Response

Re: Back to smoke and mirrors sorry water

What a beautiful piece of engineering work Mike,👍 can I ask what you do your work on. Cheers, Pete

4 years ago by Rookysailor

Blog

Fire Monitors revisited

Based on the build described in my previous 'Fire Monitors part 4' blog, the performance of the fire monitors on the lake was less than impressive so I decided to rework the plumbing. The solenoid valve based solution worked, but the water flow was restricted by the small bore of the valves. Using two valves to divert water from the ESC cooling to the monitors also meant that one or other of the valves was always energised resulting in unnecessary battery drain. To overcome these limitations, a diverter valve was constructed based on a 10mm compression fitting from the local plumbing store. A central rotor was turned on the and then cross drilled to produce a three port valve which is actuated using a small servo. I wasn't sure that this would work without leaking, but with an o-ring fitted on the rotor shaft it seems to be OK. At one extreme of the servo rotation, water is routed from the pickup scoop to cool the ESC and motor. At the other extreme of travel, water is routed from the pickup to the monitor pump. An RC switch connected to the same Rx channel as the valve servo switches the monitor pump on when the valve is routing water to the pump. The pump was also upgraded. I have tried a variety of pumps sourced on-line, most of which did not have adequate performance. The pump now in use is an aftermarket windscreen washer pump which seems to work OK. To make it easier to install in the model, a ply chassis was constructed to hold the valve, pump and the RC switch. The chassis also provides a locating box for the LiPo. Out on the lake this afternoon, I was able to get a few photos of the monitors in operation. The performance is much improved.

4 years ago by Graham93

Forum

Night Watch

Well Nerys, if Caroline says she can't use my tools then I get her some she can use, earlier in the year our son needed some welding doing on his Mercedes after a pothole ripped his front suspension out, problem was I only had industrial equipment that was too big to take to the car. So on the understanding that I teach her to weld she bought us a portable gasless mig welder. She can now lay a fair weld with mig, a usable weld with my old stick welder and is now learning to braze and gas weld with my oxy acetylene kit. I may even become redundant in my own workshop as she can already use my combination mill/ and pillar drill. She now wants a lightweight router as mine is just too heavy for her modelling, I'll have to ask santa. Cheers Colin.

4 years ago by Colin H

Forum

Night Watch

Hi Ken, I was going to see if me wife would like a and a pillar drill for Christmas but after reading your post i don't think i will risk it LOL! Martin555.

4 years ago by Martin555

Forum

LATEST SMOKER, E-CIG ELEMENT

FLEET TO GENTS OF THE R&D DIRECTORATE; SMOKE DIVISION Please be so kind as to post details of your material suppliers, including appropriate URLs. Info required for submission to FLEET Finance Director Gisela for approval of expenditure 🙄😉 Thanks in advance👍 FLEET// 😎 PS thinking of using my little Proxxon to turn some insulating parts from perspex / acrylic rod?

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

LATEST SMOKER, E-CIG ELEMENT

Re Looking good. I think using e-cig tanks is the way to go. It's looking that way Graham, as it saves a bit of mucking about, although with a you could turn up some interesting bits and pieces for a custom unit, ( is on my wish list when I win lotto😂) I like the end cap you've made, makes it quite streamlined. Are you still using the big tank you made, or do you find that there is enough juice std for a few demos? JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

LATEST SMOKER, E-CIG ELEMENT

That's the type of coil I tried in the metal box version Martin, a bit easier to hook up the particular coil by itself as it has a nice loop on the center pole. The latest one is also a Vaporesso brand but a different model with small coils and nowhere to wire on to, - hence buying the tank to try. Making a 'sleeve' to fit over the inlet slots could be tricky without a , hence enclosing the whole thing seemed easier. Your type is probably a better option but they are around $50 here and this one was only $24 so worth the risk. Don't want to waste too much money as the idea is working in the various forms already (mine and Grahams) Just trying this, as with the tank it's self contained, and not too bulky. Also trying to get the size down to fit in smaller hulls and be easy to work on and fill. JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Propshaft replacement?

Hi Bill, I concur with Graham. An imperial propshaft will almost certainly have a BA thread. I would change it for a 5mm shaft. You may have to change the prop as well, or drill and tap to 5mm. To ream out the bushes you may find it easier to keep them 'in line' by knocking them out, use the old propshaft, and ream / drill both together. A small helps! When refitting the bushes use the new 5mm shaft to help keep them centred. If push comes to shove and you do have to remove the tube a sharp tap on the end with a light tack hammer while gently twisting with Mole Grips usually breaks them loose without wrecking the hull. Worked on my Sea Scout, same problem; rusted 3/16" shaft and worn bearings🤔 BUT I cheated🤗, I made a new 4mm shaft and bought 4mm I/D sintered phosphor-bronze bushes and Raboesch brass prop to suit😁 Hope this helps more than confuses, Cheers, Doug 😎 PS I agree warming the tube to soften the glue helps. I tried it with a 50W iron on my PTB but it couldn't cut the mustard. So I used a small, kitchen style, gas torch. Tap tap twist and out they came. Only had to remove them cos a complete hull renovation was necessary🤔 I blogged it on this site, somewhere!! Now it's cookin' time. C youse guys later👍

