wefalck

Actually, on the real thing there were no treenails in the decks. What you see (or rather mostly not, except when really standing on a deck) are wooden plugs that cover the holes drilled for iron bolts (at least in later ships). The plugs do not show end-grain (as would treenails do) but were cut so that the grain runs in the same direction as the planks. The idea was to make them almost invisible for  aesthetic reasons.
 
It seems to be a fashion among modellers to use treenails to show how much effort they put into a model. There is also some mechanical reason, as the treenail securely fastens the plank. Otherwise, I would ignore them on a true 'scale' model.
 
wefalck

The rigging of the foresail was a rather painful process. My paper-sail turned out to be not quite fit for the purpose. They would be good to represent sails billowing in the wind. However, for representing sails that are hanging limp from the rigging in order to dry this technique is not quite suitable. In the past I made similar sails from ‚silk-span’, i.e. the silk cloth that is used to cover model airplane wings. These sails could be draped quite well, but the material would have been still too thick for sails in the 1:90 scale.
 

The foresail set for drying
 

Details of the foresail rigg
 
So I toiled, sweating blood, but am still not really satisfied with the result. The foresail simply looks too stiff. I also had too cheat a bit in the area where the sail is pushed together above the dead-eye. Due to the rather forcefull procedure of folding the sails some of the hoops on the which the foresail runs on the stay were ripped off. There are many area where some touching up is necessary.
 

Forestay set-up with dead-eye
 

Halliard/down-haul belayed on mast-cleat
 
On the botters everywhere half-cleats were used. This makes belaying a bit tricky on a model and somehow doesn’t look quite right, though I followed the sketches in BEYLEN (1985)
 

Fore-sail sheet
 

Forestay set-up with dead-eye
 
A shortcoming often seen on shipmodels is that the running rigging seems to be sticking out of the block, i.e. it doesn’t run properly around the sheaves. The reason, of course, is that usually only a cross-hole is drilled, without attempting to shape the sheave. The rather elaborate procedure of block-making described earlier was intended to remedy this. Looking at the pictures, however, it seems that I only have been partially successful.
 

Fore-sail sheet
 

Masthead with the head of the foresail rigged with a sheep’s head-block
 
And finally here a selection from my arsenal of rigging tools:
 

Rigging tools (from left to right): straight watchmaker’s tweezers, bent tweezers, stamps-tweezers for draping sails and straightening wires, two antique micro-crochet hooks to pull on rigging, pin-vice with forked needel for pushing rigging, pin-vice, sewing needle for making fake splices, micro-scissors, microscopy-scalpel.
 
Next the main-sail will go on. Another problem case ...
 
wefalck

Yep, I have been also using crochet hooks for ages. Inherited a few tiny antique ones from my grandmothers and aunts. They are very useful to catch lines e.g. when belaying.
 
wefalck

The rigging of the foresail was a rather painful process. My paper-sail turned out to be not quite fit for the purpose. They would be good to represent sails billowing in the wind. However, for representing sails that are hanging limp from the rigging in order to dry this technique is not quite suitable. In the past I made similar sails from ‚silk-span’, i.e. the silk cloth that is used to cover model airplane wings. These sails could be draped quite well, but the material would have been still too thick for sails in the 1:90 scale.
 

The foresail set for drying
 

Details of the foresail rigg
 
So I toiled, sweating blood, but am still not really satisfied with the result. The foresail simply looks too stiff. I also had too cheat a bit in the area where the sail is pushed together above the dead-eye. Due to the rather forcefull procedure of folding the sails some of the hoops on the which the foresail runs on the stay were ripped off. There are many area where some touching up is necessary.
 

Forestay set-up with dead-eye
 

Halliard/down-haul belayed on mast-cleat
 
On the botters everywhere half-cleats were used. This makes belaying a bit tricky on a model and somehow doesn’t look quite right, though I followed the sketches in BEYLEN (1985)
 

Fore-sail sheet
 

Forestay set-up with dead-eye
 
A shortcoming often seen on shipmodels is that the running rigging seems to be sticking out of the block, i.e. it doesn’t run properly around the sheaves. The reason, of course, is that usually only a cross-hole is drilled, without attempting to shape the sheave. The rather elaborate procedure of block-making described earlier was intended to remedy this. Looking at the pictures, however, it seems that I only have been partially successful.
 

