SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned

[archjofo]

Fantastic work!

[fnick]

21 hours ago, wefalck said:

and to have some Rudo-steak

Sorry children. Looks like Xmas is going to be cancelled next year... 😢 

[wefalck]

With global warming, there may be no need for a reindeer with a glowing nose anymore anyway 

[BANYAN]

Perhaps we need to lend you some of these guys then; sorry we munch on them occasionally also   Sorry to clutter your log, ditch as necessary.

 

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited January 11, 2018 by BANYAN

[wefalck]

I began to work now on the various ventilators. These are not of the usual form, but have rectangular cowl. I first drew a layout for the cowl in order to photo-etch them, but then thought the assembly of these two or three millimeter high cowls would be too fiddly.

 

 

Images showing different types of ventilators on board of a WESPE-class gun-boat

 

As the ventilator-shaft would have to be turned anyway, I decided to machine the vents from the solid.

 

Photo-etching mask for ventilator cowls

 

The first attempt was in Plexiglas, because it is easy to machine and the cover part from polystyrine foil could be easily cemented on without traces using dichloromethane. It turned out that at thin wall thickness required, Plexiglas would be too brittle and delicate.

 

Setting up rectangular material in the 4-jaw-chuck

 

Turning the ventilator shaft

 

Drilling out the cowl

 

For the second attempt I used brass. While in the case of Plexiglas I began with a rectangular piece held appropriately in the independent 4-jaw-chuck, I started now with a round brass bar held in the excentric 2-jaw-chuck. If I did not have such an exotic chuck, I could have started off with a larger diamter brass bar and milled away the excess.

 

Setting up a brass rod in an excentric 2-jaw chuck

 

As a first step the ventilator-shaft was turned to size, leaving also the two re-enforcement rings. The piece was then turned around and taken into a collet of the appropriate diameter to drill out the shaft to such a depth that the bottom would not be visible.

 

Turning the re-enforcement rings

 

Drilling out the cowls

 

To be continued soon ...

 

Edited February 5, 2018 by wefalck

[BANYAN]

Nice machine work Eberhard; thanks for showing 'how'

 

cheers

 

Pat

[druxey]

Fascinating. I've never seen a two-jaw chuck like that before. I can see how useful it might be for eccentric work.

[wefalck]

Thanks, gentlemen. Two-jay-chucks are/were very common in the armature turning business to hold castings of valves etc. for machining. This one is the only one for a watchmakers lathe that I ever came across. It is certainly shop made, but very well. In principle an independent four-jaw-chuck can be used for the same purpose, but it is rather tedious to set up. I found it useful for turning cranks, excentrics, and the likes. If you need only a little 'throw' it is sometimes easier to just slip a shim under one of the jaws of a three-jaw-chuck

[druxey]

I could see immediately how much simpler it would be to set up that chuck as opposed to a 4-jaw independent one! I'm surprised that this style would not have been more popular.

[wefalck]

They are inherently more difficult to manufacture with high precision (the V-shaped jaw has to be very precisely aligned) and the jaws cannot be easily reconditioned. In addition, their use is limited to excentric turning, which occurs only in particular industries and application. So, an independent 4-jaw-chuck is more versatile and cheaper to make. Apart from armature-turning, ornamental or guilloche-lathes usually are equipped with such chucks. However, n the age of CNC-mills there is no need for ornamental and gouilloche-lathes anymore.

[wefalck]

And the show goes on ...

 

The nascent ventilator was then transfered to the micro-mill for further machining. The mill had been set-up with the dividing head carefully aligned with the milling spindle using a round piece of cemented carbide.

 

Aligning the milling spindles

 

It was also fitted with the geared dividing attachment. The first machining step was to mill out the cowl, starting from the pre-drilled hole.

 

Milling out the cowl

 

In the next step the sides were milled flat. Finally, the vertical back of the cowl was milled round using the geared dividing attachment.

 

Round milling the cowl back

 

The top curve was ground on free-hand using a diamond wheel on the micro-sanding machine. The top cover was fashioned from a piece of thin copper foil soldered on. The excess was milled off in the same set-up as previously.

 

Shaping the back of the cowl on the grinder

 

Soldering on the top of the cowl

 

The boiler-room ventilators are sitting on a base that is square and then tapers into the round of the shaft. This part was milled and turned from Plexiglas, so that it can be cemented to the boiler-room skylight.

 

Finished ventilator and base

 

This base will be painted white together with the boiler-room skylight, while the ventilator itself will be painted buff. This separation into two parts will give a clean separation between the colours. By then I will also have to try to find out, whether the inside of the ventilators was red or buff.