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

Fire Monitors Part 1

The white metal items supplied are OK but really don‘t lend themselves to being working items. Graham93 has already completed a version which looks just like the drawing and photos available, and are the best I’ve seen. The bar has been set so here goes, whenever an item like this is been contemplated it’s always good to spend some time in planning a sequence of operations and assessing the problem area’s at the start of the work and if possible dealing with these parts first. Failure of the difficult process doesn’t mean you have wasted work on other parts that are now scrap. I think the most difficult and problematic piece is the pipework that sits at the top and curves round in two halves, this in reality is a casting, however replicating it can be done using brass pipe. Brass pipe can be purchased in annealed form; however my stock wasn’t so the first job was to anneal the tube. Heating to a dull red heat and allowed to cool, this treatment will soften the metal completely. In some books it is suggested that the brass should be quenched in water (which is what I do) after heating but this is to speed up the commercial process, and quenching has no effect on the annealing process. So tube annealed we need some method of retaining its tubular form during bending, in plumbing I use a spring but when you compare wall thickness/dia a spring would have to be mighty strong and so small. An easy alternative is to crimp one end of the tube and put some soldering flux down the tube, follow this by heating with a low temperature blow torch to melt solder and fill the tube, then allow to cool. You now have a soft tube which when bent will hold its shape. That’s the next challenge, the shape, and being able to replicate it twice, so an easy jig is required. Having marked out a scrap piece of hardwood I cut the “U” shape using the band saw and filled a groove along the top edge, this was then placed under my drill press with the appropriate dia bar (this must be calculated accurately as it helps to create the final form) on top of the tube, then just pull gently down (it takes very little force) this jig leave a small amount to finish bend to a complete a circle, the excess length is trimmed off and then I used a piece of hard wood with a small radius on the end to tap the final curve. Next the circle needs to be cut into two pieces I used a small slitting saw in the milling machine. Now it’s time to remove the solder, simply heat up holding in plyers and then shake vigorously to expel the solder. (Make sure you do this on your own and wear safety glasses.) The white metal “main pillar fitting” and the monitors final “exit pipe” will be used in the unit and all that is required is to mount them in the and drill a 4mm hole through each and clean up the casting. Next I cut 4 pieces of 4mm brass pipe; these will form the main water passage. Two more machine turned items are the “pivot post top” that feeds water through the 2 brass pipes into the “junction block” which then feeds into the exit pipe, sounds all very simple? Having made all the components, it’s time to think about fastening them all together. First items to be joined are the “upstand pipe” to the “pivot post top” X 2 also the “feed to exit pipe” and the “junction block” X 2, these four joints are all to be silver soldered. I mounted them in a piece of wood and placed a tight spring brass ring around the upright pipe to stop then sliding down when heated. Having the joints spotlessly clean is paramount, the flux is added, I insert very small pieces of silver solder into the holes at the top cross holes (less is more) a gentle heat, and watch as the flux goes “glassy”, this is closely followed by the solder melting, watching at the lowest point of the joint for the tell-tale shinny liquid metal. No fettling is required so the 4 parts are dipped for 45 minutes in masonry brick cleaner (dilute hydrochloric acid) the parts are now clean and ready for the next soldering activity. See part 2

5 years ago by mturpin013

Response

Re: ELECTRIC EXHAUST SMOKE AND WATER VERSION 2

Bit of refining and I'll be applying for a patent Martin!😂 If only I had a . Eventually once it's spot on I'll do a drawing and post it. Have to modify the smoker yet. JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: Fire Monitors Part 1

Peter, The mini has made all the difference to being able to make things like this. I couldn’t attempt it without it. I haven’t had it long, and I’m still a bit of a novice with it. What you can’t see in the blog is how much time it has taken to make these bits, and how many spoiled attempts there have been. I think the rotating support columns, together with the water connection will be quite a challenge.

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Fire Monitors Part 1

I want to have working fire monitors on the boat, so decided to make them in brass. I also want them to swivel. To give the right appearance, the water needs to pass through the vertical support column into the body of the monitor. I don't want a separate tube from the body of the monitor going through the cabin roof as it would not look accurate, and will likely restrict the rotation of the monitor. The body of the monitor is made from a short length of 6mm brass tube with two turned end caps. The front cap, the nozzle, was turned and filed to a suitable shape on the . The inside is drilled out as much as I dared to reduce the weight. The nozzle outlet was initially drilled 0.6mm dia. During initial trials with the pump connected this was opened up to 0.85mm dia. to give an increased water flow without having any significant effect on the throw of the jet. The rear end cap is also drilled out internally to reduce the weight. Two 3mm holes are drilled at 45 degrees at the rear of the cap to attach the curved copper pipes which will carry water from the vertical support column. Bending the 3mm copper tube to shape was tricky, it is a tight bend but I managed it without it collapsing too much. The tubes will need a bit of cleaning up before painting. The connection to the vertical column is formed as a T piece from two short pieced of brass tube. These were soldered together using silver solder for strength. Two small turned flanges connect the copper tubes to this T piece. The handles were cut from brass sheet with a length of 1.5mm brass rod as the cross piece. All the parts were soft soldered together. The completed monitor body was connected to the pump and tried out. One of the soldered joints was leaking and had to be remade. Having drilled out the nozzle to 0.85mm dia. the resulting water jet looks effective with a throw of around 2-3 feet.

