kees de mol

And another part. Sorry for not posting anything last months. Covid hit the carecenter where I work very hard and lot of my clients died. from 19 employees, 11 were sick at home so I had to work very much and long hours. I never got sick and today I got my first vaccin so hope for the best.
 

Some other tool I cant do without. A few years ago I was at a Hobby fair and saw a tool wich was new to me. My wife imidiately recognized it as a nailfile. I never saw a nailfile like that before, I only knew the metal ones. This one was made of firm foam and plastic and it felt very stif. Enought words for now. I turned out to be my favourite tool for filing grinding and sanding. Its suitable for wood and plastic and they are very durable. In the local hobby shop they cost me 2 euro a piece but I found them on Aliexpress for round 2 euro for ten pieces. Not very expensive so just order some and try it out.
 
Some pictures to show what I am talking about.
 

 

 

 

Hi guys!
Thanks for comments and likes. 🙂 
 
About frames.
At the moment, this thing about clinker-boats does not seem so appealing any more... a Kingdom for a carvel built hull!
Well well, insert words like "perseverance" and "patience" and "long term goal" here. 
I made an effort with a piece of cardboard and a compass to see what the challenges were. And boy, they were many. 
In the first picture that first effort can be seen lingering around in the hull. 
Basically one needs something to take measurements from, like a gantry. 
Then something to lift the measurements with. A caliper seemed like a good choice, but to flimsy and could be guaranteed to be vertical.
A depth gauge on the other hand has all the right attributes for this.
For every measurement a line was drawn on the paper strip to mark its position athwartships. The results can be seen i second picture. For those that can read my figures you will see that the hull is not a perfect mirror image. It's not by much but the eye will catch it if allowed.
 
Next step I guess is to take measurements for all frames and then transfer them to a paper. Cut out, test fit and if okay, transfer to wood and, well, I think you can guess the rest.
 

In the above picture the line that goes across is aft perpendicular. The shorter lines represents the front face of each frame.
In addition to the frames there will be two mast steps and a couple of shorter frames, merely uprights to support thwart by the masts.
 

 
 

So, after first day at the office, well, home office for the time being I was eager to get out and finish of the sheer strake.
Apple was equally easy to bend as birch but as it turns out, much harder to sand. Which is a good thing because it holds edges really well.
I will not treat you with any close ups just yet because even if it looks really good and there has been quite a lot filing and sanding the sheer is not exactly where I want it. 
Yesterday I also finished the building board. It will make due for small builds but for my next project I need to build a larger one (oh, a cliffhanger..).
 
Next up will be frames and other internal members. For that I need to revisit the plans in my computer to figure out placement and such. 
Please excuse the occasionally unfocused images. They do however add that airy touch and enhances the subject somewhat 😉 
 

 

 

 

 

Wefalck, you are most welcome! There is coffee and biscuits in the back and free seats up front.
 
Planking is progressing nicely. Takes time and a crazy sharp chisel to get it right, or at least descent looking.
Yesterday I was aiming to get rounds 9 and 10 in place, but after a hizzy-fit (i.e. small mental breakdown) where startboard front plank came off with a rush I decided against that goal and called it a day. Round 9 was in place though.
 
On the replica build the sheer plank is in white oak, while all other planking is in pine. Therefore I will do the sheer plank in apple, which the center line is also made of. A slab is put into picture to show its "raw" form.

 
Some cutting, planing, more planing and then ripping. The pine piece is there just to get some distance between the blade and fence.

 
The ripped piece is ca 1.5 mm thick, hence over to my home made thickness sander to get it down to just shy of 1 mm.
I guess apple is a little like pear with not to prominent structure. Birch, which is used for the planking is known to bend well, but apple I didn't know about. A small test was made, and well, there will not be any problems with bending apple...

