Making rings

[Dave_E]

Good Morning All,

 

The LN did not come with an abundance of rings to go with the eyelets. I ran out, so thought I’d look into making some. My Rattlesnake from MS comes with 24 gauge brass rings and is a 1:64 kit. The LN kit came with .32mm rings (26 gauge?). Which of these sizes would be more scale correct? I’m guessing to close to call?

 

Also looking for a good tutorial on how to make said rings. Thanks!

[Oldsalt1950]

Dave, not enough difference in gauge to bother about. As for making rings, not to hard to do. Find a dowel or other circular object the size you need wrap the wire around it and then clip off the wire and close the loop with some needle nose pliers. You can either solder or glue the ends of the ring together.

 

Jim

[Gregory]

26 minutes ago, Dave_E said:

Also looking for a good tutorial on how to make said rings.

Jim pretty much covered it, but here is a picture of how Chuck makes rings.

 

He is using a saw, which leaves a cleaner cut..  I just use some small flush cutters. Not as clean a cut, but whose checking..

 

 

[allanyed]

Dave,   There is a  25% difference in the diameter of 24 and 26 gage.  The difference with 28 gage or 29 gage, which you also need for the eyebolts,  and 24 gage would be 100% too large. The rings and eyebolts were made of materials of a size that was somewhat matched to the gun sizes.  A long 32 pounder needed something more stout than a 9 pounder for example.  If the LN had 3 and 4 pounders, for the rings the diameter of the material would be 1 inch with an inside diameter of the ring of 3 1/2 ".    The eyebolts in the bulwark would be made of 3/4" diameter material with an inside diameter of 1.5".   Just as an FYI, the rings for guns of 12 pounds and above used  1.5" diameter material and the ID ran from 4.5" to 6"    These stats are from The Construction and Fitting of the British Man of War, p217, by Peter Goodwin and which he references  the Shipbuilder's Repository of 1788.

 

Again assuming 3 or 4 pounders in your case, for the rings,  the diameter of the material would be 0.0152" so 26 gage is right for the rings.  The ID is easily made correctly using appropriate size drill bits.  In your case a 26 gage wire and a number a #54 drill bit for the rings and 28 or 29 gage wire and a  #77 drill bit for the eye bolts.    

 

I would consider copper wire for both as it is easy to find, can be soft soldered, and easily blackened with diluted liver of sulfur even AFTER it is installed, without staining the wood or rigging.

 

When I first saw these ring diameters I thought the ID was a bit small for the breeching rope.   In researching a little further, Caruana shows the breech rope for  3 and 4 pounders at 3.5" circumference, so a little over 1 inch in diameter thus no problem securing to the rings. (The History of English Sea Ordnance, page 385)

 

Hope this helps and was not too long winded.

 

Allan

 

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by allanyed

[Dave_E]

Just made a handful of split rings using 24 gauge annealed blackened wire. This stuff is cool! Good needle noses under the glass and I’m able to make these things beautiful circles. Very little if any touch up to do for shiny spots at the cut area. 👍😀 L N kit on the left, mine on the right.

 

[Dave_E]

Thanks Allan! I have ordered so much thread for seizing and rope lately trying to “go scale”, I’ll use the 24 gauge wire to finish the LN. I cannot find 26 gauge annealed blackened wire anywhere. I did find 28 gauge however. The Admiral is asking me why I have so many ordered extras that weren’t in the kit. 😆 I’ve saved your data and will be trying to build the Rattlesnake as best I can regarding scale, bashing etc..

[allanyed]

Have fun, that is the number one priority!!!

[Dave_E]

Sorry All,

 

I’m changing plans after all. Thanks to David Lester for a valuable source of wire tip, so I ordered some 26 and 28 gauge black annealed wire and wait for it to arrive before I continue.

 

So Since I’m really close to to being done with the hull, I’ll spend the week learning how to taper masts and spars. 😀