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wefalck

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  1. Like
    wefalck reacted to michaelpsutton2 in Question: Help to Identify drumhead of windlass   
    My uneducated guess is that they only went to the windlass when actually hoisting. At other times the windlass needed to be free for other tasks.
  2. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from GrandpaPhil in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    … don't have a gun license 
     
    ****************************
     
    The upper gun carriage
     
    Based on the profile drawings from (http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org)
     

    Part view of the drawings for the photo-etched upper carriage cheeks
     

    Surface etched cheeks for the upper carriage
     

    Filler and covering pieces laid out for soldering
     

    Assembled cheeks and ties laid out
     
    A core for the cheeks was sawn from 0.8 mm brass sheet and the etched covers soldered on. Then 'rivetted angle-irons', from etched parts were soldered on. These are connected by tie-plates. The frame of the upper carriage is also strengthend by horizontal ties. These are composites from several etched parts in order to show the rivetting. The horizontal ties were soldered to the side pieces, while the bulkhead-like ties were glued in because it would have been to difficult and risky to bring the heat for soldering at the right places. The covers for the trunnion-bearings were bent from an etched part and soldered together.
     

    Assembled upper gun carriage from the rear
     

    Assembled upper gun carriage from the front
     
    The upper carriage was further kitted-out with wheels. The front and rear rollers were turned from steel to give them a real 'steel' appearance. On the prototype the rear rollers sit in excentric bearings that allows them to be brought into to contact with the rails on the lower carriage: when being fired the upper carriage slides back on these rails, the rollers allow it to roll back into the firing position.
     

    Carriage with the barrel in place. Note the trunnion bearings cover (not yet trimmed to length)
     

     

    Added the rollers plus the sockets aft for the lever that is used to turn the excentric bearings of the rear rollers
     
    (Sorry, replaced the toothpick with a match - normal size not the large fire-place one   )
     
    To be continued ...
  3. Wow!
    wefalck got a reaction from vaddoc in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    Lock for the 30,5 cm gun
     
    The next thing to be tackled was the lock piece or ‘wedge’. This 'wedge' has a rather complex shape with a flat front, but a round back and various recesses and cut-outs. I decided it would be best to undertake most of the machining operations while it is still attached to some (round) material that can be easily held in a collet. The round back was milled in an upright collet holder on my mill's rotary table after the various coaxial holes had been drilled and the flat sides milled, all in the same set-up. For machining the other recesses the piece had to transferred to the diving head on the mill.
     

    Round-milling  the lock piece in an upright collet-holder on the rotary table
     

    Cutting off the finished lock piece
     
    The most time consuming part turned out to be the cover piece for the lock, which in the prototype was fastened by five hexagonal head bolts. It holds the moving and locking screws in their place. It took me four tries before I produced a half-way satisfactory piece. Soldering the microscopic bolts (0.4 mm head diameter) in place got me quite a few grey hairs. Finally a fake locking screw was turned up and the moving screw, which moves the lock in and out, was faked from a couple of drilled-together 0.1 mm copper wires, covered in a thin layer of solder to make them look like steel.
     

    Milling square and hexagonal bolts
     

    Facing the locking screw in special protective brass collet
     
    The large re-enforcement ring for the barrel was also turned up and two holes drilled into it for seating the rack quadrant that forms part of the elevating gear. In fact, I had cheated a bit, when drilling/milling the lock seat: the front of the hole should have been flat, which is difficult to machine; so I continued the elongated hole under the re-enforcement ring, which was made as a separate part and slipped over the barrel.
    The various parts of the lock were assembled using lacquer and cyanoacrylate glue.
     

     

     

    The (almost) finished gun barrel with its lock (toothpick for scale)
     
    To be continued ...
  4. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from GrandpaPhil in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    And the show goes on ...
     
    **************
     
    The gun barrel and lock
    Turning the barrel
    Because there will various visible areas of bare metal, the material of the original, that is steel, was chosen.  A piece of round bar was faced, centred and rough drilled for the bore. This hole served as a protective counter bore for the tailstock centre during the following turning operations. In order to get a good finish the automatic longitudinal feed for the lathe was set up with the change gears. Unfortunately the minimum feed per revolution on the watchmaking lathe is still too high to get a 'mirror' finish. One day I have to construct some sort of reduction gear. The outer part of the barrel has a slight taper (1 degree included angle) and the top-slide was off-set accordingly for this operation.
     

