NRG Capstan Project by Cathead - FINISHED - NRG - 1:24

[Cathead]

This will be my take on the NRG's capstan project, sold as a set of plans to help modelers learn and practice scratchbuilding skills:

 

 

The project can be completed in Advanced or Intermediate mode, depending on the level of tools and skills the builder has. There are three build logs for this that I've found; the original by @tlevine, one underway by @gjdale and one completed by @usedtosail. If I've missed any, please let me know! My build will differ from those above in three ways.

 

First, I'll be following the Intermediate instructions whereas the other two are Advanced, so hopefully this will be helpful for others interested in that track. I have a Byrnes table saw but not the higher-end mills and other power equipment needed for Advanced.

 

Second, the assumed scale for the project is 1:16 and the builds above are all in that scale, though the instructions encourage builders to consider other scales as learning to read plans and convert measurements is part of the project's goal. So I'll be converting mine into 1:24 because I want to display it with two 1:24 Model Shipways naval cannon dioramas I've built previously:

 

 

 

Third, I'll be milling my own wood from material I've logged, milled, and cured on my homestead here in rural Missouri. I'll be using maple, cherry, and walnut, producing a similar color profile to my recently completed NRG half-hull planking project:

 

 

Hopefully these differences will make this build unique and useful to others considering this really cool project. Thanks to the NRG, and especially Toni Levine, for putting this together.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2022 by Cathead

[gjdale]

Cool! I’ll follow along to see your interesting take on this neat little project.

[Cathead]

First step, cutting the deck beams and carlings from maple:

 

 

And here they are in their loose configuration, before being mortised into one another:

 

 

 

I followed @gjdale in making a spreadsheet for converting the plan measurements into scale. Although he made his available to others, I stubbornly made my own so it'd be just the way I wanted it. I set it up to convert full-size measurements into both fractional and decimal inches, since I think more clearly in fractional but decimal will be easier to measure in at small dimensions. Metric would have been sensible, too, and I'm used to it as a scientist, but I still do most of my woodworking and building in fractional inches so I went with what's easier for me, cognitively speaking.

 

Next up I'll find out how good I am at cutting highly accurate mortises at this scale. The great thing about logging my own wood is that I have a lifetime supply of model-scale wood from just a few timber-management leftovers. So making mistakes won't be nearly as much an issue as if I was ordering nice wood from a supplier.

[mbp521]

Glad to see you finally getting started on this one Eric. I’ll follow along as you go for tips and tricks since this will be by next build. 
 

-Brian

[robert952]

I look forward to your build.  I don't have the table saw.  So I will likely build mine as Intermediate skill.  (By the time I get around to the build I may purchase the necessary tools for advanced.  Who knows?). 

 

I like your preface as to what you plan to do.  

[gjdale]

1 hour ago, Cathead said:

I followed @gjdale in making a spreadsheet for converting the plan measurements into scale. Although he made his available to others, I stubbornly made my own so it'd be just the way I wanted it. I set it up to convert full-size measurements into both fractional and decimal inches, since I think more clearly in fractional but decimal will be easier to measure in at small dimensions. Metric would have been sensible, too, and I'm used to it as a scientist, but I still do most of my woodworking and building in fractional inches so I went with what's easier for me, cognitively speaking.

 

Hey Eric,

 

A couple of things I found in using my spreadsheet:

 

In addition to having a table of the stock dimensions, I have found it useful to create an extra box to enter specific or one-off measurements and have the computer spit back out the appropriate scale dimensions in fractional inches, thousandths, and metric. I could then write these onto Toni's drawings as needed.

 

Like you, I am "bi-lingual" when it comes to imperial/metric measurements. Although I use metric for the lathe and mill because that is how they are geared/calibrated, I have found it much easier to stick with imperial units for everything else as the conversion to scale size seems to be generally a little "cleaner" to use (eg an inch ruler might have 32nds marked on it, but a metric one doesn't have x.3mm etc).