Fore-sail sheet
 

Masthead with the head of the foresail rigged with a sheep’s head-block
 
And finally here a selection from my arsenal of rigging tools:
 

Rigging tools (from left to right): straight watchmaker’s tweezers, bent tweezers, stamps-tweezers for draping sails and straightening wires, two antique micro-crochet hooks to pull on rigging, pin-vice with forked needel for pushing rigging, pin-vice, sewing needle for making fake splices, micro-scissors, microscopy-scalpel.
 
Next the main-sail will go on. Another problem case ...
 
wefalck

The rigging of the foresail was a rather painful process. My paper-sail turned out to be not quite fit for the purpose. They would be good to represent sails billowing in the wind. However, for representing sails that are hanging limp from the rigging in order to dry this technique is not quite suitable. In the past I made similar sails from ‚silk-span’, i.e. the silk cloth that is used to cover model airplane wings. These sails could be draped quite well, but the material would have been still too thick for sails in the 1:90 scale.
 

The foresail set for drying
 

Details of the foresail rigg
 
So I toiled, sweating blood, but am still not really satisfied with the result. The foresail simply looks too stiff. I also had too cheat a bit in the area where the sail is pushed together above the dead-eye. Due to the rather forcefull procedure of folding the sails some of the hoops on the which the foresail runs on the stay were ripped off. There are many area where some touching up is necessary.
 

Forestay set-up with dead-eye
 

Halliard/down-haul belayed on mast-cleat
 
On the botters everywhere half-cleats were used. This makes belaying a bit tricky on a model and somehow doesn’t look quite right, though I followed the sketches in BEYLEN (1985)
 

Fore-sail sheet
 

Forestay set-up with dead-eye
 
A shortcoming often seen on shipmodels is that the running rigging seems to be sticking out of the block, i.e. it doesn’t run properly around the sheaves. The reason, of course, is that usually only a cross-hole is drilled, without attempting to shape the sheave. The rather elaborate procedure of block-making described earlier was intended to remedy this. Looking at the pictures, however, it seems that I only have been partially successful.
 

Fore-sail sheet
 

Masthead with the head of the foresail rigged with a sheep’s head-block
 
And finally here a selection from my arsenal of rigging tools:
 

Rigging tools (from left to right): straight watchmaker’s tweezers, bent tweezers, stamps-tweezers for draping sails and straightening wires, two antique micro-crochet hooks to pull on rigging, pin-vice with forked needel for pushing rigging, pin-vice, sewing needle for making fake splices, micro-scissors, microscopy-scalpel.
 
Next the main-sail will go on. Another problem case ...
 
wefalck

Thanks, Pat. Actually, I don't find the scale that small and others (e.g. dafi here) are working at similar scales.
 
 
A colleague on a German forum pointed out to me that botters usually had an iron rod as forestay. I was aware of this arrangement, but somehow I assumed that these rods with forged-on eyes were introduced later, together with a set-up by lacing or a bottle-screw. I assumed that the somewhat antiquated arrangement with a deadeye would be used together with a wire-rope stay. With this idea in mind I misinterpreted the drawings in BEYLEN (1985) und DORLEIJN (2001). I re-reviewed the historical photographs I have and as far as can be seen the forestay indeed is an iron rod.   I corrected this now and re-rigged the fore-sail with a 0.15 mm diameter wire with soldered eyes as stay.   Fore-stay made from a ‚rod’.   wefalck

Neutral grey would have the effect of toning down the 'brilliance' of a colour, without changing its spectral properties. I guess, when painting a wall etc. in red on a white basecoat, the effect could be just too stark. A grey basecoat would reduce the 'brilliance' of the red without changing its tone. For small parts on a small modell, however, you may want a brillian colour, but it depends on the circumstances.
 
A too brilliant red may make a part jump too much out from the rest of the paintwork. It also depends on what other colours are nearby: a brilliant red spot on a green background, for instance, would appear to be floating on it, which is not what you may want. So toning it down with neutral grey would bring it visually down into the same surface.
 
wefalck

Now the rigging begins in earnest. As different sizes of rope are needed for the various parts of the rigging, they are made on my ropewalk as the rigging progresses.
 
