wefalck

I am not aware that bronze bolts were ever used, but then I am not necessarily an expert on 18th century shipbuilding. Copper was used extensively for smaller fastenings. While mechanically, from the point of of tensile strength the use of (wrought) iron bolts has many advantages, it is problematic in conjunction with certain woods due to their acidity (tannic acid) contents. This makes both, the bolt and the wood rotting. I believe certain oaks were not considered suitable for use in conjunction with iron fastenings. Iron bolts certainly would not be used in places, where they would be exposed to sea water. If the bolts, due to their location would be exposed, they were countesunk and the hole would be plugged with a wooden plug. This can actually look like a tree-nail from the distance, but the plugs would not show end-grain, as they would be cut from a plank (as for the decks) to have the same grain direction as the surrounding wood. Iron-fastenings can also not be exposed to seawater, when the ship has copper-, or Muntz-metal-sheathing, as both are electrochemically more stable and would lead to fast anodic corrosion of the iron bolts.

Now, with the summer holidays behind me, I am back in the fora and in the workshop However, first a little postscript on things that were completed before the vacations: A couple of pictures that show the different components of the y-axis spindle. Also visible on the first picture are the parts of the friction brake for the dial, short piece of acrylic rod that is pressed down on the spindle with a set-screw. Tightening or loosing the screw allows to adjust the friction. The parts of the y-axis spindle Spindle assembled Spindle in its working place To be continued ...

Thanks for the 'likes' I hope that the project will continue in the not too distant future. I have become distracted by a couple of machine-tool building projects (http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/10278-shop-made-filing-machine/ and http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/13268-a-lorch-micro-mill-that-never-was/) that in turn were prompted by some machining needs for exactly this project. Things may go slow, however, as I will have a heavy professional travelling schedule until the end of the year

Although the original question was about novelty fabrics to be used in very small scales, it may be worthwhile to explore the aid materials for book-binders and restorers. In these trades very fine cloth (and paper) often is used to double up fragile original materials without detracting much from their appearance. I seem to have seen various around the WWW, but did not follow through, as I didn't have any needs. Incidentally, many mid-19th to mid-20th century ship's drawings have been done on drafting linen, particularly when they were meant for reproduction.

"I guess on the whole I'm just surprised that while you can cover a model in PE detail and someone has even come out with a credible 3D 1:350 crew, that someone like ModelExo hasn't come forward with "the thinnest, finest woven fabric on earth" or something to cater to the sail ship hobby. :)" Purely for technical reasons ... you cannot weave scale cloth, neither in 1:100 or let alone in 1:350 scale. The thinnest (usable) natural fibres are the yarns taken off the cocoon of the silk worm and have 0.005 to 0.01 mm in diameter. Indidividual hemp cells have a similar diameter, but would need to be spun into a yarn to be useful. Man-made nanofibres could go down to 0.0001 mm or less in diameter, but still are prohibitively expensive. In any case, the individual fibres need to be spun into yarn, the thickness of which is much greater than that of the fibres. So, I think for the moment we are stuck with the finest silk cloth. However, natural silk should be avoided in modelling, as the protein of the fibre is prone to relatively fast degradation. Realistically, I think that non-woven fibrous materials, i.e. paper-like materials, are the only solution for small-scale sails. Paper can be produced from relatively short individual fibres and does not involve the mechanics of weaving, for which a long yarns are needed. Therefore, paper can be much thinner than the thinnest cloth.

Following the Medieval Revival fashion in Europe from around the 1840s these 'Butzenscheiben', as they are called in German, have been used in 'restoration' and imitation projects. They have become associated with a 'romantic' view of small German towns and the likes, but can be seen in France, the UK, and other places as well.

I gather the problem with a lot of fancy and novelty materials is that they are (still) prohibitively expensive. They may also not be sold over the counter or in small quantities. The second question would also be for what application fabrics in real life would be used that would be fine enough for modelling purposes. OK there are a lot of uses of materials the average person isn't aware of, or even wouldn't dream of. Still, there are also technical limitations to the weaving of very fine materials, regardless what the thread is made of.

