Nautical Research Journal Shop Notes
Clear coats and cyanoacrylate glues By Steve Wheeler
One concern modelers have about using cyanoacrylate (CA) adhesives is dealing with glue marks on wood that later is to be fi nished clear or stained.
It turns out that CA soaks into wood in much the same as do many solvent-based clear fi nishes and, consequently, glue marks will virtually disappear when clear coats are applied. I fi rst lightly sand them where they appear; this cuts the shine and you need not sand all the way down to bare wood. Apply the clear fi nish as you would normally and your wood will be nearly, if not completely mark free. T is only works with solvent-based fi nishes, not acrylic materials which do not soak into the wood in the same way. I use the old Floquil F110015 Flat Finish for clear coating as I have a supply I bought before it all disappeared from the market. I am told that Minwax polyurethane fi nishes work this way, too; there are versions in a number of gloss values but, if you want to use these, or any other solvent-based clear fi nishes, make sure you try them on test pieces before committing them to your models. Assuming you are clear coating an entire model, also make sure the fi nish adheres well to whatever paint you might have underneath it.
What about staining? T e pear I used on the Lady Isabel model was somewhat lighter than the stained mahogany on the actual boat. I really do not like staining in situations like this as it is diffi cult to stain wood that has been attached near (or right next to) painted areas without getting the stain onto areas where it should not be. Also, glue might not adhere well to previously stained surfaces—depending on the stain used— and, fi nally, gluing over stained areas might actually change the color; something that defi nitely happens if CA is applied over wood stained with some dyes. On the other hand, I have found, through some very limited testing, that some stains (the old solvent-based Floquil Flo-Stain, in particular) soak into wood the same way that CA does and, even if there are glue marks present, they will disappear and the stained surface will be uniform. As with clear coats, this will work only with solvent-based stains and all combinations of CA and stain that you might want to use should fi rst be tested off the model.
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1.5-inch in length (their wooden handles are cut to length as needed). Figure 1 shows a group of chisels currently in use.
T e irons all were made from broken drill bits (high carbon steel drill-bits seem to hold an edge longest). T e handles all were birch dowels 1/8-inch to 3/16-inch in diameter and cut to whatever length (1 – 3 inches) seems appropriate: the red handles help me in fi nding them quicker. I save both pieces of all my broken drill bits to turn into chisels and reamers. I also purchase drill bits from
modelexpo-online.com (whenever Model Expo has a drill sale I buy a big handful of tubes in the sizes I use). Sometime, it is helpful to just break the drill in two at the junction of the cutting fl utes and the round shaſt . Glue, using cyanoacrylate, both pieces into separate birch handles. T e round shaſt makes the chisel and the fl uted part makes a great reamer.
My grinding material is sandpaper (wet-and-dry type in 220 to 360 grits, used wet): a 3-inch square lasts a year. T e sharpening procedure is simple; put the wet sandpaper on a fl at surface, put the drill on it at an angle of about 10 degrees, and sand away half the diameter. Turn the drill over and repeat the process. Vary the grinding angle if that helps a chisel cut better. Re- sharpen the edge as necessary. T e cutting edge will probably come out roundish instead of square, and that is good (a square edge leaves gouges in use).
T e reamers are especially useful for shaping simulated sheaves
Making small chisels By William E. Sproul
I fi nd that having a large selection of micro-chisels is an absolute necessity. You cannot build ship models without them and you also cannot buy them. Fortunately, you can make them easily at practically no cost and with very little work.
My chisels range in size from about 0.01-inch (used for carving sheaves in 2 – 3 millimeter blocks) to 0.125-inch in width (used for scraping off glue spots) with irons from about 0.25-inch to
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