wefalck

Witsens book is an important source and Hoving certainly knows what he is writing about. Boyer and Boeier are not the same, but related by descendence. The Boyer of the 17th century was a bigger ship with a different purpose, but seems to have slowly evolved into the smaller 19th century Boeier. The 19th century Boeier from about the late 1820s or so on became a kind of 'private' or 'company' car in the waterlogged area around and north of Amsterdam - being used for both, business and pleasure trips. It was a means of passenger transport between places, but was also used as a short-distance packet, in thoses waters that could be sailed (along the canals the 'trek-schuyt', horse-drawn boats, were the means of public transport). In the early 20th century, when tramways and then road-vehicles took on this transport role, Boeiers became exclusively pleasure boats.

Their dreams may be more ephemeral and non-tangible ... they may talk one day with the same kind of sentiment about their first encounter with the first model of iPad or a piece of game-software ...

This is a weird set-up actually ... at least me, I was talking about the right-angle attachment: This allows to mount the rotary table so that its rotation-axis is horizontal. I understand that this axis then lines up with the tailstock: Trying to line up something held in a vise with the tailstock is not something one normally does. So there would be no commercial solution for this.

When in the vertical position, does the centre of a chuck mounted on the rotary/tilting table have the same centre-height as the tailstock ? Otherwise you still may need the right-angle attachment.

Mmhhm ... 40 years ago it as all airplanes in Regent St. and the area around ... and the Science Museum models are all boxed up ... nothing anymore to make little boys dream - or they dream of other things.

... I see another challenge, the nice round Victorian skylight with its carpentry and brass protective bars Have you tackled that already ? If not, I tend to fashion such things from solid acrylic glass with applications in either etched brass or styrene. Styrene can be cemented (or rather welded) onto acrylic glass with methylene chloride without leaving traces.

In Europe most length-measures were based on some average human body dimensions. It was only during the French Age of Enlightenment, that the idea of linking all length-measurements to some geographical/astronomical dimension came up - the result of a centralist governement that wanted to control everything

The right-angle attachment for the rotary table is for setting up the same with a horizontal axis (other makes have this built into the design) and the tailstock supports longer items. With this arrangement you can mill-on polygons, e.g. squares, hexagons, octogons, etc. Binnacles, columns of various kinds (including flutes ones), spars, masts, etc. come to mind.

Will there be a keelson ? The rabbet seems to be pretty close to the top of the keel, perhaps too close to take up any strain.

It is easy to get them. Just check ebay. Brass or steel ones can be pricy, but if you don't mind plastics, you can get them quite cheaply. There are whole sets for experimentation on ebay. There are also specialised manufacturers and supply houses that would also serve private customers. For serving machines: the number of teeth is technically not relevant, but you need to identical sets. The two sets can be composed of the same size wheels or of different size wheel, this does not matter. The two sets only ensure that the hooks at both ends rotate at the same speed. Rather than using cog-wheels, one could also use toothed belts or chains together with the appropriate wheels.

Personally, I find much more satisfying to make my own tools and machines. For me it is at least as important as making models. Just to let you know, Charter33, that I think that you did an excellent job on making these parts from acrylic glass. Good surface treatment ! And btw., Millhill supplies has been importing Sherline machines into the UK for at least 30 years. I have still one of their leaflets from the late 1980s knocking about. It is really a shame that the US Post Office discontinued the 'land' service a few years ago - you had to wait may be two or three months for your parcel, but it was quite reasonably priced. I did purchase Sherline bits and piece directly from the factory in these old days. The US Post Office should rethink their pricing - how is it possible that the Chinese can send you their stuff for next to nothing and still make a cut ? - ok there may be government subsidies, but these would be more effective in enlarging markets than blocking imports with tariffs ...

That is actually a very good idea, druxey ! Never though of this. At some stage in the - hopefully - not too distant future I want to show on a 1:160 scale model some sails being dried and hanging limp over stays etc. The method of putting together sails from several panels, as I used before, makes the sail too stiff for this. So painting-on the seams like this may be the solution. A variant of this could also be to mask of the panels and spray against the mask, which should leave a sharp edge. One would need to do this from both sides.

Zig-zag stiching appeared, I think, only when machine sewing was introduced. In the hey-day of sailing ships the seams were double-folded into each other and fixed with two rows of straight stiches.

There has been a long break in this project, caused by a virus-induced vertigo that began in the middle of March. It made it impossible for me to focus my eyes on small things and to do any work in the workshop. Recovery was slow and could not go back to the workshop safely until a couple of weeks or so ago ... ******************** Two of the ventilators of the crew-quarters in the forecastle have the hollow chain-bollards as their base. These chain-bollards are used to relieve the chain-stoppers when anchoring or being moored using the anchor-chain. They have a couple of protruding 'noses' that keep the turns of the chain apart, so that the links do not wedge-in each other, making it impossible to cast-off the chain. Initially, two rims were turned on a piece of round brass and these rims then were reduced to the 'noses' by round-milling on the dividing head of the micro-mill. The base was also milled rectangular, as required. The ventilator was fabricated seperately, as the bollard will be painted black, while the ventilator will be white. The set of ventilators is now complete, but they still need to be drilled for the handles by which they are turned. For this I need to fabricate an adjustable support for the dividing-attachment of the micro-mill so that they do not give, while being drilled. To be continued soon ...

