wefalck

Your domestic workshop ?

Perhaps you can tell us, what kind of mill you are talking about and what materials you intend to work with ?

In general, I would stay away from hobby-shop stuff. They buy (bulk) the things that are available elsewhere too and there you normally get information on what you are actually buying.

There are three main categories of tool material in general use today: chrome-vanadium steel (CV), high-speed steel (HSS), and carbides. The typical bits with 2.4 mm or 1/8" shank are usually CV, which accounts for their quickly becoming dull, when working on ferrous metals or wood. HSS is the better option for mills and drills. Carbide mills and drills have a much keener edge, but a more brittle and less forgiving than HSS. However, carbide mills and drills can be found quite cheaply e.g. on ebay due to the fact that factories replace them in their production processes before they become actually dull. They are still good enough for our puposes then.

Otherwise, more information would give you better quality answers.

These appear to be clones of the original PROXXON table that is part of their MF70 and also sold separately. I don't think PROXXON is too pleased that the Chinese sell these tables at half the price of the original one.

Personally, I don't find the turning handles on the handwheels very useful. You have a less positive feel of what the table is doing. Like all such tables, the gib-strips need to be adjusted very carefully to ensure smooth movement. I would also install a zero-ing micrometer drum, if it was mine.

Yes, it is understood, that the hole rope/tackle would be impregnated. I am doing this to get closer to the natural sag of ropes and coils of ropes. Here is an example of arranging ropes in situ and weighing them down until the solvent has evaporated.

Any sheen from the varnish tends to disappear, when when one applies some pure varnish (here acetone) with a brush.

The new Hamburg Harbour Museum, which will host the PEKING, has been able to secure a multi-million Euro grant from the Federal German Government that will be disbursed over the years to come. This is quite remarkable, as public funding for the preservation of the German maritime heritage has been notoriously scarce. It is important to remember that not only the restoration has to be paid for, but also the continuous upkeep.

One should note that a sister ship of the PEKING, the PASSAT, has been in preservation in Travemünde (Germany) since 1957. She was 'grounded' after the desaster of their sister PAMIR in the Atlantic Ocean, which brought the era of merchant sail training ships to an end in Germany. A colleague of mine has been visiting her recently: https://www.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/mitglieder/ontour/viermastbark-passat/

Incidentally the Prussian Navy bought two RN training brigs, HMS MUSQUITO (1851) and HMS ROVER (1853) in 1862 and used them under their old names as cadet training brigs. In 1871 they became part of the Imperial Germany Navy and stayed in service until 1891.

SMS MUSQUITO

I use clear solvent-based varnish, rather then glue. A drop of solvent allows you to re-adjust things, if needed.

Well, I have been collecting these for about 30 years now ...

The sanding discs are of various diameters, ranging from 40 to 70 mm. I have flat disc onto which wet-and-dry paper of various grades is stuck and diamond discs of various grades. I quite like the diamond discs, but they are not easy to get to run flat, though I have good arbors. They are quite cheap, so perhaps I should sacrifice one side and stick them to a flat running thick wood or metal disc.

It would be quite simple to build yourself a disc sander with the various components that are now available cheaply from ebay.

For really delicate work, I find that most commercial machines run too fast. Some times you need to take off just a few 1/100 mm in order to fit a piece. I am running the 40 mm diamond discs at around 100 rpm only.

Work holding is the major challenge, if you have really small parts. So I made various kind of clamps with defined edges/surfaces that can be guided by the fences.

I have just put on-line a page on my Web-site on the traditional boats of the Albufera lagoon south of Valencia (Spain):

https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/albufera/Boats-of-the-Albufera.html

True. Usually, edges were bevelled or rounded or profiled using different types of planes - something that is not often reproduced in models. But in the case of the keel/stem, as in other cases, one should check against the prototype what was/would have been really done. One should also not overestimate the radius of any rounding and work to scale. So on a model the edge might still appear quite sharp.

