Bob Cleek

That's not a bad price at all for what's there. If you got them down to $100, you would be doing really well. The Paragon proportional dividers alone are worth that. "Anvil" was Keuffel and Esser's "second best" line out of a half dozen or so, surpassed only by their "Paragon" line. What is missing is a spring-adjustable large (6"?) dividers. These had an adjustment screw on the side of one leg which, when turned, provided extremely fine adjustment of the divider points to permit very exact measurements. There is a small dividers in the set of three "bow" instruments in the case, and the proportional dividers will serve as regular dividers comparable to the missing dividers in the Anvil set, so the absence of the large dividers doesn't limit the usefulness of the collection of instruments that are there. If one monitors eBay "drafting instruments" for any length of time, it should be easy to pick up a comparable replacement divider, though perhaps not an Anvil model, for a very reasonable price. "Stray" instruments from sets aren't worth anything near a complete cased set to the collectors' market. They show up on eBay often in "lots" of drafting instruments, which, if you are looking for a single item, can often be a very good deal. If you have any occasion to want a proportional divider, you shouldn't go wrong buying this one. They aren't making them anymore and are only going to become increasingly valuable as time goes on.

No problem at all! I'm happy to have been able to offer a bit of help. You can email Alexey. He uses "Google translate," so language isn't much of a problem. He's a very nice fellow and always ready to answer questions and give helpful advice.

Actually, in my limited experience, and from the reports of those others with greater experience with this machine, Masa's is the only report of such problems I've heard of. See: When the instructions are understood and followed, the problems described in this post don't seem to occur. Surely, cutting up the machine and undertaking to redesign it does not seem to have been a productive endeavor. Certainly, this was true with respect to both the substitution of the wooden bobbin axles which did not provide for the slight resistance necessary to keep the thread taunt as its pulled from the bobbins, nor with respect to altering the speed and coordination of the take-up spool. As for the thread tension, that only needs to be sufficient to keep the threads from becoming loose. The degree of tightness in the lay-up is a function not only of the speed of the take-up spool, which is easily adjustable by the speed control knob (and does require a bit of adjustment if the bulk of the laid-up rope fills the spool significantly,) but also of the adjustment of the "wind point" at the cross-bar. (See Alexey's explanation and diagram at post #12 in the thread linked above.) Note that the machine has been improved over time. Notably, the improvements made by the writer of the review above are now incorporated in the machines being made currently. Note the procedure for operation and how the adjustment of the take-up spool speed affects the "wind point" in Domanoff's instructional video.

So I've heard. They are very impressive machines. I'm waiting for my big lottery win in order to afford one, though! https://www.foredom.net/product-category/micromotors/micromotor-kits/brushless-dual-port-kits/

The supply bobbins have felt washers on either side of them, inside the mounting forks (frames) through which the threaded bolt runs. The plastic material of the bobbin forks is "springy." Slight pressure on the sides of the mounting forks achieved by tightening the bobbin axle knobs is sufficient to compress the forks slightly and cause the felt pads to create sufficient friction against the bobbin to keep the thread tight as it is pulled from the supply bobbin. The nuts in the bobbin axle knobs have some sort of plastic on the threads which prevents their slipping when threaded. This permits the omission of a second bolt that tightens against the first to keep it in place on the threaded rod. I'm far from any sort of expert on this machine. I've only had time to play with mine a bit and it's a slightly earlier design with a separate control box and a bit different planetary gear plate arrangement. I had problems in the beginning which were attributable solely to my own inability to understand the set-up instructions. I emailed Alexey and he was most helpful. The solution for my problem was in the instructions all along. (The control box isn't just three independent rheostats that control the speeds. It's "smart" with solid state control circuits that have to be programmed by the sequential pushing of buttons which isn't "intuitive." You've got to read the instructions and I hadn't gotten them right. I don't have any issues with the noise on my machine. If the noise increases as the speed increases, it's probably a vibration problem, no? I can only suggest the following possible areas to troubleshoot. Failing that, I'd strongly urge you to email Alexey and ask for help before "re-engineering" the device. It's cleverly thought out and doesn't seem to take well to being modified, as you may have noticed when you substituted the wooden bobbin axles which defeated the friction mechanism on the bobbins which maintains the thread tension at that end. 1. Check to see that the large gear (the "sun" gear in the planetary mechanism) is not mounted backwards on its axle. Yours is different than mine, but I mistakenly mounted mine backwards when assembling it and, discovering my error, had to correct that. The reversal of this gear may affect the gear alignment with the motor. (My machine's motor is a rubber "tire" friction drive against the edge of the large gear, unlike yours, which is gear driven.) 2. When laying up three part rope, the fourth bobbin must be mounted on the machine in order to maintain the balance of the spinning planetary mechanism. 3. Bobbin tension is adjusted by tightening and loosening the bobbin axle knobs to pinch the felt pads against the bobbin sides. "Whorls" in the laid up rope occur when the tension on the bobbins is uneven and the thread feed slips or jerks. Even tension when loading of the bobbins in important. 4. When laying up four part rope, a center core (a fifth strand) of smaller diameter than the other four must be run through the middle of the four laid up strands if the resulting rope is to lay up concentrically. If the core is omitted, the four strands will not lay up equally and the rope will be "lumpy." 5. The tightness of the lay can be adjusted by moving the "windpoint" created by the crossbar fairlead(s) on the threaded posts projecting from the main ("sun") gear. See Alexey's post with his instructions regarding this at 6. The twist direction of the thread, left ("S" twist) or right ("Z" twist,) is important. If you are laying up right twist thread into rope, you must start with left twist thread. If you are laying up left twist rope, you must start with right twist thread. If your thread is twisted in the wrong direction (the twist varies, but most sewing thread is right twist,) you have to twist it back in the direction you want before loading it on the bobbins for laying up. I hope these thoughts are of some help. As I said, if all else fails, email Alexey! He's a great help. Thanks for sharing your struggles here. I'm watching closely and learning a lot. I haven't had a lot of time to spend playing with my machine as yet.

