Dunbrody by Mahuna - FINISHED - 1:48 - Cross-Section - Irish Famine Ship

[Mahuna]

Part 48 – Deadeyes and Chainplates

 

Well, I’m back from the NRG Conference.  There were parts of it that were very enjoyable, especially the sail on the Californian, a replica of a Revenue Cutter based on a ship from the mid-1800’s.  There were some really nice models on display at the conference, and it was good to meet some of the modelers I’ve gotten to know through MSW.  After returning home over the weekend I spent a few days catching up on some chores that I’ve neglected.  The last few weeks (or months?) have been focused on trying to get Dunbrody to a point that would make a decent display, and a lot of chores had piled up.  So now I’m ready to get back to work on Dunbrody.

 

I’ve decided to try making the deadeyes and chainplates.  The deadeyes that can be seen on the replica ship are somewhat different from those I normally see.  The deadeyes are stropped with a flat iron band, and the deadeyes are fairly flat all the way to the outer edges.

 

                       

 

I spent the day experimenting with some alternative ways to model the chainplates.  The deadeyes are 10.5” in diameter (7/32 on the model), based on the rule of thumb that they should be ½ the diameter of the associated mast.  The trial deadeye was turned from a piece of castello.  A lathe tool was shaped for cutting the flat depression for the stropping band.

 

                       

 

                       

 

The iron stropping band is made form 1/32 x 1/64 flat brass stock annealed to make the bending more manageable.  A holding jig was made on the mill from a scrap piece of Corion – this is a material used for countertops, and is a good material for soldering jigs.  This jig has a hole the same size as the deadeye, and a small channel for the ends of the strop to protrude.

 

                       

 

As can be seen from the photo, the deadeye has not yet been drilled for lanyard holes, nor has it been smoothed after coming off the lathe.  It was parted using a small razor saw, so normally these deadeyes would be finish-sanded.  Since this was a prototype those steps were omitted.

 

The ends of the strops were cut down to the final length, and were rounded.  This work was done with a high-speed rotary tool.

 

                       

 

The chainplates will be made from 1/8 x 1/64 brass strips.  I started by soldering a 1/32 round bar to the end of the strip, to simulate the hinge that attaches the strop to the chainplate.  I made a jig with a rounded groove for the round bar to sit in and a 1/64 groove for the strip to sit in.

 

                       

 

The jig worked well, and since I use resistance soldering I was able to hold the strip to the jig with a plastic clamp with no heat-related problems.

 

                       

 

Unfortunately, the round hinge made it very difficult to connect the deadeye to the chainplate.  After a lot of frustration, I tried a different approach. 

 

The end of the brass strip was twisted 90 degrees.

 

                       

 

It was then smoothed and shaped using the rotary tool with a diamond bit.

 

                       

 

                       

 

The chainplate was soldered to the deadeye using the holding jig to keep everything aligned.

 

                       

 

A final shaping was done for the deadeye/chainplate combination.

 

                       

 

JAX brass cleaner was used to clean off the chainplate.

 

                       

 

                       

 

After using the cleaner the whole assembly was cleaned under running water.  This soaked into the wood of the deadeye, but dried to a natural color. 

 

After cleaning, the assembly was blackened using JAX Pewter Black and was rinsed again in cold water.

 

                       

 

                       

 

The wood was still wet when these photos were taken, but the deadeye again dried to a natural color.  The real deadeyes will be darkened with stain or paint before installation, so any kind of discoloration would not be a problem in the finished deadeyes.

 

The photos show some lack of symmetry, but the assemblies look good to the naked eye (without magnification!).  When the real deadeyes are made I’ll take more time to get them as symmetrical and smooth as possible.  I still like the idea of the rounded hinge better than the successful approach, so I’ll continue to play with that alternative for a while.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

[cog]

Frank,

 

That is some grand brass work you show us there, and some very practical jigs ... thanks for sharing

 

One question though, when you stain the slightly burned wood won't the burn show through the stain?

