Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner

[KeithAug]

John

 

Thank you. I think I am going to have to intersperse block making with other tasks, I can't face up to the prospect of banging them all out one after the other. Much too tedious. I haven't counted up how many I need lest it drives me to despair. I will save the count for when I am in a good mood.

[Julie Mo]

Your work is, as always Keith, amazingly well detailed!  I like how you come up with solutions like the eyeglass screws and ganging for the blocks.  I noticed you filed out the blocks to allow for turning of the lines.  Nice!   

 

Just curious - how long did it take to shape the assembly on the concave sanding block?

[KeithAug]

Julie

 

The shaping of the assembly only took about 10 minutes. Sanding the individual block took about the same time once it was parted off.

 

Thanks to everyone who hit the like button.

[michael mott]

Blocks look great Keith, what wood did you use for the various parts?

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

Michael the walls are mahogany from the old table I have been recycling. The top and base are from antique block floor tiles which I although they have a paler pink tinge I think are still mahogany. 

[Bedford]

Hey Keith, I think I'd probably just make each block as and when needed. That'd break the job up!

[KeithAug]

Bedford - you may be right. 

 

At the moment I'm still in block avoidance mode - so as a distraction I made the compass binnacle. This may be a bit of a long post and depending on the call for dinner it is likely to be a tail of two halves.

 

Altairs binnacle has a stem of mahogany which has detail of longitudinal panels. This sits on a plinth with brass ball details at each corner. Atop the stem sits a removable conical cover with a viewing tube set at an angle.

 

The whole thing is about an inch in height with a stem diameter of 0.3 inch.

 

Turning the stem was straightforward but I wanted to machine axial slots to represent the panel detail. To get the spacing on the lathe required a bit of improvisation with a sheet of paper. The paper was wrapped around the chuck to get the circumference and then folded in half 3 times to give 45 deg increments. This was then used to mark increments on the chuck. The engineers square was held on the headstock with magnets to create the reference. The axial slots were "planed" by traversing the saddle.

 

 

Unfortunately I ended up with a very small chip in the base, just visible on the right - so this one was thrown away.

 

Edited February 9, 2017 by KeithAug

[michael mott]

Kieth, the paper around the chuck was brilliant, Why have I never thought of this. Thinking ahead using the old method of dividing a line by using a known distance and then connecting the ends and drawing parallel lines to it to divide the unknown length any number of equal divisions can be arranged.

 

here ya go

 

chuck division.pdf

 

 

Michael

 

 

[KeithAug]

Hi Michael.

 

Many years ago I spent part of my apprenticeship in the Rolls Royce Ltd draughting training school and I remember the line dividing method from there. It was however in the dark ages before CAD and has faded in my memory. Your prompt is well made.

[KeithAug]

Binnacle 2nd attempt:-

 

The body was made as previously explained. This time I reversed the direction in the chuck and cut the circular plinth as part of the main body. Previously the plinth had been made separately and this introduced the weakness that led to the chip.

 

 

The conical cover was made from bar and the first operation was milling the flat and then drilling the hole for mounting the viewing tube / window.

 

 

The conical form was then machined on the lathe. Likewise the viewing tube was turned up from bar and the two parts were glued together with CA. The cover was then glued to the stem again with CA.

 

 

The bottom square plinth was cut from mahogany and drilled with a central mounting hole and 4 peripheral holes to take the brass balls. The balls were made using "Michaels stanchion method".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[michael mott]

Very nice work on the binnacle Keith, a tricky bit of brass fabrication too.

 

Michael

[Bedford]

Paper divider........................noted

Magnets holding square......noted

 

Both filed for future reference.

 

As for the piece, I've said it all before. Pointless to keep repeating the superlatives!

[KeithAug]

I thought I should update even though I am banned from the workshop until the decoration of the lounge and dining room is finished. Optimistically this is scheduled for a week today. In the meantime I took time out to order an Excalibur 21 inch throat scroll saw. I need a plan for broaching this with my wife before the delivery van arrives. Oh hum!

[Mahuna]

Great choice Keith!  I own the 16" model and couldn't be happier with it.  My saw is an older version and doesn't have the dust port on the table - I wish it did.

[skifflake]

Hi Keith:

 

   I build my wife a Victorian house. This took a lot of heat off as she said I was spending to much time on my boats. Now she spends hours decoration her new home. It really works.....

[KeithAug]

The dolls house plan may not work. She has one I built for my daughter 30 years ago. However you may be on to something. She is a jigsaw fan so maybe that can be a first project for the scroll saw.

[Nirvana]

Keith,

 

I have just read through all the twelve pages of your  Altair.

And I don't know how to express this......... I am so impressed by your skill and eye for detail.

This is just amazing!

Lovely work!

[KeithAug]

Thank you Per. 

 

Today I celebrated the completion of decorating by doing a little turning.

 

Altair has a very nice brass wheel pedestal which the plans do not do justice to - the plan is on the left and my drawing on the right is created from photographs using the basic dimensions from the plan.

 

The pedestal is turned from 0.5" bar. The first operation was to drill the .075" hole to take the hub of the wheel.

 

 

The turning was complicated by the need to create the sweeping curve at the lower end. I couldn't be bothered to mount the ball turning tool so I formed the curve by rotating the saddle and cross slide wheels in unison. A bit tricky but it worked ok. The pedestal height is 0.85".

 

 

Now I need to face up to making the wheel. I may take a while!!!!

[michael mott]

That looks like a nice bit of turning Keith.

 

Michael

[mtaylor]

Lovely metalwork, Keith.

[dvm27]

Lovely turning, Keith. It also looks just like those pedestal bases supplied by Model Shipways years ago (if the top were to be slotted for the keel).