 
Finally so round 10 is in place. One round to go... 
In preparation for fitting out, which I intend to do with the boat right side up a slipway is under construction.
Base is some scrap white oak glued together.
The screws are just tapped directly into the base, no nut or so. If not abused, tapping threads in wood holds surprisingly well.
To finalize the slip some kind of end support needs to be figured out. Will google around here on MSW to see what ideas can be useful.

 
Last pic for today. I am fairly satisfied with the planking. Actually, this is the best lapstrake/clinker planking I've ever done! Well, to be honest, it is the only clinker planking I've done bar the first attempt, which was never ment to be more than just an "attempt".

 
Tomorrow is bank holiday and after that my free time diminishes to that of regular, working people.
 

Thanks guys for shown interest.
Bolin, cool that my finding was somewhat applicable to your builds.
 
Vaddoc, thanks for sharing your insights.
Re no1. Yes, it is very subtle what defines the "handsomeness" of a boat. 
Re no2. This build follows that of a replica. Seen here is the hull exiting the workshop. Stem first. It's a prominent feature that the garboard and 2nd & 3rd planks are quite wide while the upper planks are a lot narrower. 

 
Re no3 & 4. Absolutely, I'm with you on those.
Re no5. As I mentioned in my post, you may accomplish the same result with a different approach 😉 

Since progress is painfully slow I thought I could post my way of planking.
As with Windows operating system there are at least 3-4 other ways to accomplish the same, but this works for me.
 
The upper 5-6 strakes are equal in width and to determine that width simply use a bit of tape. Mark where the sheer is and where last plank is. Use a proportional divider (or simply measure and divide the math way) set at number of strakes (5 in this case). Transfer dividend to paper and then on to divider of choice. I don't like the idea of using the prop divider as anything else than what it's aimed for therefore a sturdy divider is chosen. Mark each edge on bulkhead. Then repeat for all other bulkheads, or every other or just eyeball it. Depends on what accuracy you aim for. In my case I marked two more bulkheads and then eyeballed the rest. Tape again. Transfer marks from mould to tape. The orthogonal mark is where the plank should end. Trace marks and rough cut the plank. After some fiddling about to get accurate shape, use first plank as template for its mate on the other side. I wet the planks for less than a minute then clamp in place. Wait to dry and finally glue in place. Repeat.  
And some pictures to be a bit more graphical about it.
1.

 
2.

 
3.

 
4.

 
5.

 
6.

 
7.

 
8.

 
Will post again when I think I have something to share or show.
Enjoy your Saturday!
 

Guys, thanks for the encouragement! Much appreciated 🙂
 
You are all very polite also... in my previous post I mentioned my "big" blue water sailboat. Not being used to the imperial notations I got the quotes wrong. 36" = 3 feet is not very big 😮 of course it should have read 36' (just above 11 metres). Well, cudos to you who didn't rub it in 🙂 
 
There has actually been progress.
In the first attempt 3 yrs ago I didn't get the run of the planks where I wanted.
Back to the drawing board and mark out the runs, then another printout of the bulkheads. 
In this first picture you can se the template held in place and on it shady grey lines marking every strake. Consequently I marked every strake on every bulkhead.

 
My pencil scribblings are not exact but at least somewhere close to where the planks should be.
After a couple of days work I've managed to get the yard "busy". Only with modelling paraphernalia mind you 😉

 
A progress shot. The black rubber thingies are bicycling tubes spending there afterlife as hold-me-downs. The old rubber bands had gone bust but the glue was okay, though it required some heavy excavating of the nozzle.

 
And this is where I end this post today with a couple of strakes in place. Carefully sanded to shape. At this stage it does not differ very much from my first try. Moment of truth will be three of fours strakes later.

 

 
Cheers for now!

So, for what it's worth, here goes...
During a return trip from my parents the Admiral and I talked about why I only seem to do small work during the holiday season every two or three years and not continually through the year?
We pinpointed a couple of things,
one - there is always something big to handle/renovate/build
and two - most significant - my pathological inability to keep the "boat yard" sacred and free from stuff (be it paint tins, rags, general crap or whatever).
 