A special difficulty arose from the fact that fore-stay and fore-sail have to be set up simultaneously: the eye-splices of the stay do not fit throug the hanks of the fore-sail. Hence the stay has to be first reeved through them and then hooked into the hook of the dead-eye. This operation cannot be performed on the worktable, but has to be carried on the model.
 

Rigging of the fore-stay
 
In a first step the various blocks, namely the sheep’s head-block for the fore-sail halliard had to be hooked into the bolt-rope and a single sheet-block with second eye had to spliced to the clew of the fore-sail.
 

Fore-sail with hallieard and sheet read to be set
 
The halliard is an interesting item, as it also serves as a down-haul, i.e. it sort of endless its ‚free’ end is spliced around aone of the hooks of the sheep’s head-block. In real life the halliard is a pointed rope, meaning it becomes thinner at the ‚free’ end. However, this cannot be reproduced seriously at the 1/90 scale.
 

Head of the fore-sail with halliard and down-haul
 
The sheet is also lead in an interesting way. It is lead like a gun-tackle, but the second single block inboard is missing. Instead, the sheet is lead around the groove of a half-cleat on which it is also belayed.
 

Clew of the fore-sail with block attached (actually, the block should have been spliced into the bolt-rope, but I didn’t notice this when making the sails)
 
BEYLEN (1985) describes alternatives for the arrangement of the fore-sail sheet, some of them lead like a gun-tackle, but with one or even both single blocks missing. He does not explain the rational for the absence of the blocks. The increased friction would be of advantage when holding the sheet in strong wind, but would make it more difficult to haul it in.
 
wefalck

Well-made ropes in diametres below 0.5 mm are rather scarce or unavailable at all commercially or only in a few sizes and colours. So serious  miniature shipmodeller has to resort to make his own. There are various descriptions of ropewalks in the modelling literature and on the Internet to be found.
 
Essentially, a ropewalk consists of a headstock with a planetary drive the gives the individual strands a twist against the 'lay' of the rope, while at the other end there is a tailstock drive that twist the rope together. A travelling bobbin (the denomination varies) ensures that the strands are separated and then fed together in a controlled fashion. However, Bernard Frölich (1999) suggested that, when one keeps the strands apart at the tailstock end and then twists them together, the rope will start forming from the middle of the walk, progressing towards the headstock and tailstock. It is this principle that was used for the miniature ropewalk.
 

 
 
In my late fathers estate there was an optical bench with several 'steadies'. The bed is triangular in cross-section and is, as the steadies, made from solid dark-brown bakelite. It dates probably to the 1940s and was supplied by the well known German demonstration instrument company PHYWE. Not sure what my father would say about this new use, but after decades of slumbering in a dark corner of his study, it was calling for a new lease of life. It appeared to be a good base for a ropewalk and perhaps later also a serving machine, if I ever should need one.   Apart from the gears that were mostly bought for the purpose, the ropewalk was constructed from pieces found in my scrap-box. The design evolved while I was assembling it, so some aspects are not as well thought-out as I would wish. For instance, for the headstock I should have purchased six pinions and installed them permanently in a hexagon. I was too mean and bought only four.       The body of head- and tailstock is a small slab of 6 mm brass. The holes for the shafts were drilled and reamed to size. On the side that would have to take up the pull of the rope a 90° cone was sunk to create effectively half a cone bearing. This a better defined position than just a cylindrical bearing. The driving shaft in the headstock was left somewhat protruding to allow fixing at a later date a clamp for holding very thin wires for twisting them together. The hooks were bent from iron wire and hard-soldered into the shafts, as were the hooks in the driving plate of the tailstock. The driving shaft of the tailstock can be blocked by a thumbscrew that acts on a small brass pad, but the very thin ropes that I am making do not exert that much torque, so this may have been not necessary.   The steadies of an optical bench are not meant to travel, they are just set by a thumb-screw that screws into a triangular groove of the bed. However, the tailstock of a ropewalk has to move to allow for the shortening of the strands and the rope while being twisted together. I added round gibs made from aluminium rod. Round because I was to lazy to reproduce the odd triangular shape of the grooves. The tailstock is eased by hand to allow for the shortening because the rather long stems of the steadies lead to canting and thence to breaking of the very delicate ropes.   Depending on the direction of cranking, left- and right-handed rope with three or four strands can be made.   Reference FRÖLICH, B. (1999): L'Art du modélisme.- 304 p., Nice (Editions Ancre).   wefalck  

Well-made ropes in diametres below 0.5 mm are rather scarce or unavailable at all commercially or only in a few sizes and colours. So serious  miniature shipmodeller has to resort to make his own. There are various descriptions of ropewalks in the modelling literature and on the Internet to be found.
 
