KeithAug

Thanks Richard, However I started today by trashing yesterdays work for a few reasons: 1, I couldn't get myself convinced that the fishing line would hang in a natural curve. 2, I realised that by not paying great attention to the orientation of the hoops on the ends of the athwartship braided wire that I had introduced a twist that made them want to follow a serpentine path. 3, I didn't feel that I had allowed enough belly below the bowsprit. So it went in the bin and I was glad that I had made all those extra end hoops. To solve the fishing line problem I decided to resort to further use of braided wire, it may not hang under gravity but the shape is more controllable. Fixing the orientation of the end hoops required a bit of a development of the building jig as follows:- Two brass rods (.040" diameter) were slotted through the hoops at each end of the athwartship lines during their manufacture - thus eliminating any twist caused by them being aligned on different axes. To give more belly I widened the base of the jig (drilled wider spaced pin holes). The finished assembly of lines and fittings felt a bit more workmanlike. The longitudinal lines were tied on with cotton thread and then secured with a spot of CA. I then went back to the shrouds and fitted the heat shrink tubing to simulate the protection at the attachment points. Fortunately the heat gun arrived at lunch time. The shrouds are temporarily fitted, tensioned and held with surgical clamps. With the protection completed the clamps were removed and the shrouds were slotted through the end hoops on the athwartship lines. The shrouds and the the longitudinal lines were then secured and the end hoops crimped on to the heat shrink on the shrouds. The resulting shape felt pretty good.

Today I spent some time progressing the bowsprit rigging. I am conscious that loose lines don't hang realistically because they are stiff relative to their weight. Because of this I decided to make the athwartship lines from .017" beading wire. I decided I needed a jig on which to make the bowsprit rigging - this was quickly knocked up from MDF and pins. The base of the triangle was a little wider that the distance across the martingale struts to give the belly to the lines. The ends of the athwartship lines were made by looping the wire through a .040" thin wall tube. The hoop on the end is the attachment feature for the bowsprit shrouds. In the next picture the 6 lines are compete and the port and starboard longitudinal lines (braided fishing line) have been tied. All a bit tricky to see - sorry. The whole thing is loosely fitted in place. I really need the hot air gun I ordered.

Herask / Druxey, Thank you for visiting and your supportive comments. Also thanks to all of you who left likes or just paid a visit. Well now for a fairly boring update - but the good news is that all 60 sliders are done plus 5 spares - for floor fodder. The sliders are currently stored on the tracks awaiting a later foray into sail making. I was a bit brain dead by the last batch - staring at small parts with less than perfect eyes is quite a challenge these days. So to proceed I started thinking about the bowsprit rigging. The first job was to glue the bowsprit into the shoe. Id been avoiding this because something kept telling me I would regret it. Anyway its done and the worry about the mystery problem may come to pass. Probably the best place to start with the bowsprit rigging is to have a look at a few photos of the real thing. The bowsprit shrouds are going to be made of 7 strand stainless steel braided beading wire - .024" or a scale size of a little over 3/4 inch. On the shrouds are attachment points for the skimpy lines that crew member is traversing. No netting here for whimpy crew members. The detail shot of the attachment point in the shot below below isn't entirely clear but I think what its showing is a protective band on the stay onto which the attachment lug is mounted. I thought it would be nice to try and reproduce this so I did a bit of experimenting. I plan to make the lugs from thing hoops cut from tube. The tube is .092" od thin wall tube and the hoops are sliced off .050' wide - done on the lathe for accuracy / consistency. The jig / operation is fairly easily understood from the photos. The tube is held on the spigot with a spot of CA glue for the turning operation. The hoops are very skittish so I made a lot of spares. I only need 12 so I am into overkill. The binding on the shrouds is going to be made from .060" bore heat shrink tubing - brown to simulate leather. The next shots show the first attempts - I'm sure I will get better with a bit of practice. (I ordered a heat gun off the web for my next attempt - a match wasn't very effective). I also started to assemble the components on to the shrouds. All a bit small but it fills the time quite well.

Hello Mitbok Sorry I am so late finding this build. As you say, what a beautiful hull shape. The build quality is tremendous. l liked the process for the seat pillars, I will copy that some time. I see that the guard on the Byrnes saw is always in the up position. I wonder if anyone ever uses the saw with the guard down?

