Beavers Prize 1777 by Mike Y - 1:48 - POF - Hahn style

[Mike Y]

Thanks Gaetan and Toni, will go with a slimmed / curved shape. 

Strength should not really be a problem, if you need a lot of clamping force on a model - I think it is a sign of a bigger problem. Applying too much force will just cause more troubles... So it is more about heaving a light, soft and miniature clamps. The metal ones are too heavy (I have them as well) and will leave marks in the wood with their jaws. The wooden ones would be lined with a super soft basswood to prevent any damage.

 

I finally finished all the thread cutting and tapping (phew!), so hope to start cutting some wood tomorrow!

[Kurt Johnson]

You can line the metal ones also. I usually put a piece of wood or cardboard between the wood surface and clamp when I use the metal ones or when I use C clamps too for that matter. I always thought the miniature wooded clamps would be nice to have. I really should try and make some.

 

Kurt

[Mike Y]

Who could have known that making clamps will take so much time But I hope it worth it!

 

Sanding that metal pieces to ensure uniform length. A simple jig prevents them from tipping over when in contact with the sandpaper.

 

Cutting clamps, this is mostly cherry:

 

Also made three pairs of long clamps, specialised for things like wales. To make it easier to clamp around hull shape, they will have a gap in the center:

 

Gluing soft basswood strips that would help to prevent damage of a pieces being clamped:

 

Mill as a drum sander, works fine:

 

Big Clamp help to make a tiny version of itself

 

Experimented with various shapes of handles, the most elegant and simplest to manufacture is just a smoothened slightly conical cylinder:

[Mike Y]

... And this is the moment when I would really love to have a CNC mill - for repetitive and precise tasks...

Ok, even a regular mill is better than trying to do it by hand

Surprisingly, drilling with a mill bit works better than with a wood drill bit. No idea why, maybe the speed is too high for a drill bit. It causes burning and some chip-out on the back side of the hole, while a milling bit just pushes fibers outside without causing them to chip out.

 

The fuzzy fibers are easily cleaned up later with a knife.

 

Mill is pretty amazing for the precise work, I really love the control and having everything square in all directions!

 

 

 

Current state of things. The wisdom says that you can never have too many clamps, challenge accepted!  

 

[mtaylor]

Might be time consuming, Mike but those will be worth the effort. 

[AON]

Fantastic assortment of sizes

[Tigersteve]

You could start selling these. They look very well done.

Steve

[michael mott]

Very nice looking clamp parts Mike

[BANYAN]

Well constructed clamps in a great variety of size and action Mike; you'll get decades out of those.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Kurt Johnson]

Mike, Everything you create is a piece of art.

 

Kurt

[Mike Y]

Thanks for the compliments!

Clamps got their butts rounded and slots cut:

 

So now it's juts a matter of sanding, assembly, breaking the edges, more sanding and applying some finish. Some oil would be great, but I do not want it on a basswood contact surface (they will act like a sponge and, when pressured, release oil into the model parts). So it would be probably some kind of less penetrating finish. I have three bottles of various sanding sealers to play with! 

[druxey]

Nice work, Mike. But do the parts need any finish at all? Some clamps have the jaws lined with thin cork sheet.

[Mike Y]

Some finish would be nice - will show that bookmatched cherry grain and protect from fingerprints. It is a tool that supposed to be touched  

Was thinking about cork, but all the cork sheets I saw were out of scale for those tiny clamps. It really feels like making a scale model of a real thing.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Mike Y

[Mike Y]

Assembly phase is very relaxing and could be easily combined with a nice music and some fine tea. No dust, no noise - perfect evening! 

 

Experimenting with finishes. I had few extra clamps as a reserve for whoopsies, ending up with no whoopsies - so using them to test the finishes. 

So far they all look the same when applied, but a pretty different characteristics during an application process. Will see how they look once dry.

 

Result of the weekend:

Now they just need some final shaping, handles, sanding and finishing.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Mike Y

[Mike Y]

Sanding sealer test results are quite surprising. On cherry, there is no visible difference between any of them and Danish Oil (while there is a clear difference on Pear).