Essentially, a ropewalk consists of a headstock with a planetary drive the gives the individual strands a twist against the 'lay' of the rope, while at the other end there is a tailstock drive that twist the rope together. A travelling bobbin (the denomination varies) ensures that the strands are separated and then fed together in a controlled fashion. However, Bernard Frölich (1999) suggested that, when one keeps the strands apart at the tailstock end and then twists them together, the rope will start forming from the middle of the walk, progressing towards the headstock and tailstock. It is this principle that was used for the miniature ropewalk.
 

 
 
In my late fathers estate there was an optical bench with several 'steadies'. The bed is triangular in cross-section and is, as the steadies, made from solid dark-brown bakelite. It dates probably to the 1940s and was supplied by the well known German demonstration instrument company PHYWE. Not sure what my father would say about this new use, but after decades of slumbering in a dark corner of his study, it was calling for a new lease of life. It appeared to be a good base for a ropewalk and perhaps later also a serving machine, if I ever should need one.   Apart from the gears that were mostly bought for the purpose, the ropewalk was constructed from pieces found in my scrap-box. The design evolved while I was assembling it, so some aspects are not as well thought-out as I would wish. For instance, for the headstock I should have purchased six pinions and installed them permanently in a hexagon. I was too mean and bought only four.       The body of head- and tailstock is a small slab of 6 mm brass. The holes for the shafts were drilled and reamed to size. On the side that would have to take up the pull of the rope a 90° cone was sunk to create effectively half a cone bearing. This a better defined position than just a cylindrical bearing. The driving shaft in the headstock was left somewhat protruding to allow fixing at a later date a clamp for holding very thin wires for twisting them together. The hooks were bent from iron wire and hard-soldered into the shafts, as were the hooks in the driving plate of the tailstock. The driving shaft of the tailstock can be blocked by a thumbscrew that acts on a small brass pad, but the very thin ropes that I am making do not exert that much torque, so this may have been not necessary.   The steadies of an optical bench are not meant to travel, they are just set by a thumb-screw that screws into a triangular groove of the bed. However, the tailstock of a ropewalk has to move to allow for the shortening of the strands and the rope while being twisted together. I added round gibs made from aluminium rod. Round because I was to lazy to reproduce the odd triangular shape of the grooves. The tailstock is eased by hand to allow for the shortening because the rather long stems of the steadies lead to canting and thence to breaking of the very delicate ropes.   Depending on the direction of cranking, left- and right-handed rope with three or four strands can be made.   Reference FRÖLICH, B. (1999): L'Art du modélisme.- 304 p., Nice (Editions Ancre).   wefalck  

The classical surgical/laboratory stainless still is 18/8, which means 18% Cr and 8% Ni. The variant of steel alloys is legion and there are many more alloying metals in use, such as manganese (Cr-Mn-steels are in addition to Cr-Ni-steels used make armour plates for ships).
 
There are also Ni-Cr-alloys without iron, which are used e.g. as resistance wires and in electrical heaters. The wellknown miniaturist modeller Lloyd McCaffery swears by them for making standing rigging - they don't corrode and don't sag like copper.
 
The oxidation behaviour of copper alloys is quite complex and depends on the environmental conditions and the history of the oxidation process. So the effect of blackening agents is difficult to predict. However, the trades supporting sculptors working in bronze do know very well how to control the process of patination and there are textbooks and recipies available (also in the Internet).
 