As said above, there's no comparison between the Dremel MotoTool and the Foredom flex-shaft tools. I have several Dremels, which are handy for many jobs, but they can't hold a candle to the Foredom for modeling. (My wife finds the Dremel with a sanding drum mounted to be perfect for doing her show-dogs' toenails!) Dremel does have a lot of accessories for their MotoTool "platform," but, in my experience, they are pretty much junk, most lacking the rigidity to produce consistently accurate work. There are after-market providers of much better accessories which may be powered by either the Dremel MotoTool or the Foredom flex-shafts. (See: https://vanda-layindustries.com/) It's a lot easier to mount the 1" diameter Foredom flex-shaft to the tool post of your lathe for milling and grinding than it is the Dremel. ' Foredom has a large selection of hand pieces, including hand pieces for chisel carving, pencil sized ones for very fine work, and a mini-belt-sander, if one's so inclined. There's no comparison in terms of quality between Dremel and Foredom. There's no plastic anywhere on a Foredom tool, except perhaps the electric cord plug's body. The Foredom products will cost more than the Dremels, but you do get what you pay for and, with the Foredom, you would be buying the "industry standard" tool for the job. The Foredom flex-shaft machines do come up on the used market. I got mine, with two hand pieces, from somebody on Craigslist, a local "flea market" website, for $75 and it's served me well for years. They seem to be a bit more on the used market currently, but you can still get a used Foredom for about what a new Dremel would run you. There are always some used Foredoms for sale on eBay. I recommend getting the clamp-on hanging stand for the Foredom motor. That keeps the flex-shaft out of the way of your workspace. Keep in mind that the Dremel relies on speed for its effectiveness, while the Foredom flex-shaft tool relies on torque. Torque wins every time in that contest. The Foredom has a very convenient foot pedal speed control which, unlike the Dremels, will allow you to start slowly and work up to speed. With the Dremels, even if it has a speed control, you start it and it's instantly running at that speed until you change the speed or turn it off. If you get a Foredom, be sure to get the hand piece that has the three-jawed chuck, as well as the basic collect-holding chuck (like the Dremel.) If you're moving up from a Dremel, all of your Dremel tooling will work in the Foredom without any problems. If you plan to do fine carving, the control possible with the right Foredom hand piece is unequaled:

I'd snag a laboratory dental engine if I came across one, just to have it, but I suspect the "tooling," with a few different handpieces, and a selection of burrs and what-not would probably cost more than I'd want to pay for a tool that doesn't really do anything more than my Foredom flex-shaft machine does. Then again, I could always use it for DIY dental work on the family and in such fashion make it pay for itself.

