HMS Vulture 1776 by Dan Vadas - 1:48 scale - 16 gun "Swan" class sloop from TFFM plans - Finished

[Padeen]

Danny,

These capstans are very well done! I understand why you want to use ebony, it indeed looks well like iron... If this ring can be sanded whitout breaking, it should do. I can't see the five pieces in the ring: good repair! Are there other blackish woods less fragile than ebony?

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Brian and Adeline.

 

Are there other blackish woods less fragile than ebony?

 

None that are as black. It was more to do with my cutting technique I think - I probably didn't have the lathe speed fast enough and the feed too fast. No real problem though (apart from finding the pieces ) - here's the finished result after sanding the ring flush :

 

 

  Danny

[Trussben]

Awesome work with that ebony ring Danny, i know it's so hard but very brittle as well, looks great finished.

 

Ben

[Jim Lad]

Danny,

 

The ebony ring has turned (no pun intended) out really well, with no sign of the breaks.  Have you considered using a more friendly wood and staining it black?

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Ben and John.

 

 

Have you considered using a more friendly wood and staining it black?

 

The problem there John is that I have to finish it flush with the top of the trundlehead, and the best way of doing that is sanding it down. Stained wood might come out a bit uneven if the stain doesn't penetrate far enough. Soaking the piece in stain for half an hour might work though, as the end grain is at the top and would take stain more readily.

 

Anyway, I'd rather not find out that it DOESN'T work - removing a poorly stained ring would be a real pain .

 

 

  Danny

[lamarvalley]

Your patience is obvious and rewarded in a beautiful end product. Awesome!

 

Randy

[Adrieke]

its amazing what you are doing on such a smale scale

[rth385]

Dan,

You told me there were others that were better !! I am really starting to doubt that. Yes they are great but your attention to such detail is without peer.

An absolute inspiration. My first DUTY of the day is to follow your build.

With much respect,

Russell

[mtaylor]

Nice work on the ebony.  I've seen these done in brass but the ebony really came out nice. Nicer than brass, IMO.

[newbuilder101]

Just further evidence  of a master craftsman! Beautiful work!

[michael mott]

Dan the insetting of the ebony is a masterful touch, it is great that you did not give up and glued the pieces together and continued. The end result speaks volumes.

 

Michael

[BANYAN]

Danny, that is some very nice work mate; looks great despite the issues you experienced.  Be interesting to hear how you go with different turning and feed speeds.  I have avoided turning ebony to date as I don't have  alot and did not want to ruin the bits I had - so i have been saving it for those 'special' projects.  Thanks for doing the research and trials for me

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks very muchly Randy, Adrian, Russell, Mark, Sherry, Michael and Pat .

 

My first DUTY of the day is to follow your build.

 

Geez Russell, does that mean I need to post something NEW every day? :D I'll do my best not to disappoint

 

Pat, the only things I did differently with the Drumhead Ring was up the RPM to near Max and slow down the Feed to near Zero with the Cutoff Tool - that worked a lot better, as you can see below. The ring has only just been glued in and still needs finishing, but it came out IN ONE PIECE :

 

 

Note - the top face of the ring is straight off the Cutoff Tool. The bottom face has been machined to fit the groove.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Here's the Drumhead Ring finished off :

 

 

  Danny

[WackoWolf]

Now Danny that is just beautiful. How long did you sit there looking at it after you got it done LOL. I know I sat for awhile looking at what you did. Keep the pictures coming.

[realworkingsailor]

So now you've got that mastered.. what's next some fancy cabinetry inlay, or a parquet floor?

 

Very nice.

 

Andy

[cfn1803]

Awesome Danny!!!!!

 

Clay

[gjdale]

Fabulous Danny, and with your usual great explanations too! The ebony looks great but I'm still curious as to why you chose to use this instead of, say, brass (did I miss this?) or was it "because I could"?

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Joe, Andy, Clay and Grant .

 

what's next some fancy cabinetry inlay, or a parquet floor?

 

No thanks Andy, I'll leave that to Janos. Parquetry floors were restricted to Royal Yachts .

 

I'm still curious as to why you chose to use this instead of, say, brass

 

Because I could   , and also because it was probably easier than trying to turn a couple of brass rings, blacken them, turn out a perfect height groove in the drumhead and epoxy them in perfectly flush .

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Janos. I'll use a 5-cent piece on my next lot of pics   .

 

Capstan Bars

 

They'll be about the LAST things fitted but I thought I may as well make the Capstan Bars while I'm in that mode. There are 15 bars in total (5 on the lower capstan and 10 on the upper) but I'm only going to fit 6 or 7 to the top one and none on the lower - I want to show off the square holes in the drumhead on the starboard side.

 

The bars are 8 feet long. They have a 3 1/2" square tenon on the inner end to fit the hole in the drumhead. Then they step up to a short 3 3/4" section, and round off and taper to 2 5/8" at the outer ends.

 

I started by cutting the square bars on the table saw. Then I made a little jig from a pine block to sand the inner step all to the same length and depth - this seems like "overkill" but it made the job very easy :

 

 

Then I made another jig to turn the other end into an octagon. This also started the "rounding" in the right position, and also gave me a good grip on the bars whilst sanding :

 

 

The one on the right is still square, the middle one has been "octagoned", and the left one is finished :

 

 

 

I finished off the tapering and rounding by holding the bars flat on my sanding sheet board and using a sanding stick. Here are the first four :

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Here you go Janos - both capstans with an Australian 5 cent piece in the foreground. For those of you who don't know, it's our smallest coin with a diameter of 19.25mm :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Nice, Danny.  Very nice indeed!

 

John

[DORIS]

Hello Danny!

Your work is absolutely perfect and awesome. That´s a great inspiration, what is possible to create. Thank you for description and sharing the pics from the progress. I cannot still pick up my jaw from the floor....  
My admiration to your masterpiece.

 

Kind regards,

Doris

[Keith_W]

I know how big an Australian 5C piece is! Wow, your work is a whole magnitude more fine than I thought. This is real precision small scale work. Amazing, well done. 

[Padeen]

Great Danny! 

It turned out very well indeed and we would not have known that one of the rings is a jigsaw puzzle if you had not told us. This proves that even the more fragile woods like ebony can be forgivable with the help of a few drops of glue... and an expert hand.

Those bars are also very well done (they look much more like capstan bars than my poor try with tooth picks...   ).

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you very much John, Janos, Doris, Amfibius, and Adeline - I'm glad you all appreciate the effort gone into this piece. It's been a heap of fun building it .

 

Almost finished with the Capstans - I've fitted all the bolts. There are 10 brass ones (they should be iron, but I've used brass so they can be seen) in each reinforcing ring, as well as the 0.35mm holes for the bar retaining pins. The pics with the sidecutters give you an idea of how small these "bolts" are - the last one to be fitted is lying on top of the drumhead in one of the pics.

 

I've used blackened brass "bolts" for the remainder.

 

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Just looks better and better, Danny!

 

John

[druxey]

Very nice going, Dan! But where are the retaining pins for the capstan bars? (Just kidding.)

[lamarvalley]

Dear Lord!! Just when you think the pieces can't get any smaller... they do!! Brilliant job Danny! : You definitely set a high bar for the rest of us. Thank you.

[BubbleHead]

Very nice

 

TJ