usedtosail

I was not happy with my blackening results, so bought some Sparex and tried this technique last night and I am extremely happy with the result. There was no solder on these parts but even so the finish is so much better than anything I have blackened before. The coating is very even and much more durable than just using the blackening solution without the Sparex pickling. Previously I was using white vinegar to clean the parts before blackening, but the Sparex, baking soda solution, acetone, blackening solution method worked so much better. It takes longer but the results are so good to make it worth it. Here are the parts just after blackening and rubbing with an old T-shirt. And here are some of them after some rough handling to fit them into place, cut the ends and drill holes for attachment. Very little damage to the coating, where as my old method would have needed much more touch up. I am even more sold now.

Thanks E.J. Here they are completed with the hoops painted black, then ends dark green, and the corks added. I painted the hoops freehand which probably shows. I did pick the best side of each barrel to put the cork, so that will be the side that shows. I have also made the bulkhead hooks as the plans call them, which to me are chain plates of a sort. They have a strap with a loop at the top that is attached to the hull and a bracket that fits over the loop. The shroud is then hooked to the bracket when the mast is rigged. I made the hooks for this too. The instructions say to use a nail to hold the bracket to the strap, but I found some very small screws and nuts that were the perfect fit, so I used them. There has been a discussion lately on MSW on a better blackening technique than I have been using which I really wanted to try. I bought some Sparex pickling powder which I mixed up last night and first soaked the metal parts in it, then rinsed in a baking soda solution, then acetone, then the blackening solution. I have to say these came out so much better than anything I have blackened in the past - the coating is very even looking and much more durable. It takes quite a bit longer but to me it is definitely worth it. Today I started to install these on the hull. I placed the dowel for the mast in the mast hole and tied a string near the top where the shrouds would start from. I used the string to mark the locations and angles of the bulkhead hooks on the outside of the hull. I then removed the trim in these locations on the starboard side using an X-Acto saw and knife and a square file. I then placed the hooks in the gaps and marked their lengths and the locations of the holes for the nails, and drilled the holes using the mill. I am going to touch up the green paint on the trim before installing the hooks. It was pretty scary having to cut the trim at this stage but I took my time and started with small cuts. Here are the starboard hooks after all that. The blackening is a little scratched up but so much less than if I had used my usual blackening. I am even more sold on the Sparex method now.

I started working on the barrels. These needed to be scored to simulate the slats, so I used the rotary table from the mill to hold the barrels as I scored the top, then turned it 20 degrees and scoring again. After I stained them this is what they look like. I now need to paint the bands black and the ends dark green.

Great job. She is just beautiful.

Some progress on the smaller deck items. I finished painting the stove and added blackened wire pieces for the grate. I added the pawls to the capstan, which are hard to see since everything is black. I also built the bucket as shown on the plans. The kit provided two disks that you attach to a strip of wood, then use thin planks around the disks. The plans show to use a mixture of rectangular and triangular planks, but I used some geometry to calculate the widths of the planks at the top and bottom of the bucket, then cut tapered planks to those dimensions. As per the plans, I waxed the top disk and just glued the planks to the bottom disk and each other. I sanded the planks and removed the top disk, which came out easily and will be used as a cover. I gave them a coat of oak stain and will add some wipe on poly when they dry. I also added the bowsprit support to the bow. This is just a piece of wood that goes around the hole for the bowsprit. I first made a template from some manila folder material. Since this area of the bow is curved, I thought I was going to have to carve this piece from a thicker piece of stock, but thanks to a tip from Popeye in an earlier post, I just cut this piece from a 1/16" basswood sheet with the grain running vertically, so the piece was very easy to bend around the bow. Thanks Popeye for the great tip! Its our 32nd wedding anniversary today so no more work in the shop today. Off to a new restaurant tonight that sounds very good. Have a nice weekend all.

