GuntherMT

I've dry fitted Slocum's bed in the aft cabin

I'm close to finishing the internal decking. Then I have to design and install deck framing to keep the inside open for viewing.

I've finally glued the ribs (frames) to the keel. Now I've started the internal decking.

oops...that's 1/2" not feet.....LOL

Looks cramped and rough but actually very comfortable given it's in my locker in the underground parking...no one comes in very often, I have power directly  across the hallway which is very rare but convenient, and I'm at a corner , so there's room outside the locker to put up saw horses and create a work bench to cut things etc.
 
I'm building Doc's keel holder this week now that I have the scroll saw and drill press up and running.
 
Stay safe and warm  everyone.

A little update.
 
It has come to my attention that a lot of emails have gone unanswered. I can only apologise, the email account was not added to my main accounts, as I thought all mail came via 'enquiries@..'
 
I feel really bad about this, as there are a lot of emails from people that I didn't even know I had, and must have thought I was ignoring them.
 
However, this has now been resolved, so no more unanswered emails!
 
Sorry,
 
Chris

I just want to say that I appreciate your dedication and what you provide to this hobby.  I ordered a book a couple of months ago and was actually surprised at how rapidly I received it given the issues with the post office and being near the election.

Thanks and best of luck for your continued success and good health!

I hope I do this correctly....
 
Have been reading many of the logs concerning the bluenose,and have started making contact with some builders.
A great group of people who are so willing , and able, to help. 
 
A little background. Actually built a tug boat , POB, back in the 70's and quite liked it. No internet back then so just jumped in feet first and enjoyed it.
Then came 3 kids , marathon running, racquetball , 4 hockey leagues for me, and 2 for the boys, work, and rebuilding houses....fairly serious rebuilds where i did everything from electrical,plumbing, gas,tile, framing, roofing...you get the idea.
 
I'm hoping all this experience pays off here.
 
I'm starting this new adventure with a bit of a different  challenge. I live in a condo , and "she who must be obeyed" ( kudos to Rumpole of the Bailey), won't brook dust, noise, or a mess....so my plan.... my Dremel drill press and scroll saw  Thanks to Kijiji and Amazon) will be used in my storage locker...pictures soon to explain how this will work as I know it sounds weird.
 
I'm designing a rolling shipyard  that will house a keel holder jig I saw by Doc  Blake (just brilliant) and allow me to roll it into the elevator, and up 25 floors to the inner sanctum for the dry and quiet work. Once up there I can take the jig out of the chest and work on the dining room table.
 
I'm thinking of building  some shelving in there to store tool s planks etc,hand my cutting mat etc
 
When I have cutting,shaping etc to do, I will have another mini-shipyard in the storage locker  for that.
 
 I once rebuilt a Volvo engine on a 2 x 4 bench in the corner of my unheated  garage in a Canadian winter ....tools tend to stick to your skin, so cut a hole in the roof and installed a little kerosene drip stove,,what the heck was I thinking? (Beer was cold though  )...so I figure I can overcome this lack of space conunfrum once again.
 
Have ordered a plethora of tools and material as well as the MSW kit and hope to be ready when it all arrives.
 
Yikes, sorry, didn't mean to write a book.
 
I'll try to post weekly if there's anything I think may be of interest, or I'm stumped....right now I have sore finger tips from making a ton of those modified little bull dog clips to hold the planks to the bulkheads.
 
Oh , and Happy Thanksgiving to those below the 49th. Cheer
 
Ron B
 
 
 
 
 
 

I decided to do some experimentation in the daylight today. I wanted to settle my mind about the cove. The cove shows up nicely close up.

 
Then I took another from a viewing distance of about two feet;

 
The scuppers show nicely - that was worth doing. The cove is almost invisible. The yellow paint line will stand out much more than the actual cove. My conclusion is painting the thin yellow line is better. It's a lot of extra work to make and to maintain the cove during finishing when the it will not be noticeable at viewing distance.

Working on stanchions tonight. Supply run with the wife today. She likes the moral support. Like most here, I found the bulkhead extensions make poor stanchions. They are uneven, too short and not angled quite right. I used them for the first plank above the waterway to set the line of the bulwarks. After gluing the fake stanchions on, I cut the bulkhead extensions off and replaced them with properly made ones.
Here's a picture before the bulkhead extension was removed for comparison:
 

 
Here's my simple jig for cutting stanchions;
 

 
This was not as uniform as I would have liked. I cut them a touch long and will sand them to the correct height after the waist is installed. The Knighthead was cut to the (incorrect) height of the "A" bulkhead extensions. I added shims to raise the timbers to the correct height. Note the stanchions start to slant outward near the stem. It's necessary to sand a slight bevel on their bottoms. There are 60 of these little things to make. Took a whole day. Here's the finished stanchions;
 

