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KeithAug
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Everything posted by KeithAug
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Thank you Nils - not quite on the scale of your Kaiser but quite satisfying never the less. Loved your screws - which prompted me to have a go on Altair. I made a little more progress on the capping rail along the length of the hull. At about .300 inch wide the rail was much too stiff to bend to follow the curvature of the deck edge. I was pretty certain I would be able to bend a rail of half the thickness and so decided to make the width from two planks. I had the option of trying to lay up the rail on top of the plan but decided to form the rail by mounting it directly on the bulwark. Having cut mahogany strip (.080 x .300 inch) I needed to round the edges. I was considering making a scraper in the form of a "U" and using this on the plank edge to generate the half round...............however i hit upon a simpler solution....................the back of the knife blade. Mounting the half rail on top of the ribs necessitated drilling and pining the rail to secure it in place while the PVA dried. I did have slip and a break which required repair. So far so good!
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Julie - good luck - its always worth trying and sometimes it works better than expected.
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Hello Julie Teakdecking Systems don't offer caulking guns small enough. Gulliver's shipping supplies is the best source. They can be found at Lilliput Lane, Littlehampton. Hi David - thanks for the comments, i have to make it simple or I make a mess of it.
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I so enjoyed the process of wiping on the poly that I had to force myself to stop after 7 coats. I might have to do more later!!! With the hull sealed I turned it over and started to think about adding the capping rail to the bulwarks. The rail is .080 inch thick and at the stern it varies considerably in width. I started with the stern. I produced a template by pressing a sheet of paper on to the bulwark and then used this to size the 3 planks from which the stern rail would be cut. I needed to shape the 3 sections as one so I mounted them onto a scrap piece of MDF with double sided tape.This was then sanded using the disc and spindle sanders. Once sanded the 3 parts were removed from the backing and offered up to bulwark - no further adjustment was necessary but the edges were rounded with sandpaper by hand. The 3 pieces were then glued together before the assembly was glued to the bulwark using PVA. The stem capping piece will be made in the same way but from 2 pieces.
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Julie Your plan seems quite adventurous. If the waterline band is to look parallel when viewed from the side it has to be much wider at the stern (and a little wider at the bow) to compensate for the hull curvature. I think you could do a planked waterline of a few planks width but it would take a lot of shaping of the planks.
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Julie I think I may have said that I contemplated diagonal planking. The thought I had was to lay the plank immediately in front of the rudder first - following the natural line of the keel at that position - this is in the other direction from that you are considering - not that it matters but you might want to consider the pros and cons. You also might like to try a few trial planks at the position of maximum beam - these planks will have to describe a shallow "S" shape and this should be quite an interesting planking exercise.
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Julie I found the rudder profile didn't blend very smoothly with the hull and keel which to me looked wrong. I adjusted the shape slightly as per photos.
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I finished the winch and a couple of minor deck fittings. The winch base was made from brass sheet and eyelets. The holes were accurately drilled on the mill. The winch was test assembled before painting. Then painted with enamel paint - grey undercoat and then gloss black A couple of other simple items were made on the lathe and mill. The hand-wheel was recovered from a pocket watch - one of a diminishing supply of such items in my odds and ends box. The winch components were superglued together. The fore deck components are photographed arranged in their relative positions.
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Hello Julie I have never tried lacquer but I must give it a go some time. Although its slow I am quite enjoying the process of applying the wipe on poly. The finish is very pleasing and I can always make progress on other stuff while I am waiting. I'm watching your build with interest and wait to see how your 2nd planking options develop?
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I am doing one coat of poly a day. Now on coat 4. Meanwhile I have made a bit of progress on the winch. The plan detail on the winch is basic and I also think its not very representative of the real thing. Unfortunately the internet didn't come up with much additional information so I had to resort to a bit of intuition. Because the winch is painted black I didn't have to bother much about the choice of materials so I used bits from my scrap box. One enhancement to the plan was the winch motor which now has a finned body - cut from a sprocket recovered from a dead printer. The fins do appear to be present on the original. The winch has both rope and chain drives. I made these from hex section brass bar. The chain sprocket was simulated by drilling 6 radial holes using a centre drill and then filing a groove across the holes on the lathe (while rotating). The hex bar provided the reference surfaces for equi-spacing the radial holes. The winch isn't anywhere near finished but its shaping up reasonably well.
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Hello Michael Fife yachts were quite traditional even in 1931. I think the use of brass for the foot reflects the traditional / quality approach that Fife took to its Yachts built for "Gentlemen". The following quote from Wikipedia is enlightening: Like the schooner Altair (1931), many of the cruisers echo his turn of the century designs such as Cicely (1902) or Susanne (1906); similarly there were few fundamental differences in his ketch designs spanning this era. Perceived by some as anachronistic, these yachts were considered by many to represent some of the greatest refinements of the auxiliary cruising yacht ever achieved.
