KeithAug

Thank you Mark. Over the past two days I have been making the raised grating deck at the stern. I made a template for the deck - basically paper glued on to 1/32" ply. This was shaped until the profile was a good fit to the inside profile of the bulwarks. On to this I drew the pattern for the solid planks which separate the gratings. Counting the grating holes on the photographs allowed me to get a good representation of the correct shape. As stated in an earlier post I decided to make the grating hole size slightly larger than on the original - equivalent to 1.1" square holes at full size. I worried that smaller gratings would be a bit too delicate. I used a 0.8mm (.031") slitting saw to cut the grating slots in timber .750" wide by .062" thick. The slots were machined .031" deep. The following photo shows the slotting at an early stage. The numbers down the side are the micrometer setting for the saw - you can see they are all .063" apart. After a number of hours I had 2 stacks. (One side of the wood had paint on one edge - hence the 2 colours). The stacks were then glued together with PVA glue. The set up probably needs a bit of explanation. The "V" block is clamped to board with a right-angled up-stand. The stacks are pushed against the up-stand and the "V" block. The silver thing on the left is a large rare earth magnet and this is providing the clamping force by attraction to the "V" block. Once the glue dried gratings were sliced off in preparation for cutting to size and shape.

Very nice work on the hurricane deck, all very impressive.

Pat, Gary, Michael - thank you for visiting and taking time to comment. Also thank you to everyone else who has visited and or liked my build. It seemed a bit warmer in the workshop over the weekend so I got on with finishing the cleats. As all the bits had been made previously this just involved assembly and careful glueing with CA. Not a lot to be said so I am just posting pictures of the result. The first image is significantly magnified (but it does make the deck planking look neat).

Almost at the end of the cleat saga:- The cleats sit on wooden plinths. Size .52"x.2"x.03". I shaped a piece of mahogany to .52"x.2" cross section and 3 inches long. The edges were sanded to a radius and then the plank was put on the table saw and .03" thick slices were cut off. I needed 18 but made a couple of spares (not all shown in photo) I cut card strips and stuck them on to the deck to fix the positions for the plinths. The plinths were glued in place with a dab of CA. I proceeded in this way until all plinths were in place. The drill jig was then used to drill the the plinths to take the cleat pedestals. At this stage all the plinths were painted with 4 coats of poly prior to the brass bases of the cleats being glued in place - once again with CA.

Thank you G.L.

GL - Your casting of the keel was very interesting. Like Gary I would welcome a bit more detail, particularly around making the mould.

Gary - Lovely job on the gallows - but that is par for the course on this build. Once again very realistic paintwork.

Yes that's how I did it until I got frustrated with having to use 2 hands. Now it is easier and quicker which is important when you change blades frequently as I do. I do a lot of my work with fine toothed slitting saws and they are much more difficult to jamb than a TCT saw.

No idea ---- If I understand, you mean use a spanner instead of the bar I made. The issue is that the bar has to be slotted and slotting out the shaft of a chrome vanadium spanner would have been more difficult than machining up a piece of mild steel bar.

I had a request for details of my Byrnes Saw shaft lock (to assist with blade changing). I have posted the details here to make them generally available. Photo of shaft lock (in parked position):- Shaft lock components:- Sizing Information:- The large diameter of pivot arm (2nd item below) is 12mm. The viewing window for the saw shaft is 20mm diameter - cut in the belt cover with a step drill. The belt cover was removed to cut this hole. The hole for the pivot arm was 6mm diameter.

I thought moggies was a British name for cats - obviously I was wrong. I looked up the definition:- a cat, typically one that does not have a pedigree or is otherwise unremarkable. This doesn't seem to be quite the sort of cat Paul has.

Dan. Towards the end of the cut when only a very thin web remains the cutter tends to push rather than cut and the deck plate starts to lift away from the top of the saw. With care you can stop the cut just before it parts company and then tear off the remaining web which by this stage is only a few thousandths thick.. Thank you for the compliment. Eberhard - thank you for the tip. I hadn't come across them but found them under the name of "Cup Burr". I think I will add some to my Santa list.

I finished off the remaining 20 pedestals and then made the cleat bases - .46"x.14" by .02" thick with holes for the pedestals .25" apart. To make them I milled a .5" x .250" rectangular brass bar down to .46"x.14", rounded the corners and then drilled .05" diameter holes lengthwise. The bases were then cut off to the required thickness using a small .028" thick slitting saw. I made the required 18 and was fortunate the the drilled holes were just deep enough. The bases were then polished by hand on one side using 2000, 5000 and 7000 grit wet and dry paper. The horizontal bar of the cleats was made from .04" brass wire cut to length using a jig. The ends of the wire were made spherical by placing the wire in the hand drill and holding it against the aforementioned emery paper. The final piece of the cleat kit of parts was a stepped jig with holes. This will be used for drilling the deck mounting plinths once they made and glued to the deck.

