USS Constitution - Model Shipways

[GGibson]

This is the setup I used to do the soldering for the above.
View attachment 619503

Nice little jig, Peter! I especially like the "notes" you write down directly on the jig board. Many times, I'll look at something I created like this a few months down the road and wonder "what did I use this for?!?"

...I have always used a toothbrush for this purpose but it doesn`t really remove everything.

That doesn't leave a funny taste in your mouth the next morning?!? <shrug>

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

Since I'm not painting anything over, and I want all the brass to look clean and shiny, I have to go through these hoops to be consistent in my build. I did manage to get another hour in at the shipyard today, this is dry fit but I'm on my way.

 

[g8rfan99]

Brass work looks really nice Peter. XKen would be proud

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

July 17 Next up, the main topsail yard.

I prepared another fixture for soldering the inner and outer irons (right). This time I doubled up the setup. I didn’t like working with the second of each pair on a charred jig.



Then I got to work on the brass cylinders for the irons. Perhaps I’m overdoing it providing too much detail here, but I wanted to show how I set up reproducible machining steps.

First, I clamped the brass tubing into the Proxxon vise flush with the end. Then carefully located the drill to center the hole in what will be a 2mm wide band. Of course, the hole needed to be centered side to side as well (left). This was eyeballed.


To set up the cut to net me a 2mm thick cylinder, I positioned the cut-off tool flush with the end of the brass tube. Then I set the dial on the carriage wheel to zero and moved the carriage exactly 2mm to the left. This process produced virtually identical parts.


Here’s the first, hot off the assembly line


and the entire batch ready to be soldered

 

[GGibson]

Perhaps I’m overdoing it providing too much detail here...

No such thing as "too much" detail... Nice brass work, Peter!

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

No such thing as "too much" detail... Nice brass work, Peter!

If you saw my update at the other site, you will have noticed that I'm missing some of that "detail" above. I showed how I positioned the holes in the yards for the irons using the dividing attachment. Only after updating the other post, did I realize that I drilled the locating holes for the inner irons in the wrong place.

I rotated the dividing attachment in the wrong direction. Since somehow the pictures didn't appear with the photo of the yard with dry-fitted jibbooms, I'll add them here. I'll redrill the holes next time I'm at the shipyard.