True, indeed. It's not my period, but offhand I seem to recall that some earlier 15th and 16th Century European ocean-going sailing vessels had larger squared-off mastheads which accommodated halyard sheaves.
True, indeed. It's not my period, but offhand I seem to recall that some earlier 15th and 16th Century European ocean-going sailing vessels had larger squared-off mastheads which accommodated halyard sheaves.
Here is a top main mast done per original Victory drawings. It features very complex shapes. Pictures are for bottom and top of it.
Now I took it off the model for you.
You're welcome! I should perhaps add for those that are contemplating buying a lathe that the described sanding process can even more easily be done on a lathe, but you will need a lathe that is long enough to accommodate your mast or has a hollow headstock that will permit turning a longer workpiece in sections which will in this application permit turning the workpiece in two segments. By tapering the workpiece down in two setups, you can get a bit less than double the nominal working length of the lathe bed.
Although a lathe has many uses in modeling, tapering spars by methods other than by sanding them as described isn't one of them. It is theoretically possible to set up a good machinist's lathe to turn short tapers using the cross-slide compound, this is only possible for tapers which are too short for scale masts and spars. (Such taper lengths are relative to the size of the lathe, of course, but for our purposes it would take a rather large lathe to do it.) Longer lengths limited only by the working bed length can be tapered using the lathe's cutting tool by offsetting the tailstock, but scale wooden masts and spars are almost always too thin to cut with a lathe cutting tool because the pressure of the tool will deflect the workpiece, if not snap it. This workpiece deflection issue is generally addressed by a traveling rest which backs up the side of the workpiece opposite to the cutting tool, but, as far as I know, it's not possible to set up a traveling rest to follow an offset workpiece. There are tapering jigs available for some bench top machinist's lathes which I expect can be used with a following rest, but they are quite expensive, difficult to source, and require considerable lathe setup time.
As for woodturning lathes, using woodturning tools to turn a taper requires a very steady hand and sharp eyes because the taper will be essentially freehand. It is possible to set up the tool rest at the exact angle of the taper and rig a "stopper lip" on the edge of the cutting tool that will limit the cutting tool's "bite" into the workpiece by fetching up against the edge of the tool rest that is angled to the taper and so serves as a template for the taper, but you'll need a tool rest as long as the spar or, if not, turn the taper in sections, moving the tool rest as each section is done. Here again, the old "sandpaper on a stiff flat stick" approach is much faster and reliably certain to produce the straight taper desired. I use that approach on a lathe because it's faster to set up and more rigid a setup, but the results using a drill press or hand drill motor are no different.
As always, a word of caution: as surprising as many may find it, the machinist's lathe is the most dangerous stationary power tool of all. If you use one, give it the respect it deserves. A machinist's lathe is the "King of Power Tools" because it's the only tool that can be used to replicate itself, but it's also the only tool that will rip your arm off right from the socket and maybe even kill you if you give it the chance.
YT, I get it now, you were speaking about masts, not yards or ancillary spars. I erroneously never equated spars with masts, but rather only with yards. Looking at some definitions, I see now that the masts are considered a vertical spar and of course some like the lower masts were square at the bottom and top and others square or octagonal on one end or both.
Sorry for MY confusion.... Thanks for the pics!
Allan
Sorry for MY confusion.... Thanks for the pics!
Allan
Hi, Allan. No problem. Please note that in my posts I always more concentrated with how to make the parts instead of naval terms and definitions in which I am far from being expert. As to yards with non-circular middle and the ends you can refer to excellent blog here:
La Créole 1827 by archjofo - Scale 1/48 - French corvette
As always a feast for the eyes, unfortunately I couldn't be there in Augsburg to see the work in real life, but I'm sure we'll manage to meet up one day.
shipsofscale.com
I would like to share these pictures showing how complicated was design of masts and yards. They are all of a composite design and not uniform anywhere throughout their length.
To add to drawings above , there are a lot of contemporary drawings available as well for anyone wanting to build their own masts. (not me 
)
One example is below for a 74 of 1779. The below is in medium resolution so I could attach it here but is also available on the WikiCommons site in high resolution.
Allan
)One example is below for a 74 of 1779. The below is in medium resolution so I could attach it here but is also available on the WikiCommons site in high resolution.
Allan
Can you please give the name of the book and author or the ISBN number? Thanks YT, much appreciated.
Allan
This is this book. Looks it is on sale here too. I use it the most for understanding Victory rigging details - how it is done.
Thank you very much.
Allan
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For my last rigged model, I CUT the taper into the mast using my Byrnes saw. It’s easy to rig up a homemade taper jig that rides in the saw’s miter gage groove.
I also made a V grooved shooting board that allowed me to turn the square cross section blank into an octagonal one. From this point a power drill clamped in the vise quickly made the the octagonal blank circular.
Roger
I also made a V grooved shooting board that allowed me to turn the square cross section blank into an octagonal one. From this point a power drill clamped in the vise quickly made the the octagonal blank circular.
Roger
I've tapered masts using a block plane too.... (Veritas)
drawings from the book David Steel "Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship"
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I picked up a method, probably here, of gluing sandpaper to two paint stirring sticks. I made a spacer the thickness of the tapered end and put it between the sticks, and another spacer the thickness of the full end with a hole in the middle. The paint sticks were rubber-banded together with the spacers between them at each end. Chuck the dowel in a drill and insert it in the large spacer. As it tapers, the dowel keeps advancing toward the narrower end. I keep reading about starting with square stock, tapering it, and then rounding it but have not tried that method yet.
For making masts , I clamp a dowel in a vise and taper accordingly
using a spokeshaver and sanding, also use a caliper to verify
roundness and tapering to comply with plans.
Masts are one thing, tapering and making spars is another ,
the spars require more work as they can be strait across on
the upper side and tapered on the bottom , plus the ends need
special attention, example the yard arm section.
using a spokeshaver and sanding, also use a caliper to verify
roundness and tapering to comply with plans.
Masts are one thing, tapering and making spars is another ,
the spars require more work as they can be strait across on
the upper side and tapered on the bottom , plus the ends need
special attention, example the yard arm section.
This appears to be a constantly reoccurring subject. Glad to read all of the techniques. I've used drills with emery boards from the nail polish section of the pharmacy (they have 2 sides - mid- grade grit and fine grit) or sanding sticks made from craft sticks and various grades of sandpaper, and (recently) the Proxxon DB250 mini-lathe purchased a couple of years ago (and waiting to be used; it has a hollow headstock; using collets you can hold long pieces of stock for turning) with sanding sticks and carbide tools (on the thicker pieces only). As mentioned elsewhere, turning the taper on the wood lathe is a bit of 'eyeball guesswork' and a set of calipers.
You'll find the technique that works for you (which will probably vary depending on the model & scale).
You'll find the technique that works for you (which will probably vary depending on the model & scale).
I also used the method of chucking the mast or spar in a drill to sand it, but took the even more aggressive step of guiding the mast against a 1" wide belt sander running in the opposite direction! Material can be removed /very/ quickly, so you have to be really careful with it. I'd hold it in position with my thumb, keeping it a fairly constant distance from the spinning belt. With no pressure, it doesn't sand, so I was able to control it pretty well, I think.
I'll leave it to others to decide if the result is "straight enough".
For spars, where this a taper on both sides, I'd cut the spar 1" too long, and leave the last 1" untapered to hold in the drill. I even bought a 1/2" drill to hold the mainmast.
