wefalck

Actually yes, on looking at it, I would have thought that it would work like a scraper. So it actually works more like a flat pencil sharpener then ?
 
I am actually using tools and instruments from all sorts of 'trades'. In addition to the already mentioned toolmakers, watchmakers, jewellers, etc. tools,
I have raided the sewing-baskets of deceased female relatives and use some of my late father's surgical tools.
 
Apart from being drafted in as almost finished medical student to serve as assistant surgeon during WW2, he never worked as medical doctor (becoming what is now called a biochemist) and used some of his surgical and anatomical tools in his workshop. There are useful tools, such as solid anatomical scalpels with bone scrapers at the other end, forceps, pinzettes, artery clamps, etc.
 
My father also had his own hobby chemical and physical lab in the 1930s and 1940s: not sure what he would say to this now, but I used his bakelite optical bench as the basis for my rope-walk.
 
Old sewing baskets furnish useful rigging tools, such as miniature crochet hooks of a size that doesn't seem to be made anymore, in addition to the wide array of needles of different types and sizes.
The fly-fishing fraternity also has developed one or the other useful rigging tool and materials.

Actually yes, on looking at it, I would have thought that it would work like a scraper. So it actually works more like a flat pencil sharpener then ?
 
I am actually using tools and instruments from all sorts of 'trades'. In addition to the already mentioned toolmakers, watchmakers, jewellers, etc. tools,
I have raided the sewing-baskets of deceased female relatives and use some of my late father's surgical tools.
 
Apart from being drafted in as almost finished medical student to serve as assistant surgeon during WW2, he never worked as medical doctor (becoming what is now called a biochemist) and used some of his surgical and anatomical tools in his workshop. There are useful tools, such as solid anatomical scalpels with bone scrapers at the other end, forceps, pinzettes, artery clamps, etc.
 
My father also had his own hobby chemical and physical lab in the 1930s and 1940s: not sure what he would say to this now, but I used his bakelite optical bench as the basis for my rope-walk.
 
Old sewing baskets furnish useful rigging tools, such as miniature crochet hooks of a size that doesn't seem to be made anymore, in addition to the wide array of needles of different types and sizes.
The fly-fishing fraternity also has developed one or the other useful rigging tool and materials.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 173 – Stovepipe/Channels
 
A short update.
 
I am sure I have mentioned that my present goal with the model is to complete the work of fitting out the hull and decks in preparation for masts and rigging. Completion of this work will define the endpoint of Volume II of Modeling Young America, and the starting point of Volume III.  We're getting close, with only the deck and hull eyebolts and a few other small chores remaining.
 
One of the minor chores was making and fitting the stovepipe through the roof at the forward end of the main deck cabin.  This was made as a fabrication of pieces of telescoping brass tube segments – a convenient fabrication method.  The first picture shows the stack before blackening.
 

 
The design is based on the two photos of the ship.  Three sizes of tube were used, plus a segment of solid rod to close the top of the diffuser cap.  The next picture shows the installed stack.
 

 
The simulated flashing at the base helped secure the stack in a drilled hole.
 
This week the channel deadeye installations were also completed.  The next picture shows the starboard mizzen channel and deadeyes. 
 

 
Deadeyes on all channels range from 16" (.22" actual) to 6" (.08 actual).  The largest on the mizzen channel shown above are 13".  Making the deadeye chains was described in an earlier post.   A number of eyebolts are yet to be installed in the channels.
 
The last picture shows the model at the current state.
 

 
Another bit of work that may be noticeable to some followers of the project is that the decks have been finished with a single coat of diluted Tung oil.  The open pores of the unfinished decks were beginning to accumulate dirt.  The finish has darkened the Castello decks slightly, evened out their finish and will make them easier to keep clean.  I did not use the usual wax finish because I am anticipating gluing some rope coils later and I believe with the right glue they will hold on the (by then) polymerized Tung oil.  Anyway, the decks had to be finished.
 
Ed

To to continue: The ball-end lever for the locking bolt was fashioned from a short piece of steel in several steps: first the stem that will be a push-fit in a hole of the bolt was turned;
 

 
chucking the material with this stem, then the main part of the lever was turned conical, leaving a part cylindrical for the ball-head;
 

 
the conical part was given a waist using the free-hand turning rest;
 

 
and finally the ball-head was formed using the radius-turning tool.
 

 

 
The tool-bit in this case was a 2 mm HSS-bit in a special holder that allows to form a sphere with a sharp edge at the stem.
 

The finished ball-lever
 

Ball-lever actuated locking pin in place
 
To be continued ....

