Hi Gary,
I am recovering quite well thanks.
SWMBO has more of a long term problem, though there is some small improvement.
I like the mirror idea...

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks Doug,
It's always good to have the right tool for the job...

Thanks I certainly hope for a speedy recovery.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks Martin, 👍

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks Trev, 👍

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks cdnfurball,
You know there is always room for improvement, I am very happy if you find my work motivational.
Thank you for your wishes.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks John,

I am sure we will be okay in the long run.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your wishes.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Graham,
Thanks, I am glad you liked the comment...

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Andy,
Thanks, you are quite right without the mill I couldn't have done the holes considering how close together they are.

Cheers,
Stephen.

I haven’t had much time lately and currently it looks like I won’t have much time in the near future for hobby work, now mainly due to the Admiral being quite ill, although I did make some progress before the current situation arose. Add to that I have just recently had a bilateral hernia operation.

As mentioned in the last post I was intending to make a jig for producing custom mouldings and work on making some solid carbide micro carving tools. Well I have made the moulding jig but haven’t made any micro carving tools yet, part of the reason for slow progress is I rebuilt my little tool-post grinder this took awhile.

I know I indicated I would be working on the Bulwarks and I did get the parts I have made out and had a look at them then decided it would be best to put that on hold until I had done a few other jobs that included fitting the bilge and circulating pump out-flows, making and fitting the circulating pump intake and smoothing off the brass pins on the brass rubbing strakes.

Neither the bilge and circulating pump out-flows or the circulating pump intake are marked on the plans so for these I rely on the Tree to Sea book page 125 for a description on where they are fitted also sketches of what they might look like were invaluable.

The circulating pump intake was a fitting that I nearly decided to not make as no one will likely see it, but the challenge of trying to make one got to me.

I started with a 2D cad drawing to play around with the hole spacing then machined up a brass blank and used an engraving tool as a centre drill, as the smallest centre drill I have is far too big for the .4mm holes.

The holes were spaced out on the mill. Then drilled .4mm by hand, with the aid of an Optivisor. Next some shape was put into the end on the lathe using a form tool and parted off. A suitable sized hole was made in the appropriate strake.

The circulating pump and bilge out-flow had already been made so all that was needed to do is cut a piece out of the centre rubbing strake and drill a couple of holes, unfortunately after cutting the brass strake it proved very difficult to remove and I subsequently damaged the plank.

With the benefit of hindsight what I should have done at this point is cut out the damaged piece and replace it (which I did eventually) this would have been the best approach, instead I went ahead and drilled the 2 holes, then made the repair only to find out the making the holes very cleanly was very hard, should have realised this.

Thanks for the having a look, more to come.

Again I welcome constructive comments.

Cheers,
Stephen.