Nickel silver (also called German Silver, Alpaka, Argentan, Maillechort) is an interesting material (60% Cu, 20% Ni, 20% Zn) that has similar machining properties to brass. Unfortunately for us modellers, it is not available in the same variety of shapes and sizes as brass. It would be very useful for parts that have to stay silvery. Otherwise it is used in large quantities industrally, mainly as the base metal for silver-plated cutlery. Because it tends to be harder than brass, very thin photoetched parts are often made from nickel silver rather than brass.
 
wefalck 

Not much progress on the Botter-model since I came back from vacation. Once reason is also that in the meantime a little item ordered in China had arrived:
 
Ever since I came across the LED ring-lights for cameras and microscopes, I thought something like this would also make a good illumination for the milling machine. However, all these lights were to big and too expensive for the purpose. With my limited electrotechnical and electronics knowledge I did not dare to put something together myself. Then I became aware of the so-called 'angle eye' cosmetic tuning parts for cars. Apparently, these are fitted around the bulbs in car headlights to give the headlight a aetherical appearance. They are produced, guess where, in China and sold via ebay at a price at which I cannot get the components, not considering the hazzle of soldering everything together. I ordered a couple (for obvious reasons they are always sold in pairs) and fabricated a lamp around these rings made from epoxy base-material.
 

The components of the lamp
 
As I wanted to protect the LEDs from oil splashes I chose a Plexiglas-offcut of suitable size and bored an annular groove into it. The groove has a shoulder on which the epoxy ring rests so that the LEDs do not touch the front cover of the lamp.
 

Turning the lamp body
 
The outside of the lamp was milled to shape by holding the body in a three-jaw chuck mounted on my upright collet-holder.
 

Shape-milling the lamp body
 
The backside is covered by a washer-like lid turned from a piece of bakelite sheet. Into the 'handle' of the lamp a neodynium magnet was embedded that holds the lamp to the spindle of the milling machine.
 

Turning the lid
 
The lamp was painted using a stainless steel acrylic paint.
 

The finished i-Mac-style lamp
 
As LEDs require a current-stabilised power-source, I ordered, again from China, a small electronic transformer or 'driver' for LEDs.
 

The lamp in action
 
More: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light
 
Now work on the model recommences ...
 
wefalck

Not much progress on the Botter-model since I came back from vacation. Once reason is also that in the meantime a little item ordered in China had arrived:
 
Ever since I came across the LED ring-lights for cameras and microscopes, I thought something like this would also make a good illumination for the milling machine. However, all these lights were to big and too expensive for the purpose. With my limited electrotechnical and electronics knowledge I did not dare to put something together myself. Then I became aware of the so-called 'angle eye' cosmetic tuning parts for cars. Apparently, these are fitted around the bulbs in car headlights to give the headlight a aetherical appearance. They are produced, guess where, in China and sold via ebay at a price at which I cannot get the components, not considering the hazzle of soldering everything together. I ordered a couple (for obvious reasons they are always sold in pairs) and fabricated a lamp around these rings made from epoxy base-material.
 

The components of the lamp
 
As I wanted to protect the LEDs from oil splashes I chose a Plexiglas-offcut of suitable size and bored an annular groove into it. The groove has a shoulder on which the epoxy ring rests so that the LEDs do not touch the front cover of the lamp.
 

Turning the lamp body
 
The outside of the lamp was milled to shape by holding the body in a three-jaw chuck mounted on my upright collet-holder.
 

Shape-milling the lamp body
 
The backside is covered by a washer-like lid turned from a piece of bakelite sheet. Into the 'handle' of the lamp a neodynium magnet was embedded that holds the lamp to the spindle of the milling machine.
 

Turning the lid
 
The lamp was painted using a stainless steel acrylic paint.
 

The finished i-Mac-style lamp
 
As LEDs require a current-stabilised power-source, I ordered, again from China, a small electronic transformer or 'driver' for LEDs.
 

The lamp in action
 
More: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light
 
Now work on the model recommences ...
 
wefalck

Not much progress on the Botter-model since I came back from vacation. Once reason is also that in the meantime a little item ordered in China had arrived:
 
Ever since I came across the LED ring-lights for cameras and microscopes, I thought something like this would also make a good illumination for the milling machine. However, all these lights were to big and too expensive for the purpose. With my limited electrotechnical and electronics knowledge I did not dare to put something together myself. Then I became aware of the so-called 'angle eye' cosmetic tuning parts for cars. Apparently, these are fitted around the bulbs in car headlights to give the headlight a aetherical appearance. They are produced, guess where, in China and sold via ebay at a price at which I cannot get the components, not considering the hazzle of soldering everything together. I ordered a couple (for obvious reasons they are always sold in pairs) and fabricated a lamp around these rings made from epoxy base-material.
 