However, the surface smoothness is different, especially on endgrain or diagonal grain. Rustins and Liberon are rough and look blotchy on a photo, while Briwax cellulose leaves a smooth and even finish, though a bit too glossy for my taste. Danish oil is slightly less smooth.

Decided to go with oil since I am more used to it, and these clamps are tricky to finish (a lot of surfaces, narrow areas between the metal rods, and I do not want the finish to cause any buildup where the metal cylinders go).

 

From left to right: Liberon, Rustins, Briwax, Danish Oil:

 

Each clamp got a nice chamfers on all edges, primarily with a block plane and a file on a crossgrain:

 

Half of the regular shorter clamps got that narrow tips. Simple radius looks good enough:

 

 

Drum sander leaves marks on cherry, so it needs some satisfying sanding time to make it smooth and beautiful:

 

So all short clamps are waiting for their turn to have their sides sanded. It is tedious, and brass particles get stuck in a wood, requiting some scraping afterwards to remove them. Hope it would be less of a problem for cherry.

 

While the longer clamps are ready, and just need to get their handles (which requires to mix a batch of epoxy, so I will do it later for all clamps in the same batch):

[paulsutcliffe]

Hi Mike

I find polishing the Liberon sanding sealer with wire wool removes the shine, makes very smooth and imparts a sort of satin finish that is very acceptable, and can be polished even further with a light rubbing of oil

Regards

Paul

Edited October 7, 2018 by paulsutcliffe

[Mike Y]

Thanks Paul, will try it!

I am still yet to try the sanding sealers on Pear, need to prepare proper test pieces with various kinds of grain. Want to switch from oil on a model to have something that looks closer to an unfinished color of the pear. Or maybe finally stop using finish whatsoever, will see. 

[michael mott]

Toolmaking can be very addictive Mike! be careful or you will find yourself getting sucked right down the rabbit hole. Beautiful clamps by the way.

 

Michael

[Mike Y]

Yes, I can see the appeal - you make a few small "models", put some attention into the details and design - but also have a functional aspect to consider, and you end up with a model that could be used as a tool! 

 

[cog]

On 10/7/2018 at 9:18 PM, Mike Y said:

Thanks Paul, will try it!

I am still yet to try the sanding sealers on Pear, need to prepare proper test pieces with various kinds of grain. Want to switch from oil on a model to have something that looks closer to an unfinished color of the pear. Or maybe finally stop using finish whatsoever, will see. 

You should take into account, that you will add a finish anyway ... the grime/fat/oil/tallow on yours hands will take care of that in time

 

Lovely clamps, Mike

[Mike Y]

 

5 hours ago, cog said:

he grime/fat/oil/tallow on yours hands will take care of that in time

That is exactly why I am scared of not applying the finish for things that are touched, the "natural finish" you described sounds very gross

But it might work for delicate parts of the model that are not supposed to be touched (beams / carlings / ledges / knees / fittings / etc). Patina will form on the wood over time, and it will look nicer. Will run some experiments later.

[Richard Griffith]

Mike, beautiful clamps.  Can you ship a few to me?

 

The cork idea is good for full sized clamps as noted above, but for yours, you might consider gluing 220 wet dry sand paper to the jaws.  That will greatly reduce the potential for the clamp to slip out of position.                 Duff

[Mike Y]

On 10/10/2018 at 3:49 PM, Richard Griffith said:

Mike, beautiful clamps.  Can you ship a few to me?

Hi Duff,

Then both of us would be in a bad situation - not having enough clamps  

I am too scared of using sandpaper, since they will clamp finished parts. I already used soft basswood on another kinds of clamps that I used for deck clamps - it works like charm, compressing basswood fibers and leaving no traces on harder pear or boxwood.

My clamps are basically ready, just need to glue in the handles with epoxy and make some final photos. They look pretty nice with the finish!

 

I am currently in Rochefort, France, on the biggest ship modelling festival I ever saw: https://5500.forumactif.org/t3117-expo-a-rochefort-du-17-au-21-octobre-2018

100 models on display!

Sneaky photo while everybody went out to enjoy some cocktails. Will post a proper photo album later, and hoping for People With Big Cameras to publish their photos as well.

 

Met a number of people from MSW - Alex M with his Sphynx, Ricci with L'Amarante and Tiziano with his 74 gun ship. Pardon if I haven't recognised somebody!