To to continue: The ball-end lever for the locking bolt was fashioned from a short piece of steel in several steps: first the stem that will be a push-fit in a hole of the bolt was turned;
 

 
chucking the material with this stem, then the main part of the lever was turned conical, leaving a part cylindrical for the ball-head;
 

 
the conical part was given a waist using the free-hand turning rest;
 

 
and finally the ball-head was formed using the radius-turning tool.
 

 

 
The tool-bit in this case was a 2 mm HSS-bit in a special holder that allows to form a sphere with a sharp edge at the stem.
 

The finished ball-lever
 

Ball-lever actuated locking pin in place
 
To be continued ....

To to continue: The ball-end lever for the locking bolt was fashioned from a short piece of steel in several steps: first the stem that will be a push-fit in a hole of the bolt was turned;
 

 
chucking the material with this stem, then the main part of the lever was turned conical, leaving a part cylindrical for the ball-head;
 

 
the conical part was given a waist using the free-hand turning rest;
 

 
and finally the ball-head was formed using the radius-turning tool.
 

 

 
The tool-bit in this case was a 2 mm HSS-bit in a special holder that allows to form a sphere with a sharp edge at the stem.
 

The finished ball-lever
 

Ball-lever actuated locking pin in place
 
To be continued ....

To to continue: The ball-end lever for the locking bolt was fashioned from a short piece of steel in several steps: first the stem that will be a push-fit in a hole of the bolt was turned;
 

 
chucking the material with this stem, then the main part of the lever was turned conical, leaving a part cylindrical for the ball-head;
 

 
the conical part was given a waist using the free-hand turning rest;
 

 
and finally the ball-head was formed using the radius-turning tool.
 

 

 
The tool-bit in this case was a 2 mm HSS-bit in a special holder that allows to form a sphere with a sharp edge at the stem.
 

The finished ball-lever
 

Ball-lever actuated locking pin in place
 
To be continued ....

Was kind of working holiday: had to work on finishing off the decoration and furnishing of our part-time home in Spain - putting in/up wardrobes, building a mock fire-place (unfotunately, we can't have real one there), etc.; jumping up and down the ladder at around 30°C made me loose some 4 kg in weight - feeling a lot fitter than before the holidays - but have been to the beach only once ... grilling on the beach in the August heat is for German and British tourists only anyway
 
************************************
 
The milling spindle will be secured in its place between the two brackets by a lever-actuated excentric bolt that pushes it down. I found a rough excentric bolt in my scrap-box of odd lathe parts, but it would have been as easy to start from scratch. The excentric was worked over holding the bolt in the 3-jaw-chuck with a brass-shim to give the off-set.
 

Rough and ready method for excentric turning
 
The head was turned with the help of the shop-made radius-turning tool (which I originally made to be able to turn miniature door-knobs and the likes). The tool-bit diameter was chosen to match the neck and shoulder of the bolt. The turning operation was followed by smoothing with wet-and-dry paper and steel-wool of various grades. Finally, it was polished with polishing paste. The pictures below show the various steps of this machining process:
 

 

 

 

 

 
To be continued ...

Now, with the summer holidays behind me, I am back in the fora and in the workshop   However, first a little postscript on things that were completed before the vacations:
 
A couple of pictures that show the different components of the y-axis spindle. Also visible on the first picture are the parts of the friction brake for the dial, short piece of acrylic rod that is pressed down on the spindle with a set-screw. Tightening or loosing the screw allows to adjust the friction.
 

The parts of the y-axis spindle
 

Spindle assembled
 

Spindle in its working place
 
To be continued ...

Can't help with Elves, but the British OO-scale is nominally 1:76, so there may be something suitable in British railway modellers ranges. Have a look here for instance: http://www.langley-models.co.uk/
 
British OO-scale white-metal figurines don't have the same standard of sculpting as, say, the German Preiser HO-scale (1:87) hard plastic ones, but some of them seem to be quite nice.

Can't help with Elves, but the British OO-scale is nominally 1:76, so there may be something suitable in British railway modellers ranges. Have a look here for instance: http://www.langley-models.co.uk/
 
British OO-scale white-metal figurines don't have the same standard of sculpting as, say, the German Preiser HO-scale (1:87) hard plastic ones, but some of them seem to be quite nice.

I should perhaps add that I let myself be guided in the desgin of the various bits and pieces by what was practice for these machines. Surprisingly, since the 1880s all manufacturers seem to have followed largely the same designs with only small variations in detail. For new parts I try to imagine how these manufacturers would have made them. However, as I have no possibility to have iron castings made, I have to fabricate parts.

