wefalck

I am not so much into kits and the scale is way to big for me. Does anyone know of plans sources for traditional Japanese craft ? I know that Pâris has couple, but was more looking for a modern treatment of the subject.

Advice always depends on what you want to do with the things and what level of precision you expect. Perhaps you can describe this in some more detail ?

Clare,
 
I was not looking for anything in particular. I am interested in 'vernacular' or 'indigeneous' boatbuilding and noticed that not much seems to be available, at least in western languages. I have seen some scholarly studies on ancient Japanese craft, but not really anything on say the mid-19th (after the Japanese opening) to mid-20th (WW2) period.
 
The link to Douglas Brooks is very interesting, thanks a lot !
 
I also noticed quite a few more models of Japanes boats in your 'recent builds' list. Are these somewhere on the Internet ?

I am not so much into kits and the scale is way to big for me. Does anyone know of plans sources for traditional Japanese craft ? I know that Pâris has couple, but was more looking for a modern treatment of the subject.

If you have a lathe, you could turn yourself an end-mill holder that screws onto the thread on the spindle. The holder should be bored out to a tigh sliding fit for the mill shank, which would be held by three set-screws. However, the MF70 runs at speeds of 5000 to 20000 rpms, which might cause some serious balancing problems, so I would be rather not doing this. 

I assume that the kit was designed after David McGregor's plans, so it may be worthwhile to get hold of a set.
 
I vaguely remember that there was a model of SCOTTISH MAID in the museum in Aberdeen, but I think it is probably a modern one. Didn't take pictures in the dimly lit museum during my pre-digital age visit there. 

I assume that the kit was designed after David McGregor's plans, so it may be worthwhile to get hold of a set.
 
I vaguely remember that there was a model of SCOTTISH MAID in the museum in Aberdeen, but I think it is probably a modern one. Didn't take pictures in the dimly lit museum during my pre-digital age visit there. 

Britannia metal probably is best primed, as the tin alloy has a slightly hydrophobic surface. This holds particularly when using acrylics.
 
On the model of the Zuiderzee-Botter I spray-painted the homemade Plexiglas-blocks in a light tan and brushed on washes of burnt umber acrylics. They then were sprayed in a semi-gloss varnish. I would avoid simulating any wood grain, as for good reason tough fine-grained wood would habe been used for blocks.
 
Another method of painting I used is to first spray-paint the blocks in a light tan and then to apply a solvent-based tinted wood varnish.
 
wefalck 

I gather the problem is that wood is elastic, so the cutting edge has to be fast to cut, rather than to push the wood sideways and rip it. This why one needs (in theory) a sharp cutter and high rpms. Slower feed rates mean that shorter and thus less elastic fibres can be cut (my theory). 

I gather the problem is that wood is elastic, so the cutting edge has to be fast to cut, rather than to push the wood sideways and rip it. This why one needs (in theory) a sharp cutter and high rpms. Slower feed rates mean that shorter and thus less elastic fibres can be cut (my theory). 

I gather the problem is that wood is elastic, so the cutting edge has to be fast to cut, rather than to push the wood sideways and rip it. This why one needs (in theory) a sharp cutter and high rpms. Slower feed rates mean that shorter and thus less elastic fibres can be cut (my theory). 

In any case, I would look for a lathe that can take collets directly. This so much more handy, safer, and precise than a three-jaw chuck for many of the small pieces we are working on.

I would like to have a toolroom lathe too, could think of some high-class manufacturers, but it is a question of space, when you are living in an appartment, there are limitations 
 
Most milling machines run too slow for good-quality wood milling. However, I have seen excellent work done with them on hardwoods. There are tiny high-speed mills, such as the PROXXON MF70, that can be used to good effect on wood. They would be some sort of micro-morticing machine and for miling-on flats, dividing work, and similar.

I would like to have a toolroom lathe too, could think of some high-class manufacturers, but it is a question of space, when you are living in an appartment, there are limitations 
 
Most milling machines run too slow for good-quality wood milling. However, I have seen excellent work done with them on hardwoods. There are tiny high-speed mills, such as the PROXXON MF70, that can be used to good effect on wood. They would be some sort of micro-morticing machine and for miling-on flats, dividing work, and similar.

