A drumhead in three attempts

Well. This weekend I threw myself at that capstan once more after all. On closer inspection, that botched job in oak was a bit of a sorry sight. I still had some walnut left over from the display stand, so I started tinkering with that.

I am not happy with the vertical parts yet, they are still a bit clumsy. I may still try to get a ring around the top, but a rather more subtle one. The ’lid’, at any rate, pleases me a lot more than the previous one. The shape is inspired by one of the photos in The Anatomy of the Ship. Granted, that one is far nicer, but it is only inspiration after all.

Attempt three

Since I still was not satisfied, I had another go two days later. Below, first attempt two, and beneath it attempt three. I wanted to know which lid others liked better.

The head consists of seven layers. From bottom to top the thicknesses are 0.75 mm, 0.5 mm, then the layer with the holes at 1.5 mm, 0.5 mm again, 0.75 mm, 0.5 mm, and the top cap is 1 mm. So 4.5 mm high in total, which comes to 28.8 cm at full size, with the sockets 9.8 cm high and wide. That seemed about right to me. I also want to experiment with the small vertical elements, to see whether it looks better if I make them twice as thick and then use half as many.

The verdict was unanimous: the bottom one. Stephan, Koos (Jaques), Flying Scotsman and Hans Groenenberg picked it without hesitation, and Piet supplied the argument: the bottom one is the only one with square capstan bar sockets, which is how it should be, in principle. Those sockets were indeed a major reason for making it again. The size seems right too: on the drawing of the capstan in The Anatomy of the Ship they also come to almost 10 cm at full size. A lucky break.