18th Century Longboat by BobF - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:48 - Tri-Club

[BobF]

   When it comes to sanding, filing, or cutting bevels into square pieces of wood, my hand/eye coordination leaves something to be desired.  Although I was looking forward to making the windlass, I felt that I would have to come up with another way of fabricating it.  My solution amounted to what might be called a poor man's milling machine.

   It involved combining my Dremel drill press with my Preac table saw.  The drill press base was clamped to my work table, and the head was rotated 180 degrees.  The Moto tool was set at a 45 degree angle, and a sanding drum was inserted in the chuck.

   The Preac rip fence would be used for making fine adjustments.  A sheet of basswood, with a strip of wood glued to it, would be kept against the fence as it was adjusted.  In the photo, you can see a piece of stock in position, and two lengths of scrap wood that will be used as stops.  The Preac saw isn't absolutely necessary for this procedure, but it really helped.

   Once you have marked off the limits on your stock, it becomes a matter of slowly adjusting the rip fence, until you have the proper depth of cut.  For this initial step, keep your stops set well within the area you will finally want to remove.  Set the stops to their final position, only after the proper depth of cut has been achieved.  On my first effort, I overlooked this detail, and ended up with a bevel that was much too long!

   After finishing my first cuts, I noticed that the sanding drum was leaving deep scratches in the surface of the piece.  I tried sanding them out, but it pretty much defeated the purpose of this whole procedure.  So, I changed over to a Dremel High Speed Cutter, which is sold two to a package.  These worked quite well.

   Once you have beveled all three areas, you can cut off the excess, and use the piece as shown in the kit plans.

   Please note that this last photo was taken before I changed over to the high speed cutter.

 

BobF

[Jack12477]

Great idea Bob. Thanks for the tutorial. Will have to use that myself, especially since I have that same Dremel stand and tool.

[JSGerson]

I have an older version of the Dremel drill press than you and it only has two positions: vertical and horizontal. Obviously you were able to rotate your drill 45 degrees. After going online and looking at the newer Dremel drill press, I still can't see the mechanism that allowed you to set the drill to 45 degrees. Is there something I don't know?

[Jack12477]

In Bob's 1st photo, to the right of the stand there is a black knob (horizontal - just above and behind the drill), when you loosen that knob it allows the drill to rotate - on my stand that mechanism has "detents" that "click" at different positions as you go around the arc. Never measured the resulting angle(s) but one of them is 90 degrees and one is 45 degrees. Check you model and see if it works the same way. They're like "click stops"

[JSGerson]

Like I said, I have an older version Dremel drill stand. Nothing rotates; you have to slide the head completely off the vertical pole and re-attach it in the horizontal position using a different opening in the head. I guess that's why they made a newer version. 8-(

[BobF]

I suspect that Dremel, over a period of time, has continued to tweak there drill press.  It's possible that I may have a different model than Jack.  Here is a photo of the backside of my unit, which is a Model 220.

On my unit, that little blue wing nut on the right side also has to be loosened, so the head can be rotated.  As you can see, it sits inside a circular track.

 

BobF

[Jack12477]

Bob, mine is the model 220 also - has the same config shown in your picture

[JSGerson]

Mine predates yours. Have have model 212...sigh 8-(

[BobF]

   If you look at contemporary long boat models, all the windlasses seem to have a curious conical taper at each end.

   I found this too intriguing to pass up, and decided to try duplicating the shape on my lathe. An easy way to chuck up an eight-sided piece in a three jaw chuck is to use a brass sleeve that has a slit cut in it.  This allows the sleeve to compress as the chuck is tightened.  The only drawback to this is whether or not you have brass tubing suitable for the piece you are working on.  The fact that I planned to use this sleeve is also the reason I made the windlass plug as long as it is.

First of all, I needed to center drill the windlass at one end so it could take the tailstock.

The sleeve was then moved to the other end of the piece, and mounted in the lathe.

The only problem I encountered with this procedure, is that I had to be careful not to damage the sharp edges of the four flat surfaces at each end while creating the tapers.

If you go back to the first photo in this particular post, the mortises in the contemporary windlass are offset on adjacent surfaces.  For what it's worth, I found that duplicating that on my windlass made any misalignment problems less obvious.

 

Here are some photos of the windlass and thwarts in position.  However, they still aren't glued in place.  I'd like to get some other procedures done on the model before I commit to that.

BobF

 

[Chuck]

Really nice work.  You are doing an outstanding job.

[BobF]

I've started working on the mast, boom, gaff and bowsprit.  Here are some photos of the bowsprit temporarily mounted in position.

 

The first two photos show the barcket that is mounted at the heel of the bowsprit.  NMM models show a square tenon inserted into this bracket, so I soldered a piece of square brass tubing to some brass rod.  The tenon is actually a 1/16" square piece of boxwood inserted into the end of the bowsprit.  Per NMM models, I also inserted this bracket into the first thwart, rather than into the floorboards.  The brass rod protruding below the thwart, still needs to be trimmed.

 

The next two photos show the other bowsprit bracket, which was made with some soldered brass tubing and trimmed flat stock.

 

 

I didn't want to press the brass pin all the way in, since I wasn't ready to mount it permanently.

 

BobF

[dgbot]

Very nice Bob, The photo looks great, where did you get the NMM data from,?

David B

[BobF]

Hi David,

 

The photos Chuck provided for this group have been my primary source.  One of the SeaWatch books on the Kriegstein collection also has some very nice photos of a contemporary model.  "The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War  1600-1815" by Brian Lavery has also been helpful.