5 years ago by Graham93

Forum

Casting a lead bulb keel

Please note. The photographs are in reverse order! About three years ago I started to make and cast a bulb keel for my wooden Pilot boat, Cariad. Well, I have finally done it but not without some false starts and accidents. I don’t propose to dwell too long on them! My first task was to establish how much weight I would need. The boat is larger than the fibreglass hulls produced by Chris Brown. The hull is almost complete and painted so I ran the bath (while my wife was out!) and floated her in it. I then added weights until her waterline looked right then weighed the weight which was just over 13Kg. I decided to make the bulb keel a bit less than this to leave room for trimming the model. I how needed to make a plug of the keel. Luckily I have a which simplified the process although you could use an electric drill to turn down the front and rear ends. The density of lead is 11.34g/cc or there about, so it possible to calculate the size I would need using basic maths. I did this in sections, firstly the nose and tail (made from sheets of plywood glued together then turned down on the ), then the body (made from a plastic rainwater pipe) and finally the attachment to the hull (from wood). From the total I got the final weight. I adjusted the weight by altering the length of the body. The mould needed to be in three parts: two sides and a section to reflect the size of the keel. It was made from Plaster of Paris. To contain the mould I made up some timber boxes and a plywood sheet to hold half the plug to start the moulding process off. This had to be greased well so as to release the plug. To hold the casting to the hull I needed a threaded rod which I originally made from 1/4” brass rod which was incorporated into the moulds prior to casting. Later I changed this rod to stainless steel. The first mould I made was a bit damp even though I had let it dry for a couple of months in my dry shed. Too much air bubbles were introduced and the size just didn’t look right. I’d also included some feeder holes to allow me to fill the lead and for air to escape. They were not successful either because the lead solidified around them. The casting had to be re-melted and the mould re-made. For the second mould I made a new plug using a narrower section of drain pipe but the mould was also a bit damp but the main problem was the filling points. Again, they were just too narrow and clogged up with the lead. I decided to do away with the filling points and left the top of the mould open to the air. I did this by cutting the Plaster of Paris with a jig saw and making up the irregularities of the cutting with more plaster. The next casting caused me no end of trouble because it leaked like a sieve despite being held together with clamps. I had to stop casing the lead. Because I had about 12 Kg of molten lead to deal with, I didn’t want to leave it as a solid lump of lead. It is better to have a number of smaller bits to add to the melt pot gradually: melt a small quantity first and gradually add other bits. I therefore cast it into small ingot moulds. What I did was cast one ingot, wait a minute for it to solidify then dunk it into a bucket of water to finally cool it which resulted in the ingot and mould separating. The mould would then be removed from the bucket and set aside to finish steaming. Another mistake! I thought it had finished steaming so went to cast another ingot when it exploded and scattered molten around, including over me. I was lucky and only ended up with a burnt left arm and needing to buy another pair of glasses. After being severely told off by my wife as well as being very nervous about trying again I again made yet another mould. This one I dried off in the oven (my wife was out!) for a couple of hours at about 140 deg C. This helped no end but I still got a bit of bubbling. However the casting looked alright despite needing a bit of cleaning up. Lessons Learnt: Use fresh Plaster of Paris Grease the plugs before casting the Plaster of Paris, including greasing the mould interface to prevent sticking. Make sure your body is well protected, including a full face shield while casting lead. Use stainless steel rod as the fixing to the hull. Brass is too bendy/soft. Make the filling hole in the mould as large as possible. Ensure the mould is as dry as possible before casting

5 years ago by cenbeth

Forum

Orders from the boss.

Looks neater than it is Colin😉 That was a year or so ago as well! On the middle bench in the 1st pic my little now sits and the mill had to move stage right! Behind it is a little grinder / polisher. I still lose stuff despite all the categorising and labelling😝 BTW: Until a recent sort out and clearing of stuff parked on the construction bench I had a box of small to medium scissor clamps on there, nice an' handy. Damned if I can find it now😭 The Borrowers again! Grrrr! Cheers, Doug 😎 PS Don't forget to disable the door alarms before smuggling Colin!!

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

looking for plans

Yes thanks for that address. as I said i did play with radio control a/c for a while but then moved on to the real thing and did 30 years as a commercial pilot. I have now been retired 13 years and live in the whiled west of Ireland and no clubs within 200 miles. I do also play with a Myford but just fancy the idea of building the dutch sailing barge not to sail just to build.

5 years ago by frederick

Forum

Workshop

Just checked Hobby city, (main hobby shop in Auckland) AAAAARGH, some prices- mill drill $450, 24108 miller $2103, 24350 miller, $5398, 27110 micro miller $720, CNC ready miller $7802 ! and these are bare machines which need the 'accessories to be able to do anything with them. A bit beyond my meager finances methinks, could almost buy a Triumph 2000 for that much second hand . (had a quick look and found a Bridgeport power feed mill for $7200. Try- Hobby city.NZ -should get you there. Bet they don't have them in stock and you have to wait 3 months (if you are lucky) Pics of Hobby city owners plane before and after. Decided he'd had enough and turned it into a submarine at high speed. SA guy, previously represented NZ in world precision flying comps (second) shame, very clever guy and nice with it. You never know!

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Workshop

"Think I paid around €150 for my little back then." Sorry😔 typo! I bought my FD150 from Conrad here in Munic, Price €450 ! Conrad is always a bit pricey, but they deliver super pronto, usually next day! Just found the same thing in Ozzy Land for AU$999, about €600.🤔 Tried the supposed NZ retailer, Hobby city in Auckland, result "Server not found" 😠 Ho hum! 🙄 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Workshop

"Nifty little ,- Proxxon- looks German? " Correct! (Richtig😉) https://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/24150.php The little milling machine is also Proxxon. https://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/27110.php There's also now a CNC ready version - There wasn't back then 😭😭 https://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/27112.php Might invest in the MICRO compound table KT-70/CNC-ready! to upgrade my manual job! They have a range of bigger versions as well https://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/precision--and-milling-systems.php Not the cheapest around, but built like the proverbial brick "whatsit" house😉 Google / Ebay around, should be able to find some at reasonable prices. Think I paid around €150 for my little back then. The miller around €90. Happy machining folks, don't forget the goggles🤓 Cheers, Doug 😎 PS Odd!? Someone else's pics keep creeping in?? A new phenomenon!😐

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Workshop

My granddad's pal/neighbour had an engineering workshop in his Glasgow tenement flat (ground floor)from 1945 until he passed away in the mid 70s he used to do sub contract work for D&W Hendersons shipyard don't know what the Corperation thought as it was a council house .I remember there being a big Colchester and a milling machine and a pot arc welder,thought I should mention he was single and the house smelt of coolant my grampa used to do a lot of welding for him.