We tend to underestimate the colourfulness of past worlds. The paint has usually disappeared from preserved artefacts and they are typically preserved under unoxic conditions (which is why they have survived), which tend to turn the woods dark, almost black (think of the preserved Viking ships). We now imagine them like this, which is not necessarily correct. The same for say gothic churches or greek statues - they have lost their paint over time or were stripped due to changing aesthetics. So, the medieval and early modern world was probably more colourful than we tend to think today. However, sensitive surface analytical techniques often reveal traces of paint. Which pigments were used depends on their availability and price for a particular time and location. Some earth-pigments, such as yellow or red ochre were cheap almost everywhere. Dito chalk/lime for a white colour.

Otherwise, the baseline technique for wood conservation would be to apply wood-tar, which gives the wood a translucent, brownish-reddish colour. Also mixtures with lineseed-oil were used. Adding a pigment to lineseed-oil is easy - you just get oil-paint.

Spending 200+ USD seems to be a bit over the top. Hand-cranking seems to be attractive because of the speed control, but co-ordinating the two movements is not easy. I solved the problem through a speed-control and a foot-switch. You can put an ordinary plug-type dimmer (with the apropriate rating) between the disc-sander and the wall-socket and you got your speed-control.

I built myself a micro disc-sander around the headstock of a watchmakers lathe: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/microgrinder/microgrinder.html

And I also made this little hand-sander: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/handsander/handsander.html

Dust is not really a problem, considering the small quantities of material taken off.

Sure, old toolmaker's tools are the best, but I recently found quite good quality ones on ebay (disclaimer: I have no other relationship with the sellers then as a customer):

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Good-Quality-Slim-Brass-Single-Ended-Pin-Vise-Tools-Hold-Drills-Pins-Wire-Vice/281157809979?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Quality-Wooden-Handle-Single-Ended-Pin-Vise-Tools-Hold-Drills-Pins-Wire-Vice/281339713517?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Stay away from double-ended pin-vices and those with collets. It is good to have a whole collection of them, as it is handy to leave certain tools in them for quick use.

What does the prototype look like ? That should be the guide.

Working on several projects at the same time can be dangerous, as you may loose track of what you are doing and what you have been planning. Though it happens, that I slip a shorter project in between working on a long-term project.

When building from scratch, there are certain natural sequences, as certain parts have to be finished, before you can tackle others. For many details this is not so important and I can take on what I fancy or what seems to provide a particular manufacturing challenge. I may also work in parallel on different parts that require the same machine-tool set up. Or I stop working on something for a while that turns out to be too fiddly and continue with something else, where one can see more progress in shorter time. And then their is procrastination: some parts that seem to be too challenging or which there are different alternative routes I might push in front of me ...

I would let the white glue set to a rubbery consistency and then scrape/peel it off. Too early, then it smears around (as you noticed) - too late, then you may rip out fibres of the wood.

A classical book (for Germany) on this subject is:

DITTMER, R., LIECKFELD, G., ROMBERG, F. (1911): Motoren und Winden für die See- und Küstenfischerei.- 2 Teile, 140+102 p., München/Berlin (R. Oldenbourg).

The library of the Technical University of Berlin has a copy that I have seen. It doesn't seem to have been digitised yet.

Then there is:

ROMBERG, F. (1912): Der Ölmotor im deutschen Seefischereibetriebe.- Jb. Schiffbautechn. Ges., 13: 173-263.

Also no digital version identified.

Wolfgang Rudolph has also written a series of articles about boat engines as used around the German Baltic coast:

RUDOLPH, W. (1996): Bootsmotorenbau im Deutschen Küstenbereich (bis 1945). Teil 1: Die Ostseeregion.- Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, 19: 367-401, Wiefelstede (Oceanum-Verlag).

RUDOLPH, W. (1997): Bootsmotorenbau im Deutschen Küstenbereich (bis 1945). Teil 2: Die Nordseeregion.- Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, 20: 503-530, Wiefelstede (Oceanum-Verlag).

RUDOLPH, W. (1998): Bootsmotorenbau im ostdeutschen Binnenland (bis 1945).- Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, 21: 255-278, Wiefelstede (Oceanum-Verlag).

RUDOLPH, W. (1999): Bootsmotorenbau in Berlin (bis 1945).- Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, 22: 343-360, Wiefelstede (Oceanum-Verlag).

