Seventynet

Thank you all for your well-wishes and for your kind comments.  Although, I have generally felt pretty ok, throughout (congestion, mostly), today was my first day where I tested negative.  It was nice to have a little time to rest, but my compulsive nature has me bouncing off the walls, at this point.
 
So, after much fiddling/fettling, I finally have the forward and mid supports dialed-in where I want them:


But, for the fact that I underestimated the angle of the buttressing knees on the forward support:

Okay, not a big deal; I added some plastic underneath the knee, so that I could fair the top surface flush with the headrail profile:
 


After fairing, and adding the support ledge for the grate slats:



I think the fleurs shaped up nicely, especially considering how small they actually are:

I had to add some plastic to the foot of the split supports, in order to raise them up about a 1/16”, but that is not a big deal either.  This is the beauty of a plastic build; you can make these mistakes and still salvage the part.
 
The next tricky bit of business is to fashion the forward terminus for the head grating, which fairs into the upper head knee.
 
More to follow..

At last I have an update on my build!
 
Thanks for all of the advice given as getting this right has proven to be quite a challenge for me.  Firstly I tried carving a plank and it did not go too well and I find that using this method wastes quite a lot of wood.
 
So in the end I used lamination to get around the tightest bends but I also had to spile the planks too.  The first 3 strakes underneath the deck clamp had to be made this way before I could revert to solid wood.
 
This plank was made up of 3 layers to get to the correct thickness of 2.8mm
 


The next two planks were made up of 2 layers of lamination the first being 2.5mm thick and the second 2.8mm
 


Now this is my first attempt at ceiling planking and I soon realised that I had made an error earlier in the build.  The first lot of planks that I had placed coming away from the keelson had been tapered too much towards the stern.  They did not go far enough up the sternson which meant that with my remaining planks I really had to make up some space between them and the new planking on the transom.
I had a choice I could either fit a stealer to bridge the gap or exaggerate the flair of the planks on the transom.  I decided on the latter and here's the result.
 


Its been a really good learning curve for me and whilst the planking is hardly uniform it is very tight on the frames and transom.  Next time I will look at this planking from a completely different angle and get it far more pleasing to the eye.
 
I now need to replicate my mistakes on the starboard side so that it looks symmetrical but I think this will be ok for me to do.
 
Lastly a couple of pictures hopefully showing the planking thickness decreasing from 3mm to 1.8mm as it moves down the frames and across the transom.
 


Cheers Mark
 

a few small steps forward:





 

Thanks, Pat.  Those are holes drilled in the trucks and darkened with pencil lead!
 
I finished up the main hatch by adding the eyebolts and rings to the covering boards.  Both are made of .032" diameter brass rod, blackened with Brass Black.
The eyebolts are made with a jewelry making tool known as a "looper".  The rings are annealed brass rod, using a torch, which is blackened, then wrapped around an appropriate sized drill bit and cut free with a wire cutter.

Thank you for the encouraging words Killckthere and John!
 
With planking done, I have cut out and fit the little stub bulkheads and glued them in place in the incorrectly large spaces between bulkheads in the kit.  See photos below.  I also cut solid filler pieces for the mast-step and glued those in place.    I started building the mast partners; I will build the kit plywood version of the partners, and use it as a pattern to build a solid wood piece.
 
Cutting bulkhead stub pieces:

 
Glueing mini-bulkheads in place

 
Here she is with all the little stub-bulkheads glued in place.   Now after planking, it will look like the ship has correct bulkhead spacing throughout.  The kit does not come with these extra little bulkhead stubs.

 

Here is the mast partners, which I am building up from kit pieces, and next I will fashion a solid basswood one:

 
 
Cheers!
 
 

Hello!
 
Update from today:
 
Here is the 1.8mmx3mm filler piece glued in place:

 
And here it is, pictured from the inside of the hull:

Once glued in place, I carved/shaped the filler piece to fit the bulkheads, adjacent pieces, and overall hull shape:
 
1st shear plank glued in place:

 
After gluing the first side plank row in place, I noticed a gap in the cutout of some of the bulk heads; I filled this with wooden filler pieces:
 

 
And after filling with filler pieces made of basswood:

Final Top side plank being glued in place:
 

 
Next I will trim off the excess/tops of the bulkheads.   All going well so far.
 
Jason
 
 
 

Gosh I do like the weekend!
 
Nice cold morning here in Wisconsin.  Bottom of the hull is planked.  Now I will go back over the planks and glue and clamp the few areas were there was not glue between the planks, this will be a quick easy job just to make sure the planks are tight together along their whole lengths.  Then I will attach the remaining planks to the sides of the hull.
 

 

Hi all, not much news from La Palme, scratch, scratch............ scratch. I'm getting closer to finishing the inside of the hull. I made some sanding blocks at the beginning and worked with them, but in my eyes this is not purposeful. It's best to work with the drawing plates - the result is great and, above all, precise.
 