The components of the lamp
 
As I wanted to protect the LEDs from oil splashes I chose a Plexiglas-offcut of suitable size and bored an annular groove into it. The groove has a shoulder on which the epoxy ring rests so that the LEDs do not touch the front cover of the lamp.
 

Turning the lamp body
 
The outside of the lamp was milled to shape by holding the body in a three-jaw chuck mounted on my upright collet-holder.
 

Shape-milling the lamp body
 
The backside is covered by a washer-like lid turned from a piece of bakelite sheet. Into the 'handle' of the lamp a neodynium magnet was embedded that holds the lamp to the spindle of the milling machine.
 

Turning the lid
 
The lamp was painted using a stainless steel acrylic paint.
 

The finished i-Mac-style lamp
 
As LEDs require a current-stabilised power-source, I ordered, again from China, a small electronic transformer or 'driver' for LEDs.
 

The lamp in action
 
More: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light
 
Now work on the model recommences ...
 
wefalck

Not much progress on the Botter-model since I came back from vacation. Once reason is also that in the meantime a little item ordered in China had arrived:
 
Ever since I came across the LED ring-lights for cameras and microscopes, I thought something like this would also make a good illumination for the milling machine. However, all these lights were to big and too expensive for the purpose. With my limited electrotechnical and electronics knowledge I did not dare to put something together myself. Then I became aware of the so-called 'angle eye' cosmetic tuning parts for cars. Apparently, these are fitted around the bulbs in car headlights to give the headlight a aetherical appearance. They are produced, guess where, in China and sold via ebay at a price at which I cannot get the components, not considering the hazzle of soldering everything together. I ordered a couple (for obvious reasons they are always sold in pairs) and fabricated a lamp around these rings made from epoxy base-material.
 

The components of the lamp
 
As I wanted to protect the LEDs from oil splashes I chose a Plexiglas-offcut of suitable size and bored an annular groove into it. The groove has a shoulder on which the epoxy ring rests so that the LEDs do not touch the front cover of the lamp.
 

Turning the lamp body
 
The outside of the lamp was milled to shape by holding the body in a three-jaw chuck mounted on my upright collet-holder.
 

Shape-milling the lamp body
 
The backside is covered by a washer-like lid turned from a piece of bakelite sheet. Into the 'handle' of the lamp a neodynium magnet was embedded that holds the lamp to the spindle of the milling machine.
 

Turning the lid
 
The lamp was painted using a stainless steel acrylic paint.
 

The finished i-Mac-style lamp
 
As LEDs require a current-stabilised power-source, I ordered, again from China, a small electronic transformer or 'driver' for LEDs.
 

The lamp in action
 
More: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light
 
Now work on the model recommences ...
 
wefalck

Not much progress on the Botter-model since I came back from vacation. Once reason is also that in the meantime a little item ordered in China had arrived:
 
Ever since I came across the LED ring-lights for cameras and microscopes, I thought something like this would also make a good illumination for the milling machine. However, all these lights were to big and too expensive for the purpose. With my limited electrotechnical and electronics knowledge I did not dare to put something together myself. Then I became aware of the so-called 'angle eye' cosmetic tuning parts for cars. Apparently, these are fitted around the bulbs in car headlights to give the headlight a aetherical appearance. They are produced, guess where, in China and sold via ebay at a price at which I cannot get the components, not considering the hazzle of soldering everything together. I ordered a couple (for obvious reasons they are always sold in pairs) and fabricated a lamp around these rings made from epoxy base-material.
 

The components of the lamp
 
As I wanted to protect the LEDs from oil splashes I chose a Plexiglas-offcut of suitable size and bored an annular groove into it. The groove has a shoulder on which the epoxy ring rests so that the LEDs do not touch the front cover of the lamp.
 

Turning the lamp body
 
The outside of the lamp was milled to shape by holding the body in a three-jaw chuck mounted on my upright collet-holder.
 

Shape-milling the lamp body
 
The backside is covered by a washer-like lid turned from a piece of bakelite sheet. Into the 'handle' of the lamp a neodynium magnet was embedded that holds the lamp to the spindle of the milling machine.
 