5 years ago by marky

Forum

Workshop

No matter what we have we are still 1000 times better off than millions of people in under developed countries who don't even have a house, let alone a spare room to work in. I was lucky to buy my house when I did (market bottomed, worst house in a good area etc) and 10yrs later I'm still working on it!. I pity young people today, as the average price in most of NZ cities/towns is close to 1 mill, and they struggle to even get deposits now, and if they do get in, the mortgage is enormous! My sons' SA friends' father, has a complete full on machine shop under his house ( he builds big scale steam trains) and every time I've been there it makes me drool, mills, s, welders, plasma cutters etc, makes my small workshop look very shabby. Most of my tools have been bought on specials or sales etc (eg, was recently doing some plaster board work in the house and found an AEG wall board screw driver, - normally $265 but marked down to $98 on clearance at our local mega Bunnings hardware store. It was a bargain and makes any driving job super easy and will outlast me.) I hardly ever pay full retail if I can help it, and I'll usually stand there talking myself into it for an hour, ("if I only eat half as much next week I can afford it" ) etc. I could not live without tools and have been collecting the necessary ones since I was 12 yrs old (plus being a car and bike fanatic made it compulsory).

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Workshop

Perfect hobby machines, I'm in the wrong country!. We used to have a lot of small new s for sale here in machinery outfits for around $1200 NZ but I haven't seen any for a while. I could do with a small especially for boat stuff. We had a Triumph 2000 ( not car) and a Bridgeport mill and all the gear when I was in the site services dept in the big woodworking co I worked for. I made good use of those, plus in my workshop I had 2 German RS2000 tool grinding machines which were great for touching up all your router bits and saw/ planer blades etc and a Chinese mill which I reco'd when the other guys didn't want to use it. Made my sons cars' frame and running gear (all 10 speed bike gears modified etc', -everything adjustable for growth) while I was there . Sure great if you have the gear!

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Workshop

Nifty little ,- Proxxon- looks German? ( on shopping list when house and everything else is finished)

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Workshop

"Too untidy for pictures until its finally sorted" It will NEVER be finally sorted! Model workshops adhere to the universal law of "Stuff expands to fill the space available for it!" 🤔 Attached a few pics of my workshop from 2 years ago - currently sorting again so that I can use my little spray booth! Basically s and mill etc at one end, electronics with scopes, PSUs and soldering station at the other. Construction and painting in between. That's the part that tends to get cluttered with "parked stuff"🤔. Not included are the drill press and electric coping saw in the cellar for the heavy stuff. Ships all over the wall and bookshelf, more ships on shelves in the living room😉 You don't have to be nuts for this hobby - BUT IT HELPS! 😁 Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Resurrection could be possible.

Grrrrr😠 Just wrote some text, selected the associated photos and ... ALL TEXT VANISHED GRRRRR! So here we go again!🤔 Just downloaded the Billing Instruction Book. Basic construction is basically the same as the Billing fish cutter I am currently restoring and converting from static to RC. So have already learned a few tricks in that respect. Booklet includes all dimensions and details of the mast parts and spars so no problem there either. Masts and spars can be easily tapered from dowels on the mini , or even at a pinch a mini drill clamped in a bench vice. So no insurmountable problems there, I hope😉 All the decoration and twiddly bits is another kettle of steamed fish though 😮 Are the fittings still there? See 3rd pic. We'll see. maybe Colin finds a local taker!? Kit seems to date from the early 80's. Just like my ancient fish cutter Gina 2. Blog of my hull restoration for that is on this site😊 Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

40'' Seaplane Tender, new build T

Aerial masts made and wheelhouse ribbing on. Acetate windows cut out (require painted trim around boarder (time to get out the BIG glasses) Tried the shafts out, wasn't expecting much and wasn't disappointed. Shafts are stainless but are soft, and look to have been turned, instead of being made of straight wire. Wondered why everything just about jumped out of the boat at high revs, turned out to be the shafts which looked like pretzels and were throwing themselves out by miles. Took them out and tried to roll them on the bench top, -ever tried to roll a banana?!. Managed to straighten the worst one about 90% but it was impossible to get it dead right as it had a spiral built in (quality Chinese machining). The bearings are crap as well and 'snatch' quite often (probably soft balls and slack clearance) but I'll replace them with some better quality NMB high speed ones if they don't last, and make shafts from 4mm silver steel or straight wire. The complete shafts didn't cost much (no more than the brass tube alone required from the LHS) so I'm not too worried. If I'd had a I would have made my own with teflon bushes. The shafts would be fine on a slower revving model (0-5000rpm maybe) but they start flexing at around 8,000 (no load) where it all goes banana shaped. I've also removed the heat exchanger I fitted as I was running out of room for more important gadgets like sound (Just did it as an experiment, nothing serious (I'll do a quick sound demo vid soon, works well) When my lungs recover from 3 weeks of the black plague I'll paint the coamings and fit the windows, (still waiting for my grab-rail stanchions from CMB). Will make a start on the wheel house fitting out when I get time (need to find a wheel etc, -might have to haunt the toy stores).

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: Suction hose

Very nice job and clever idea. Might I suggest an easier way of winding a spring, ( for those who have no idea how to - this coming from a past job as a spring maker). Start by selecting your mandrel ( go down in size from the size you want to end up with) as the coils will grow as you release tension (bit of trial and error depending whether you are using hard or soft wire). Make a simple tool as shown in the pic (around 300mm x40mm x 8mm - mandrel hole is not too important but a loose fit. Forming pin hole (bottom of which is just above mandrel hole and around 40-50mm back) should be tight press (or hammer) fit and welded on the back side. A deep groove is filed into the under side of the pin to take the wire. Bit of trial and error here to get the best pin position,- but once correct you will have it for life. This tool is slid over the mandrel (pin towards chuck) A right angle is bent in the wire leaving around a 150mm leg which is inserted in the chuck between the mandrel and the jaws (not clamped) leaving the stock length towards you (or from a coil on a turn table or pin) . You then hook the wire under the forming pin. and with the in slow,- 200 rpm is a good start (when you get used to it, probably 500 rpm +) and holding the wire tight against the handle (handle straight out) start winding. If you want tight coils move handle slightly towards the chuck and vice versa. You will find that you get quite good at 'pitching' the coils accurately with practice -ie closed-then open- then closed for normal compression springs and all closed for tension springs). Stop when you have wound your spring, move tail-stock back and slide spring and tool off mandrel (no need to undo anything, just cut leg and excess wire off to suit . There is another tool for forming spring eyes you can make also. If anyone wants to know I'll do a drawing. Just keep your eye on the stock end of the wire so you don't get a nasty surprise ! Best tail-stock would be a plain tube (we just used a 100mm piece of angle iron on an adjustable leg). If you had a decent horizontally mounted drill you could make your own spring for small springs. If you are using high tensile wire you will have to adjust your mandrel size as when you heat your spring to temper it, it will reduce in diameter (ie tighten up). You probably only need to make 2 or 3 different sizes of these winding handles to cover a range of sizes up to say 8 SWG. John B

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: 36'' Maiami Crash boat used for camera boat.

