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Moonbug

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About Moonbug

  • Birthday 09/17/1971

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    http://lehmanshipyard.blogspot.com/

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    Colorado, USA

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  1. Next up is the Mizzen stay as getting this rigged prior to the mainmast shrouds ensures that I have proper access - particularly to the collars which I find to be a little fiddly anyway. Starting with said collar - the Mizzen stay is 5.5" circular, so I'm .60mm served with Mara 120 for the collar and .75mm for the Mizzen stay itself. The collar is pretty straightforward and is seized the same as the bowsprit collars on previous posts. The hearts are closed and for these I'm going with Chuck's Syren product - easy to put together and work with - including filing an indentation around the edge within which the strop will fit. The lashing is .15mm for mostly aesthetic reasons - it's the smallest rope that I have that still retains some "visual to the naked eye" detail. The stay itself has a mouse near the masthead so creates a bit of a challenge in terms of planning and execution. The top portion is served to just below the mouse with an eye into which the rest of the stay are inserted. To get the serving correct, I started by looping the end of the stay then feeding my serving line (mara 120) into the stay via sewing needled. The eye was 'hand served' then I was able to load the entire thing into my serving machine to do the rest of the portion that needed it. The mouse is a sanded dowel that is drilled out with a hole just big enough to accommodate the served line. I don't have an exact diameter of the bit that I used because I started with "very small" and then gradually increased bits until the serving line barely snugged its way through. I've seen quite a few different ways to simulate the 'woven' texture of the mouse. My option was this bandage. My Admiral happens to be allergic to latex and cannot use just any type of bandage, so we have a few different versions of fabric bandages. This particular one had the look and feel of weaving at the correct scale. The added bonus is that it has adhesive - though I did had a dab of CA to ensure it does not come loose. The mouse is listed as three times the diameter of the stay, but the bandage added a little bulk - so I did have to scale the mouse down a tad as the original effort was a little big for my taste. Ultimately I just 'eye-balled' it until it looked right to me. The mouse is then painted first black, then brown to try and match the color of the stay. Finally, the lower end of the stay is seized to a twin closed heart to the collar and lashed. One note in the second picture below - although the lashing behind the mast looks much lighter - that's a trick of the camera where my overhead light was shining - all the lashings are the same color.
  2. First, a shot of all three of the burton Pendants. Quick photography note - this image is actually three different shots "stacked" to clear up the difference in focal length and focus between shooting each mast. A neat trick that's easy to "google" on the internet for those of you who use Photoshop. On to stepping up the masts starting with the Mizen shrouds. The shrouds are 4.5" circular (.57mm diameter at scale) and are served for the first six feet (about 2" at scale). First, I measured my line and marked where they'd be served, then I used a .60mm line served with Mara 120 and did all the serving in advance. The shrouds are wrapped around the masthead and seized on top of the burton pendants in pairs alternating between port and starboard. There are obviously many techniques shown throughout this forum when it comes to how to handle deadeyes and lanyards. I created this spacing jig using straight pins. I measured and cut two different sizes for the two different sized deadeyes and silver soldered them with a little handle. Using the spacer I measured the bottom of the shroud and kept it place with a touch of CA before seizing it. The lanyards are 2.5" circular which works out to .30mm diameter line. I did have to slightly bore out the holes of my smaller deadeyes to accept the lanyard. My personal process is to feed the lanyard through the deadeye, tie off the knot from the initial feed and leave the other end loose until I can tighten the lanyard to the proper tension / distance and lash it off to the shroud. Then I go back and seize the top end of the shroud.
  3. Lovely, lovely work BE. I only see one - rather significant - problem. You are inciting within me the desire for another of Chris' great looking kits - and my Admiral will surely disapprove as we just started shelling out for our 3rd daughter through University.
  4. Beautiful work as always Giampiero. A couple posts ago regarding working on the headwords there are a couple small chisels in the picture - can you tell me what brand those are?
  5. Very nicely done. Also - I'm very in touch with the "...at all times am aware of where my hands are" concept - especially as I lose some dexterity with age.
  6. Well this little burton pendant ended up being a little bugger. First I wandered around searching through my little drawers and containers to find something that might work for the thimbles at the end of the pendants. What I ended up deciding upon were these little nuts left over from some model or another. They were an adequate diameter and just needed to be rounded off by slipping them over a toothpick and barely rubbing them against the belt sander. The darn little splice at the center where the pendants slip over the mast head ended up being much more fiddly than I expected. The thimble is lashed first - sticking with my toothpick to keep everything in place. For the mizzen (this pendant) I used .5mm served with Mara 120 and slipped a needle through it (which took several tries) to start the splice. I then wrapped additional 120 thread over to finish it off. It actually took me a few tries to get the length of the splice correct, and the 'bottom' of the splice is a little messy as I had to use a dab of CA glue - but I've masked it by laying the ugly portion against the mast. The final product looks pretty good to me. The other two pendants for the fore and main are the same process but with slightly larger line. I'll be using a .75mm line served with Mara 70 thread to create a 1mm pendant.