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Hi Bedford I removed the machine marks with 400 grit wet and dry and then buffed the foot on the polishing wheel for about 4 minutes. The polishing wheel was primed with fine finish polishing compound. Keith
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I am intrigued. I am now on coat 3 of the hull wipe on poly and feel I need to share an interesting observation. After sanding and wiping down the hull with white spirit I was ready to wipe on the 1st coat of satin finish poly. The first coat went on and I left it to dry. After 1 day the first coat was still slightly tacky so I left it. After 2 days it was still very slightly tacky but I decided to apply a second coat - this went on well. After another day the 2nd coat was still tacky so I left it. After a further day it was still slightly tacky but decided to apply a third coat - this went on well. After a further 8 hours the 3rd coat was perfectly dry. Throughout the workshop was at 20 deg c (68 deg f) and at 70% humidity. So in summary the first and second coats took over 48 hours "not" to dry and the third coat took 8 hour to fully dry. I have noticed similar situations in the past but never this extreme. It would be good to understand why this drying behaviour happens???????
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Kirby / John Thank you for your positive comments. I have started work on the winch so I should have more to post in a couple of days.
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Having made the foot body I needed to mill / drill the base plate. This was made from .040 inch thick brass plate, thinned to .020inch where the body was to be attached. The 2 parts were then soldered together. Cleats have to be added to the sides of the foot and these were milled from 0.100 inch plate. The whole foot unit with cleats, etc attached was polished.
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Finishing the hull is proving to be quite slow going as the poly is taking ages to dry. I needed a distraction so I thought I'd make a bit of progress on the deck fittings starting with the jib boom foot. The plans for this item were inadequate. I had a look round the internet and found another jib boom foot from a different Fairlie Yacht. This wasn't the same as on Altair but it gave some guidance. The final bit of information was gathered from a 2 second clip of a You Tube video. With this scant information I started to plan out the part. . I started the body of the foot by boring out a 1.75 long x 0.500 inch square bar which I then bolted to a round steel bar. The steel bar was mounted in the mill vice and the half round section was formed by end milling along the length of the workpiece and then rotating it few degrees before repeating the cut. Multiple passes generated the half round (effectively the curve is generated from a series of flats). The shaping of the foot was also done on the mill.
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Hello Francis I made the deck central plank from mahogany veneer. This was from a marquetry kit that I never got round to attempting. The veneer was the same thickness as the deck planks supplied with the kit - about .030 inch (0.75mm) if memory serves me well. I cut the veneer into strips about .500 inch (12.5mm) wide. I stuck the veneer down with PVA glue while it was still parallel. I cut a piece of brass strip the same width as the deck planks and I used this as a cutting guide to notch out the centre mahogany plank - using a craft knife. I notched out the centre plank and then laid the deck plank before cutting the next notch and laying the next deck plank. Its fairly important to make sure the notches in the central plank are symmetrical.
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Timboat This article should answer your question http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/materials_and_tools/Modelling_Woods.pdf
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Hello John / Bedford / Tom Thanks for the feedback. Using mahogany rather than sapele has given the hull a much richer colour. The grain also looks much less course and seems to produce a much smoother sanded finish. The wood being very old (and a little brittle / hard) may may also be helping the finish. Thankfully I managed to complete the sanding without rubbing through to the 1st planking, so that is one worry out of the way. I find the variation in colour of the mahogany quite interesting given that all the planks were cut from a single large plank! The variation does emphasise the individual planks which I quite like.
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After an enforced break I have made a bit of progress. The keel was laminated from .050 inch thick planks. Quite a tedious process because the keel has quite a full form. I don't think I will repeat this process on future builds where the keel is so full. The following series of photographs illustrate the process. Holding the shape of the keel proved quite difficult and I found the best approach was to sand the planks to shape each time a layer was laid. This layer by layer approach allowed me to cut the next layer of planks to match the sanded form achieved on the previous layer. The hull was then sanded firstly with 60 grit emery followed by 120 grit and finished with wire wool. I used white spirit to raise the nap before buffing with wire wool. I did this 3 times. The photographs show the hull still wet with white spirit. Now ready for the first coat of poly (silk finish). I'm planning to thin to one part poly to one part white spirit and try wiping it on. I have not tried this before so its a bit of an experiment.
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Julie - yes I just used the full mahogany plank and laid them along the keel. They were so thin that they easily took on the shape of the keel without splitting.
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Julie I am laminating the keel on Altair - simulating what was done on the original. I keep thinking I won't repeat the approach on future builds. Altair has a much fuller keel than Endeavour and I suspect Endeavour would be easier than Altair. That said I didn't experience any problems 2nd planking the keel on Endeavour and hence I think I would repeat this method. That said you should do what you think you would prefer - its all part of the learning experience.
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Hi Julie Much of the fun is in finding the problems and working out on how to make it better on the next build. I'd be surprised if you didn't sand through the 1st planking somewhere - its almost inevitable given the thickness of planks. As you say the balsa will save the day. Its really important to get the fairing of the 1st planking perfect. The mahogany planks are virtually a veneer and you have no scope for fixing irregulrities at that stage. When I do scratch builds I generally go for 1st planking .060 inch (1.5mm) thick and 2nd planking .040 inch (1mm thick). I find these thicknesses make the problem of sand trough unlikely.
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Julie Re taper planks - I dint find I needed them. The planks seemed to straighten themselves up and lay quite nicely on the keel without curvature. You may remember I ruled lines on the hull to satisfy myself that I was happy with where the planks would fall. I am not quite sure I understand your question re sharp edge but I would agree that as the planks approach the hull area just above the rudder you do get a sharp edge.
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