Thanks Martin, it does run surprisingly well with all that weight up top. Used to have a 28mm brushless 2200kv out-runner in it but the scream was super annoying and ruined videos. It was twice as fast but no use for filming. It's still a bit noisy, especially when the shaft runs out of oil, but quietens down once oiled again, - it's only home made 5mm brass tube (with oiling tube), with a thin brass tube bush at either end and a 3mm brass shaft (same in the MTB x 2) but they have worked ok for years. If I had a I'd make teflon bushes which are a lot quieter. I did the same with the MTB to look more scale like, as nothing looks worse than huge shaft tubes hanging out of a boat (in saying that, the shafts in my ST are too big, but who could turn down $7 for a 10mm D (outer) x 250mm stainless shaft with ball bearings, (cheaper than making one)! You have to love Banggood and Ali Express! John B

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: Suction hose

Good stuff Michael👍 Must experiment with my s. BTW; as you will see I took the liberty of editing your post with a few relevant EoLs (End Of Lines aka Returns) to break up the text block to make it easier to read for my old eyes!😉🤓 A gentle hint to several other Posters as well😉 Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

Suction hose

I’ve seen a number of attempts at hose manufacture both on this site and on others, so it’s my turn to suggest a method of manufacture. First I measured the approximate length of each of the hoses as suggested visually from the detailed drawings supplied by Mike Cummings. The length required was approximately 12” – 13” so the first operation was to source a length of 5/16” x 15” long steel. This was centre drilled in one end so it could be supported with a revolving centre in the and a 1.7 mm dia hole drill across the diameter about 11/2” from one end for the wire to be fed through and secured. The tool post had two felt pads squashed by a metal plate to tension the wire as its pulled through onto the rod, I used the screw cutting feature set at 10 TPI as after a little trial and error this seemed to give the best looking structure to the final covered pipe. One safety point to mention is that the coil of wire, prior to forming should be secured on a piece of dowel e.g. brush handle; this allows it to be freely pulled out through the tool post. I had sourced some galvanised steel wire 1.5 mm dia (large coil) for the job so passing the end through the 1.7mm hole and bending it back so it wouldn’t be pulled out when the is started. The speed was set at 200 rpm and the hose inner is starting to form, keep an eye on the coil so it’s freely rotating and as we are travelling from the chuck to the tailstock watch for the wire coming towards the tailstock centre and be ready to stop. The wire can now be detached from the steel shaft. Using the screw cutting method gives an accurate spacing requiring no adjustment to spacing before the shrink sleeve is applied; however a jig is required to hold the pipes in a circular aspect while they cool. Finally I can epoxy the ends in place first putting 2 bands of red shrink sleeve on the tube to be shrunk at the joints after the epoxy has set.

5 years ago by mturpin013

Blog

40'' Seaplane Tender, new build L

Bit more progress, bit slow as I had to have a change and 3/4 finish some 1/2 finished jobs on the house). I've fitted the toe rails, glued on the cabin roofs, made the floors, (both 2pc so as to be easy to remove to get at the bilges,) made the shaft support blocks, milled out the shaft slots and slotted the hull to match, ( still have to epoxy blocks in when happy with shaft angles ), made the motor mount plate and trimmed the inside edge excess off the deck. Still have to make the rear cockpit floor and rear cabin /door panel but I'll wait till I've fitted the motors, as I have to see where the engine boxes end up, (they will probably end up being in the correct place with the motors partly inside the cabin but if I'm clever enough it won't be noticed. The odd pic out is of some of the tools we use to make our models and don't even think about. I know most of us have our special home made 'tools' for different little jobs (ie sandpaper glued to flat or shaped blocks etc) but I thought for anyone just starting, it might give them an idea of what they could need to make it easier to build a model. Obviously there are fillers, paints, brushes, planes, drills etc (couldn't fit my mill on the table, weighs about 400lbs) and a number of other items for doing the larger bits. Mostly it's some of the simple smaller tools which are the handiest (assortment of modelling knives, small hacksaw, cutting board, pencils and sanding blocks/paper. If you are fortunate enough to have a you will obviously save a lot of money on scale fittings, shafts etc, but most people don't have one and have to come up with other methods or $$.

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Blog

The Kent windscreen, some small cabin & deck fittings.

Continuing to add detail to the model, the two white metal fairleads supplied with the kit were cleaned up with a file, sprayed with an etch primer and painted gunmetal grey to match the bollards. They are fixed to the deck with a brass pin and a dab of epoxy and the pin head blended in with a spot of gunmetal grey. The Kent windscreen was made in a similar way as the one on my fireboat, the outer ring is a small slice of 20mm plastic conduit that was further reduced in thickness on my sanding plate and then painted black. The screen was shaped from some clear perspex and fixed into the ring with some canopy glue. I used a 2mm brass bolt as the centre fixing, the head of the bolt rounded to a dome in my makeshift , this was also painted black. The whole assembly was then fixed into the port windscreen with the bolt, no additional glue is necessary. The front sliding window on the starboard side is held in the closed position by a small threaded brass ‘stud’ with a ring on the head while the window on the port side is intended to slide back to an open position so another stud was fitted further back. This is to allow access to an internal cabin feature that I’m developing😉. Two slightly larger studs were fixed to the front of the cabin on each side and a further two fixed into the deck near the rear of the cabin. All of these brass fittings came from RB Model in Poland. https://www.rbmodel.com/index.php?action=products&group=001 The last two pictures are of the model that's in the National Maritime Museum that I'm using as a reference for detailing.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

