Pomeranian Rahschlup 1846 by wefalck – 1/160 scale – single-masted Baltic trading vessel

[Keith Black]

 That's great work, Eberhard. Many a time I've wished you and your milling machine were sitting next to me when tackling small pieces. 

[wefalck]

… but we are sinking slowly into technological obsolescence, considering what can be done with 3D-printing already.

[Keith Black]

56 minutes ago, wefalck said:

… but we are sinking slowly into technological obsolescence, considering what can be done with 3D-printing already.

 Sure but... I've got nothing against 3D printing. I buy 3D parts but I wish I didn't have to, I wish I could make those parts myself. I think there's something to said for building a model totally by hand. I can't do it but for those that can, I admire them and their skills greatly.  

[BANYAN]

Nice made parts Eberhard.  People may be able to buy them sure, but I only resort to that if the part required is beyond my skill level or capacity to make them.  A hand-made part is still preferable in my mind.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[wefalck]

I probably wouldn't buy-in someone elses parts, I was thinking of kitting myself out to do 3D-printing - or at least do the designs myself. On the other hand, as for my laser-cutting, parts usually do not turn out right at first shot. As @dafi knows well, there are usually several runs necessary to get the dimensions right for printing - unlike for substractive machining, where one in most cases ends up with the correct part.

 

However, I love this late 19th to mid-20th century manual technology of substractive machining and those old machines. In addition, I am already spending a good deal of my wake hours in front of a computer, so manual workshop work is a pleasant diversion.

 

[wefalck]

The shipyard had been closed for much of August, only the drawing office stayed open to prepare work for autumn ...

 

********************
 

Anchor-winch 4

 

The remaining item for the winch is the pawl-bit against which also the bowsprit rests. It is surprisingly thin, only 240 mm square, according to the original drawing, which conveniently translates to 1.5 mm on the model.

 

A strip a tad wider than 2 mm was cut from a scrap of 1.5 mm thick acrylic glass. Care was taken to cut it parallel to a manufacturing edge, which is clean and square. In this way, only one edge needed to be machined and the manufactured edge provided a good datum for this.

 

The pawl rest in a cast-iron U-shaped frame that is bolted to the front of the post (updating the design a bit from the older style wooden pawls drawn in the original drawing). Rather than adding this part to the post, I decided to mill it from the solid. Hence the 2 mm strip.

 

Originally, I intended to drill 0.15 mm holes for the axes of the pawls, but my drills turned out to be too short for that. This would not be really necessary at this scale anyway, but would have later, once a wire was inserted, facilitated the positioning of the pawls. I have to eyeball it now.

Milling the groove into the ‘cast-iron’ frame

 

The post was milled to size, letting material for the frame for the pawls standing. The shape of the frame was then milled out and the ends rounded with a safe-edge file. In the final machining step, the groove was cut.

Shaping the head of the pawl-bit

 

I don’t have square collets (I plan to make one day a set of square insert collets for precisely holding square stock), so a round one had to make do for the next operation, namely shaping the head of the pawl-bit with different burrs. Because of the relatively soft acrylic glass and with light cuts, this is not a problem.

 

Shaping the head of the pawl-bit

 

The pawls will be short lengths of 0.2 mm x 1 mm styrene strips, but will be made only later, when everything comes together so as not to lose those tiny bits.

 

To be continued …