Thanks Popeye and EJ. I like adding those little extras if they come out well. I made the ladder for the inside the wheelhouse and glued it in after painting the area inside black. I will have the wheelhouse cover open slightly so this area will be visible. I finished adding the locking straps and bars to the other hatch and finally finished the wheelhouse. There was a lot of painting so it took a while. I also added the eight cleats to the deck. These are a bit more narrow now then they were when I took the picture in the last post, which are closer to the plans. You might notice a round plug in the deck. There are actually six of them. I learned the hard way that when working on a boat that looks very similar at both ends, make sure the boat and the plans are oriented the same way before drilling holes! I am currently working on the capstan and the cooking grill.

After a coupIe of coats of oak stain and one of wipe on poly on the hatch planks, I placed the locking bars on the forward hatch and added the hold down loops for them. Instead of drilling two holes for each loop, I cheated a bit and only drilling one hole on the outside of the bar for each loop. I then cut the inside of the loop shorter and placed the long end in the hole. This worked great and was much easier than trying to get both ends of the loop into two holes. After all the loops were added, I slid the loop for the lock through the hold down loop in the deck and glued the lock body to the lock loop. I did not like the look of the plywood cleats supplied with the kit, as I want to leave them natural not painted. I used some 1/4" square basswood and the mill to rough out new cleat blanks, then sanded them to final shape. The top cleat in this image is the supplied blank, the middle is what mine looked like after milling (this is one of the two shorter cleats), and the bottom one is after final sanding. I then added the 2mm brass pin to each one and gave them two coats of oak stain. I will give them a coat of wipe on poly when they dry.

A small update but I am pretty happy with these padlocks. Took me a few hours but it was really fun using the mill for what it is intended. I made these by cutting four 1/8" strips into some 1/16" brass angle using my band saw. I then put the angle into the mill vise so the flat surface was pointing up. I then used a small mill bit to make a 1/16" slot in each piece and a slightly larger drill but to make a hole at one end of the slot. These only go about half way through the brass strip. I then used the band saw to cut each strip off the angle and picked the best two. I used a disk sander to round the two corners at the end of the slot. I then cut off the excess and filed the square end flat, then used the mill to drill two small holes in the flat end for a wire loop. I still need to clean these up and blacken them. The padlock loops won't be glued into the padlock bodies until the locking bars are in place and I can slide the padlock loop around the locking loop in the deck.

I was away at my son's for the weekend but had a lot of time today in the shop. I gave the planks on the hatches a second coat of oak stain and will give them a coat of wipe on poly when they dry. I assembled the locking straps and bars for the two hatches but will wait until the planks are finished before installing them. All those loops in the cup need to be placed around those bars which is going to be quite sporting, I think. Here is where I am with the wheelhouse. I have finished painting it and have added the planks on the roof after I took this picture. You can see the finished sliding cover at the top of the previous picture. I need to add the door to the aft side before I put the cover on, and also put pieces of clear acetate in the windows and port holes. And this is the hatch frame and cover for the opening into the sail room. I used the mill to add a rabbet to a strip of wood then cut pieces to make the frame. I have since painted the frame all green. There are ladders that go inside this frame and the wheelhouse which I will make next. I should have more to show tomorrow.

Both hatches are now planked and have a first coat of oak stain. Yesterday I made the hardware that locks the hatches closed. This consists of straps that go over the hatch planks with loops at the ends that a bar slides through. The bar has a loop on the end that slips over a loop in the deck and is locked with a padlock. There are also loops in the deck to hold the bars down. The kit supplied copper strip to make the straps, which I started with. I measured the lengths, made the loops by wrapping the copper strip around the bar material, and soldered the loops closed. The copper got very soft, though, so when cleaning up the solder the straps bent all out of shape and two actually broke. So I used some brass strip that I had and remade them, and these came out much better. I also used a drill bit that was larger then the bar material to make the loops which helped with the finished loops. To shape the ends of the bars for the locking loops, I used the mill to cut a flat on one end of each bar, then drilled a hole in the flat again using the mill. I rounded the end with a file and added the locking loops, which I made by wrapping brass wire around two nails. The next step was to bend the bars to fit around the end of the hatch. I had no problem getting the bend at the right place, but there are only two ways the bend could go and the first two I bent 90 degrees off, so the locking loops did not lie flat to the deck. Of course there was no extra material for the bars, so I improvised. I cut off the flat end, used a razor saw to make a slot in the new bar end, and doubled over some thin brass strip, leaving one side longer. I slipped this side into the slot then soldered the strip in place as well as soldering the seams on each side. I then drilled the hole and rounded the end of the strip. Problem solved and the other two bars I made sure to bend the right way so no extra work was needed on them, except to cut all the bars to length. Here are some of the pieces drying after blackening. I already made and blackened the hold down loops and I am starting to work on the padlocks. The two long hold down loops are for the locking loops on the bars. I needed to make these longer than the regular hold down loops so the padlocks will fit.

