Albertic by michael mott - FINISHED - Scale 1:100 - RESTORATION - Bassett-Lowke Model

[wefalck]

Actually, making collets with four slots, instead of the usual three for high-quality ones, was one of the easier routes for holding square stock or parts I have been thinking about. The other possibility with more holding power would be to make four slots that off-centre by the thickness of the targeted stock minus the thickness of the saw blade. The challenge for both variants is to have the slots absolutely symmetric, otherwise the collet runs off-centre.

[michael mott]

Wefalck

 

would be to make four slots that off-centre by the thickness of the targeted stock minus the thickness of the saw blade.

A picture showing this Idea would be really helpful.

 

Michael

[wefalck]

I made a rough-'n'-ready sketch of what I meant:

 

 

I have made a set of speciality collets myself from blanks purchased from Schaublin some 15 years ago. The difficult step is the slotting one, as you have to hold the collet at its very end and concentric with its axis of rotation. For round collets this is not so terribly critical, as it is mainly the bore that centres the material. However, that is different for the square collets, where the cuts have been absolutely parallel to the axis of rotation.

[KeithAug]

Michael - re drilling the holes in the stanchions. I find that getting the drill on the centre line can be a challenge. The best way I have found to do it is to lock one axis of the mill and cut a slot in hard wood using a single pass of a cutter a coupe of thou smaller in diameter than the part to be drilled. I then press the part into the slot and drill without changing the locked setting. This works pretty well and if I want to have repeatability on the lengthways dimensions I put a nail in the slot to act as an end stop. How did you cope with centring the hole in the stanchions?

[michael mott]

Wefalck thanks for the picture, it looks like a tricky bit of slitting, and one needs a good indexing chuck to do that, or a collet block.

 

Keith This is how I accomplished drilling the holes and will use this method for all 28 stanchions I used a #4 flat file to create a small circular flat a little bigger than the diameter of the drill. The boxwood jaws are easy to cut a small rabbet on one of the blocks the distance between the bulbs is a constant .085" I index that with the table travel.

 

 

stanchion drill.pdf

 

Michael

[druxey]

Veeeery tricky, Wefalck!

[Chasseur]

Michael,

Thanks for posting the PDF. This information will help me drill some 0.2mm holes on the yard arms I need to drill .... later on for my build. You just solved my problem.

Thank-you! Two thumbs Up*

 

Jeff

[michael mott]

Jeff I am glad that this was useful for you.

 

I finished the turning of the stanchions this morning, here is a Step by step of the process.

 

The form tool was used to create 6 bulbs The bulb diameter is .065" and the shaft diameter is .045"  the bulbs are on .085 centres. The top bulb was trimmed to its center on the top side to accept the handrail.

 

 

 

 

 

the form tool was switched for the narrow tool to finish off the bottom, the lowest bulb was trimmed on both sides to create the foot.

 

 

 

Next a #4 file was used to create the small taper at the bottom

 

 

next the stanchion was separated with the jewelers the lathe was stopped for this operation

 

 

The finished stanchions, a few of the first ones had some minor variations so a few extras were turned up to replace them. I will leave the set up on the lathe until I have made sure that I do not need to make any more.

 

 

Next comes the drilling.

 

Michael

 

[wefalck]

What lathe do you actually have ?

[michael mott]

Wefalck, A Myford ML7 which I purchased new in 1970. the spindle hole  is a #2 Morse taper with a 1 1/8 x 12 threads for the chucks. In the pictures I am using one of the Little Machine Shop's set of 7 #2 Morse taper collets. I had to make a draw bar for them, The Myford Collets have a special spindle cap which pushes their collets into the spindle.  

 

Michael

[druxey]

Lovely job, Michael!

[Chasseur]

Excellent Michael. Good old fashioned machine work. You gave the CNC boys a run for their money.

Good PICs.

Jeff

[michael mott]

Thanks all for the encouraging remarks.

 

Finished drilling all the holes (gave me a stiff neck bending down to line up the first hole in each stanchion) and fitted them onto the deck.

 

 

Threaded all four wires through that was the easy part. Before that I popped the handrail off the old stanchions

 

 

And dry fitted it to the stanchions this was the difficult part.

