USS Constitution by BlueJacket 1:96

[g8rfan99]

Thanks Peter, I used the same drill bit used for the holes. I have the same set you do, which are really made for PCB boards and not true screw bits. They have more of a square point. I simply lined up the bitt with a temporary gate to keep my distance and very carefully moved forward to make the groove. Not an easy task. Once finished, I cleaned up the groove with a file.
To your point, I had mentioned to Mustafa some time back that I reeeeaaally wanted to get a Proxxon mill after watching you're guy's work. You are absolutely correct, it would have made the job much, much easier. Maybe for Xmas? If I'm lucky

 

[TexBilly]

Great going, Frank! Will keep yours in my feed as I hope to break open the seal of my own kit someday.

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

Yeech, I guess I forgot how expensive that baby was. I was looking it up on eBay figuring I'd turn you on to a used one at a discount but, there aren't any. To make it worse, to have this thing be of real use, you have to invest in at least one vice. I found it incredibly useful to have two. And of course then there is the dividing attachment. It does add up.

Still, if I only had one tool to get me through a build, this would be the one.

Christmas seems like such a long way off..

 

[g8rfan99]

Yes Peter, that is the hurdle to jump, but boy would it be nice to have. Xmas is a ways off, but then it's hard to believe this year is already almost half over, so I'm sure it will be here soon enough.

TB glad to have you following along. I hope you find something of use. When you do get around to it, I did repost my entire build on "that other site". (MSW)

 

[Roger Pellett]

Since you live in the USA before spending money for a Proxxon mill comparison shop a Sherline.

Roger

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

I compared the two mills recently, thinking I would "trade up" to the Sherline. I decided against it for several practical reasons aside from it being nearly twice the price. By the time you add in the "accessory" package, you're at $1,174. I also didn't like the enormous motor drive unit seemingly in the way of the Z axis handwheel. It may be beefier, but I didn't see features here that trumped the Proxxon.

 

[g8rfan99]

Thanks to both of you for the info. Since I am totally new to ship building and really don't know how far I will go with this hobby, I am certainly not inclined to spend more than $1000 for something I may not use that much. I have found a Proxxon on eBay for $429 plus shipping, which is a chunk, but a price that I could live with if it makes building this ship more enjoyable. Of course, even at that price, I still have to get it past the Admiral

 

[g8rfan99]

I got started working on the Mizzen mast fife rail. As with everything, the more times you do something, the better you get at it.
I started off on the sheave posts. I cut a stock piece to 0.10 square and turned the "rounded" section toward the top. With the sucess I had on the Bitts for the Foremast, I decided to use the same technique of cutting in the sheaves. Thankfully, it worked out wee



Unlike the Foremast posts, I did something a little different for the sheaves. The true diameter is 8 3/4", which is almost exactly 3/32 at scale. I have some 3/32 styrene tubing. I put a small piece of this into my lathe and with an Xacto blade, was able to easily slice off some very thin pieces with just the right thickness

These were "painted" black using a Sharpie pen and then glued into place with a little 5 minute epoxy. Finally, the bottom of the hole was closed up with a small piece of wood

I feel this looked much better than the previous posts I made by drilling out the holes, and I found a very easy way to make sheaves of any size.

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

Excellent outcome. I'll file that technique away for future reference.

 

[g8rfan99]

So I have the Mizzen mast fife rail completed. I first cut the rails using the laser

Before removing the pieces, I drilled out the holes using the dots as guides. Then I made up the bitts with cross pins

Finally, cut out the groove for the sheaves on the bitts

Things were going great up to this point. I was all ready to glue in the filler piece on the bottom of the bitts and finish the assembly when I realized I cut the groove on the wrong side. This wood is at a premium and I didn't want to waste the pieces, so, after a long string of "colorful" words, I just filled in the entire gap and after letting the glue dry overnight, re-cut the groove on the correct side. The side sheave was made as before by cutting a piece of .040" wood to size and sanding a portion of it down to .020". Finally, attempted to assemble the whole thing. Yet another problem. On the real rail, the sides pieces are dovetailed into the front. If you look at Mustafa's excellent build, you can actually see this dovetail joint. I wasn't about to attempt that at this scale, but felt I needed more than just a butt joint to hold everything together. The solution is a lap joint, so I sanded down the end of the rail to half it's thickness and sanded a groove in the front rail to accept the sides. These pieces are already incredibly thin, so after thinning them down for the joint, you can imagine how delicate they are. My thought was that once glued the joint would be thicker and stronger. Unfortunately, while assembling everything, I put a little too much pressure on one end and snapped it off. to fix it, I put a small reinforcing strip under the break and glued everything together. I did the same for the other side, partly for symmetry and partly to make sure I didn't break that side as well. Of course the broken piece didn't line up perfectly, but at a distance it is not so noticeable.


With this one done, I'm ready to move on to the Mainmast fife rail that is curved. Yet another problem has arose. I seem to have misplaced (nice way of saying lost) my piece of Constitution wood. With this rail being curved, I need a piece that is at least 1/2" wide and all the bits and pieces I have from what I've done so far are less than that. Not sure what I'm going to do.