 

Cheers

 

P.s. I'm following your build from the beginning, and I love how you do it, very clean and crisp a real treat

Edited October 13, 2016 by cog

[druxey]

Is the joint durable enough, only being soft-soldered?

[EdT]

At the risk of continually repeating myself, your work is outstanding and I regret not being at the conference to see it.

 

The deadeye design with the tight, confined, flat strop precludes slipping the deadeye into place after soldering - an interesting problem.

 

Like Druxey, I wonder about the soft solder, but given that the soldered joint will be in sheer rather than tension, should be OK.   There is nothing worse than having a chainplate break when tensioning shrouds.   I tend to over-design for strength and would probably look for a silver-soldered solution.  Otherwise, I think your method will be fine and will look great.

 

I think if I were doing this and expected high stress from lower shrouds, I would consider making the deadeye in two pieces with an internal joint parallel to the faces.  These could then be glued together over the finished, silver-soldered, blackened strap.  Probably would drill the deadeyes after - perhaps in a jig, but the assembly may clamp into the rotary mill table for drilling by that method.  Just an idea that would need to be tested.

 

I also wondered about deforming the chain plate in a vise, or with strong pliers, or even hammering with a flat punch, rather than twisting.  I used the vise method on YA's chainplates, which have the same connecting end shape. 

 

Ed

Edited October 13, 2016 by EdT

[Mahuna]

Frank,

 

That is some grand brass work you show us there, and some very practical jigs ... thanks for sharing

 

One question though, when you stain the slightly burned wood won't the burn show through the stain?

 

Cheers

 

P.s. I'm following your build from the beginning, and I love how you do it, very clean and crisp a real treat

Thanks Carl.

 

Since I'm using resistance soldering the heat is very localized and the wood doesn't burn.  The prototype has a little char because it was used several times and some of the fluxing and soldering wasn't too precise.  

 

Since I posted the latest update I've been thinking of some ways to get improved precision in fabricating the chainplates and will continue the experimenting over the next few days.

 

 

Is the joint durable enough, only being soft-soldered?

 

 

Hi Druxey.  I'm using a silver-bearing solder (from Radio Shack) and other joints I've made with it are quite strong.  That being said, there won't be any tension on these joints since the model won't be rigged.  There will only be the lower deadeyes showing. 

[EdT]

Ah, silver-bearing soft solder and resistance soldering - good tips.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

At the risk of continually repeating myself, your work is outstanding and I regret not being at the conference to see it.

 

The deadeye design with the tight, confined, flat strop precludes slipping the deadeye into place after soldering - an interesting problem.

 

Like Druxey, I wonder about the soft solder, but given that the soldered joint will be in sheer rather than tension, should be OK.   There is nothing worse than having a chainplate break when tensioning shrouds.   I tend to over-design for strength and would probably look for a silver-soldered solution.  Otherwise, I think your method will be fine and will look great.

 

I think if I were doing this and expected high stress from lower shrouds, I would consider making the deadeye in two pieces with an internal joint parallel to the faces.  These could then be glued together over the finished, silver-soldered, blackened strap.  Probably would drill the deadeyes after - perhaps in a jig, but the assembly may clamp into the rotary mill table for drilling by that method.  Just an idea that would need to be tested.

 

I also wondered about deforming the chain plate in a vise, or with strong pliers, or even hammering with a flat punch, rather than twisting.  I used the vise method on YA's chainplates, which have the same connecting end shape. 

 

Ed

Thanks Ed.  There were some really outstanding models at the conference and they made me realize that I still have lots of room for improvement.

 

As I said above, I'm not too happy with these first attempts at chainplates.  I spent some time last night thinking of some better ways to hold and form the brass (at 3 AM instead of sleeping!), and will be trying them out in the next couple of days.  The use of corian for jigs was an idea I got from a modeler friend, and it's a really good one.  I visited a local kitchen counter shop and asked them if I could go through their scrap bin.  Corian cuts with the band saw, and mills nice and clean.

