guide how to install the mast on the deck perfectly straight

[michael101]

1.first of all you have to make sure that the deck is a straight !!!

(because may be the tabel o even the flour is not Leveled)

for that i used a small spirit level 

 

2. i took my stander of my dremel and i connected a dowel to the stander...

 

 

3. I tied a thread to the dowel (no to tied because you have to be abel to move the thread until you will fined the perfect position ) , and in the end of the thread i tied a Weight...

 

 

 

 

now you can use Carpenters glue and installing your mast perfectly straight !!!!

 

i hope that my guide will be helpful for you

 

best regards 

Michael.

Edited April 22, 2015 by michael101

[michael101]

nice...

But still I think the idea with the thread is more practical
You do not have to look for bits of straight wood and stuff like that you just need thread   

Edited April 22, 2015 by michael101

[mtdoramike]

Very nice job on the masts.

 

Mike

[michael101]

good idea !!!!!

 

and thanks its my first build bounty 1/100 of mamoli I'm working on that Almost a year till today and enjoy every minute !!! 

 

kind regards

Michael.

[mtdoramike]

I usually just hang a line from the ceiling of my work room with a weight at the bottom of it.

 

 

Mike

[bogeygolpher]

Michael101,

 

You are doing an excellent job on your ship.

Keep up the good work.

[michael101]

thank you mike and bogeygolpher

[Bob Cleek]

At the end of the day, I prefer to leave the mast slightly loose and adjust its rake and centering by "eyeball" it, and adjusting it with the standing rigging, the same as is done in full-sized construction. (I bring a lot of my full-sized wooden boat building experience to my modeling work.)  A plumb line from the ceiling or wherever provides a handy reference if need be.  I prefer also to adjust the masts with wooden wedges in a hole slightly larger than the mast diameter, as in full size practice, but not rigidly so, unless I am lucky enough with a solid block hull to be able to set it up in my drill press and drill a dead-accurate hole.  The wedges allow for "fine tuning" with the tap of a small jeweler's hammer on one side or the other and permit further adjustments which may be required as the standing rigging is set up (and if I can still get to them inside the shrouds at that point!)  I like to ultimately set up the rake and athwartships alignment of masts conservatively adjusting the tension on the standing rigging with as little tension as is necessary, again as in full sized practice. (When a sailing vessel is underway, the leeward rigging always goes slack while the windward rigging hardens up and so the masts are never exactly plumb in real life except when standing still anyway.) 

 

The point of watching the tension on the standing rigging is that the forces generated by the rigging are cumulative as the various elements are added and at the end one can have considerable forces locked into the whole structure. A loosely stepped mast gives you some room to move. Short of an hermetically sealed case, wood always moves with the ambient humidity, to one degree or another, no matter how stable one thinks its environment might be.  Structural damage to full size vessels due to overly tight standing rigging is quite common. (Think "bow and arrow" forces where the mast is the arrow, the standing rigging the bowstring and the mast heel is concentrating all that force to one isolated point on the keel causing the adjacent garboard seams to open up or "pant" in heavy weather.)  With models, the same principle can result in snapped spars, pulled out eyes and other rigging attachments, chainplates pulled out, and so on, as both the wood and the cordage shrinks and swells.  Stretched, saggy rigging is often found in old models (of ships and people!)   They weren't built that way.  The cordage just stretched over time.  Modern synthetic cordage holds up much better with less stretch, but again as with the full sized vessels, the trade-off for longer lasting low-stretch synthetic cordage is that the forces are transferred more efficiently to the model's structure and afford less elasticity as the wood may expand.  If I asked for a show of hands of all those who have had the experience of an inexplicably broken bit of rigging on a cased model or upon tightening that last bit of standing rigging on their model, hearing something somewhere go "snap!"... but I won't.

[paul ron]

Using the plumb line is a nice idea. As someone mentioned, a level accross the ship doesn't always ensure its level visually because of the slightest varyation in build.

 

Still a good suggestion n im going to give it a go. I've tried everything over the years n this is practicle n easy enough.

[GLakie]

This tool seems like a good method, combining the plum-bob and protractor in one tool.

[dgbot]

Using a level is overkill I think because of what was discussed above.  And I have never glued in a mast.  Using shrouds to hold it in.  This is in case of an accident.

David B

[Cap'n Rat Fink]

Guys I use a simple little jig. I use two straight strips of hardwood with a small screw and nut. I position the mast and the rack of the mast. I wedge the bottom of the jig where the deck meets the bulwarks. Then I wedge the cross hairs up against the mast. It works well for me while I rig the mast. Once done I just remove and my mast is right where I wanted it. I do not have a picture of this procedure of mine, but here is a quick drawing.

 

[Jparsley]

Nice ideas guys

[Robert29]

Hello,

 

This is the method I used on Bluenose II I am currently building.  I think it's a matter of what makes you feel comfortable working with.  Actually I thought of keeping the masts in place with just the rigging.  Then I decided to glue them.  But I can't say that keeping them in place with just the rigging is the wrong way.  It's got its advantages.

 

First I glued one mast checking the boat is perfectly horizontal and the mast is perfectly vertical using a spirit level at various points. Then kept the mast in place with string from mast to table.  I used carpenter's glue which gives you ample time to adjust its position.  When dry I glued the second mast. I used a spacer in between to keep the exact distance all along and again string to keep it in place sideways.  They came perfectly lined as can be seen on the second image.  When rigging you have to be careful about the tensioning anyway as even with the mast glued, uneven tensioning will still send it out of line.

 

Sorry about the sideways image.  On my pc I rotate it to the right position but when transfer it to this post it keeps going sideways again.

 

Robert