wefalck

In many/most cases the easiest way is to follow (within limits) the prototype way. These guys knew what they were doing. There is a small problem on the above example: the hinges on the rudder are too far out, the axis of the rudder should be just somewhat inside the front (leading) edge. The notches in the rudder are there to allow the shipping/unshipping of the rudder.

Thanks, gentlemen ! The last three weeks I was barely home for two or three days in a row, just too much business travels - good for the business, but not so good for the private life, including hobbies. I still managed to squeeze-in a couple of hours in the workshop. This is needed from time to time to relax ************************** As indicated at the beginning, the machine will be provided with a fifth axis for rotary milling and dividing operations. Some years ago, I fashioned a geared dividing head from an old Lorch, Schmidt & Co. grinding spindle. This mounts onto the cross-slide of a 6 mm lathe, such as the one used in the milling machine. Geared dividing head constructed some years ago These grinding spindles were meant to be bolted down onto the cross-slide using the latern for the turning bits. While this reduced the number of bits and pieces to be provided for the lathe and to be taken care of, it seems to be a rather strange economy. In the present circumstances this method of bolting is also not very satisfactory, as the angle of the spindle, as well its position in the T-slot have to be adjusted at the same time. Too many degrees of freedom. Elements of the holding-down bolt Therefore, a mounting bolt was fashioned from a normal M6 screw with a hexagonal head. These fit perfectly into the T-slots, but their heads have to turned thinner. Over the bolt a sleeve with an internal M6 thread screws down, thus keeping the bolt in place. Geared dividing head in place Now, the dividing head can be rotated around the bolt without movement up and down in the T-slot. The dividing head is clamped with an standard M6 cap-nut (a nice polished stainless steel one though) and a large washer. The latter also is a commercial stamped product that was cleaned up on the lathe and given a nice polish for aesthetics sake. Geared dividing head in place To be continued ...

Well, that seems to be common problem with restorations: once you take things apart and a closer look, you find all sorts of hidden problems and incompetent repairs ... glad that I am not doing such work and certainly not for money

I know some guys who constantly turn pieces upside down and over, while the paint is drying to avoid the runny 'noses'. This is because too light coates of paint can appear grainy. The paint layer has to be deep enough so that it stretches smoothly due to the surface tension, but not so deep that is runs. Can be quite tricky and the turning over method seems to keep the layer of paint evenly thin. Didn't try it out myself, but know several people who use it successfully.

I thought the funnels were made of wood (hence my earlier suggestion for sanding). Brass makes life a lot easier ...

Yes and no. There could be some wood-filler underneath that would go with the acetone/paint-stripper, then requiring a big puttying and sanding job. I would try to remove all metal-work and then sand to a smooth finish. You then can spray-paint directly on the remaining paint. If you intend to use a solvent-based paint, you should also test for compatibility before spray-painting on the old paint.

No, had no need (yet), but I think it would be good for such things as well. As the lowest temperature is 100°C it could be also used (judisciously) for heating plastics for bending. I also use it for loosening they stuck lids of paint tins, for heat-shrinking etc.

Michael, I originally bought it with the idea of 'contactless' soft-soldering, i.e. that one does not need to touch delicate items set-up for soldering, but now use it for all sorts of heating purposes. I even use it a full power to heat up bigger items for hard-soldering and hardening before going at them with my gas soldering-torch. Saves on gas and allows more even heating.

Michael, I fished it out of Chinese waters from the well-known bay. Not sure, who the manufacturer are. Here is an identical example: These hot-air soldering stations are used for what is called SMD (Surface Mount Device) soldering of circuit boards. You can get them for around 60 USD/EUR and they have temperature range of 100°C to 450°C. Apart from soldering, of course, I use mine e.g. for blueing and tempering small steel parts and for producing oxidation colours on other metals, such as brass and copper.

I have a hot-air soldering gun that I use for this purpose. One can set the desired temperature, which prevents the material from beaing overheated.

Actually, I have a little plastic one as well. The 'hooks' each are small mitre boxes. The latter I found not precise enough to be very useful, but use it otherwise occassionally for carving or operations where I cannot clamp the work piece. At the time I used to clamp the fret-saw table to my play-/work-table (which wasn't a particularly valuable one - my father made it for me during my early school years from a sort kitchen top with four legs screwed under, but one couldn't pin anything into it and wouldn't want to mess it up with paint). If there is no such option, I would perhaps put a couple of those brass dowels with a thread in them into the 'bench hook' and then fasten the fret-saw table in them with a couple of screws. Such brass dowels could also be used to fix other items, such as lamps or a vice, to the board and would allow to detach them for stowage.

When, as a teenager, I started more serious modelling, I was given by my parents what was according to them an old baking- or pasta-making board. Essentially it was a pine board which had the end-grain covered with strips of the same wood. At both ends a sort of rim was screwed to it - on one side up and on the other side down; the latter sort of hooked the board against the table on which it was used. This board remained in use until I moved into my own appartment and constructed the work-bench I am still using today. The board was about 60 cm wide and 50 cm deep. If would make it today again, I would probably use some beech, rather than pine.