Turning the lid
 
The lamp was painted using a stainless steel acrylic paint.
 

The finished i-Mac-style lamp
 
As LEDs require a current-stabilised power-source, I ordered, again from China, a small electronic transformer or 'driver' for LEDs.
 

The lamp in action
 
More: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light
 
Now work on the model recommences ...
 
wefalck

Not much progress on the Botter-model since I came back from vacation. Once reason is also that in the meantime a little item ordered in China had arrived:
 
Ever since I came across the LED ring-lights for cameras and microscopes, I thought something like this would also make a good illumination for the milling machine. However, all these lights were to big and too expensive for the purpose. With my limited electrotechnical and electronics knowledge I did not dare to put something together myself. Then I became aware of the so-called 'angle eye' cosmetic tuning parts for cars. Apparently, these are fitted around the bulbs in car headlights to give the headlight a aetherical appearance. They are produced, guess where, in China and sold via ebay at a price at which I cannot get the components, not considering the hazzle of soldering everything together. I ordered a couple (for obvious reasons they are always sold in pairs) and fabricated a lamp around these rings made from epoxy base-material.
 

The components of the lamp
 
As I wanted to protect the LEDs from oil splashes I chose a Plexiglas-offcut of suitable size and bored an annular groove into it. The groove has a shoulder on which the epoxy ring rests so that the LEDs do not touch the front cover of the lamp.
 

Turning the lamp body
 
The outside of the lamp was milled to shape by holding the body in a three-jaw chuck mounted on my upright collet-holder.
 

Shape-milling the lamp body
 
The backside is covered by a washer-like lid turned from a piece of bakelite sheet. Into the 'handle' of the lamp a neodynium magnet was embedded that holds the lamp to the spindle of the milling machine.
 

Turning the lid
 
The lamp was painted using a stainless steel acrylic paint.
 

The finished i-Mac-style lamp
 
As LEDs require a current-stabilised power-source, I ordered, again from China, a small electronic transformer or 'driver' for LEDs.
 

The lamp in action
 
More: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light
 
Now work on the model recommences ...
 
wefalck

Actually, on the real thing there were no treenails in the decks. What you see (or rather mostly not, except when really standing on a deck) are wooden plugs that cover the holes drilled for iron bolts (at least in later ships). The plugs do not show end-grain (as would treenails do) but were cut so that the grain runs in the same direction as the planks. The idea was to make them almost invisible for  aesthetic reasons.
 
It seems to be a fashion among modellers to use treenails to show how much effort they put into a model. There is also some mechanical reason, as the treenail securely fastens the plank. Otherwise, I would ignore them on a true 'scale' model.
 
wefalck

Actually, on the real thing there were no treenails in the decks. What you see (or rather mostly not, except when really standing on a deck) are wooden plugs that cover the holes drilled for iron bolts (at least in later ships). The plugs do not show end-grain (as would treenails do) but were cut so that the grain runs in the same direction as the planks. The idea was to make them almost invisible for  aesthetic reasons.
 
It seems to be a fashion among modellers to use treenails to show how much effort they put into a model. There is also some mechanical reason, as the treenail securely fastens the plank. Otherwise, I would ignore them on a true 'scale' model.
 
wefalck

My God, what are you going to do with such a huge lathe, turning soup dishes ? What modellers need (e.g. for masts) is a good centre distance.
 
And remember: you can wood on a metal lathe, but not the other way around. If you only have money and space for one lathe, get a metal one, though they are a bit more expensive.
 
wefalck

I didn’t like the sewn-on fore-stay in the end. So I went and fabricated a minute hook from copper wire. Once the hook is tinned and soldered together it is actually quite resistant against the forces on it during the rigging operation.
 

The now correctly attached fore-stay
 
Lucky me that I am not dafi working on his VICTORY and that I don’t need hundreds of them ... 
 
wefalck

I still found time to begin with the rigging. Work will progress only slowly since the parts are rather delicate and the work is rather nerve-wrecking.
 
