Finishing touches at last

[philjay]

My 1870s T Cooke and Sons Mount that I use my 4" F15 refractor on has been missing some vital parts since I got it at auction a few years ago - the nameplates either side of the RA block.

There are marks where nameplates were and screw holes which are akin to the 1870s oval casting design. The design changed to a square brass engraved nameplate in 1890. 

The past few years has been spent hunting down someone who has a similar mount of that period who I could get to take photos or even take a moulding of one.

I managed to find an owner and they kindly provided photos which confirmed my missing ones were indeed the 1870 oval cast brass nameplates. I tried in vain to make some out of various modern materials and could never get the look right. Then at Kelling I met the chap who provided the photos and he has kindly taken mouldings of his nameplates using some silicon putty that I supplied, the stuff dentists use.

 

Out of the three moulds supplied I chose the best one and tried a resin cast. I then tried tidying this up using a fine point on my dremel and a dirty great big magnifying glass. This wasn't easy as the resin is so hard but I took another moulding from that and made a plaster cast which is far easier to work. I used a set of fine modellers knives to tidy this cast up as best as I could then took a mold from this.

 

I have just taken a final test cast in plaster and it looks to be about the best I am going to achieve.

 

So the next step is to get some more resin. Then file a brass bar down to fine powder on my lathe. Then mix the resin with the brass and cast 2 brass resin nameplates.

 

Any detailing to tidy up the missing bits or odd shaped letters can be done with paint as the lettering has a black background on the originals. 

 

Anyrode here are the results so far

 

The resin 1st cast is the red oxide coloured one. The one in the middle is the tidied up plaster cast from the resin cast. and the one on the right is the final test cast together with the final mold.

 

Its not all about optics with these old scope you know

 

[Perkil8r]

Great stuff Phil

[catman161]

Wow that is dedication phil! Very impressed

[red dwalf]

dedication indeed Phil, they look great, Good job your retired, i have some decorating that needs doing if you`ve got nothing to do next week L.O.L.

[Daz Type-R]

Nicely done Phil.

[philjay]

dedication indeed Phil, they look great, Good job your retired, i have some decorating that needs doing if you`ve got nothing to do next week L.O.L.

Yeah right :-) I wish I did have the time, what with my own decorating and stuff I dont have the time I used to have when I was not retired. This project has been going on for almost 4 years now and its only cos Im feeling off at the mo that these are getting done.

As for dedication, well I suppose it is in a way, I really want to recreate the complete look and feel as well as performance of this old mount and scope and the 2 empty screw holes either side of the ra block shout ITS NOT FINISHED YET every time I use it :-)

[T A WOW]

Good stuff. That is attention to detail!

[Cazz]

Great stuff Phil, very dedicated - even if it did take a while to get to it. ;-)

[Brantuk]

I knew your mum and dad shouldn't have given you a Mechano set and Play Dough for Xmas when you were a kid lol

[Guest peepshow]

 

 

So the next step is to get some more resin. Then file a brass bar down to fine powder on my lathe. Then mix the resin with the brass and cast 2 brass resin nameplates.

 

 

Not sure how much brass powder you need but there are quite a few on ebay selling brass powder. Would  save all that filing.

 

I do like to see old items restored like this. Well done.

 

[philjay]

Thanks R8chard but just spent half hour on the lathe with a file and got a pot of filings. I only need enough to do the top layer, e.g fill the letters and border really. It would take about another 2 hours of filing to produce enough to fill two castings complrte. Im dedicated but not that much :-)

[Doc]

You have way too much time now you have retired Phil.

[+DaveJW]

Nice work Phil, looking forward to seeing it in brass!

[philjay]

_{Thanks folks, Ive been messing again and Ive done them. I was going to paint around the letters in black but I reckon that is 1 too fiddly and 2 wont look that brill as the letters aren't exactly sharply outlined. Thus for the moment Im going to leave them as is. They aren't too shiny but look like aged brass which is ideal really. So for the moment they will stay like this. I may have another go sometime but not just yet}

 

[Brantuk]

Looks good as they are Phil - no need to highlight the letters in black

[tuckstar]

Very nice Phil, I'm sure the lettering will start to stand out more with bit of use and muck!!

[+DaveJW]

Looks great to me Phil!