wefalck

Yep, got a copy, but it doesn't have a date in int. wefalck

Garward, liked your Estwing geologist's hammer ! Bought one like this in my first year at university ... wefalck

Here a couple of interesting books on botters and boeiers, albeit in Dutch: CRONE, G.C.E. (1926): Nederlandsche Jachten, Binnenschepen Visschersvaartuigen en daarmee Verwante kleine Zeeschepen 1650 -1900.- 309 p., 85 Abb., Amsterdam (Swets & Zeitlinger, Nachdr. 1978 bei Schiepers, Schiedam). - with English translations. BEYLEN, J. VAN (1985): De botter - Geschiedenis en bouwbeschrijving van een Nederlands visserschip.- 223 p., Weesp (De Boer Maritiem). DORLEIJN, P. (2001): De Bouwgeschiedenis van de Botter. Vierendertig voet in de kiel.- 168 p., Lelystad (Uitgeverij Van Wijnen ). KAMPEN, H.C.A. VAN, KERSKEN, H. (1927): Schepen die Voorbijgaan. Een verzamling Afbeeldingen en Beschrijvingen die de Nederlandsche Binnenwateren bevaren.- 351 p., Amsterdam (A.N.W.B. Toeristenbond voor Nederland). OSTROM, C. van (1988): Ronde en platbodems schepen en jachten.- 144 p., Alkmaar (De Alk b.v.). SOPERS, P.J.V.M. (196?): Schepen die verdwijnen (bearbeitet von H.C.A. van Kampen).- 162 p., Amsterdam (P.N. Van Kampen & Zon). VERMEER, J. (2004): De Boeier. – 528 p., Alkmaar (De Alk & Heijnen Watersport). wefalck

Thanks, ssd. No botters and boeiers are different types. Botters are fishing boats, while boeiers where originally used for local (market) traffic and as pleasure boats (a use that continues until today). Boeier tend to be much more rounded and have a lower length to breadth relationship than the botters. Also their leeboards are much broader, almost a quarter of a circle. Here is picture of the boeier DE SPERWER in the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkuizen: More pictures here: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/zuiderzee/zuiderzee.html wefalck

Thanks. I have been collecting (and restoring) these machines for about 25 years now. The machines themselves are between 50 and 100 years old (I guess). Next installment will come soon. wefalck

Continuation ... The cast mast was nicely done by Artitec - in principle, but was too short for a boat of this size, did not have the right chocs for a boat from Marken and above all was warped. A new mast was fashioned on the lathe from a piece of steel rod - I did not have suitable stock of boxwood or similar and brass, aluminium or plexiglas would have not been stiff enough. The mast was turned in steps on the watchmakers lathe. This also allowed to turn-on the mast bands. It was then transferred to the dividing attachment (http://www.wefalck.eu/mm/tools/dividingapparatus/dividingapparatus.html) on the milling machine to mill on the squares. The various eyebolt and cranes were fashioned from copperwire and soldered or glued on. As the mast, the boom was turned on the lathe from a 2 mm steel rod. The flexing of the rod was utilised to obtain the taper towards both ends. Again the bands were turned on and the boom was tranfered to dividing apparatus for drilling the holes for eye bolts etc. The goose neck was turned from steel and the square, where it attaches to the boom, milled on using a very small end-mill. The gaff has a rather odd, pear-shaped cross-section. In addition its longitudinal shape is rather crooked. It was fashioned from a piece of brass wire that was tapered off and bent to the right shape. A piece of brass sheet was cut to follow the curve of gaff and hard-soldered to the brass wire. The pear-shape was filled-up with soft solder. Then the claws that were fashioned from brass were soldered on. Finally, the 0.2 mm holes for the line with which the sail is attached were drilled. The gaff was completed with various bands fashioned from partially flattened copper wire. wefalck

Thanasis, didn't you mix up the scroll saw (or fret saw) with the circular saw ... ? wefalck

