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Justin P.

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Everything posted by Justin P.

  1. I second the suggestion that a hard look at the PNW be made. Aside from Bremerton, which has historic ship museums, an undersea museum as well as a healthy maritime tradition it also has the Center for Wooden Boats, the School of Wooden Boat Building and the annual Wooden Boat Festival. Im positive a location could be had at reasonable prices with choice accommodation collocated. I also live here... which is a bonus for me :).
  2. Chuck, Ive been away from the Hobby and MSW for the last 9-months or so as I adjust to the new realities of teaching high school. Ive been poking my head in a little now and then as I start preparing for two luxurious months off back in my shipyard and must say its comforting to see you still at it - amazing everyone with your innovations and selflessly working yourself to the bone to our benefit. Congrats on the ten years - and get well soon!
  3. Great thread thus far. Ive been thinking of experimenting a little as it relates to ship modeling. Incidentally, in the last year Ive take over a High School program teaching metals design. We run a fleet of Anycubic Mono 6K's. I teach lost wax casting and lost resin casting using Sirya Tech printable casting resin. Our parts go through a burnout process and the printed parts are then cast in bronze, brass etc. Fun stuff! Following with interest!
  4. I haven't tried bits that are that long, but have found that success comes when not being really aggressive. I take more passes that take less material. Also mounting the paper and holding your work carefully helps a lot. I usually need two hands to run a piece successfully. One feeding or holding a push stick and the other guiding / holding the piece flat against the bed as it comes out the other end. Most of my errors happen near the end of the feed so the opposing hand becomes critical to keep the work from being manipulated by the drum. You might also try sequencing your mill work differently. For instance, I usually rough cut my work before the thickness sander - which is likely why Ive never had to feed 24" stock.
  5. I cant imagine there would be. Maybe the plate is larger? I only have the 4 arm model and found that to be plenty.
  6. Hi Dave, I use the QuadHands as outlined here: It looks like the QuadHands unit is available via Amazon UK, but is much more expensive. To answer your question though, it is a VERY robust unit that does not move at all. The magnets are very strong and the units anti-slip feet are quite good. Its also pretty heavy so it can take some leverage without tipping or moving. https://www.amazon.co.uk/QuadHands-Deluxe-Workbench-Helping-System/dp/B01MZG2D99
  7. Strange! Was the option not available in the lower corner "CC?" I just checked and it works for me, the captions are actually really good. I have enjoyed my Sherline so far, though the rigamarole assembly and squaring everything up had me a little confused. The nice thing about the Proxxon is that it is more or less plug and play.
  8. Completed. Sadly, all of the photos I took of the last stages of this build were lost. Im still not sure how this happened, but as went to update this build log I noticed they are all gone. Im supremely disappointed but happy to report that Ive completed my Triton. What a project. Im excited to have completed it, and looking forward to moving forward with a new project. Thanks to everyone for your kind words, support and assistance through this project. A relative has kindly volunteered to make a case for it, a challenge I think they welcome and are looking forward to, so I won't be taking that piece on. I did however make a temporary mount seen in the below photo and accompanying gallery. GALLERY Onward!
  9. For those that are not SNR members and wouldnt have gotten the notification, this latest episode is really great! https://snr.org.uk/the-mariners-mirror-podcast/ultimate-ship-models-1-hms-royal-george/
  10. No you didn't. I perhaps incorrectly confused my launch and longboat (the terms have been interchangeable to some degree). As the longboat in this case was a painted transom I did not plank it. With the launch however, I did as not doing so didnt seem quite right. I recall as well, that particular kit manufactuer chose to laser etch a part number onto the transom that was difficult to remove or cover up. As I could not find a readily accessible reference for it, I simply did some google searching. I have also seen many open boats with transoms constructed from planks so just went with it.
  11. It was just a guess. I admitted to not knowing at all - and will admit it was probably a stupid guess.
  12. I dont know about historical references, I just went with a pretty standard look based on images I searched for on the internet. Possible in real practice a form of tongue and groove? No idea.
  13. At least you are using the Calligraphy solution and not the drawing. The calligraphy is considered "lightfast" so you can at least be sure of a consistent color over time. However it is not waterproof and will reactivate so best be sure you dont somehow get your model wet or it will be a mess! Any glue use can possibly reactivate it as well, particularly PVA - so be careful!
  14. I used a Proxxon for several years before recently upgrading to a Sherline (4-axis). The Proxxon is a great little workhorse, but it is a bit noisy and there is lots of slop in the table. The slop is easily mitigated if you are even a little bit mechanically inclined. This video is great for calibrating and upgrading it to a precision tool. After doing some of these modifications the slop is nearly gone on mine.
  15. This past weekend I got the guns assembled and set in place. It was a fiddly job, but I'm happy with the result. In the first photo you can sort of see my process. I used a couple of nails placed exactly the distance apart that the hooks would hang on the model and then set all that with a tiny bit of glue. This way the lines don't fight themselves and will hold on the right distance. Then I coiled the extra upside-down onto some blue tape and used some tiny bits of glue to hold the coil. After flipping back over the whole thing was set. Then everything was attached.