And so on with slider production - 59 to go. The sliders have to be sized to fit the track (00 gauge) previously fitted to the main, fore and staysail booms. This meant a design as per the following sketch. I decided the best starting point was .125" x .500" brass bar, this would allow me to make 6 sliders per batch. The first operation was to drill (on the mill) the .048" slider hole across the .500" width of the bar. I use a broken drill ground to a point to centre spot the hole and follow up with a .040 drill followed by the final size .048" drill. This in my experience is the best way to get the hole to start accurately and run true. I made 2 batches of 6 by working on both ends of the bar. The next operation was to slot through to the hole using a .022 miniature slitting saw held in a arbour I made for the job. Slight run out on the saw meant that it cut a .025 slot. Accurate centring of the slot was critical because any offset between the slot and the hole meant that it would not slide (I know because I did it). At this stage I did a trial check that the bar slid nicely on the track. I now did a series of cuts across the 0.125" width of the bar to divide the edge into .060" wide segments. These cuts were only part way through because I wanted the assembly to remain together for later soldering. The 2 ends were then sliced off .090" thick to make a "chocolate bar". I had made up a simple aluminium jig to assist soldering. The jig has a small step (just visible in front of the shoulder) which locates the tube relative to the chocolate bar so that once assembled the two parts are aligned on the centre line. I used aluminium to avoid the possibility of the sliders attaching to it during the soldering operation. The parts were placed on the jig and held with spring to close tweezers while soldering with a butane torch. After a bit of polishing the slider segments were cut off using a razor saw. To make 6 takes about an hour - so 60 is 10 hours (across a few days).

RussR How about sticking it to a longer piece of sacrificial timber using double sided tape. Then cut it on a chop saw or table saw using a very thin slitting saw blade while holding the sacrificial timber. Alternatively if you don't have power tools cut it with a razor saw and mitre block.

Hello Hamilton. It will be interesting to hear how you coped with getting the plank edges to line up as you progressed with the planking. In builds such as this where the distances between the frames are relatively large compared with the thickness of the planks I find that the planks want to "flatten" out mid way between the frames and that this makes maintaining alignment of all the plank edges a bit problematical. That said many builders seem to cope with the problem very well. Any learning points you want to impart will be most interesting. The build is coming along very well.

Jim The first ship plans I bought were for HMS Hood when a 16 year old back in 1969. Interesting to note that when I bought the plans she had been gone for 28 years whereas I have owned them for 48 years. My how time flies. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Thanks Richard, you are too kind. I too am having a few days away but once back I'll do a bit of detail on my method, trials and tribulations in making the sliders. Then it will be on to masts and standing rigging. I have been doing a bit of internet surfing on suitable materials for sail cloth. Altair has a "modern" set of sails so I need something to simulate these. I'm stilll undecided so suggestions are welcome.

She is coming along really well.

Welcome back Richard. Thanks for the feedback.

Thank you Kees. I hope the job hunting is going well.

Hello Smudger DarkOps stuff looks like fun and should get you off to a good start. I look forward to seeing your builds.

I bit the bullet and now have a slider. The pin is 3/4" long. The "T" of the track fits in the slotted hole and the sail attaches to the ring. I'm going to bed a little less daunted.

Michael, I now flip between metric and imperial quite naturally. I find that I quite like scheming out small parts in metric, which I usually convert back to imperial when its time for machining (my lathe and mill are imperial). I don't usually do the conversion very accurately, finding 1mm = .040" being good enough for most purposes. I try to use imperial when I post updates. Thank you for the anchor comment. I am coming to the end of the deck fittings, just mopping up the few that remain in an attempt to avoid getting on with making the 60+ sliders. Anyway here are a few bits: The mounting for the staysail boom. The gooseneck for the spinnaker boom - attached to the foremast. The rail protection at the bow. The foremast boom crutch - mounted on the main past. The semicircular support was made out of 3/8 inch tube with a 1/8" drilled bar (scalloped on one side) soldered on. The only deck fittings left are protective strips adjacent to the stern fairleads and the port and starboard navigation lights. And then its those pesky sliders.

Mark, John. Thank you for your interest and feedback, also thank you to.all who have visited. Tom, I started an engineering apprenticeship with Rolls Royce (Jet EngineDivision) before they packed me off to Univesity to do a Mechanical Engineering Degree. Thereafter most of my career was spent behind a desk pushing a pen. I had to retire to relearn how to make stuff.

Bedford - thank you. So to continue with the anchor build: I did a bit more sketching to define the shank. I made the shank from 1/4 inch round bar. I initially drilled the various holes along the centre line and then squared off the end to form the bracket which joins the shank to the arm. The bar was held vertically on the rotary table and the square was cut with the side of the end mill. The slot was cut with a jewellers saw, cutting down to the the previously drilled cross hole. The bar was then transferred to the lathe and turned down to the appropriate diameters. The bar was then transferred to the mill and flats were machined where the stock passes through. The arm and shank were then soldered together. The anchor was then separated from the bar and polished up. The stock was made from 1/6 inch wire and the ends were turned down to mount the spherical balls (brass beads). The bead on the angled end was soldered on before the shank was passed through the stock and soldered in place. The final ball was then soldered on. I used toolmakers clamps to ease handling during soldering. Finally I mounted the handling eye and shackle - made from wire. For a distraction I made the ships bell - sometimes I can't be bothered with profile tools so I improvise turning the lathe saddle and cross slide hand wheels in unison to create the desired shape (sometimes with more success than others).