So, now that most of the work is done on the big boat (aka my 36" blue water sailboat) and on the house, I decided to straighten myself up for the last shivering days of 2020 and on wards.
 
Let me present "the Yard" after an hour or so cleaning and rubbing off old stains and varnish drops and all kind of goey stuff!
But, and there is a small "but" - don't expect miracles, please.
 

Work continues, 
first one of those rare grossly close-ups to show the rabbet at the stem.

And then, more planks convinced to stay in place. Hm... why does Gulliver and the land of Lilliput come to mind, I wonder...

Thanks for the likes and comments. Always appreciated.
Vaddoc, I think you remember correct. Up here it is well known that all clinker built boats needs a good soaking before they float. That is also true for many carvel built ones. I had a skerry qruiser once, carvel built. First season I cared for her she float when launched much to the disappointment for all old salts that "knew" she would sink like a rock.
Second season I did not have the time to care for her and she sank like a crayfish cage...
About hull shape.
No, definitely not by eye only. The builder used moulds or templates as can be seen here.

And I mimic that with my crude basic structure. However, to get the shape shapely is another matter.
Let me show you.
Bow view. Looks okay. No major problems.

Stern view. The planks meet the stern timber with an exaggerated arc. 

Viewed from below the lines look okay. (Aft to the left).

But viewed from aside the aft section of the planking can be seen to do an uneasy bend.
(Aft to the right)

This is why I already from the start stated that this was the practice run. Otherwise I would have a hard time accepting it. Right now it is "good enough". Hopefully I can counteract this on my second try.
 
Side information. Above the backing plates are easily noticed. I put it on a scale and it weighed a whopping 8 grams/0.28 oz... sneeze and you will launch into straight off the bench...

Thanks for checking in. Work progresses, albeit a bit slow.
Regarding the Viking long boats. I think the design worked in their favour. Both building rather big ships that sailed the North sea and Atlantic as well as their raids up on rivers in Russia and elsewhere. 
Up river, when they came to a stream, they "just" hauled the boat out of the water and got some logs to roll it on until they'd got past the culprit. You don't do that with a 16th-17th square rigger...
Anyway, 5th strake is on. In the book, the 5th round is where he used three boards instead of two. I missed that and will cut the 6th strake in three pieces instead. Joggling the scarphs as I progress.
The shape is really hard to get right. The last couple of strakes are adjusted in-situ.


And a picture for reference..

To be continued...

Okey, last post for the weekend.
 
Four strakes are on. As Vaddoc noted, they seemed to run high at the stem. Which I knew. This being learning by doing.
But, since wood is such a nice material to work with, things can be adjusted.
 
First picture. Before.

Second picture. After chisel and sandpaper.

I also have trouble amidships with the run of the planks dipping. No picture on that. Just a note to self.
 
Have a nice week!

Thanks for the likes. Glad to see that there are readers.
 
Anyway, the day went. Grandkid came, and that was that. Now, she's asleep, so some time to type.
 
About spiling and clinker, or lapstrake, builds. This is my first attempt at this, so there will probably be lessons learned and working experience later on. However, compared to a carvel laid hull where planks fit long side to long side, and you quite easily can force later planks to the edge of the former, the clinker style means the planks overlap each other and thus form a stepped style. You probably know this already. Otherwise Wikipedia will help you understand.
 
From my short experience there are some major challenges with this.
You cannot force the plank in place sideways, it has to sit nicely. If force is used the overlap will be out of bounds. Hence, every plank needs more or less spiling. These boats are usually all about the shape. You have the sheer as with a carvel build. But with clinker we are reminded by every single strake if the run of the plank is off in some way.  No steelers nor drop planks. Not an option. Every. single. strake. runs all the way from stem to stern. The challenge is to get the run of the planks right when the width of the plank changes. Eyeballing, proportional dividers, measure and measure again, then try. If not satisfied - repeat.
Unfortunately it is not as simple as just divide every frame/mould with decided number of strakes, then it will look very odd. As can be seen in my previous pictures the first strakes get wider at stem/stern. After two-three strakes the opposite will be true. All planks are narrower at stem/stern to fit in.  
How to solve the issue with spiling. Basically it is the same as for carvel builds. Chuck, Druxey and others have written articles about it. 