[druxey]

Thanks for your remarks on soldering, Frank.

[captainbob]

It seems everyone wants to tell you how to make this assembly, so I'll throw in my two cents.  In the picture of the real boat the stropping is attached to the chain plate with a bolt.  So I would have drilled the strop and chain plate and put in a 00-90 or 000-120 bolt and nut or maybe just a rivet.  This would allow the deadeye to align with the shrouds and get away from the soldering.

 

Bob

[AON]

I wouldn't dream of telling you how to do it.

You keep on experimenting and reporting and I'll keep learning!

[Mahuna]

It seems everyone wants to tell you how to make this assembly, so I'll throw in my two cents.  In the picture of the real boat the stropping is attached to the chain plate with a bolt.  So I would have drilled the strop and chain plate and put in a 00-90 or 000-120 bolt and nut or maybe just a rivet.  This would allow the deadeye to align with the shrouds and get away from the soldering.

 

Bob

Hi Bob - the drilling approach was what I first considered, but quickly decided it was not in the cards for me.  Center drilling a piece of 1/64 round stock isn't something I want to play with right now!  Most of the other steps (which will be shown in my next post) would still be the same.

 

 

I wouldn't dream of telling you how to do it.

You keep on experimenting and reporting and I'll keep learning!

 

Thanks Alan - more to come!!

[Mahuna]

Part 49 – Deadeyes and Chainplates Version 2

 

I wasn’t really happy with the results of my first try at making the deadeyes and chainplates for Dunbrody.  After lots of thought (much of it in the middle of the night when I should have been asleep), I decided that a couple of jigs would help with the precision.

 

Twisting the chainplate to form the hinge, as in the prior attempt, would most likely result in a number of variances from one deadeye to another.  When viewing a single deadeye the result might be acceptable, but when 6 or 8 deadeyes are lined up next to each other the differences would surely stand out.

 

The original attempt started with soldering a piece of 1/32 round bar to the chainplate, which is 3/32 x 1/64.  This gave a good impression of a hinge, but centering and shaping the hinge and the shoulders of the chainplate was problematic, and that’s when I decided to twist the chainplate stock to form the hinge.  The new process starts with the round bar, and I thought some viewers may be interested in seeing how resistance soldering works.

 

The first photo shows the soldering setup.  The jig consists of a piece of corian milled so that the groove for the chainplate is the same depth as the thickness of the stock, and the groove for the round stock is the correct depth for the chainplate to lie at the center of the round stock.

 

                       

 

The large black clamp simply holds the jig on the table.  The yellow plastic clamp is holding the chainplate to the jig, and the orange plastic clamp is holding the round bar stock to the jig.  The alligator clip attached to the chainplate is the negative electrode attached to the resistance soldering power unit.

 

After the setup is secured, flux is applied as in any other soldering process. 

 

                       

 

I’m using Stay-Clean flux – this normally comes with Sta-Brite solder.  I use a silver-bearing solder from Radio Shack, mainly because it comes as a very thin wire, so it’s easy to clip off a very small piece and avoid wasting solder and making cleanup harder.  In the following photo you may be able to see the very small piece of solder pointed to by the tweezers.

 

                       

 

Heating the solder is accomplished by holding the positive electrode to the workpiece – normally at the thickest part – and depressing the footswitch.  With pieces this small the soldering takes only a few seconds.

 

                       

 

The piece cools down almost immediately, so it’s not necessary to wait or to immerse the piece in a cooling bath.  The next step is to clip off the excess round bar.

 

                       

 

                       

 

Shaping a piece this small by eye so that it is symmetrical and repeatable is very difficult.  A shaping template was made on the mill so that the piece could be tested as it was being shaped (shaping was done with a small parallel Barrette file – number 4).