 

Boiler-room ventlators on the boiler-room skylight

 

The handles for turning the ventilators are still missing, but I will drill the respective holes on all ventilators in one go, so that I only need to set up the milling machine once for this.

There is a dozen more ventilators to come, all of them significantly smaller than these two.

 

To be continued soon ...

[BANYAN]

That is very nice work again Eberhard.  I seem to never have the right sized piece to be held in a similar soldering pad I have - I always have to use shims or the like

 

cheers

 

Pat

[wefalck]

Pat, some of these pins are excentric ... the holes in the ceramic soldering plate have a diameter of 1.3 mm and the pins have 2 mm diameter. I turned the 1.3 mm part onto the 2 mm pins using the above excentric chuck and sawed a screw-slot into them. I now can turn them with a screw-driver to jam the part. The pins are aluminium, so that the solder does not stick. I had the 2 mm aluminium wire to hand, but say a 3 mm diameter would give you a wider clamping range.

 

You can do the excentric turning in an ordinary 3-jaw-chuck by putting a suitable shim under one of the jaws, btw.

[druxey]

Beautifully done, Eberhard!

 

Speaking of ornamental turning, do you have a Holtzapffel or seen one in action? Quite mesmerizing!

Edited February 7, 2018 by druxey

[wefalck]

Would love to have one, but they are extremely expensive these days. Not sure I have seen a geniune Holtzapffel in live action, but I think I have seen a Lienhard (in the watchmaking museum La-Chaux-de-Fond) and a Pittler (in the technical museum Berlin). Sadly, with CNC-machines ornamental turning has become a simple matter of coding, not cutting and selection of plates, playing with settings, etc.

Edited February 7, 2018 by wefalck

[BANYAN]

Thanks for that tip Eberhard; I'll have a go at that as it looks a very useful adaption.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[wefalck]

Work on the ventilators continued. The ventilators for the officers' mess, which included also a Venturi-suction ventilator, where produced in the same way, but are a lot smaller with the head only 2.9 mm high and the shaft having a diameter of 1.3 mm.

Milling one of the ventilators for the officers’ mess

 

All ventilators would be taken down, when the 'battle ready' alarm would be given. To this end they are mounted on sockets that would be closed with a lid or plug. This socket was turned from Plexiglas and will be glued onto the deck. It will be painted black together with the deck, while the white ventilator with black interiors will be put into place at the final assembly of the model.

Ventilators for the officers’ mess

 

To be continued soon ...

 

Edited February 12, 2018 by wefalck

[BANYAN]

Nice metal-smithing - these look great.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited February 12, 2018 by BANYAN

[Gahm]

Super metal work! You really know your tools!

 

Thomas

[wefalck]

There has been a long break in this project, caused by a virus-induced vertigo that began in the middle of March. It made it impossible for me to focus my eyes on small things and to do any work in the workshop. Recovery was slow and could not go back to the workshop safely until a couple of weeks or so ago ...

********************

Two of the ventilators of the crew-quarters in the forecastle have the hollow chain-bollards as their base. These chain-bollards are used to relieve the chain-stoppers when anchoring or being moored using the anchor-chain.

They have a couple of protruding 'noses' that keep the turns of the chain apart, so that the links do not wedge-in each other, making it impossible to cast-off the chain.

Initially, two rims were turned on a piece of round brass and these rims then were reduced to the 'noses' by round-milling on the dividing head of the micro-mill. The base was also milled rectangular, as required. The ventilator was fabricated seperately, as the bollard will be painted black, while the ventilator will be white.

 

The set of ventilators is now complete, but they still need to be drilled for the handles by which they are turned. For this I need to fabricate an adjustable support for the dividing-attachment of the micro-mill so that they do not give, while being drilled.

To be continued soon ...

[amateur]

Good to have you back in the workshop!

 

jan

Edited June 30, 2018 by amateur

[BANYAN]

Nice to see you back in the workshop and hopefully no further recurrences of the virus Eberhard.  That metal work is superb!  These will add some great detail to your build.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[wefalck]

Thanks for the wishes !

*******************

Some small progress between travels. I began to tackle the funnel. The main part was turned from a piece of 10 mm acrylic rod. The bands were turned on. The top then was hollowed out cautiously with the part unsupported – a steady would have marred the relatively soft acrylic. The remaining wall thickness is about 0.3 mm.

Outside turning of the funnel

 

The top was hollowed out only down to 12 mm, as the yet to be installed smoke-stacks will fill most of the space and one will not be able to see down to the bottom.

 

Hollowing out the funnel

Funnel on the boiler-room casing

 

To be continued soon ...

[druxey]

Somehow I missed your June 30 post, Eberhard. I had assumed the break was for reasons of business, not a nasty virus. I'm glad to read that you have recovered and can continue your beautiful miniature work. Gute gesundheit!

