wefalck

I wish all followers of this building log a peaceful Christmas and a good start into the New Year 2026!

Hopefully not too many, Pat !
 
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Another small toolmaking digression
 
One of the great advantages of watchmaker’s lathes is the multitude of work-holding options/spindle tooling. There are collets and chucks of many different sizes and types. One type, however, never seems to have been made and this is collets with square holes. In a way it is understandable, as making exactly centric square holes with the technology available 50+ years ago, would have been quite a challenge and expensive. Today with EDM that would not be a problem anymore. It seems that watchmakers actually had little need for them and when they needed to chuck up a winding stem at the square end, they would have used a so-called 8-screw chuck, which however, is worse to set up than a four-jaw independent chuck.
 
I expect to have to work at the ends of some square section materials soon. While I have also a centric four-jaw chuck for the lathe, it does not fit onto micro-mill and for parts of less than 2 mm edge length it is not very precise. Working on such small parts in a chuck does not feel very safe either. Therefore, I decided to finally implement and idea that I have been tossing about for years: square insert collets. A standard fitting for watchmaker’s lathes is a set of brass insert collets that are used to hold delicate objects, such as small screws by their threads. They fit into a 5.0 mm collet and have three slots to ensure concentricity. The idea was to make collets with two cross-wise slots (like the cheapo brass collets you can buy for handheld drills) and a bore in the centre. By combining an appropriate slot width with an appropriate bore, you can make square stock fit diagonally into the collet and centre it exactly.
 
I worked out the geometry needed for 1 mm, 1.5 mm and 2 mm square stock/parts respectively. The other dimensions were taken from the existing insert collets, i.e. the diameter of 5 mm and the length of 20 mm. Blanks were turned up from some quality old brass rod, bored from the back with 2.5 mm and threaded M3 for depth stops to made at some later stage, if needed. The blanks then were turned around and drilled 1.1, 1.7 and 2.4 mm respectively for the three collet sizes. A shallow groove turned in facilitates the extraction from the main collet. The parts then were transferred to the mill and set up in a vice with a square collet block for slotting exactly across the centre. They were all slotted 0.5 mm.
 
A test turn with a 1 mm square polystyrene rod shows that this works very well.

Size 1 mm, 1.5 mm and 2 mm square insert collets for 5 mm watchmaker’s lathe collet.
 
Back to the Rahschlup now.

Thanks again for your moral support, verbal and via the buttons !
 
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A Mystery Resolved
 
When constructing the hull of the Rahschlup, it bugged me that there was no obvious way to free the deck quickly from larger amounts of water taken over in bad weather. The Jacht/Jagt-type vessels often have a gap between the covering board and lowest bulwark plank, but on all illustrations of Rahschlup-type vessels no such gap was visible. Freeing ports, as on modern ships came into use only later and the lead-lined gutters would not be sufficient.
 
Then I scanned through the images of the restoration project (https://www.jensine.dk, but the link does not seem to work at the moment) for the Danish Jagt JENSINE (1852) for a different reason and two images caught my eye:

 They show that sections of the lowest bulwark plank are actually hinged and can swing out. In calm weather they are secured with latches. Subsequently, I noticed similar features on other restored vessels.
I am not sure that this is an ideal solution for securing, as the wedges would need to be removed individually and kept for re-use. Also, the latch is attached to the plank section and could get caught between the plank and the covering board. I think a solution with a hook fastened to the stanchion that engages a staple in the plank would be a better solution.
 
How to represent such parts now in 1/160? Producing the hinges will be relatively simple, although they will be tiny, but the hooks is another matter.
 
For the hinges I took 2 mm long lengths of 0.1 mm tinned copper wire that was squeezed flat on my repurposed watchmaker jewelling tool to a predetermined thickness. These jewelling tools have a micro-meter stop that allows to very precisely set the distance between the anvil and the stamp. By squeezing, the ends of the flattened wire become rounded, which suited well the purpose. There was also a slight dimple in the anvil from the turning, which resulted in a slight boss in the middle of the strip to simulate the actual hinging mechanism. The ‘hinges’ were glued on with varnish.
 
The latches are another matter and had to be much simplified. A double L-shape was bent into a short length of 0.1 mm tinned copper wire to simulate the hook and then one end was squeezed flat to represent the part that would have been screwed to the bulwark. These tiny pieces were then glued with varnish to the lowest bulwark planks and to the bulwark stanchion.
 
I decided to make only every second space between the bulwarks ‘swinging out’ and scored the lowest plank on the outside lightly to mark these sections.

