Build log · Phase 11, Ship's wheel and binnacle

A day of tinkering and a brilliant idea

8 January 2022 · How-to

Another day of tinkering. It’s mostly a lot of trying and working things out; hopefully the rest goes a bit faster. The first gun carriage now has its cheeks, axletrees, trucks, cap-squares and pins, and the barrel is sitting in it. What is still missing are the rings, the quoin and the small chain. That comes tomorrow. Thanks to the tips from Pingu57 and Stephan the 0.65 mm rings are now working out, so a few photos of those too, along with a photo of the underside.

The underside of the gun carriage, with the axletrees and the secured pins

From the rear quarter, with the cap-squares and pins

From the other side, with the front trucks

From the side, with the pins through the cheeks

From the front, with the trucks on the axletrees

Washers from pin heads

Two days later a very short addition, simply because I thought it was a brilliant idea myself, and someone may find it useful. I wanted to simulate the washers behind the bolts on the guns and came up with the following. I bought brass pins with round heads. I put those in the lathe and hold a file against them very briefly, which flattens the head and produces a washer. The result is a small flat disc around the bolt, exactly what I was looking for. I think it’s perfect. Stephan said he was filing the trick away, and Jaques thought it was cleverly thought out. For me that’s a compliment too.

A filed pin head as a washer behind a bolt in the cheek