Chuck

Ben….that looks so nice. I really beautiful planking job. Folks who are not building the winnie should know that this hull is so much bigger than it appears in photos. That is quite a achievement on a hull that size.

Oh my that is awful. We came out ok with just a minor roof leak. But that lioks awful. I hope you guys are doing ok. chuck

Beautiful progress!!!

That looks really good. Its nice to see a cheerful in the darker woods. It looks great. You did a nice tidy job of the square tuck!!!!

There is no scientific method for the garboard. At least not for me. This is where your eye and subjectivity comes into play. Once a hull is lined off with tape or string you can view the model from various angles to check the placement of the garboard. chances are you will know right away if your garboard is wrong because you wouldnt be able to run your tape or string without noticing a problem. Look at Bens Winnie hull all lined off with string. He tweaked them so many times to get to this which is how he found the proper placement and shape for the garboard. The issue is that most folks dont take the time to do this with tape or string. But look at what this method gives you. A perfect roadmap for planking.

Im gonna go nuts and get bored after three days. I cant sit around baking in the sun for hours when there are so many better things to in the climate controlled shop.

I am off to the beach tomorrow....but I did finally get to finish programming the new blocks. This test shows blocks that are just 2.5mm long. Far better than expectations. Everyone has been messaging me about coastline blocks and raving about them......BUT they arent so good at the small sizes. They have a real funny and inconsistent shape. Knowing that anyone can produce larger size blocks pretty easily I am concentrating on getting the tiny ones done well first. Below you can see the coastline example taken from their site. Its not at all shaped properly. They look pretty bad actually. So I wanted to make sure that my small size blocks looked much better and carry that same proper shape as the larger examples. I hope you agree. The close-up photo is pretty brutal but these blocks are simply the best I have made to date for such tiny blocks. what I have learned over the last few weeks is that cnc milling takes forever. Its great in that I can just push a button and go do something else. But it takes literally two hours to mill one side of a sheet of maybe 80 blocks. Drilling the sheave holes and slots is the killer and takes forever on the cnc machine. This sheet took over two hours on just one side. Jack did this one as he helps me develop my own method. So I have developed a way to laser cut the holes and sheave slots while cnc milling the overall shape. It cuts the time down by 65-70%. I have the concept all ready to go and will start production upon my return.

Just an FYI......The online store will be closed for two weeks. I am headed (being dragged really) on vacation by the admiral. The store will be closed from Sep 4th and opening again on Sep 20th. I will be online though....nothing else to do at the beach, Except bake in the sun!!! Chapter 8 will be written for the Winnie and be available when I return. How can I possibly sit around for two weeks and not make stuff? I hope its not as difficult to sit around as I think it will be. Chuck

1/4” and 1/8” blocks. Simplified from boxwood. Experimenting with shapes and techniques. I will show more of my trials and failures as I learn. Photo taken on my phone so its a little rough.

Yes it does....although I may continue making the 2mm blocks by hand. It depends on how well the cnc works with those. They are quite small and may require the personal hands on touch. Yes that is a cad drawing...one of the many cad drawing interpretations we have gone through so far. Chuck

You guys may have noticed that I dont have any blocks left in stock. Yes I have sold out. I also sold out of rope but we are making more as I write this. The hoarding of rope continues without pause. BUT I wanted to give yu guys a heads up about my famous "Original" hand made blocks. I have stopped making them. But fear not. I have two new CNC milling routers on the way. I am working with Jack who did my carvings to automate the process for making blocks. Jack is a wonder with the CNC stuff. Amazing stuff. To come up with the process, I first started to simulate the methods and jigs required by using a laser cutter while waiting for the CNC machines to arrive. Here were the results as laser cut. Just they were burnt but it was the process and shapes I was after. Then we started applying those techniques with Jacks expertise to come up with a plan to apply these techniques and a few more of Jacks tricks to make some CNC milled examples. These are in swiss pear. Jack's expertise and experience is amazing here. Above are the first attempts and as soon as I get all set up we can start production. The manufacturing will be done in my shop. But I wanted to let you guys know that it will be a little while. But if you wondering, this is what we are working towards at syren. Note the rounded sheaves on the examples above. Now we will work and test some more to reduce milling times. Entering the world of CNC will now create even more possibilities for me. I can use my new capability to create even better parts for my projects including headrails and ship's carvings. I just have to put on my thinking cap because CNC requires a different conceptual design thought process. But it will be so nice to be able to push a button and let the machines do their thing so I can spend that time designing and working on my model projects for you. But it will be months before you see these in stock as I hone my skills by learning from Jack, Jack is an excellent mentor and teacher. This is all new to me. Chuck

Thank You.....

Nope… We will add the margin planks next but then we will need to make the coamings for the hatches. Then it will finally be a good time to plank. Chuck

Here are some timely images of the rail and how complex it will be. This is why proper planning is important with the placement of those square holes in the cap rail. There are three levels of the rail including the caprail. Most models for kits wouldnt attempt a rail like this...at least I havent seen one. So we need to go slow and double check all positions. This is very important because of the placemnt of the swivel stocks....qdeck cannon....channels etc. The second rail or middle rail is narrower and the very top rail is super thin. Its actually the same thickness as the timberheads. We wont be adding the rail yet because it will be delicate and get in the way when we are fitting out the qdeck fittings. But the caprail placement is important now so it wont haunt you later. We wont be adding the railing until chapter ten. Chuck and our interpretation below...

