usedtosail

Thanks for the plans Jon. I do plan to use the photo etched frames that came with the kit. They are a bit two dimensional but should look OK with everything around them. I made over 70 hammocks from Sculpey last night, which should be enough for about 6 inches of rail. I will experiment with gluing them together tonight. No photos yet.

I need very small eye bolts to take the ends of the lines running through the hammock cranes. These attach to the hammock boards which are very thin. So, I tried my hand at making some. I first tried some steel wire but could not get them small enough, then I found some 30 gauge artistic wire that I had bought for another project. I put a U shaped piece of wire into a pin vise then SLOWLY wrapped it around a #78 drill bit. You have to go slowly to avoid breaking the wire. That's the drill bit in the picture. These are by far the smallest eye bolts I have ever made. I drilled a hole into a hammock crane to test them, and placed one in without any glue. I was able to thread some line through it and tie it on and it all seemed pretty solid, so as long as I can manipulate them, which is pretty hard since they are so small, I should be good. I had to make about double the number I kept because of breakage or lossage or it just didn't look right, but it did not take too long. I have half of what I need but I am going to make a bunch more just in case.

Wow, that pile of frame pieces really put this project in perspective. Someday I hope to tackle something like this. You are going a fantastic job.

Just a quick update on my last post. In between doing a major cleaning of the workshop (I can only stand so much clutter and dust) I did play around with making some Sculpey hammocks. The sizes seem about right and are not too hard to make, so I am pretty sure this will work. I also set up a small test rail with a couple of the hammock cranes to test the whole process before trying it on the model.

Thanks Captain Steve. Those were some good posts. I don't know how I missed them. Now for the problem. If the hammocks are 18" wide in the real world, that converts to about 6mm at the scale of this model. Once the hammocks are folded, they would be less than 3mm tall, and about 2.5mm wide. That is very small and I think too small to look right in the hammock cranes. I may have to make them a bit bigger, but I will try them at this size first. This could be a fun challenge or a total PITA.

Thanks Popeye, and for the other likes. I finished up the channels and deadeyes on the starboard side last night. I am glad I started on the port side, because I was able to get these to look better (more lined up) after practicing on the other side. I am glad this part is now done as I found it a bit tedious. But as with everything I am glad to have done it. I am at a bit of a crossroads now. I have been vacillating about whether to do the hammock cranes now or wait until after the rigging, but after looking things over last night, I have decided to add them now. I am going to try to make Sculpey hammocks to go in them too. I think they will be low enough to not interfere with the rigging later on. I am also going to add the quarter and stern davits now, but haven't decided when I will make the ships boats. I was going to do them after the hammock cranes, but now I am thinking that I want to get the bowsprit and masts built next. BTW - does anyone know off hand what length the hammocks would have been in real life? Somewhere in the back of my mind I am thinking 18" but I am not sure. I probably have it somewhere in my notes, too.

That guide book for the Sultana is an excellent practicum written by our own moderator Chuck. It makes a very nice model.

That is a sweet paint job Popeye. What a difference weather wise from last weekend. I hope the rain holds off for you for the rest of it.

Thanks popeye. You're right about the speed of the build. I am having fun, although last weekend I was stuck in the cold and rain of NH when I would have liked to have been in the shop. Oh well, we still had fun. Just a quick update. The port side channels are all finished with their chain plates and backing links (I have been calling them chains and plates, which is not right). I have also touched up all the areas around them with black paint, which does hide a multitude of sins as popeye said. My goal is to someday build a model with all natural wood, but I am not there yet. I have the starboard side channels in place and have stropped and painted all the large deadeyes for that side, so I can start installing them tonight. I still have to strop and paint some medium and small deadeyes, but only a few.