 

                       

 

The square hole on the left is for the initial shaping to get the size of the hinge consistent and centered.  The hole on the right was shaped using a rounded end mill and indicates the shoulders of the chainplate.  The following photo shows the first step in shaping the hinge.

 

                       

 

After the shoulders were rounded the profile of the hinge is finished.

 

                       

 

The strop is a piece of 1/32 x 1/64 flat bar stock.  The strop is annealed (heated to a red color and then quenched) to soften the stock and make it easier to bend.  During my first attempts I bent the strop around the deadeye itself.  This resulted in the strop being completely around the deadeye with little or no room for the hinge arrangement.  I decided to make a bending jig that would ensure a sufficient opening in the strop.  This jig consists of a piece of round brass stock shaped to the proper diameter on the lathe and with a groove cut in for the strop.  It also has a piece of flat stock of the same thickness as the hinge soldered into a slot that was cut into the jig.

 

                       

 

The strop is bent around the jig and tightened by squeezing the ends to the protruding piece.

 

                       

 

The strop is then added to the deadeye and the assembly is placed in the jig for forming the assembly (same jig as previously used).

 

                       

 

The deadeye being used in the picture has been used in several previous attempts, so is discolored.  This won’t be an issue when the ‘production’ deadeyes and chainplates are being assembled.

 

The ends of the strop are then clipped down to the finished length and the protruding ends are rounded.

 

                       

 

The chainplate is then soldered to the deadeye hinge, using the setup shown in the following photo.

 

                       

 

I’m much happier with the results of this new process.  Making a single deadeye/chainplate combination takes less than an hour with this new process, and is very repeatable.

 

                       

 

                      

 

                       

 

The shaping definitely requires the use of an Optivisor, since these deadeyes are fairly small.

 

                       

 

So now I guess I’d better start making the ‘production’ deadeyes before I forget how!

 

Thanks, everyone!

 

 

[druxey]

Very nicely thought through, Frank, with a great result!

[Mahuna]

Very nicely thought through, Frank, with a great result!

Thanks Druxey!

[EdT]

Ah, now that is one beautiful chainplate.  Bravo, Frank.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

Thanks Ed!

[dvm27]

Well worth the redo Frank. How would you rate the strength of resistance soldering to silver soldering?

[captainbob]

Middle of the night thoughts are quite often the best.  Well done.

 

Bob

[HIPEXEC]

your attention to detail is enormous!  I tend to measure my stuff with a micrometer, calculate it with a computer....then hit it with an ax!

[Mahuna]

Well worth the redo Frank. How would you rate the strength of resistance soldering to silver soldering?

Hi Greg - and thanks. Resistance soldering can use any type of solder. The heat is generated by the electrical connection and is very localized, but doesn't require any specific type of solder, so I think it can be used for silver soldering. The silver bearing solder I use holds quite well - it requires some force to separate two pieces that were joined with very little solder - and I'd be confident that it would hold pieces that had some stress on them from rigging, as in chainplates.

Middle of the night thoughts are quite often the best. Well done.

 

Bob

I agree Bob - most solutions seem to come from the subconscious. Early in my working career I was a programmer, and answers to tricky logic problems always seemed to come in the middle of the night.

 

your attention to detail is enormous! I tend to measure my stuff with a micrometer, calculate it with a computer....then hit it with an ax!

Thanks Rich (your posts always give me a chuckle)

Edited October 15, 2016 by Mahuna

[ggrieco]

Beautiful work Frank, I'm sorry I missed seeing it in person. Loved the chainplate technique. I know I'll always come away from your posts with a new useful idea.

[Mahuna]

Thanks, Glenn.  Speaking of "seeing in person" - I'd love to see Heroine some day. 