RUDOLPH, W. (2002): Die Frühzeit der Bootsmotorisierung: über deutsch-skandinavische Kulturkontakte im Ostseeraum.- Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, 25: 325-336, Wiefelstede (Oceanum-Verlag).

And:

SIEBOLDS, ., BLOCK, . (1907): Die Einführung des Motors in die deutsche Segelfischerei.- 148 p., (reprint 2010, Salzwasserverlag).

As a reprint is being sold, Google does not list any digitised version that may exist somewhere.

Many early motors came from Sweden (e.g. Bolinder) or Denmark, where the motorisation of fishing-boats began earlier than in Germany. If you search e.g. for 'Bolinder engine', you will get some images.

Shouldn‘t a Late 18th Century Cutter (this is, I assume, what HMS MERMAID is) have a four–siede gaff–topsail ? It would  be suspended from a short yard.

There are detailed drawings in Middensdorf‘s Book of 1905 on masting  and rigging (in German). He draws on his experience in rigging the Late Flying–P–Liners, which include the PASSAT and the PADUA, as well  as the PREUSSEN.

There can be problems with copper-ions inhibiting the polymerisation of cyano-acrylates or other reactive glues. Glues that work on the basis of an evaporating solvent, contact cements, might be a better option, provided that the 'wood' side is permeable enough. Careful degreasing and a light rubbing with steel-wool to remove any oxides on the copper is a must.

A civilised looking emmigrant ship - isn't this a contradiction in terms

Check out 'dafi's' thread on HMS VICTORY: he reviews the changing paint schemes as per the latest research on her, analysing the various layers of paint. Depends on what you want: historical accuracy (if such can be achieved) or something that pleases as a piece of craft.

Iron most likely, or bronze.

It would be the pin and perhaps bits of brass sheet nailed over the hole for the pin. The sheaves where typically turned from lignum vitae, a hard and tough wood. Metal sheaves were used only on really heavy tackle, as that for anchors until well into the 19th century. Metals sheaves became then more common as chain was introduced into the running rigging.

I am not absolutely sure, but I think metal thimbles in the strops were already in use in the 18th century.

The Romans cast thin sheets of glass unto sand-beds, but the technology was lost during the 'dark ages'. In medieval times glass sheets were produced by either blowing up a bubble of glass, cutting this into half and then spinning it out to a flat disc of up to 4 feet of diameter, or by blowing a glass cylinder into a mould, cutting this cylinder longitudinally, after the top and bottom have been cut off, and then flattening out the cylinder. Since the 17th century flat glass was produced by rolling. In the first half of the 20th century the main method was drawing sheets from a melt, while since the 1960s 'float glass' is the method for mass production, where by the melt is cast into a trough filled with liquid tin - the melt spreads evenly and the solidifying glass is drawn across the trough. Batch production by casting the melt onto troughs with liquid tin was also used at some time.

While glass was expensive as such, quite large sheets would have been available in the early years of the 19th century.

Of course, glass is prone to shattering due to mechanical impacts or thermal stress. For this reason 'muscovite' was used instead in various applications, e.g. in lanterns, the looking glasses in powder chambers or furnaces (where it is still used). Muscovite is a mineral belonging to the family of mica or sheet-silicates. Its name is derived from Moscow, where it is found in large, easy to cleave crystals. It was traditionally used in that region instead of glass and exported.

There are four principal ways how a glue or cement connects two pieces:

- it acts like a tenon between two parts and in this way locks them together positively; this works for rough surfaces with open structures, such as wood.

- the cement/glue displaces the air between two parts and the atmospheric pressure pushes the parts against each other; this works best for large, flat parts and requires a smooth surface, such as metals have.

- the glue/cement interacts at a microscopic level physico-chemically through e.g. the Van der Waal's weak interaction

- the cement in fact is a solvent and dissolves the surfaces - in the case of plastics, that are effectively welded together.

In practice, one may have a combination of two or more of the above processes. For instance, you can dissolve the surface of styrene and press it onto some wood, where the soft plastic keys into the wood structure. Or when glueing metal to wood with epoxy, the epoxi will key into the wood, but the metal is pressed onto the epoxy by the atmospheric pressure. When there is an oxide layer on the metal, this oxide layer may also weakly interact physico-chemically with a glue.