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Self made clamps and jaws.


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What do you use for the bars?  I suppose aluminum bar stock would work for these?  Might be easier to drill and tap. 

 

Is is there a particular size and type of steel flat bar you use for the c-clamps?  I’m ignorant when it comes to metal. Those look pretty easy to make, though. 

Edited by Griphos
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  • 3 months later...

I still have so much to learn and become proficient at in terms of hull planking. In planking Cheerful I have been frustrated by certain planks not "laying down" to my satisfaction and then having to rationalize that I will sand down the offending neighbor to achieve a more acceptable plank to plank surface conformity. This has been especially so when laying down a short plank that ends on an intermediate bulkhead next to it's neighbor that has spanned several bulkheads. There is a natural bend or contour to the latter. While the short plank tends to be more or less flat across its terminating bulkheads. One is left to sand the area until surface conformity is achieved. Even pre-bending the short plank may not achieve desired results.

 

I have used the miniature Jorgensen clamp shown in the early stages to clamp adjacent planks and internally add a small piece of glued veneer (with grain direction as in the plank direction) to smooth out the area. It works quite well. Now when one approaches the keel most clamps cannot be placed because of interference with the keel for example. In looking around I found the second clamp (in a set of 5) for less than $13 on Amazon. They are miniature welder's clamps for temporarily holding rocker panels etc. in place for alignment to doors and columns. The advantage of this type of clamp is that there is little to no interference in tight spots as mentioned.

 

So piggy backing on "ymperivm's" lovely adaptation of miniature clamps here is yet another option. These are about 1/2" wide with a throat just about the same dimension. One could easily make these at home out of 1/8" thick aluminum channel of any width and achieve the same capability. Just thought I would share this.

 

Joe

 

IMG_1292.jpg

Edited by Thistle17
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8 hours ago, Thistle17 said:

I have been frustrated by certain planks not "laying down" to my satisfaction and then having to rationalize that I will sand down the offending neighbor to achieve a more acceptable plank to plank surface conformity. This has been especially so when laying down a short plank that ends on an intermediate bulkhead next to it's neighbor that has spanned several bulkheads. There is a natural bend or contour to the latter. While the short plank tends to be more or less flat across its terminating bulkheads. One is left to sand the area until surface conformity is achieved. Even pre-bending the short plank may not achieve desired results.

What you are describing is the inability of the short plank to form a fair curve with the plank forward or aft of it. In small boat construction, planks are not "butted" to one another at the frames, but rather a "butt block" is used. This is a piece of wood as thick as the plank and fastened to the inboard side of the two butted planks and the plank above and below the butt. In this fashion,  the run of planking bends as one plank and the resulting curve is fair. It's pretty much impossible to pull the butt end of a plank to form a fair curve by simply fastening it to a frame in small boat or model construction.

 

butt-block.jpg

 

Another solution now made possible by modern adhesive technology is to scarf planks at the butts, thereby eliminating the need for often-troublesome caulking at the butts in full-sized practice. A plane scarf is made joining the two lengths of plank stock and the whole plank then got out of the stock as if it were one longer piece of stock. Epoxy adhesive is used to join the scarf ends, but wood glue would be fine for modeling. The scarf ratio is usually eight to twelve to one (the length of the scarf cut to the thickness of the plank.) The stock can be scarfed at an angle if need be to accommodate a long bend, or simply straight to produce a longer straight piece of stock. While experienced boatbuilders can simply stack two pieces of planking stock one on top of the other with their overlapping ends separated by the length of the scarf desired and cut the scarfs "freehand" with a plane or slick, a jig is easily made to do the job accurately for those of us with less skill.

 

388576063.jpg

 

A scarfed plank should bend fair no differently than an unscarfed one. If one wishes to depict the plank butt on a scarfed plank model, that is easily done by scribing a "faux butt" wherever one wants it,.

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