Blackening only works on the brass itself, not on soldered joints. However, blackening first and then applying a light coat of black with an airbrush might be a good solution - the second best would be applying the paint with a brush. The blackening gives the brass a 'tooth' as well as being obviously being already black. In any case careful degreasing and not touching the parts with bare hands before either blackening or painting is essential. wefalck

Bought the Proxxon drill press almost 30 years ago and it is still good in spite of some abuse. I cannot comment on the band saw, but have their scroll saw. Somehow I always seem to fight with the scroll saws, perhaps I am pushing too hard, but I found that the cut is never vertical in material of any thickness. A band saw is probably better in this respect, but has limitations to the minimum radius you can cut due to the width of the saw band. I don't think it is a particular good proposition for cutting out frames at the usual model scales. wefalck

Didn't know the English name of this nut, In German it is called Steinnuß, i.e. stone nut. The Latin name, Phytelephas macrocarpa, means big-fruit plant-ivory. I knew that until the middle of the 20th it was used to make buttons. Didn't know you could still buy it. Could also be an interesting material to make very small blocks from. By heat-treatment you seem to able to change the colour into a light brown, wefalck

I suppose Dacron sails are not 'tanned', but the fibre is coloured. It is not so surprising that coloured sails age faster than white ones, as the so-called albedo is lower, i.e. the reflectance for light. This means the sail absorbs more energy that can destroy pigments. Obviously the pigment used in colouring the dacron fibres is not light-fast. The red or yellow ochre used in the 'real' tanning procedure is a mineral pigment, iron (hydr)oxide, which is light-fast, but may change its hue to changes in the amount of water incorporated into its chemical composition. wefalck

... I always use Preiser-figurines (and in fact scale my models to match the model railway scales). They are the anatomically most correct and most finely sculpted. They also do 'academy', that is naked, sets in various scales that you can dress with putty etc. as required. wefalck

The rope that connected the outer ends of the capstan handlebars was simply there to steady the bars and prevent them from slipping out. wefalck

The tanning of sails was only done on small(er) boats, where there often was, due to their operating conditions, no opportunity to dry the sails before stowing. The tanning, which involves dyeing the sail in a bark solution and applying a mixture of tallow/oil with yellow or red ochre, makes the sails somewhat water repellent and resistant against mould (the main objective), but at the expense of slightly damaging the fibres. Tanned sails are not as strong as undyed sails for the same material. wefalck

True, a partial coat of gloss may locally change the 'depth' of the lustre of the paint. Actually, if the decals aren't too complicated, I would cut them with a sharp scalpel as close as possible to the printed area. This avoids this 'silvering' effect. wefalck

The set-up and tools depends on the lathe you have, the size of the cannons, and on how many you have to make. As one has to turn up to left and right shoulders as it where, i.e. to the bands, I would use a narrow straight tool. That is a tool that is 0.5 to 1 mm wide at the front and has side-relief ground into it. For brass there should be no top-rake, or it will 'dig in'. People tend to make cannon from one piece, but, as you have to turn it around at some stage to finish both ends, they may be difficult to hold, because the profile is not cylindric, but conical, or even curved. Therefore, I would break down the design into two parts. The bands offer convenient separation points. Because the parts are shorter, you can probably also work without tailstock support, which makes working sometimes easier. The front part you can drill through a the calibre of the gun and in the back part you drill a blind hole with exactly the same diameter. A short piece of rod allows you to align the parts for soldering or glueing. I would turn the basic shape using the slide rest and then finish off the rounded corners either using a file or a hand-graver. Again, the short sections make this operation easier. Finally, I would go over the pieces with steel wool while the lathe is running. I would finish all the front parts and all the back part together, so that you can keep the same set-over for turning the conical parts. Duplicators are probably nice (I never use one), but to make a good template is not that easy. I make myself a table or sketch of the slide-rest movements, so that I can repeat exactly the same movements for each part. This is akin to what a CNC-lathe would do under computer control. When the guns are to be painted anyway, you may want to consider using Plexiglas/Perspex or aluminium as a material. I think it is cheaper than brass and lighter. Personally, I love to work with Plexiglas. It is also easy to glue and takes acrylic paints well. wefalck

