wefalck

Thanks for reminding us of the RB products. Meant to look into them, as I am increasingly use Plexiglas, bakelite and styrene for my projects. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before the Chinese began to flood the market directly via ebay, I did buy a few times at VME. Friendly people and good quality. When I happened to be in the USA on business, I had stuff delivered to my hotel. Working for the UN, importing stuff into the EU was also relatively hazzle-free and the US Postoffice offered a 'surface' service that was reasonably priced (but you had to wait for one or two months, which didn't really bother me). Now there is only airmail at ridiculous prices, which makes buying from the USA very uncompetitive. Sorry for the US trade, but the Chinese seem to be able to ship stuff for next to nothing. While browsing the dentists' and dental technicians' arsenals, I recently came across a couple of interesting tools: - so-called separation strips. These are used to file the sides of teeth or false teeth. They are abrasive material of various grades on a backing of either Mylar or stainless steel. For the time being I got some Mylar ones, which I bought to make sanders for my filing machine and the micro hand-sander I built. I have not being able to identify an on-line source for the steel-backed ones. One may need to buy directly from the manufacturers: http://www.horico.de/en/neuigkeiten/2-uncategorised/91-alle-streifen.html. The Mylar-strips are about 5 mm wide, while the steel ones come in width down to 3 mm. As you can see in the link, Horico also makes fine-toothed steel-strips, i.e. saws. This is how the Mylar-backed are sold and they work very well: - There is also one provider for something like a miniature hacksaw that uses the above steel sawblades or abrasive strips: http://www.ebay.de/itm/172605444198?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT. I have not seen this on offer somewhere else and this offer appears to be rather pricey. Haven't tried this yet. - Flexible abrasive and polishing discs: TT These are quite aggressive and seem to last a while. I have used them as micro surface-grinding discs on my micro milling-machine. I should take some pictures of other tools and materials in my chest from the medical/dental realm ...

This is called a safe-edge in the trade and many files can be bought ex-factory like this.

Looks more like the finish of the small boat production . Some pictures of the construction would be nice ! I think you are a professional. In both senses of the word, in terms of the quality of the products, I gather also economically speaking ?

That was exactly also my understanding of the term. And my memory served my right, there are various illustrations in Underhills 'Masting and Rigging': Figure 87 on p. 85 shows the thing and plates 36, 37, and 38 shows how they are used to keep running rigging from the higher yards close the shrouds and out of the way of lower yards. These thingies, that look a bit like the old-time wooden sewing thread bobbins, have a groove along their length of the diameter of the shroud and, according to requirement, up to four holes lenghtwise.

I have a 1905 book on rigging that was written by the naval architect who build (among others) the 5-mastes-ship PREUSSEN. It gives the dimensions, breaking strains etc. of every bit of rigging. However, it was written at a time, when some form of materials testing already existed and the production processes for steels were quite well-controlled, so that qualities could be produced repeatedly with confidence. This meant the the margin of error was reasonably small and, therefore, safety margins could be reduced. I use this book as a guidance for minimum dimensions. Fifty years earlier they had to work with much larger safety margins, as metallurgical processes were less reliable and materials testing in its infancy. So with time parts become much more 'delicate'. Too me the strap and eyebolt look a bit on the small side, actually. It is not only the static breaking strenght that counts, but also the dynamic strains, when on sea.

I, indeed, tend to think that parts that were turned on the prototype, such as gun barrels, are best reproduced as turned parts. Casting, 3D-printing, or milling will not reproduce the surface and geometry in sufficient quality. I tried to be polite about the Ukrainian language, as I know from my experience in the UN that some people are quite touchy in this respect However, I would contest your classification of languages. The slavonic (of which Russian is one), romanic and germanic languages have a common root, an indo-european language. Have a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages. And beyond Europe here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_family. This reminds me of an old joke: Q: Which is the most widely spoken language in the World ? - A: Chinese ? - A: No, bad English ! But this is besides the topic. So, back to the topic: I love these CNC-milled wax masters and the cast parts made from them ! I should really look one day into this technique. The main difficulty is to find a brass-foundry that doesn't charge you an arm and a leg ...