Thanks, gentlemen, once more for the praise  
 
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With all the machining completed, the various castings were cleaned up for their cosmetic appearance and lightly sanded to provide a better key for the new paint. The areas not be painted were masked with tape and and any openings stuffed with toilet paper.
 

Parts masked for painting
 
The castings were given a light coat with a filling primer, while the fabricated parts were just given a coat in an ordinary primer.
 

Parts primed for painting
 
After some light sanding and thorough de-dusting the parts were spray-painted in my favourite colour for machines, in RAL 6007 'Bottle Green'. I find the combination of bright steel, polished brass details, and the dark green aesthetically very pleasing.
 

Painted parts after demasking
 
On the images above there are two parts visible that have not been discussed yet: a round cap that will close-off the electrical installations of the motor and a clamp to fix the machine at the workbench. The round cap actually is a bakelite cover for some electrical home installations and which had almost the right internal diameter. I just needed to enlarge it on the lathe by a few tenth of milimetres. The clamp belonged to an obsolote electrical drill. The reciprocal movement of the filing machine will necessitate some form of fixation, or it is likely to jump around a bit. In addition, the high centre of gravity of the machine would make working with it like this rather unstable.
 
To be continued ...

Thanks !
 
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The next item to be tackled was the overarm. There are three ways in principle to guide the files or saws: 1) the file/saw is tensioned in a frame and this frame is moved up and down as can be seen in most antique machines pictured above; the advantage of a precise movement and a constant tension of the file/saw comes at the expense of a bigger moving mass so that the machine has to fixed securely to a table; if the frame is not designed in a way that it can be removed, the use of stub files and work in internal cut-outs is rather inconvenient, 2) the frame is fixed and a guiding piston moves in a sliding bearing in an over-arm; the file/saw is tensioned by a coil-spring which implies that the tension changes over the movement; the advantages are that the over-arm can be easily swung out of the way, when stub files etc. are to be used, or the file/saw has to be threaded into a cut-out; also the moving masses are smaller, 3) the over-arm is actually a leaf-spring, as is the case for many older fret-saws; this design is unsuitable for a filing machine, as the movement is not precisely linear, but has a slight swing, which is actually desirable in a fret-saw. The old jig-saw used only permitted a design according to point (2).
 

Boring the overarm for the upright
 

Boring the overarm for the upper piston bearing
 
The overarm was fashioned from a square piece of aluminium. The holes for the self-lubricating piston-bearing and the upright were drilled and bored out to exact dimensions. In order to give it the appearance of a cast part, a relief was milled into the sides of the arm. The ends were rounded on a filing disc mounted on an arbor in the lathe (such filing discs seem to extremely rare today, but I was able to acquire one some years ago)
 

Shaping the overarm to give it a ‘cast’ appearance
 

Rounding-off the ends of the overam using a filing disc on the lathe
 
The arm was then slotted for the tightening bolt that allows to set the height above the table. This bolt was found in the scrap-box of old watchmakers lathe parts, but had the unusual thread of 7/32” x 24 tpi. Luckily, I had acquired some years ago a lot of odd taps that contained a matching one.
 

Slotting the overarm for the tightening bolt
 

The finished overarm (with tightening bolt in place)
 
To be continued ...

I gather, a real mechanic would throw up his hands into the air, if he sees me working …. 
 
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The next part to be tackled was the socket for the overam holder. An overam is needed for guiding the delicate machine files and for taking up the side pressure when filing. The foot for the sawing table on the casting was hollow and sort of house-shaped inside. A piece of aluminium bar was carefully milled to shape and size to provide a snug fit. Two tapped holes will locate it in place.
 

Shop-made boring bar with collet to fit the milling machine
 

Boring-out the hole for the overam upright
 
Drilling the 10 mm hole for upright round bar proved to be taxing for the capacity of my machines. There was not enough clearance under the mill for such large-size drill. Due to the hole being in one end of the part, it would also not fit into the four-jaw chuck for boring out. In the end, I realised a long-planned project and made an adjustable boring bar from a piece of 8 mm rod. For this I also had to fashion a collet with three set-screws for 8 mm bars etc. With this boring bar it was easy to drill out the hole with an excellent surface finish.
 

Overam holding socket
 

Overamr holding sockt in place
 
To be continued ...

