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What I like about my toolmaker's vice shown earlier is that it has two rabbets in the jaws that allow you to clamp shorter parts without the need of parallels. Talking about parallels to prop up shorter material in a vice: I often use pieces of drill-rod instead - it's a lot cheaper than sets of parallels.

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Sorry to hear these disturbing news. We keep fingers crossed that the surgery is successfull !

Watched last night the latest episode on the restoration of TALLY HO on YouTube and the precision of those woodworkers is just amazing always ....

I am currently using so-called zapon-varnish for such things. It dries within minutes and was originally used mainly used to varnish silver and brass to prevent it from tarnishing. Old-fashioned nail-varnish is very similar in composition (not the modern acrylic one) and probably easier to find, though over here in Europe we find zapon-varnish in most DIY stores. Another option would be shellac, particularly the one in flakes that can be mixed with alcolhol to give any consitency, from honey-like to watery. It's an old-time means to stiffen paper, felt (as in bowler-hats), etc. It dries slower than the above varnishes. All obviously dry glossy, when applied to thick, so one may need to give it a spray with with some matte varnish. The nice thing is that all maipulations are reversible using a fews drops of aceton or alcohol. If you are not happy with the lay of thatch, brush some solvent over it, adjust and brush again some varnish on it. Repeat until you are satisfied with the looks.

What kind of varnish do you use? Personally, I would use one based on organic solvent, as a drop of solvent would soften it, allowing adjustments.

Not sure, what the final verdict on the thatching is now, but one could also use a technique akin to that that was used on the rial thing: put a thread of about the same colour as the thatching material and twice the length of the rancho on the double sided tape, place a bunch of the material on it, lay the loose end over the bunch and fix with varnish. Then put thread that was on top onto the tape, place the next bunch, and lay the thread that was on the bottom over it. And so on. In this way you kind sew the bunches together and they should lift of more or less as a unit. In real life the thatch would have been sewn to the rafters using hemp cord or a cord made from straw twisted together. The house thatchers had special long needles for that. Thinking about that using such sewing technique, you may be able to do the thatching directly on the rancho ...

I gather Brian can comment on this with more practical experience. However, usually the power of the laser can be modulated as well as the speed of travelling set, both of which determine the penetration of the laser-beam. There is a minium width of the cut plus kerf, but one can make the slots wider by running the laser with a slight off-set several times. The char from the laser could actually be beneficial as it protects the wood underneath from further smoldering during soldering.

He could also use the laser-cutter to engrave those slots ...

There is also a five-language edition, but I don't know, whether there is any digital copy somewhere on the Internet: PAASCH, H., CHALLAMEL, P., MATTHIESEN, F.E., BUDDE, A., MONTOJO, P., ROMAIRONE, G. (1908) From Keel to Truck – Marine-Wörterbuch Englisch-Französisch-Deutsch-Spanisch-Italienisch.- 1110 p., 109 pl., Hamburg (Eckhardt und Messtorff).

Coming on nicely ! Concerning the rails: - I think, if you cut a half-round seat for the handrail into the uprights using a burr and then use solder-paste that should work. - likewise for styrene rods, a half-round seat in the uprights and other joints locates the parts and requires less cement - I would use styrene cement, which welds the parts together, rather then glues them.

Ah, it's the 'Bobrik'. Here is a bibliography of this important mid-19th century German author of a very comprehensive maritime encyclopedia: E BOBRIK, E. (1846) Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde, Bd. I, enthaltend allgemeine Vorbereitungen zur Steuermanns- und Schifferkunde.- 1-816, Zürich/Hamburg (Julius Fröbel & Co./Hoffman & Campe). E BOBRIK, E. (1846) Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde, Bd. 2-1, enthaltend geographische und astronomische Steuermannskunde.- 817-1808, Zürich/Hamburg (Julius Fröbel & Co./Hoffman & Campe). E BOBRIK, E. (1846): Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde, Bd. 3, enthaltend logarithmische, geographische und astronomische Tabellen; Tafeln zur Schifferkunde; geometrische Zeichnungen, Abbildungen und Karten.- Tafeln (nicht ausgefaltet!), Zürich/Hamburg (Julius Fröbel & Co./Hoffman & Campe). E BOBRIK, E. (1848): Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde, Bd. 2-2, enthaltend Schifferkunde.- 1809-2688, Leipzig (Verlagsbureau). B BOBRIK, E. (1848): Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde, Bd. I.- 816 p., Leipzig (Verlagsbureau). B BOBRIK, E. (1848): Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde, Bd. II, I. Abtheilung.- 992 p., Leipzig (Verlagsbureau). E BOBRIK, E. (1848): Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde. Bd. II, II Abtheilung: Stereometrie ; Statik und Hydrostatik; Dynamik und Hydrodynamik; Schiffgebäudekunde; Zurüstungskunde; Manövrierkunde; Ankerkunde.- X+858 p., Leipzig (Verlagsbureau). B BOBRIK, E. (1848): Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde, Schiffgebäudekunde, Zurüstungskunde, Manövrierkunde, Ankerkunde, Tafeln zur Schifferkunde.- 604 p. + Tafelband, Leipzig (Nachdruck 1978 bei Horst Hamecher, Kassel). B BOBRIK, E. (1848): Vom Tauwerk und seiner Zubereitung zur Taakelasche (aus Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde.- 24 p., Leipzig (Nachdruck 1975 bei Verlag Egon Heinemann, Norderstedt). E BOBRIK, E. (1858): Allgemeines Nautisches Wörterbuch mit Sacherklärungen: Deutsch, Englisch, Französich, Spanisch, Portugiesisch, Italienisch, Schwedisch, Dänisch, Holländisch.- 752 p., Leipzig (Robert Hoffmann). An E in front of the title means that you can find a digital version on the Internet.