Unfortunately, these parts are so tiny, that they are almost impossible to photograph, unless I use my macro-photography set-up and then they would probably look discouragingly crude …
 
To be continued …

In another thread we got a bit side-tracked and started talking about when books on shipmodelling came onto the market. The oldest I am currently aware of is this one:
 
Chapman, C. (1869): All About Ships and the Way to Make Models of Them.- 2 Vols.: 68+68 p., 3 pl., London (Wilson).
 
Vol. 1: https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QafQYVIVxto10ATpCWcm3H87dEieZEqj9nbUmRVHXSIBrfcXvQx4GNaH5t1_3hHMYOMl3_XWvJWCfpEMzmdEwJLOSZjgpNKg_FbtZHlnd_hfxXRZGD8ybJ23859QgUQQBchREPQMkk39UUPsXVIYWMr-iM0wdmke3v0yXJe__ltCYBs7e8aOdRw4UpotZw5n5WHQzuNwY-S3aMxJRO8I0FrdjwL7_AreC8CTCjNIcTb3EkVIZNKf2KMm0yb-qa4-bgFwAQxwOqfQ82OkFpWRX8wutnEn0g
Vol. 2: https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qafw6gLcfJm9KhfH4itZesC_Yl6tANR0m_E8ZFGspk9DGOUe68Ck2tCvV7OyYRh9T_YnfPxTkrX045kW_l1EO7pbqd3onk5cC6XMB38zN4bfW8mHPfcg8EkePtBEOB_4uLJZs0Poa3nO9_EPnsdDhRGuw9xY3PkgdA7WRsXrw9r-zIf2zah_0aHFMj8XxOcLIGUTfen6SRH6gpXlR1Z2t8iaC0t2Vw9a2A9UACZjTpG6njr0dKHPG-Y2uGgitCpP7IvRzooXDFbOUQ7nKvxKwTt-Zkm8GxFg7FVqtpl6qKGk_pKUHrY
 
The scan of the 2nd volume contains the properly scanned plates!
 
Who can beat me ?

Your tin-plated parts look very good and simulate stainless steel very well. Just the right shine for a model.
 
Personally, I would glaze the windows e.g. with some acrylic glass or microscopy cover glasses.
 

Thank you to everyone for the likes and for your kind comments. 
 
I've got stair railings 2.0 done. I made 1.0 from wood and they looked more fence than rail. 2.0 is a bit elaborate for Billy but looking at the press photo the railings are one of the few items that don't look like they came off the bottom of the junk pile. Admittedly 2.0 is much more elaborate than what's pictured but it looks ten times better that 1.0. There very well could be a 3.0, we'll see.
 

 
 I'm holding auditions for someone to portray  A. O. Engel. 

 
 In normal viewing the railings don't poke you in the eye like the photos do. 

 
 Thank you guys every so much for your support and for being part of the journey.
 
   Keith
 

Your tin-plated parts look very good and simulate stainless steel very well. Just the right shine for a model.
 
Personally, I would glaze the windows e.g. with some acrylic glass or microscopy cover glasses.
 

In another thread we got a bit side-tracked and started talking about when books on shipmodelling came onto the market. The oldest I am currently aware of is this one:
 
Chapman, C. (1869): All About Ships and the Way to Make Models of Them.- 2 Vols.: 68+68 p., 3 pl., London (Wilson).
 
Vol. 1: https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QafQYVIVxto10ATpCWcm3H87dEieZEqj9nbUmRVHXSIBrfcXvQx4GNaH5t1_3hHMYOMl3_XWvJWCfpEMzmdEwJLOSZjgpNKg_FbtZHlnd_hfxXRZGD8ybJ23859QgUQQBchREPQMkk39UUPsXVIYWMr-iM0wdmke3v0yXJe__ltCYBs7e8aOdRw4UpotZw5n5WHQzuNwY-S3aMxJRO8I0FrdjwL7_AreC8CTCjNIcTb3EkVIZNKf2KMm0yb-qa4-bgFwAQxwOqfQ82OkFpWRX8wutnEn0g
Vol. 2: https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qafw6gLcfJm9KhfH4itZesC_Yl6tANR0m_E8ZFGspk9DGOUe68Ck2tCvV7OyYRh9T_YnfPxTkrX045kW_l1EO7pbqd3onk5cC6XMB38zN4bfW8mHPfcg8EkePtBEOB_4uLJZs0Poa3nO9_EPnsdDhRGuw9xY3PkgdA7WRsXrw9r-zIf2zah_0aHFMj8XxOcLIGUTfen6SRH6gpXlR1Z2t8iaC0t2Vw9a2A9UACZjTpG6njr0dKHPG-Y2uGgitCpP7IvRzooXDFbOUQ7nKvxKwTt-Zkm8GxFg7FVqtpl6qKGk_pKUHrY
 
The scan of the 2nd volume contains the properly scanned plates!
 