 

The digital caliper with both fractional and decimal inches (as well as mm) is your friend!

 

For accurate mortises, a knife line and a very sharp chisel are the key to success (as I'm sure you know from your other woodworking).

[Cathead]

Lots of good tips, Grant, thanks!

 

I did the same thing on my spreadsheet, having it set up to give me the full dimensions of every piece in a reference list, as well as a "calculation box" for entering specific dimensions that I want to check.

 

I'm about to order a digital caliper as my existing manual one isn't fine-scale enough for this project and I think I'll make good use of it down the road.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with fine woodworking, being more of a large-scale builder (I've built a number of outbuildings on our farm and rough furniture, but not anything with precise small joinery like jewelry boxes). So this will be a good way for me to develop finer-scale skills, including chisel work. My wife is excellent at tool sharpening and handles everything from hatchets and loppers to kitchen knives to the cutting blades for our wood chipper, so I'll be putting her to work on my chisels before I try anything!

 

Also, welcome on board, Robert & Brian. I'll try not to keep you waiting too long for more progress. I'm doing a lot of timbering this time of year and I'm not always in the mood to work with wood in the evening when I've been felling and bucking trees all day!

[gjdale]

11 hours ago, Cathead said:

I don't have a lot of experience with fine woodworking, being more of a large-scale builder (I've built a number of outbuildings on our farm and rough furniture, but not anything with precise small joinery like jewelry boxes). So this will be a good way for me to develop finer-scale skills, including chisel work

 

At the risk of “teaching grandma to suck eggs”, to get accurate joints, mark your cutting lines with a knife rather than a pencil and use referential measurement whenever you can (eg mark the first cut line for a mortice from the given measurement from the end of the piece, then mark the second cut line by placing your tenon piece against the first cut line and using it to define the width for the second cut line). Hope that makes sense.

[usedtosail]

Looking forward to following along.

[Cathead]

So I've gotten started and already found that I need practice in doing work at this level of accuracy. First, I debuted several belated Christmas presents to myself.

 

Using my new digital caliper to mark out mortise locations:

 

 

Using my new magnetic assembly jig to hold beams in place while trying to mark mortises consistently between them:

 

 

Using a chisel to cut the angled mortise:

 

 

Using a file to smooth the cut:

 

 

However, despite what I thought was slow and careful work, I was not able to create even or consistent joints. Here are my first two attempts:

 

 

In both cases the mortises are clearly larger than the tenons, and neither joint fits neatly. I also managed to chip off a piece of the beam next to a cut (look just left of the further-away mortise), which ruins the visual appearance.

 

Part of the problem was that I found it particularly difficult to shape the end of the carling (cross-piece), which is supposed to look like the right-hand side of this photo:

 

 

I think I need to re-cut all these pieces anew and start over. This time I'm wondering if I should form the carlings first, then use those to create matching mortises, rather than the other way around as I did the first time. It may be easier to slowly file away a mortise than to form a more complex piece to fit an existing hole.

[kurtvd19]

Eric:

As the bevels on the carlings are not seen you might make neater joints by making the ends of the carlings square and the pocket in the deck beam square.  I can tell you from personal experience that I made the joints in the beams and carlings that way when this project was in the prototype stage.  The one thing I did to the end of the carlings was to break the bottom end of the carling so that any wood left in the bottom of the deck beam pocket would not interfere with the bottom of the carling seating square.

 

The left end of the carling shown in your photo will also work to be an easier fit - and the whole darn thing is hidden so make it easy on yourself.

 

Also, it is easier to fit the pocket to the carling as you can sneak up on the fit - start with the pocket a bit undersized and slowly make it larger to fit the carling tightly.  That's what the furniture makers do.