There are a couple of basic questions to ask first: - is the model made from wood or other material, namely plastics ? - if it is made from wood, do you intend to keep the appearance of the real wood it is made from, or do you intend to cover it in opaque paint ? There are various painting guides around the Internet for aged wood, namely in the railway and diorama modellers realms. Some use real wood as a basis and other plastics. In the case of real wood, this is usually stained in some grey, controlling the process to keep perhaps some of the original wood colour. Applying white, black, and burnt umber as washings allows to modulate the basic grey. At some places a technique called 'dry-brushing' may be applied to highlight surface features. On plastics, you would apply similar processes, but you would start from an undercoat of light ochre to simulate the wood. Like the Old Master, in principle all the various aging or weathering effects can be achieved by painting. However, in particular the plastic modeller community has developed a range of processes that involve more or less controlled random processes, such as stripping paint layers with adhesive tape, deliberately reducing the adhesion of paint layers in order to partially strip them later to achieve a flaked impression, etc., etc. Again, there are numerous tutorials on the Web as well as in printed form available. In think I pointed to some of my own work in a similar thread. This is a 'resin' modell with an ochre undercoat and various washes of burnt umber (both acrylics). In addition water/salt 'stains' were applied using white pastel chalk: In the scenic setting of the above model I used real wood for the landing stage etc. that was treated with stains and acrylic washes: I tried to give some keywords to search for in the Internet that give more detail than this short post.

The blank on its arbor was then transfered to the dividing apparatus on the milling machine for engraving the dial. For this a 15° engraving bit was used. in the same set-up the hole for the friction brake of the dial was pre-drilled. Set-up for engraving the dial Engraving the dial The numbers were stamped in a make-shift set-up in a vice. In order to ensure that the number-stamps were applied exactly radially a purpuse-made guide-block was used. Set-up for stamping the dial Finally, the dial was mounted back on the arbor and the burrs from engraving and stamping cleaned up with a couple of light cuts in the lathe. Cleaning up the engraved and stamped dial The two parts were separated on the lathe with a jewelers saw substituting for a parting tool. The dial then was degreased and the engravings laid out in black enamel paint. After the generously applied paint had dried, the dial was cleaned up with very fine wet-and-dry sanding paper. Painting the dial To be continued ...

Thanks, Pat. I was actually surprised myself, that it turned out so well

Per, as it never was, the mill doesn't have a price-tag ... unless you were indeed prepared to pay me at my commercial rates, which means that you would have to trade-in a decent car, may not quite an Aston Martin (but I would gladly exchange it for the mill, BTW) *********************************** For the dial on the y-slide I had a piece of 21 mm diameter brass to hand. This was faced in the 3-jaw-chuck, drilled and reamed for the 5 mm spindle, and then bored out to fit over the spindle bearing-plate. Preparing the blank for the dial The blank was the mounted on an arbor with a 5 mm stem so that I could turn the outside shape. At one end there is the notorious convex knurled ring. For this, a ring of 1.2 mm width and 1 mm height was left standing with edges slightly chamfered. Turning the blank for the dial For the next machining step the knurling tool with the concave knurl was mounted to the cross-slide. The knurling tool was fed slowly into the slowly rotating blank. It catches quite quickly at the edges and the pattern evolves fast. As expected, the processes is both, a cutting as well as a shaping one – the relatively soft being squeezed into the indentations of the knurling wheel. While generously lubricating with WD40 the knurl was fed into the faster rotating blank until the pattern had developed fully. Knurling the dial To be continued ...

What lathe do you have ? It may be worthwhile to invest into collets, if your lathe spindle has a taper for them, or into a collet chuck. This gives a much better and concentric grip on thin material - and is also safer, because you are not bothered by the jaws and can work closer to the chuck, which eliminates chatter. Of course, the tailstock needs to be checked for alignment. Why do you use a file to make the groove ? A tool in the slide rest would be safer and more efficient - or are you using a wood lathe ?

