wefalck

Unfortunately, Sherline choose to go for a proprietary taper in their spindles. Not unusual for manufacturers to ensure that you buy equipment from them. ER collets is a kind of standard for workholding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collet#ER_collets. Now, that the Sherline has a different taper, you need an adapter, i.e. a collet chuck. They come in two different configurations: either they screw onto the spindle, like say a 3-jaw-chuck, or they have a tapered shank that is drawn in by a draw-bar. The problem is, that any 'interface' degrades the precision and with a collet-chuck you have two more than with a directly drawn-in collet. ER collets these days come in wide price range, from a couple of quid per collet from China to may be for 150€ for an original Regofix one. As you intend to mainly work on wood, run-out of all these configurations are probably good enough. It is important to remember that ER collets are designed for tool-holding. They are slotted from both ends, which means that they distort and have the tendency to 'squeeze out' anything that does not pass through the full length of the collet. If I had to choose between a drill-chuck in a mill or a lathe tailstock and an ER-collet chuck, I would go for the latter (and have done so), as it shorter and has less run out. Got a cheapo Chinese one and it is good enough for my purposes. Check all spindle tooling for the maximum rpms it is rated for. For instance normal drill-chucks are not rated for more than 5000 rpm or so and not for use with milling cutters, as they don't like side-pressure.

Why would you get an (ER) collet-chuck for the mill for which you can get proprietary collets. Didn't check the available sizes, but they certaily cover the typical end-mill shank sizes. In fact, I thought such collets would be the standard kit for the mill, how else do you hold the cutters ? The Sherline mill is mainly made for work with non-ferrous metals, I suppose. What is 'essential' in terms of accessories depends really on the type of work. I don't have a Sherline, but on any mill different sizes of vices for me are really 'essential' and I would not necessarily vote for the Sherline vice. Toolmakers insert vices are a more precise option and come in many different dimensions to suit the work.

I think this is a rather unfair comment ! If there is a straight anwer, you will probably get it. But it is a matter of asking also the 'right' question - a waffly question will result by necessity in a waffly answer. One has to specify the country and the period at least, as most answer will strongly depend on these two variables. What people today also tend to forget, that the shipbuilders of the day couldn't just walk into a DIY shop and get the material they wanted (and even today you may not find the right stuff for a job), but had to do with what was available. In general, naval yards had (more) control over their supply chain and could impose stricter rules, while in commercial shipping it was more a question of what the customer was willing to pay and what they were able to lay their hands on. So please be fair to those, who volunteer to make comments with the best of their knowledge on a subject, where a lot of detail knowledge has been forgotten over the centuries.

On German boats they use bronze inserts. Less wear and need for greasing, I suppose.

"The length of the model is 1728 mm, it is not a very large model. This size is convenient to work with in my small workshop. " ... Ouch, this is longer than my workshop, not talking about the width ...

Yes, indeed. I did a little search, but 'tissu de Laon' did not turn up anything useful. Here it probably goes by the name 'batiste' or 'cambray', used for handkerchieves and the likes.

G.L., that's a clever gadget Bruno Orsel came up with, to kind of having a adjustable spline as a ruler. Also the sping in this case is better than heaving a 'feather board' or a roller-bearing there, as some people use. Have to put this into my folder of modelling techniques. And, she begins to look like boat, rather than the carcass of a dead animal

What paint did you use and do you have a paint number for the buff/yellow of the funnels ? In a way it is a pity that all the lovely metal-work is not hidden under paint ...

Yep, well done. This is how I perceived it from the image. Will you add also the cord (not sure about the exact term in the context of bells ...) ?

Steampunk-outboard ?

That was my thinking also ...

My understanding was/is that treenails are slightly tapered and driven into their respective holes from the outside, after having been dipped into tar and the holes themselves also being tarred. The treenail then is spilt inside the hull and the wedge being driven in thus locking (clenching) the treenail. On the outside, the treenails would be planed flush with the planking. Any attempt to caulk a treenail would loosen it in its hole and, hence, compromise its function of locking the planking to structural members of the hull. I am not sure, but I think also that the grain in the treenail was set perpendicular to the run of the planking. Otherwise, as the planks shrink perpendicular to the grain when drying out, the loosening of treenail by the holes becoming larger would be compounded as the treenail also becomes smaller perpendicular to the grain.

I would double the resolution over what the printer can do and scale the drawing appropriately. The decals will certainly stick to the aluminium, but the question would be, wether it does not peel off again, when one tries to drape the flag. Probably one of those decal softeners would help, because they seem to dissolve the backing film, leaving essentially a coat of paint in place. That is less likely to peel than a film of something. Otherwise, it could be a good idea to shop around the fora of figure modellers. They deal with the problem of complex patterns and images on draped fabric all the time and might have other ideas - apart from actually painting it by hand

Nice project indeed ! Coming back to the flags: you could print the flags onto decal film and then apply the decal to the backing material of your choice. Some people use aluminium foil, as it can be draped nicely. Not sure, whether this would work with decals attached, I have seen this done only with painted flags. Another option could be silk- or cigarette paper. My concern would be the lightfastness of the print-out. One should probably give it a coat with an UV-protecting varnish.

A bit too small scale for me, but very nice model indeed! A few years ago I had planned to visit her, but then my (business) trip to Athens was called off at the last moment ...

Didn't have time (yet) to read through the whole log: did you already build the engine or is that treat this still to come ?

Looks as if some sort of cross-piece would slot into the gaps of the re-enforcements of the washstrake. Perhaps for the slide-mount of a light boat-gun. Not sure, whether the Italian navy of the time would have something like this, but the contempory Prussian navy did. This guns could be mounted on three-wheeled carriages for use in landing operations.

I noticed this as well, but thought that it was boiler.

When looking at the little cropped image, I would toss the coin onto the metal side. To me it looks like a piece of cast iron, to spidery for wood, as it has to carry the presumably pretty heavy bell.

It is for American English native speakers probably more difficult than for British English native speakers (I am actually neither ...). To my knowledge it is still current parlance in British English to speak of converting timber into construction parts with the implied meaning of being resource efficient. It seems that in American English the noun 'disposition' in recent years has became a verb ('to disposition'), replacing the original verb 'to dispose' (in the sense of arranging something, such as troops or in this case planks) or the phrase 'to make dispositions', while the meaning of 'to dispose' has narrowed to 'making arrangements for the mangement of waste'.

It was probably to conserve wood and not make things weaker by not using sapwood, where planks needed to be endfastened and caulked.

Mark, I was recently pointed towards this building log: The guy explains his strategy when carving styrene, but he also does quite good wood-carvings, so he knows what he is doing. I scrolled through all 53 pages of the log and there are some interesting ideas in it. Begin at the end, because the carving doesn't start until page 40 or so.

Sapwood is of inferior quality and prone to rot. The term 'English' seems to refer to the origin of the wood. Other source were typically tropical hardwood (not much used in the UK themselves) and Baltic 'deals'. In both cases the sapwood would have probably been removed in a saw mill before shipping, as such woods otherwise may have fetched lower prices. I would interpret Steel in this way: In order avoid sapwood butting against other planks (as was done, when hulls had a rather rounded midship section, but fairer ends) or into the rabbet, the plank was tapered on the upper edge, cutting away the sapwood.

Somehow I missed the brackets. Of course, no stays needed with these.

Yep, turnbuckles at that scale are a challenge ... just wondering, whether shoulnd't be any stays forward too ?