Thanks Nenad, Steve, Al, Geoff, and David, and the folks who hit the like button. I feel bad for not having an update in a while, but I haven't been home much and when there I have had to deal with other things. But, I am back in the shop for a bit this week so I was able to make some progress. I have been working on the process of stropping the deadeyes and attaching them to the hull with the chains and plates. I wanted to go through the whole process with one channel to make sure it was going to work before totally committing to it. So, I started with the port fore channel to see how this would work. I first stropped the large and medium deadeyes I would need for this channel. I tried first using a copper wire, but it was too soft and I didn't like how easily it bent. So I went back to the 24 gauge black steel wire that I have used many times before. I first wrapped the wire completely around the deadeye, but with a small piece of brass strip where the two wire ends crossed. The strip was to make a small space so that I could slip the end of the chain between the wire and the deadeye later. I then cut the two wire ends at the same place, making a loop with a small space under it. I tried soldering the ends together at this point, but I could really only get the soldering iron on one end of the wire which didn't heat up the other end, so the solder joint was pretty lousy. Also, the soldering iron was scorching the deadeye. A little scorch would have been OK since I was painting them black later, but it was too much. I thought of trying silver soldering but I was really afraid of setting them on fire! I settled with just a tiny drop of medium CA glue that I applied right at the joint. It actually flowed nicely into the joint like a good solder would and the bond seems very strong. I could have also added more glue to glue the deadeyes to the strops, but I wanted to be able to rotate the deadeyes in the strops to get the holes to line up correctly later. I used the alligator clip to hold the deadeye by the sides when I glued them, which forced the two ends of the wire together. I then painted the deadeyes and strops black. One thing I found with this method was to make sure the holes in the deadeyes were lined up correctly with the joint because after painting them I could not easily rotate the deadeyes in the strops. I had to take a couple of them apart to get the holes right after painting, but now I make sure the holes are lined up correctly before painting. I blackened some chains and plates, some rings, and some nails that I had that will fit through the holes in the chains and plates, after I opened then up a bit with a #72 drill bit in a pin vice. I drilled out the holes while the chains and plates were still on the brass etched plates, so they were easy to hold. i also made up some eyebolts with rings, which are used in place of nails at the ends of some of the chains. To attach the stropped deadeyes to the channels, I first marked the line that the chains make on the hull with some masking tape, to try to get them to line up nicely. I also added a dowel for the fore mast and marked on it where the ends of the fore shrouds would be and tied a piece of line at that height. I then slid a chain down through each hole in the channel, set the end at the masking tape and used tweezers to hold it at the top of the channel. I then carefully removed the chain and bent it 90 degrees at the tweezers, pushed this bent end through the gap in a deadeye strop and bent it the rest of the way back onto itself, covering the joint in the strop. I used the same procedure for the rings that are attached with chains. I was then able to slid the chains back into the channels, pull them down so the strop was at the channel, and drill a hole into the hull, again using the string on the mast to get the right angle for the chain. I added a plate to a nail or ringbolt, cut off the excess length of the nail, pushed it through the hole on the end of the chain and into the hole in the hull. I put a small drop of medium CA on the nail shaft before pushing it all the way into the hole. Before the glue dried, I positioned the plate to be in line with the chain, then after the glue dried I drilled another hole in the hull for a nail through the bottom hole of the plate. Here is how they came out. There was a little collateral damage during the process, like having to reattach the first gun port lid in the pictures, but nothing major. I still need to touch up the black paint on the nail heads and a couple of other areas. There are also a couple of extra holes that need to be filled where I didn't have thing lined up quite right. I glued the fore main and mizzen channels to the hull last night, so they will be rigged next.

Nice milestone Ken. She looks great.

David, your chains are looking great. I am just about to attempt this step on mine and I must say it is pretty daunting. I did find some nails that I had that are just a little oversize, but I was able to enlarge the holes slightly in the chains and plates, and I can chuck the nails in my Dremel and file them down to fit into the enlarged holes. That is the plan for now anyway.

I slide the back edge of the blade across the tape.

I have used the back of a hobby knife blade with good results.

It has been a while for an update but I have been working albeit slowly. I finished the channels and painted them black, then added pins to them to reinforce them on the hull. Here they are temporarily in place. I will be adding the lower deadeyes to these before permanently gluing them to the hull. They are pretty hard to see in those photos because of the black on black. I also finished the two fixed blocks I am adding to the waist rail. I made these from a single block of wood in the mill, using varying depths to simulate the sheave. Now I am stropping the lower deadeyes to get these all ready for the channels. Updates to come once I have the process nailed down.

Wow, that looks great. You have done a fine job indeed.

At the scale you are working Nenad I am really impressed that it has taken you this long to get one of those. Have fun with it, it should make your work a whole lot easier.

Yes I think it would be. It is the only thing I have found that securely holds square chunks of wood in the lathe, too. The four jaw chuck does not work well for me, no matter how hard I tighten it the wood wants to move. I suppose I could turn a round spindle to the wood, then use that part in the three jaw chuck. Hmm I'll have to try that sometime. Thanks for the train of thought Geoff!

Hi Geoff. I am not sure what pedestal you are referring to because I didn't use the mill for the ships wheel. But, if it is the fixture shown in post 823 in the lathe and then in the drill press, that came with the Proxxon lathe when I bought it. It has holes in it so you can screw wood on from the back. Here is a picture of it from the catalog (lower right): If that is not it, let me know.

