Double Capstan Project by shauer - Portland Scale Ship Co Kit

[shauer]

Looks like I'm the first build log here, mods please let me know if anything is incorrect.

 

I don't have access to a resin 3d printer or a laser cutter at the moment, so the kit option that Portland Scale Ship is offering was the way to go for me.  I'll be working on this small kit as a needed distraction from my Winchelsea project.  Just needed something small to give me a change of pace for a bit and will be working on both these at the same time.

 

Small box arrived and I was pleased to see an included packing sheet provided for this small kit.  The box is just about the perfect size for the kit components so no additional packaging was needed beyond the plastic bags used to hold the parts.

 

Three bags of parts plus a length of 40lb monofilament line, the 1/8th inch square stock, and a short length of brass wire.  

 

 

Printed parts are all very clean and will require minimal cleanup

 

 

Laser cut parts from one of the bags, not going to show the other as all the parts are already shown on the Portland website.  Laser cutting is all very clean.  Overall the part quality looks to be the same as the parts I've been receiving from Syren for my Winchelsea chapters.

 

 

Looking forward to putting this together.  Thinking I will display it in my office once completed.

 

Steve

 

 

[scrubbyj427]

Welcome To the capstan party Steve. Looking forward To your build. The kit is a very complex and detailed design yet surprisingly easy to build. Another excellent Syren design.

 

JJ

[shauer]

19 hours ago, scrubbyj427 said:

Welcome To the capstan party Steve. Looking forward To your build. The kit is a very complex and detailed design yet surprisingly easy to build. Another excellent Syren design.

 

JJ

 

Thanks!  First impressions are that this is a really nice small project that balances a high level of detail, but it is easy enough to build that it would make a nice novice project, especially in kit form.

 

Spent the evening putting the wood parts of the base together.  Keeping the partners separate from the lower and upper base until I have the bases painted black and a first coat of wipe on poly on the partners.

 

Part way through assembly of the bases with the 4 squares mounted on the underside of the upper base and two of the 4 side pieces on the lower base.

 

Following the build guide, installed two opposite sides on the lower base.  The overhang ended up being 1/8 inch so just used a piece of scrap as a gauge.  You could have also used the included 1/8 square stock that makes the axel as a gauge.

 

 

One recommendation, do not install the "His Majesty's Ship" side as one of the two first sides.  I discovered that the material along the laser engraved 'H' is prone to tear-out when sanding the edges down flush with the lower base.  Saving this side for the second group installed will allow more material on the outside of the 'H' and be less prone to tear-out.

 

Close-up of the tear-out on the edge.  I'm going to be using the adhesive boards so this will be covered. 

 

And the base assemblies ready for paint and poly.  This will happen today.

 

 

Cleaned up Chuck's logo on the bottom with a light sanding.

 

 

Steve

[garyshipwright]

Nice Job on the double capstan Project. I have not recieved mine yet but it won't be long and then a set up a build log for it. It also will help me on the capstan's I need to build for Alfred. Have fun. 
Gary

[shauer]

21 hours ago, garyshipwright said:

Nice Job on the double capstan Project. I have not recieved mine yet but it won't be long and then a set up a build log for it. It also will help me on the capstan's I need to build for Alfred. Have fun. 
Gary

 

I'm using this as the trial run prior to constructing the capstan for my Winchelsea, which will be half this size.

 

I applied the first coat of wipe on poly to all the base pieces as either the final finish or as a sanding sealer prior to painting.  While waiting for that to dry I decided to spend yesterday evening and this morning getting the drums assembled and shaped.  I have the black dye arriving tomorrow so I can dye the printed parts black.  I like working through similar operations at the same time, so I did the upper and lower drums at the same time.  Be sure to label them as they are different.

 

I refined the technique that Chuck showed of using the 1/8 inch square stock as an axle to turn the drums from a cordless drill.  I created a mandrel from a #6 machine screw that's 1.5 inches long and some flat washers.  This is then chucked into my rotary tool which I have held in my bench vice.  The #6 machine screw is an almost perfect fit for the hole in the drum, an M3.5 would be the closest metric size I think.

 

I used 1/8 inch by 1 inch fender washers for all this work except for the final shaping of the tops of the drums.  The larger the surface area the better.

 

  

 

Drum installed in my rotary tool and part way through shaping with files and sanding sticks.

 

Shaping of the inner layers of the drums completed.

 

 

For shaping the tops of the drums, I used a smaller, regular sized #6 flat washer to allow access for shaping the taper on the top.

 

 

The LD-3 and UD-3 pieces are only 1/64 of an inch thick.  These were a challenge to shape the required rounded edges on.  I did the best I could during assembly but found that running a piece of sandpaper edge-wise along the groove while turning the piece cleaned up the transition pretty well.

 

A couple pictures of the completed drums, except for the center cap on the upper drum.

 

 

 

Steve

[scrubbyj427]

Nicely done Steve. That looks really good!

[shauer]

Just a quick update, had time to put another couple coats of black on the display stand, and my black dye arrived so I got that job done.

 

Just followed Chuck's guide on using the dye, made sure to get the alcohol based 'pro' dye since I was diluting it with IPA. (not the beer...)

 

Simple set-up to soak the parts in a small container.

 

 

Mixed some of the dye with the alcohol until it looked "dark enough"  I guess I ended up at about 10:1 but that's a guess.

 

Tried a 25-30 minute soak

 

 

Fished the parts out of the dye and washed them with water.

 

I noticed there's a difference in the dye absorption.  Areas that I had sanded down and smoothed out showed lighter than the "raw" 3d printed surfaces.  This did not impact me as these were all mating surfaces that will not be seen.  However, the smooth surfaces on the columns also showed slightly lighter than the center portions with a rougher surface finish.  You can look at the square portions of the columns in this picture below.

 

 

Simple solution, I just put these parts back in the dye bath for an hour and that looks like it took care of it.

 

I can see if you were sensitive to the final shade of the parts, then surface finish would need to be taken into account.  With something like black, you don't really care so the longer you soak the parts, the better.

 

Never done this with printed parts before, I will definitely be using this technique to color printed parts a solid color where careful control of the shade is not required.  The finish is far superior to a painted finish for this application.

 

Steve

[scrubbyj427]

That looks really good Steve. I’d use a matte clear coat like Chuck recommends. I noticed that the dye would come off on my hands when handling those parts during assembly. But very nice results!

[shauer]

Just now, scrubbyj427 said:

That looks really good Steve. I’d use a matte clear coat like Chuck recommends. I noticed that the dye would come off on my hands when handling those parts during assembly. But very nice results!

 

Good to know.  I'll add the matte clear before assembly.