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. After planking the deck I decided to stain it and then get a protective coating on it. I made a real mess of my first staining attempt but fortunately the deck planking was thick enough to allow me to sand it down again. My second staining attempt turned out much better. Next came building the bulwarks following the John Earle instructions. I used bristol board to get the proper line from the top hull plank and then transferred it to the kit supplied bulwarks. I slowly cut and sanded the bottom edge of those pieces till they matched the top plank line then used them to trace out the proper line on 1/16 basswood. One the first piece of the bulwark was in place I added two more strips to get to the final bulwark height. I then followed on doing the stanchions. I had put a few in place to make fitting the top two bulwark strips easier. Next step is to finish the transom and then start cutting the scuppers. Any suggestions on how to neatly and consistently cut the scuppers would be appreciated. 

Planking. Aaaah!
 
Judging by the number of videos and instructions on planking, I see I’m not alone in my desperation. My two-dimensional planks must live in a three-dimensional world. My first project here 18th century longboat required that the planks be visible. And as a first project, it was tough. I soaked the planks in hot water and broke a number.
 
My next project had the hull painted, and was to be double planked, but being able to paint over splices and putty gave me a lot of leeway for errors and goofs. Yea, I single planked.
 
So on this project, I started out letting planks lay as they may and would trim and shape the later ones. So here’s the start. I decided to soak all planks in hot water for half an hour, then place them and let them dry in their stressed curves. When dry, I’d use Elmer’s glue to place them permanent because it dries slower than I work.
 

 
When it came to top plank (probably not the correct terminology) I took a wider plank, cut it to length, then put one end in the washbasin faucet with a rubber band and the other end in the drain and slowly ran hot water for half and hour. Then, as you see here; put it in place on the rib tops, with just a little overhang (to be sanded flat later to match the deck).
 

 
Again, wet, no glue. As the plank reached the bow and stern, it curved up, if I wanted it to touch the ribs fully. So, going with the flow; and not wanting to stress and break like previous projects, I’ll glue it on that way and noticed the drawing had planks narrowing toward the ends as you see here.
 

 
I presume I’ll just trim off the parts above the deck. Notice as it reaches the bow, it curves up. While it’s drying, I’m having my glass of wine as writing this. After my nap, when the board is dry, I’ll glue it. Then do the Starboard side.
 

I just want to say that I appreciate your dedication and what you provide to this hobby.  I ordered a book a couple of months ago and was actually surprised at how rapidly I received it given the issues with the post office and being near the election.

Thanks and best of luck for your continued success and good health!

I just want to say that I appreciate your dedication and what you provide to this hobby.  I ordered a book a couple of months ago and was actually surprised at how rapidly I received it given the issues with the post office and being near the election.

Thanks and best of luck for your continued success and good health!

I just want to say that I appreciate your dedication and what you provide to this hobby.  I ordered a book a couple of months ago and was actually surprised at how rapidly I received it given the issues with the post office and being near the election.

Thanks and best of luck for your continued success and good health!

I just want to say that I appreciate your dedication and what you provide to this hobby.  I ordered a book a couple of months ago and was actually surprised at how rapidly I received it given the issues with the post office and being near the election.

Thanks and best of luck for your continued success and good health!

I just want to say that I appreciate your dedication and what you provide to this hobby.  I ordered a book a couple of months ago and was actually surprised at how rapidly I received it given the issues with the post office and being near the election.

Thanks and best of luck for your continued success and good health!

I just want to say that I appreciate your dedication and what you provide to this hobby.  I ordered a book a couple of months ago and was actually surprised at how rapidly I received it given the issues with the post office and being near the election.

Thanks and best of luck for your continued success and good health!

Next were the mooring chocks and ferule. As pointed out on other blogs, this is a less than nice Britannia metal piece. I was able to clean it up fairly well and carefully drilled a hole in it. The piece also had to be shortened so it doesn't stick out the inside of the chocks. I'm still looking for some way to flare this piece. The hole doesn't look right when simply drilled. While the part is not well cast, it should look OK once painted.

 
Oops. Looking more closely at photos of the prototype the flange goes on the inside. It's set into the mooring chocks. Have to tear this out and redo.

Today, I gave some thought to the cove below the waist. Looking at pictures of the prototype it adds a nice detail to the ship. It would be even more pronounced in color(yellow) against the black of the hull. I didn't see much about it in most build logs.
I made a simple tool to create the cove and experimented. The tool is a block with the backside of an old scalpel blade. The idea is to press the shape into the basswood rather than cut or scrape. The thickness of the blade(could be any rounded piece of metal) determines the width of the cove and the thickness of the shims on the block determine the offset from the edge of the plank. The depth can be controlled by how far the blade extends beyond the block. In practice the depth is easily controlled by hand pressure and the setting of the blade was not too important.
 