Thanks Pat and I hope you have enough Kleenex around ***************************************************************************** After some disruptions due to travelling (spent inter alia a couple of days in Pisa for work ) I tackled a job I had never done before: Digression: making a concave knurling wheel Today, concave knurls to produce the convex knurling seen on many older high-end precision machines are obtainable only at prohibitive costs. Therefore, I embarked on making my own knurl, encouraged by a few examples on the Internet. Knurling wheels normally have to have a certain diameter in order to prevent their bore from being distorted under the stress of the knurling process. I choose a blank of only 10 mm diameter for a bore of 6 mm in order to reduce the mass to be heated, when attempting to harden the knurl with my rather limited heating capabilities. I also had a cut-off from a Schaublin collet-blank available, which I assumed would harden nicely. Hobbing the knurl on the milling machine The proposed process of creating the knurling wheel employs an ordinary threading tap as an improvised hob. This, stricly speaking, would result in a 'rope' knurl, but the helical angle of a, say, 0.4 mm pitch tap is barely perceptible. The easiest way to hold the blank for cutting seemed to hold it in the knurling-holder for the watchmakers lathe that I made a few years ago. This means, however, that the process could not be done on the lathe, because it would have been not so easy to mount the holder on its side. Cutting the knurl on the lathe would have been better, as the end of the tap could have been supported in the tailstock in order to eliminate flexing. Unfortunaly, the DIXI horizontal mill does not have an overarm, which then would make it the ideal machine for the job. So the job was done on the vertical mill. Hobbing process in detail The blank was drilled and reamed for the arbor of the knurling tool holder. Some polishing ensured that it spun freely. A M2 tap was chucked in a collet as short as possible and offered to the blank with its uppermost end in order to keep flexing to a minimum. Initially, the mill was run at slow speed and with a small feed. After each incremental feed, the blank was allowed to make several revolutions until no chips were produced anymore. Once the pattern was created, the mill was run at a somewhat higher speed and the amount of incremental feed increased from around 0.03 mm to 0.05 mm. Every time blank and tap were flooded with WD40 in order to wash out the chips that then were wiped off. A first failed trial showed, how important it is to wash-out chips. The second attempt was successful. The finished concave knurl After the machining, the knurl was hardened by heating it to a cherry-red colour and quenching it in ice-cold water. As I don't have a very strong torch, the knurl was pre-heated to 450°C using the hot-air soldering gun and then brought to temperature with the gas-torch. The knurl was also rubbed in soap to prevent scaling. After some cleaning, the hardened knurl was tempered to a straw-yellow colour using the the hot-air gun. A test with a file showed that the hardening was successful. The knurl in the tool-holder for the watchmakers’ lathe ... well, it actually worked as you will see in the next contribution To be continued ...

Indeed, the bull's eye-glass (or 'Butzen' in German) has been very common and is used in 'romantic' reconstructions of medieval windows. However, considering that there only two bull's eyes coming out of each cylinder and only one from each disc, there must have been a considerable production of plate glass to give sufficient numbers of them for a window. I guess, from the mid-19th century on, they were not only 'waste' products anymore, but made specifically to meet medieval-revival demands. Also, in Germany the 'Butzen' often are 'bottle-green', indicating that inferior quality raw materials with a lot of metal contaminants were used - so the associated flat glass must have also been green. Here is an image from Wikipedia that shows the production of disc-glass in the 'forest' ('en bois', because they needed the wood for fuel): If I am not mistaken, sometime in the last quarter of the 19th century the float-glass was inventend in France, whereby the the near-liquid glass was poured onto a bassin with mercury. Indeed, France seems to have been technologically ahead in glass production for quite some time.

Wasn't this blown into a long cylinder, the bottom and top disc (with the blow-pipe attachment) cut off, the cylinder split lengthwise and then rolled flat while still hot ? Cheaper and smaller panes were cut from the discs, which accounts for the streaks often seen in old window panes.

Actually, I don't mind people adopting ideas - but as you said, it's nasty to take someone elses pictures etc. and then post them at another place without due credit. I have whole pages from my own Web-site being 'mirrored' on Web-sites of certain Eastern European individuals and Russian fora - and they just don't care when you just ask for proper credit to be given. Still, I like to share ideas, tips, information, because somehow it will be repaid by others sharing their ideas, tips, and information ... give and you will be given, as the Romans said.

Thanasis, my post was made in a hurry before going off to work and should have been worded more carefully. My apologies. As a matter of fact, when I used the word 'exactly' I was referring to creating a flat, to drill it and then to shape it. I used a flat-nosed punch to flatten the wire, a sharp punch to mark the hole and to prevent the drill from slipping. I did not use a haemostat or similar to guide the drill. It is always interesting to see that other people come up with the same or similar ideas for solving certain manufacturing problems. The smallest shackles I produced this way were about 1.5 mm long. The size was also limited downwards by the fact that the smallest drill I had was 0.3 mm, so the wire had to be at least 0.3 mm diameter to stay within the proportions.

Thanasis, I tried to be 'tongue-in-the-cheek'. Quite busy at the moment, but will take the time a bit later to put a translation of the PDF onto my Web-site ... have to go and catch a plane now ...

Thanasis, I don't want to accuse you of being a 'copy-cat' as you probably don't read German - and therefore didn't see the article I published in 1980 in a modelling magazine that describes exactly the same technique http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/tips/FALCK-SM-5-80.pdf

The green Chinese stuff in general is not so bad, just got another batch for my lathes/millers. However, if you can find a source for the original 'Polycord', which is a Swiss product, you will be probably happier, as it streches less and has a better grip. Polycord and its clones are available from 2 mm diameter up. ... still trying to find a source that will sell me few meters of Polycord without a surcharge of 70€ for minimum orders. There used to be a shop specialising in transmission belts in Vienna that sold it off the reel at the real price, but they threw the towel a few years ago (like so many small speciality shops).