    Facing and centring a piece of steel rod for the gun barrel
     

    Rough drilling of the gun barrel
     

    Turning the barrel using the automatic fine feed
     

    Taper-turning with slide rest off-set
     
    For rounding off the ends of the rings the lathe’s hand tool rest came to good use. The work was finished off with fine wet-and-dry paper (remember to cover ways!) and steel wool. The bore was bored to diameter using the slide-rest and a micro-boring tool. I had originally envisaged to also show the rifling, but a quick calculation told me that for a 1 mm bore and 72 rifled fields I would need a tool edge tha is just over 0.04 mm wide ...
     

    Rounding the 'rings' using a hand turning rest
     

    Boring the barrel using a micro boring tool
     
    To be continued ...
  5. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from GrandpaPhil in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    The base for the double bollards were intended to be a surface-etched parts, but I was not happy with the results I produced in my simple home-etching arrangement. So I decided to make them from solid brass. Solid brass was easier to handle for machining than brass sheet. Nevertheless the envisaged machining operations prompted me to make a couple of gadgets, fixtures, for the mill and the lathe.
     

    Drilling of the bollard-bases in the work-holding block
     
    Milling around the edges or on top of flat material always presents work-holding problems. Worse, if several identical parts have to be produced. Hence I divined a work-holding block with several clamps and stops running in a T-slot.
     

    Milling a bevel to the bollard-bases
     
    Similarly holding small parts for cutting off on the circular saw is tricky and best done on the lathe with a special saw table clamped to the top-slide. This saw table allows parts to be safely clamped down for cutting.
     

    Cutting-off individual bollard-bases
     

    The three parts for each bollard (apologies for the poor picture)
     
    The three parts of each bollards were soft-soldered together.
     

    Work-holding for soldering
     

    The finished bollards on the top-left (the other parts will be discussed later)
     
    To be continued ...
  6. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from Bob Legge in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    The Barbette for the 30.5 cm Gun
    The barbette mainly consists of a semi-circular breastwork armour, backed by hardwood and by an open space covered with thin plate. The latter presumably to retain splintering wood in case of an impact. Since no tube of suitable dimensions for the breastwork was to hand, I made a short, laminated one from Bristol board layers glued together with white glue. The edges were soaked in thinned white glue before being trimmed down on the lathe. The tube then was varnished with wood-filler before the edges were sanded. Finally the tube was cut into half on the fret-saw. More wood-filler was applied before final sanding. The other inside wall of the barbette were lined with Pertinax to provide a smooth surface.
     

    Trimming the laminated tube on the lathe
     
    The fore-deck has been covered in a sheet of thin Bristol board and the camber of the wooden decking built up with an additional piece of board and putty (I am using fast drying bodywork putty from car repair suppliers). The anchor pockets have also been lined with thin Bristol board, but Pertinax would have been better for this.
     

    Tube for the barbette armour made from laminated Bristol board
     
    All surfaces that would have been iron plating, will be covered in thin sheets of Pertinax. The necessary holes for portholes and other opening will be drilled or cut before the sheets are fixed.
    In between, I had also improvised a disc-sander from a PROXXON router. In think in the meantime this manufacturer offers a small disc-sander.
     

    Smoothing the hull on the newly constructed disc sander
     
    To be continued ...
  7. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from -Dallen in A Lorch Micro-Mill that never was ...   
    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 ...
  8. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from cristikc in A Lorch Micro-Mill that never was ...   
    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 ...
  9. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from puckotred in A Lorch Micro-Mill that never was ...   
    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 ...
  10. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from WackoWolf in A Lorch Micro-Mill that never was ...   
    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 ...
  11. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from Mike Y in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    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
  12. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from trippwj in A Lorch Micro-Mill that never was ...   
    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 ...
  13. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from BANYAN in A Lorch Micro-Mill that never was ...   
    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 ...
  14. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from archjofo in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    Thanks for the praise to all 
     
    I think there are numerous tutorials on the Web on photoetching, Matie. I am using pre-prepared brass sheets available from various vendors. In order to keep things simple I work with small frets only and use small vessels, such as plastic film containers, for the processes. Compared to professional foam-etched parts, my shop-products are not that well-defined at all. It is not so easy to agitate the parts in the etching solution sufficiently uniformly. In fact, I produced probably two bad parts for every good one. In the end I picked the best parts from all tries.
     
