Metal bashing

[michael mott]

Did a little metal bashing to take my mind off stuff around the country.

first a bit of maple turned down to 1 inch diameter, the using the ball turning attachment rounded the end.

 

A old bit of silver approximately 1/32 inch thick  was wrapped around and clamped with a hose clamp, my finger are not strong enough to hold it and tap with the leather headed mallet.

 

 

About an hour later after many annealings

 

 

I had it fitting snugly around the dowel.

 

Another Half an hour of time with some 400 wet and dry. and now it looks like this.

 

 

 

I know its not a boat, Ill get around to it.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

[druxey]

Nicely done, Michael. On jobs like that, one spends far more time annealing than tapping!

[michael mott]

Well yesterday I folded a bunch of brass to form some structural channels for the frames for the bashed silver

 

 

But it kept nagging at me that the folded channels looked a bit toy like so I spend a bit of time on the table saw and did a proof of concept bit of dadoing on some yellow cedar and maple.

 

 

Armed with a set of operations that i knew would work I carefully selected a bit of castello and produced an acceptable section. 

 

 

A bit of sanding on the back face and all is well.

And so it goes.

 

Michael

 

 

[BANYAN]

Your fingers may no longer be strong enough Michael, but your skills have not diminished.  Nice work.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[allanyed]

I cannot think of more appropriate words than ingenious.    

Allan

[wefalck]

Is that going to be the radiator-cover for a car engine ? Mounted on a railway carriage ?

 

Did you do the tapping on the lathe ? 🤔

[Dave_E]

Excellent! I have found this ship building hobby to be great therapy for what distracts us. 👍😉

[michael mott]

Eberhard, yes I did do the tapping on the lathe. It is robust and I was careful to tap gently and many annealings to keep the silver soft, Plus I only used a leather head on the small mallet.

 

The Castello frames worked out well.

 

Then a lot of small parts made (0x80 hex and square nuts and bolts) and now the frame is all bolted together. and a cameo appearance of the cutter which is sitting patiently for my muse to change.

 

 

Now to make the axle boxes for the wheels

 

 

The Penrhyn Quarry used a number of car parts from the Bullnose Morris Cowley, here is another modelmakers interpretation of this loco

 

I am using a collection of photographs that appeared in a special publication of the Penrhyn Quarry details for modelmakers. and preparing my own drawings based on those and some overall measurements of the loco. They basically chopped off the front end of the car chassis and bilted it inside the structural steel frame.

 

Michael

 

 

[rlb]

So glad to see you back in the shop, Michael.  It's always amazing to see what you do.  And the muse can be fickle, to be sure.

Ron 

[Dr PR]

Michael,

 

This reminds me of something from my childhood. In the 1950s my dad occasionally stopped by a railroad yard (a very very short short line) so I could climb on the 1880s era steam locomotives that were still in use. Then the railroad retired the locos (one went to Hollywood for use in movies) and built its own locomotive with four V8 Buick car motors and a hodge-podge of sheet metal, steel I beams and other car parts. One of a kind!

[wefalck]

Over here in continental Europe these 'informal' aspects of our industrial history and heritage seem to be largely forgotten. At least there seems to be a lot less published material about it.

[Kevin Kenny]

Its wonderful to see your handy work Michael. I have kept away from metal work so far but would love if someone would share their knowledge in this area. I always wondered how those brass wind scoops or air ventilators were made. My guess its some extension to what you have done here.

[michael mott]

Thanks for all the comments and likes, Kevin there is a member here who has done a absolutely outstanding job making ventilators like the one you have shown. If my memory serves me correctly it is on a Russian steam yacht, he used a method of electroplating that built up the layers of metal over time.

 

Michael

[Kevin Kenny]

I would love to see the link if you come across it again

[wefalck]

Search for AlexBaronov and Imperial Yacht.

 

The process is galvanoplastic, which has been used for some 150 years to duplicate objects. Alex uses a sort of inverse lost-wax casting. The core is CNC-milled from jeweller wax and then coated in a conductive paint. On this copper is deposited electrolytically to a sufficient thickness. The core is simply melted out.

 

Another technique used is metal spinning.

[Bob Cleek]

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

The process is galvanoplastic, which has been used for some 150 years to duplicate objects.

In the US, it seems the jewelers call it "electroforming' (as opposed to the similar "electroplating.") There are many tutorials about the process, most for jewelers, on YouTube. 

 

 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Bob Cleek

[Dr PR]

 

I believe Valery V showed how he used the electroforming process to make ventilators for this cruiser Varyag.

 

[michael mott]

Thank you Phil for the links.

 

Michael

[michael mott]

I used some English boxwood for the hornblocks with ball races for the bearings.

 

As my supply is now very limited I will be putting all the offcuts into the boxwood cuttings box for future considerations.

 

The rectangular section is the prize this time. After squaring the peice up on the shooting board I milled out the sides.

 

 

Then turned the section on its face to bore the recess for the 3/8 x 5/32 ball race. and drill the holes for the stabilising rods and the cover plate. As each one was drilled it was sliced off with the exacto saw and reset for the next set of holes. The surface looked like glass.... such an amazing wood.

