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[adavies]

Hi,

I've been building the Caldercraft Victory for a number of years on and off and have finally finished the hull. Now I'm moving on to the masts and spars. My question at this point is simple. Is a lathe going to help in the production of all the masts and spars? Having looked around the only one I can fin is the Mantua mini lathe, is this any good?

Many thanks for any help.

Andrew

[barryfoote]

Andrew,

I am sure it is good but it is expensive and in my opinion there are other ways, just as good. I have been building period ships, including Victory for many years now and use a couple of ways to "turn" the masts.

The simple and probably most effective way is very low tech. Simply break a milk bottle and use the neck end, which should stay unbroken, to shave the doweling to the right grade, before finishing with fine sand paper. The jagged edges do a great job of removing wood.

If you don't fancy this then a normal drill with a good chuck can be used to hold the spar while you run various grades of sand paper along it's length...

Then again you could spend plenty on these special tools......

[plugger]

Andrew,

Another way is with a file or plane. This method is described by Keith Julier in his colunm in March (I think)  issue of Model Boats.
Briefly, you file or plane the dowel, tapering as required, firstly square, then octagonal. Finally round off with sandpaper.

As Footski has advised, a drill and sandpaper works well for me. A battery drill is better than mains powered, as the rpm is generally lower.

Plugger

[Malcolm Reade]

I don't have any specific experience of turning masts or spars, but I do have a lot of experience with lathes.  I own two, one for metal working and also a wood turning lathe.

IMHO, a lathe used for this work would be no better than a battery operated drill for rotating the work piece whilst it was sanded to shape?  The length of a mast would suggest that it would probably be too flexible to turn down to a specific shape with a turning tool?  Both methods require some care to ensure that the work piece rotates on it's own axis and doesn't become wildly eccentric and dangerous (a bit like a Labour Cabinet Minister ).

There might be some benefits with regards to controllability of the work piece by using a lathe, RPM's, steady positioning etc. but these really wouldn't justify the substantial investment required.

Malc

[KenP]

I have a Manua "spar" lathe  and am also building the Jokita Victory.

However.  This lathe is not much use for this model.  It cannot take this length of spar. if you feed them through the chuck to do half of the spar at a time the end will just whip like mad.  I'm resigned to doing them by hand, even bought a davids plane to help.  But i've still got to do the gunport lids and the deck railings etc to do first.

kenP

[hazegry]

check out the Jet and RIKON midi lathes. I have a Rikon and its a good machine you can pick up a used one for around 150 bucks.

[dreadnought72]

If you start off with circular stock of a diameter greater than/equal to the maximum diameter of the spar, surely it can't be too difficult to roll the spar on a surface, under a sharp knife, to cut into it (at different positions along its length) to a depth "equal to the amount you don't need"?

If this was done every inch or so, I can see how a guide like this, along with a bit of work with a razor plane and subsequent sanding could produce the right curves.

Andy