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

[mtaylor]

Fantastic work, Michael.  Seems every time I follow one of your logs (even the train one) I get ideas.   I admit though, I'm not skilled enough to follow up on most of them. 

[BANYAN]

Exquisite!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[michael mott]

Druxey, Paul, Mark, and Pat thanks for your comments, and that you to all who have added a like, it is greatly appreciated.

 

Today I finished the second hinge and made a couple of adjustments to the sequence which made the fabrication a little easier in some aspects. After folding the brass as in the first hinge I ran some CA glue along the edge to glue the sides together forming a stronger lamination of .006" before filing the tabs.

 

 

The following along the same as before fitted the two halves together. This time I did take the pictures of the rest of the sequence. 

 

 

First drilling the holes and placing the pins

 

Then removing them to make a small countersink into the wood, this helped with the countersinking of the brass which was also slightly deformed by the countersink as it formed the depression, the brass was soft anyway and there is not much to actually cut away when countersinking, so it is a bit of a fake countersink.

The tiny copper rivets that I have used before are flat head 1/32 Sig Rivets that I purchased eons ago I snipped the end to an angle so that the rivet formed a tight fit for the last bit of the hole which was drilled just a little shy of the full length of the rivet. The head was slotted with the jewelers saw with a # 08 blade I think it is the finest one I have. I use a small bit if Boxwood with a notch filed into it as a guide this works very well once you get the notch depth set and it is easy to reset as the saw wears away the side.

I thought I had lined up the heads, but I see in the brutal close ups that I didn't. Oh well, there was a knot in the wood that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

After getting the lid fitted I decided I wanted to ad a way of hanging some rope from the bottom side of the lid (would have been better if I had decided this before gluing it into the cockpit Which made it a bit more difficult to accomplish. At first I tried making some hooks (hats off to yo u Johann your hooks are professional looking compared to the ones I rejected. I rethought the hooks and decided on a leather strap forming some loops things could then be lashed to the loops. Because the lid is only 1inch thick I had to use the smallest real wood screw I have #1 x 1/4 inch the shank of these is .058" + or - they are certainly not precision screws but nice enough. I wanted to use the flat eads so needed to make some fake flat head washers I use some 3/16 brass rod and reduces the diameter about .040" and then bored the .058" hole and countersunk the hole beveled off the outside them parted them off.

I used the Small leather awl I made for the leather stitching test I did earlier for the cushions to punch the holes in a strip of brown leather from the leather scrap bin.

After drilling the pilot holes very carefully not to poke through to the top, the strap got fitted. I hung a coil of 7/8 rope with a bit of 3/8 rope to the strap for testing the concept.

 

 

Walter seems to like the method.

 

So I closed the lid on this part of the cockpit, ready to move on, to the next task.

 

Michael     

[BANYAN]

That looks so very realistic Michael; very nice work

 

cheers

 

Pat

[wefalck]

Neat, I say, needless to say ...

 

BTW, slotting screw-heads, this is one of the tasks for which collet-chucks were invented for:

 

 

Pictures from http://www.lathes.co.uk/levin/page4.html

 

I have a nearly identical set from Hardinge for my B6 collets. It was missing the draw-bar, but since I was able to obtain the right tap for the thread and make a new draw-bar, it gets used quite often. The knurled screw at the end is a depth-stop that is adjustable on a very fine thread. Modern versions for use in a vice on the milling machine do not have this sophistication.

Edited January 2, 2020 by wefalck

[michael mott]

Eberhard that is a nice little addition Something that I shall have to look into.

 

Michael

[SJSoane]

Michael, Beautiful work!

 

Curious, what was the coil of rope used for, so readily available to the helmsman?

 

Mark

[michael mott]

8 minutes ago, SJSoane said:

Curious, what was the coil of rope used for, so readily available to the helmsman?

Interesting question, having sailed a small boat and coming to the dock one always need a line or two when tying up that need to be handy but out of the way while sailing. We see the Anchor on many models but there are multiple lines used in tying op at the dock my small yawl used 4 lines a bow and stern line and a 2 spring lines which cross diagonally amidships. My dock lines were 3/8 so on a 40 footer 3/4 to 7/8 seems reasonable. The cutters were often sailed with a very short crew, sometimes just a man and a boy according to some accounts.

 

Michael

[druxey]

A cheaper (but not cheap) way to slot tiny screw heads is using a watchmaker's screw slotting file. I've a selection of these, and they are very useful for other purposes as well, such as cutting fine profiles in scale scratch molding tools.

[dvm27]

It's inspiring to see the level of detail you include in work that is essentially hidden. Imagine the delight of some distant heir cleaning the model in 100 years and discovering that the hinges actually work and what is inside. Perhaps the perfect place to secrete a hidden message?

 

Happy New Year Micheal. We all look forward to your updates!

[michael mott]

Druxey, and Greg thanks for your comments.

1 hour ago, dvm27 said:

Imagine the delight of some distant heir cleaning the model in 100 years and discovering that the hinges actually work and what is inside.

Greg the next area that I am going to work on is in fact the companionway and the interior that can be viewed from the hatch and the skylight. The larger raised area of the deck that the companionway and skylight are fitted to is removable as a unit, so my thought is to model a minimum interior that will include the stair /ladder to the interior into the first area that will detail what can be seen.this whole section will be able to be lifted out in order to place the lead weight into the bottom for the sailing one all the other elements are completed. This will enable some fun surprises inside the cabin which I have not thought about yet. Perhaps for instance a small gimbal stove for making tea. 