Only discovered this most interesting thread today ... Did you actually resolve your wire-rope problem for the funnel-stays ? There are also tinned copper-wires on the market. Wouldn't know about a source in CND, but here is one in the UK to show what I mean: http://wires.co.uk/acatalog/cu_tinned.html. In this way you don't need to think about painting it in a silver colour. Very much much like your soldering stand. You knocked this up in no time. Would take me days at least. I also have one of those useless stands with a loupe on. Everyone seems to have, so I had to have one too and almost never use it. One thought: wouldn't the large clamps not be a rather effective heat sink, making soldering difficult ? At least aluminium is probably better than some other metals. BTW, you may be interested in the Web-Site on the restauration of the ship-yard model of the last austro-hungarian passenger-steamer KAISER FRANZ JOSEPH I (1912), which was undertaken by a friend of mine: http://kaiserfranzjoseph.de/. The site is in German, but has a lot of interesting pictures on it. A similar project is the restoration of the model of the pre-WWI tanker BRITISH EARL: http://forum.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1136 (but it may be that one can see this only as member).

Yes, the Preiser sculpting and anatomy is my benchmark. I have used them for one-off conversions. I cannot stand those garden dwarf-like 'wargaming' figurines - I gather the reason for their stocky built is to provide for more rugged handling during the game, but they are not good for scale models.

It may the way how the figurine was photographed and that it is sort bend on the knees, but the legs appear to be rather short compared to the upper body. Also, the area around the right elbow seems a bit thin compared to the lower arm ...

Actually, I think neither of it. Binnacles seem to have been either varnished wood, or they were painted. The well-known and more modern pillar-type binnacles seem to have been mostly varnished, while the older cup-board-like ones seem to have been mostly painted.

Not bad at all. If I may make a suggestion: I would not produce them with a base, but rather have some sprues or something sticking out of their feet - this would allow to drill appropriate holes into decks etc. for fixing them. It might be also an idea to offer them at one of the 3D-printing service providers for scaleable printouts - thinking of smaller scales.

Good point: 1. because I wanted really sharp, 'cutting' serrations to positively lock the draw-tube into the knob, 2. this method is less straining on the lathe, though the cutting is quite tough on the nut of the top-slide.

I cannot answer the question pertaining to HMS BEAGLE or HMS ENDEAVOUR. In general, I think a surface treatment (varnishing, oiling) showing the wood (typically mahagony) was preferred. Like the binnacle it was often some sort of show-piece or adornement and, therefore, also had polished bronze or brass fittings. However, I have also seen painted wheels with cast-iron fittings. I gather it was a question of the 'grade' of the ship and how much pride the owner took into it. Oares, sweeps, rudders, masts and similar pieces of wood would have been stowed inside the boats (if the boat stood upright in chocs or was suspended from davits) and securely tied down. Otherwise, oars etc. would have been lashed-down besides or under the boat. More perishable materials, such as sails would be probably stowed below deck, unless the boat was covered in a tarpaulin or it was the boat that was kept ready for service.

Thanks ! *********** The milling spindle was missing the draw-tube. A new one was turned from a piece of 8 mm tube with a 5 mm bore. One end was tapped 5.1 mm x 36 tpi for the collets, for which I am lucky to have a tap. The other end was serrated to provide a positive lock for the hand-wheel. For this machining operation, a pointed tool was mounted with the cutting face vertical in the QCTP and the draw-tube indexed in the head-stock of the lathe. Serrating the draw-tube on the lathe The original hand-wheels were made from black or dark-brown Bakelite, a materials that is not easy to buy anymore these days as round stock or thick enough plates. I had to resort to a piece of black POM. As it turned out to be too complicated to set up the radius-turning tool for this, the torus-shaped rim was fashioned by free-hand turning. The POM is rather soft and was best finished with a fine file and steel-wool. The finished hand-wheel was loosly taken into a 3-jaw chuck and the draw-tube, that was held in a collet in the lever-tailstock was pressed in. Turning the hand-wheel from POM Finished draw-tube and an original one To be continued ...

Actually, on rasps this chemical (acid or electrolysis) treatment might be more successful than on files.

In German we have a saying: "Erst das Wasser, dann die Säure - sonst geschieht das Ungeheure" - in free translation "First the water, then the acid - otherwise you are in deep ****". The first drops of water vapourise immediately and the steam carries with drops of acid ... I am sort of chemist, a geochemist to be precise, and I know what I am talking about. Guess why - well not because I made the mistake, but I have seen others doing it and nearly hitting me with a spout of hot sulfuric acid ... I think the electrolytic method would be much safer and more controllable. The other electrode needs to be more inert than the iron (conversely, one uses less inert metals, such as zinc, to protect iron/steel ship parts). I would doubt, however, it is worth the effort. As was noted above, the surface would rather be eaten away quite uniformely, while in sharpening you would need to eat away the bent-over and flattened teeth. Before the process you would also need to clean the file from any dirt, grease, stuck-on filings, etc. in order to present a metallic clean surface. It is better to maintain the files carefully and to buy a new one every 20 odd years or so ...

Yep, bought a couple of eye-surgery scissors and recycled some of the anatomical(?) tools of my late father, who trained as a medical doctor during WWII, such as (heavy) scalpels, cartilage scrapers, etc. Also, the arsenal of dentists and dental technicians contains useful implements.

Makes perfect sense to start off with a piece of wood in which the grain is perfectly parallel to the plaining direction. I love nice wood, but hate to see old trees being cut down for it ...

Wonder what kind of wood it is ?