Very nice detail on the masts Dan. The blocks look very precise, were they bought or did you make them? The ratlines are remarkably cleanly done.

GL - Yes, I suppose that is inevitable, particularly when working in a difficult wood like oak. Never the less the finished hull looks perfect,

Hello Jon, Just catching up and loved your comment above. It just chimed with how I sometimes feel. Funny thing this creeping decline process.

Looks like an interesting project. I will be interested to follow along.

Druxey - that would have been my favoured option but the sternmost bulwark bracing struts are in the way and I think they will prevent the grating sliding rearward if the cap rail is already in place.

I thought I would make a start on the deck cleats. Once again the dimensions were scaled from drawings using the deck plank width of 3" as a comparator. From the photos I drew a scale sketch. The key element is the pedestal. It looks big on the drawing but in fact is a little over 1/8" high. All pedestals of course need to be identical and the initial cleat count 24 led to a requirement of 48 pedestals. Mindful of earlier problems with the plans I did a check of the deck cleats against the photographs. This confirmed all of the cleats with the exception of the 6 associated with the foremast. While these cleats were on the plan they were definitely missing form the photographs. This is a bit odd as in my experience winches and cleats tend to appear in pairs. 2 missing can be explained by the deletion of the 2 winches discussed earlier but why the other 4 have gone missing is a bit of a mystery. Anyway the original requirement for 48 pedestals was reduced to 36. As with the eyebolts I started by making a form tool. This was made to create a .090" diameter ball on a .065" diameter shaft. The plan was to turn the neck and the shaft (using the form tool) and then use a round ended lathe tool to create the concave neck profile with a minimum width of .050". As previously the stock was mounted in a hex collet block and then in the lathe chuck. The saddle was locked to the bed and the form tool plunged in the make the ball on a shaft. To make the plunge depth repeatability easier I attached a spare digital linear scale between the cross slide and the splash guard - held by rare earth magnets (obviously this only works when the saddle is locked). This meant I only had to note digital reading and didn't have to count and record hand wheel rotations. The plunge was made until the ball diameter was .090" The round nose lathe tool was mounted in a quick change tool holder and positioned so that the neck could be shaped with a plunge cut without unlocking the saddle. As with the profile tool the digital reading was noted once the plunge had thinned the neck to .050". Finally I turned a mounting spigot of .050" diameter with a parting off tool. Once the profile had been created I moved the hex block to the mill which had been set up to plane off both sides of the ball and shaft to a thickness of .040". As with the eyebolts the x axis was locked as was the vertical (Z) position of the cutter. The cut was made by winding the y axis of the mill. Finally a .040" diameter hole was drilled in the same way used for the eyebolts and the pedestal was cut off using a jewellers saw. After a few hours work I had the first of the 36 pedestals. (in the following photograph compared with a standard sized safety match). With all the setup stuff completed It took 90 minutes or to make the next 19. Now only 20 more to make (including 4 spares for black hole problems).

Very nice woodwork GL. I note you work in a T shirt. Is it particularly warm in Belgium at the moment - unlike this side of the channel?

Sad news to hear of the passing of an exquisite craftsman but at least his exceptional legacy will inspire future generations of modellers.

This is correct and in addition I would advise against wearing rings while doing machine work - they also lead to missing digits.

Pat - If you look carefully you can see the seams - so I believe they lift out. They only sit a few inches above the deck and in that location (where the hull depth is very shallow) its hard to believe that anything below requires access. Indeed it is a bit odd that the gratings are required at all. How are you getting on with sorting out your lathe eccentricity problems?

Having finished the struts I progressed the fitting of the bulwark penetration reinforcing rings. I covered the manufacture of these earlier but to recap the rings were made out of eyelets with the tube part cut down to half the bulwark thickness. They were then inserted in the pre-drilled holes from either side and glued in place with CA glue. The result was quite pleasing, the joint line being invisible until magnified by the photographs. Even then the joint was barely visible. I really want to get on with making and fitting the bulwark capping rail. Not being sure how I am going to do this is praying on my mind. One of the obstacles to fitting the rail is the creation of the raised grating at the stern. This fits below the rail and has to go on before it is fitted. The plans are not much use in this area although as you can see the photos are quite good. The grating holes are very small 3/4" square at full scale or .021" at the model scale of 1/36. I thought that .021" would be a bit of a challenge in the wood I am using so decided to compromise and make them .031" square (1.1" square at full size). I spent some time measuring up and creating a template from which to work. I took the external profile from the hull by putting a piece of paper over the stern and doing the equivalent of brass rubbing. The other dimensions and shapes were scaled from the photographs. By which time the cold had taken its toll and I retired to the lounge for a warm.

Amazed at your CAD skills. Now all you have to do is attach a CNC Mill and you will have finished.