Who can beat me ?

These kayaks look very realistic 👍🏻 I don't remember, did you already describe how they were made?
 
Since I worked for some years in one of the French arctic research instutes (long story how this came about), I got interested a bit in traditional skin-boats and began to collect literature on them: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/maritimebibliographies/skin-boat-bibliography.pdf. I had a Greenland kayak lying in the corridor in front of my office.
 

These kayaks look very realistic 👍🏻 I don't remember, did you already describe how they were made?
 
Since I worked for some years in one of the French arctic research instutes (long story how this came about), I got interested a bit in traditional skin-boats and began to collect literature on them: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/maritimebibliographies/skin-boat-bibliography.pdf. I had a Greenland kayak lying in the corridor in front of my office.
 

Well, hand-cranking is what moves any manual milling machine or lathe. For some milling machines you can buy electric drives for the x-axis (or make one yourself), but this is for long, end-to-end surface cuts only. The other option is CNC, which requires a lot of programming and typically is not worth it for one-of parts (you end up making several trial parts before all parameters are set righ).
 
I never worked with a MF70, only played around on it in shops, but have the feeling that the hand-wheels are too small for the pitch of the lead-screws. Personally, I would replace them with slightly larger ball-handle cranks, which give you a better feel when doing precision work. In that way you also get rid of the sloppy, turning handles that are detrimental to a good feel of what is going on at the milling cutter.
 

Greetings to all!
Just some progres pictures here. I am in for a treat trying to close the deck while keeping it fair and a smooth run for each plank.



Cheers!

These kayaks look very realistic 👍🏻 I don't remember, did you already describe how they were made?
 
Since I worked for some years in one of the French arctic research instutes (long story how this came about), I got interested a bit in traditional skin-boats and began to collect literature on them: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/maritimebibliographies/skin-boat-bibliography.pdf. I had a Greenland kayak lying in the corridor in front of my office.
 

As for most of us, our collaboration was required for various Christmas-related preparations, such as grocery shopping, decoration, cleaning the silver, but also kitchen-work, which ate into the workshop time. But it is a good and enjoyable time of the year. Workshop activities resumed with
 
Fitting the deck
 
Or rather cutting out the openings for the deckhouses etc. When I prepared for the layout and put the previously prepared deck onto the drawing, I realised suddenly that the engravings of the planks at stern were not symmetrical to the middle line and very noticeably so now. So, it was kind of back to square one with cutting a new deck and fitting it to the model. Using the old one has template sped up things, but there was still an evening of sanding and fitting and sanding again, etc. lost. Then also the planks had to be engraved again, this time taking utmost care not to get it wrong again. This has now been the fourth incarnation of the deck …
Then I started to tackle a job that literally has zero tolerance for error, meaning that the cut-outs for the deckhouses had to be a snug fit and there is no way to correct any inaccuracies. If there was any gap, it would have been again back to square one, with lots of possibilities to get something wrong again.
 After some rough layout, holes were drilled into the square, where there will be an opening and cuts were made with a scalpel and sufficient margin around the edges. Two diagonal cuts allowed to break out the waste in form of triangles. The openings then were cautiously widened by filing and frequent test-fitting until a snug-fit all around was achieved. By taking time, this went smoothly and without further incidents.
 The deck and the deckhouses are only temporarily installed and will be carefully adjusted during the final installation. I now need to make a temporary mast to determine the exact location and shape for it deck opening. This allows me also to determine the position the pump and drill a hole for it.
 
To be continued …
 

These kayaks look very realistic 👍🏻 I don't remember, did you already describe how they were made?
 
Since I worked for some years in one of the French arctic research instutes (long story how this came about), I got interested a bit in traditional skin-boats and began to collect literature on them: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/maritimebibliographies/skin-boat-bibliography.pdf. I had a Greenland kayak lying in the corridor in front of my office.
 

Your tin-plated parts look very good and simulate stainless steel very well. Just the right shine for a model.
 
Personally, I would glaze the windows e.g. with some acrylic glass or microscopy cover glasses.
 

Your tin-plated parts look very good and simulate stainless steel very well. Just the right shine for a model.
 
Personally, I would glaze the windows e.g. with some acrylic glass or microscopy cover glasses.
 