I have used the cow-hitch in smaller scales, as it represents the sewing without really having to do it - not that I am lazy, but it can be near-impossible to find a thin enough thread for the sewing.

Make sure that all photo-resist has been removed before trying to blacken etched parts. A solvent, such as acetone, should do the work. On the topic of 'beefing up': I am only moderately fond of etched parts, when it comes to represent someting that in reality would have been cast or forged, particularly at larger scales. The parts just look to flat, even though their outline might be correct and quite detailed. In your case I would perhaps tin them thickly with a soldering iron. However, then you will have problems with the blackening and may have to resort to painting.

The original bronze spindle-nut seems to have had a left-hand thread of 4 mm x 1 mm, so it was drilled out 3.7 mm for the 4.5 mm x 1 mm thread and the thread re-cut with the appropriate tap. The odd digs and dents were removed by a light cut on both ends in the lathe. Parts of the spindle and its bearings A test assembly showed that everything worked as planned. The ball-handle crank has been bought-in and is fixed by set-screws, rather than being pinned as was the Lorch-practice. Spindle in place, but micro-meter sleeve still to be made To be continued ...

The long hole for the spindle in the cross-slide was opened up to 5 mm using the Dixi horizontal miller as a boring mill. Drilling out the the spindle hole in the old top-slide However, the travel of the slide was too small, so an extension was made to give the slide a travel of around 50 mm, allowing the milling spindle to reach across a face-plate mounted in the dividing attachment on the mill. The extension is a fairly complex piece, fashioned out of a block of aluminium. This is jointed to the existing top-slide with two location pins and two countersunk screws (the holes used were already made by a previous owner). Top-slide extension (under side) Top-slide extension (upper side) To it screws the housing for the y-spindle bearing. Watchmakers lathes usually have simple sliding bearings there, the end-play of which is controlled by a nut with a very fine thread. The elements of this arrangement would have been ground to give a smooth sliding. I decided instead to use miniature thrust-bearings with I.D. of 5 mm and an O.D. of just 10 mm. Two are needed, with the thrust-collar on the spindle in between. This gives an arrangement of 12 mm in length. Centering the future y-slide spindle bearing-plate in large 4-jaw-chuck Turning stub for spindle bearing-plate The bearing-housing was made from a piece of 15 mm x 15 mm aluminium bar. The section was centred in the large 4-jaw-chuck on the lathe and the stub turned on. The piece then was reversed and taken into a 3-jaw-chuck so that the face that screws down onto the slide extension could be turned flat and perpendicular to the axis. The through-hole was drilled and reamed for the spindle. In the next step the seat for the bearings was bored out to exactly 10 mm diameter and a tad unter 12 mm depth. Reaming bearing for y- spindle Boring-out seats for thrust ball-bearings Finally some cosmetic milling operations gave the bearing housing a more elegant shape. Shape milling of the spindle bearing-plate To be continued ...

While sorting out the replacement motor for the mill, I turned my attention to making the spindle for the y-axis. Most WW-lathes seem to have the odd thread of 4.5 mm x 1 mm pitch. The spindles from the old cross-slide I am using were missing, but must have been thinner, probably 4 mm. As I have both, a die and a tap for the usual left-hand thread, I decided to adapt the cross-slide for this. Set-up for cutting the thread on the y-axis spindle First the spindle was made. Unlike the original desing on watchmakers’ lathes, it will have two ball-races as thrust bearings, but otherwise the design will be similar. The ball-handle crank is a commercial product. I started out with a 5 mm rod and turned it down to 4.5 mm and then set-up the lathe for cutting the left-hand thread. The first pass Almost finished spindle This means cutting proceeds towards the tailstock. As the torque on the WW-lathe transmission system is too low, the thread was cut by hand-cranking. For this purpose I had made an adapter for a ball-handle crank already a long time ago. The thread was cut with full cuts until it was about 90% complete. Calibrating the thread using a 4.5 mm x 1 mm die in the tailstock The final cut then was made with a die in the tailstock die-holder to calibrate the diameter, which might have been a bit bigger in the middle due to the flexing of the long spindle. In order to eliminate the effect of flexing, the cutting bit was run along the thread several times without adavancing it into the work, until no material was taken off anymore. The finished spindle thread To be continued ...