Perhaps it's asking too much. I've had the same problem over the years. I've been annoyed repeatedly by my copy of Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft, which is a later printing at a time when the plates were, apparently, somewhat worn, sometimes making it very difficult to decipher the plans notations and tables of offsets. (These are otherwise available in much larger format from the Smithsonian in most instances.) Magnification can make things bigger, but it can't replace what isn't there. If a character is too "fuzzy" to read, making it bigger only results in a bigger character that's still too "fuzzy" to read. In many instances, for modeling and research purposes, the earlier the printing, the better because the type impressions are crisper and the paper quality sometimes better. This seems to be a particular problem with reprints of old, long out-of-print volumes that are reissued in paperback format. They seem to have a penchant for reducing the size of diagrams and drawings or, in some cases, simply omitting them when convenient.

Now that's a clever trick I've never heard of before! Thanks much! It's really quite amazing what one can do with an iPhone. Now, along with everything else I'v'e figured out, and probably a lot more I've yet to discover, I've got a 12X magnifier in my pocket all the time. I learn something new on MSW every day.

I recall reading with some surprise that Hahn did indeed use those blades back when he built his models "in the days of wooden chips and iron men." Finish wood was a lot less dear and more widely available back then, as well, so the kerf width wasn't so much of a consideration. The depth of cut on those Craftsman blades was 1 and 1/4", which probably explains why Hahn devised a jig to cut the pieces for gluing up his frame blanks... that was as wide a sheet stock as he could get. Interestingly, on the other side of the pond in Hahn's time, Gerald Wingrove was cutting his strips on the table saw attachment on his Unimat SL. I checked those Craftsman plywood blades out on eBay. I'm not so sure about buying used circular saw blades on eBay. With the high tooth count, I expect the saw sharpening shop would charge a bit to sharpen one. I expect they didn't get a lot of "mileage" out of one cutting plywood, which can be hard on an edge. I'll have to check, but I may even have one in my stash in the shop, inherited from my father decades ago. Delta and others currently make comparable high-tooth-count, (relatively) thin-kerf plywood-cutting blades, some less expensive new than the used ones on eBay. StewMac makes a 6" "fret-slotting table saw blade" with the outer 3/8" or so of the edge hollow ground down to .023", but its depth of cut is very limited. That puppy will set you back around $150.00. https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/saws/fret-slotting-table-saw-blade.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=2021-03-gp&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1pyCBhCtARIsAHaY_5fEdm8TK9oqsPrp2m7Lu8AeI0SXQvFi4cnuQ9byVdTiKgVLVwa3EIoaApVqEALw_wcB Freud has a 10"x80T thin kerf "Ultimate Plywood and Melamine Blade" with a 3/32" kerf for around $75.00 on sale. https://www.amazon.com/Freud-Ultimate-Plywood-Melamine-LU79R010/dp/B000GJTIIK I have a 1950 Craftsman/King Seeley 8" tilting arbor table saw that was my father's. It gets little or no use these days, since I have a Delta Unisaw and a Byrnes saw, but when it was all I had, I got a lot of use out of it. I still have all my fingers, no doubt due to my Guardian Angel working overtime. I always feel using it is a bit like playing with a pet rattlesnake. (Not that I don't feel the same about the other saws, though less so with the Jim Saw.) The fence on the Craftsman is very fiddly to set up and keep set and with the relatively small table, I have to set up infeed and outfeed roller supports for stock of any length. I have a good selection of molding head cutters for it, though, and I occasionally use it for that. Someone who had the smaller Craftsman tilting table saw with a thin kerf, high tooth count, blade for it wouldn't go far wrong, if they had a fence that didn't drive them crazy. What's scary about these "widdowmakers" is that there is the tendency for the work to slide "downhill" when sawing with the table tilted, but that can be compensated for with caution and a jig if you need it. It's just that with a 3/32" kerf, cutting 1/16" strips will cost you more in sawdust than you're getting in stripwood, which is okay for some, I suppose. Everybody's mileage differs.

The safety issues of a tilting table circular saw aside (Can you say "kickback?") these are good little machines. I doubt, however, that one can source thin-kerf slitting blades for them. If you can, then they can work for modeling, although you will have to use "zero-clearance" blade insert plates and arrange some sort of highly accurate fence system to ensure the repeatable accuracy of the cuts.