 
Below is a picture of the result:
 

 
This does a pretty nice job but requires a steady hand. With parts this small it's easy to slip. It wouldn't be too hard to make a jig that you push the plank through for a more controlled impression.
In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the difficulty. It still has to be masked and painted. When the ship is finished the detail would probably not be noticeable at a normal viewing distance. The grove necessitates a constant  cleaning out to keep it visible when filling and painting. It will be there but I'm not going to make a great deal of effort to keep it cleaned out. I suppose it'll serve as a nice guide for masking during painting.

I thought I would start start todays update with a photo of my shipyard. The Duchess is sitting on the deck of the Robert E Lee with Speedy and IJN Yamato in the background.

 
Progress on the 2nd planking is slow and steady, it is not perfect but I am pretty happy with how it is going and I think it will look good once it has been sanded smooth. I have started to tuck the stern planks under the lower stern counter as per the instructions.

 

Hello Darrel
Great news on you starting a build log. I will follow with interest.
 
With regards to glue I tend to use wood glue whenever possible. I use a small paint brush to apply the wood glue and have a small tub of water so I can dilute / clean as necessary.
 
I will use ca glue usually when I need a quick bind and I'm unable to find a suitable clamping method. I will use a small drop of CA when rigging to secure knots. If I need strength I will sometimes use epoxy resin, such as when fitting the channels.
 
I have started the 2nd planking and I'm using wood glue. It does take more time but I prefer this method rather than ca glue which is much quicker. No matter how careful I seem to be I still end up with CA glue on my fingers which causes more problems (sticky fingers).
 
As can be seen in the picture below I use pins to hold the glued plank in place as I move further down the hull.
 

Hello Darrel
Many thanks for your kind comments. With regards to the aft section I did not fit any stealers. I think the method I used on the port side worked best for me. I planked down toward the keel for 8 planks. I just trimmed the planks as necessary without any stealers bow or aft. I then started to plank from the keel toward. I then took three full planks for the bow to be complete.

 
I continued upward until the planking was complete. It required 14 planks at the stern

I believe that it is important to make sure everything is ship shape before undertaking the 2nd planking. Therefore I thought I would share my final preparations before I start the 2nd planking, as I did find this very beneficial and I did discover a couple of minor adjustments were necessary. Below I have detailed the following checks I undertook:
 
a) Now that the bow and keel outer facings had been glued in place I double checked the rabbet using a plank. I was happy that I had a good gap around the bow and along the keel.
 
b) Check how the planks would look along the stern post and under the lower stern counter. I discovered that the hull required a little bit more sanding (with a thin sanding stick) around the stern post / lower stern counter area before I was happy with how the planks would fit.

 

 
c) Check how the first plank will fit around the bow area and to see if there is any tapering required. I do not think the first plank will require any tapering. The true line of the plank does not follow the bottom edge of the outer pattern as shown in the photo below. I found I could " force" the plank to follow the bottom edge. However as I intend to use Chuck Passaro's plank bending method I think the "U" shaped bent plank will fit Ok.

 
d) using a triangular length of material I made a simple jig to enable me to chamfer the plank edge.

 
 
e) Using a spare piece of planking material (from Speedy) I tested the plank bending method. Using some clamps the plank is held in a bent position. I then brushed on some water and used a hair dryer.

 
f) Once the plank had cooled down (only takes a minute) the bent plank was test fitted and I was pleased with how easily the plank fitted. Once secure in the rabbet the plank followed the required line, without any forcing) and staying flush with the hull. A clamp was added to hold the plank to demonstrate this in the photo below.

Stage: Hull Construction
Build instructions: 82 - 84
Task: Stern Outer Side Patterns & Bow and Keel Outer Facings
Parts: 134, 135, 135 & 136
Time Spent: 40 mins
Status: Complete
Build Notes:
The bow end of the two outer side patterns 134 and 135 required a very minor trim. I removed approx. around 0.2mm from each bow end to ensure a good fit as the design had left some extra material to allow for build variations.
 
The two outer patterns lined up very well and I used the various pin holes to ensure they were correctly lined up. I used a couple of spreader clamps for the stern area, and standard clamps, elsewhere as the wood glue cured.
 
I then proceeded to glue to the bow and keel outer facings. I think I used enough clamps to ensure these parts were properly secured during the curing process😂. The hull is now ready for the 2nd planking.