Thanks for the 'likes'   I hope that the project will continue in the not too distant future. I have become distracted by a couple of machine-tool building projects (http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/10278-shop-made-filing-machine/ and http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/13268-a-lorch-micro-mill-that-never-was/) that in turn were prompted by some machining needs for exactly this project. Things may go slow, however, as I will have a heavy professional travelling schedule until the end of the year

A radius-turning tool with a vertical axis would be difficult to implement on a watchmakers lathe, as the clearance over the top-slide is only 7 mm ! So you would need to somehow construct a cantilever from which the turning point would be suspended, or the maximum diameter you can work on would be about 10 mm.
Not sure anymore, whether this was my own inspiration or whether I saw it somewhere in a picture, but I had the idea to use a boring-head, which has a built-in micrometer dial, to change the radius.
I also wanted to be able to turn spherical surfaces for which the centre is not necessarily in the axis of the lathe. Therefore, I built the tool around the quick-change tool-post. Essentially, I built a miniature boring-head and an insert for the QCTP with a horizontal bore, into which the shaft of the boring-tool can be inserted.
The design is not perfect. I should have better control of the end-play in the QCTP and started to work on a system of cone-bearings, but did not finish this.
For the relatively big jobs presented here it works well enough, but when it comes to turning door-knobs and the likes with 0.5 mm diameter, I need to have a better control on the play in the tool.

I should perhaps add that I let myself be guided in the desgin of the various bits and pieces by what was practice for these machines. Surprisingly, since the 1880s all manufacturers seem to have followed largely the same designs with only small variations in detail. For new parts I try to imagine how these manufacturers would have made them. However, as I have no possibility to have iron castings made, I have to fabricate parts.

A radius-turning tool with a vertical axis would be difficult to implement on a watchmakers lathe, as the clearance over the top-slide is only 7 mm ! So you would need to somehow construct a cantilever from which the turning point would be suspended, or the maximum diameter you can work on would be about 10 mm.
Not sure anymore, whether this was my own inspiration or whether I saw it somewhere in a picture, but I had the idea to use a boring-head, which has a built-in micrometer dial, to change the radius.
I also wanted to be able to turn spherical surfaces for which the centre is not necessarily in the axis of the lathe. Therefore, I built the tool around the quick-change tool-post. Essentially, I built a miniature boring-head and an insert for the QCTP with a horizontal bore, into which the shaft of the boring-tool can be inserted.
The design is not perfect. I should have better control of the end-play in the QCTP and started to work on a system of cone-bearings, but did not finish this.
For the relatively big jobs presented here it works well enough, but when it comes to turning door-knobs and the likes with 0.5 mm diameter, I need to have a better control on the play in the tool.

A radius-turning tool with a vertical axis would be difficult to implement on a watchmakers lathe, as the clearance over the top-slide is only 7 mm ! So you would need to somehow construct a cantilever from which the turning point would be suspended, or the maximum diameter you can work on would be about 10 mm.
Not sure anymore, whether this was my own inspiration or whether I saw it somewhere in a picture, but I had the idea to use a boring-head, which has a built-in micrometer dial, to change the radius.
I also wanted to be able to turn spherical surfaces for which the centre is not necessarily in the axis of the lathe. Therefore, I built the tool around the quick-change tool-post. Essentially, I built a miniature boring-head and an insert for the QCTP with a horizontal bore, into which the shaft of the boring-tool can be inserted.
The design is not perfect. I should have better control of the end-play in the QCTP and started to work on a system of cone-bearings, but did not finish this.
For the relatively big jobs presented here it works well enough, but when it comes to turning door-knobs and the likes with 0.5 mm diameter, I need to have a better control on the play in the tool.

I should perhaps add that I let myself be guided in the desgin of the various bits and pieces by what was practice for these machines. Surprisingly, since the 1880s all manufacturers seem to have followed largely the same designs with only small variations in detail. For new parts I try to imagine how these manufacturers would have made them. However, as I have no possibility to have iron castings made, I have to fabricate parts.