You don't say what you are working on and how the finish will be. Typically, decals are applied once the basic paints are on. Some people apply a glossy varnish at the place were the decals go - this prevents air from being trapped in the pores of matt paint, which manifests itself by a silvery sheen in clear parts of the decal. Any wheathering etc. is then applied. Finally, a light matt or satin overcoat will blend everything together. wefalck

Yep, there is lots of useful stuff in that profession. My father trained as a MD (but never practiced) and after he died, I found a lot of interesting 'tools' in his drawers, including a collection of old-time anatomical scalpels (really heavy duty - I don't like to imagine what they were used for ), a really sharp bone chisel, needle holders, arteria clamps, pincettes, etc. wefalck

Thanks,@realworkingsailor, there is no real urgency. I have a particular future application in mind and if you did get a chance at some stage to take a picture, this would be much appreciated. Tulles have the disadvantage of all commercial threads: they are fluffy with a lot of fuzz. I think that threads of these fabrics are particularly fluffy to make them soft and flowing. The hairnets the ladies of our grandmother's generation used to wear might be something else to look into, though the mesh-width might too wide for this purpose. wefalck

@realworkingsailor, that looks like interesting stuff. Unfortunately, the picture on their Web-site is rather small. Would you have a close-up of the (unpainted) material ? wefalck

I don't know any details about these nets, but could imagine that it would be possible to make one's own nets in larger scales (say 1/64 or larger) using fly-fishing fly-tying threads. I would make myself a jig with appropriately spaced rows of headless pins to mark the location of the knots and then knot away. There is a special type of knot for nets that can be found in the literature. For smaller scales, one could perhaps just pierce the thread with a needle, where the knot is supposed to be and secure the crossing with a drop of lacquer. wefalck

Are you guys talking of sheaves or really of the axles, i.e. the pins on which the sheaves run ? I have never heard that the axles were made from anything else, but metal. The friction of wood on wood would be rather to high and they would very quickly wear down without constant greasing. I think there has never been a complete shift over from wood to metal as far as blocks for organic and man-made fibres is concerned. The sheaves of blocks for wire rigging to my knowledge have (almost) always been from cast iron. The wire rope would simply saw into wooden sheaves. Also, wire rope requires relatively large sheaves that would be quite expensive to make from wood. wefalck

Excuse my ignorance: what is a 'geostationary' ? I know about geostationary satellites ... Did you mean a haemostat forceps by chance ? As I am not a great fan of coca (cola), using it as glue, might be a more useful application (apart from using it as a rust converter) ... or did I get something wrong there as well ? wefalck

I made a tumbler from one of those plastic film containers (remember films ? ) lined with sandpaper and mounted on a 2.35 mm arbor to be used with my hand-held drill. However, it did not work, as I only had a dozen or so blocks (1.5 mm long) to do. It needs quite a large amount of blocks to work. Perhaps I should have added some rice grains or something like this to make up the numbers - only thought about that possible solution just now . With too few too small blocks they don't really 'tumble', even at slow speed, and themselves don't have enough weight to excert sufficient abrasive forces. wefalck

Thomas Ender made various coloured pencil drawings on board of SMS AUSTRIA during the passage to Brazil. The main purpose of the voyage was to take the austrian prinzess Leopoldine there to become the wife of the brazilian Emporer. Ender's artistic legacy is preserved in the Kupferstichkabinett of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. I have several books on Ender, but only one plate shows another deck view of SMS AUSTRIA. As to the accessibility of the shrouds, I seem to have seen that in some instances a sort of net with a mesh-width similar to the ratlines was installed on the inside of the bulwark reaching to the top deadeyes to facilitate climbing into the shrouds. wefalck