I totally understand. For instance, I keep looking at the Sherline lathes and mills, but that would be a huge investment and I do not have the knowledge to use them very well. None of these tools are necessary but can help make things easier. Its when the tools overwhelm and makes things harder that is the bigger problem, I think.

Hi Jon. I have one of the Dremel drill stands too and gave up on it long ago as just not accurate enough. I also have a small drill press, which is good for drilling holes and I used to use it for milling. I found the problem to be the Z axis, not so much the XY axis. Every time I had to adjust the height of the drill head it would throw off the XY because the head could rotate. I think you have the same problem in the Dremel stand. That said, those mill bits should work fine in the Dremel tool. You can see two of the bits in the upper right of the last picture above. They would fit into a Dremel just fine. The shafts are about 3mm diameter. They are end mill bits that I got here: http://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-27116-32-Inch-64-Inch-Milling/dp/B0017NQG1Q?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s02

I find the cow hitch for the outside knots works really well. Any slight ends that are not cut off flush are pointing back into the shrouds instead of pointing out of them, which I think makes them less noticeable. You do have to be a little more careful trimming them so you don't accidentally cut the ratline or worse, the shroud.

Thanks Popeye. I do like making those small parts and am finding that scratch building them can be very rewarding. I have finished up the spar deck, except for the adding the ships wheels which I will wait a little longer to do. I added shot holders around some of the gratings and added shot, but for this deck I spaced them out more in the rack. I happen to be reading TFFM Vol2 and saw that the English Swan class had a fixed block on the planksheer in the open waist for the fore sheet. This got me thinking that the Constitution plans show a fixed block in the bulwarks for the fore sheet, but I don't have bulwarks there because of the open waist. So, I am going to add a fixed block on the planksheer so that the fore sheet will look right coming back to the large cleat I put on the planksheer for it. Now I just have to figure out what it should look like. In the mean time I have started making the channels, now that I know their sizes. I started by cutting the rough rectangles out of 3/32" basswood sheet, leaving enough on them to cut in any curves needed to get them to fit to the hull. I then fit each one to the hull, using manila folder material as a template for the fore channels, since they curve more than the others. The main channels didn't need much curving and the mizzen channels I just sanded until they fit. I then cut each one to width duplicating the outside edge to the same curve as the inside curve. I then had to taper the undersides so that they came to 1/16" at the outside edge. I could have done this by hand and it probably would have been OK, but I have this new thickness sander just waiting to be used. So, I first had to make a jig to hold the channels at an angle so I could run them through the sander. I came up with this simple arrangement, which is just a 1/32" strip along one edge and a higher fence on the other side. The channels ride against the fence and sit on top of the 1/32" strip. I ran them through the sander using the jig after iterating on the first one until I had the 1/16" edge. Here is a completed one in the jig OK, now that they were tapered I needed to cut the notches into the outside edges for the deadeye strops. After some experimentation on how I was going to strop the deadeyes (more on that in a future post) I came up with the size of the slots. Now, how was I going to hold the channels while milling. I didn't want to lay them flat on the XY table because I didn't want the mill bit contacting the metal table. I thought to hold them upright in a vice and use the mill bit to cut the slot that way, but then I just happened to see this recent post from Frank. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/13125-dunbrody-irish-famine-ship-by-mahuna-148-sectional-model/page-13#entry418554 Now I knew how to do this right. I took a piece of plywood and bolted it to the XY table, then screwed a fence to the table that was parallel to the X axis. I held the channel against the fence and cut each slot with the bit down into the plywood slightly. I then cleaned up the slots with a small square file. I have the fore and main channels milled and will do the mizzen channels tonight. Then I will use a smaller bit to mill the slots for the eyebolts on the channels that have chains attached to them. More on these later too.

Those planks and treenails look great, Frank. I have to really thank you for the photos because I have been thinking how best to mill the slots in the channels for my Connie and your setup will work great for that. I had not thought to use a plywood backing board on the XY table with a wooden fence. I love those sensitive drilling attachments, but I have yet to find one that will fit either my drill press or mill. They seem to all be made for full size milling machines. Oh well, they are pretty expensive anyway. Keep up the great work.

Yes, I was thinking that the width shown on the plans (thanks to David for showing me where) would not be wide enough for an engine too, unless maybe they were longer and narrower than what Joel showed above. But then again the plans are for the ship as she is today so perhaps the channels were wider in the past to account for them.