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

[KeithAug]

10 minutes ago, michael mott said:

Hi Keith I loosely based this model on Louisa which is one of the Hunslet locos, I have not done the saddle tank yet.

Ah! I thought it had the look of a "Percy".

[michael mott]

Funny you should say that I have butchered quite a few Bachmann Percy H0 locos over the last few years

 

Michael

[Bedford]

Michael, I saw the loco and imagined something more common but then Iooked at Louisa and thought of course he would build a more obscure type, every man and his dog would want the flying dutchman or Britania. Very nice choice indeed!

[michael mott]

I continued on the floor units today, and now that the floor is set properly I was able to revisit the dimensions and adjust the drawings for the rest of the interior. I also set the ladder a bit more vertical it is now 22.5 degrees off vertical.

I also decided to cut the stringers by hand and used my centuries old exacto razor saw, it still cuts well I set up a fence on it

 

so that I could make the cuts for the treads in the mitre box.

 

The mitre box is basically a disposable one it was made out of a bit of maple a few years ago by disposable i mean that eventually it will need to be replaced because it will loose its integrity.

 

The side stringers ready to be chiselled for the treads. the ladder stringers are clear Douglas fir  1 x 6 inches

 

This cross section image shows the main cabin area that I am modeling.

 

 

Michael

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by michael mott

[mtaylor]

For those who have missed Michael's work on locomotive, here's the link (it's a wonderful work of art):  

 

[michael mott]

Mark thanks for the link,

I have been sorting out how to tackle the side elements of the interior and at the same time discovered an error in the depth of the cabin, I had made it a foot too deep  by correcting the error I was able to make the floor in one level.

The paper template was how I discovered the difference.

 

I finished up the work on the basic ladder.

 

and using a combination of cad work and then freehand drawing over the print was able to get the pattern for the paneling sorted.

 

I order the save on material and also not to waste some of the divider card that I had been using to plan out the cabin I decided to use the very stiff polished cardstock as the foundation for the wood paneling, first I glued some 1/8+ square stiffeners to the backside of the panels

Then cut some 1 inch x 4 inch yellow cedar (had to wear a mask its a nice smell but not too healthy to breath)

 

The began roughing out the wood for the stiles and rails. The upper panels are cabinets that will have opening doors with the dining stuff inside.

 

That's all for now.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2020 by michael mott
pictures out of sequence

[Louie da fly]

Beautiful, beautiful work, Michael. The precision and detail leaves me gobsmacked.

 

Steven

[KeithAug]

Coming along nicely Michael. I have that model of exacto razor saw, but mine only dates from 1990. I am on my second blade though. I like the fence - I hadn't tought of doing that but will in future.

[BANYAN]

Very nice work michael, this will result in a authentic looking paneling.  Will that card be prone to 'swelling' in the water environment?  I am sure you have thought of that and will be interested to see how you seal it, particularly the edges.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Bedford]

I can be added to the list of exacto razor saw owners as well, very handy tool which dates from circa 1980. 

Love the cabinetry Michael, my son the carpenter would be impressed! 

[Moab]

Michael; agree with all the above. I love the ladder...I've made many of them and for whatever reason none of them looked very good...Moab

[druxey]

Lovely work on both, as ever!

[michael mott]

Seven, Keith, Pat, Steve, Moab, and Druxey Thank you all for your kind remarks. Also a thank you for all those who are following along and using the like button.

 

Pat the water will not be a problem because the interior has to be removable in order to place the lead sailing ballast it needs over a 100 lbs to get down to the waterline. At first I was not going to add an interior but I reconsidered it because it will be on display more that in the water.

The yellow cedar is such a lovely wood to work with for this small joinery paneling with a sharp low angle block plane in my simple thickness planing jig I can get a lot of control. Using it along with the shooting board is making this work really a pleasure. The way the thickness jig works allows me to thickness very shot pieces without any difficulty.

 

The lower panels have a sloped dado al around so I set up an angled fence on the big table saw 12.5 degrees this way I was able to use a new zero clearance insert (I flipped around the insert for the 8 inch 200 tooth slitting saw blade that I use mostly for brass the holes help to keep the blade cool) I did not want to angle the saw blade.