 

 

 

Next I turned up a small button for filing the tabs for the stabilizing rods then hardened and ground it so as to act as a depth gauge as well.

 

 

After removing the bulk of the material either side of the tab the offcuts went into the boxwood scrap box.

 

ready for the finishing filing

 

 

The completed hornblock after a little bit of filing to round off some of the edges and blackened  with a sharpie pen.

 

 

The hornblocks were dry placed to check the fit and appearance.

 

 

The hornblock guides had to be remade today because I made them too long, but the method i used was a good practice for the final ones which I have not photographed yet.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

 

 

[michael mott]

Late afternoon brass-work replacements.

 

Sorting out the springs comes next.

 

Michael

 

[WalrusGuy]

Hi Michael, your work always continues to inspire me! Everything is so crisp, tidy, and precise. Your work is not just model making but instead resembles actual construction in a smaller scale.

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  You are a machinist/builder par excellence !  My hat's off to you, sir.

[rwiederrich]

Just amazing wood working and application using metal and wood seamlessly.   Just wonderful to look at Michael.

 

Rob

[michael mott]

Thank you all for you kind words.

I have been working away at this little project trying to solve some issues related to the radiator, I tried a model shipbuilding technique for making the grill but in the end decided on the proper way to build the core, Oh yes and have been making more piano type hinges using the same methods that I have outlined in other threads.

The first idea was multiple layers of woven screen.

 

Its Ok but the wrong look and it is the proper look that I am after. so  then a lot of time was invested in a wooden grill after a few quit experiments by pushing punches into the end of some off cuts of Castello and the English  boxwood (a little side experiment by pushing one of these into some fimo modeling clay an Idea for using the wood block for molding bolts comes to mind)I set up block of salvaged boxwood that was a central American Ash tray in its former life.

And spend a couple of long hours over two days punching the hex indent .030 deep following a chart of offsets, then back to 0,0 and repeated the same by drilling a further .030 with a .038" drill

The punch filed up

 

Tests

 

 

Block punched and drilled  then painted with ACC

 

 

sliced off and sanded on the back untill the holes were exposed.

All old hat for all you folk who make all those wonderful gratings in such  small scales.

 

 

Then it was sectioned with the jewelers saw beveled and fitted into the radiator shell and held in place with a snapped in sheet of clear acetate, I did not want to glue it yet.

 

I look reasonable but not quite right and a bit over scale

.

 

So a new block was begun with a smaller grid on a .030 x .025 set of offsets using a .022" watchmakers spade drill bit But after an hoer I decided it was time for a rethink of this whole exercise.

 

 

I slept on it.

Woke up and had one of those aha moments when I  remembered just how old radiator cores are made with sheet metal.

So some little strips of annealed .003" brass pressed between a couple of strips of plastic model corrugated roofing.

 

 

Then the two strips placed back to back  with a dowel of .028" brass rod as a register produced  this.

 

And as "Monty Python's Dinsdale brothers" would say this operation was the changing point.

All I need now is a stack of 30 of these side by side inside the curve of the shell laid up just like the frames of a ship

 

 

Here they are laying inside an earlier experiment using a perforated sheet.

 

I am happy to climb out of this rabbit hole for now, A bit of crimping in order today.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

 

[wefalck]

Wow ! ... even if it didn't get the right results.

 

It's quite impressive, how these stamped holes hold up in the Castello-end grain. I have been, indeed, thinking of making gratings like that, but was afraid that they would just crumble away.

[Reggiemon]

Michael, You are absolutely amazing!

I was following your Bristol Pilot Cutter and I check in and find that your building radiators!😲

I hope your hands and fingers fully recover.

[rwiederrich]

Michael...what does the actual radiator look like...so your replication can be accurate.....I have no reference to make any judgements.  All of your attempts look fine if indeed that is what the prototype looks like.

Being a modelers perfectionist....I know you have accuracy pointing the way...but what does that actually look like?

 

Rob(Magnificent work as usual)

[druxey]

A fascinating exercise in developing the optimal solution, Michael! Thanks for sharing this series of experiments.

[WalrusGuy]

Hi Michael, my jaw dropped seeing the boxwood gratings. Amazing!!

[michael mott]

Hello all and thank you for your very kind remarks, 

Eberhard, I will definitely be able to apply this new knowledge about the punching into end grain with applications for my model boat building, if it works for hexagons it will also work for squares. watch this space for that.

 

Reggiemon, thank you, my hands have healed. At the moment my mind is hurting, everyone in the world knows why. I will get back to some boat modeling soon enough.

 

Rob As I do not have any of my own copyright pictures here is a link to the bullnose radiator images on Google, by simulating the core the appearance moves beyond a simple screen, I think that there were a few of the radiators that used a screen in front of the core but many did not. My representation will be a compromise in actual accuracy but it hopefully will emulate the correct look.

 

Druxey, thank you, I do enjoy receiving and sharing knowledge.

 

Harshil, thanks I hope I can apply the principle in some boats.

 

Michael