What is the best method of making a cage mast? I know people have done them and would love a pointer or three.
Are you still looking for a way to make a cage mast? Do this: make a balsa plug in the same shape as the mast. Now make a circular disk for the top and bottom, both should be about 1/8th larger than the diameter of the balsa plug. using a dremel tool with cutting disk, notch the outside of the circle. If the base has 20 notches, the smaller top piece needs to have 20 as well (both need to be equal). Attach the top and bottom disks temporarily to the balsa plug (I use a screw through the middle). Now comes the fun part. Get brass wire (picture hanging) from your favorite store, making sure it looks to be the scale size (or closest). Start at the 12 (like a clock face) and thread the first notch. Now take the brass wire and go to the top disk, but thread it through at the 3 position (you just went 90 degrees). Now go back down the plug in the 6 position into the base at the 9 position. Keep doing this staggering rigging until you have filled all the notches. Now solder all the brass together (wherever it touches each other) using liquid flux and silver solder (lower temp required). Cut the wire at the top and bottom disk and remove the balsa plug. Sounds easy, right?[] I'll post pictures of the Mississippi I built with cage masts. that should make it a little easier to understand. Once you do it, you can make a brass cage mast in 45 minutes. This is the book that describes the method (Ship Modeling from Scratch: Tips and Techniques for Building Without Kits). It's a good resource on scratch building.
Thanks, I had actually settled on almost that method from trial and error. I was using a dowel to hold the disks the right distance apart rather than a balsa form. Good to know I am barking up the right tree and not just barking mad.
There's a BB over here that runs thin shock cord for his cage mast, it's almost totally impervious to cannon fire.
Here's the pic's of the cage mast for the USS Mississippi pre-dred. Screw on the bottom that the wire is wrapped around. Top and bottom disk are removable. Cut the wires at the top and bottom, remove the disks and the balsa form falls out.
Nope, didn't have one then. Used a drill press and sandpaper. Using balsa doesn't put too much lateral pressure on the press. Doesn't have to be perfect, just close. Hope this helped. Get the book, it's worth it.
Now I am curious to know how the full sized ones were made. That is something I would really like to see.
Not well. The thought was a passing shell would not have enough metal to make contact and trigger an explosion, the shell would simply pass on through and out to sea. In reality there are some pictures on the web where a strong storm/hurricane caused the cage to collapse. It lead to the development of the tripod mast. Think of a series of tubes that were twisted around a central axis point. I'm sure the top was always swaying and making "fun" popping noises.
From what I have read, there were also vibration problems. Some reports of "whipping" when all main guns were fired. Still they kept with them for a while. Until the early 40's for some ships. Part of the theory was that a shell could hit the mast and sever several of the strands with out bringing the mast down. The Michigan's mast, which collapsed in a storm, was found to be badly corroded.
Colorado and Maryland kept their cage foremasts into the 50's (1959 off the top of my head) when they went to the scrapper. The idea behind the cage IIRC was to provide the same fire control advantages as tripods, with less top weight.
