Erik W

Thanks for all the 'likes" folks.  I spent the last week building the companionway, so I'm now finished with the deck fittings that will be placed along the center line before planking the deck.  For the companionway I used pencil to darken the board seams.  I also slightly beveled the edges of where the companionway lid and doors are hinged.  I applied several layers of much thinned red paint that allowed the board seams to show through.  After painting was complete, I used a pin wash made of black oil paint thinned with Turpenoid that I applied to the hinged joints in the lid and doors, as well as around the bottom and side edges of the doors.  Annnnnnd  . . . . you can't really see any of all that effort in the photos.  Super frustrating!  I must've taken 30 photos of the finished companionway, with different background colors, and lighting and lighting angles, trying to show the board seams showing through the semi-opaque red paint.  What you see is the best I could come up with.  The funny thing is the board seams are so pronounced when viewing in person that I had seriously considered painting one more coat of red over the whole thing, particularly on the lid (which you don't see any seams at all in these photos).  And I was worried the black wash was too pronounced.  None of which you can see in the photos.  Can you tell I'm still annoyed?  Haha.
 
At any rate, the next step is gluing all these deck fitting on to the deck.  Some other Cheerful build logs have good advice on getting these aligned correctly.  After that, it's on to deck planking.
 
Erik

As always, thanks for the 'likes'.  Those always help keep me motivated.  Over the last week I've been working on the gratings.  The small ventilation scuttle grating towards the stern was straight forward and quick.  The other two larger gratings have taken some time.  Chuck's grating mini-kits make the gratings themselves easy to reproduce.  The coamings though were a bit finicky.  There are several surfaces to pay close attention to in each lap joint to get a tight fit.  As always, taking my time was what was needed.  Chuck's instructions for making a right-angle jig out of 3/64" thick sheet (the thickness of the deck planking) was brilliant.  It sure made rounding off the corners of the coaming easy while leaving the 90 corners at deck plank level looking crisp and 3/64" thick.  I darkened the lap joints and the joint between the coaming and grating with a pencil.  I'm still working on the larger coaming.  And though you can't tell from the photos, all three gratings have the camber that results from using the Syren min-kit.  The last photo has the gratings just set in place on the deck for the sake of the photo.
 
Erik

Thanks for all the 'likes' folks.  This week I finished the margin planks/waterways.  These took some time.  Those scarph joints aren't easy to get clean and tight, but by the last one I had a system down.  The 1/32" x 1/32" waterways were straight forward.  The only real challenge there was making them 1/4 rounds.  I did that by holding the square stock at a 45 degree angle on my cutting mat and running an emery board over the edge.  I'd do a few inches at a time, and lightly sand back and forth about a dozen times as I worked my way down the length of the wood strip.  I repeated this process two more times.
 
I'm excited to move on to building the deck structures now.  It will be a nice break from the various planking tasks I've worked on for the last couple of months (fancy molding, bulwarks, cap rail, margin planks, waterway).
 
Erik

As always, thanks for the likes folks.  I finished a few different things over the last week.  I spent time shaping the rudder.  Using the plans I drew the lines that I would sand down to on the rudder faces and sides.  Doing this gave me the visual cue to not over or under sand.  Once the rudder was done I cut out the rudder port.  I made a paper template from the plans that I used to get the shape correct.  Next I made the top of the rudder post.  This took way more time than it should have.  I accidentally removed too much material from the laser cut piece.  So I would up gluing on a chunk of scrap wood to that piece and then shaping the whole thing again.  Sometimes it's the one little piece of wood that is the biggest pain!  The last thing I did was shape the 6 timber heads.  This was a bit nerve wracking as a newbie, but they turned out OK.  The photo below shows the tools that wound up working best for me (as well as a rough cut timber head before clean up).  For some reason, on any model I build, I'm most comfortable using either a #17 or #18 X-Acto chisel blade with no handle (rather than a #11 blade w/handle).  I know it's weird, but it gives me more control by holding the blade directly.  The overall height of the timber heads match the plans, but my angled faces are not as tall as the plans.  No big deal really since all 6 look the same.
 
The next thing I'll be working on is the boom crutches.  Wish me luck!  Haha.
 