 

It was a unique opportunity to see a number of recently made models from some of the best people in this hobby. Apart from being in awe, I made a few interesting observations, also related to ageing of various materials, which is hard to see on your own model when it is new:

1.  Even the best craftsman have some whoopsies, gaps between planks and minor mistakes. Except Remco, I guess - he just tends to re-do everything until there are no mistakes   And that small mistakes do not spoil an impression from some great models. So I should not worry too much about mistakes I made, that is very comforting! Would still try to avoid making more of them...
2.  Should be careful when simulating black caulking between the deck planks - quite a few models have that black colour leeching into the wood.
3.  Trying to darken the pear or age it is extremely tricky, if you do not want it to look smoked. Definitely calls for many many long experiments
4. Brass treenails leave fine brass dust in pores of some woods, so one should think twice and experiment a lot before using them. They are quite common in the french modelling community, looks nice on a black ebony wales. Also, the glue that holds them might turn darker over time (or discolour the wood around the nail). Be careful there. I got that effect even when sanding clamps - they have brass rods, as soon as you start sanding with 400 grit or finer - brass dust gets into cherry and it's impossible to get it out, making cherry look dirty. Should be easier with pear though.
5. Ebony shrinks a lot over time with humidity and temperature deviations, so most of that beautiful ebony wales and planking and headwork develop very visible cracks and gaps over time. Apparently this is pretty normal and well known, some fill that gaps with black epoxy, etc. Well, thanks, will definitely try dyed pear instead. Did not know that fact before.
6. It is really hard to keep rigged models dust-free or clean them. On average, decks of "bare" models were much cleaner than rigged models.
7. Rigging the model makes it very hard to look closer on deck fittings, structures inside the ship, etc. It is basically impossible, because a viewer is afraid of bumping into some mast or a boom, so need to keep quite a distance. It was much easier to explore the "bare" models.
8. Mirror bases are interesting. There were few models displayed on a mirror, very easy to see the underside of the hull this way.

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Mike Y

[fnick]

Very jealous of you Mike. Stunning location. Even the wooden parquet floor looks impressive! 😄

 

Also very interesting observations made. Thanks for sharing them

[cog]

You lucky man, that's near Bordeaux! Looks quite impressive. Didn't know about the festival ... is it a yearly event?

[Mike Y]

 

Just now, cog said:

You lucky man, that's near Bordeaux! Looks quite impressive. Didn't know about the festival ... is it a yearly event?

I was impressed by the photos from previous French modelling festivals and decided to watch this page: http://5500.forumactif.org/f8-expositions-et-manifestations

Seems like it is not in Rochefort every year, but it is the same active people from the French modelling forum who organise that events every now and then.

 

[cog]

thanks for sharing, Mike. Maybe next year we can go together ...

[Mike Y]

Aaaand the clamps are finally done!

They work great, and I'm very happy with the result, it was a time well spent. Hope I will use them for years to come. The brass rod is a bit soft, but they are not designed for high pressure anyway. I would recommend to go with 4mm rods instead of 3mm if you are thinking about making them.

 

Gluing handles with epoxy, using gravity to penetrate deeper. I also cut a notch on the end of all rods, to help epoxy float down and make a "key" to prevent handle from slipping. Forgot to make photos of that.

 

The final result, everything is finished with two coats of danish oil.

Note that one clamp without basswood lining, it looks darker because of fine brass dust stuck in its pores. I tried to sand it to 400 grit, recognised the mistake, others are sanded to 240 grit. 240 leads to coarser brass particles, and they are not small enough to stuck in cherry wood pores.

Cherry looks like a nice wood for the purpose, the grain match looks pretty neat!

 

 

 

[druxey]

Lovely, Mike. Are you going to go into business and sell them?

[Mike Y]

No way, this is a perfect example of the economy of scale  Making them by hand and making a profit is impossible, unless somebody wants to pay hundred dollars per pair of clamps.

The jaws are a perfect fit for the simple CNC router, but cutting that rods and threads will require some other machinery.

And, in the end of the day, they have no market. Scratch builders, doll house builders, etc - would rather make their own, it is not difficult. Others do not really need such clamps.

Edited October 28, 2018 by Mike Y