First I tried with cardboard of approximately same thickness as the planks. Didn't work too well. Hard to handle due to small size. Hard to see adjacent strake.
For the third strake I remembered that, I think, Chuck used transparent tape. It sticks to the moulds, easy to see and mark. Lacking transparent tape I used the regular painters masking tape and found that it was semi-transparent. Good enough.
One thing I picked up from Underhill's book was his practice of gluing thin material to a backing piece of cardboard or paper. My plank material is thin enough to easily be cut by #11, it will however splinter just as easily. With a broad piece of masking tape on one side - problem solved.
That had another advantage I found out later. 
Enough text, show me some photos...
 
Here the cardboard templates are used.

Now, masking tape instead.

Stick tape to a white surface. Connect the dots with a smooth line.

Move tape to plank material and cut. Backing tape on other side.

The advantage with the backing tape is that it can be used as template for the accompanying plank port/starboard. By the way, leave the backing tape as long as possible.



Meaning all the rough shaping is already done. Every plank still need shaping to fit, but saved some time still.
 
Bending is performed with a dab of water and heatgun. Birch is very adaptable and bends easily. It holds edges fairly well also as can be seen in a previous post. 
That was it for today.
 
To be continued...

Hi guys,
the day is only half-gone here, but I just had to share this update with you.
First task for today was to clear a path to the shop... about 20cm/8" of snow overnight.

 
A short business trip took away a couple of days from the week, but back in the shop I made some progress.

Clinker/lapstrake is really something tricky to get right. Spiling and all that. In a later post I will show my trials and tribulations. On the trip I re-read H.A. Underhills chapter about clinker built boats, which was useful.
This far two full strakes are on. The scarphs are just plain butt ended with a backing piece on each. Joggled of course. Later each strake will be of three pieces.
Rubber bands and teak buns keep planks in place. I need to figure out some way to have the clamps not slipping off. Maybe a bit of tape will do the trick with enough friction.



Backing pieces have beveled edges for appearance. Should be pinned also, will see if I do that.
 
I am really enjoying this build. The result is far from perfect, but this is also my first time doing this. And since I have this first build as a practice run, my second will undoubtedly be better. 

To be continued...

Hi guys!
Thanks for likes and comment.
Progress has been slow despite quite a few hours in the shop. 
Why? Preparatory work.
It's like when all you want to do is to get that wallpaper up and instead you find yourself put up drywalls, fill screw holes, and then some sanding and after that more filling and more sanding. And just before you break the seal on the first roll of paper you realize that you need to prime the drywalls otherwise there isn't enough glue in the world that will keep your wallpaper up.
First, a picture to soothen the soul.

With a multi-tool equipped with a drum sander it was quite a quick job to get the skeleton close to shape.

However, to really get it down to specs took some grater care. When I gladly thought I was done prepping I cut the first strake out of cardboard.

Not happy with the run I turned to the book.

Yes, that man has like a lifetime experience of building boats. I have not.
While contemplating the planking I marked every plank on frame five (middle one). Then it appeared to me that the frame templates needed protection and with a sealed surface it would be easier to mark runs and all that. 
So first a sealer then a layer of some very old Humbrol paint. Fascinating enough, the paint is something like 20 yrs old and still "usable".

By that I also put an end to this weekends affair in the shop.
In the background can be seen blanks for planking. 20 mm (3/4") in real world translates to 0,67 mm on my work bench. Not that they are EXACTLY 0,67 mm thick, more like 0,7 mm. Close enough me think.
 
To be continued...

