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19th Century French portable binnacle


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I am trying to finalise the equipment for my build of M. Delacroix's Chaloupe Armée. One of the possibilities is to include a portable binnacle of the type shown below:

 

Binnacle-compass-Brass-Mid-20th-century_1587755100_9749.jpg.ef3f53950afdc85e303b5e8ef508b8a1.jpg

At least this is the design in Dane's card model of a French 18th Century Longboat. I have no idea as to whether a binnacle would have been carried in an armed longboat, or whether this is even the type. However, I would be very grateful for opinions:

 

1. On whether one like that in the photo would have been carried, or whether another type would have been carried.

 

2. How I might approach making a round-topped cylinder (probably in brass) that could be cut away to reveal the compass.

 

Dane's card model suggests making the dome from a series of triangles around the perimeter that would then be bent inwards to meet at the top as shown below:

 

1981843812_FrenchLongboatFig031.thumb.jpg.42fbbf758dd899358335a71a33ac148d.jpg

I thought of approaching this by cutting it out of 0.04mm brass shim, but that would leave the problem of bringing the triangular parts together in a seamless way that would also look good. The dimensions would be something like 6mm diameter and 10mm high.

 

So all suggestions as to how to proceed are welcome. I don't mind if the suggestions including leaving this out altogether!

 

With best wishes to all those in lockdown,

 

Tony

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I may be wrong, but I think in the early decades of the 19th century simple boat compasses were used. These were essentially square boxes with the actual compass in a cardanic suspension.

 

As to making this kind of portable binnacle, it depends on what kind of (machine) tools are at your disposal.

 

It would be certainly possible to make the dome from triangular sections, but this would require a pretty could soldering technique. In any case, a wooden plug over which the parts could be held together would be required.

 

If I had to make a binnacle like the one on the first photograph, I would take a piece of brass rod, shape it on the lathe on the outside and then drill it out, using a round burr for the finishing cuts. The lamp would be milled and turned from a piece of brass rod and soldered onto the brass dome. I then would take a Plexiglas-rod turn it to fit into the brass binnacle, shape the round top so that it is a nice fit inside the dome. In the next step I would part it off at the level of the compass-card and cement it into the brass dome. On the milling machine I would finally mill away the flat opening and polish the 'looking window'. A printed compass-card can be glued to the underside of the Plexiglas part.

wefalck

 

panta rhei - Everything is in flux

 

 

M-et-M-72.jpg  Banner-AKHS-72.jpg  Banner-AAMM-72.jpg  ImagoOrbis-72.jpg
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Some great ideas, wefalck! I’d thought of a 6mm plastic test tube which I could cut a section out of and hen cover with copper leaf. But I like the idea of trying to shape the brass rod. I also thought that the box type of portable binnacle might be more likely. As to the plexiglass I wasn’t clear that this type of binnacle had a glass cover, assuming the compass had one. I have already found a good compass drawing to fit inside.

 

Thanks a lot for your very good advice!
 

Tony

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I could think of various other methods, depending on the available tools and materials. Once could, for instance shape the dome from Plexiglas, mill off the flat for the window, paint the whole thing in a good brass paint, then rub off the paint on the flat part and polish it. I have done this recently with a tiny (2 mm diameter) octogonal binnacle cover. Along similar lines, one could paint the Plexiglas dome with a conductive paint and then electroplate it, but that would mean a copper dome.

 

Another method would be to shape the dome externally and internally in brass and then fill it with a high-quality resin (I have, for instance, a cement to make invisible joints in Plexiglas, which essentially is liquid Methacrylate resin). One then can mill off the flat and polish it. However it is difficult to achieve a filling without air-bubbles. I have used a similar method many years ago for making miniature position lanterns by pushing a coloured styrene rod into the brass lantern body and heating it until the rod melted into it. The exess was turned off.

 

The binnacles always had a glass window. The point of a binnacle is to protect the compass from wind and weather while allowing a safe illumination at night. In museum specimens the glass is often missing.

wefalck

 

panta rhei - Everything is in flux

 

 

M-et-M-72.jpg  Banner-AKHS-72.jpg  Banner-AAMM-72.jpg  ImagoOrbis-72.jpg
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Thanks again, wefalck, for the time and experience you put into providing answers! I'd thought about brass paint but was worried about the appearance being of paint rather than brass or copper.

 

Tony

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You are right, nothing looks like metal ... but metal. However, sometimes one has to fake things for various technical reasons. There are/were some really good metallic paints on the market. Plastic modellers prefer the Alclad-brand these days and results are very good. I have a Czech brand of rub-on metallic paint that also gives good results on small surfaces.

 

In the end it will boil down to your workshop kit-out and what materials you can lay your hand on.

wefalck

 

panta rhei - Everything is in flux

 

 

M-et-M-72.jpg  Banner-AKHS-72.jpg  Banner-AAMM-72.jpg  ImagoOrbis-72.jpg
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When I was making a round compass cowl for my Maaninka steamer, I first made a suitable sized ovalish ball out of plasticine. On the ball I applied a thin coat of a gel of milled fiberglass and epoxy, but left the underside open. When the epoxy was cured I removed the plasticine so I had a thin ballform coating which was sanded smooth and painted with brass colored Alclad. When weathered with black pigments the result looked quite realistic, although was not shiny polished unit as normal with these things. Thin celluloid plate was glued inside the cowl as a glass and nice compass rose found in Internet was scaled and printed & attached under glass. Then the cowl was glued on top of a wooden pinnacle.

 

20200507_090413.thumb.jpg.6a110b4f89d0c22bca881bc6f1609ff7.jpg

Edited by Moxis
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The binnacle looks good !

 

A variant of this technique could be to use wax instead of plasticine/plastiline. Ordinary candle 'wax' (which usually actually is stearine) may be too brittle, but the jewellery-makers have special wax for that purpose, which can be milled and turned. One can also dunk the core repeatedly into varnish or even diluted white glue to build up a layer, if you don't want to use galvanoplastics as some Eastern European colleagues here do.

wefalck

 

panta rhei - Everything is in flux

 

 

M-et-M-72.jpg  Banner-AKHS-72.jpg  Banner-AAMM-72.jpg  ImagoOrbis-72.jpg
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Moxis, that's an excellent piece of work, and a great idea. Thanks!

 

Tony

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  • 1 year later...

Hello to all.

I occasionally take a look in this thread and decided to tell you how I built my compass. It was a very simple thing. I organized a little forge in my room. I took a piece of electrotechnical copper and flattened it. Next I made a cylinder with upper and lower shoulders made from flattened copper wire. After that I extruded a compass dome from a little copper sheet by engraving a tool with a sphere on the end. For the compass light I made a thin copper tube with a sphere on the end. To support the compass card I inputted a paper tube inside the compass copper cylinder. 

The scheme of the binnacle which is placed above is from my magazine PSG-Modeler. Indicated variant was made by me for the paper model. In reality I made binnacle from the copper. It pleases me more than paper binnacle.

compass-01.jpg

compass-02.jpg

compass-03.jpg

compass-04.jpg

PICT0036.JPG

Edited by Dane
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