Jack12477

Hello everyone,
 
Welcome to my build log of the Model Shipways "Mayflower". For those who have been following my build of the US Brig Syren, I have decided not to build it at this time. These two models require a similar level of experience yet have their own set of challenges. I have decided to build the Mayflower for those challenges that I feel are more to my level of experience. Chuck has done a superb job with the Mayflower instructions and there are some excellent build logs here on MSW. I would appreciate any help or suggestions that you might have as I move along.
 
● Clamp setup for first bulkhead: Hours after removing the bulkhead former from the sheet I noticed that it was curved but not warped. After all the bulkheads are glued in place I will attempt to straighten the former.
 

 
● Clamp setup for remaining bulkheads:
 

 
● Bulkheads and filler pieces glued into the bulkhead former: The initial fit was generally tight. When fitting the bullheads I allowed for the PVA glue swelling the wood by sanding in a very small amount of bulkhead movement past 90° fore and aft.
 

 

 
● Curved bulkhead former before straightening:
 

 
Straightening was achieved aft of bulkhead "A" in three steps.
 
1. Blocks were inserted between the formers A&B and C&D to prevent this area of the hull from moving while attaching the "dummy cannon support strips".
 
2. These support strips were used to straighten 90% of the curve by pulling the hull straight and pinning the strips in place before gluing.
 
3. Blocks were inserted between bulkheads 3 and 3b in order to correct the remaining curve in this area.
 
 

 
Straightened hull
 

 
● Eye bolt: This was formed using a 1/8" dowel and then compressing its shape into an oval. Photo shows eye bolt temporarily in place before priming and painting the inside of the two "fore mast Fillers" and eye bolt black with Badger 16-01 Engine Black. Testors Dull coat was used to flatten the finish.
 

 
● Gun Port Framing: I will be using boxwood as the primary wood for the model. Although the gun port framing will not be seen I wanted to see what it was like to work with. No complaints at all and I really like getting clean crisp edges easily. After the bottom gun port frame was glued into place a 1/4" balsa sheet, of a consistent thickness, was cut into small filler pieces to maintain an equal distance between the two gun port frames while the top frames were being glued. Later, this greatly eased the process of making the small vertical pieces for the ports. I have no idea why the small block between C&D was there so I removed it after the photo was taken.
 

 

 
I made a test piece for the vertical frames to see if the angles were similar for both the top and bottom. It turns out that they were at approximately 10.5°. All I had to do was cut one angle with the help of the disk sander and then measure 1/4" and cut the other in parallel. Very little sanding was needed to achieve a nice fit. Were the gun ports angle upwards at the bow and stern a slight angle was sanded in the opposing direction to account for the tilt of the vertical strip.
 

 

 
After the stern pieces XX, YY and ZZ were glued in, the hull was faired and the four false decks were glued into position. Once dry they were later faired into the hull shape.
 

 

 

Well, I bought two types of beading needles. Flexible with a big collapsable loop, and open eye which is two needles welded at each tip with a big center opening. They both worked very well along with the CA tipped line. Thanks to all I now have three ways to thread the blocks.

Beading needles here I come!

I go to Jo-Anns or some other Fabric/Arts & Crafts store and get Beading Needles - the kind use to string beads - they are flexible metal wire with a loop in one end that collapses as you pull the thread (line) through the whole in the deadeye or block. The come in packs of 8-10 and are relatively inexpensive and last for quite a while.

I go to Jo-Anns or some other Fabric/Arts & Crafts store and get Beading Needles - the kind use to string beads - they are flexible metal wire with a loop in one end that collapses as you pull the thread (line) through the whole in the deadeye or block. The come in packs of 8-10 and are relatively inexpensive and last for quite a while.

The Sjöberg work benches are so good they are being used in the wood classes in Sweden.
Remember my wood classes in the 70's, the quality is outstanding.
Definitely worth the money. Plus there are many accessories available as well.
Here is the link to the company. I made it sure you have it in English.

