Wansworth
Well-known member
There are a hundred and one things that are going to be needed for the boat,lots of lodging knees that were wrought iron,mast fittings,,goose neck ete etc which could be bronze cast as well.
Lost wax is used for casting statues far larger than these floors. And bronze floors are (as he notes in the video) a vast upgrade on the original wrought iron floors.The Port Townsend Foundry has been around for years and is well known. Right back in the very early videos (pre-Patreon) Leo was talking to them about bronze types and bronze components.
I am sure that there is a reason why things are being done in the way that they are. I don’t recall the lost wax method being used for large components but I may be wrong.
This isn’t any old boat. She’s the biggest surviving Albert Strange boat. If Fifes are the vintage Bentleys of the old boat world, Albert Strange designs are the Bugattis. Oh, and she won the first bad weather Fastnet.
I am one of the three thousand and odd and happy to be one.
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I am sure that there is a reason why things are being done in the way that they are. I don’t recall the lost wax method being used for large components but I may be wrong.
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I did as suggested and sent an email asking why they chose not to use the lost wax technique. I'll be interested to see the response!I think you are correct. Lost wax is doable for small components but the larger they get the more high tech it becomes, the cost of aerospace items is astronomic (heh ) and only offset by batch production. In this case the making of wax patterns might be as tedious as the timber ones and certainly more expensive.
In the days before Health and Safety, I have seen lost plastic used to good effect. Polystyrene patterns can be fabricated and cut using hot wire, the results embedded in petro-bonded sand and the melt used to directly evaporate the pattern.
Very quick cheap and effective, not too great for the lungs or the planet. You might do it in a fifth of the time but leather underpants should be worn as the gas pressures would be unpredictable at that scale.
I don't contribute regularly but sent him a wedge when he was in the UK, told him to spend it on beer. I'll buy his team another good drink when the hull is wetted.
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Friend did a stint learning with a sculptor. He used styrofoam patterns and they worked very well in sizes similar to floors. Casting was in ally, but would be good for bronze..
In the days before Health and Safety, I have seen lost plastic used to good effect. Polystyrene patterns can be fabricated and cut using hot wire, the results embedded in petro-bonded sand and the melt used to directly evaporate the pattern.
Very quick cheap and effective, not too great for the lungs or the planet. You might do it in a fifth of the time but leather underpants should be worn as the gas pressures would be unpredictable at that scale.
ed..
I seem to remember that the Live Oak for the frames was $80,000!I enjoyed that one! But I was wondering where the money for this is coming from - he spoke of material costs of $11,000, just for the bronze floors, and I guess the foundry costs would double that quite easily, without taking the cost of making the patterns into account!
In a new build the designer or builder has the freedom to do as he or she pleases. To rebuild is very different. I appreciate that there is very little original fabric left but nonetheless this IS a rebuild and that means investigation, analysis, careful disassembly... before even beginning reconstruction. Add in the fact there is no deep pocketed owner behind this, just a bunch of small voluntary contributors, and no established build team. It’s basically Leo and whoever shows up to help. Then add the fact that he’s also simultaneously running a media operation - a pretty good one.I love Leo and tally ho and have seen every episode but Jesus wept it's taking a long time. With every possible machine and power tool available to him it makes you wonder how these things ever got built in the first place and how luke powell managed to make a business out of it. You could pretend it's because it's a restoration but this has been a new build for a long time now. I look forward to every episode but it blows my mind at how little progress there is every 2 weeks and frankly how he finds the strength to continue. But I'm glad that he does
The only other boat that I can think of that was rebuilt “for the next hundred years” is Boadicea, CK 213, originally built 1808. She is much smaller, at 30ft on deck, and she took Michael Frost seven years.