 

 

Hi Allan, thank you for the praise. I’ve never had a steady enough hand or simply never practiced enough with many hand tools to be satisfied with the results so I started my collection of power tools early on in this hobby. I also appreciate high quality power tools such as the Byrne machines (thickness sander, disk sander and table saw; my word they are good!), and Sherline lathe and mill. I use the Dewalt scroll saw and the Ridgid oscillating sander. I greatly admire those who instead rely on hand tools. 

Hi everyone,
 
Thanks again for the comments and likes. Since the last update I have installed the forecastle and quarterdeck beams and hatch carlings, coamings and ladders. The waterways were then installed along with the beam rabbets for the fore and aft planking. Finally I completed the bulwark planking. I am looking forward to building the windlass and capstan next.






Until next time,
Ian
 
 

Gary, yes- doing years of exacting work, trying to do the best for a client, and hopefully keeping the firm out of court changes a person. Sometimes for the better. . . sometimes otherwise.
 
I did the third round of filling/sanding to the most offending side of the hull. Totally worth the effort. Will repeat on the other side and re-evaluate.
 

You’re doing a great job Fred!
 
Ian

Hey Everyone, first and foremost  many thanks to all of you for your comments and Likes. The cabin is finished and the deck has been laid. The cabin was made pretty well the same way as the hatches. The walls are 1/16”cherry and the roof is 3/64” AYC. 
 

 

 

 

 

 
One of the kit supplied cabin roof beams was used to support the roof planks. Two straight planks were laid down the center of the roof and the remaining planks were tapered. Well except for the outer two planks which will have to be sanded back to the proper amount of overhang..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
After a good sanding the companionway roof slides were attached. Holes for the port lights were made. I had a couple of Billings plastic port lights laying around which I think look good so they were used. Mod Podge “ Dimensional Magic “ was used to glaze them.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Then the deck planking was started. The plans and directions say that no nibbling was used and that the planks should be “feathered “ into the planksheer.
Here are the photos just showing the progression of the planking.  The deck was given a coat of wipe on poly.
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 
Next will be the stanchions and knees. Hope to see you next time.
 
 

I've been working on the outside - the steps and the channels for both of which I cut brass scrapers. The plans show the corners of the channels rounded off but I struggled to achieve an acceptable result and decided in the end to leave them square.

 



Here is the Syren Windlass. Te instructions indicate that orientation is important. I didn't appreciate quite what that meant. You install an octagon onto a square stick so there is a risk, unless you understand what is required by way of orientation, that you will be a quarter turn out - as I was. But I don't mind. 
 Here are some overviews.
 



Best wishes everyone
Fred
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks again for the friendly encouragement!
 
**********************************************
 


Jolly-Boat continued 4
 
After some deliberations, I decided to cut the top of the frames back to gunwale level using a sort of micro-scalpel made from a piece of razor-blade just under 1 mm wide and held in a holder meant for that purposes (they come from the biological/medical realm). 
 
Hull with frames cut back to gunwale level
 
Next went in the gunwale, laser-cut strips of paper 0.35 mm wide and 0.12 mm thick, and the inwales on which the seats rest, 0.5 mm x 0.12 mm. These were all lacquered in.
 

Hull with gunwales and inwales
 
On the prototype the floorboard, of course, were individual planks, but aligning them properly would have been rather difficult, so I cheated a bit and joined them. This will be barely visible under the seats eventually.

Floorboards installed in the hull
 
As my building was not as precise to the drawings, as I would have wished, the stern-sheets and the little platform in the bow required a bit of trial and error, and re-drawing for the laser-cutting. Still a bit of sanding to fit was required.
 
Sanding paper is not that much fun, but re-soaking it in lacquer after a few strokes with a diamond-file keeps fraying under control. 
 
Stern-sheets, rowing seats and bow-platform installed
 
I also laser-cut some foot-rests for the rowers – these parts are double layers of paper, with the actual rest about 0.2 mm x 0.2 mm in cross-section

The footrests for the rowers are visible just before the rowing seat behind
 
This concludes the main structural parts, but a lot of small bits and pieces still need to be done.

Thanks again to all your encouragement and praise 😇
 
**********************
 

Jolly-Boat continued 3
 
The moment of truth: I removed the copper wire and cut the extended frames with my micro-scissors.

Cutting the extended frames with micro-scissors
 
With some cautious rocking of the shell, it came off cleanly.
 
The result is a quite strong hull with the typical exterior and interior look of a clinker-built boat. Unfortunately, some of the frames have moved a bit, but with a drop of acetone this can be fixed.

Hull begins to detach from the former
 
I noticed, that the frames did not glue well to the wash-strake, which is actually good, because on the prototype they did not continue to this strake, but ended under an in-whale. I will have find a way to cleanly cut the frames at the appropriate height and then continue with installing the cant-frames, in-whales, floor-boards, seats, etc.

