Britannia Fittings

[rcmdrvr]

I am currently building a Model Shipways kit.  It contains a fair number of metal parts (including cannons) which are cast in Britannia.  The castings are quite crude and I would like to eliminate the seams and other extrusions and get them ready for painting.  How do you go about this task.....files, sandpaper, grinding wheels.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[Jim Rogers]

Easier way….order resin replacements from Syren Ship Company.

 

otherwise use a #11 blade and scrape off the big stuff, then file, then paint with primer, hit it with some 400 sand paper, prime again, drill out the muzzle a little and paint.

[ERS Rich]

Small files work well for precision and yield a bright smooth finish.  Thinned  Mr Primer, brushed on to prime.

[James H]

I don't know how these will be with metal.

 

I use these for plastics and resin and they are unbeatable.

 

[aliluke]

Those are pretty cool little tools - are they too harsh to use on wood? How long do they last?

 

 

[allanyed]

14 hours ago, rcmdrvr said:

I am currently building a Model Shipways kit.

Which ship?   We have a number of STL drawings completed of cannon that you can send to a 3D printer and have them made in black resin.  I paid about $0.60 each for perfect cannon, including freight, about a year ago.  We have about 30 cannon drawings done with over a 100 to go but there might be a fit with the ones that are complete depending on which ship your building,

Allan

Edited April 22, 2023 by allanyed

[ERS Rich]

16 hours ago, aliluke said:

Those are pretty cool little tools - are they too harsh to use on wood? How long do they last?

 

 

Files are years and years old, work on wood….clean after use with a file card….

[James H]

20 hours ago, aliluke said:

Those are pretty cool little tools - are they too harsh to use on wood? How long do they last?

 

 

I've never tried them, but it surely can't be as harsh as resin or plastic. 

[wefalck]

On 4/21/2023 at 11:54 PM, James H said:

I don't know how these will be with metal.

 

I use these for plastics and resin and they are unbeatable.

 

These look like diamond-files. Question is what quality they are. Industry produces a wide variety of such diamond tools with different types of bonding between the metal mandrel and the diamond grit. I suspect that they are resin-bonded, which is cheaper and softer than electroplating-type bonding, which is employed for files to be used on teeth or on metal. When using such files on Britannia-metal, you will just rip out the diamonds and imbed them into your workpiece ...

 

Ordinary jewellers files will clog up quickly when used on soft materials such as Britannia-metal. There are special 'tin-files' that are not cross-cut, but have single rows of teeth only - but they are expensive and difficult to find. Clean the files regularly with a file-brush and rub some blackboard-chalk on them, which retards the clogging.

 

Otherwise, I would work with abrasive wheels in a hand-held drill.