Woodcraft carries that same brand in two smaller sizes - one about 3 foot long and the other about 5 foot long - the smaller one is called Hobby Plus 850 and is priced around $360 (USD) - I picked up the smaller one about a year ago on one of Woodcraft's year end sales. Perfect for model work in a small work area. Has all the features of the larger sized ones. They are made in Sweden by Sjobergs. Am very satisfied with mine. The larger one is the Hobby Bench 1340 and is priced around $412 (USD)
 
Hobby Plus 850

I go to Jo-Anns or some other Fabric/Arts & Crafts store and get Beading Needles - the kind use to string beads - they are flexible metal wire with a loop in one end that collapses as you pull the thread (line) through the whole in the deadeye or block. The come in packs of 8-10 and are relatively inexpensive and last for quite a while.

Ok here are a few pics showing the relative scale of the pilot cutter.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
It was tough going through the shrinking machine but I managed to stay calm. Normally I am 6 foot 2 inches here I am at 9 1/4 inches tall.
 
Michael

Like the forward platform, I wanted to use a spacer of some sort to support the template at the correct height inside the hull.  This one turned out to be a little more involved, but it wasn't difficult to make.

A rough form of the template was laid on top of the spacer, and small pieces of card stock were glued in place to get the final shape.


The planks for the platform were joined together by cutting shallow grooves in the bottom of each plank, and gluing thin strips in the grooves.  Even though still quite thin, the assembly was fairly rigid.

I'll explain in my next post why I didn't run that middle strip all the way across.

The last photo shows the shape of the template transfered to the platform, which is ready for shaping.
 
BobF
 

Just a little more progress carving the sternpost on the port side, I am taking this very slowly.
 

 
This feels like a tricky detail but to all you full keel three mast shipbuilders it probably looks like child's play. this is much more difficult than the keel on the pilot cutter.
 

 

 
Here is a drawing showing the keel at each of the building stations
 

 
A sincere thank you to all who have pushed the like button, I really appreciate it.
 
Michael

Hi Kees the clamp are these
 

 
They are from Lee Valley the wooden ones I made.
 
Michael

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 89 – Middle Deck Hatches/Cabin Deck
 
The first picture shows some of the treenailing on the cabin deck.
 

 
These planks are 7” wide.  At this width the standard fastening spec was one per beam / ledge.  The treenails are about 1 ½” in diameter and are Castelo as mentioned in the last post.
 
The next picture shows a typical hatch being framed. 
 

 
At this scale and on this deck, simple lap joints are used.  The head ledges are on top to secure the coamings.  These will be bolted at the pin locations, in each corner and in the center of the beam.
 
The next picture shows a coaming completed and being glued down and one still being fabricated.
 

 
In the next picture the central planks are being installed between the openings for the hatches, masts and water tanks.
 

 
These planks are needed to support the pillars under the main deck.  As with the deck below, no further planking will be done on this deck.
 
The next picture shows some additional planks being installed on the cabin deck.
 

 
After having completed the drawing for arrangement of cabins, etc. on this deck the final amount of necessary planking can be set so those details can be constructed.  I don’t mind covering some of the structural detail in this area because some of it is based on assumptions and its authenticity cannot be verified.  The members – clamps, transoms - along the line of the main deck in this area will also be hidden by the cabins and related details as will the ends of the planking that are simply butted against the margin planks.  Cabin detail will be discussed later.
 
Ed

Jack , thanks for the picture of the Elco launch these early launches were just so elegant, I can see why so many are preserved and cherished.
 
Thanks again to all who posted likes.
 
Michael

I agree Bob, that is why I cut my teeth on projects like this and this
 
I am up for the challenge I figure it will be about as tricky as building this was.
 

 
When I was 17 I built a working overhead valve internal combustion engine model using off the shelf bits and pieces. it was crude but it ran. I have learned a few things since then though so it should be fun, I am glad that I did not choose one of those large runabout racers with the big engines though, Like the one in the Gar runabout I posted on the other thread.
 
today I finished the molds and mounted them
 

 

 
Two of the cross beams were not exactly extruded square so I had to add some .008 shims to counteract for it, to get the mold to be square with the base.
 

