HMS Atalanta by tlevine - FINISHED - 1775 - 1:48 scale - from TFFM plans

[tlevine]

Thank you gentlemen.  I hope to get the rhodings  and brake pumps made this weekend.  

[tlevine]

I held off on fabricating the brake pumps because of their fragility and small size.  I know I will lose them so they will be made when I am ready to install them.  My approach to the rhodings is not quite prototypical.  Because they are black and the axletree is also black, detail is difficult to see, so I went for ease of construction.  The rhoding on the main jeer bitt is a simple brass strap that has been cinched around the axletree and glued to the bitt.  There is a spacer block between the main topsail sheet bitt and the rhoding.  The spacer block is wood that has been shaped and painted black.  The rhoding is another brass strap.  I have drilled the bitt to represent the bolts holding the spacer block/rhoding assembly.  In the picture these have not been blackened yet.

 

 

 

I put together another short length of chain and inserted it into the port pump tube.

 

 

There are two athwartship bulkheads aft.  So far, everything on the starboard side has been left open to highlight the structure.  I am changing course and building the bulkheads port and starboard.  I am toying with the idea of furnishing these cabins.  First, stubs of deck planking are laid to support the bulkhead. Then, card templates are made.  The bulkhead will be made sandwich fashion, with outer wood planking and a "meat" of template. There is a big color difference between the old and new planking.  All this planking came from the same sheet of holly.  The rest of the planking was installed in July, 2014 (page 29 of this log).  Since I will not be  permanently installing the bulkheads for some months, hopefully the colors will blend together.

 

 

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

I like that approach, Toni.  Gives a sense of the decking without hiding things.

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Toni

What you're doing is very logical to me (anyway, I'm no where advance at you and a lot of other members). Keep on keeping on mate.

Greg

[druxey]

Don't worry; the new holly will tone down to match the older planking. 

 

I like the view of the chain leading into the tube seen through the side of the cistern. Nice!

[tlevine]

Greg, Mark, thank you.  Druxey, I felt the same way until I was rummaging through a pile of wood and found a piece of holly marked "save for deck planking". The color is a little darker and will be a much better match.  So, time to remove the new decking and install the new-new decking.

[Maury S]

The view into the cistern and the top of the pump tube is great!

Maury

[artitec3]

Pure envy!

[tlevine]

I have started the capstan.  The diameter of the capstan on the Atalanta plans (as well as the Fly) is larger than shown in TFFM Vol 2, which represents Pegasus.  I redrew the capstan to reflect this.  The first thing I did was look at Greg's pictures in TFFM Vol 3.  Next, I re-read Dan's tutorial for Vulture's capstan.  Finally, I put wood to machine.  

 

After several years of threatening, I finally took the plunge and bought a Sherline mill.  I already own their lathe and so saved some money by using the motor from the lathe.  It takes less than two minutes to swap it out and that includes walking from one end of the house (where I have the lathe in my workshop) to where I set up the mill (better natural lighting this time of year).  I used English boxwood for the barrel and whelps to provide a subtle color contrast between the capstan and the framing.  The barrel wood has a few checks in it but the flaws will be hidden under the whelps.  The whelps are of good clear wood.

 

I took a square piece of boxwood and rounded it down to eight sides, like one would do for a mast.  I do not own a 4-jaw chuck and this made holding the wood blank easier in the 3-jaw chuck.  In the lathe, I turned the blank to the proper dimensions. I made all three sections longer than necessary to make sure there was sufficient length for final assembly.  

 

 

Now I was able to play with the new toy!  The upper barrel is divided into 12 sections for the 6 whelps and the lower barrel is divided into 10 sections for 5 whelps.  I mounted the blank onto a rotary table so that all of the sections could be milled to the same width.  The flats were milled while supporting the end of the blank to prevent downward deflection.  The upper and lower sections were then cut away from the central round section.

 

 

 

 

 

The next things to make were the whelps.  The upper and lower whelps are different in shape and width.  I traced the outline onto the end of a piece of boxwood, orienting the whelp along the grain. The blank was mounted into the vise, which was attached to a tilt table. The first one took over an hour (but half of that time was figuring out the correct setup); the second one took 30 minutes.  They will be sliced off the loaf when I am ready to install them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

Nice machining, Toni.  And another excellent tutorial to tuck away..