[gjdale]

Further to Kurt’s excellent advice, it looks to me from the photos that you used the digital calliper and a pencil to mark both edges of the mortice, which will inevitably lead to a loose fit. Use calliper and pencil to mark the rough position of one edge, then use a knife to mark the actual cut line (notice how much thinner the knife line is compared to a pencil line). Then use the carling itself, held in place against the knife line with a small square and mark the second edge, again with a knife. If you use the knife to get really tight against the carling, or perhaps even just under the edge of it, you will end up with a tight joint. The knife lines will provide you with a good reference line to make your saw cuts with a razor saw prior to chiselling out the waste. As Kurt has said, this is how furniture makers do it.

[Cathead]

Good advice from both of you. In fairness, I was using a marking knife, the pencil you see was just added afterward (following the scoring line) for visibility. But I was not measuring against the carling, despite earlier advice to do, a mistake I will not repeat.

[Cathead]

And here's what happens when I follow expert advice; a much better result! This is a test on scrap, using Kurt's square approach rather than the angled approach called for in the instructions. I found this much easier to form properly, though I can see why the other approach has merit, too.

 

 

So here's how I did it. I first re-cut new beams and carlings, using the digital caliper to get the dimensions as close as possible. I then set the Byrnes table saw blade to the exact height and inset of the notch in the end of each beam, which ensured that it would be even across all the carlings (I tried to cut this by hand the first time, with uneven results):

 

 

When these were cleaned up, I measured the outside edge of each mortise, then marked the rest with a knife based on the carling itself, with the notch resting over the beam, cheating slightly inward to give me some margin for error:

 

 

I then marked the depth of the mortise using the caliper:

 

 

In both cases I used the depth gage on the caliper, which worked better than my first attempt using the dividers. It let me mark a more even and accurate line with the knife.

 

Then I just carefully used a chisel and sharp knife to whittle out a mortise, cleaned it up with a very small file, and very slowly took away more material until the notched carling fit snugly in the mortise. I made sure to mark each end of each carling, and its corresponding mortise, with a unique number so I wouldn't get them mixed up (since each will be slightly different no matter how careful I was):

 

 

I used a small square to test the fit of each carling and its mortise, since this let me hold the upper surfaces flush while looking at the underside:

 

 

And when these were assembled in the magnetic jig, they came together wonderfully square, and so tight I could pick up the assembly without any glue or clamps. Cool!

 

 

Now I just have to repeat this for the other half of the assembly, although I'll be more nervous this time because messing up on the central beam would mean I'd have to redo it all. But at least I have an approach I know I can do, and I hope the details given here are helpful for others.

 

Thanks for the great advice, everyone!

[Cathead]

The other half went smoothly, no need to describe the same steps again. Here's the finished base assembly:

 

 

I'm quite pleased; I didn't expect it to come out this neatly.

 

I also thought of another tip/thought to pass along to others. When laying out the matching mortises between two sets of beams, the instructions say to hold the two beams together (such as with a rubber band) and mark the cuts across the two so that they're in the same place. This makes sense in theory, and it's how I tried to do it at first. But I found it relatively hard to do this accurately since I couldn't scribe a knife line across an entire beam. Instead, as suggested and described above, I ended up finding that it worked better to mark the location of one mortise edge using the caliper, then mark the rest of the mortise relative to the specific carling. I never set the two beams together, just trusted that starting from the same measured location would make the rest accurate, and it did. Either way it's probably worth practicing on scrap first.

[gjdale]

Well done Eric! Some very neat looking joints.

 

On your last point re matching mortices, it is better to mark both pieces at once. If you hold them together in a vice, with the ends flush, it should be a relatively easy matter to scribe across both pieces. Even if you only make a small knife mark with the tip of the knife in each, you can then complete the layout line with the pieces separated and proceed as you have described. This guarantees alignment without having to rely on your accuracy using a measuring device. My mantra is to never use a ruler/tape measure when I can use a referential measurement like this. Again, this is full-size practice in furniture making.