Assuming there are suitable collects or chucks on the handpieces, and I'd expect there must be... Have you checked out the units designed for dental lab and nail salon applications? There are some remarkably inexpensive units on the market these days. Not that I'd want my dentist cutting corners on the quality of his instruments, but for hobby work, they'd probably be fine. The same goes for old fashioned dental engines. I'd think there'd be a fair number of really good ones on the used market as air-driven and micro-motor-driven units replace them. On FleaBay, for about a hundred bucks - the blue things are teeth polishing cups: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dental-Lab-Marathon-Polisher-Electric-Micromotor-Contra-angle-10-Prophy-Cups/143944111592?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20201210111314%26meid%3Decf7e111aad647b1985bed3d18e771b3%26pid%3D101195%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpf%26sd%3D142686199499%26itm%3D143944111592%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv9PairwiseUnbiasedWeb&_trksid=p2047675.c101195.m1851 Refurbished-with-warranty lab dental engine with handpiece: $145 on FeaBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/231467107100?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=231467107100&targetid=1068323857870&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9032112&poi=&campaignid=11612431353&mkgroupid=114626995633&rlsatarget=pla-1068323857870&abcId=9300456&merchantid=113796506&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1pyCBhCtARIsAHaY_5eye0YMcPhG8phlwV1UQO8AaFuou0qcn_IVcFcnFaS94NenfJQmR9YaAi3KEALw_wcB

Varnish will likely produce a gloss finish that is out of scale. You may want to hand-rub it to a mat or satin finish instead. Clear ("white") shellac is another option that is easier to apply than varnish, as well, and if wiped on, or applied thinly, won't result in a gloss finish. The same is true of thinned ("wipe on") varathane.

Given the title of your post, I gather you mean, "Has anyone made a 2" or 3" sanding disk for use on their Dremel moto-tool?" If so, I'd doubt that the Dremel tools would handle that, particularly in larger grit abrasives, without overloading the motor. I have a 3" sanding disk attachment for my Unimat SL, but i have no need for it, given that I have a Byrnes disk sander. It's easy enough to mount a homemade disk on anything that will spin, but the more complicated task is building the table and miter gauge for the disk sander. A disk sander is a handy thing to have, but sanding as a method of shaping parts is less desirable than cutting parts to shape with edged tools, which produce a much cleaner cut surface than abrasives.

I expect that including the manual drafting phase in a build-log would be of great educational value to the "younger generation." Fifty years ago, "mechanical drawing" was a staple of most boy's high school education. Today, the average high school kid doesn't even know what a tee-square and triangle are, let alone a batten and ducks. CAD has its strengths, to be sure, but for model lofting, I've yet to see a time, or cost, advantage to CAD over old fashioned lofting on a drawing board. Perhaps many would enjoy seeing how easily it is done.

Take it from a 71 year old, you sure don't look 70 in your picture. Maybe there is something to avoiding VOC fumes. I've been exposed to them all my life, most of the time without regard to hazmat safety short of passing out. Perhaps I'd look like a thirty-five year old if I'd only have been more careful!

I just received my copy of Ab Hoving's Message in a Model, his book about the ship model collection at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, from Seawatch. It took about two weeks, which was more than reasonable for USPS "Media Mail" (the cheap rate.) I really don't find that any imposition at all. Sure, Amazon can get you bestsellers in 48 hours, but for a price. Here's Chuck Passaro's review of Ab's book, by the way. I've only begun to page through it and it's spectacular! It's really going to be a great read and the color photographs on every page throughout are beautiful. I'd urge anybody to get a copy. (They're on sale now at a great savings over the price at the time of first release.) have only one caveat to readers "of a certain age:" When you order a copy, expect to need a pair of "cheaters" (reading glasses) or a magnifying glass. The print is rather small. On the plus side, there's more to read on each page, so it's a great value if you figure it "by the word!"

Now that's one I've never thought of. It sounds like a great idea. I'll have to do some experimenting. As for solvents in apartments... "I love the smell of VOCs in the morning. it smells like... like victory!" Seriously, though, for the amounts used in modeling, I've never had any problems with fumes if I work near a window with a big fan in front of it, blowing outwards, and a window open somewhere at the other side of the room. (My kid has the right number of fingers and toes.) Ventilation is something of a old fashioned thing these days. The norm seems to be becoming to hermetically seal everything up and run the HVAC all the time. I am so glad I no longer have to work in office buildings with windows that won't open! The watchword here is common sense.

Beautiful!