Those frame ends look so delicate but the overall hull shape is just beautiful.

Thank you Fernando and those that hit the like button. Adding planks over those hatch openings is the next step. I first thought that I could add each plank individually since I had a shelve on each side for them, but I didn't want to glue them down as I went because I knew they would not exactly fill the opening and I would have to make adjustments to their widths. But his proved to be too fiddely as they planks kept falling down into the openings. Since I had already glued the supplied supports into the openings to make shelves for the planks to rest on, I made more supports using the openings in the laser cut sheet as a template so that I could glue the planks to these supports before adding the whole assembly to the opening. This worked very well and looking back on the plans is how I should have used the supplied supports in the first place. I used a gluing jig I made years ago to keep the planks aligned along one edge as I glued them to the supports. I cut the planks on the Byrnes saw using the cross cut sled which gave me very precise planks. I started planking from the middle of the supports but left off the two end planks. I glued this assembly into the opening, then adjusted the width of the two end planks to fill the remaining space and notched them with a round file. I glued these in to finish each opening. I am now using the same procedure for the three openings on the large hatch. I plan to stain these hatch planks to match the decking.

To make the frames for the hatch coamings, I needed to bend the wood to the curve of the coaming pieces. Luckily I found that the curve of the brush cleaner I have is about the same curve as I needed, so I soaked a piece of wood for the trim and clamped it to the outside of the cleaner. I then used a heat gun to gently heat the wood to dry it. When it was dry I took off the clamps and this is what I had. I cut section from the curved wood and they were an exact fit to the coamings. I cut the individual pieces, painted them green, then glued them to the top of the hatch coamings after doing some final trimming. I still need to touch up the green paint on the ends that I trimmed. The next step is to cut and attach the planks that go inside the frames. There is also some brass parts that need to be made that lock the planks down, which I have started to make.

Thank you K. Your Connie is looking great too.

Thanks Popeye and the likes too. That is the same green I used on the Constitution bulwarks. I had mixed up a bunch and had a lot left over. I made the ties that go between the bulwark supports and glued them to the supports, then drilled holes through them into the supports and pushed in cut off brass nails. I then painted the nail heads the same green as the supports. Here is the latest wheelhouse version. This is the second one I have made. The sides of the first one were a little too short to fit the opening. This one is a bit longer so it fits nicely. You can see the supports I sanded to fit in the corners which make it quite strong now. You can also see the frames in the windows. I will be placing some thin acetate in the windows from inside so they won't be open holes. I will do that with the round windows on the sides too. There are a lot of deck fittings to be made which is going to be fun and keep me busy for a while.

Just a quick update to show the starboard bulwark supports and mooring bollards glued into the hull. I just finished painting the port bulwark supports so they will be glued in tonight. I also started remaking the wheelhouse frame pieces using sheet mahogany instead of the plywood pieces supplied. I milled the square windows into the end piece and cleaned them up with a flat file. I'll have pictures when I have them completed.

Thanks Popeye. I didn't think of that. Luckily most of the bulwark is not curved. I did soak the couple near the end and clamped them to get them to bend slightly. I gave the deck planks a coat of wipe on poly too. After I cut a few of them, I sanded them and stuck them to some folder material with double sided tape, then gave them a coat of diluted gesso as a primer. The tape keeps them in the right order as I paint them.