Hull successfully taken off the former
 
I am actually wondering now, whether I could have assembled the hull in traditional clinker-fashion, with ‘edge-fastening’ the strakes only and then inserted the frames prototype-fashion afterwards. On the other hand, gluing the stem-keel-combination to the tied-down frames gave a rigid back-bone to work from. So this was probably the best way.
 
To be continued ....

Hi Allan, thank you for the praise. I’ve never had a steady enough hand or simply never practiced enough with many hand tools to be satisfied with the results so I started my collection of power tools early on in this hobby. I also appreciate high quality power tools such as the Byrne machines (thickness sander, disk sander and table saw; my word they are good!), and Sherline lathe and mill. I use the Dewalt scroll saw and the Ridgid oscillating sander. I greatly admire those who instead rely on hand tools. 

Hi everyone,
 
Thanks again for the comments and likes. Since the last update I have installed the forecastle and quarterdeck beams and hatch carlings, coamings and ladders. The waterways were then installed along with the beam rabbets for the fore and aft planking. Finally I completed the bulwark planking. I am looking forward to building the windlass and capstan next.






Until next time,
Ian
 
 

Hi everyone,
 
Thanks again for the comments and likes. Since the last update I have installed the forecastle and quarterdeck beams and hatch carlings, coamings and ladders. The waterways were then installed along with the beam rabbets for the fore and aft planking. Finally I completed the bulwark planking. I am looking forward to building the windlass and capstan next.






Until next time,
Ian
 
 

Did the second priming. As expected, one side is a lot better than the other. I'm trying to decide whether to attempt more filling/sanding. I don't mind expending the effort, but am unsure if I can make it any better. . .
 

 

 

Fin, rudder and propeller drive housing shaped and installed. I do enjoy shaping wood, and am considering getting into carving. I'd like to do my own ornamentation and figureheads at some point.
 
Ready to re-prime the hull.
 

I like the prover very much. For the money its absolutely giving value. I started with the 3018 but found that too 'lightweight' and sold it off to buy the 3040.
 
I use flip over technique. so I design two sided and turn the piece on the table. Easy, once you know how to do this.
 
Just some random pics to show you.
 

Molding of the Main Rail
Below the level of the Carhead are 2 “step downs”
The 1st thins the Rail by 0.53mm- upper and lower limiting lines supposed to be “S” shaped-easier said than done.
The next step meets the depth of the groove of the molding.
The outer face of the Rail is beveled to half thickness at lower edge to simplify the scrapping.
I had no readymade scrappers to match the patterns suggested- in any case I made a fundamental error in using cherry instead of boxwood-the cherry doesn’t take to scrapping and the end result was not satisfactory.
TFFM suggests the possibility of extra run of molding, but I wanted a contrast and used a separate planksheer. Even though this is only 0.53mm, the blackhorn is brittle, so I used hot water and a bending jig.
A thin overlap outwards and the inner side is trimmed to match the inner edge of the lining rail.
 
Scoring for the Cathead, a triangular section groove so that the top of the Timberhead is 9.5mm above the Toptimber Line.(Some of the hull molding e.g. sheer, needs cutting away.
The assembly can be fitted so the whole is in a vertical plane, and the Timberhead is also vertical.Also check for symmetry of the curves when eyeballing from the stem.( Not so easy as the wales and moldings are on one side only on my model.)
The foremost end is shaped to fit behind the Hair Bracket. 
When all seems set, I’m left with a small gap between these ends.
There is a bolster to be fitted later, to finish this off. I fitted it now so I won’t see the error which otherwise would annoy me and force me to scrap the lot and start again !.
 

Main Rail cont.
Laying down the outer rail first on the pattern, then completing the lining.
The combined piece is left slightly over long until a groove, triangular in section, is scored into the aft face to allow fitting against the Cathead.
The  Main Rail also narrows moving forward, BUT ONLY IN THE OUTER RAIL.
I.e. the Lining thickness remains constant.
1.33+2.9 narrows to 1.33+1.5mm.

The Main Rail
TFFM says not to worry-easier than it looks Ha! Ha!
Good explanation about the plans distorting, but I didn’t understand the solution. So I just cut the pattern of the expanded example, backed onto card and it seemed to fit.
The Rail consists of 3 parts- Main (outer), Lining(inner) and Planksheer(above).
The first two have scarfe joints that are staggered.
Stock for the outer rail is 2.9mm sq.- lining 2.9x1.33 mm.
 
In order to make the Timberhead, I made the aftermost part of each rail first.
 These were placed in a jig so the shaping was consistent.
(The Jig was milled and filled and the base of the groove is colored to show when to limit the shaping of the piece-using a sanding stick)