Well, too much travelling the last few weeks resulted in little progress. It is frightening to think I started this project already in March, thinking that I would quickly return to my WESPE-class gun-boat project … 
 
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The excentric rod was turned from a piece of steel, while the actual lever with the ball end is a recovered piece from a similar broken commercial product. For other pieces of equipment I turned such levers myself using a ball-turning attachment.
 

Method for turning the excentric for the holding-down bolt
 


Holding- down bolt and excentric lever assembly
 

Table bearing barrel and locking arrangement
 
To be continued ...

Good point, thibaultron, about the hand-files that are cut for the push stroke, while machine files have a socket at both ends, but normally are inserted in such way, that they cut on the down-stroke of the machine. I also acquired a couple of diamond-studded stub-files with prismatic resp. cylindrical cross-section for use in filing machines; the obviously cut in both directions.
 
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The lathe-turned part for the bearing-barrel was sawn in half and the two halfs were clamped end on in the vice after careful alignment. With a fly-cutter the surface was milled perfectly flat and the diameter reduced to bring the rotational axis of the table into its surface.
 

Milling flat the halves of the bearing-barrel
 
The position for the barrel was marked out on the piece of 4 mm aluminium that will become the table. In the following step the positions for the mounting screws were marked out and drilled mit a 3 mm drill on the drill press. The two half-barrels then were stuck onto the table with a few drops of cyanoacrylate glue after careful alignment.
 

Bearing-barrel in position on the underside of the filing-table
 
The positions for the mounting screws then were marked with a transfer-punch. A light knock separated the parts again, which were then transfered to the mill for drilling and tapping M3 of the mounting holes. I usually start the tap on the mill with a few turns to ensure it is perfectly concentric to the hole and vertical. The tapping is completed by hand.
 

Drilling and tapping the mounting holes for the table on the bearing-barrel
 
Sqaring the edges of the aluminium plate for the filing-table proved to be just at the edge of the capacity of the milling machine. The plate was clamped to the vice on the mill with a C-clamp and the edges milled flat.
 

Squaring the edges of the filing-table
 
With the bearing-barrel screwed onto the underside of the table, the assembly was bolted to the table of the milling machine for milling the slot for the holding-down bolt. This holding down-bolt will be tightened using a excentric lever.
 

Milling the slot for the holding-down bolt
 
To be continued ...

The work on SMS WESPE has once more stalled a bit, because I got side-tracked by some engineering work. I wanted to first complete the model, but then realised that a filing-machine would come handy when making certain parts … 
 
The die-filer is a machine that has all but disappeared from modern workshops. I suppose there are several reasons for this. Many consumer goods and toys that once would have been made from (folded) sheet-metal parts are now made from injection-moulded parts. For more delicate sheet-metal parts also photo-etching is being used. I believe the watchmaking and jewelry industry still uses stamped parts. However, also the methods for making dies has changed. While the stamp can be worked on using milling- and grinding-machines, this is often not possible with the dies, particularly, when they have to have sharp internal corners. The die-filer with its reciprocal, rather than rotary, movement allowed to do this. An inclinable table was needed to work-in the relief that permitted the stamped parts to drop out of the die. Today, electrical discharge machining (EDM) and laser erosion has replaced the old technique. Hand-held filing machines are still in use for work on injection moulds and similar tasks on complex surfaces.
In a small model-engineering workshop, the die-filer still has its uses, mainly to work on precision sheet-metal parts and when one has to ensure that the worked-on surface has a defined angle with respect to another. A die-filer can also be used as a scroll saw. For this reason, castings for constructing a simple die-filer are still being sold commercially and and some small specialised machine maufacturers still produce different machines, mainly for the jewelry manufacturers. However, the latter ones are rather heavy and costly.
 

Filing-machine for the jewel-making industry (http://www.walther.ch/hwz/d-fm77.htm)
 

Kit for a filing-machine (http://www.martinmodel.com/MMPtools-subfiles/MMPtools-sub.html)
 
Some bench-lathe manufacturer also offered filing-attachments that were driven from the lathe headstock. As the filing-machine is useful for clock-making, e.g. for working on the spokes of clock-wheels, some people made their own attachments for WW-type lathes and they are highly priced, when they appear at auctions.
 