Smith and Company's' Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (called in the trades "CPES" is a special penetrating epoxy sealer (not an epoxy adhesive) originally formulated for the conservation and restoration of decayed "gingerbread" on Victorian wooden structures. It took the wooden boat marine industry by storm about fifty years ago when it was invented. It's secret forumula is something much more than thinned epoxy adhesive, which some substitute for it. It's penetrating ability (it's about the consistency of water) is derived by it's very "hot" solvents. ("Apply only in a well-ventilated area.") I've used many gallons of it over the years restoring wooden boats. It would soak into that rigging, I'm sure, and bind it together as well as anything, and it does not leave a glossy sheen on the first coat, which is all you should need. It's a two part coating, mixed 50/50. You can telephone Steve Smith, the inventor, and he is happy to advise customers on its many properties for use in many applications. It's sold in most decent marine chandleries these days, as well as some hardware stores. Many have tried to duplicate it, but only "CPES"(tm) is the real deal. I bet it would work very well on that rigging. It does not dry hard and brittle, but retains flexibility and I expect if it were formed as it dried, it would yield very realistic catenaries. See: http://www.smithandcompany.org/CPES/ From what I've seen of your descriptions of the condition of that rigging, it's really not long for this world and any that's preserved will simply break in short order. It's the customer's call, of course, but it seems more a candidate for a total re-rigging than for the restoration of the existing fiber components. Some material that will penetrate the existing rigging and form a matrix material is the only thing that's going to work at all. Just my take on it, but it's a really old model and that rigging seems to have lost any strength it ever had at this point. I'm watching with interest to see if it can be saved. As the saying goes, "You're a better man than I, Gunga Din!"

Lee Valley describes Bridge City's tools as "aspirational." I'd say that's quite accurate.

I don't think that their CNC manufacturing equipment can tell the difference between China and any place else, which leads me to wonder why they would suffer the indignity of a "Made in China" label when they probably could have made them just about anywhere for probably close to the same cost. They'd have looked a lot classier if they said, "Made in Switzerland." Bridge City Tools isn't competing in the same market as Harbor Freight, for Pete's sake! The Bridge City plane above is much more sophisticated in design than the wooden Lee Valley miniature planes. It has a 1" blade, or so. The Veritas metal miniature planes in Lee Valley's collection of "minature tools," while nicely made and very "cute," and they do work like the full-siize prototypes, they are, IMHO, of very limited value for useful work. They are more "collectible miniatures," as were once very popular, but, come on, how often does one have call for a shoulder plane with a quarter-inch blade? *************************** Thread drift trivia: It's widely known that Walt Disney was an avid live steam railroad modeler, but not so widely known that he was also an avid hands-on modeler of all things himself and built one of the largest private collections of miniatures in the US, if not the world. Many of these were 1" or 1.5" to the foot tools, firearms, and the like. His idea for Disneyland, which he once called a "full-size miniature village," grew out of his hobby interest in miniatures. If anybody gets the chance, check out the Disney Family Museum at the Presidio in San Francisco, CA. A large selection of his miniature collection is on display there. The miniature tools are quite amazing. https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/miniature-worlds-walt

I can't recall seeing it on a ship model, but it was a common arrangement, I believe. Wrapping a heavy breeching line around a knob could foul the quoin. A cu*t splice worked into the breeching line was also commonly used. (Proper splice name expurgated so as not to offend the sensibilities of those not fluent in nautical nomenclature.) Thimble rig: Carronades frequently had the thimble cast on the cascabel, as in this example on HMS Victory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_artillery_in_the_Age_of_Sail

Sounds like it's time for Shop Notes 3 ! Excellent books! Among the very best for, well... for shop notes. There's more to learn from them than anything else I've ever seen in one place. The spiral binding was an excellent move. My copy of #1 was the original paperback binding and it's become a "loose leaf" collection over time. I suppose I should have it re-bound with a plastic comb binding, as pictured above. I used to work in an office where we had one of the machines for doing that, but that was long ago. Office Depot, Staples, and FedEx Office do it.

I thought that was cool, too, but I probably would get more use out of a spar-tapering kit than a pencil-making kit. (Every so often, I visit Bridge City Tool's website, just for grins. It's hard to believe, but they've been in business for quite a while, so I guess people do buy their stuff. They don't seem to have much of a steady line of tools. Instead, they feature specific tools which seem to disappear after they stock is sold out, never to return. Maybe they are catering to the collector's market, or something.)