[Cathead]

Today I managed to complete the capstan step (the platform on which the capstan actually sits). In the Intermediate version, this is made by gluing three pieces edge-to-edge to make the platform, and gluing another thinner piece to the bottom to help it sit tightly between the beams. But in the Advanced version, this is made in a more prototypical way using half-lap joints between the upper pieces, and the central upper/lower pieces being a more complex single piece. I didn't think the joinery for the Advanced version would be that hard (no harder than the beam/carling assembly), and thought the proper joinery would look a lot nicer, so went that direction, especially as it didn't require any equipment other than the table saw already needed for Intermediate. Given how complex later pieces will need to be, even in Intermediate, I think anyone able to complete this project could do this part in the Advanced version. If anything, it's more good practice on nice square cuts before things get all angular and difficult.

 

Here are the three components. The left- and right-hand ones have a simple half-lap joint cut along one edge, which I did easily by setting the table saw blade height and fence to the appropriate measurements. The central piece is a bit more complicated, but not much. It also gets lap joints along the edge, but then also gets a broader lap along its width so that it can nestle down in the beams. The photo below shows these upside-down; the "upper" (lower) part of the central piece would just be glued on in the Intermediate version, but it wasn't hard to just cut the piece thicker in the first place. I measured all of these very carefully, and multiple times, before cutting, and was rewarded with the right outcome the first time. Be sure to note that the two side pieces are NOT symmetrical.

 

 

Here's a test fit:

 

 

Here's the more complex central piece resting in position, showing how the different joints work:

 

 

 

And here's the assembly after gluing and sanding (sitting loosely on the beams and carlings):

 

 

 

The instructions now call for drilling a large central hole in this platform, into which the capstan spindle is inserted (the "axle" on which it rotates), but I'm going to hold off on this. The given diameter of this hole (11") doesn't correspond to any standard drill bit size that I have; at 1:24, 11" comes out to 0.458, awkwardly between 1/2" (0.500) and 3/8" (0.375). Based on my understanding of the plans, I think I could shrink the foot spindle to 3/8" with no loss of integrity, also allowing the easy use of a 3/8 dowel rather than trying to make a nice circular piece from scratch, but I want to assemble more of the capstan first before deciding how to proceed. It seems like I can add this feature much later in the build, making life easier. As this will never be seen, it shouldn't matter if it's smaller than "accurate".

 

This means the next step is to make the grating, which seems quite daunting, but I expect I'll muddle through. Thanks for all the advice, comments, and likes so far. I'm trying to be thorough here so this log will be helpful to others, sorry if it's too dry for more experienced readers.

[mtaylor]

Your log is excellent, Eric.  You're showing outside the box thinking on this and pointing out the pitfalls.  

[gjdale]

Nice job on the Capstan Step Eric - very clean joints. Re the Capstan spindle, I did exactly what you are contemplating and drilled a hole with a standard sized drill bit (5/8” for me, but I’m in a different scale to you). You are absolutely correct that it won’t be seen, so make life easier for yourself where you can.

 

[Cathead]

Thank you, Mark.

 

Grant, I should have credited you, I saw that in your log and decided it gave me cover to do likewise.

[usedtosail]

Great work so far. Your joints are very nice.

[mbp521]

Looking great Eric. Love the assembly jig tray, I have had need for one more times that I can think of, I’ve just never bit the bullet and purchased one. Maybe some day.

 

I’m liking this project more and more given the fact that you get to use more of the actual shipbuilding techniques than with a smaller scale build where it’s next to impossible to replicate the mortise and tenon joinery.

 

-Brian

[Cathead]

I've made no further progress. My first try at making gratings failed, but before I got much further on a next attempt, several things intervened. First, I had an especially busy stretch where I often ended up especially tired in the evening and not up for focusing on the project.

