wefalck

Interesting precision tool 😀

On lateen-rigged boats the halyard usually serves also as a back-stay, sometimes the only one. Given the moderate performance expectation of these 'canoas' By the same token, on lateen-rigs the sails are still fixed to the yard using short lashings, not continuous ones as on more 'modern' rigs. On such 'artisanal' boats, belaying points where typical chosen wherever convient at the moment.

That, of course, is another option. Thanks!

Yes, but how do you get the curves into the parts?

The question was: how did you shape the brass pieces, over wooden formers?

I suppose you worked the brass-sheet over wooden formers?

Learning about another piece of local nautical history - I don't mind these accounts of research at all. In fact, I think this is a very laudable undertaking 👍. It deserves to written up properly somehow. It could go eventually into the Journal of Nautical Archeology, I think. You should at at least make a PDF from it (an for your other Mexican boat as well)! I would be quite curious about the design history of these boats and where possible influences came from. Flat bottomed-designs are quite frequent all over Europe, but this combination of flat, broad transom and rather more elegant bow, probably has some (forgotten) functional reason. For instance, net-fishing over the stern would require a reasonably stable platform and sufficient buoyancy. The high bows could help parting the reeds in the swampy areas ... Given that the main colonial influences would probably be Iberian, the origin of Spanish who came to the region of the lake could be interesting, as they may have brought with them local building traditions. For instance, I am currently just at the edge of a major flat-bottom boat area in Spain, the Albufera lagoon south of Valencia. However, the boats here are virtually all double-ended and have no flat transom. One may need to look around a bit in Spain, but literature on such local craft is equally scarce. One would need some more photographs (if available) on how the thatching was done, but British railway modellers may have some ideas for its representation, as they often depict thatched cottages on their layouts. Some approaches may be more approximatives, but other are more detailed. At 1:32, one could almost go for the real thing.

Very nice project, of which I have not been aware of before! I suppose her name refers to the port of Mahón on Menorca, rather than to mayonnaise 😉 Regards from Valencia too ...

I gather, the Victorian men never kissed their brides/wifes ...

Looking good after those challenges !

👍 , yep, that adds significantly to the 'historic' look!

Incidentally, one 'bling' thing seems to be missing: brass oil-caps (or glass vessels) on the main bearings ...

Very nice result, looking (almost) like the real thing! I said 'almost', because the hand-crank and the flexible drive shaft in brass are give-aways that it is model ...

That's an interesting approach, washes with paints that contain flakes of metal. Have to keep this in mind for certain applications ...

Yes, nice progress on this iconic ship. I visited her in Vancouver in 2007.

Yes, of course, it has to be half the included angle of thread. Many (most) toothed wheels have a pressure angle of 20°, that's were the included angle of 40° comes from. Incidentally, one can cut a worm-wheel with a tap as a cutter. There are various examples on the Internet for this. I have not done this myself, but I have made hardened concave knurling wheels in that way: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Knurl. The matching worm would be exactly the thread of that tap.

Many of these old books were written for bench-lathes, marginally bigger than my watchmakers lathe with 50 mm centre-height. The watchmakers lathe probably isn't much more rigid than the SIEG, though manufactured to much higher standards. Here I am cutting the worm for the milling machine mentioned earlier. The cutting tool is actually a brazed carbide one as used on so-called Swiss automatic lathes. Their shaft is smaller (4 mm square) than the usual ones and hence better adapted to these small lathes. Below I am making a lead-screw for a home-built micro-milling machine. I am not claiming any specific accuracy, but it works well enough for my modelling projects. In this case I used a home-ground HSS 5 mm square cutting tool: First pass to check that the pitch is correct Last pass before chasing the thread with a die

Well, these banjo arrangements for the change-wheels haven't changed much in the last 150 years or so ... I have the same on my old watchmakers lathe. My set of change-wheels includes a 62 teeth one, which is the common option for converting imperial lead-screws for metric pitch cutting or the other way around. Given the low torque of my lathe, I made myself a crank for working the spindle by hand (Sherline offers such an option commercially) and am working with very small cuts, say 0.05 mm depth. I use an appropriately angled tool with a slight top-rake and with side clearance. The cutting speed naturally is very slow then. I have made a replacement worm for the turn-table of my watchmaker's milling machine in that way. A left-hand thread I would cut from left to right. As your lathe has a top-slide, I would set this to angle and feed in with this slide, rather than the cross-slide. In this way the cutting tool effectively only cuts on one side, which greatly reduces the cutting forces. If I have a suitable die, I would use the die for a finish cut to make sure the thread has the correct profile.

Absolutely, patience is the most essential ingredient ... many problems people struggle with arise from the lack of patience, from wanting quick solutions ... you are not doing it to get it ready fast, but to do a good job.

Personally, I would turn them from steel rod …

I bought a basic rotary tool (no fancy ergonomic casings such as on the PROXXON or DREMEL, but very good steel collets) in around 1977 and it still one of my work-horses. Perhaps it is not so much used on wood indeed, but a shipmodel has also a lot of brass fittings that need to be shaped. Grindstones and abrasive discs are for that. Together with needle-files it also served me as a kind of rudimentary lathe before I had a real one. And, yes, I don't use it very often for drilling. Grinding and polishing are the main applications. I wouldn't want to be without it.

That's a good and cost-effective strategy 👍

Personally, I would not coat it, as this changes the surface appearance and takes away from the patinaed metal appearance. Also, a surface treatment might deepen/darken the colour, as it will fill the pores and directs incoming light deeper into the patina (similar to an optical fibre), so that less light is reflected. Apart from that, I think museums use micro-crystalline wax. I would not know any product name, but you can google for its availability in the UK. Normally, metal surfaces were sealed against (further) oxidation by zapon varnish, but the surface would be glossy, something you probably don't want this case. Applying satin or matt acrylic varnish could be another option. Once dry the varnish is inert and should not interfere with the patina. Not sure how well it might stand handling. In any case, I would test the effect first on a scrap piece of copper.

As to the rotary tool: I would rather look for something with collets; they are less bulky and unless you get something really cheapo with brass collets, their concentricity is much better than that of a chuck. I would also add one or two pin-vises to the list, to hold small parts, but also to hold pins for various operations and small drills. Plus drills, of course. Go for HSS, rather than carbide. Carbide breaks easily when hand-drilling - they are made for drill-stands or milling machines. And perhaps a small archimedean drill, the size of a pin-vise. It is more sensitive and less bulky than a rotary tool for drilling holes < 1 mm. For the rotary tool you may also want a set of carbon-steel and/or diamond burrs with 2.34 mm shaft. They come at moderate prices in sets of different shape and size. As your needs develop, you can upgrade. They wear out anyway over time. For the tweezers, it is better not to buy on-line - one has to check how well the points close and how stiff they are. Bad tweezers can be very frustrating. A good pair, treated well, can last for decades of modelling. My favourite pair still in daily use was bought in 1987 ...

So the problem is solved? Otherwise, wetting it several times, particularly in the areas with the creases and going over it with iron should solve it. Place the material so that the crease faces upward with the convex side. Otherwise, just choose areas without crease ...