New drive Train and Oiler

Most of this actually took place last August / July! Regular readers may have seen that when Dad built this boat in the 60s he put a Taycol Target field motor in it. About 25 years ago I put a Decaperm and 'modern' transistor ESC in her to provide forward and reverse. Performance was sedate to say the least. I have since modified the Taycol (see below) so it can be run forward and reverse and decided to put it in an ancient Billings Boats Danish fish cutter (Gina) that I inherited from an Aunt. The cutter is badly in need of renovation (see pic 1) and the Taycol will be more suited to her performance requirement! On advice from Canabus in Hobart I obtained a Propdrive 2830 1000kV brushless motor, appropriate ESC and a 35mm 3 blade prop from Raboesch. Pic 2 shows the old and new motors. Next step was to trial fit new motor mount, coupling and prop. Pics 3 &4. While doing this it became obvious that a new shaft was in order, as mentioned in last update. Soooo, - appropriate stainless steel rod, thrust washers and set ring were acquired and back to the workshop. After cutting to length to accommodate the new coupling type a 3mm thread was cut a the prop end. At the inboard end I milled recesses for the grub screws in the set ring and the coupling, pics 5 - 7. I don't like to just file(or even mill) flats for the screws cos they have a tendency to slip and work loose😡 Trial fitted the new shaft and found I'd boobed a bit with the measurements and need extra thrust washers to make up the difference. 😲 Pic 8. No sweat, they came in a pack of 50 anyway😊 You can also see in this pic that I decided to fit an oiler pipe while everything was in bits anyway.😉 To solder it on in a cramped space without setting the boat on fire 😡 I packed a wet rag underneath and used a gas Kitchen Torch! Known as a 'Gas Gourmet Burner'. Yep, those handy little gas torches like your Missus uses to melt the brown sugar on her Crème Brûlée!! So do I, delicious 😜😉 The torches are not expensive, small, very handy, refillable with lighter gas and can be adjusted to a very small hot flame. ideal for this job. See pics 9 & 10. Pic 11 shows the new motor & mount, shaft and coupling all trial fitted after using a brass alignment tool I quickly made up on the . Pic also shows the trial electrical installation after cleaning up the 'machinery compartment' a little and painting with silver Hammerite. A Quickrun BL ESC is sitting in the bottom in one of the trays my Dad originally fitted for the 2 wet cell (very wet!) 6V lead acid batteries. The home made board on the left carries the battery and ESC connectors, main ON/OFF switch with LED, blade fuse holder with a 20A fuse and a green LED which tells me if the fuse is blown! Stuck on the walls (OK Bulkheads!) with so called Servo Tape are a 6 ch Turnigy iA6 2.4Gig RX and the arming switch for the ESC. Battery compartment is sized to fit 2S and 3S hard case LiPos. For trials I can fit my Wattmeter forward of the switchboard and splice it into the battery supply using Tamiya connectors. Might change these to XT60s later if current drain is more than 12 to 15A. All for now, all this was pulled out again preparatory to cosmetics on the hull, decks, cabin roof and walls inside and out. But that's another chapter so, 'Tune in next week, same time same channel when once again it's time for 'WHAT DO YOU MEAN BUCK RODGERS IS APPROACHING!? 😁 Or 'The Saga of the Cabin Roof' 😉 Cheers Doug 😎 BTW: After drilling the shaft tube for the oiler pipe I flushed it out with light machine oil (pumped in from a big syringe) and shoved a few pipe cleaners through (rotating them on the way) to remove any remaining drill swarf!!

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Prop size and speed

Hi Sam, Yes, by all means mount the motor on an angled block of wood to align the shafts correctly. As you can see in my Sea Scout engine flat. I used a standard 400 size motor mount (from Krick) screwed down to the block. To align the shafts I used a chunk of brass rod drilled on my mini to match both shaft diameters. Once you get the angle just right you can glue down the block, tack it first with cyano gel or 5 minute epoxy. When set you can remove the motor and mount fit the correct coupling. I try to avoid universal joints and use the flexible spiral types - again see the Sea Scout pic. You can also see that I took the opportunity during the refit to fit an oiler pipe as well 😉 Epoxy the block all round. When set reassemble motor and mounting bracket and check that the shaft rotates freely without straining / bending the coupling or binding anywhere. Good luck. Cheers, Doug😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Re: WTC/Sub Driver.

Hi Martin... just found your blog. Looks good👍. I picked up a pre-owned Gato similar to yours so interested in your progress. Did you make the end caps for the WTC? I'm planning on turning some from 'plastic' rod, on my

5 years ago by Harvey Kitten

Blog

The Life Ring.

A very brief description of something that took about two weeks to make 😐 The life ring is made from two laminations of balsa which are glued together with the grain at 90 degrees to avoid warping and then shaped into a ‘doughnut’ using various grades of abrasive paper to achieve the correct profile. This was quite a time consuming task to perform by hand and eye satisfactorily but there’s no other way to do it unless you can turn one on a . The ring was then given a couple of coats of sanding sealer, primed and finally given two coats of gloss white. I chose to use some red ribbon and white cord to finish off the piece and these were simply fixed in place with a few dabs of superglue. The ring needs to be held on the roof by some means so I cut and shaped some thick plasticard fillets which are fitted with a retaining peg, these were painted with white gloss and set aside to dry while I marked out a template to put on the roof as a guide for drilling the holes for the pegs. The fillets were superglued to the roof and the pegs glued and trimmed on the underside. The life ring is a nice tight fit on the retaining fillets but I will also secure it with a couple of small screws through the roof and into the underside of the ring so that it is detachable along with all the other roof fittings. Next up will be the anchor 😁

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Re: The Kent windscreen, some small cabin & deck fittings.