A radius-turning tool with a vertical axis would be difficult to implement on a watchmakers lathe, as the clearance over the top-slide is only 7 mm ! So you would need to somehow construct a cantilever from which the turning point would be suspended, or the maximum diameter you can work on would be about 10 mm.
Not sure anymore, whether this was my own inspiration or whether I saw it somewhere in a picture, but I had the idea to use a boring-head, which has a built-in micrometer dial, to change the radius.
I also wanted to be able to turn spherical surfaces for which the centre is not necessarily in the axis of the lathe. Therefore, I built the tool around the quick-change tool-post. Essentially, I built a miniature boring-head and an insert for the QCTP with a horizontal bore, into which the shaft of the boring-tool can be inserted.
The design is not perfect. I should have better control of the end-play in the QCTP and started to work on a system of cone-bearings, but did not finish this.
For the relatively big jobs presented here it works well enough, but when it comes to turning door-knobs and the likes with 0.5 mm diameter, I need to have a better control on the play in the tool.

I should perhaps add that I let myself be guided in the desgin of the various bits and pieces by what was practice for these machines. Surprisingly, since the 1880s all manufacturers seem to have followed largely the same designs with only small variations in detail. For new parts I try to imagine how these manufacturers would have made them. However, as I have no possibility to have iron castings made, I have to fabricate parts.

Thanks for the praise
 
At a matter of fact, it is all in my head. These days I don't even make working drawings   Sometimes I make dimensioned sketches for machining, literally on the back of envelopes, in order make sure that what I imagined actually works out. Most of the times things seem to come out as I imagined them. Not alway though   Just struggeling with the motor mount now, as my original idea would create a too long lever, when clearing various parts of the mill, with the risk of amplifying vibrations ... have to re-think it.

Was kind of working holiday: had to work on finishing off the decoration and furnishing of our part-time home in Spain - putting in/up wardrobes, building a mock fire-place (unfotunately, we can't have real one there), etc.; jumping up and down the ladder at around 30°C made me loose some 4 kg in weight - feeling a lot fitter than before the holidays - but have been to the beach only once ... grilling on the beach in the August heat is for German and British tourists only anyway
 
************************************
 
The milling spindle will be secured in its place between the two brackets by a lever-actuated excentric bolt that pushes it down. I found a rough excentric bolt in my scrap-box of odd lathe parts, but it would have been as easy to start from scratch. The excentric was worked over holding the bolt in the 3-jaw-chuck with a brass-shim to give the off-set.
 

Rough and ready method for excentric turning
 
The head was turned with the help of the shop-made radius-turning tool (which I originally made to be able to turn miniature door-knobs and the likes). The tool-bit diameter was chosen to match the neck and shoulder of the bolt. The turning operation was followed by smoothing with wet-and-dry paper and steel-wool of various grades. Finally, it was polished with polishing paste. The pictures below show the various steps of this machining process:
 

 

 

 

 

 
To be continued ...

Thanks for the praise
 
At a matter of fact, it is all in my head. These days I don't even make working drawings   Sometimes I make dimensioned sketches for machining, literally on the back of envelopes, in order make sure that what I imagined actually works out. Most of the times things seem to come out as I imagined them. Not alway though   Just struggeling with the motor mount now, as my original idea would create a too long lever, when clearing various parts of the mill, with the risk of amplifying vibrations ... have to re-think it.

Thanks for the praise
 
At a matter of fact, it is all in my head. These days I don't even make working drawings   Sometimes I make dimensioned sketches for machining, literally on the back of envelopes, in order make sure that what I imagined actually works out. Most of the times things seem to come out as I imagined them. Not alway though   Just struggeling with the motor mount now, as my original idea would create a too long lever, when clearing various parts of the mill, with the risk of amplifying vibrations ... have to re-think it.

Was kind of working holiday: had to work on finishing off the decoration and furnishing of our part-time home in Spain - putting in/up wardrobes, building a mock fire-place (unfotunately, we can't have real one there), etc.; jumping up and down the ladder at around 30°C made me loose some 4 kg in weight - feeling a lot fitter than before the holidays - but have been to the beach only once ... grilling on the beach in the August heat is for German and British tourists only anyway
 
************************************
 
The milling spindle will be secured in its place between the two brackets by a lever-actuated excentric bolt that pushes it down. I found a rough excentric bolt in my scrap-box of odd lathe parts, but it would have been as easy to start from scratch. The excentric was worked over holding the bolt in the 3-jaw-chuck with a brass-shim to give the off-set.
 

Rough and ready method for excentric turning
 
The head was turned with the help of the shop-made radius-turning tool (which I originally made to be able to turn miniature door-knobs and the likes). The tool-bit diameter was chosen to match the neck and shoulder of the bolt. The turning operation was followed by smoothing with wet-and-dry paper and steel-wool of various grades. Finally, it was polished with polishing paste. The pictures below show the various steps of this machining process:
 

 

 

 

 

 
To be continued ...