Miss Caroline by Bedford - Scale 1:8 - model of my full size build

[michael mott]

A happy new year to you and your family Steve. Beautiful Stitching on the oar leathers, Now where have I seen that stitching before.....

Super brass work as well, and I just recently purchased a 5c collet block and some collets also.

 

Michael

 

Edited December 31, 2019 by michael mott
grammar

[Bedford]

Happy new year to you and yours too Michael, yeah the stitching was reminiscent of some I've done before but a lot more fiddly 

 

The collet blocks etc are a pretty good investment!

[Bedford]

Christmas has been and gone, family and friends have been and gone and I can't really go anywhere because of the bushfires so it's back to the model (on that subject myself and my family are all in safe areas thankfully but yesterday was the first time in 10 weeks I have had a clear view to the Blue Mountains to the west of here, today the view was obscured by smoke again).

 

I've shaped the boom and gaff and I've made the yoke for the boom. I combined the methods I used for the rowlocks and the oars and came up with a good way of doing it.

 

I cross drilled a piece of mahogany in the mill vice to 10mm to form the jaws and then without moving the cross slide I reset the mahogany to the vertical so I could drill down the centre at 5.5mm thereby creating the lands for the boom with the contact surface curved to match the boom. I then sliced away each face of the mahogany to reveal the boom slot before sanding to shape and gluing the boom in.

 

[wefalck]

Yes, shaping parts from the solid in this way is not terribly material-efficient, but allows one to hold complex parts securily while machining.

 

This was for me one of the reasons to build my micro-mill with an integral dividing head. I envisaged in particular to shape such parts from round stock - holding the stock in a collet also provides for easy transfer between the milling machine and the lathe.

[Jim Lad]

A nicely constructed yoke!  keep safe down there in Camden!

 

John

[KeithAug]

Nice method on the yolk Bedford. I hope the winds are kind and blow away from you. 

[Bedford]

The gaff yoke is a little different to the boom yoke because of the angle of the gaff to the mast so I started the same way as the boom yoke but carved/sanded away most of the mahogany to get tapered sides to which I added the arms of the yoke in the same way I did on Miss Caroline. I'm really unsure of leathering these pieces due to their size. I may have to omit that detail but I'll give it some thought first.

 

 

[KeithAug]

Nicely done - I hope the fires are keeping their distance.

[Bedford]

The fires are settling down and there's good rain forecast but the are still heaps burning, none threatening me though.

[KeithAug]

32 minutes ago, Bedford said:

none threatening me though.

Long may it continue.

[Bedford]

Well there has been lots of destructive storms and heavy rain now and while the fires have reduced in number and ferocity some are still going!

 

Onto the build

 

I've finished the rudder/tiller now using blocks I had left over from the schooner project, they're wood instead of tufnol but if I could have used wooden blocks on the real thing I would have, the spending had to have some limits.

[wefalck]

I almost don't dare to say this (it could sound like desperately looking for a fly in the soup): the rope for the rudder halliard looks a bit soft, meaning that it could be twisted a bit tighter in order to keep with the quality of the rest of the model ...

[Bedford]

Now onto the shrouds and stay. I've been able to find affordable 1mm stainless wire so I've decided that if I can get the turnbuckles made I'll go with authentic, if not I'll go old school with rigging cord and dead eyes.

 

First parts to make were the bodies of the turnbuckles and while turning 2mm diameter items between centres isn't an issue, the tailstock chuck (2MT) won't hold a 1mm brill bit to drill the through holes in the bodies for the screw ends so I had to turn the three bodies and part them off then place the mill chuck (3MT) in the headstock to hold the fitting while just starting a 1.6mm centre drill into each end and then I had to hold each of the bodies in the tailstock chuck and drill them with the 1mm drill in the headstock chuck which will hold it. 

 

I'll put some thought into how I'm going to make the screw ends and now that I have the 6 sided collet block I can make some little fake lock nuts and then work out whether I'll solder them together or use CA

 

[Bedford]

11 minutes ago, wefalck said:

I almost don't dare to say this (it could sound like desperately looking for a fly in the soup): the rope for the rudder halliard looks a bit soft, meaning that it could be twisted a bit tighter in order to keep with the quality of the rest of the model ...