I added the deck planks between the hatch coamings and sanded them for staining. I also started fitting the bulwark supports, but I will paint these white before installing them. I may also soak them and clamp them to the sides before painting them as there is a slight curve on the insides of the bulwarks. I stained the new deck planks and the coamings, then gave all the deck planks another coat of stain. While that was drying I made the four mooring bollards. The instructions said to make them from 5mm plywood but I knew they wouldn't look good, so I thinned down a 1/4" square piece of basswood down to 5mm. I first filed a V groove into the wood using a square file on a 45 degree angle. I then used the disk sander to sand in the 45 degree angles to the groove, then sanded the top to height. I finally cut them off the strip with the table saw. I haven't cleaned these up yet but I was happy how they came out.

While painting the rudder I started making what the instructions call bulwark supports, which are the strips along the insides of the bulwarks. These have a taper at the top so instead of using strip wood and cutting the taper into each one, I planed down some sheet wood to the angle and cut them out on the table saw. Here is the set up I used to slice them off. The plexiglas guide came from the NRG Journal a few issues back. It worked great cutting 3mm strips from the 2mm sheet. I need over 40 of these so cut about 60. This turned out to be a practice exercise because I didn't pay attention to how the grain ran on the sheet and all the strips have the grain running across them, but worse is the sides are all end grain. I have another sheet sanded down with the taper across the end grain so that when I cut them out again the grain will run the same as if I cut them from strip wood. Another learning experience! I have also started making the hatch coamings for the two storage hatches. I started using the supplied laser cut parts, but I really did not like the end grain of the end pieces showing along the sides, as the side piece were too small to fit all the way along the hatch. So I cut new longer side pieces from some mahogany sheet I had, then cut the end pieces to fit between them, as shown on the right hatch. You can see the ugly end grain in the hatch on the left. I am going to stain not paint these coamings so this will make them look much better. Once these hatch coamings are done I have to add more deck planks between them. At that point I will probably give the deck and hatch coamings a coat of Wipe On Poly.

Just beautiful Phil. Nice job.

Working on mounting the rudder today. I nailed the gudgeons to the hull using the blackened nails. I first drilled a hole then pushed and glued the nails into the holes. Next I marked the locations of the gudgeons on the rudder then nailed the pintles to the rudder. The top pintles needed to be trimmed to length so I still need to drill another hole in them and add another nail. The instructions said to use a small nail as a pin but they were way too small, so I cut two lengths of brass rod and glued them inside the pintles. I need to do some clean up of the paint and mask the rudder to paint the bottom black to match the black on the hull.

I painted the tops and sides of the rails the same green as the trim pieces and touched up the white paint on the inside and outside of the hull. I have painted the rudder white and will add the black when I know where it will be mounted, so it will match the black on the hull. I made the tiller from a 1/4" square piece of basswood. The plans included a top and side views of the tiller so I copied them to the right scale then glued the side view to the wood. I cut the shape roughly on the scroll saw, then glued the top view on and cut it out. This was very roughly shaped and I used files and sand paper to get the final shape. I then used the mill to cut the slot in the top which I squared up with a square file. I filed the top of the rudder to fit the hole, then gave the tiller two coats of primer. I will finish it with white paint. I will be mounting the rudder next.

No, it was on Long Island in NY. They built gyros for all kinds of ships and aircraft.

My dad helped build those Sperry gyroscopes.

After a week of relatives visiting, I finally got some time in the shop the last couple of days. I finished thinning down the rails and primed them with diluted gesso. I am going to paint the top and sides of the rails green but I will leave the bottoms white. I fit the gudgeons to the stern post and the pintles to the rudder, then blackened them along with some nails. The upper gudgeons and pintles will be painted white, but I blackened them because I find the paint sticks better and they have the same texture and the lower ones. I also started priming the rudder.