It's nice to see that with your persistence you finally have a result that you are happy with, Smithy/Bertie. Building the Bluenose’s in the group-build, some of us have the same problem and made the bands also with the '6th-bend-principle' shown in the Davis drawing. You are not alone with soldering struggles.Ironwork
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First attempt. Doesn't that look chunky! The lug at the back could almost pass for a casting.
This was of course, a complete mess. The three lugs were randomly spaced around the circumference, the joint between the two ends broke easily and the mistake right at the beginning? The brass was too thick for the job. But I explored the process and found that while it wasn't as easy as Davis makes out, it was possible.
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Second try. This time I went for the one with only a single lug and disregarding Davis for the moment, I made the joint at the lug.
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There was slight movement when the soldering torch melted the solder which momentarily lubricated the joint so the thing isn't quite round, but as you see above it still fits the 4.5mm drill bit I was using as a mandrel.
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I think my eye band is a lot more realistic even if the PE one is perfectly formed. I've used the Vanguard Models version on another boat model and the flat eye band bent under the tension of the rigging. Mine being the correct shape, sort of, won't bend - promise.
Mine looks a lot smaller in diameter than the PE one. It's an illusion but it's so convincing that I put the calipers on the pair of them. The PE was 4.72mm.
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Mine was dead on at 4.50. Fluke! So mine is a tad smaller than the PE but do you agree the comparison photo makes them look wildly different?
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Here's the bending sequence for the three hole band. I'd gone back to the Davis method of putting the joint at the elbow of one of the lugs. As I write, I wonder why I did that when the previous ring went so well. Probably because that's what I did on the three hole ring before, some rigidity of thinking there. Silly me.
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Nevertheless, it was looking good. Nicely symmetrical this time.
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That joint is awful, but I pressed on regardless. Maybe I was tired? Hungry? I certainly wasn't thinking well.
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Not enough flux and far too much solder.
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And then, when it was drowning in solder that refused to flow where it was supposed to, about a kiloton too much heat. Boom!
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That's better. PLENTY of flux and a lot less solder. Maybe not quite enough solder - the longer of the lugs looks a bit dry?
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It fit the mandrel well and didn't fall apart when I pulled it about a bit.
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Drilling went well. I drilled the lugs with the band on the mandrel and a block of hard wood behind the lug. I also 'centre punched' the brass with a large needle in a pin vice.
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Unfortunately the drilling was too much for the dodgy lug with not enough solder and it came apart. My first thought was to CA the lug back together but having the eye-band open will make fitting it to the bowsprit an easy job and when there's a line or two passed through the lug it will automatically close up, and that's when I'll glue it.
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There you are it's rough as a .... Rough as a .... Rough as a piece of mid eighteenth century ironwork, perhaps? I've been to Ironbridge and seen the famous Iron Bridge. It was built in 1781, four years after Alert and close up it looks about as rough-hewn as my eye-bands. There are dovetail joints in the iron with half inch gaps all round. It's gorge-eous from a distance and it's still standing, but seriously Mr Prichard and Mr Darby, where was your quality control?
Anyway, that's not the issue. Accurate or not, I made it with hand tools, persistence and butane and I'm very pleased with myself, thank you very much!
Regards, Peter