As per requested, the day was spent in the small ship yard ;-)
What did master accomplish? 
Some much needed clean up of some rubbish in the corners of the shop.
Assembled the keel, stem and stern.
Managed a decent tapering of the structure.
And also something to be not so overly proud of, though I thing it happens to all of us...
 
For the assembly I started with the fore knee and glued it to the keel. Then I faired the surface that faced the stem. My template was faired alongside this to get angles of stem and stern fairly close to spec.
The aft part then, sternpost and knee glued together. Some minor adjustments and it was glued to the keel.
Drilling for bolts were done on freehand (which can clearly be seen in pic 1) with my bulky Dremel.

Note to self: Save up for a Proxxon multitool and drilling station.
Tapering of the structure was accomplished with another annealed mat knife blade.



Sometime during the day I recognized that my floor was a mess so I wiped. In hindsight I would have benefited from looking if any of the pieces had gone astray before I wiped the floor.
Find the anomaly...

Note to self 2: Keep small parts contained in something (anything!)
Apart from that minor setback I'm fairly satisfied with the day.
Til next time, ta!

Hi again all,
another update.
The days I don't have to commute to work I save three ours of my life. Today I spent those hours at the yard :-)
Work continued with forming the pieces. First by file in my vice and then at the disc sander. Yes, it's the same lathe that doubles (or triples) as thickness sander also, except being a lathe...

Vaddoc, I now know what you mean with the glue. It took a thorough wipe with methylated spirits to get the glue off. The glue can come in handy in other applications perhaps.
When all parts were ready, the rabbet was next. I've seen from other logs how the builder has shaped a mat knife blade or similar to scrape  mouldings and stuff. The rabbet here is quite straight forward, just some different angles, that's it. 
As a first attempt the blade was squeezed in one of my clamps. If examined closely it can be seen that the rabbet takes a shortcut over the most acute bend on the stern. It was due to the clamps being too clumsy. Also, the tip of the blade broke off leaving an uneven rabbet as well.

(funny, what are my shoes doing in that picture...)
Option two. Two mount plates held together with wing nuts. Fairly easy I'd say. To fix the blade the torch came out to anneal it. After sharpening to an angle of ca 30 degrees the torch came to work again. This time the blade was quenched in water to be hardened again.
It is a bit fiddly to set the cut up, but then it is just to scrape away.
Now I appreciated my two sets of boat pieces because I fiddled a bit too much with the blade on the first set and had to go over the rabbets a second time.
With the other set I will be meticulous in setting the blade and then do all the rabbets at once.

For the weekend I might take a trip to my real boat or I might choose to stay at home in the yard. What do you reckon?

Thanks for the comments and likes :-)

Denis, glad you remember the Regina project. She sits nicely in her display case. And re the drum, there was never an issue with the drum going into an orbit. It was held in place by the dubbs (? maybe they are called something else ?). But a coned shaft is of course a better option.
 
Vaddoc, the apple is two colored. Outer wood is much paler. I will take a picture to show you. Also, thanks for the heads up on the glue. Guess now that I've bought that expensive bottle I need to use it... And the boat (or type) does not have a centerboard. I cant think of any traditional Swedish boat that has that. Instead lead or iron ingots as ballast. Approx 500 kg for this 22 footer.
 
Edit:
Picture of the apple wood. 

Ahh...sawdust, finally!
 
Yes, John, I use the shop vacuum also. It's just that it is so noisy. Guys, thank you for the likes also.
 
After building the thickness sander, which by the way, works really well. Note to self.: I do need to countersink the machine screws a bit. The ones that hold the wedge. They scarred the wood, not too bad, but still ugly. 
I went down to the hardware store and bought a ridiculously expensive spray glue. Well, it worked like a charm, so maybe, just maybe, it was worth the expense. This glue is intended for gluing the printouts to the wood. As can be seen in the first picture.
 