 

Honestly, one thing I wasn't expecting (or hadn't thought through) was that this project is very power-tool based, without much hand work. Basically each step is laying out and cutting a complicated piece on the table saw, before a brief bit of final sanding and assembly. The amount of precision needed takes it out of the hand-tool realm, at least for me. To be honest, one of the things I've liked most about getting into  wooden modeling IS the hand-craft nature of it; I don't particularly enjoy using power tools, with their noise, dust, dedicated isolated workshop space, and increased danger. I'm happiest puttering away at my modeling table in the main part of the house where I can talk to my wife and be part of household life. So I've already noticed that I'm spending most of my time in this project in the cold garage workshop focusing on safe table saw use, which isn't a core enjoyment for me. I think that pattern is cutting into my dedication, and making it easier to put off working on it any given night if I'm at all tired or unmotivated (from a safety perspective, if nothing else).

 

Second, in the past week I've become increasingly convinced that I have omicron, from a collective feeling of fatigue, lack of concentration, dry cough, runny nose, sore throat, etc. None of which are bad on their own and might even be dismissed normally, but given the sheer wave of infections hitting the US right now, and the perfect overlap of these feeling with the most commonly reported symptoms, it seems likely (not getting tested as that would mean a 45-minute round trip to a site that, according to media, has outdoor lines wrapping around the building in mid-winter, no thanks). I don't want to go anywhere near power tools while feeling fatigued or diminished, so that puts off the project for a while. In fact, one of the earliest (in retrospect) signs that I might have been getting sick was a series of minor accidents/mistakes made while doing outdoor chainsaw work and wood-chipping early in the week; my wife noticed that I was being unusually clumsy or gaffe-prone and we eventually stopped when the pattern became clear.

 

So I don't know when I'll get back to this. I'm not giving up on it, it's just not serving my needs and situation right now. I'm not personally worried about the disease, I'm a very active and healthy young 40s with none of the comorbidities linked to severe covid (though not boosted since I had a severe cardiac reaction to mRNA the first two doses and no other options are available in the US), so expect to recover in another week or so. Thanks for your patience, and good health to you all.

[gjdale]

Sorry to hear you’ve not been well Eric. Hope you recover swiftly and get back to this project soon - it’s certainly worth persevering. 

[mtaylor]

Eric, you're doing the right thing, IMO.    When in doubt, walk away and with the symptoms you mentioned... definitely walk away and take care of you.

[mbp521]

Eric, hopefully it’s just a winter cold and not the ‘rona. We are a patient bunch and can wait for future updates. Best you can do is to take care of yourself. Get well soon. 
 

-Brian

[robert952]

Take care of yourself.  Hope you have few problems and recover quickly. 

[Cathead]

So I have been feeling fine this week. Really have no idea what to think about what happened last week. But I've been back working on the capstan this weekend.

 

I will have some nice progress to show on the grating soon, but first I need to share what at first felt like a disastrous mistake, but which I think I found a solution to. I decided to drill the hole for the spindle in the base. I measured it carefully to get it perfectly centered, and used a drill guide to make sure everything was straight and steady. Yet somehow the drill slipped sideways and I ended up with this:

 

 

The caliper is set to the distance from the left side of the base to the left side of the hole, so here it's showing the amount of offset to the left. It's also pretty obvious simply by eye. This would be really ugly as the capstan would blatantly sit off-center. This felt so awful, I just wasn't up for remaking this entire assemblage. 

 

My proposed solution, for which I'm interested in feedback, is to cut an appropriate amount off the right side of the base to restore symmetry. I don't think the narrower base will be noticeable, and based on my measurements it'll still overlap the carlings. So in the photo below, the thin batten shows where I'd cut off the right side:

 

 

Is this the best fix? Is there another approach I haven't thought of? Thanks for any feedback.

[mtaylor]

Good news about feeling better.  Let's just hope it was bit a winter cold.    The proposed fix sounds like the easiest way, Eric.  About how much is being cut off?

[Cathead]

Mark, in the second photo, the batten laid across the base shows where the cut line would be. Or you can look at the first photo; the thickness between the right side of the spindle hole and the tip of the caliper is what needs to be cut off the right side to restore balance.