 

 

Ended up with needing to use the little clamps to gently hold it in place.

 

 

tomorrow I will modify the clamps so that there is a small metal bar that holds the rail on to the posts. I will soft solder the rail to the posts, this was how the first posts were attached. The wires are the right color with some flat varnish on them so when it is all assembled I will give them a light coat of flat.

 

Slow but its getting there.

 

Michael

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Michael, all that detailed machining is a bit beyond me, but the end result is first class.

 

John

[cog]

Michael,

 

Stunning, all the effort well spent I have to say.

 

Do you really need to solder all the stanchions to the wire. I would have thought fixing them at intervals would suffice, even with CA. You wouldn't run the risk heating up the paint at the foot of the stanchion, creating some additional paint work.

 

Cheers

[druxey]

Looking very good indeed, Michael.

[Lucius Molchany]

Fantastic work!I wonder if that ship was originally built as a display piece for the Toy Fair.Cannot imagine it was regular production item due to all of the fine detail work.

[Mirabell61]

very nice work on the railing / stanchions Michael,

 

is the top handrail made of wood ?

 

Nils

[michael mott]

Nils the top handrail is brass that is painted.

 

Michael

[michael mott]

Thanks for all the visits to the log.

 

I set up the jig to solder the stanchions to the top rail

 

I set a piece of music wire through the top hole to align all the stanchions both longitudinally and vertically.

 

 

I used the rail as the template for drilling the holes I dropped a stanchion in each hole as they were drilled to ensure that there was perfect alignment

 

 

After the stanchions are soldered I can pull out the music wire and thread the nickel wire.

 

Michael

 

[rwiederrich]

You solder the railing off ship...then mount when finished then paint?

 

Wonderful.

 

Rob

[michael mott]

Rob

The new stanchions are brass and I am painting them to look like  nickel silver with an aged patina they soldered up very nicely, by laying the handrail on its side and using the small block of Jellutong, it kept the top flat.

 

 

 

 

I am happy basically with the colour which was achieved with a mixture of Humbrol air frame silver and Humbrol unbleached linen. After all the wires are in place on the ship I will give it a scruffy coat of Microscale  Micro Flat. The handrail still need a little toning down.

 

 

 

The area at the end where the handrail steps up was difficult to thread and keep clean(smooth) One can only guess at the assembly sequence that was used long ago. I have decided to break this area up by using some of the original stanchions at the step. the next picture shows some short pieces of original wire threaded through two set stanchions, the third one is free at the moment once I have got the new section ready to place into the holes I can fettle the short wires to create the transition from the old to the new. and the stepped end of the handrail will fit over the top of the original type stanchions. These will be fixed with a drop of CA.

 

 

Michael

[WackoWolf]

Outstanding work, it's going to be better than before the accident.

[druxey]

Sweet!

[Mirabell61]

Hi MIchael,

 

looking at the wide knowledge and skill you have and the techniqes you are using I can imagine that you perhaps one day might be tempted to build a complete and beautiful model of a steam driven passenger liner of your choise, out of the era of the "Albertic" early 1900`s or so....

 

Nils

[popeye the sailor]

railings look very good Michael.

[EdT]

Lovely work, Micheal.

 

Ed

[michael mott]

Again thanks for all the visits it is encouraging.

 

 

Hi Nils

I came to Canada on the Sylvania in October 1967 One day I would like to make a model of her. I have very fond memories of that 8 day trip.  Just happened that we were in a force 10 for three days, with 40 foot waves, it was exciting for this young man at the time.

But I also like these types of ships

 

Michael

[Mirabell61]

Again thanks for all the visits it is encouraging.

 

 

Hi Nils

I came to Canada on the Sylvania in October 1967 One day I would like to make a model of her. I have very fond memories of that 8 day trip.  Just happened that we were in a force 10 for three days, with 40 foot waves, it was exciting for this young man at the time.

But I also like these types of ships

 

Michael

Yes Michael,

those were lovely ships, and force 10 must be a bit frightening experience in your memory

 

Nils

[captainbob]

Michael, you're doing a beautiful job.  And thanks for the Tyne Ship website, I'll have to build one.  One of these days. 

 

So many to build, so little time.  Ah, what is a boy to do?

 

Bob