 

BobF

[JSGerson]

 

 

Out of curiosity, how did you get such beautiful consistent square cuts? Are you an expert X-Acto knife user or do you have a specialty tool you used?

[Stuntflyer]

Bob, Really nice! I'm always looking forward to your next post. It's great how you go about adding extra detail to the model.

 

Mike

Edited August 24, 2015 by Stuntflyer

[BobF]

Out of curiosity, how did you get such beautiful consistent square cuts? Are you an expert X-Acto knife user or do you have a specialty tool you used?

 

JS -

I guess you can call it a "specialty tool," although it's really nothing more than a hand-made broach.

I start out by cutting a piece of scrap wood, so the four sides are as square as possible to each other.  The stock can be either square or rectangular in cross-section, it doesn't matter.  I then cut a slot in one side wide enough so it will take a small finishing nail with the head cut off.  The nail is epoxied in the slot.  Make sure the nail is completely below the surface of the wood.

I then set up my Dremel drill press with the head rotated 90 degrees.  For this procedure, one of those small abrasive disks works well.  Make sure you wear some eye protection when you do this!  These disks have a nasty habit of shattering.  I then start carefully grinding down the sides of the nail, rotating it periodically, so a square shape is formed.  As I get close to the desired size, I start measuring the head with a pair of digital calipers.  I believe the one in these photos was about .045" square.

In order to make the mortise, I start out by drilling a hole that is equal to, or slightly smaller in diameter than the dimension of the broach.

The hardest part of this procedure for me was getting the broach lined up properly over the hole.  For that reason, I would highly recommend  that you make yourself a miniature T-square.  I have a small collection of various triangles and squares that are some of my most usefull tools.

Take the square, and mark off the limits of the hole on two sides.  The other two lines can be drawn by dragging a compass along the edge of the plug, with the lead lined up with the edge of the hole.

Carefully line up your broach with the lines, and gentley tap the broach a few times.  This should give you a slight impression in the wood.  If the impression looks good, put the broach in the depressed area, and tap a little more forcefully.  Check it periodically as you do this.

I messed up a couple of windlasses trying to do this, so I would recommend you practice with some scrap before you commit to the actual piece.  I apologize for being so "long winded."   I hope you find this useful.

 

BobF

Edited August 27, 2015 by BobF

[Nirvana]

I suspect that Dremel, over a period of time, has continued to tweak there drill press.  It's possible that I may have a different model than Jack.  Here is a photo of the backside of my unit, which is a Model 220.

DSC00356.jpg

On my unit, that little blue wing nut on the right side also has to be loosened, so the head can be rotated.  As you can see, it sits inside a circular track.

 

BobF

 

I like the idea of how to use the drill press for this type of application.

I also have the 220 Model which can be set in angles with 15 degree increments.

[BobF]

I rarely use my Dremel drill press for actually drilling holes.  Never the less, with that pivoting head, it's a versatile and valuable tool.

 

BobF

[gjdale]

That's a very useful little tutorial on your broach Bob. Thanks for sharing - I've filed that one away for future reference!

[JSGerson]

Thank you for the wonderful mini-tutorial. This is why I love reading your build log.

 

Jonathan

[jct]

Good idea thank for sharing

[BobF]

Here is a photo of the "iron work" for the boom, bowsprit, and mast.  Rather than using brass flat stock to form the various pieces, I thought I'd try something a little different.  Every fitting was made with slices of brass tubing.  In each case the components were silver soldered together.  I've never done any silver soldering, so this was a new experience for me, and I have to admit that I enjoyed it.  It's quite possible that Stay-Brite would have worked just as well, but I wanted to try something new.

I really lucked out on this procedure.  In every case except one, the inside diameters of the tubing were spot on for the boom, bowsprit and mast locations.  The one exception was the top bracket on the mast, which had a little play at the location where it should be mounted.  I solved that problem by applying some Stay-Brite solder to the inner surface of the ring, and reaming it out.  It really didn't take much to snug up the bracket.

 

BobF

Edited August 31, 2015 by BobF

[kurtvd19]

Bob:

Looks great.  Not as hard as it's made out to be at all.  I am sure the stay-brite would work perfectly but like you said, you now know how to silver solder for when it really counts.

Kurt

[tlevine]

Bob, the fittings look great.  I love how you used the low temperature Stay-Brite to snug up the top bracket.  Did the two solders blacken the same or can you see a color difference where you added the fillet of Stay-Brite?

[BobF]

Hi Toni,

 

I haven't blackened the parts yet.  However, I tend to think that, due to the fact that the layer of Stay-Brite is so thin, it won't be visible once the bracket is mounted on the mast..  It's confined to the inner face of the ring.  I'll blacken the part soon, and post the results.

 

BobF

[kurtvd19]

Stay-Brite blackens the same as silver solder in my experience.  Have never noticed any difference in the blackening of the Stay-Brite compared to the brass part of the assembly.  Bob, will you be showing the blackening of the parts Wednesday night?  Or are you leaving them natural until after the meeting so we can see the joints?

Kurt

[BobF]

Kurt -

 

I've blackened the bowsprit fittings already, but not the mast brackets.  I'll leave them bright until after the meeting.

 

BobF

[BobF]

Bob, the fittings look great.  I love how you used the low temperature Stay-Brite to snug up the top bracket.  Did the two solders blacken the same or can you see a color difference where you added the fillet of Stay-Brite?

 

Toni -

 

I blackened the parts, and I couldn't detect any difference between the two solders.  The parts were pickled in Sparex prior to being blackened.  The blackening agent was Birchwood Casey.

 

BobF

[tlevine]

Thanks, Bob.

[dgbot]

To bad I will miss seeing it Fantastic iron wirk.

David B