With them glued, I spent the better part of 30 min rummaging about to find a tool holder for the scroll saw. I knew it was in a bad place... finally found it. Next 15 minutes was spent trying to remember how to set the darn thing up. Google told me in the end.
While letting the scroll saw eat wood I pondered about how to file and sand those tiny little pieces and stopped myself right there. Like you eat an elephant of course. One at a time. See next picture.
 
Ed wrote: "when fatigue sets in... stop!" which what I did next. Before the halt, I had managed to release all parts from the slab of apple. Picture three. 
One might wonder why there are two of everything. Well, to my knowledge, practice makes perfect. So, one set is for practice, and then I can do it right the second time on the other set of parts. Clever, huh?
 
 


 

 
Finally, I find it interesting how many tools you bring forth in time at all... don't you?

Hi all,
Re the book; it covers a replica build of the original boat from 1900. Since these boats always were build without plans, the book contains no blueprints. The original boat was measured and from this they made a couple of plans, which are part of the book. Will show you later.
 
Now for todays update. In my earlier post I headed out to my shop in order to create some kind of thickness sander. So far, so good.
I have yet to try it out with sanding paper, but I think it might work. In the future there will probably be room for updates on some of the details of it.
 
The aluminium drum is held in place by squeezing only. Might need another way, but the friction seems good enough.
As you can se the height of the table is adjusted by a knurled knob attached to a M6 threaded rod. One full turn raises the table 1mm at the aft end. The drum is approximately 2/3 up the table. One full turn would then approximately lessen the space drum-table with 2/3 of a mm. (I guess).
The table is hinged at the front end.
 


I also need to build some dust extraction for it. But that will be quite easy, just some cover to stand over the whole unit with an outlet to attach a hose to.
We will see.
 
To be continued...
 

It is not with little hesitation that I know start a build log. For me it is somewhat of a Pandora's box of feelings since I've been away from MSW for quite some time now. One thing caught my attention when I read the foreword in Ed's "Naiad" book, it seems that it is quite an accomplishment to build anything to scale between your graduation and retirement. Life tends to interfere all the time. Anyway, here we go...
 
The object for my build log will be a working vessel from the Swedish west coast dated at about 1900. I've learned  "Go small, go simple, go now" when it comes to long distance sailing. Applied to scale model shipbuilding that would translate to something of small real world dimensions and a rather simple type based on some source that you already have. In my case it panned out to be a "Kåg". For those not familiar with Swedish pronunciation of words (most are not, so don't worry) it originates from the Dutch kaeg or cog. 
 
Basically it is a fishing vessel. It was all about herring during 17th to early 20th on the west coast of Sweden. By the way, swedes are still a lot about herring marinated in more or less fantastic ways. You will find them on any decent "smörgåsbord".
 
Included in my source is a couple of plans and the first tasks include some CAD to create plans that can be used to build something. Real world dimensions for this particular vessel is some 22 feet between perpendiculars with a width of 10 feet. Length over all will be some 9,5 meters. Scaled down 1:30 the hull will be 225 mm stem to stern with a moulded width of 96 mm.
 
The clinker boards will be just shy of 1 mm thick, which I think is the smallest I could manage.
Real world materials were oak for basic structure, top strake and details. The lower strakes were of pine. Mast and spars of fir.
Materials for the scale model will be apple for basic structure, mast and spars and probably birch for the boards.
So far the introduction. Over to the build.
At this moment I have not produced any dust yet, only managed to create templates for the hull, keel, stem and stern. Starting up with CAD has a steep learning curve... 
 
The book:

A picture of the vessel sailing (maiden tryouts):

Keel, stem and stern.

I will happily try to answer any questions and will also of course gladly take on any help and suggestions to aid in the building process.

And another part. Sorry for not posting anything last months. Covid hit the carecenter where I work very hard and lot of my clients died. from 19 employees, 11 were sick at home so I had to work very much and long hours. I never got sick and today I got my first vaccin so hope for the best.
 

And another part which was very rewarding to build. All made of reclaimed wood