As for most of us, our collaboration was required for various Christmas-related preparations, such as grocery shopping, decoration, cleaning the silver, but also kitchen-work, which ate into the workshop time. But it is a good and enjoyable time of the year. Workshop activities resumed with
 
Fitting the deck
 
Or rather cutting out the openings for the deckhouses etc. When I prepared for the layout and put the previously prepared deck onto the drawing, I realised suddenly that the engravings of the planks at stern were not symmetrical to the middle line and very noticeably so now. So, it was kind of back to square one with cutting a new deck and fitting it to the model. Using the old one has template sped up things, but there was still an evening of sanding and fitting and sanding again, etc. lost. Then also the planks had to be engraved again, this time taking utmost care not to get it wrong again. This has now been the fourth incarnation of the deck …
Then I started to tackle a job that literally has zero tolerance for error, meaning that the cut-outs for the deckhouses had to be a snug fit and there is no way to correct any inaccuracies. If there was any gap, it would have been again back to square one, with lots of possibilities to get something wrong again.
 After some rough layout, holes were drilled into the square, where there will be an opening and cuts were made with a scalpel and sufficient margin around the edges. Two diagonal cuts allowed to break out the waste in form of triangles. The openings then were cautiously widened by filing and frequent test-fitting until a snug-fit all around was achieved. By taking time, this went smoothly and without further incidents.
 The deck and the deckhouses are only temporarily installed and will be carefully adjusted during the final installation. I now need to make a temporary mast to determine the exact location and shape for it deck opening. This allows me also to determine the position the pump and drill a hole for it.
 
To be continued …
 

The Gaff Topsail is hoisted!  Next up are the yards' lifts, braces and sheets.  

As I've built the two intact Nattilingmiut kayaks that Amundsen collected on King William Island, I thought I'd also make the three wood and caribou antler sleds-- the specs for these come from J. Garth Taylor's 1974 "Netsilik Eskimo Material Culture: The Roald Amundsen Collection from King William Island."  The model sleds are made from cedar, paper, and copper wire, lashed with button thread. 

As for most of us, our collaboration was required for various Christmas-related preparations, such as grocery shopping, decoration, cleaning the silver, but also kitchen-work, which ate into the workshop time. But it is a good and enjoyable time of the year. Workshop activities resumed with
 
Fitting the deck
 
Or rather cutting out the openings for the deckhouses etc. When I prepared for the layout and put the previously prepared deck onto the drawing, I realised suddenly that the engravings of the planks at stern were not symmetrical to the middle line and very noticeably so now. So, it was kind of back to square one with cutting a new deck and fitting it to the model. Using the old one has template sped up things, but there was still an evening of sanding and fitting and sanding again, etc. lost. Then also the planks had to be engraved again, this time taking utmost care not to get it wrong again. This has now been the fourth incarnation of the deck …
Then I started to tackle a job that literally has zero tolerance for error, meaning that the cut-outs for the deckhouses had to be a snug fit and there is no way to correct any inaccuracies. If there was any gap, it would have been again back to square one, with lots of possibilities to get something wrong again.
 After some rough layout, holes were drilled into the square, where there will be an opening and cuts were made with a scalpel and sufficient margin around the edges. Two diagonal cuts allowed to break out the waste in form of triangles. The openings then were cautiously widened by filing and frequent test-fitting until a snug-fit all around was achieved. By taking time, this went smoothly and without further incidents.
 The deck and the deckhouses are only temporarily installed and will be carefully adjusted during the final installation. I now need to make a temporary mast to determine the exact location and shape for it deck opening. This allows me also to determine the position the pump and drill a hole for it.
 
To be continued …
 

On with the various details:
 
Chain plates plated & installed with glue, nb: with a 1mm diameter brass rod below, into the deck structure.

 
The traveller is from 2mm brass rod, & the details from brass rod centre drilled to slide on. I made a cardboard template to bend the shape over, although it didn't work fully as the shallow curve had to be done by hand as the metal didn't take the shape on the template. The legs extended down into timber take give a good glue fix. Tinned & polished.

 
The purchased scale winches were plated, & with the spacers for the smaller ones - kindly made by Bedford - fitted, they look good. Also, small bevels to the lower outer edges, to look right they must have a small gap to the timber they sit on.

 
The mast seal was made from 4x 2mm acrylic layers, laser cut into sized doughnuts & sanded to give the rounded edges, painted etc. The actual fitting is a roofing rubber seal with a rubber piece that can be trimmed to suit the size of the pipe (or mast).

 
And the portholes...I had some brass washers & started by enlarging the centre holes to suit. 2 small & 4 large. The washer is on the right, on the left are the washers with the ID adjusted, by hand with the rat tail file & finished with sandpaper wrapped on some dowel.

