Bristol Pilot Cutter by michael mott - 1/8 scale - POF

[Jim Lad]

Another great lesson in metalwork for us, Michael.

 

John

[michael mott]

Matt it is a Myford ML7

 

Sarah, thanks

 

Thanks John, I'm not sure about the lesson though.

 

Before moving on to finish the rest of the tabs I was tired of hitting my index finger with the locking screw of the jewelers saw.

So I made a new one this morning with a smaller head end

 

 

 

The handle is rosewood the locking bar is ebony the rest is brass and steel.

 

after fretting out the rest of the tabs it took about 1/2 hour to set it up to solder with some soft iron wire to hold it all together, the silver solder was slug over the tabs like saddles

 

 

The wire did get attached in a few places but will clean up easily enough.

 

 

The rest will wait till tomorrow.

 

Michael

[Jim Lad]

That looks an excellent saw frame you made there, Michael.

 

By the way, I think every Auto Electrician in Sydney owns a Myford 7.  I walked into one workshop to do a survey and saw a cheap Chinese lathe on the bench.  I commented to the owner that he must be the only Auto Elec. in Sydeny without a Myford 7 and he said, "I took the Myford home to my workshop there - I'm not going to let these idiots ruin it."

 

John

[archjofo]

Hello Michael,

your metal work is excellent and also the rest of the model.

[captainbob]

Michael,

 

I like your new saw.  I have a saw like your old one and am tempted to make a new one like yours.  But I can’t figure out how you hold the end of the blade without the thumb screw clamp.  Help please.

 

Bob

[michael mott]

John , Johann, thanks for your kind words.

 

Bob here is a couple of pictures that will hopefully show the way that the blade is clamped.

 

The screws are 4x40 the top one is a regular cap screw the bottom one is a round head cap screw

 

for the top one I drilled a #43 hole and slotted the end with a .010 slotting saw and the bottom one is by having a clearance hole #33 through the brass arm and a piece of 1/4x 1/4 brass threaded with the 4x40 to clamp to the main bar.

 

 

 

Michael

[captainbob]

Thanks, Michael.

 

Bob

[michael mott]

The Gammon Iron was mounted today and a saddle carved for the bowsprit along with finishing cleaning up the bowsprit end cap. I will need to make a protective metal saddle for the anchor on the opposite side of the Gammon Iron and also the winch for the anchor chain.

 

I'm beginning to see why these models take a while.

 

 

 

I put 4 screws to hold the cap to the bowsprit.

 

 

 

The next items are the jib traveler for the bowsprit and the bob stay fitting on the stem.

 

Michael

[russ]

Michael:

Nice work as always. The band and lugs on the bowsprit are incredible.

 

Russ

[Jim Lad]

Now that it's nicely scewed on, you'll need to remove the bowsprit band to fit the traveller!

 

John

[hopeful]

Hi Michael,

 

Some of us are good at a few things, orthers at more things. Seems you are good at most everything. Its a joy to follow your build.

 

BFN,

Hopeful aka David

[michael mott]

Russ, thanks, I must admit the clean up looked daunting yesterday, especially with the iron wire embedded into some of the silver solder.

 

John, yes I know one step forward and one step back. After the bits and knees were glued to the deck I had to go back and shave about  1/32 off the width of the bowsprit. so now I need to go look at travelers and see how they were made.

 

Michael

[michael mott]

Hi David, Thanks, building stuff I can do, play a musical note you don't want to hear it, My musical abilities would make a deaf person cringe.

 

Michael

[Jim Lad]

There's a couple of good photos of travellers on Smackdock, Michael.

 

John

[michael mott]

John Thanks for pointing me to the site.

 

Today I did a little more metalwork, made the bob stay fitting and then mucked about sorting out a shackle. The fitting on the stem was fretted out folded and then the holes drilled and tapped then the tab was silver soldered on.

 

 

The shackle was a lot more work than I thought it would be. At first I bent up some different diameters of brass rod, but was not really happy with any of it.

 

So opted to make one out of some 5/16 x 1/16 brass strip.

 

 

 

Bending it to shape was a bit harder because I did not want to anneal the brass I wanted to keep it hard.

 

 

After the main body was bent to shape I tapped the locking side and then turned up a pin and flattened the end to facilitate winding it in, I still need to drill a small hole in the flattened end to add a safety wire.

 

 

I had a little chain not quite the right stuff but good enough to get a good Idea of how the final will look.

 

 

 

Michael

[druxey]

Sure, models like yours 'take a while' if they are built to your high standard, Michael!