[KeithAug]

Michael/Mark/Greg

 

Thank you for your comments. I spent yesterday experimenting with wheel making (the rim). Not quite got it cracked yet but I may post details of the experiments later. I find I learn more when I experiment but it does slow progress.

 

Also thank you all of you who have hit the like button.

[John Allen]

I thought I should update even though I am banned from the workshop until the decoration of the lounge and dining room is finished. Optimistically this is scheduled for a week today. In the meantime I took time out to order an Excalibur 21 inch throat scroll saw. I need a plan for broaching this with my wife before the delivery van arrives. Oh hum!

 

Keith,

Lesson 1. Intercept said package (priority) if the boss gets it first your cooked. #2 Do not do not buy flowers, take out to dinner, or do anything out of character the boss will ask what have you done. #3 Do not hide said package, trust me the boss will find it by accident. Do not have a friend buy it with cash you rat holed and say look what I bought on EBAY at a 1/3 of what it cost. Always ask the boss first or do what I do buy something of equal value dependent on equal cost saw cost # 1,500? buy a piece of jewelry equal price before you buy the saw then the boss will acquiesce. Lessons from 48 yrs of marriage. 

Your skill with metalwork is awe inspiring I bet that lathe sings when you work it!

 

 

[KeithAug]

Dear John

 

Thank you for the good advice. It arrived while my better half was out. It is now in a corner of the workshop unpacked but in full view. My wife paid a visit this morning to inspect boat construction progress. She had been to an auction yesterday and in passing looked at a Bassett Lowke pond yacht. She was comparing quality and pronounced my attempt was better. The distraction was enough and she departed without recognising the new asset. Her visits to the workshop are infrequent, one benefit of having no heating. I don't expect another visit for several months by which time a layer of dust may well help disguise the addition. All I have to do now is intercept the bank statement. 

Alternatively I could just own up. We have only been married 42 years so I am still learning. I bow to your additional 6 years of experience, such expertise is of significant value to NRG. Have you considered starting a marital help line thread?

I am now off to cook the evening meal - curry with all the trimmings. Perhaps I could tell her over a papadum!

[KeithAug]

I started the wheel experiments. I decided to build 2 versions and see how they turned out. Altair's wheel has a solid brass band set into the front and rear face of the rim. Its quite a nice feature and I am wondering whether I can reproduce it without the wheel looking too heavy. The second version is a back up, without the brass band. This is a somewhat simpler and more streamlined design.  The diameter at the rim is just under 1 inch and this introduces some challenges.

 

Anyway to make a start:-

 

Making the rim by turning a dowel to the outside diameter and then boring out the inside didn't appeal as I considered the grain direction would make hoop too fragile. I felt the grain needed to follow round the rim and this meant fabricating the rim from a number of section. This in turn could have introduced joint weaknesses but these were overcome by making the rim out of 2 layers with the 2nd layer rotated to stagger the joints. The photos probably explain this better. The assembly is glued on to a MDF backing to facilitate later machining.

 

 

I gave cutting the rim hoop a bit of thought. The obvious solution was the lathe but I was concerned that the forces be too great and the hoop would break during machining. I felt milling would be a less harsh process and this proved to be the case.

 

 

 

The middle sized hoop is the one I need for the simple version of the wheel. The large and small hoops are a bonus of the process.

 

The hoop was then mounted on a spigot ready for drilling radial holes to take the spokes prior to final shaping.

 

 

 

Ill cover progress on the more complicated wheel in my next post.

 

[KeithAug]

Continuing with the wheel experiment.

 

Rather than trying to attach the brass rim strip to either side of the rim I decided to "clad" the inner and outer diameters of a brass tube with wood. The result looks identical to that intended and has the advantage of creating a very strong rim which is beneficial for further machining. Unfortunately I didn't have brass rod or tube of the diameter needed. However a bit of searching through the DIY plumbing box produced a connector that could be machined to size. 

 

 

I machined a groove to ease later parting off of the rim.

 

 

I needed to lay up a further couple of hoops to clad the bore and outside of the brass ring.

 

 

The hoops were then machined out as per the last post. At this stage I left the hoops over thick (.080 inch). This is twice the finished thickness. I was a bit worried that making thinner hoops would lead to their collapse. In hindsight I could have gone thiner, witnessed by one hoop which was produced as a by product and maintained its integrity with a wall thickness of only .017 inch.

 

 

The rim here looks very heavy because the wooden hoops are twice the desired thickness. 

 

Here is the very thin hoop.

 

 

The final part of this stage was to attach the hoops to the brass tube with CA glue prior to a bit of light wet and dry sanding of the face.

 

 

 

Both rims are ready to have the 8 radial holes drilled to take the spokes.

[KeithAug]

Progress to date:-

 

I drilled the 8 radial holes on the brass rimmed version using the rotary table mounted vertically in the mill. The centre drill was used to spot through as far as the brass tube.

 

 

Before drilling through with a .075 inch diameter twist drill I inserted a plug to prevent splintering.

 

 

 

I also drilled holes in the back up wooden rimmed version. Still not confident on how the brass rimmed version will turn out.

 

 

I remounted the rotary table horizontally and thinned down the wooden hoops using a .160 inch diameter end mill.

 

 

That how far I have got at present. Tomorrow I will have a go at the spokes.

[mtaylor]

Looking good, Keith.   I'm curious how this will come out.  I've seen other methods but yours is just different enough due to the brass part to make me want to try it.  

[michael mott]

Plumbing fittings do make nice foundations for all sorts of stuff don't they. Nice work on the rim Keith.

 

Michael

[tadheus]

Keith,

 

 

Pawel