[BANYAN]

Very nice turning work Eberhard, I know how difficult turning acrylic is  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[wefalck]

Actually, if you have real acrylic glass, not clear styrene rod or something similar, it turns and mills very well with sharp tools. Feed rates need to be kept reasonably low, or the material will melt to the cutting tool. I like to work with it, though the swarf can be a bit messy because of the electrostatic charges

[wefalck]

The funnel is connected to the boiler-house via a kind of apron that also accomodates the funnel rake of 2.5°. The apron was turned from a piece of acrylic rod and then taken into a 'wheel-collet' on the vertical dividing attachment of the micro-mill.

With the vertical axis inclined by 2.5° this allowed to drill out the apron at this angle. In the same set-up the holes for the two safety-valve exhaust pipes and the steam-whistle were drilled.

Boring out the apron for the funnel

The funnel is actually only a sleeve and inside there is one smoke-pipe for each of the four boilers and a stiffening pipe in the middle. These pipes of 1.8 mm and 2.3 mm OD respectivel were turned from thin Plexiglas™-rod and then partly drilled out to the approximately scale wall thickness. Taking the funnel into the upright dividing attachment on the micro-mill, holes were drilled in the appropriate pattern. The upper ends of the pipes will receive stays from thin polystyrene sheet.

 

Funnel with smoke-pipes

 

To be continued soon ...

[BANYAN]

Nice work Eberhard; I know how difficult (for me at least ) turning acrylic can be - turned up very cleanly.

cheers

 

Pat

[wefalck]

It has been again several months since I wrote something here. However, don’t think that nothing has happened since.

After the funnel I turned my attention to the lower carriage of the 30,5 cm-gun. This is a complex assembly of steel plates connected by L-beams and held together with rivets. Some years ago a detailed Imperial Admiralty plan appeared on the Internet:

 

Source: www.dreadnoughtproject.org

 

Together with the description in a contemporary textbook (GALSTER, 1885) these drawings formed the basis of some reverse engineering. A problem with the above drawings is that many parts are drawing onto each other, semi-transparent and with dashed lines. Sorting out this maze into its three-dimensional element was not easy and some part will remain a matter of interpretation.

I had hoped to get away without etched parts. Trials with embossed styrene-sheet to simulate the rivetting, however, were not very successful. The embossing distorted the miniscule parts. The rivetting is very prominent and can be seen on a large demonstration model in the Naval Museum in Copenhagen or on some russian-kloned Krupp-carriages in the Suomenlinna fortress off Helsinki. The rivetting can be much more precisely rendered with etching and one avoids the added difficulty of having to cut out minute parts.

To begin with the frame of the carriage with sides and ribs from sheet-steel was designed. The L-shaped reinforcement profiles including their rivetting was then drawn. Next in the line was the housing of the training mechanism. I will not fully build this mechanism as it will not really be visible on the finished model. It will be only made in its rough shape that is needed to support the various axles and rods that will be visible. Also designed were the various parts of the hydraulic recoil mechanism and its linkage to the upper gun-carriage. Various other small parts, such as the housings for the sprung buffers that limit the movement of the upper carriage, were designed as etched parts to be folded.

The lower carriage runs on four wheels that are guided by rails that have been turned on the lathe already a long time ago. These ‘castors’ are attached to the underside of the carriage by housings of sheet-metal that have no right angle in them and are set at an oblique angle to the carriage. These parts were developed from the various projections in the drawing above and then checked by printing them as large paper parts.

A lot of work were also the many operating platforms resting on consoles fabricated from L-profiles. Unfortunately, the exact shape and position of the consoles cannot de deducted from the above drawings for all of them. The model in Copenhagen and the originals in Suomenlinna have lower carriages that differ in detail. I will provide two alternatives for the grilles made from wire mesh on the etched fret. The more elaborate version will consist of etched and folded frames with inlays of a very fine steel wire-mesh. If it does not work to cut the wire-mesh to size – some of the platforms are onyl 1.6 mm wide – I will have solid platforms into which a mesh-like structure is etched as fall-back option.

Elements (operating platforms) for etched fret

Also the charging-crane will be built up from several layers of etched part – to get the necessary thickness – and turned parts. The same approach was taken for several other small parts that would be difficult to machine or work on by hand due to their small size, while still requiring a precise geometry.

I still have to design a host of other parts that have to go onto the etched fret in order to make it worthwhile to be given outside for having the mask and the etching done professionally.

To be continued soon ...

[BANYAN]

Hi Eberhard, great mini-project and the level of detail at such micro-scale will look great.  Do you do your own etching?  That fine mest will be something else, it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

 

cheers

 

Pat