Michael, thank you. i'm looking forward to hear about the development of your new workshop. And so to continuing the build: I decided to have a go at the pair of fisherman's anchors which sit on the rail. I'll start with a couple of images showing how far I have got and then go back over the method. This may take a couple of posts. The anchors are a little under 1.250" high. I had fairly little to go on. The plan dimensions and details were rudimentary but I did have a partial image of the anchor on the rail. I started with a sketch which mapped out my initial thoughts. I modified it a bit as I went along. I started with the arm and the flukes. The arm was made out of 3/32" brass rod with recesses cut away at each end to take the flukes. Milling flats on slender rod required as simple holding jig made from a piece of scrap aluminium. The brass was cut to length and glued with CA into the jig to support it while milling, I heated the jig with the blowtorch to remove it. The flukes were made from 1/32" brass sheet. 4 square blanks were initially cut and then held together with double sided tape. A template of the fluke (which was about 1/4" long) was made by folding paper and cutting the half profile by eye. I had a few goes before being happy. The fluke "stack" was then shaped by jewellers saw and file. If I had to do it again I think I would cut the profile from a solid bar and then slit off the individual flukes using the slitting saw. I assembled the flukes and arm with the arm straight. To hold the components in position while soldering I clamped the 3 pieces to a thin steel strip - slightly bowed to provide spring clamping. Once soldering was complete I cleaned up the assembly on the brass brush wheel on my polisher. I found an old bit of dowel the right diameter to act as a former for the bending. The initial bend was by thumb pressure followed by gently tapping with a hammer. I had annealed all parts before soldering to make the bending easier. I'll stop now and pick up the story again tomorrow.

Mark & John - Thank You. Tom - fellow builders are always welcome to call in. Coventry is about 140 miles away but it is blocked off from West Sussex by a black hole called the M25 London Orbital Motorway. On a good day the journey time is about 3 hours and on a bad day time is warped and swallowed without trace. Thank you for your comments on my log, enjoy your trip.

I spent the last few days doing a bit of tiding up on outstanding bits. Also my brother in law was over from Phoenix Arizona and he asked to see progress so far which gave me the opportunity to do an interim assembly. I finished off the cathead - but i will leave fixing until later in the build as they are a bit vulnerable. I also made and attached the rail protection plate that goes under the cathead. I drilled the deck and bolted in position the previously made anchor winch and added the anchor chains. I finished attaching and gluing the yards - and getting them in true alignment ready for gluing the masts in place - hopefully in a couple of weeks time. I then took a series of shots to record the current state of build.

Kees, I'm really pleased that your health has improved and you are feeling good about life and work. Long may your improved health last. Job searches can be challenging but my experience is that if you keep at it something good always turns up. Smile a lot, enjoy your family and keep positive.

Very sad news. Bob was such a friendly soul. He will be sadly missed.

Thank you Michael. I hope the move is going well.

Plodding on:- Today I concentrated on the demountable "cathead" and deck mounting brackets. They are more tricky than they appear, particularly as I wanted them to look somewhat authentic. I scratched my head for a while playing with my box of assorted brass sections but eventually decided I didn't have anything suitable. I resorted to chopping out of solid. The bracket was marked out on a piece of 3/8" bar and the profile was machined on the mill using a suitably sized ball end milling cutter. I made the brackets as a matched pair - slotting out the centre of each bracket using the slitting saw. the pair were finally separated using a jewellers saw. The arm could have been easier but I decided I wanted to reproduce the "I" beam section as seen in the 2nd photo. This involved cutting a .030" wide slot in the arm which had a finished size of .100" x .100". I cut the arm from a .100" thick brass sheet using the slitting saw, the same blade being used to form the "I" section. It was all a bit small and hence difficult to see in the next photo. The 1st slot has been cut ready for turning the sheet round to cut the slot on the other side. The final operation was to part off the beam from the sheet. Bending was a bit tricky as it would have been very easy to collapse the "I" section. Much heating and multiple gentle bends were required. The result however turned out as I wanted. I should finish them tomorrow.

Thank you - my palm is probably not a very good indicator of scale. I have seen many posts which use a Dime as an indicator of scale. I don't have one but its almost exactly the same size as a UK 5 pence so here is a picture of all 8 blocks made yesterday against my "UK Dime". Mark / John thank you for your comments and your continuing visits. Also thank you to all of you who have mastered the new like button. I continue to plod through the remaining deck fittings - not many left now. Today I spent a couple of hours making the staysail boom crutch.