 
Also cut a wider piece of the Castello for the keel, since it is only 17.3 feet long I wanted to make it out of a single timber.

 
Thank you to all who "liked" the last entry.
 
Michael 

Steve, Omega, thanks for your great comments here is a link to an overall shot at the Port Carling boat show where I first saw a picture of Skipjack.
The Port Carling boat site includes a lot of pictures of the classic wooden boats, Skipjack is near the bottom half of the pictures and this Gem near the bottom of the page.
 
It would be fun to visit the show and see some of these boats in person, but i am lucky enough that Roger is being very helpful in sending me pictures and taking measurements of various details for me.
 
This is Skipjack's engine that I also propose to make.
 

 
And an overall of Skipjack in her boatshed.
 

 
Michael

Whilst we're in this sharing mode, here's a little collage of the tool caddies I use to keep from going nuts reaching for the right tweezers, snips, file, knife, pliers, hole drill, saw, or whatever else we tend to accumulate over the years.

Completing the bowsprit.  The jib boom passes through the round hole in the cap.  The flying jib boom base is beveled to fit the forward face of the cap.
 

 
The flying jib boom is supported by the jib boom.
 

 
Much later, netting was added. (Details of the netting are shown on page 3)
 

 
The bow sprit cap seen on the real ship.
 

 
And on the model.
 

 
I hope this makes sense of the original photographs.
 
Cheers, Gil
 
 

Thanks for looking in Ed, sometimes I wonder how I get anything done because of the clutter. My wife does yoga ,I do my stretching stepping around over and between stuff which amounts to the same thing.
 
Today I made a few changes to the way the cross beam are attached to the frame. I thought it better to make it less cluttered by fixing the beams with some 5x40 allan head cap screws rather than the big wooden clamps. The frame will be easy enough to add new locations for further beams down the road on the next boat to use this frame. the present locations are spaced 4 feet apart (6inches). By bolting them it avoids any possible slippage, and helps to increase the overall rigidity.
 

 

 

 
The new station molds are made from 1/16th inch white plastic that is sold for the sunshine ceilings. It will be easier to tie the ribbands to the thinner sheet. here you can see the first mold with the holes marked before they were drilled for the eight ribbands. the drawing is attached with double sided tape.
here is the mold drawing #1
 

 
bulkhead 1.pdf
 
Now to work on the rest, the plastic cuts very nicely with the jewelers saw and require very little clean up.
 

 
Here is the fine bow on the real boat
 

 
Additional thanks to all who have added the like option, it is very motivating.
 
Michael
 

Chuck, what thickness of brass do you recommend using to create the shaper ?

Chuck, what thickness of brass do you recommend using to create the shaper ?

You can unfortunately not buy the beaded molding any longer.  That was a long time ago that I bought those.   Basically you need to create a profile in a piece of sheet brass.or a straight razor.  See below...its pretty clear.  There are many ways to create the profile...needle files,  dremel cut off wheel etc.   I am sure others will chime in here.  
 

 

 

 

 

 
Chuck

Pops, been there done that myself too. I almost gave up on mine a few times. Sometimes I needed to step back for a few days, gather my thoughts and then continue on.
 
You said. . ."I mean, some are high on the port side while some are high on the starboard side." That seems very odd. Is it possible that some thwarts are not touching the riser where they are glued? You might want to check that out.
 
As frustrating as it might be for you right now, I think that completing the build would still give you great satisfaction. I have enjoyed following your build log very much.

Finished thinning down the bulkheads.  I feel that I am working with an egg shell as the hull is very light.
 

Mike,
 
That's the one. There's also a narrower version of that bit, 1/8" , depending on how wide you want the lap.  Have fun ! Glad I could help.
 
Yes, sometimes the CS folks can be a little clueless.
 
Jack