  16. Geez, I dont know if I'm ready to commit myself out loud yet, ha! Ive been looking at a few, ranging from subjects like the Echo cross-section, Hayling Hoy, Euryalus, NRG Galley Washington to a few smaller boat projects that have grabbed my attention here and there. NG Herreshoff's personal day sailor Coquina is an open boat that Ive always loved and think would make a splendid model, as well as Ronald Young's Poulsbo Boat. Either of these might make a nice contribution to the NRG Journal - something Ive wanted to try as well. Ive read virtually all the books, practicums and have been collecting/studying plans for all of these options. For me its really about getting a sense for where I am, how complicated the project is and what is likely to hold my interest. I intend to build the NRG Capstan project almost immediately after this as something fun and different to do while I gather materials and get ready for another months/years long project. I think the Capstan project will be the first I try to do using the more exotic woods. I dont have a lot of experience with Pear or Boxwood and am interested in doing something manageable to get a feel for the material before investing in q larger quantity. If I dont like it, then I will know better what I want to commit to with the next longer build. Im probably over thinking all these things, but that's only because I'm so obsessed with the hobby all I really do is think about it - ha! Of course, I also have to try and build a case for Triton! One thing at a time I guess.
  17. Indeed! This is a great little kit. I had a lot of fun building it. Looking forward to your progress! Also happy to help if you run into any questions.
  18. Ha... Im not sure how I would describe it. I would say there are certainly a lot of aspects that are "easy." But also quite a few that were at least confounding to me. I would say the biggest single difference is the lack of traditional instructions. I did a lot of things out in a sequence that I would not do again precisely because I wasnt thinking the steps all the way through, and had no real manual to follow. Now that Im this far along Ive gotten better, but do still think I could do things differently. Having all the build logs for the Triton on MSW definitely eases the transition from having instructions as those builds provide plenty of reference when you get stuck somewhere. Im a little worried about this for the next build to be honest.
  19. Indeed Mark. Going forward, I think Triton might be the project I would suggest to anyone starting out in scratch work. Much of it is "just right" as an introduction to many different aspects.
  20. At the time I was witness to the process, there was an all night bonfire and ceremony to heat stones that were laid into the dugout. Due to the cultural importance of the ceremony I was not invited to see this part, but I believe the dugout was filled partially with water prior to placing the stones into the water or was otherwise saturated with water. Then a series of battens were pounded into place to widen it as it steamed. During this build, if I remember no clamps or other modern tools were employed. Only traditional tools and processes.
  21. Almost 3 full months since my last update! Oh man... this "return to normal" stuff has really caught up with me. With the holidays, the new year, and a bunch of hiring, chess tournaments and the start of the basketball season (I am my daughters BBall coach) Ive had so little time to update. I have, however, continued to steadily work on my Triton. I think I'm starting to see the end game a little clearer and am starting to think about the case a little more earnestly, thanks to the encouragement in the above comments. Since my last update much of the detail work has started. After planking the exterior and interior of the hull, along with the gun deck I chose to carry on with hull details. I chose walnut as a contrasting material and haven't found the grain too distracting. As Ive said prior, I take it as a point of pride to make something beautiful from relatively sustainable materials and have resisted a desire to use the more exotic (and likely more beautiful) hardwoods. This being a first full scratch project for me, I also wanted to limit the damage to the pocketbook, knowing full well I was likely to burn through a lot of material on screw-ups! After wrapping-up the cannon carraiges: The rail cap, fenders and trim were all made from this walnut, which was the same as used in the wales. In the first photo you can see my paper mock-up used to template the fender shape. A sharp eye might also note that I screwed-up in sequence and neglected to include the outboard trim as I was planking the exterior. Thus I had to mount the trim over the planking. A small error that I intend to make sure not to lose track of in future builds. You'll also notice some weird sequencing as I decided to do one side in a slightly different order (caulking, details, etc). One thing I learned again, having learned it earlier and then entirely forgotten, is that you must seal the wood prior to the caulking step otherwise the excess will not wipe away as cleanly. I then began work on caulking the gun deck planking, and started assembling the gun tackle per the plans. Ive always enjoyed the process of preparing block and rigging so took some enjoyment in this step. I decided it better to do only some of the gun prep and not mount them as it seemed much easier to complete the rest of details (gangways, ladders) prior to mounting and setting the guns and tackle. I also opted to not treenail the interior gunwales despite having done so with lower decks as there is a concentration of detail in this area and I was worried it would end-up creating a cluttered look. I'm still confident in this decision. I also made a few ladders before settling on the below iteration. I now know much more about this process and hopefully will have better luck with the gangway ladder later. The last few weeks Ive been struggling through the brass work for the gangway supports. I first made a set using the entirely wrong brass material and stumbled my way through an appropriate soldering technique. My first attempts are in the first picture where it can be clearly seen that too much solder is being used, too much heat and just a generally poor construction method. I then switched to strips I had to cut myself (as opposed to pre-milled brass stock) and dialed in my soldering until I got consistent and clean results. The gangway supports in place, I just cut and temporary set the skid-beams. I'm starting to work on assembling the gun-tackle components now in preparation of final fitting. Now that things in my life have settled a bit I'm hoping to be posting a bit more regularly and look forward to catching up on all the great builds Ive been missing!
  22. While in college, I had the honor of interning at the Squaxin Island Museum and Cultural Center here in the PNW, USA at which time a tribal member was returning to his family's tradition of canoe making. As an oral culture, the museum at the time decided to document the process as there were no other existing documentation of their tribal canoe traditions. It was a fascinating process that culminated in the canoes use in the local "great canoe journey" which occurs here every year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribal_Canoe_Journeys I wouldnt know how one might try to model such a thing using a similar process, or even what wood might be suitable. The process employed for widening the hull after hollowing could be problematic. I suppose you might just carve out the completed shape rather than try to widen the hull!
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