KeithAug

Thank you Paul, and no I don't want to prolong the distraction.

Lovely project Steve and great work on the cranse. She has hell of a keel so I assume she carried a lot of sail. Given the apparent height of the mast I agree she was probably sloop rigged. I wonder whether she was converted at some time earlier in her career. Presumably we will never know - perhaps carbon dating would help🙂.

Andy, Rick, Phil. Thank you all for continuing to follow my lamentable progress. I haven't had time to post much or to look at how everyone is getting on with their builds. I must try harder to catch up. The culprit (photo below) breezed into the workshop about a month ago and drew the dolls house she wanted for Christmas. So the boat was parked and the house build took over. I am putting varnish on the hull between long periods of house construction. Wire wool toned down the sheen after the first coat. I still have a few blemishes to fix. On to the second coat. I am keeping a log of the number of coats. I am aiming for one a day.

Thank you for the reminder. My family and I spent 10 years up to 2002 doing all the USA national parks with the exception of Big Bend, Shenandoah and Great Smokey Mountains. Devil's Tower was a must see for Trecky fans. Fortunately we caught Wind Cave open. Quite refreshing on a hot day. Nice metalwork detail on the hull.

Yes I agree. The unpainted hull is looking beautiful. Pity to paint it really.

A man after my own heart.

Perhaps she is mirroring the original - at least she isn't in two halves yet.

Ian - 1977! - I think I can remember that far back. Interestingly I bought a set of plans for Hood in 1970 and they survived many house moves. About 2 years ago I went looking for them and they were gone. I blame my wife! I love the archaeology.

Good looking frames Rob. It is aways a welcome sight to see the hulls form, even when it is a skeleton.

Phil - Yes I had picked up that technique from another build. I think my set up time for photo etch might be almost as long as sawing it out. I think I will try building up the thickness with thick oil based paint rather than solder.

Ian, Druxey, Eberhard - All much better ideas than cutting out with a jewellers saw. I sometimes like doing things the hard way! Photo etch is my option 2. I don't have access to a 3d printer or a laser cutter. Perhaps Santa will oblige.

Time in the workshop continues to be hard come by. However I have made a little progress. I increased my stress levels by boring various holes in the hull. One of the holes has a concave dished shape around it so I made a dome shaped sander. I shouldn't have bothered as the dish was almost imperceptible at model scale. I also made the half cover from brass. I turned a very thin brass washer with sharp edges and then used a ball bearing to press the dish. I also made the "depth sounder" feature and the fairing which protects it. I made the grilles for the various hull penetrations from sheet brass - cut on the mill with a slitting saw. The fingers were soldered to rings cut from brass tube. The edges were then filed flush. I then started pondering the gingerbread again. I sized template on the printer and laid it in place. My pondering led to plan 1 - i.e. cutting the gingerbread from brass sheet and then building up the thickness with something to give it bulk / texture. Plans 2, 3 or 4 may still be necessary. I started with a little jewellery saw practice. The first efforts weren't really up to scratch. It may take some time but with a little more care I think I can make a reasonable job of cutting the brass sheet. I think its going to take quite a few hours of sawing.

I hadn't realised I was also signing up for an archaeology thread.

Eberhard - Yes we have all probably had that pleasure. I always marvelled at how many poorly designed WC systems were installed on otherwise well designed boats e.g. :- The toilet pump changeover switch was always positioned where misdirected urine was bound to land. The pump was invariably plastic and held on by 4 small screws on a fairly narrow mounting base. It flexed alarmingly and felt like it was going to come off in your hand. The pump seal always leaked and invariably squirted brown water over the handle. The seat was invariably loose and the fastenings were invariable corroded and inaccessible.

Yes Roel - that's why I would have the strainer inboard oh the seacock. I have pulled many a log from below the waterline to clear the impeller of weed. They all come with a bung tied to the housing so it is handy to plug the flow.

I found a bit of corrugated pipe off an old vacuum cleaner that was the right external diameter to go inside the port and had an internal diameter that matched my shed vacuum cleaner. I find it works reasonably well at extracting the dust. I should add the "spring ' handles that clamp the disc sander table broke soon after purchase. I replaced them with a couple of Allen bolts which I find are actually easier to use. I find 5" discs are hard to get so I buy 6" which being more common are usually cheaper.

I also have one but I'm not quite as happy as you are Phil. The guard around the disc mounts on the pressed metal base and the work table mounts off the guard. As a consequence I find the table flexes quite easily. My belt sander made hell of a racket out of the box because the drive and idler wheels were eccentric. I had to take them out and re-machine them. I also found it beneficial to machine out the slot on the disc sander work table to accept the mitre gauge off the Byrnes table saw, the supplied gauge was pretty poor. I find the stick on sand paper discs are awful to get unglued. I usually revert to removing the disc and soaking it in a bowl of white spirit for 20 minutes. This however involves a fairly time consuming strip down. I think it is ok for infrequent use but I would like to find something better.

Excellent work and heartwarming to hear that some of the crew are still around.

Impressive use of raw materials Phil. Nice accurate scrolling.

Roel - How much does she weigh fully rigged? I have seen a number of launching frames constructed from plumbing materials, old bicycles, baby carriages etc etc.

Are you going to let us in to the magic paint secret Steven? Good to see more progress.

Eberhard / Phil - thank you. I figured they were inlets but nevertheless I thought they might be prone to blocking with debris such as plastic bags. If it were me I think I would do without the grille and compensate by including a strainer inboard of the sea cock. Much easier to clear blockages when dry and warm. Thank you Gary.

Before the painting marathon there are a few hull penetrations to take care of. Various drains have various grilles and that odd feature next to the keel also needs to be created. Some of the grilles have clearly been made by the local blacksmith - notice the randomness in the sizes and pattern of the holes. I am really not sure why the grilles are required at all (I guess someone will know). Here is yet another odd below the water line feature. Getting the correct positions for these holes was quite an effort, sorting through lots of photos and trying to judge the actual position by following the water streaking down the hull relative to the portholes. "Highly scientific". Anyway after a couple of days checking and cross checking I was sort of satisfied with positioning and transferred the positions to the hull using my trusty laser level. The first attachment was the up-stand for that odd feature (depth sounder?) near the keel. Not much to show for a couple of days of dithering over many photos.

The hull is looking very sharp, good job craig

She is one of those ships where the longer you look the more detail you see. Excellent restoration work John.