Wire and natural fibre rigging obviously are rather different animals. Wire rigging, together with steel masts in the later days, can be probably considered as static. To the contrary, hemp ropes, would change their length and elasticity as a function of wetness. It also stretches, although pre-streched by the riggers, when on the ship. So some degree of adjustment over time may be needed. In addition, the captain/mate may decide that adjustments say to the fall of the mast may be needed as a function of the actual load line in order to correct luffing or leeching behaviour of the ship. There would be also a difference in ship management when working up and down confined waters around the European coasts compared to running across to Cape Horn or similar, where the ship might be running on the same bow for days or weeks. Under such conditions the lee-shrouds etc. will become somewhat slack after time due to the streching of the wind-ward ones; if you then change tacks, the rigging would come over with a jerk that may lead to the breakage of masts or the former lee-shrouds etc.. For this reason the standing rigging has to be kept taught and then eased back into a new trim.

On the topic of tarring lanyards - just thinking and without references: the lanyards need to be protected, but at the same time need to move reasonably well, so that adjustments can be made, when at see. So, something like impregnating with Stockholm Tar is more likely than a thickish coat of pitch, as found elsewhere on the standing rigging. There has also been the practice of shrouding the deadeyes and lanyard with canvas, when at sea. I have seen this on one or two old models and photographs, but otherwise this seems to be a neglected subject. Not sure to what extend and when exactly it was practised. As it looks a bit messy and covers one of the characteristic features of the rigging, it is rarely, if ever seen on modern models.

My mother had this surgery in her mid-80s and no sees better then ever I understand that even in some parts of Europe (not talking about the developing World) money (not talking about regular hospital and doctor's fees that in most parts of Europe are covered by health insurance) makes a difference, when it comes to treatment ... Cataract normally develops slowly over years, so patience may be the strategy ...

"My dust problem is quite evident in this picture, ..." - yes one tends to see much more dust in photographs than in real life Apart from this problem with which we all battle, sharp work as ever

Exactly, at least not permanently.

I don't know what model this is, but the rigging doesn't seem to be completely correct. In principle there are four single blocks, two are hooked to eye-bolts in the waterways and two are stropped to the tiller. The fixed parts of the purchases are spliced to an eye above the blocks that are hooked to the waterways, then lead to the blocks stropped to the tiller and back to the tiller. Here, the loose ends of the purchase could be turned around the tiller, or around the pin mentioned in my previous post. They are not really belayed, but the turns around the tiller or the pin provide friction and hence take away some of the force of the tiller, making it easier to control it. In the model above the loose ends of the two(!) purchases seem to be joined above the tiller, which does not make sense, of course. Unfortunately, I don't have a clear enough picture that shows this arrangement. Here is the only one I could find quickly: Just for curiosity sake: there is also a sort of intermediate version, where a small wheel is mounted on top of the tiller. Here the purchases are continuous and wound around the drum of the steering wheel: This gives some mechanical advantage because of the difference in diameter of the drum and the wheel, plus the purchase, but does not have the braking effect to seperate purchases would have. Both pictures are from models belonging to the Altonaer Museum in Hamburg/Germany.

Tackles on a tiller seems to have been a common arrangement, at least on smaller merchant vessels, well into the 19th century. This simple arrangement with four blocks certainly was cheaper and easier to maintain than a steering-wheel that would have had to have guiding blocks in addition. The arrangement with the tackles has also one mechanical advantage over the steering-wheel in the sense that you can effectively block the tiller in position, while still being able to control it, which is difficult to do with a wheel. Tillers typically had a sort of belaying-pin at the man-end, around which the runners could be slung with a half-hitch. This allows positive control over the tackles by easing the hitch. A wheel would have to be lashed down at the handles. I effectively used this technique to steady the tiller in strong winds when boat-sailing by using the free end of the main sheet ...

Anything that is less 'noble' in galvanic terms than copper would be eaten away. This is way all fittings exposed to the seawater and in contact with the sheathing would need to be either copper or bronze. So pintles and gudegeons would need to be made from bronze, rather than iron.

Very nice. I envy you for this technology (or rather combination of them). I know, in Ukrainian there is no letter 'H', therefore, there are transcription problems: the correct name of the manufacturer/license-giver for the gun is Hotchkiss & Cie. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_Ordnance_Company). The new version of the gun looks good, but somehow I have the feeling that you now erred on the large side for the barrel. Maybe this is due to distortions in the photograph, but the gun looks somewhat unbalanced. In theory, it should be more or less balanced by the trunnions.