The aft end of the last section needs to be bevelled to match the angled backward slope of the transom. You want a nice tight fit with the capraul against the transom.

Continuing on with the caprail.... The next stretches of the caprail are the drifts above the hances working our way aft. The first piece is the one you see painted black. All of these pieces pieces were painted black off the model. Make sure you orient this piece the correct way. There is a laser etched arrow on the bottom of each piece which points forward. This is crucial because there are notches cut out of the cap to accept the timberheads. The rail along the quarter deck is quite detailed. These are always a challenge to build and have look good. So I am using this system to locate the timberheads and uprights. So do not adjust the length of this piece or your timberheads and uprights wont line up later. Just sand it smooth and round of the outboard edge. Keep the length exactly as is. Once that piece is glued in position so the inboard edge is flush with the bulwarks, you can assemble the rounded front edge. This curved piece (C1) is laser cut for you and is 5/32" wide. You want a really wide piece to start because these are tricky. So glue two of them together side by side to make a really wide curved cap. You can see the laser cut sheet sitting on the deck frames. I am test fitting the curved part of the cap against the first length I added. Carefully mark the proper with on the bottom of this piece and sand it to fit the width of the cap rail. You want it the exact same width as the piece it is attached to so it looks like one continuous board. You can round off the outboard edge and glue it in position. If you look really hard at the picture you can see the two halves glued together. The angles are trickier than you might thing and you will thank me for providing these two halves making a wide piece. It enables you to get the proper skewed shape you will need. You will see what I mean about slightly skewed or angled when you try and fit it before marking it for the proper width. Glue it in position and do your best to completely hide the seem between the two pieces. Apply wood filler if needed and sand it smooth. Then paint touch up the paint. Once again this complex curved piece was painted black ahead of time but after sanding and filling to hide the seam some paint touch up will be needed. You can see the results in the next picture. You might also see that I was testing how the fancy rail would work and go together on the port side. You can see some timberheads and a rail being tested. It worked out pretty good. Anyway...back to the caprail. We will continue working our way aft. Another curved section is made up of two halves....laser cut pieces (C2). Same as before. Dont sand the aft edge too much. A really long piece of caprail will be placed against this curved section as you can see in the photo above. If you alter the length of the curved piece it will change the location of all of those small square holes for the timberheads. You might have a little wiggle room...but not much. You will want the qdeck cannons to appear between the gundeck cannons below them. Check the plans for the locations of all timberheads and uprights and you will see what I mean. This long length doesnt go all the way to the transom. It stops short about an 1" or 2" of the transom. You will be shaping another short length to finish off the cap rail along the quarter deck. Make sure you hide the seams nicely and take your time with this. That last small length needs to be beveled which is why I made it a separate section. This way we can control where all of the square holes for the timberheads where be located. It makes a big difference tp see the model with a black painted cap rail. Below you can see I finished the cap rail along the qdeck bulwarks. I only have the bow to do in order to complete this step of adding the cap rail. Any questions. Did I explain the steps clearly enough? Let me know if you have any questions.

It looks good. The moldings are a bit heavy but I have seen much much worse. The beauty of those is you can remove those easy enough at any time. So just keep trying. You will be able to make great molding with a bit of practice.

Fantastic Ryland. Really exceptional and it shows how much care you took with the build. Chuck

Nicely done!

Not all ports were used. You will always have extra ports. Resist the urge to fill them all up if you want to keep it accurate.

The issue with this technique for making blocks is all the char. You cant throw them in a block tumbler to clean it all off. That would destroy the shape of them. This is quicker than how I make my regular blocks and the shape is more consistent. But once you over tumble them to remove the char they look awful. Even if made from boxwood. So this is a great technique however for those who want to stain their blocks and even ebonize them. Then you dont have to tumble them at all. Those fancy Ebony blocks you see for sale are so expensive. But you can have some just as nice if you dip these sticks in Ebony stain or black ink and let them dry. They polish up beautifully.

Kind of...but its a bit hard to explain. The thickness also changes. Like I said its pretty advanced. It would take a few pages to explain and only those with laser cutters would know what I was talking about. The blocks are 3/16" wide and 5/32" wide. Single blocks are the same 3/16" width but only about 3/32" thick. So its more elaborate than just flipping and registering. Lots of jigs but once set up you can bang out a ton of them quickly.

Yes CNC and 3d printing has its advantages. But laser cutting at an advanced level can produce some excellent results with some creativity. Below is an experiment of mine I would like to eventually translate to cnc. But as you can see you can achieve shapes and details with a laser cutter that most wouldnt have guessed. The double blocks below were entirely laser cut. In fact these are laser cut using just Yellow Cedar. The color is all the laser char. A quick dip in Ebony stain and you have some really nice blocks. The laser cutting was done all four sides. Pushing the limits of the machine. Four of these little sticks took about 7 minutes or less of actual laser cutting. Thats not bad for 24 pretty acceptable double blocks. i would like to apply this same technique to the Hobby CNC machines out there and see if they cross over.

No metal. Metal photo-etch stoves do exist aftermarket from other folks but using wood is so much easier and is actually how most stoves on contemporary models were built. I will say this, most cant believe its not metal when they see it in person. Thats the beauty and wonder of model making.