 

it was a simple one pass around the edges to create the dado bevel

 

I put them back into the thickness planing fixture with a piece of copy paper underneath the wood to raise it up a couple of thou and gave it a single pass to clean them up.

 

Both side are getting close to being ready for the final gluing, I did not want to do any sanding on any of these pieces of wood so keeping it all absolutely clean is going to be a challenge before the tung oil is applied once they are glued up. I wanted to get the two side panels done first because the end once are a little more complicated because of the angles involved.

 

There is a small element that surrounds each panel that I am going to add it is about a 1/32 by 1/16 actual size with a rounded ogee type profile, The upper panels are flat but thinner than the stiles and rails, still a ways to go yet before it all gets glued up.

 

Michael 

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by michael mott
link address

[Mark Pearse]

Hi Michael

 

that's very clever work with the table saw, thanks - and and very nice result. I don't know the timber, but it does look lovely.

 

For the thicknesser, do you replace the aluminium guides on the sides to adjust the thickness?

 

all the best

[michael mott]

Mark, the stips inside the thickness jig are 3/16 (4.762mm)  x 1/8 (3.175mm) strips of evergreen styrene they are outside the edges of the blade the cross end stop is about .1" (2.54mm) so I can flip them up to work with thicker wood or change them for 3/16 x 1/4 (6.3mm) the blade is of course also adjustable. I find the easiest way though is to add a known thickness of paper under the wood to reduce the thickness. as soon as the edges of the plane ride on the plastic it stops cutting I am able to work with very small pieces of wood that I could not put through a regular thickness planer. I do not like sanding soft woods no matter how fine the grit it is just that grit. A sharp blade leaves a sheen because the fibres of the wood have been sheared not scraped with chunks of rock. the other advantage is there is virtually no dust. I have both of the Veritas (Lee Valley) low angle block planes one is 12 degrees and the other is 20 degrees with the adjustable throats. short pieces can also very quickly be reduced in width on the shooting board with a right angle fence (sheet of 1/8 thick styrene by 3" x 4" I will add a picture of this in the next post. 

The Yellow Cedar is also called Yellow Cyprus the colour is a little lighter than Castelo but much softer and easy to work. The local hardwood supplier has a good supply of the cedar and occasionally can have the Castelo. I can get a 2" x 6" plank of yellow Cedar 6 feet long for around $45 so it is also considerably less expensive than the Castelo.

 

Michael   

[KeithAug]

Very clean work Michael. I may be being thick but I didn't quite get how you cut the sloped dado?

[michael mott]

Hi Keith I set up the fence like this

 

Here is a shot of the shooting board being used to reduce the width of the rails

 

I planed some cedar to .060" and used a scraping tool to put a reveal along the edge 

 

 

Then parted it off with the exacto knife

 

Used the shooting board to reduce the width to .162"

 

 

 

The small inserts will work fine I think.

 

 

I will need to shorten the panel for the end inserts, I will make enough long ones first.

 

Michael

 

[BANYAN]

Very nice panel work (joinery) Michael, and a very good explanation of how you achieved it.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Moab]

Michael; it’s an absolute joy to follow your builds. Your explanations are so easy to understand and the photos display the work perfectly. Thank you for sharing your craft with us...Moab

[michael mott]

Well that was a disaster!

All was looking well until I began gluing things together which was filly to say the least. I have a whole new respect for all those deck beams that I see in some of the amazing builds.

 getting ready to glue.

I had to pull it all apart because the substrate (card) began to warp and it looked terrible so I will need to rethink this.

 

Time to go have some breakfast and heal my ego.

 

Michael

 

[wefalck]

Perhaps you should have had breakfast first ... I am terrible without breakfast ...

 

I gather you used PVA glue ? That will swell the paper. I can think of two solutions, either take something very thin as backing, such as silk-span, or to use a non-waterbased lacquer/glue for the purpose. If the panelling is to be varnished without dyeing, you may want to apply sanding filler on the 'good' side first to avoid uneven spotting while the parts are glued together. The sanding filler can also be used to stick the panels to the paper backing. Once dry turn the whole thing around and give it good coating with the filler from the back, that should result in a pretty solid assembly.