My father was a trained medical doctor (though he never practiced) and a few of his student-time 'tools' were in his tool-box, so that I have been aware of the various types of surgical instruments, such as forceps, needle-holders, pincettes, scalpels, bone-chisels, etc., early on. Now, I have fool complement in my tool-chest. Later in life I became aware of the instruments for micro-surgery (e.g. eye-surgery), such as sprung micro-scissors, and acquired a few. As my mother trained as biologist, I have also been aware of biological preparation instruments, such as cutting needles and micro-scalpels. At hobby- and model-fairs and -shows here in Europe there is often a stall with surplus surgical instruments, where you can actually look at them before buying. They are 'seconds', that did not meet the quality standards of the manufacturer, but can be good enough for our puposes. Various surgical instruments (particularly also disposable scalpel blades) are sold sealed and sterilised. The seal has a certain 'best-before-date', after which the instruments are not considered sterile anymore. Such 'expired' stock is often sold cheap, as it would be too expensive to repack and re-sterilise the items. They are of course new and only not sterile from a medical point of view. I would be cautious of buying pincettes and micro-scissors over the Internet, as the quality of their tips/shears is crucial for their functionality. Here I would rather spend a bit more and go to reputed manufacturers. And yes, for some instruments you better don't imagine what they are being used for (or what they have been used for in the case of the anatomical instruments of my father ...)

Thanks, Michael, for the drawing. What kind of motor are you using ?

Captainbob, with a hot-air stream, you don't need to touch the bits to be soldered and won't upset their positioning. There are electrical units and also gas ones. The gas ones usually come also with conventional soldering tips that are heated by the hot air. I like the electrical units, because one doesn't mess around with gas and they can be regulated from about 50°C to 400°C, making them also useful for other purposes than soldering.

I like the worm-drive to the quill. This gives very positive control with tiny drills. I have also been thinking of fitting dial-indicators to my micro-mill, but haven't figured out yet a convenient way to do it. The usual 50 mm (2") diameter bodies are rather bulky and haven't been able to source smaller ones (yet). Could you perhaps show more details of the x-y-table ?

Plywood with parallel grain layers ? Sounds like a contradiction in terms ... Plywood per se was invented not to be bent (or warp). Laminated structures are something different, of course. Diagonally plankend boats, where the layers are glued together with marine glue have existed for more than a hundred years now. I don't think the glue as such is very important in a static model application. It is important to get a good penetration, so that the glue locks the layers together. Soaking through veneers can be a problem, as it will occur unevenly, so that the following surface treatment will also penetrate unevenly. I am not a great fan of CA due to its messy application, but penetrating the wood with it would make indeed a strong composite material and is being used to strengthen small parts.

Yes, I fully agree. Pond yachts have their own charme ... even though this may be a modern imitation.

How did you do the cowl-vents ? By vacuum-forming ? I like the QF-gun, but would have constructed it from several pieces, given the technologies you have at your disposal. BTW, if you chemically tin the brass and polish it lightly, it quite looks like steel. Or are you going to plate it with e.g. nickel ? Are there still commercial brass-founders in Russia, or was this done in a 'back-yard' foundry ? Which may be the same actually ...

Depends on the material also: cotton (as used in the USA) would be more whitish, while flax and hemp (as mainly used in Europe in the pre-industrial age) would be more greyish-yellowish. The older the sail the more light-greyish it would be, presumably, due to the constant exposure the elements and light. Small fishing vessels frequently used 'tanned' sails (as in the above botter), the resulting colour being anything between a dark red, reddish brown and yellow ochre, depening on what was smeared on the canvas.

I gather the alum was used, like sodium silicate, rather as a flame-retardant on theatrical fabrics than to stiffen them ? I really wonder, whether this is a good use of epoxi-resin. Of course you end up with a sort of fabric-reinforced resin shell, but it seems a bit messy in comparison to using one or the other type of varnish.

The problem of getting a sleek surface in contact with the 'former' (balloon etc.) only arises when you soak the fabric with the stiffening agent. There is really no need for this. Otherwise, you can also suspend the fabric on its four respectively three corners, e.g. by pushpins driven at an oblique angle into a board, and apply the stiffening agent then. I did make sails from single pieces of model-aircraft silk ('silk-span') in this way, by soaking it lightly in poster-paint (today I would use acrylics). This closes the open weave of the fabric, while still keeping it flexible and as the material is hanging through while wet, you get the slightly billowing effect. Such sails are not translucent, however.