[WackoWolf]

We all would for sure LOL

[Mahuna]

Part 50 – Deadeyes and Chainplates Version 3

 

Making the deadeyes and chainplates became more of a trial than I expected.  It became clear that soldering a small round bar to the top of the chainplate wasn’t a good solution, since the heat for soldering the stropping band to the chainplate was too close to the previously soldered joint, and often caused the joint to fail.  So another approach was needed.

 

The new solution called for only one soldering process.  The simulated bolt at the top of the chainplate was created by annealing the end of the chainplate, folding the end over on itself, and then filing it to shape.  In this way there is still only a single piece of stock, with no soldered connections to come loose in subsequent soldering.

 

Once the simulated bolt was ready, it was placed in the vise and the shaping template was placed over it.

 

                       

 

The boundaries of the ‘bolt’ were then marked with a screw slotting file.

 

                       

 

These files (shown in the next photo) have cutting surfaces on the edges only, and can be used to cut a fine line.

 

                       

 

The boundary lines were used as guides for a jewelers saw, used to remove the waste.

 

                       

 

After the initial shaping via the saw, the shaping of the end of the chainplate was finished with a fine file – using the template as a frequent check for fit.

 

                       

 

The shoulders of the chainplate still needed to be shaped.  The chainplate was held in the side of the vice, with the shoulder exposed.

 

                       

 

The shoulders were shaped with a fine file, and were frequently checked against the template.

 

                       

 

Once shaping was completed, the chainplate was ready for the deadeye to be attached.

 

                       

 

The deadeyes were soldered to the chainplates as described in the prior post.  When all deadeyes were attached to the chainplates they were then fitted to the side of Dunbrody.

 

Each chainplate had a unique angle, so each chainplate was marked for the bend that was required at the waterway.

 

                       

 

A small smooth-jawed pliers was used to make the bend.

 

                       

 

The chainplates were also marked for the bolts that would hold them to the hull, and for the bottom end of the chainplate.

 

                       

 

All of the chainplates were positioned and held by masking tape, to check the final appearance of the chainplate configuration.

 

                       

 

I spent some time trying to decide what type of bolts to use.  Since I didn’t have any brass pins or nails, I tried my hand at making some.  When that didn’t work, I tested some small steel pins to see if they would blacken, and the blackening solution (JAX Pewter Black) was able to blacken them after they had been lightly sanded with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

 

The pins that were used are applique pins, and the pinheads are slightly larger than I would have preferred, but I felt they were still acceptable.  The following photo shows one of the pins along with one that had been clipped short for use on Dunbrody.

 

                       

 

The following photo shows two chainplates installed.  The one on the right has already been blackened, while the one on the left still needs blackening.  Blackening of the pins was done in place using a small artists brush to apply the blackening agent.

 

                       

 

All of the chainplates and deadeyes are now installed on the finished port side.  The starboard side will remain unfinished, so no deadeyes will be installed on that side.

 

                       

 

When comparing the interior view of the model to the photos of the replica ship I’m satisfied with the results.

 

                       

 

                       

 

The fife rails and the spider band will be made soon.  Since these new items, along with the pin rails, will need belaying pins I’m going to try making my own, following the process that EdT shows in his Young America build log.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

[GuntherMT]

I see you stayed busy today after our departure.  Very nice work as always, seeing those little chain plates in person was nice, they are much smaller than they seem in the photo, and they are executed very well.

[Omega1234]

Hi Frank

 

Nice and precise work, as always!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Mahuna]

Thanks, Brian.  Just keeping busy.

 

Thanks Patrick.  

[captainbob]

Beautiful work.  I hope you bring it with you the next time you come up to Prescott.

 

Bob

[usedtosail]

Frank, I like your latest technique for the chain plates. They look fabulous. 

[Mahuna]

Beautiful work.  I hope you bring it with you the next time you come up to Prescott.

 

Bob

Thanks Bob.  I'll definitely bring it.

 

 

Frank, I like your latest technique for the chain plates. They look fabulous. 

 

Thanks, Tom.  Took a lot of trial and error, but that's always worthwhile.