Skipjack by michael mott - 1/8th scale - SMALL - 19 foot open launch

[Jim Lad]

It's good to see that this project is still ticking away, Michael.

 

John

[michael mott]

A bit more progress the sheet is .005" The lenses have to go in after soldering.

 

 

Michael

[druxey]

Very nice, Michael!

[EdT]

Perfection - or as near as possible.

[Jim Lad]

Excellent job (as usual), Michael.

 

John

[KeithAug]

Michael - pretty little thing. Did you bend the top and bottom flanges before doing the vertical folds or after? Before seems to make sense but I can't see the cut marks?

[TBlack]

Michael, with reference to your comment #666 above, and just for the record, I can remember, during my log of Vinalhaven, that you would stop doing your projects and make drawings/illustrations to help me with mine. So I would respectfully suggest that your dedication to and inspiration for this group is most remarkable (in other words, take the bow!)

BTW, that lamp is going together with incredible speed.

Tom

[michael mott]

Thanks for all the kind remarks.

Well like many of the other things that I have made over time on these models. Now that I know what I am up against I started over with some thicker brass sheet and laid it out differently.

glued to block with double sided tape and drilled.

 

cut out with jewelers saw

 

 

Using the original for block.

 

 

The second bend required an extra spacer

 

 

 

Next a small tab on the back side needed to be folded for soldering the shell together

 

 

Ready to fold the tab

+

 

 

closing the back require a different strategy so out came the long needle nosed pliers and the back was gently eased over with a flat block

 

 

floding down the tab to match the back

 

 

After some twaeking with the needle nose it all sat pretty nicely.

 

 

Will continue in the next post

Michael

[michael mott]

All the parts ready to solder, I had to shave the opening with the knife blade as if I was de burring to shape the hole to cause the lens holder to angle down

 

Soldered with regular soft solder

 

 

 

A new former to form the curved top was made from maple

 

 

forced into some soft Jelutong

 

 

it was ok but I wanted a crisper form so trued soe soft end grain maple

 

 

it didn'r work and destroyed the form

 

 

I made a new form out of brass and set it on a 5/16 rod with some locktite

 

 

out of sequence picture of the raw block

 

shaped and polished with a stub of 5/16 in filled in the hole, I did not use the short stub and made a longer one.

 

 

A new block from some linden salvaged from an old drafting board a few years ago.

 

 

a couple of tries with the new block and form with some anealed .005"

 

 

A couple of presses later the form is deep enough.

 

 

Filing off the excess with a safe edged file

 

 

The journey so far, in this last picture the lamp is upside down, but i am pleased with the curved top.

 

 

and a decent opening for the door.

 

 

Michael

 

[vossiewulf]

Very nice solutioning on the top piece Michael, and extremely clean metal work as usual.

[Bedford]

You never stop teaching Michael

[dvm27]

The very definition of craftsmanship, Michael!Your updates are a treat for those of us who are metally-challenged.

[druxey]

Brilliant! Well done, Michael. We are all absorbing information in forming metal from you. Thanks for sharing this.

[KeithAug]

Looking good.

[vaddoc]

The way the metal bends to your will Michael is truly inspirational. Indeed a treat for those of us that when picking a fight with metals we usually lose.

[michael mott]

Thank you all for your compliments.

 

I woke up thinking that I would have to make another top because the body is very slightly A symmetrical, so when I flipped it up the right way I was happy that it fit properly.

 

I made a better top vent and put the holes in best I could with the small rotary table on the mill.

 

 

 

 

So back to the lenses I went to Michael's today to get some glass stain to colour the plex to get the red and green. As I walked in there were all the coloured beads and for a song I got a box of a few hundred multiples colours of beads that were somewhere between  1/4 and 5/16" in diameter.

 

 

The first thing was to put a small flat parallel to the hole so that it could be glued to a plex rod. It was wedged onto a tapered pin holder and with a course file slowly made a flat. this plastic melts easily if you file too fast and the friction makes the filing gummy.

 

 

Next the flattened bead was glued to the plex rod for the initial shaping.

 

 

Then the lens was machined off from the back side working slowly to let it cool between each cut.

 

 

Once it was parted off the back side was polished up on a bit of card with some Novus #3 plastic polish. then glued back onto a short length of plex that was a slide fit into the lamp tube.

 

 

The top will get soldered to a plate of .015 brass with the edges rounded to form a bead  and the centre will be removed to allow the heat to rise to the top vent.

 

Michael

[Mark Pearse]

HI Michael,

 

Many thanks for the description. What is the forward-facing central light? (I can only think it's an occasional white light, for visibility assistance when approaching a mooring or jetty after dark)

[michael mott]

Hi Mark, The forward light was a clear lens and

"It was a clear magnifier lens and was just a fwd facing headlight IN THEORY."

Roger sent back this info this morning along with a picture of the door on the back of a light very similar to the one on Skipjack at the cottage.

 

 

 

This was great because I was wondering how the lamp sat on the bracket and how big the door was. This was not shown on any of the light I saw on the internet search and the hinges are built into the bead along the back edges I did have the size of the lamp correct.

Michael

[KeithAug]

Michael

 

Magic- as all lanterns should be.

[michael mott]

Well thank you Keith, and like all magic we have to practice our craft. Roger's photos this morning caused a rethink.

 

The test is to see how well the integrated hinge will work. I went back to some .005" brass with some .011" music wire, a fold back with the wire placed at the apex and taped to stop it moving.

 

 

Next a bit of evergreen to use to close the brass with a tap from the small hammer.

 

 

The styrene is able to slip a little without damaging the brass.

 

After both ends were folded it was back to the drilling and fretting out the three holes again.

 

 

 

I also turned up some new lens tubes with a bit finer detail

 

 

Using the jewelers saw to cut out the spaces for the hinge tab locations. then made a door using the same procedure.