  7. I had several work meetings this morning which required little participation on my behalf. As a result, I mostly just mulled over the Mainstay collar until I gave up on work and trotted into the shipyard. This largest of the bowsprit collars requires a thicker rope than the others (8" of served cable according to Steel) so I used a 1mm rope and served it with Gutermann mara 70. I had several feet of 1mm rope that I made that hadn't turned out quite as tight as I wanted and looked a bit funky, so I kept it around to use as the base for served lines. The main stay collar is a bit more complicated than the others as well. It has a spliced eye on one side, then it's lashed to a closed heart, then it pass through the knee of the head, then another spliced eye is looped through the first one. Pretty easy to turn the whole thing into a big lumpy mess if one isn't careful. Starting with the heart - 15" according to Steel which translates to 5.95mm at 1/64; we'll call it 6mm. I actually made this heart (and it's compliment from the main stay) from some hardwood I had lying around that was part of a pen case. It's not quite as hard as boxwood but hard enough and has a little bit more color to it. I shaped two ends of a 6mm wide strip then drilled and shaped the holes before cutting them off and rounding off the hard edges and adding a groove for the line. The rest of the process isn't really documented per se, but I do have to point out an oversight. I didn't look far enough ahead (or at least missed this need) so I ended up having to drill the hole in the knee of the head now, as opposed to before I constructed the bits and finishings of the bow. Little bit of a pain the rear, and yes I did go back and touch up the spot where I scuffed the yellow paint. The last photo shows the finished collar with everything attached, lashed, and seized.
  8. More work on the bowsprit standing rigging. First I went back and swapped out the dark rope with tan on the heart lashes; much happier with the look. The large open hearts for the double strop Forestay are cut from a strip of boxwood. Rounded the end, drilled a hole, sanded it square, and added grooves for the strops before cutting it off. I won't go through every collar, etc since it's pretty well documented in several places (and I also forgot to take very many photos of the process), but here are a few photos of the bobstay collars, bobstays, bowsprit shrouds, and associated hearts and lashes. All of these are following Steel (and Lees) via Danny Vadas' wonderful build log of the Vulture that I have referenced many times. The hearts are all made as shown in the previous post, the lines are all .50 mm served with Mara 120 thread and lashed with .10mm tan.
  9. Relatively small update with a fair amount of work. Starting the standing rigging at the bow with the inner bobstay and collar. I had some closed hearts but they were neither the shape or size that I wanted so I modified them rather than start from scratch with new ones. Although Steel mentions closed hearts being used and other documentation such as Lees mentions deadeyes used on the bobstays and bowsprit shrouds, I'm opting for closed hearts as that is what is laid out in the TFFM and I'm trying to err toward Steel and the TTFM as much as feasible. I'm using .45mm rope served with the Gutermann Mara 120 . After a couple of efforts, I haven't done as nice of a job as some at the splices where the served rope meets and is wound together, but I'm quickly learning that each year that goes by seems to cost my little sausage fingers some dexterity. The other notable thing here is that I've lashed the hearts together with dark rope as shown in my TFFM reference illustrations. However - nearly every other reference I've seen shows them lashed together with non-tarred tan. I'm not sure I'm digging the dark - so I'll likely go through and change them out and do the rest in tan. Greg, @dvm27 any insight here?
  10. While working on the lower masts, I've also been doing some "rope work" to prepare for the standing rigging. As I've mentioned in several previous posts, I'm using @Chuck's Syren Rope Rocket which works great. I use Gutermann brand Mara thread in 120, 70, and 30 weights and combine those options in dark brown and tan to create what I need. The chart below lays out combinations that create the sizes I need. The left number is the weight, the middle number is the number of threads per line, and the right figure is the number of lines per rope. I premade a variety of different sizes and shades, but mostly the dark rope for standing rigging for now. I did a little bit of serving of some rope to get ready the standing rigging for the bowsprit. I made my own hand spun serving machine based on examples I've seen. The rope slides through the gears with a spool mounted on the bottom. Turning the handle (while steadying) the bottom thread seizes the rope about 6 to 7 inches at a time. After much turning, I decided my shoulder was a little sore (I've had a some work done on it since I got a little broken in Afghanistan a few years ago), so I created this little drill bit tool to turn the handle for me. Worked pretty well - not to fast, but steady. Takes about a minute to get a 6 inch served rope.
  11. Prior to staring the Main mast I went back and added a detail to the foremast that I'd forgotten - the pinning along the cheeks. It's an easy addition, though obviously takes a bit of time. This is also the reason I always save the ends of pins/nails that I clip off. This way I can sharpen an end, sand the backside, then poke them in where needed (after pre-drilling of course). There isn't too much detail to go into for the Main, as it is almost identical to the Foremast. I scaled it out the same as the rest; I did however make the cheeks a little more pronounced as I said I would and am happy with results. The good news - it's also not so different as so stand out greatly when you see all the masts set in place.
  12. Thanks so much Pete, appreciate it. I'm glad she is as well; much easier to cope with our own tribulations than those of our children. Foremast today - pretty much the same process as the Mizzen of course, except the cheeks are a bit longer. Granted, the cheeks here are not quite as pronounced as they probably should be according to the TFFM, but I'm still ok with them. I'll likely make them more pronounced for the main, while still trying to maintain some consistency. The only other thing worth nothing here is that with these bibs I've etched out and scored the pattern in which they would have been put together rather than one solid piece. Once again the woolding loops are manila folder strips wrapped twice around the mast. I also didn't mention with the mizzen that I tacked in some nails to give it a nice authenticity detail.
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