Hi Peter. Good to hear you got the B&D stand 👍. Please do remember that you will only be able to shape things with files and abrasive paper, don't attempt to use any form of cutting tool, it's not like a in that respect, and always wear some eye protection too 🤓 Robbob.

5 years ago by robbob

Forum

Ace Nautical Commander

Twin stick systems are much sought after by scale boat enthusiasts - and command a high price everywhere. 27Mhz / 40Mhz systems are sought after by submariners... I have not needed a twin-stick, but I have thought that if I ever did I would simply make one. Much cheaper! The pots don't need complicated self-centering, they just need mounting sideways and having a stick joined to each, with perhaps a friction pad. You can buy commercial dual sticks of course - at a high price - but I suspect that anyone with a could make ones equally as good. And then you could have a cheap 2.4Ghz Tx with a unique fitting...

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer

Blog

The Flagstaff

This is another fitting that needs to be detachable and the construction is very similar to the others. The base was formed from some brass bar and ‘turned’ to the desired size and profile on my ‘Black & Decker Bodge ’ and then the centre hole was enlarged with a needle file at an angle to accept a 5mm brass tube which was silver soldered into the base. The piece was then cleaned up with some abrasive paper and wire wool. A 2mm brass nut was press fitted into the base of a short piece of 4mm brass tube and soft soldered in place and this this piece was inserted into the base assembly to act as a threaded retainer and spacer. I continued making the flagstaff from some brass rod with a 2mm threaded end and some tubing to make up the diameter but having mostly completing it I decided that it just didn’t look in keeping with the boat ☹️....... and so I made a new mast from some 4mm beech dowel which I sanded to a taper and made a rounded plasticard ‘finial’ top button 😊......... much better. A short piece of 2mm rod, threaded at the end, was cut to length and inserted into the end of the new wooden flagstaff and the whole piece was finished with three coats of antique pine stain. Some thin brass wire was formed into a double loop and fitted around the top of the mast to form the upper fixing for the halyard and a short length of 5mm tubing with a brass wire loop soldered into it forms the lower fixing for the halyard. The flagstaff base was painted with etch primer and two brushed coats of gunmetal grey before being epoxied into an angled hole bored into the rear deck. The flag was made for me by Mike Allsop of Scale Flags & Ensigns to the correct dimensions for the boats scale. The halyard is actually elasticated cord finished at each end with some thin white heat-shrink tubing with another short piece at the bottom of the ensign to keep it in position. The elasticated cord is in tension and as it’s fixed to the flagstaff top and bottom the whole assembly can be easily screwed in and out of the base with the ensign attached, the threading of the flagstaff is also set so that the halyard and ensign always ends up on the trailing edge 😁.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

The Radio Aerial

Another cabin roof fitting is the radio aerial, this also needs to be detachable for transport and storage. For the base I cut and formed a disc from some brass bar and ‘turned’ it to the desired size and profile in my makeshift '' (a Black & Decker horizontal drill stand) and then the centre hole was enlarged to take a 4mm brass tube which was silver soldered into the base. The piece was then cleaned up with some abrasive paper and wire wool. A short piece of 3mm brass rod was then threaded and soft soldered into the bottom of the base to form the fixing stud. For the aerial rod I used a short piece of 3mm tube and some 2mm brass rod, the tube fits inside the base tube and the rod in the centre, and this was soft soldered together into the base. Finally a piece of 3mm tube was soldered to the end of the rod and turned to shape it into a ball. The rod was also given a slight taper with files and abrasives. The whole piece was sprayed with grey etch primer and when dry the base was brush painted with some black acrylic and finally some clear satin lacquer finishes off the part. 😀 The aerial fixes to the roof through a white plasticard base with a 3mm wing nut.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

The Searchlight & Horns

When I built my RAF Crash Rescue Tender my brother made a searchlight base for me on his from a drawing I supplied and at the time I asked for an additional one in case I made a hash of it. Fortunately I didn’t need it at the time and still had the spare one in my bits box and so it made sense to use this for the searchlight on the Thames Police Boat. The new base was made in much the same way as the previous one, the detail is in my Crash Tender blog: https://model-boats.com/blogs/23951 The white metal casting of the searchlight body is very well made and only requires a little fettling to remove casting lines and as this searchlight will not be a working one I used the prototype lens from my previous searchlight build to fit into base. A short plastic rod was push fitted into the lens base with a disc of silver foil at the lens end to enhance the reflection in the optical path. This piece acts as a support for the lens instead of the LED unit and is glued into the body which I had previously painted black internally. A perspex disc was made to cover the front of the lens, and a ‘tri-form’ front piece was made from some 22mm copper pipe and some brass wire which was soft soldered together. Before the front was glued in place all the parts were sprayed with a grey etch primer and a couple of coats of satin lacquer. The finished assembly is fixed to the roof with a 3mm threaded stud and a wing nut to make removal easy with a circular plasticard base between the two. The twin horns are from RB Model in Poland and they just needed to be sprayed with etch primer and lacquer before fixing to the roof. The boat is now looking more like the real thing, just a little more detailing to add including the life ring, roof aerial, flagstaff and a few more deck fittings. 😊

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Rear deck test

So while 2nd layer of gunwhale stringers glue is setting on 46” boat I thought I’d do some renovations on the recently acquired 36” boat, starting with the rear deck. This will be a useful practice for when the 46” boat needs doing. The original deck was painted white and was screwed down. I’m replacing it with a planked deck, some removable foam tanks, hose & deck hatch with brass handles. The foam tanks need to be removable to get at the screws to lift the deck (access to rudders &servo) here’s where we are up to. Deck is planked with recess for hatch. The cross hatch grid for the foam tanks was made on my 3D printer and once painted will be OK. I’ll make the brass connectors for the hose on my , and the hatch needs a recess milled out for the handles. The hose I have is a bit of corrugated plastic probably from Lego. We’ll see how all this comes out and adjust for the 46” boat in due course. 👍

5 years ago by Harvey Kitten

Response

Re: Bollards!