    Surface etching (e.g. rivets) is simple, you just need two different masks for both sides. As you can see from the pictures in the post above, one mask just covers the areas not to be etched-away, namely the rivets and other raised features. 
  15. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from EricWilliamMarshall in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    … don't have a gun license 
     
    ****************************
     
    The upper gun carriage
     
    Based on the profile drawings from (http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org)
     

    Part view of the drawings for the photo-etched upper carriage cheeks
     

    Surface etched cheeks for the upper carriage
     

    Filler and covering pieces laid out for soldering
     

    Assembled cheeks and ties laid out
     
    A core for the cheeks was sawn from 0.8 mm brass sheet and the etched covers soldered on. Then 'rivetted angle-irons', from etched parts were soldered on. These are connected by tie-plates. The frame of the upper carriage is also strengthend by horizontal ties. These are composites from several etched parts in order to show the rivetting. The horizontal ties were soldered to the side pieces, while the bulkhead-like ties were glued in because it would have been to difficult and risky to bring the heat for soldering at the right places. The covers for the trunnion-bearings were bent from an etched part and soldered together.
     

    Assembled upper gun carriage from the rear
     

    Assembled upper gun carriage from the front
     
    The upper carriage was further kitted-out with wheels. The front and rear rollers were turned from steel to give them a real 'steel' appearance. On the prototype the rear rollers sit in excentric bearings that allows them to be brought into to contact with the rails on the lower carriage: when being fired the upper carriage slides back on these rails, the rollers allow it to roll back into the firing position.
     

    Carriage with the barrel in place. Note the trunnion bearings cover (not yet trimmed to length)
     

     

    Added the rollers plus the sockets aft for the lever that is used to turn the excentric bearings of the rear rollers
     
    (Sorry, replaced the toothpick with a match - normal size not the large fire-place one   )
     
    To be continued ...
  16. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from GrandpaPhil in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    Lock for the 30,5 cm gun
     
    The next thing to be tackled was the lock piece or ‘wedge’. This 'wedge' has a rather complex shape with a flat front, but a round back and various recesses and cut-outs. I decided it would be best to undertake most of the machining operations while it is still attached to some (round) material that can be easily held in a collet. The round back was milled in an upright collet holder on my mill's rotary table after the various coaxial holes had been drilled and the flat sides milled, all in the same set-up. For machining the other recesses the piece had to transferred to the diving head on the mill.
     

    Round-milling  the lock piece in an upright collet-holder on the rotary table
     

    Cutting off the finished lock piece
     
    The most time consuming part turned out to be the cover piece for the lock, which in the prototype was fastened by five hexagonal head bolts. It holds the moving and locking screws in their place. It took me four tries before I produced a half-way satisfactory piece. Soldering the microscopic bolts (0.4 mm head diameter) in place got me quite a few grey hairs. Finally a fake locking screw was turned up and the moving screw, which moves the lock in and out, was faked from a couple of drilled-together 0.1 mm copper wires, covered in a thin layer of solder to make them look like steel.
     

    Milling square and hexagonal bolts
     

    Facing the locking screw in special protective brass collet
     
    The large re-enforcement ring for the barrel was also turned up and two holes drilled into it for seating the rack quadrant that forms part of the elevating gear. In fact, I had cheated a bit, when drilling/milling the lock seat: the front of the hole should have been flat, which is difficult to machine; so I continued the elongated hole under the re-enforcement ring, which was made as a separate part and slipped over the barrel.
    The various parts of the lock were assembled using lacquer and cyanoacrylate glue.
     

     

     

    The (almost) finished gun barrel with its lock (toothpick for scale)
     
    To be continued ...
  17. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from GrandpaPhil in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    Thanks, gentlemen, for the encouraging comments 
     
    **********
     
    Milling the trunnion seats and the lock
    For drilling holes for the trunnions and milling the seat of the lock the diving head was set up on the slide-rest. I could have done this operation on the milling machine, but on the lathe the dividing head (http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/dividinghead/dividinghead.html) is centred automatically. The outer end of the barrel was supported by the arm with an appropriate centre fitted. The resulting shape from the milling operation looks like a keyhole, but something like a mushroom shape with sharp edges is required. This was achieved by hand filing.
     

    Set-up showing for milling the seat for the lock
     

    Close-up of the milling operation in the dividing head with support
     

    Working drawing and files used to finish the lock seat
     
    For the next operation the set-up had to be transferred to the mill anyway: milling the seats for the square trunnions. The trunnions merge in a concave curve with the barrel. The trunnions were turned up on the lathe as disk with two round stubs protruding from either end. In the dividing head on the mill the disk was milled square to the size of the seat (or rather the other way round). These parts then were soft-soldered to the barrel. Back on the mill the concave curves of the square part of the trunnion were milled using a miniature ball-head cutter, rotating the barrel in the dividing head.
     