It's a universal motor and these starting capacitors don't live for ever. Should be easy to replace and the motor will be back to life. Check also the brushes, of course.

To be honest, I wouldn't worry unless you want to drill holes below say 0.3 mm diameter. The machine is probably adequate. If you happen to have a dial-indicator, you can chuck up a drill and check ...

It's not only about play. There are two key points that determine the 'run-out' of a drill taken into a chuck or collet: - how concentric is it held with respect to the rotational axis of the spindle, and - how parallel is it held with respect to the rotational axis of the spindle If the drill was perfectly parallel, but not concentric, it would rotate in an imaginary cylinder around the spindle axis. If the drill was not parallel, then it would rotate in imaginary cone around the spindle axis. In both case the drill tip moves around in a circle, which causes sideway stresses on the drill, results in holes larger than the drill-size and can lead to breakage of the drill (particularly when using the fragile carbide drills). So the chuck can sit tight on the spindle and the drill tight in the chuck, but you still have the above phenomena.

Depends on how much you are prepared to pay for it an how well the connection between the spindle and the chuck is machined. If you pay several hundred EUR/USD/GBP for an Albrecht-chuck that has a taper at the end that in turn fits into a concentrically machined female taper in the spindle, you get the least run-out off any chuck you can think of. Jacobs-chucks inherently have a bigger run-out than collets. So whenever possible one should use collets. For instance the PROXXON-drills have a collet-seat machined into their spindles, so you have the option of either using a chuck that screws onto the spindle or the collets. I don't know what the spindles on these drills look like that started the discussion. Perhaps they are already have a female taper for ER collets? If not, perhaps one can replace the spindle with a commercial one that has the right taper - they are cheap and can be bought in different diameters from ebay et al. For such a machine, ER11 collets would be sufficient. They can take drills of up to 7 mm diameter. As always, you get the precision you pay for ...

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Agreed, very well done! Why was the chain on port doubled? I could imagine that it has to do with a mechanism to adjust the rudder midship and to tighten up the chain, but cannot work out its function ...

Thanks for the pictures and measurements - it seems that the small one is not available separately, but I have to continue looking. I recently bought some heat-activated silkspan-tape that I want to use for making sails and for this these shoes would be just the right thing, plus the 6 mm-stem fits into my soldering iron.

Nice tour de force across some machining and alignment problems ! I have had the same vice for decades and due to its lack of accuracy relegated it really coarse work only a long time ago. I am now using so-called toolmaker insert vices instead. They are available down to 20 mm jaw width and cost around 40 EURO/USD/GBP only. The more parts the greater the chance of accumulating manufacturing and alignment issues. Such sine-type tables are nice, but as you experienced need to be manufactured to close tolerances on all parts in order to ensure overall accuracy. For my little toolmakers vice, I went a different route and made a tilting device from a solid piece of aluminium that has no moving parts per se and only two critical dimensions: the verticality of the sides of the slot into which the vice fits and the parallel alignment of the holes for the fixing bolt vs. the bottom surface. Both dimensions I could control reasonably well with my equipment:

Something I learned as a teenager from my father, who was a chemist working with acrylics in the pharmaceutical industry, is that CA needs humity to trigger polymerisation - therefore one should gently breathe on the are to cemented together and onto the CA applied. Indeed, a big blob of CA will quickly polymerise on the outside, but that forms a shell into which humidity cannot penetrate to support polymerisation. Hence, it may take a while for such a blob to fully cure.

In theory, once polymerised, which takes a few seconds, there should be no fumes. The best way to avoid issues with CA is to not use it on things for which other glues/cements are available

Just a quick question, Gary, concerning this little quilting iron by Clover, which intrigued me. It seems not so easy to get over here in Europe. The question: what is the diameter of the stem of those shoes that slip into the heating element? I was thinking of getting just the shoe and use in my temperature regulated soldering iron. And yes, I also like the jig for bending planks over the edge - simple, no fuss and practical !

Absolutely !

Thanks, Ab, much appreciated ! ********************************* Installing the ship’s boats 2 It is done! All four boats are suspended from their davits and the work was achieved without major damage to other parts. Good thing that there is not (yet) any brain recorder … because of the mental language that accompanied the process at certain stages. Still there is a lot to be done, such as tidying up the loose ends, making and installing the coils of rope from the runners of the boat-tackles and the longitudinal chain-stays for the davits. To be continued ....