tapering mast dowels

Jeff T said:
Here's how I do the tapering for spars/yards. I have a small "eBay" beading lathe (~$35) that I use for this task, but I remove the pointed end stock from the bearing. This will be my support for at the middle of the yard. I mark the mid-point, the points where tapering ends, where the yard is cut further in at the ends (if necessary), and the ending points for each end of the yard. I put some tape around the mid-point to a thickness that it is snug in the bearing (you need to push it into the bearing. One end of the spar is tightened into the drill chuck. I worked up a couple of pictures to help show the setup. The dowel was just a scrap piece and does not represent a real spar I was working on.

View attachment 323575

The yellow triangle points to the end of the spar where I used a square file to file in the small end of the spar (not very well done in this quickly done example). The blue triangles point to the place where the tapering will end. I use sandpaper of various grits using a similar technique to how I do masts but scaled back a bit in accordance with the smaller sizes of yards. I find the sandpaper gives me much more control that trying to use lathe cutting tools (but then I don't have good quality cutting tools for a lathe so your mileage may differ).

View attachment 323576

A closer picture of the yard when it is nearly done. Blue represents the file in area for the end of the spar, yellow is the end of the taper point, and red indicates where you can see the tape holding the spar in the bearing. Once you finish one side, the dowel is reversed, and the same technique is used to taper the other end.

I have used this technique successfully on a couple of models to date. Check this post out to see what the yards look like when taken off the lathe. https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/...1-1-64-jefft-completed-build.6647/post-193078

I should also mention that I have moved the motor back on the rail as far as it can go in order to get the maximum length for the tapering process.
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Hi Jeff T
Your tip was very helpful to me for dowelling the spares and the masts for the model (Dolphyn - Corel) which I am building now.Instead of the tape around the midpoint of tthe spare or at the end of the masts I used a rubber bottle closure for fixing the pieces in the bearing.
Kind Regards
 
Korsan said:
Hi Jeff T
Your tip was very helpful to me for dowelling the spares and the masts for the model (Dolphyn - Corel) which I am building now.Instead of the tape around the midpoint of tthe spare or at the end of the masts I used a rubber bottle closure for fixing the pieces in the bearing.
Kind Regards
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Glad you were able to use the technique.
 
I'm finding that when I sand a mast that it tries to go oval instead of round. How do I stop that? I'm using spruce if that makes a difference.
 
Don Case said:
I'm finding that when I sand a mast that it tries to go oval instead of round. How do I stop that? I'm using spruce if that makes a difference.
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I read from one of the members he uses 2 sanding blocks one underneath one on top of the dowel being tapered seems to me that might resolve that issue I am just about at that point of tapering the masts and will try that technic
 
Don Case said:
I'm finding that when I sand a mast that it tries to go oval instead of round. How do I stop that? I'm using spruce if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...
This happens, when the mast is slightly bended by too much pressure from one side.
so less pressure during the sanding or a counter force like @bandido wrote
 
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