Erik

As always, thanks for the likes folks.  I finished a few different things over the last week.  I spent time shaping the rudder.  Using the plans I drew the lines that I would sand down to on the rudder faces and sides.  Doing this gave me the visual cue to not over or under sand.  Once the rudder was done I cut out the rudder port.  I made a paper template from the plans that I used to get the shape correct.  Next I made the top of the rudder post.  This took way more time than it should have.  I accidentally removed too much material from the laser cut piece.  So I would up gluing on a chunk of scrap wood to that piece and then shaping the whole thing again.  Sometimes it's the one little piece of wood that is the biggest pain!  The last thing I did was shape the 6 timber heads.  This was a bit nerve wracking as a newbie, but they turned out OK.  The photo below shows the tools that wound up working best for me (as well as a rough cut timber head before clean up).  For some reason, on any model I build, I'm most comfortable using either a #17 or #18 X-Acto chisel blade with no handle (rather than a #11 blade w/handle).  I know it's weird, but it gives me more control by holding the blade directly.  The overall height of the timber heads match the plans, but my angled faces are not as tall as the plans.  No big deal really since all 6 look the same.
 
The next thing I'll be working on is the boom crutches.  Wish me luck!  Haha.
 
Erik

Totally awesome Erik! 
 
Rick

Beautiful work, Erik.

As always, thanks for the likes folks.  I finished a few different things over the last week.  I spent time shaping the rudder.  Using the plans I drew the lines that I would sand down to on the rudder faces and sides.  Doing this gave me the visual cue to not over or under sand.  Once the rudder was done I cut out the rudder port.  I made a paper template from the plans that I used to get the shape correct.  Next I made the top of the rudder post.  This took way more time than it should have.  I accidentally removed too much material from the laser cut piece.  So I would up gluing on a chunk of scrap wood to that piece and then shaping the whole thing again.  Sometimes it's the one little piece of wood that is the biggest pain!  The last thing I did was shape the 6 timber heads.  This was a bit nerve wracking as a newbie, but they turned out OK.  The photo below shows the tools that wound up working best for me (as well as a rough cut timber head before clean up).  For some reason, on any model I build, I'm most comfortable using either a #17 or #18 X-Acto chisel blade with no handle (rather than a #11 blade w/handle).  I know it's weird, but it gives me more control by holding the blade directly.  The overall height of the timber heads match the plans, but my angled faces are not as tall as the plans.  No big deal really since all 6 look the same.
 
The next thing I'll be working on is the boom crutches.  Wish me luck!  Haha.
 
Erik

As always, thanks for the likes folks.  I finished a few different things over the last week.  I spent time shaping the rudder.  Using the plans I drew the lines that I would sand down to on the rudder faces and sides.  Doing this gave me the visual cue to not over or under sand.  Once the rudder was done I cut out the rudder port.  I made a paper template from the plans that I used to get the shape correct.  Next I made the top of the rudder post.  This took way more time than it should have.  I accidentally removed too much material from the laser cut piece.  So I would up gluing on a chunk of scrap wood to that piece and then shaping the whole thing again.  Sometimes it's the one little piece of wood that is the biggest pain!  The last thing I did was shape the 6 timber heads.  This was a bit nerve wracking as a newbie, but they turned out OK.  The photo below shows the tools that wound up working best for me (as well as a rough cut timber head before clean up).  For some reason, on any model I build, I'm most comfortable using either a #17 or #18 X-Acto chisel blade with no handle (rather than a #11 blade w/handle).  I know it's weird, but it gives me more control by holding the blade directly.  The overall height of the timber heads match the plans, but my angled faces are not as tall as the plans.  No big deal really since all 6 look the same.
 
The next thing I'll be working on is the boom crutches.  Wish me luck!  Haha.
 
Erik

As always, thanks for the likes folks.  I finished a few different things over the last week.  I spent time shaping the rudder.  Using the plans I drew the lines that I would sand down to on the rudder faces and sides.  Doing this gave me the visual cue to not over or under sand.  Once the rudder was done I cut out the rudder port.  I made a paper template from the plans that I used to get the shape correct.  Next I made the top of the rudder post.  This took way more time than it should have.  I accidentally removed too much material from the laser cut piece.  So I would up gluing on a chunk of scrap wood to that piece and then shaping the whole thing again.  Sometimes it's the one little piece of wood that is the biggest pain!  The last thing I did was shape the 6 timber heads.  This was a bit nerve wracking as a newbie, but they turned out OK.  The photo below shows the tools that wound up working best for me (as well as a rough cut timber head before clean up).  For some reason, on any model I build, I'm most comfortable using either a #17 or #18 X-Acto chisel blade with no handle (rather than a #11 blade w/handle).  I know it's weird, but it gives me more control by holding the blade directly.  The overall height of the timber heads match the plans, but my angled faces are not as tall as the plans.  No big deal really since all 6 look the same.
 