    Milling the square part of the trunnions
     

    Milling the seat for the trunnions
     

    Trying the trunnion
     

    Milling the concave transition between trunnion and barrel
     
    Aiming a gun in these days was a rather primitive affair, using just simple sights. The sights (two of them on either side of the barrel) consisted essentially of a round bar with a sliding rod to give the elevation. The beads (mounted near the trunnions) were observed through a ring of inverted U-shape on top of the rod. The bar was screwed into a notch in the barrel. Now, drilling into a round at a tangent is nearly impossible without deflection and breaking the drill (0.3 mm!). Therefore, I ground flat a broken drill bit to make a make-shift micro-mill and sunk a start hole. This was finished with an ordinary drill.
     

    Milling the seat for the sights
     

    Drilling the seats for the sights
     
    To be continued ...
  18. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from EricWilliamMarshall in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    And the show goes on ...
     
    **************
     
    The gun barrel and lock
    Turning the barrel
    Because there will various visible areas of bare metal, the material of the original, that is steel, was chosen.  A piece of round bar was faced, centred and rough drilled for the bore. This hole served as a protective counter bore for the tailstock centre during the following turning operations. In order to get a good finish the automatic longitudinal feed for the lathe was set up with the change gears. Unfortunately the minimum feed per revolution on the watchmaking lathe is still too high to get a 'mirror' finish. One day I have to construct some sort of reduction gear. The outer part of the barrel has a slight taper (1 degree included angle) and the top-slide was off-set accordingly for this operation.
     

    Facing and centring a piece of steel rod for the gun barrel
     

    Rough drilling of the gun barrel
     

    Turning the barrel using the automatic fine feed
     

    Taper-turning with slide rest off-set
     
    For rounding off the ends of the rings the lathe’s hand tool rest came to good use. The work was finished off with fine wet-and-dry paper (remember to cover ways!) and steel wool. The bore was bored to diameter using the slide-rest and a micro-boring tool. I had originally envisaged to also show the rifling, but a quick calculation told me that for a 1 mm bore and 72 rifled fields I would need a tool edge tha is just over 0.04 mm wide ...
     

    Rounding the 'rings' using a hand turning rest
     

    Boring the barrel using a micro boring tool
     
    To be continued ...
  19. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from aviaamator in A Lorch Micro-Mill that never was ...   
    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 ...
  20. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from WackoWolf in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    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
  21. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from PeteB in A Lorch Micro-Mill that never was ...   
    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 ...
  22. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from WackoWolf in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    Thanks for the praise to all 
     
    I think there are numerous tutorials on the Web on photoetching, Matie. I am using pre-prepared brass sheets available from various vendors. In order to keep things simple I work with small frets only and use small vessels, such as plastic film containers, for the processes. Compared to professional foam-etched parts, my shop-products are not that well-defined at all. It is not so easy to agitate the parts in the etching solution sufficiently uniformly. In fact, I produced probably two bad parts for every good one. In the end I picked the best parts from all tries.
     
    Surface etching (e.g. rivets) is simple, you just need two different masks for both sides. As you can see from the pictures in the post above, one mask just covers the areas not to be etched-away, namely the rivets and other raised features. 
  23. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from Bob Legge in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    … don't have a gun license 
     
    ****************************
     
    The upper gun carriage
     
    Based on the profile drawings from (http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org)
     

    Part view of the drawings for the photo-etched upper carriage cheeks
     

    Surface etched cheeks for the upper carriage
     

    Filler and covering pieces laid out for soldering
     

    Assembled cheeks and ties laid out
     
    A core for the cheeks was sawn from 0.8 mm brass sheet and the etched covers soldered on. Then 'rivetted angle-irons', from etched parts were soldered on. These are connected by tie-plates. The frame of the upper carriage is also strengthend by horizontal ties. These are composites from several etched parts in order to show the rivetting. The horizontal ties were soldered to the side pieces, while the bulkhead-like ties were glued in because it would have been to difficult and risky to bring the heat for soldering at the right places. The covers for the trunnion-bearings were bent from an etched part and soldered together.
     