Yes, that the classical method. But you still have to shape the sheave, so that the rope doesn't make a bent. I have done this on blocks down to about 2.5 mm length, where the sheave is around 0.4 to 0.5 mm thick. But, try to do this, if the sheave is only 0.2 mm thick ... But we are veering off the subject, which is about designing blocks for printing and not finding alternative ways of making them.

As I said, I don't have a lot of CAD-experience. Some packages may be able to generate the complex curves. Generating the shape of the sheave, of course, would not be a problem. Making any number of 1 mm-blocks from wood would be a challenge in principle, including drilling the needed 0.2 mm holes, and it would be very difficult to score a 0.2 mm groove into the sheave in a way that leads to a realistic run of the rope. Not sure, how I would hold them to shape the outside. They are also too small and light to round off in a tumbler. Making one would be feasible, but not many of them. BTW, buying means that someone else can make them - I would be ashamed the to admit, that I couldn't make them myself

Acrylics don't creep due to the rigid cross-linking of the polymer during curing. That the nice thing about Plexiglas.

I am not an artist, I am a scientist Forgot to say something about 'glaze': in artists's parlance thess are thin, (semi)transparent coats of paint. The Old Masters built up their paintings from numerous layers of glazing, which is why the colours are so deep and luminous. Glazing with oil-paint takes time, because each coat has to dry (oxidise) or otherwise it will be dissolved by the following layer. Each coat may take at least a week. With acrylics, the 'drying' takes minutes, but they are not as luminous. There are also 'wood-glazes', which are varnishes with some dye or pigment in them. When they are organic solvent-based, you normally can apply only one coat, as the next coat would dissolve even dried previous coats. If they are acrylics-based, you can apply as many consecutive coates as you like.

I have been toying with the idea of 3D-printing rigging blocks for years, but never got round to master the basics yet, that is 3D-modelling. I gather, one would need to model the basic shape first - for which one needs to refer to period references for getting the proportions right, and then add the roundings etc. with some sculpting software. The nice thing is that one can model the shell and the sheave separately and then combine them for printing, as the sheave would not need to rotate, of course. This would lead the rope through the block without the sharp bents one sees so often in simple wooden blocks. I don't think extrusion printers would be suitable for printing really small blocks, I would go for the technique that selectively cures acrylic resin with pulses of UV-light. With this, one should be able to print blocks down to a length of about 1 mm. The problem will be the bores, but one can always open them up with a drill, if needed.

Directly ? Sure, but then, when you mess up, you have to begin all over. I think it is easier to paint on a flat surface, like the decal sheet. You can also print the pattern to be painted on it before, as a guidance for the shape and spacing.

Using etched parts can indeed simulate carvings or mouldings. I have the feeling that the metal re-inforcements where actually let into the rim, rather than being applied on top of it - they could easily rip of during rough handling and could also cause injuries. I think they would be flush with the surface. At least that is what I have seen on museum pieces. While not looking quite brass-like as the real brass, imitating the re-inforcements with decals might be closer to the real thing. Once could make one circular decal for the rim, rather than applying individual tiny ones.

I had indeed looked into the possibility of having the wheel printed in 3D, but the required materials diamaters push the current technology to its limits. Besides, I have not mastered yet the 3D-modelling techniques that provide the input for the printing process. I don't really like buying-in things that I think I can do myself - it's like dodging the challenge

Pat, I was rather thinking of fabricating something from hard wood that would fit onto the bench. One can make the moveable jaw in two pieces, the main part flush with the bench-top and then having the holding actual jaw plugged/screwed onto the top of it. In this way, the jaw doesn't get into your way when not needed and you can have differently shaped jaws according to needs.

The keyword to look for is 'wood-graining'. Used to be a trade of its own until about WWI. A lot of faux materials were in vogue from around the middle of 19th up to WWI, including imitating wood, bamboo (e.g. on cast-iron garden furniture), and marble. I have a modern book on the subject. However, I am not sure that I would use these techniques on such a small item. It is not very likely to see wood-grain on a steering-wheel, which would have been fabricated from the best quality mahagony probably. The different section of the rim may have had slightly different colours though. I would just apply glazes. Some people also use artists' oil to good effect for this, but drying times are very long, particularly between coats. When you use acrylics, the next coat can be applied quickly and does not dissolve the coat underneath. From the photograph I see that the wheel did not have a continuous facing of the rim in brass, but single re-inforcements, where the spokes penetrated the rim. So my idea of masking doesn't work in this case. One option to reproduce the re-inforcements would be to paint their shape in brass-paint on some transparent decal material and then apply them as decals. One of the next jobs for me to tackle on my SMS WESPE-project will be indeed to make two sets of double steering-wheels - the wheels will only have a diameter of about 10 mm and the spokes will have to be 0.3 to 0.4 mm thick - causes me some head-scratching, but I have ideas ...