 

 

The hinge fitted better than I expected first time.

 

 

The next task was to fold up the body this was a little easier not having to make the closing fold. again the same methods were used to make the folds.

 

 

 

A small tab was folded to act as the closing piece.

 

 

All dry assembled and the locking tab will need to be redone with the folds opposite to each other. The top is also new and follows the design of the original more closely.

 

 

That's it for today.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

 

[druxey]

Just when we thought that you couldn't improve on the lamp....

[Kurt Johnson]

Michael, I think that lantern is so cool! One of my favorite possessions is a much simpler kerosene bow lantern from a boat my  grandfather had owned. It is much simpler in design. The front has a red and green lens that has a shield separating them that prevents seeing both colors at the same time unless from directly in front. There is absolutely no way I could make model of it, and I wish I could. I wouldn’t have to build the rest of the boat. That would be enough! 

 

I love things from that time period. Every item is the product of true craftsmen. For a number of years I rented a Skiff House converted to a cottage on one of the Thosand Islands on the US side of the St Lawrence River.  The beams in boat house all had hand beading on them. In boathouse! 

 

I can look at your work, over and over again.

 

Kurt

[Omega1234]

Hi Michael

 

I think that one of your greatest gifts is your ability to make incredibly difficult items, look incredibly easy.  I mean, a mere mortal like me would just scratch my head and give up....but, then I can see from your photos that with a logical and methodical approach, anything is possible!

 

Was/is your nickname ‘Mr Inspirational‘ per chance? If not, it should be😃

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[EdT]

Amazing, Micheal amazing.  My hat is off.

 

.

[SJSoane]

Michael,

 

I add my congratulations. Astonishing work. We can learn so much from you.

 

So how, exactly, did you make the circular former for the top? I see a file working on the side but not how you turned a perfect convex circle. Done on the lathe? And what pressed the metal into the former, once you had it in the vise?

 

Mark

[michael mott]

Ed thanks I appreciate you compliment.

5 hours ago, SJSoane said:

So how, exactly, did you make the circular former for the top? I see a file working on the side but not how you turned a perfect convex circle. Done on the lathe? And what pressed the metal into the former, once you had it in the vise? 

 

Hi Mark, the form for the top was all hand filed and polished. The brass form was placed in the milling machine vice so that the form was raised about 3/8 off the base with a wood spacer. The annealed sheet of .008" brass was stood up between the former and the smooth sanded block of Linden with the end grain facing the brass. The closing of the vice pushed the form into the brass and squashed the sheet and the form into the end grain of the linden. 

 

 

A shot of the mess on the bench.

 

 

I wanted to see whether I could do a better job of the top of the lamp especially the tree like vents. So I did a new drawing in Cad and set up the measurements to be easily transferable to the dials on the mill/drill., but before that was done I wanted to see if I could form the two bands above the vent holes. A small piece of annealed brass was taped to the cutting mat and a rod of .021" music wire was taped into position then covered with a slab of I/8th inch brass and whacked with a hammer.

 

 

 

I seemed to be successful, so I trimmed it up to see how the vent holes would work and then see how it curved into a tube. Teh trimmed piece was stuck to a piece of Cherry and using a combination of drills and burs I roughed out the holes.

 

 

Then placed the piece in the vice to shape the holes some more with the fine rat tail file.

 

 

It seemed to work in principle.

 

so now to make the final part. It formed into a tube easily without distorting the brass looks terrible and dinged up because it was just a scrap.

 

The new drawing gave me a better way of sequencing the body part so on to version 4

 

 

The folding was done on a hard surface which improved the results.

 

 

After drilling and fretting out yet another three holes I am pleased with the results. The holes were slowly opened up with the exacto knife in the same way the you spin the knife around in the end of a tube to remove the burr. You can see the tiny shavings, it is slow but very effective way to set the holes.

 

 

Next a top ring sheet for forming the vent tube was cut to match the cad Drawing and using an .8mm drill and an included 60 degree burr I was able to make a better looking series of vent holes.

 

 

The top plate needed to have a hole cut and this was done the same way as the rest of the holes. The top plate was polished up and reduced the flange to better reflect the original. The vent tube was trimmed until it fit snug into a 5/16 diameter hole. a flanged retaining ring was turned for the base of the tube so that it could seat properly for soldering to the top plate. and an inner collar was turned up for the top of the tube.

 

 

 

That's it for today.

 

Michael

 

 

 

[SJSoane]

Wow, a masterpiece!

Mark

[cog]

5 hours ago, michael mott said:

After drilling and fretting out yet another three holes I am pleased with the results. The holes were slowly opened up with the exacto knife in the same way the you spin the knife around in the end of a tube to remove the burr. You can see the tiny shavings, it is slow but very effective way to set the holes.

I use a round file and twist it round to open up holes, when I use the exacto knife method I tend to make the edge look like saw's teeth <scratches head>

[michael mott]

7 hours ago, cog said:

I use a round file and twist it round to open up holes, when I use the exacto knife method I tend to make the edge look like saw's teeth <scratches head>

Hi Carl I can see why you would do that.

 

First I use a round file to open up the hole to close to the right diameter . Then I use the tip of an exacto knife and with practice you can make the knife slide smoothly like a miniature pairing chisel without causing the chattering which causes the saw tooth finish that you speak of. The point of the blade has to be just at the right part of its depth into the hole to work efficiently. I will see if I can make a short video to demonstrate what I mean. It is a simple operation but like many things take a bit of practice to get proficient at it. I have produced the effect you speak of myself on more than one occasion.

 

Michael 

[dvm27]

Those vent holes really catch my eye, Michael. Very delicate and refined. You should add video and create a You Tube channel!