 
I then had to reduce the OD, & for this I made another version of the home-made lathe. This time using a piece of timber dowel with a centre cut & a timber wedge to lock the washers in place, Crude, but it worked well. I held sandpaper against the spinning edges until the diameter was right. The washers got extremely hot, so actually it was some rags below the sandpaper, & you can see the dowel is slightly scorched.

 
Then soldered the thin wall brass tube pieces to transform them to the portholes. The lip created by the tubing is a small but visually significant detail. In this case I won't show the fixings (6x c/sunk bolt heads on the flanges), as I believe they would be visually much more noticeable than on the actual boat, so in this case they will be left off.

 
There are some flaws, & of course I didn't photograph those ones....but not significant enough (I think) to be an issue. 

The hull the portholes sit on is jet black, & won't put 'glass' into the porthole apertures. But after considering it, I will paint the part of the hull visible through the portholes - but a slightly lighter shade than full black. In reality, glass will reflect surrounding light more than the hull paint & so will appear paler. I'll do a v dark brown/grey, just add a small amount of tints to some black base.
 
thanks,
 

As for most of us, our collaboration was required for various Christmas-related preparations, such as grocery shopping, decoration, cleaning the silver, but also kitchen-work, which ate into the workshop time. But it is a good and enjoyable time of the year. Workshop activities resumed with
 
Fitting the deck
 
Or rather cutting out the openings for the deckhouses etc. When I prepared for the layout and put the previously prepared deck onto the drawing, I realised suddenly that the engravings of the planks at stern were not symmetrical to the middle line and very noticeably so now. So, it was kind of back to square one with cutting a new deck and fitting it to the model. Using the old one has template sped up things, but there was still an evening of sanding and fitting and sanding again, etc. lost. Then also the planks had to be engraved again, this time taking utmost care not to get it wrong again. This has now been the fourth incarnation of the deck …
Then I started to tackle a job that literally has zero tolerance for error, meaning that the cut-outs for the deckhouses had to be a snug fit and there is no way to correct any inaccuracies. If there was any gap, it would have been again back to square one, with lots of possibilities to get something wrong again.
 After some rough layout, holes were drilled into the square, where there will be an opening and cuts were made with a scalpel and sufficient margin around the edges. Two diagonal cuts allowed to break out the waste in form of triangles. The openings then were cautiously widened by filing and frequent test-fitting until a snug-fit all around was achieved. By taking time, this went smoothly and without further incidents.
 The deck and the deckhouses are only temporarily installed and will be carefully adjusted during the final installation. I now need to make a temporary mast to determine the exact location and shape for it deck opening. This allows me also to determine the position the pump and drill a hole for it.
 
To be continued …
 

As for most of us, our collaboration was required for various Christmas-related preparations, such as grocery shopping, decoration, cleaning the silver, but also kitchen-work, which ate into the workshop time. But it is a good and enjoyable time of the year. Workshop activities resumed with
 
Fitting the deck
 
Or rather cutting out the openings for the deckhouses etc. When I prepared for the layout and put the previously prepared deck onto the drawing, I realised suddenly that the engravings of the planks at stern were not symmetrical to the middle line and very noticeably so now. So, it was kind of back to square one with cutting a new deck and fitting it to the model. Using the old one has template sped up things, but there was still an evening of sanding and fitting and sanding again, etc. lost. Then also the planks had to be engraved again, this time taking utmost care not to get it wrong again. This has now been the fourth incarnation of the deck …
Then I started to tackle a job that literally has zero tolerance for error, meaning that the cut-outs for the deckhouses had to be a snug fit and there is no way to correct any inaccuracies. If there was any gap, it would have been again back to square one, with lots of possibilities to get something wrong again.
 After some rough layout, holes were drilled into the square, where there will be an opening and cuts were made with a scalpel and sufficient margin around the edges. Two diagonal cuts allowed to break out the waste in form of triangles. The openings then were cautiously widened by filing and frequent test-fitting until a snug-fit all around was achieved. By taking time, this went smoothly and without further incidents.
 The deck and the deckhouses are only temporarily installed and will be carefully adjusted during the final installation. I now need to make a temporary mast to determine the exact location and shape for it deck opening. This allows me also to determine the position the pump and drill a hole for it.
 
To be continued …
 

Christmas wishes to you as well, Eberhard. The model is really starting to take form now, & a pretty ship she is.

Looks great Eberhard, I like the methodological approach you are taking with this little gem.
 
Glad to hear you had a great Christmas and wishing you only the best in health and prosperity for 2026.
 
cheers
 
Pat