort of forged-iron cradles were used to move cannon-balls around. These consisted of a ring with two handles. For larger balls the handles may have been extended into handle-bars so that four people could carry them. Not sure how these were handled on the ladders in the hatches. Musket-balls and the likes were cast from lead in steel-molds two or three at a time. These were kind of prongs with two half-spheres drilled out/engraved on each side and a funnel. The flash and the spigot from the funnel would have to be trimmed off by hand with a file. As the shrinkage during the casting process depends on accessories in the lead, also the musket-balls need to be calibrated. Musket- etc. balls would also be produced in the arsenals, but ships would have carried lead ingots, casting prongs, calipers etc. Privat guns would often be supplied with a complete set of tools to make your musket- or pistol-balls. Shot-gun pellets were cast by pouring lead through sieves in the said towers. Sometimes disused church-towers were acquired by contractors for that purpose, as the still existing Tour St. Jaques in the middle of Paris.

Mark, hand-brushing of acrylics is rather difficult (at least I am not good at it), because the medium (water or water/alcohol mixtures) has a low viscosity compared to the medium in e.g. enamels (oil/organic solvent mixtures). This means that it is very difficult to apply even and thin layers with sufficient coverage - you push away the newly applied paint too quickly. There is also no time to even out the layer, as you would do for enamels/oil paints, acrylics cure just too fast (I tried my hand at artistic painting with acrylics, but am too slow - the paint cures/dries on the brush). The away around it is to apply numerous very dilute and thin layers (Vaddoc talks about up to a dozen), which is tedious and time consuming. Then there still is the risk of paint accumulating in engraved details etc. The power of acrylics is in air-brushing. Compressors and spray-guns have become so cheap and ubiquitous that the investment should not really be an obstacle. I found that two to three layers are in most cases sufficient. Being lazy and not trusting my mixing capabilities, I normally use paints pre-diluted for air-brushing. They are relatively expensive, but then we don't paint square-metres. Vallejo were originally manufacturers of artists paints and their products for modellers show that. Personally, I use also a German brand (Schmincke) with a similar pedigree. The colour ranges in these pre-diluted paints are more limited than that of their other acrylics, but for 'historic' shipmodelling subjects this should not be a problem - we normally do not have to reproduce 'standard' colours as used on aircraft or military vehicles etc. For an occasional user, like me, mixing one's own colours and keeping perhaps stocks of them is not really working. The pre-mixed and -diluted paints keep in the order of years or even decades, while home-mixed ones disintegrate in the matter of weeks.

Indeed sublime attention to detail. These rope ladders became common, when the man-high bulwarks and solid boxes for the hammocks were introduced. Otherwise it would have been very difficult to climb into the shrouds. We have contemporary pictorial evidence from various countries.

Some time ago I bought a cheap (around 25€ from China) independent 4-jaw-chuck in die-cast zinc (I think) with a view to make jaws in POM/Acetal and/or to machine the existing jaws down for screw-on jaws in different materials and shapes. Didn't get around to do this yet ...

I would have some reservations against a self-centring chuck made from plastics, but I think in reality the jaws are invdividually adjustable on this one. Plastic jaws (not necessarily a plastic body) are good for delicate parts, when metal jaws could easily mar them. I don't know what this chuck is made from, but one could make quite a tough chuck from, say, POM or Acetal ('silent' gears are made from this).

POM turns indeed very nicely. Got some to make draw-bar knobs for my machines.

Yes, shaping parts from the solid in this way is not terribly material-efficient, but allows one to hold complex parts securily while machining. This was for me one of the reasons to build my micro-mill with an integral dividing head. I envisaged in particular to shape such parts from round stock - holding the stock in a collet also provides for easy transfer between the milling machine and the lathe.

'shroud attachment' is the literal translation of 'Wantenbefestigung', but this is just a description of its function, not a proper term. The link above is a Swedish Web-site using an old German reference. Fircks is not really a specialist for Viking-age shipping, he just pulled together various informations. Actually, I doubt that we can ever know what the parts are known, because there are no contemporary written sources that match the archaeological finds. I am not an expert on Nordic shipping, but perhaps there is somewhere an equivalent modern part in use. Its modern name then may be derived from the old term ...