    Assembled upper gun carriage from the rear
     

    Assembled upper gun carriage from the front
     
    The upper carriage was further kitted-out with wheels. The front and rear rollers were turned from steel to give them a real 'steel' appearance. On the prototype the rear rollers sit in excentric bearings that allows them to be brought into to contact with the rails on the lower carriage: when being fired the upper carriage slides back on these rails, the rollers allow it to roll back into the firing position.
     

    Carriage with the barrel in place. Note the trunnion bearings cover (not yet trimmed to length)
     

     

    Added the rollers plus the sockets aft for the lever that is used to turn the excentric bearings of the rear rollers
     
    (Sorry, replaced the toothpick with a match - normal size not the large fire-place one   )
     
    To be continued ...
  24. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from JREwing in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    Lock for the 30,5 cm gun
     
    The next thing to be tackled was the lock piece or ‘wedge’. This 'wedge' has a rather complex shape with a flat front, but a round back and various recesses and cut-outs. I decided it would be best to undertake most of the machining operations while it is still attached to some (round) material that can be easily held in a collet. The round back was milled in an upright collet holder on my mill's rotary table after the various coaxial holes had been drilled and the flat sides milled, all in the same set-up. For machining the other recesses the piece had to transferred to the diving head on the mill.
     

    Round-milling  the lock piece in an upright collet-holder on the rotary table
     

    Cutting off the finished lock piece
     
    The most time consuming part turned out to be the cover piece for the lock, which in the prototype was fastened by five hexagonal head bolts. It holds the moving and locking screws in their place. It took me four tries before I produced a half-way satisfactory piece. Soldering the microscopic bolts (0.4 mm head diameter) in place got me quite a few grey hairs. Finally a fake locking screw was turned up and the moving screw, which moves the lock in and out, was faked from a couple of drilled-together 0.1 mm copper wires, covered in a thin layer of solder to make them look like steel.
     

    Milling square and hexagonal bolts
     

    Facing the locking screw in special protective brass collet
     
    The large re-enforcement ring for the barrel was also turned up and two holes drilled into it for seating the rack quadrant that forms part of the elevating gear. In fact, I had cheated a bit, when drilling/milling the lock seat: the front of the hole should have been flat, which is difficult to machine; so I continued the elongated hole under the re-enforcement ring, which was made as a separate part and slipped over the barrel.
    The various parts of the lock were assembled using lacquer and cyanoacrylate glue.
     

     

     

    The (almost) finished gun barrel with its lock (toothpick for scale)
     
    To be continued ...
  25. Like
    wefalck got a reaction from EricWilliamMarshall in SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned   
    Thanks, gentlemen, for the encouraging comments 
     
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    Milling the trunnion seats and the lock
    For drilling holes for the trunnions and milling the seat of the lock the diving head was set up on the slide-rest. I could have done this operation on the milling machine, but on the lathe the dividing head (http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/dividinghead/dividinghead.html) is centred automatically. The outer end of the barrel was supported by the arm with an appropriate centre fitted. The resulting shape from the milling operation looks like a keyhole, but something like a mushroom shape with sharp edges is required. This was achieved by hand filing.
     

    Set-up showing for milling the seat for the lock
     

    Close-up of the milling operation in the dividing head with support
     

    Working drawing and files used to finish the lock seat
     
    For the next operation the set-up had to be transferred to the mill anyway: milling the seats for the square trunnions. The trunnions merge in a concave curve with the barrel. The trunnions were turned up on the lathe as disk with two round stubs protruding from either end. In the dividing head on the mill the disk was milled square to the size of the seat (or rather the other way round). These parts then were soft-soldered to the barrel. Back on the mill the concave curves of the square part of the trunnion were milled using a miniature ball-head cutter, rotating the barrel in the dividing head.
     

    Milling the square part of the trunnions
     

    Milling the seat for the trunnions
     

    Trying the trunnion
     

    Milling the concave transition between trunnion and barrel
     
    Aiming a gun in these days was a rather primitive affair, using just simple sights. The sights (two of them on either side of the barrel) consisted essentially of a round bar with a sliding rod to give the elevation. The beads (mounted near the trunnions) were observed through a ring of inverted U-shape on top of the rod. The bar was screwed into a notch in the barrel. Now, drilling into a round at a tangent is nearly impossible without deflection and breaking the drill (0.3 mm!). Therefore, I ground flat a broken drill bit to make a make-shift micro-mill and sunk a start hole. This was finished with an ordinary drill.
     

    Milling the seat for the sights
     

    Drilling the seats for the sights
     
    To be continued ...
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