[newbuilder101]

The brass strip was definitely the way to go...great looking shackle!

[mtaylor]

The only thing I can is that your work is in a class by itself.   Incredible.

[Jim Lad]

Now that's one bobstay fitting that isn't going to pull out!

 

John

[michael mott]

Druxey, Sherry, Mark, John thanks for the kind comments.

 

I feel a bit like a dog with a bone sometimes, The shakle thing was still bothering me so I did some more experiments today and the results are promising.

 

First I thinned down a bit of 3/32 brass rod into a sort of dumbbell

 

 

then I annealed and flattened the ends

 

 

re annealed and flattened a little more

 

 

Then holding the unit in the round nosed pliers folded up the ends

 

 

next the ends were flattened in the vice to ensure they were flat to each other

 

 

Then drilled and tapped 2x56 and added the pin

 

 

and hooked it up to a pulley.

 

 

I think I will use this method for the rest of the shackles big and small.

 

Michael

 

 

[realworkingsailor]

Yikes.... he's gone and done it... he made a real shackle....

 

The only thing missing is a hole in the outside end of the pin so it can be moused...

 

Michael, I must say I've been quietly following your build for some time, and your machining is utterly incredible, to say nothing of the impressiveness of your build.

 

Andy

[Jim Lad]

Well I'll be .... One only genuine shackle - but at a very small size!

 

John

[captainbob]

Michael,

 

As always, fine work. 

 

Bob

[Foremast]

Michael, I'm amazed in front of a so tiny shackle. I have seen the picture with its measure, then I've translated it in the metric-decimal system (I'm used to it...) and I'm still staring to your shackle. Great!

 

Alex

[druxey]

Next, Michael will be forging those shackles!

[TBlack]

I can't add any different compliments; your work is truly amazing. I did spend some time looking at those two shackles and tried to figure out why the first one didn't measure up. I'm guessing that you didn't like the fact that the body of the first one, coming from strip, had a rectangular cross section as opposed to round? Also, I'm not sure how you get the pin to have the flat place for your fingers looking so symmetrical and smooth. Oh, and the block that's included in the bobstay rig doesn't look too bad either!

 

Tom

Edited April 17, 2013 by TBlack

[mtaylor]

Here I am thinking the first one was work of art and suddenly.... an improved work of art.   Yikes!!!

[DSiemens]

Michael your making this look  "All to easy".  That was cheesy but it's what I thought of after I initially wrote the comment.  I was also wondering if there was any progress on the little cutter.  

[michael mott]

Andy, thanks for the compliment, I was tired by the time I got to the photographs, I left the holes for today.

 

John, yes, the interesting thing is that there are all sorts of shackles, I have some that are made from sheet stainless that are used in small boats., looking at the photographs of the full size smacks and Cutters it seems that many of them are either galvanized or bronze.

 

Alex today I used the metric side of the scale so that you don't have to do the calculation, I also made some smaller shackles.

 

Druxey I suppose that swageing the ends is akin to forging in a way, thanks for stopping by.

 

Tom, The first one is still OK it is going to stay in the lower bob stay fitting, I must say though that I prefer the aesthetics of the turned and swaged shackles.

 

Mark thanks, for that comment.

 

Daniel, I am happy that you think it looks easy, As I was working on them I was thinking about some of the metal work done by the folk here like Remco and Recon and Gaetan turning up all those cannons and all the little bits that go with them , makes my humble little shackles seem rather clunky.

 

Regarding the little cutter I am giving my eyes a rest, I will get a little more done soon.

 

Sometimes I wonder why I go to all this effort but I am having a lot of fun.

 

Today I started to manufacture a few more shackles some were turned from some 1/8th inch rod and some from some 5/32 inch rod, a couple were from 3/32 Inch rod. I used the same process as before, I did these while waiting for the segments to glue for the winch barrels.

 

 

Flattening the ends of the turned parts

 

 

This pic shows the smaller shackles

 

 

Evening up the ends prior to drilling

 

 

Gluing up the barrel staves I am gluing them in pairs which I find much easier that trying to glue them all at once. this way they do not need clamping.

 

 

family shot of the different sizes of shackles. The new smaller one has a 1x72 threaded pin which was made from 1/16th rod

 

I have a busy day tomorrow in town and into the evening so that's it for a little while I will be happy when this snow is finally gone and I can get the door open and get the hull painted with some top coats.

 

Michael

 

 

 

[Foremast]

Again, great work Michael! ... and thanks for the metric gauge

A question: how can you succeed in drilling exactly aligned both sides of the shackle?

 

 

Alex