Cataract filing-machine for their bench-lathes (see: http://www.lathes.co.uk/cataract/index.html)
 

Filing-machine from a 1913 catalogue of an unknown German maker
 

Drawings for a filing-machine from a 1913 catalogue of an unknown German maker
 
Building a filing-machine has been on my agenda for quite some time. With this in mind, I was able to purchase a treasure lot of rare Vallorbe machine-files. The lot contained round, half-round, tri-angular, and square files starting from 1 mm diamater resp. 1 mm x 1 mm cross-section, going up to 4 mm x 4 mm, and of various cuts. Unlike most other types of files, machines files are prismatic across their whole length and have uncut shanks at both ends.
 

Treasure-box with machine-files
 

A selection of machine-files
 
I first thought about converting my only moderately useful Proxxon DS 230/E scroll-saw into a filing machine. However, the table would not tilt and the holders for the saw blade were difficult to adapt. Then a  broken jigsaw attachment for a power-drill came into my possession. Having no need for such attachment, the idea of converting it into a filing-machine emerged. The jigsaw was completely stuck nothing moved, and the sole plate was broken off. After having drilled out the screws that held the lid, the reason was obvious: it was completely filled with saw-dust, including the ball-bearing, presumably because it was upside down used under a saw-table. After dismantling and thorough cleaning it worked again. This meant, that I had the mechanism and the casting forming the basis for a filing-machine.
 

The disassembled jigsaw
 
According to the tables in the machine catalogue fo 1913, from which above illustrations were taken, the maximum stroke frequency would be around 400 per minute for hard materials, or less for softer materials. I sourced in China a geared electric DC motor that is rated to have 400 RPM at 12V. The output torque should be sufficient for the machine to be driven directly.
 

Geared 12 V DC motor to drive the filing machine                                  
 
In order to minimise the slot for the files, allowing to work on small pieces, the rotational axis for the tilting machine table should be in its surface plane and also should not move out of the centre line. The foot of the jigsaw was arranged in a similar way and only needed to be adapted. The table will rest on a half-round barrel that can be clamped down onto a corresponding bearing surface. I had some 40 mm diameter alumium in my stock from which I turned the barrel. It will be sawn into half and screwed to the aluminium machine table. The bearing for the barrel was milled accordingly. Similarly, some of the future bearing surfaces on the casting were milled flat, which just went up to the capacity of my milling machines. Luckily the zinc die-cast material of the jigsaw housing is easy to mill.
 

Set-up for milling the bearing of the tilting table
 

Part-machined jigsaw casting
 
To be continued, once I got over my flu ...

I actually find fabric, except perhaps for what is 'silkspan', unsuitable for model sails, except in very large scales. One can indeed hide some of the overscale coarseness by filling the fabric with paint, at the expense of loosing the transparency of real fabric. In the past I have used casein paints and since acrylics became available these. Acrylics have the advantage of staying flexible, so that the sails can be draped within limits.
 
I am rather surprised that the 'tanning' process should result in a 'bright red' colour as mentioned above. From what I have seen in museums and other places, the bark solution is a dark brown, resulting in a reddish brown tint, once the sails have been boiled in it. In the traditional process the sail then would be smeared with a mixture of tallow and ochre. There are many different shades of ochre (which is an iron-oxyhydroxide), ranging from a rather bright yellow to a dark rust-brown. Heating the ochre will change its colour due to the loss of crystal water, for instance. I suspect, that some other dye has been added to achieve a bright red colour.
 
Below is a tanned sail from botters in the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen (NL)
 

 
 

 
And my own interpretation of a botter sail in 1:90 scale, made from individual paper 'sail cloths' and painted in acrylics:
 

 
The actual colours, of course, are not reproduced exactly as the eye may see it due to different colours of light etc.

In any case, I would look for a lathe that can take collets directly. This so much more handy, safer, and precise than a three-jaw chuck for many of the small pieces we are working on.

In any case, I would look for a lathe that can take collets directly. This so much more handy, safer, and precise than a three-jaw chuck for many of the small pieces we are working on.

In any case, I would look for a lathe that can take collets directly. This so much more handy, safer, and precise than a three-jaw chuck for many of the small pieces we are working on.

In any case, I would look for a lathe that can take collets directly. This so much more handy, safer, and precise than a three-jaw chuck for many of the small pieces we are working on.