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[Neil]

Fittings for tonight have been finished.

The seconmd of the two handrails has been done after starting it anew. the length of brass rod was 10mm too short so had to go on the hunt for some more, and then anneal it, let it cool down and then reshape it, job done.

Then it was to construct two deck fittings, one in two parts for the fore deck.

The one made from obeche', I cannot remember what it is, but the second set of fiottings made from plasticard and a cut down plastic tubing section is the runner and cover and cable stop for the anchor chain.

[Neil]

It's lovely to be able to work with timber, and smell the lovely aroma of different woods....and obeche, oak, especially Australian oak, and mahogany are my favourites......Lignum Vitei smells like poo, lol.


Anyway, my favourite for modelling is obeche, and today i used it to cut, carve and sand both the vent plates for the engine room cover and the two hatchet and axe plinths for the fore deck.


This timber is a nice soft but very close grained timber easy to carve, sand and seal with cellulose sealer and a good surface for painting.......10 more fittings to go on the Clyde.

[Neil]

This afternoon after spending 90 minutes driving around looking  for a 100 watt solder/welding iron and couldn't find one to do the hand rails for the cabin on the Clyde,that I cocked up yesterday I came home and orderred one on ebay to do my soldering.

And so I sat down and made 3 more fittings for the Clyde, and having looked at the one I'm reparing, I tink I have covered all the fittings needed for the new build when it finally arives from Scotland.
the fittings are the read upper deck light, and the two different style liferaft canister  holders.
The simple one is for the canister at deck level and sits on to the engine casing. Where as the taller angled one is for the upper dech and shaped so that it can be rolled into the water from that possition.

[Neil]

I THOUGHT I had finished all the fittings on the Clyde untii found a few of the bulwark supports on the deck and not really thouht much of it, untill I realised that I hadn't made these for the new boat, and so, by marking out  thoughtfully,

I had cut out 100 of them within 30 minutes...........not bad going

[Neil]

And then after making my bix fau pax last night  of decairing that all the fittings had  now been made  for the Clyde, I stood there looking at the cabin superstructure and realised that I needed 2 more deck lights so had to make them.
And then looked at myself and thought how stupid could I be, as I had not made the MAIN cabin wooden doors, nor the runners that they fit in to, so made the runners, and cut some veneer representing the mahogany doors in 2 layers each so they dont warp when at sea.
I will glue the layers together later this afternoon, as soon as my prog has finished and I can get in to the workshop.

[Neil]

And using waterproof Aliphatic quick grab glue and a few clips I clued the two parts to each door together, they shall have set ready for me to sand smooth and then mark in the planking marks on to the wood, by 21.00 hours this evening .

[Neil]

Apart from some varnishing and sealing, the cabin doors are now finished complete with plank markings and fitted door handles.

[Neil]

My new 100 watt soldering iron ordered 3 days ago arived this lunch time and so I was quick to put it to use and soldered using soft solder put the cabin rails together. Just have to file the joints now to clean them up.
An then I set about yet another fitting that I had forgotten about, the oars for the D class rib. However.
I am, as time allows, two D Class ribs to modern spec and hope to motorise them both with slight modifications to the boat so that they will be able to be RC controlled.
As such, I need 3 pairs of boat oars for the 3 ribs.
Only five more to carve lol.,

[Neil]

And all 3 pairs of oars have now been carved and sanded to shape. just need a final sanding now with a fine grade of paper and then a few coats of sanding sealer before painting,

[Neil]

Back to the Two Clydes for a post, and I finally found the old, brocken and mismoulded stanchions in white metal years ago when I had and owned a centrifugal caster and melting pot, which I sold about 10 years ago after I gave up kit designing'
That is why my workshop is such a mess.........I never through things away, just store them lol.
Anyway I kept over 50 of them that I thought I could make them in to single holed stanchions if I ever needed them.
The time has come as I need approximately 50 for the Clyde..and didn't take long to find them, this afternoon I sanded them smooth so that they would fit in to 4mm dia. brass coloured eyelets used in leather making products so that they could be used as feet on the bulwarks of the boat, and then ordered on ebay a packet of 100 eyelets....that, I hope really is the last lot of fittings to produce as my fingers are now acheing after 2 hours of sanding down white metal.

[Neil]

Using the same "feet" as for the single hole stanchions that go on to the top of the bulwarks, today I fashioned the bow and stern rails that sit on the bulwarks from 2.4mm brass rod, anealed and then shaped to fit.

I soldered with soft solderand my new soldering iron..........I'm getting better with my soft soldering, thankfully.

[Neil]

Now that I have basiclly finished the two D Class ribs it is now back to the build of the Clyde class resto, and the build of the new one.


