US Brig Syren by Gahm - Model Shipways

[_SalD_]

Wonderful craftsmanship Thomas and I'll take two after you do Dirk's.  

[GaryKap]

Thomas -

 

And two for me, please.  Beautiful work.  Its nice to have the tools and skills to produce cannon barrels as you did.  

 

<<Gary>>

[CaptainSteve]

Thomas,

You are probably going to need this:

 

 

Edited January 29, 2016 by CaptainSteve

[Gahm]

Thank you so much for all your compliments and the likes! I would love to accept your cannon orders, but unfortunately without a CNC lathe I guess I must decline 

 

Thomas

[rtropp]

Gahm,

beautiful, makes me want to try it myself,

I do not fully understand what I am seeing in 1a.  (never used a lathe before.)  I see two brass pieces but not sure how they are related. Cannot make out the set up.

If you have time, I would appreciate some help in understanding.

 

Richard

[Gahm]

Hello Richard,

Image 1a in the last sequence of images shows just one brass piece. I hope the images below make things a bit clearer. I selected a round brass dowel with diameter slightly larger than the largest diameter of the cannon barrel (image 1a). This dowel was then mounted on the lathe in a 4-jaw-chuck with individual jaw alignment (it allows for more precise centering than self-centering chucks) with a piece of the dowel about 1.3 times the cannon barrel length protruding out of the chuck. This piece was first turned to the largest cannon diameter (image 1b). By means of a cross sled I then tapered the piece by about 1.5˚ to give it its rough "cannon" shape (image 1c). This corresponds to what you have seen in my last image sequence as image 1a). After a lot of additional processing steps the major part of the barrel was finished but still part of the original brass dowel (image 2). As a final step it was cut off the dowel, turned around and mounted again in the lathe in order to finish the work on the front end of the cannon.

 

Please don't hesitate to ask questions if the process is not clear. In any case it is a lot of fun to make your own cannon barrels

  

Thomas

 

Image 1

 

Image 2

Edited January 31, 2016 by Gahm

[Gahm]

Thank you, Dirk! 

 

Thomas

[Gahm]

I finished the first long gun – the second one is about one week behind . I followed the long gun design in Chuck’s Syren plans (with a few small changes) as basis for the build. Images 1, 2 and 3 show how the wheels and the axles were made. I glued 4 roughly square pieces of pear wood on a beech dowel (img 1a and 1b), turned them on the lathe to the required diameter, drilled the holes for axels and bolts (img 1c and 2a), and cut them apart with a little saw (img 2b). The finished wheels are shown in img 3a. Images 3b, c and d present how the axels were made and how the axels’ bearings were built by turning a brass tube down to the correct size. For stabilization a second tube was inserted during the lathe work.

 

Image 01

 

Image 02

 

Image 03

 

 

Images 4 and 5 show the making of the carriage parts. I glued 6 correctly sized pieces of pear wood together with a piece of paper between each pear wood layer (img 4a). The paper insures that the pear wood pieces can be separated from each other later on (img 5). The resulting block of layered pear wood was processed with mill, drill, and sanding wheel to arrive at the desired shape (image 5a). After painting the finished pieces the gun carriage was assembled on a jig (img 6b). The result is presented in image 7.  The finished gun can be seen in images 8 and 9. Image 10 shows the long gun in its place on the Syren.

 

Thomas

 

Image 04

 

Image 05

 

Image 06

 

Image 07

 

Image 08

 

Image 09

 

Image 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GLakie]

Those are some great-looking carriages Thomas! Very nice!! 

[GaryKap]

Thomas -

 

Great job on the cannons.  I wish I had your skills and equipment.  They look very nice...what's the next level above "museum quality"?

 

<<Gary>>

[rafine]

That is fantastic work on the cannons Thomas, particularly at that scale.

 

Bob

[alde]

You sir are an artist.

[_SalD_]

Great craftsmanship Thomas    :im Not Worthy:

[Gahm]

George, Gary, Bob, Alde, Sal, thank you so much for your kind words and comments! They are highly appreciated! And thank you for all the "likes"!

 

Thomas

[Gahm]

No chance, Dirk - unless you build the Confederacy in between 

 

Thomas

[Blue Ensign]

Beautiful guns Thomas, wonderful example of skill and artistry.

 

B.E.

[Gahm]

Thank you, B.E., for this kind comment!

 

Thomas

[Gahm]

I finished the 2^nd long gun as well (see images below). I am quite happy now to move on to something else .

 

Thomas

 

Image 1

 

 

Image 2

 

 

Image 3

[JesseLee]

Very nice!

 

Jesse

[Gahm]

Thank you, Jesse!

 

Thomas

[Gahm]

A little sign of life – unfortunately the “workforce of my shipwright” has been constantly reassigned to other tasks, mostly unimportant things like earning a living . The little time left for ship modeling was used to “clean up” my Syren model. This concerned primarily the gratings. A grating of the Victory in image 1 shows the elements which I wanted to change/include in my Syren build – which meant removing and rebuilding some “prototypes”: the “continuous” grating bars go parallel to the deck planking (my first attempt was perpendicular), there is a nailing pattern, which of course would be barely visible at the Syren scale, and the picture shows a thick smooth metal cover of the hatch edge for reinforcement of the edge and friction reduction for the heavy anker cable. I have seen this last detail the first time in Dirk’s Syren build log and really liked it. Image 2a shows the edge metal reinforcement (milled out of a thick sheet of brass) and the (re)making of the cannon ball racks (image 2b), images 3 – 5 present the self-explanatory building sequence for the ladders (made of pear wood), image 6 depicts the permanently mounted companionway with ladder, and images 7 and 8 show the final gratings.

 

Thomas

 

Image 1

 

Image 2

 

Image 3

 

Image 4

 

Image 5

 

Image 6

 

Image 7

 

Image 8

 

[donrobinson]

Excellent work, looks great

[rafine]

Amazing looking work Thomas. You shouldn't let life get in the way for so long.

 

Bob

[CaptainSteve]

Wow !! That's some quality work, Thomas.

[Ponto]

Sent a  like but felt compelled to compliment you on the very high level of ability you show with this build....well done!!!

 

JP

[rtropp]

Very nice, the photos will be helpful when I get to that point

Thanks, Richard

[Gahm]

Don, Bob, CaptainSteve, JP, Richard: Thank you for your great comments! They are always highly appreciated! And thank you for all the likes!

Bob, you are absolutely right, this year life seems to get in the way far more and far longer than in other years  . And I get quite envious watching you zipping through one complex build after the other with outstanding quality and in record time 

 

Thomas

[Gahm]

Thank you, Dirk! There is a great build log where I always can look for good ideas 

 

Thomas

[Seventynet]

Outstanding work and a real pleasure to behold.

 

Ian

[JesseLee]

So am I

 

Jesse