Never fear my friend, always appreciate input.

 

Now that you mention it the strands do look a bit loose in the pic. My eyes aren't good enough to see it in the flesh. The upside of the loose twist is that the halyard is lying nicely, without the stiffness often displayed in scale rigging so I'll see how it goes. I'm going to upset you further by saying I've decided not to leather the boom and gaff yokes. I just can't see it working.

[wefalck]

7 minutes ago, Bedford said:

, the tailstock chuck (2MT) won't hold a 1mm brill bit

Perhaps you then should invest into a chuck for ER collets and some small collets ... There are also drills down to 0.5 mm with 2.35 mm bodies (like the well-known burrs etc.)

[Bedford]

Yes a 3MT collet chuck and collets are on the shopping list as are those kinds of drill bits and small mill bits. I haven't invested in really small mills yet because a drill chuck won't be good enough for them

[druxey]

I have to agree with wefalck: the whole model looks terrific, but he loose lay of the line strikes my eye immediately in those photos. I use cotton to spin my line, and the result is not stiff at all. The lay is at about 45 degrees.

[KeithAug]

9 hours ago, wefalck said:

Perhaps you then should invest into a chuck for ER collets and some small collets

Bedford;- I recently bought a cheap (Chinese) ER11 collet chuck an collets on eBay. Not the best quality but adequate of modelling. I find them a very useful addition for small work in my medium sized lathe. The whole lot cost about £20.

Lovely work on the rudder - I forgive the rope.

Edited January 27, 2020 by KeithAug

[wefalck]

Some ten years ago I bought an ER11 collet chuck for my watchmakers lathe and set of collets from 0.5 to 7 mm in 0.5 mm steps. I think the set cost me less than 50€ and I use them now always instead of a drill-chuck. Beware that ER-collets are meant for tool-holding and may not grip safely, if the part does not go through completely.

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Steve

 

the rudder metalwork is beautiful to scale. The rope does look different but also it just looks like a cheaper rope, & all boats have them somewhere - so it's kind of authentic also.

[Bedford]

Yeah, decided to leave the rudder halyard as it is for a few reasons

1:  The merest thought of making my own rope hasn't even begun to speculate about the slightest possibility of crossing my mind.

2:  I like the way this stuff is lying

3:  Without the closeup photo none of you over 45 would be able to see the twist anyway

4:  It's pretty much the same colour as the rigging on the real boat

Edited January 29, 2020 by Bedford

[Bedford]

And just to see how the rig will stand, for the first time I am really seeing just how much sail my little boat carries.

 

[Jim Lad]

Looking very impressive!

 

John

[G.L.]

34 minutes ago, Jim Lad said:

Looking very impressive!

 

John

Yes, impressive and very elegant.

[Mark Pearse]

a nice looking gaff main for a light boat - & a non-overlapping jib as well?

[Bedford]

1 hour ago, Mark Pearse said:

a nice looking gaff main for a light boat - & a non-overlapping jib as well?

Mark, the designer Iain Oughtred designs his boats to carry a good amount of sail so they sail well in light winds and even with my limited sailing experience Miss Caroline does do quite well in very slight breezes. In his book he goes to lengths to tell the builder to make damn sure they set up the reefing pennants and halyards and practice using them because you'll need them when the wind picks up. 

 

As for the jib, yes the leech is roughly parallel to the mast with about 150mm clearance

Edited January 29, 2020 by Bedford

[Bedford]

I've put the collet blocks to use and made the turn buckles for the standing rigging

 

 

 

[wefalck]

No threads ? OK, left-hand dies of this size would cost you an arm and a leg ...

 

The first picture shows presumably the raw material for the counter-nuts ?

[KeithAug]

Nicely done - you will find the collet blocks more and more useful. I even tried to find an octagonal one recently but with no success so I am constrained to using the square block with a "V" block.

 

 

[Bedford]

54 minutes ago, wefalck said:

No threads ? OK, left-hand dies of this size would cost you an arm and a leg ...

 

The first picture shows presumably the raw material for the counter-nuts ?

Yeah I expected that from you. I didn't even try looking for 1mm tap and die let alone left hand!

 

Yes the first pic was the stock cut to a hex and drilled for the "thread"