[Dowmer]

Why not just use some ply instead of paper?

[druxey]

If using ply, the 'sandwich' needs to be a balanced one with an equal number of layers each side of the central core. If it isn't, it will warp. That's why veneered pieces always have a counter-veneer on the opposite side.

[michael mott]

I determined that the higher powers did not like me "cheating" so I have started over with some maple and will build it properly with dados and inset panels and half lapped joints no backing sheet. I am working on preparing the base material from some 40 year old air dried rock maple.

 

Michael

[FriedClams]

Ouch!  I’m surprised the backing sheet method didn’t work out as it seemed like a solid approach.  The maple will certainly be beautiful and at least the design is already worked out.

 

On 1/12/2020 at 11:27 AM, michael mott said:

do not like sanding soft woods no matter how fine the grit it is just that grit

I agree.  A few years back I bought a set of cabinet scrapers and the finish from them is so clean and the wood seems to have added depth.

 

On 1/10/2020 at 10:30 PM, michael mott said:

The upper panels are cabinets that will have opening doors with the dining stuff inside

If you make a 1:8 sterling silver tea set - I’m going to throw away all my modeling stuff.

 

Beautiful work Michael and a great build log.

 

Gary

[michael mott]

4 hours ago, FriedClams said:

If you make a 1:8 sterling silver tea set - I’m going to throw away all my modeling stuff.

Made me laugh out loud, its a good job I didn't have a mouthful of tea.

 

So the afternoon was much better. In 1976 I acquired a log of rock maple, one of the students when I was working as a technician in the sculpture lab at the U of A asked me if i wanted some maple, because his grandfather was cutting down some big Maple trees in Nova Scotia, I said sure, and didn't think much more about it. a couple of months later I got a call from Canadian National Railways freight Dept telling me that there was some wood on the loading dock and could I please pick it up. There was this 6 foot length of 24 inch diameter rock maple Green standing upright. I had to pay $360 to take it away. I had it laying around for a couple of years eventually moving to the back of a workshop I was renting in 1978 where it sat in the rain and snow for another year. then I chainsawed a slab out of the center about 3 inches thick to make a coffee table, planing it "flat" after the chainsaw was a task that took a couple of days of concerted effort. it sat on a couple of rocks for a few years, then My son took the top to Victoria BC and sat it on a couple of round stumps, then a few years ago gave it back to me when he moved to Whitehorse Yukon. 

Because I was going to move back to the city I wanted to give it a "better" support structure, so settled on some bits of Mahogany and Ash, it turned out well enough.

 

So back to the Maple the rest of it was cut up into some 2 inch and 3 inch sort of quarter sawn slabs, that i put up in the rafters of the shop. A fair bit of the wood had some spalted areas that were cut up into 1/4 inch veneers and I have been using it for odds and ends ever since.

 

today I chose a nice block that would be enough to make all the new paneling and using the bench planes Bandsaw and table saw  prepped all the materials.

 

squaring up two side of the blocks

 

Slabbing off on the the bandsaw.

 

Next the planed side pieces that were going to be used for the rails were dado-ed for the stiles

 

 

These parts were then cut lengthwise and the same was done to the pieces that were going to be the stiles

this gave me the basic structure all half lapped together.

The rails and stiles were then given a small dado groove  lengthwise so that the panels could slide in.

The next shot shows all the parts The top panels will get glued together then the two outside panels will get the dado groove and some spline material will hold them into the groves in the rails and stiles.

 

Now I was able to take them into the model shop I am thinking about the reveal on the top panels i think I am going to keep it more simple and not so busy. you can see some of the black spalting on the left panel insert The three bottom panels were slid up into the framework before the bottom rail is placed.

 

 

And here it is freestanding with no glue yet. I should have done it properly in the first place, but thought it would be easier the other way. One lives and learns.

 

 

I am hoping to get these finished off tomorrow.

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by michael mott
pictures out of sequence

[druxey]

Very, very nice rework, Michael.

[Moab]

Looks great. Love the “Wood” story...Moab

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work, Michael.  My dad (the woodworker in our family) always said the first time was the "proof of concept".  

[G.L.]

That is indeed beautiful joinery work. You are a master!