At the prototype one would install, of course, the fore-stay first. The fore-sail would be attached with its iron hoops. In my case, however, the hoops have already been sewn onto the sail, a work that would be largely impossible to do in situ. Therefore, the fore-stay has to be installed with the fore-sail attached to it. Form a modelling point of view sailships of the late 19th / early 20th century are quite difficult to rig. In previous periods ropes were often either spliced directly into eye-bolts or sewn on, which both are quite easy to reproduce in a model even at small scales. In later times, to the contrary, shackles and hooks became ubiquitous. It made the rigging and repair easier, but making shackles or hooks of 0.5 mm or 1 mm is quite impossible (the smallest shakles I managed to make are about 2.5 mm long). Just the fore-stay of the botter is hooked into an eye-bolt of the mast. Wire with a scale diameter would bent open under the load. So I had to take a shortcut and to sew it on.
 

Reeving of the fore-stay deadeye with the help of a tripod
 
There were various methods of rigging the fore-stay of a botter in use up to the end of the 19th century. I chose the somewhat old-fashioned method with a dead-eye. The lanyard was made from a rope made on my own rope-walk: three strands of Veevus fly-tying thread 16/0 in golden brown. The colour was chosen because the lanyard would have been tarred. I wanted to put a real wall-knot onto the end, but the fly-tying thread works almost like wire and is well nigh impossible to splice.
 

The fore-stay deadeye
 
The first picture shows my rigging aid: a small tripod that came from deceased father’s estate and was used to suspend a pharmacist’s balance (not sure sure what he ‚above’ would say to this re-use ...). A wire loop suspends the dead-eye so that it keeps clear.
 
To be continued after my vacation ...
 
wefalck

An old artists' rule says: fat over lean only. So, no hydrophilic (i.e. watery) media over lipophilic (i.e. oily) media.
 
The museums are obsessed with the longevity aspect. Understandably, but if the Old Masters would have been pre-occupied by this too much, we wouldn't have oil-paints today. As long as new materials, such as acrylics, do not contain plasticers chances are that they quite durable. A serious conservationary problem (or may be not ) is that modern artists are not so well-trained in technology anymore and experiment with all sorts of mixtures of materials that may turn out to be incompatible.
 
The lesson is: keep it simple and don't mix too many techniques.
 
wefalck

I didn't read all the above answers in details, so apologies for any duplication.
 
HSS is tougher than carbide, meaning that it is more forgiving with the light machines we use. Carbide keeps the edge longer, particularly when milling wood. I think for doing a lot of woodwork, I would use carbide. It has to be run at higher rpm than HSS.
 
Depending on the price you are prepared to pay, you may not have much to chose between 3 or 4 flutes. Three flutes are usually cheaper. Three flutes also give more room to the swarf, so it is better with materials that make long bits. The more flutes the better the finish on steel usually.
 
Ball nose mills tend to be rather expensive and are only needed when you want a round corner. They are also used in CNC copy-milling, when free-form surfaces are to be shaped. Otherwise zylindrical mills are used.
 
If you want to do plunge milling, you need a bit that cuts over the middle, i.e. once cutting lip extends to the centre of the mill. Most cheaper bits are like this, but you have to sure.
 
When milling a slot, plunge-milling a series of holes is only a moderately good idea, as you may end up with jagged slot, unless you use a smaller diameter bit first. Don't attempt to mill a full-depth slot (depening on the final depth), but take out layers. The tangential forces may to much otherwise wor the bit and it will brake. You may have to experiment with rpm versus feed to get it right. In general, with our hobby machines, it is better to reduce feed, though this may be at the expense of surface finish.
 
Feel free to ask more specific questions when they arise. It is difficult to give recommendations, when you don't know the parameters of the machining job, e.g. material to be machined, diameter of slot to be milled/size of surface to be planed etc., type of machine available etc.
 
wefalck

In wood, it should in general run as fast as you can, giving you a better surface. The feed depends on the wood. In some woods you may need rather low feeds, or it will burn. Wood is a poor heat conductor and cutting generates a lot of heat. Some woods are very difficult to mill, more difficult than metal or plastics - but I am not really an expert on milling wood.
 
When milling metal with carbide, it is usually better to do this dry. Carbide is very susceptible to heat stress and unless you have one of those flooding-type coolant systems, you will not be able to produce a constant coolant stream. Applying a bit of coolant here and there will shock the carbide and may lead to breakage of the delicate cutting edges. You can apply say WD40 before the cut, but don't blow it on during cutting.
 
wefalck