I particularly like the interior of Stirling and Sons Integrity

and this one

Michael

Edited January 2, 2020 by michael mott
add link

[TBlack]

28 minutes ago, michael mott said:

 

I particularly like the interior of Stirling and Sons Integrity

Me too; very luxurious. I've got some good English tea that I got for Xmas that I can contribute! Is it getting cold up there on the plains yet?

Tom

28 minutes ago, michael mott said:

 

 

 

[wefalck]

Well, deep-buttoned green leather has something to it ... sitting on some, while writing this

 

[KeithAug]

Excellent work as usual Michael.

[FriedClams]

Beautiful work Michael - every bit of it.  Walter is living in the lap of luxury.

 

Gary

[vaddoc]

Lovely work Michael and very inspiring! Did not know that shim sizes of brass sheet existed. Great work on the hinges, I now regret missing the opportunity of making working hatches and companionway for the Deben. 

[wefalck]

One can get brass sheet/foil down to 0.02 mm thickness - check out the usual coastal fishing grounds ...

[michael mott]

On to proof of concept for the interior of the cabin, first I needed to understand the parameters of how to make the interior be able to be removed through the narrow opening sort of the reverse of the ship in a bottle.  The expanse of the cabin has to collapse toward the centre so that the components are able to be pulled up through the main opening once the top deck is lifted off.

Using some old green file divider cards I cut the panels to give the interior some maximal limits of what can fit through the opening, the bottom the panels represent the floor level.

 

 

Next I had to tape the panels together so that they would sit inside the opening without the clamps. so that I could place the top deck into position. in order to locate the companionway ladder to the interior.

 

Next the cabin hatchway was placed in position to check the realistic feasibility of a person using the ladder (clearance wise)

 

Then a shaky view from inside looking toward the ladder holding the iPhone inside and hoping that it would produce an acceptable impression.

looking aft

 

and forward I can see the shadows of the bars across the skylight windows

 

apologies for the out of focus pics but like all of this project it will improve with practice and methodology.

 

Michael

Edited January 4, 2020 by michael mott
grammar/spelling

[wefalck]

I also found that the iPhone produces quite good close-up pictures with much less hassle than my big SLR with all the gear.

[michael mott]

Today I did a clean up of the shop and made a better mock up of the ladder into the cabin and put a card floor to better see the area I have to work with.

 

 

Tomorrow I can start the structure of the interior elements.

 

Michael

 

 

[BANYAN]

Looks a good fit Michael; once you have the ladder sorted you will be in a good position to determine how the other gear/furniture will fit..

 

cheers

 

Pat

[druxey]

Very good and methodical, Michael!

[michael mott]

Pat and Druxey thanks. and thank you to all of you who added the likes, I really do find them supportive and encouraging.

Now that the proof of concept has been sorted it was time to begin with the base structure, I chose some 6 inch by 1 inch  clear fir boards for the cabin floor these were thicknessed on the small hand thicknessing jig.

first the flat side

then the edges, I used some spacers and a wedge to hold the boards upright to clean up the edges

 

and with one of the miniature planes for scale.

 

The floors boards were cleated  on the underside with some 4 x 1.5 inch cross beams

 

 

for the forward vertical support wall (bulkhead) I planed up a bit of Western Red Cedar that had a nice tight grain, a bit of careful planing to match the width of the opening and ensuring that all was square before gluing it all together.

 

I glued the main elements together oyt of the hull because it is just so much easier.

 

The horizontal boards are 10 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches. thin after the glue was set I dropped it back into the hull to set up the aft piece of floor that the ladder lands on.

 

The aft section of floor is nine inches higher than the main floor. Once it is set up I can begin to work out the elements that fit onto the sides it reminds me of the pull outs on the modern RV's

 

Michael

 

 

 

 

 

[archjofo]

Hello, Michael,

you show excellent work with wood. You might think this is the construction of a ship on a scale of 1:1. 
I also admire your clean and accurate processing of the materials.
Is that the model of a railway in the background?

[michael mott]

6 hours ago, archjofo said:

Hello, Michael,

you show excellent work with wood. You might think this is the construction of a ship on a scale of 1:1. 
I also admire your clean and accurate processing of the materials.
Is that the model of a railway in the background?

Hi Johann thanks for kind words. Yes the model in the background is a 3 1/2 inch gauge live steam locomotive that i have been working on slowly for a few years.

 

 

Steam engines are one of my other passions so as my energy waxes and wanes in each type of model I keep busy and enthusiastic in the workshop.

 

Michael

[SJSoane]

Michael, you are a master of metal--as well as wood, of course! Beautiful engine, exquisitely detailed and crafted.

Mark

[KeithAug]

3 hours ago, michael mott said:

Hi Johann thanks for kind words. Yes the model in the background is a 3 1/2 inch gauge live steam locomotive that i have been working on slowly for a few years.

Michael is it based on an actual engine? 

 

Nice work on the interior - I will be interested to find out what the end game looks like.

[wefalck]

I love these little 0-4-0 engines, but don't like the British saddle-tanks too much, they look bizarre by continental European aesthetics. What's your's going to be ? I have started to collect some material on the French Corpet-Louvet and the British built Neilsons for a potential future project.

 

When you say 6" by 1" you probably mean scale-inches, i.e. 3/4" by 1/8" in reality ?

[michael mott]

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

The interior is going to be loosely based on the interior of "Integrity" which is quite simple but hearkens to the classic interiors of the restored Cutters of the last century. this will give me ample opportunity to play with different materials. I just love the green tufted cushions and the simple kitchen facilities.

 

Michael

 

[michael mott]

Eberhard, yes I am talking scale inches on the cutter model. I'm sorry that you do not like the saddle tank locos of the British persuasion. As a British lad I grew up on the clean lines of the British locomotive styles that were well looked after until the first grouping of all the small lines that dotted the English countryside.

 

Michael