wooden Masts and yards

You seem properly dedicated to this build!  It has been suggested numerous times by numerous authorities (but not among these posts) that you may find it easier to start (this is counter-intuitive) with a square section piece rather than a dowel.  Method: cut the corners to an octagon, then again to a sixteen-sided "pencil" then round from the main deck upward.  This gives you accurate shaping at the foot and tenon and gives purchase for the wedges that fix the mast as it enters the partners on the deck.  Imagine trying to "back into" these shapes starting with a dowel.  My experience is that with small scale the mast can probably be round all the way to the step.  Not necessarily authentic in every case but easier.  With a larger scale the squared-octagon-sixteen-side method presents a much finer appearance.  Not as difficult as it sounds. The lathe could certainly be used to good effect in the final rounding and tapering toward the truck or cap (the SM's mast was probably two parts, upper and lower, on the main and one pole on the fore- and mizzen-mast.)

Best,

Ron   

I have just noticed something. I have an annoying habit of signing all of my posts as if they are letters or e-mails. I will do my best to stop this behavior.

Robert

There we have it again.

I knew I could count on you all to provide great answers to those unsolved mysteries. I like the single tool idea. I'm going to get myself a dremel. But will ahve to wait a bit. That is OK I will do the work on my SM by hand for now. It ahs taken me this long to get to this stage of building her, that a little extra time to do the masts and yards is not going to kill me. Now, when I get to this stage with Pamir, Oh,boy....

Thanks again all,

Robert

Sounds like he modified the Dremel chuck.  A good idea - and the tool obviously can do far more than taper spars. 

A variation on Vapochilled's idea also would work - and take practically no time to set up.  Drill a hole in a piece of plywood (or styrene, or whatever) and make your own steadyrest to hold the end of the dowel.  For that matter, you could drive a nail through the board in question and make your own dead center.  Clamp it to the workbench edge at the appropriate distance from the drill and it should work fine.

The bottom line in all this is that tapering dowels to make spars doesn't need to be a big deal.  Get some good, hard, smooth, straight-grained dowel stock (birch, maple, and cherry are all good -but avoid oak), and buy enough of it to let yourself make some mistakes.  Then have at it.  The worst that can happen is that you'll melt your fingers.

DocTilley, I agree with what you are saying regarding the electric drill.  I have done that.  But,  I would invite you to go back and reread Morgenstern's article which I linked from the Nautical Research Guild.  

In it he describes his method of creating both live and dead centers for use with his Dremel-powered home made lathe.   The diameter of the stock which he can turn on his lathe is not limited by the Dremel chuck.   His lathe has the ability to turn any stock dimension up to the throat height (i.e. about 1/2 the diameter of the Dremel motor unit).    That could probably be increased with the addition of some spacers. 

Bear in mind one built-in limitation to any gadget involving a Dremel tool.  Unless you install some sort of aftermarket chuck on it, it has a maximum capacity of 1/8".  That's big enough for the spars on lots of small-scale models, but not enough, for example, for the lower masts of a frigate or ship-of-the-line on 1/96 scale. 

Don't laugh too loud at the idea of using a plain, old-fashioned electric drill.  People have been using drills to produce perfectly good spars for decades.  Remember that, for this sort of work, a wood lathe only does one thing that a drill doesn't:  the lathe holds onto both ends of the dowel.  There are, as we've noted already, various ways to deal with that problem.

I don't own any Proxxon tools, but I have the impression that they're quality merchandise.  (I do have a MicroMark variable-speed table saw, which I think is identical to the one sold under the Proxxon label.  I'm completely satisfied with it.)  I suspect that Proxxon wood lathe would do the job more than adequately.

The problem is that a lathe like that won't do a lot more for a ship modeler than taper and smooth dowels. For a little (well, more than a little) more money you can get a lathe with a crossfeed, which can also turn metal, plastic, and virtually anything else.  My lathe is a Unimat SL, which I bought in 1975.  (Still going strong, though it's had its motor replaced once.)  It has a hollow headstock.  On those rare occasions when I need to turn a particularly long spar, I generally start by feeding the dowel through the headstock from the back end and turn half of it.  Then I turn the dowel around, feed the other end through, and turn the rest.  When it comes time for the final smoothing-out, I remove the tailstock, chuck the fat end of the dowel into the headstock, and hold the other end in my right hand while the left hand holds the sandpaper.  It's a little awkward, but it works fine.

This is probably none of my business, but I can't help wondering whether, at this point, a lathe really is the best power tool for you to be spending you money on.  If you're just thinking in terms of tapering spars, you can get perfectly good results with an electric drill.  Clamp it down to your workbench, chuck the dowel in it, and hold the other end of the dowel in your free hand (preferably with the help of a soft rag, unless you enjoy the smell of burning flesh).  At least one company makes a drill attachment that works about like the gadget in Ed Grune's photo.  You can clamp the accessory "tailstock" on the edge of a bench or table at any distance from the drill you like.

Do you already have a Dremel Moto-Tool or something similar?  If not, I think most experienced ship modelers would agree with me:  that's the first power tool to buy.  You can do all sorts of things with it, from drilling holes to cutting slots to polishing metal to sharpening tools to routing decorative edges around baseboards.  Just be sure to get a variable-speed version - or, even better, a single-speed tool with an accessory speed control that goes down to (or near) 0 rpm.  (The slowest speed on most Dremel variable-speed models is 5000 rpm.  A drill bit running at that speed will melt plastic and burn wood unless it's extremely sharp.)  The truth is that, for at least 90 percent of the jobs involved in plastic ship modeling, the smallest battery-operated Dremel tool will be more than satisfactory.  It costs less than $50.00.

My current favorite "motor tool" is a little gadget marketed by a German company called We-Cheer.  (I think it's made in Taiwan; you might be able to find the same tool under a different label.)  It's about seven inches long, light as a feather, and uses Dremel chucks.  I keep it plugged into my ancient Dremel "Tabletop Speed Control," but any other speed control designed for power tools surely would work.  I bought the thing at Woodcraft for $25.00.  Here's a link:  http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=3736

All this is, of course, a matter of entirely personal opinion.  You're the best judge of what tools are most appropriate for your purposes.  Good luck.

Well Vaso and Ed, thank you.

I like the dremel idea by Ed. Now I only need to buy the Dremel and make a lathe. That is more money for my models.

I have seen other items which connect to a Dremel which lets you use it as a drill press, router, etc. Now that is a fine tool.

Do you think with all of these abilities, it can keep the wife from gabbing. (SLAP)

Thanks again,

Robert

See the Nautical Research Guild Shop Note on construction of a mast & yard lathe using a Dremel tool

http://www.naut-res-guild.org/minilathe2.htm

While NRG members certainly will use top end minilathes to turn parts for their ship models,  they also use tools readily at hand to perform more mundane tasks such as sanding a taper into a dowel

hence my reply at 3.30am

Maybe they don't make one, but you can! it's simply a post that attachs to the bed(does not have to slide in this instance). it has a hole that lines up with the chuck(3 jaw).

your material will be held in the jaws, while the other end goes through the hole in the post.

They would normally be adjustable so as to take up the gap, but in this case, make the hole slightly bigger than the material and run the lathe slow!!! it will take longer to turn down, but at least you can work on longer material.

I'll have a look over their web site maybe they call it something else.

Thank you Vapo for the idea.

I ahve gone to the Proxxon website and looked over the lathe. The tailstock can be removed but I donot see anything about a floating center. I ahve never really worked with these before so foregive my inexperience. (What is meant by floating center?)

to change subject abit, how is the baby daughter? Is she doing well at not letting you sleep?

Thanks again,

Roert