Edited September 24, 2015 by mtaylor

[dvm27]

Lovely work, Toni. Working out the setups on the mill is fun, isn't it? Takes much longer than the actual machining.

[kurtvd19]

Toni:

Great work.  Like Greg says, the set up takes the time - but great results are being achieved.

Kurt

[WackoWolf]

Nice toy. I love Sherline

[tlevine]

Thanks gentlemen.  My only regret is that I did not purchase this toy a few years ago.  Now on to the chocks.

[Martin W]

Not only did you buy the machine, Toni, I see you bought a few attachments to along with it.  Bravo on that wise decision.  And bravo on going Sherline.  And bravissimo on the work!

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

Edited September 25, 2015 by Martin W

[Dan Vadas]

I love my Sherlines too .

 

If you are going to buy the 4-jaw chuck you'll be torn between the self-aligning one and the "normal". Both have their uses - the self-aligning is particularly good when you have square stock to turn as it needs no careful adjusting. I have both.

 

  Danny

[tlevine]

Thanks, Martin.  Danny, can you give me an example of the use for the "normal" 4-jaw chuck?  I had planned on the self-aligning.

[druxey]

I think Dan meant an independent jawed chuck, instead of self-centering.

[Dan Vadas]

I think Dan meant an independent jawed chuck, instead of self-centering.

 

Correct. The independent 4-jaw chuck is used for stock that isn't square. You need to adjust each jaw seperately.

 

  Danny

[dgbot]

Nice job done Toni.  I have an independant jaw chuck and it comes in handy with rectangular shapes.

David B

[Trussben]

Nice tool purchase Toni, it's on my list too.

 

Ben

[tlevine]

I am leaning toward the self-centering chuck as I see myself utilizing this more with the lathe.  Since I have a mill vise, as long as two sides are parallel I can securely hold anything for milling.  

[druxey]

Certainly there are a number of tricks to learn when centering anything in an independent 4-jaw chuck!

[dvm27]

For what it's worth I have the self centering chuck from Sherline and its worked very well for me. As long as the piece is secure in the chuck with a live center in tail stock you can easilyturn irregular pieces of stock material.

Edited September 30, 2015 by dvm27

[Trussben]

I got to see up close this model at the NRG conference in Mystic, stunning!

Gave me a lot of ideas for Pegasus.

Thanks for taking her Toni.

 

Ben

[tlevine]

It has been a long time since any work has occurred on Atlanta.  I finally had some time to dedicate to her this weekend.  It is amazing what a surprise foot of snow will do to any outdoor plans!

 

The next part of the capstan to tackle was installing the whelps.  I have a little saw that I purchased at the NRG meeting in 2014.  The blade is the size of a double edge razor blade and it cuts very easily through wood with minimal jaggedness at the edges.  I also have a micro-miter box for it.

 

 

The sides of the whelps are notched to accept the capstan spacers.  I was able to accurately cut the top of the notch using the saw and micro-miter box.  The rest of the notches were cut freehand.

 

 

 

Now it was simply a matter of gluing the whelps to the barrels.  After taking these pictures I realized that one of the whelps was not aligned correctly.  It has since been corrected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tlevine]

The next step was to make the drum heads.  These were made from degame.  My choice of this wood was simple...  It was the only piece of wood large enough for the job.  Degame is brittle to work with hand tools but machines well without burning.  The drum head blanks are made from two pieces of degame glued together and turned to the correct diameter on the lathe.  Slices were taken from the blank for the upper and lower halves of the drum head and then were glued back onto the blank for milling.  The first task was to mill the slots for the capstan poles.  There are five openings on the lower drum head and ten on the upper.  The halves were then glued together and glued back onto the blank.

 

 

 

There are recesses in the drum head for an iron reinforcing band.  These were milled using the rotary table.  The lower drum head is flat and the upper one has a second step milled to make it fancier.

 

 

 

 

 

The side of the lower drum head is flat and the upper one is recessed.

 

 

 

As a final step, the drum heads are glued onto their respective barrels.

 

 

 

 

[tlevine]

The iron reinforcing bands were made out of very thin slices taken off the blank.  These were then glued back on and the correct width was milled.

 

 

 

I used an archival marker to blacken the bands and inserted them into the drumheads.

 

 

 

 

 

[Trussben]

Very nice work Toni, never heard of Degame.

[gjdale]

Lovely work Toni, and a nice little tutorial as well.