I thought I had in fact thought I had finished fabricating all of the fittings but whilst stood talking this afternoon to the owner of the two clydes that i am now back on to, iI noticed one fitting glaring me in the face.......the bell on the fore deck, and as I no longer have my laithe, wondered fore a few moments, how the hell was I going to fabricate such a shape without a laithe as a "church " type bell.........and then it came to me in a flash.


Some milliput and a pencil.


Mix the two equal pasrts of milliput together and press the pencil into the rounded tubular stick of milliput that you have just made, and stick the pencil, into one end to make the hollow of the bell.


Once the hole has been widenned to make the bell mouth, shape the outside of the milliput into the shape of the "church" type patterned bell, place it on some plastic and leave to harded for a few hours........voile'....one fog warning bell for the lifeboat.

[Neil]

The two bells for the Clyde are now ready to paint bronze.
The larger one is for the fore  accomodation companion way , whilst the smaller white one [at the moment]  and guess what it comes from is for the main mast.

[ooyah/2]

Hi Neil
does the white bell come from a bathroom light cord ?


George.

[Neil]

It certainly does, George.............just got a big knot in the cord now.

Idea came to me having a bath the other night, lol.


Thy look well now painted in the Humbrol no.54 metalic

[Neil]

The second of the two Clyde lifeboats has finally appeared after nearly 4 weeks on the road after being sent from Oban in Scotland.

At least I don't need to worry about putting a deck on or painting the model, ttl.

[Neil]

Haven't posted anything lately as have been having trouble with setting up the almost impossible sets of stanchions for the upper deck of the second Clyde lifeboat that I am about to start building for the gent who I have been repairing parts and restoring others ready for painting on the first Clyde.


But over the past 3 weeks of shaping the brass rod in to shape, jigging it all up and then, as I havent done any silver soldering in over 2 years, started getting some practice in. HOWEVER, it didn't go well at all.


After the last lot of silver soldering which was a pain in the posterior because the gass wouldnt give enough heat, I left it all until a week or so ago.When I bought this "new" bottle of Propane just before I soldered the last parts on the Padstow lifeboat just about 2 years ago, it took a hell of a long time to melt my trusty sticks of silver solder, and thinking back when I bought it the caravan park that I bought it from, they told me it was the last of the smallest bottles and they weren't getting any more of that size as had had it in stock for over 2 years....I'm wondering if the gas had gone "stail", and had deteriorated even more when I came to solder this week as I have never had problems in such soldering before and have been doing the same thing with the same torch for over 30 years now, and never had this trouble before.


So I have now sat and decided that I am going to do the rails another way, once I have sorted the gig out for a new useage and method.


It can't go any worse, thats the truth, lol

[Neil]

And so, I decided to use plaststuct tubing reinforced with brass  1.2mm dia wire running down the inside of the plastic tube. This also helped with the right angled curves of the plastic without kinking or breaking on the bends.

Once  I had made all of the major partd i stuck these pieces onto a nice flat piece of 3mm ply using frogg duct tape and then all the areas that the pieces sat on so that when gluing every thing together with EMA plasweld liquid glue [expensive but my favourite choice, I cut out the virticle stanchions and glued them in place.

Once set I reinforced all the joints with small 7mm square pieces of 0.8mm plasticard glued over the joints.

 Will leave these to set and cure over night before i have to take them off the jigs and  do the next sections, seen virtical on the jig at the moment.


A slow job but i hope it will turn out to be a lot neater than the horrible mess that was caused by the gass that couldn't get the brass or silver solder to a working temperature.

[Neil]

WELL, the pair of stanchions for the upper works of the Clyde have finally been constructed after almost as much work as trying to solder them the first time, and thinking, not my best work by any means, in fact only mediocre.

Then whilst sat looking at them and thinking if they get a knock, they will fall apart, I came to my senses, and started thinking, WHAT THE HELL AM I P*****g about at. I have loads of already cast 2 ball stanchions in my workshop somewhere, and if not I have the rubber moulds and resin to cast some more................WHAT AM I DOING?????

Third attempt starting tomorrow!!!

[Neil]

And so!, after junking one set of stanchions for the Clyde because they wouldnt silver solder for one reason or another, and then junking a second set that I made from plastruct tubing and brass wire last night because because they were so frail that the legs kept falling off,  last night i sat and pondered a while!

As I said I had some cast stanchions in resin and white metal...........somewhere???

I managed to find 16, remarcably just the number I needed for two new rails.

And so I re-wired some new plastruct tubing, and glued with cyano the brass wire into the pieces of tubing, and for a third time, [getting the hang of the shapes now] I bent the 4 pieces into shape. Dry fit the newly found stanchions to make sure they fit and looked right, and then finally glued them all in place using cyano quick bond glue.

Finally I am content with the finished item, but its cost a small fortune in materials to get a decent set.
SO. as an old girlfriends mother once said to me many years ago, changed slightly so as not to offend anyone of a quemish nature with patience and perceverance you can milk a mouse eventually.