What lovely quality work Rob, you don't need a when you can produce fittings this good, wish I could do it😔 cheers Peter

5 years ago by Rookysailor

Response

Re: Bollards!

You always have this , of course. It's making torpedoes for the EeZeBilt PT Boat..... 😊

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer

Blog

Bollards!

The fittings supplied with the kit include some bollards for the deck but I’m less than impressed with them and decided to make my own by adapting some brass handrail fittings intended for locomotives. As readers of my blogs will know, I don’t have a but there’s a lot that can be achieved using a horizontal bench drill and files. The first job was to reduce the diameter of the base to fit inside a couple of steel washers that were superglued together and then to the reduced base to form a large flange for the bollard. This was then spun in the drill and files used to radius the edges and blend them into the base. Some brass rod was then used to form the cross piece of the bollard, some tape the same width of the ‘ball’ was used to protect the centre section and the outer end reduced to a taper with a file, finally the pieces were reduced to the correct length and the ends rounded off. The cross piece was then superglued into the bollard base and then all four were given a coat of etch primer and then two brushed coats of Tamiya gunmetal grey. There is another bollard on the foredeck and this is just a simple wooden post with a brass cross piece, it’s fixed through the deck into the underlying structure by a brass pin.

5 years ago by robbob

Guestbook

Guestbook

further to my previous guestbook entry, my wife now fully understands a love a man has for his precious objects like and a tower Drill and custom made workbench, and while I can't bring them back into the bedroom she will arrange for my bed to go to the workshop!!! hope summer come soon....🙄 Steve

5 years ago by boatiebennett

Blog

funnel mounts and deck hatches

Fitted the "legs" to the wheel house so now at correct height when on the deck. Funnel mounts done (just need to finish the funnels, workout what holes to drill and then mount the funnels to the mounts) so we added 2 hatches to each mount, painted white with brass hinges. the one placed between the Cowl vents is open, the one at the back is closed. as we only had "closed" hatches put a triangle shaped bit of plastic under the "open" hatch to prop open. When dry mounting the Cowl Vents found an issue with the rear vents as they are suppose to be higher than the wheelhouse and the ones i got where not, so found 2 wooden cotton reels the right height and turned then down to the correct width using the pillar drill as a , painted them up and then placed the Cowl vents on those. also painted the "flat" vents chrome and stuck those to the mounts as well. to finish off these all we have to do is fit the breather pipes and ladder to funnels and fix the funnels to the mounts (allowing for the front funnel to have the hole for the smoke generator. Started work on the 2 deck hatches using 1mm plastic sheet. Made the 2 housings up and the planked and varnished them ready for the hatches. found out i had only enough hatches to do 1 housing, so drilled a 7mm hole in the hatch for a 10mm brass porthole, painted white with brass hinges. once dry stuck them on the housing ready to go. (ordered some more hatches to i can complete the other housing lol) one last thing was to start on the wheel box. Found in "The Works" in town a heart shaped box which was almost perfect for a mold for the thin wood that was steamed to shape and then held on the heart to fix the curve in place. next to do is to make up the front and back of the wheel boxes and stick the "curved" wood to that

5 years ago by barryskeates

Response

Cabin detail part 3 (instrument panels)

I look with amazement at some of the work that these people do on here. I visualise things in my head but do not have the tools or the nerve to even attempt doing them. No or decent soldering iron or good enough workshop or the money to start with. How I envy the work they do. And as for some of the electronics< i'm lost. Awesome springs to mind on it all.

5 years ago by BOATSHED

Blog

Paddle Tug Iona - the hull

So... here is a compressed build blog of my paddle tug Iona... and I'm playing catch-up as the vessel is 95% complete and has been sailed already, but there may be some interest in what I've done. Iona was scratch-built off plan and has turned out to be the cheapest build so far out of 3 I've made, mainly because I was able to source materials from the leftovers box! it's a 'mixed-media' boat 😜using traditional methods of plank on frame hull, with paddles made on my 3D printer, and other parts turned on the . So starting with the hull, frames were drawn out, transferred to some scrap 9mm ply and cut out on my bandsaw, along with the keel. These were assembled on a build board with some right angle brackets / measuring tools and test fitted before being stuck in place with epoxy. This was quite difficult as the shape of the hull is critical and comes right at the start of the build. I did remake 1 frame to correct alignment. The deck stringers need to bend in 2 directions, so some steaming with a carpet steam cleaner attached to some tubes worked and the wood clamped in place to dry. Outboard sponsons (?) were fitted to make a frame for the paddle boxes to fit on. Then a large sheet of ply forms the bottom of the hull, and the only job left to complete was the (tedious) planking. This was my 1st plank on frame ship... and it took ages. I think it came out reasonably OK but I'm not a perfectionist and I know if I'd spent more time it could be better... but I didn't! Next blog will feature building the paddle boxes and superstructure.🤓

5 years ago by Harvey Kitten

Blog

PS Iona - misc fittings

A bit of a miscellany here - the funnel fittings or mounts at the top are 3D printed and the 'rope' is some sort of elastic string used in jewellery making. This... 1) keeps it straight which is difficult with regular string or wire, 2) doesn't get damaged when you catch it with a stray arm, tool, etc. Brass steam fittings turned on my . The forward hatch was built in case extra ballast was needed, but has had a beneficial side effect. No ballast was needed and the hatch is filled with foam, so I can wedge in a mini tripod and mount a camera up front. Only briefly tested but looks promising The windlass is a kit from mobile marine models. Easy to construct and looks the part. Tow hook 3D printed.

5 years ago by Harvey Kitten

Response

Cabin detail part 3 (instrument panels)

'tis true but I just provided drawings to my brother...him with the 😁

5 years ago by robbob