The next thing I'll be working on is the boom crutches.  Wish me luck!  Haha.
 
Erik

I spent the week building the windlass mini-kit.  Hats off to Chuck for the engineering of this little thing!  It goes together easily, with the biggest challenge being beveling the edges of the windlass faces.  These didn't all turn out perfectly symmetrical, so I test fit the sub assemblies on the center strip in a bunch of different combinations.  I settled on what looks symmetrical when viewed from the top, and put the best sides facing up.  To get the windlass to snug down on the deck I taped a piece of sandpaper to a 1/16" thick wood sheet and then sanded each of the supports with one side on my cutting mat while the other side was being sanded on the 1/16" sheet with sandpaper.  Since the deck is angled towards the scuppers from the center line, sanding the windlass support bottoms like this allows them both to sit flat on the angled deck.  As far as getting the windlass positioned correctly on the deck in relation to where the bowsprit will go, I put a straight wooden dowel where the bowsprit will be and then marked the center line on the stern cap rail and top of the stem.  I positioned a steel yardstick on the center line and adjusted the dowel parallel to that.  Everything measured out and looked correct.  The proof will be down the road on the build when I'm installing the bowsprit step and bowsprit though!
 
Erik

Pop the champagne, I'm finished with the deck planking!  While a challenging and rewarding experience, I'm happy to be finished with planking.  Like everything else with this build, planking the deck didn't quite go as planned, even with the tick marks and planks drawn out beforehand.  And as you other perfectionists out there can sympathize with, there are a bunch of things that didn't turn out the way I would have liked.  That said, I'm happy with the results, and the quality of the deck planking is in line with the rest of the build.  Which is all I can really ask for as someone being new to this wooden ship building thing.
 
After thoroughly cleaning my hobby area of sawdust, which is also my home office, I'm happy to be moving on to less dusty parts of the build!  I plan on starting Chuck's mini-kit of the windlass this weekend.
 
Erik

As always, thanks for the likes folks.  I finished a few different things over the last week.  I spent time shaping the rudder.  Using the plans I drew the lines that I would sand down to on the rudder faces and sides.  Doing this gave me the visual cue to not over or under sand.  Once the rudder was done I cut out the rudder port.  I made a paper template from the plans that I used to get the shape correct.  Next I made the top of the rudder post.  This took way more time than it should have.  I accidentally removed too much material from the laser cut piece.  So I would up gluing on a chunk of scrap wood to that piece and then shaping the whole thing again.  Sometimes it's the one little piece of wood that is the biggest pain!  The last thing I did was shape the 6 timber heads.  This was a bit nerve wracking as a newbie, but they turned out OK.  The photo below shows the tools that wound up working best for me (as well as a rough cut timber head before clean up).  For some reason, on any model I build, I'm most comfortable using either a #17 or #18 X-Acto chisel blade with no handle (rather than a #11 blade w/handle).  I know it's weird, but it gives me more control by holding the blade directly.  The overall height of the timber heads match the plans, but my angled faces are not as tall as the plans.  No big deal really since all 6 look the same.
 
The next thing I'll be working on is the boom crutches.  Wish me luck!  Haha.
 
Erik

I finished with this little decorations:





 

It has been an interesting week.  Lots to report!
 
I installed all the beams and hadn't really notice "it" yet. Just in the zone happily moving along with things.
Started putting in the carlings and as I approached midships it became obvious.
 
What shall I do about it? Installing the orlop deck was meant to be a learning experience to prepare me for those above. The orlop deck was decidedly too deep for anything to be readily noticeable, so lets just move on.
 
Installed all the carlings and it was still there taunting me... "what?" you ask... the hump!!
The aft and fore are high and the deck does a gentle slope downwards towards the midships... or at least that what it looks like on the plans.
Mine has a noticeable rise or camel hump in it. I just won't look at it... but it is still there.
 
I decided to work on the ledgers and needed to make card templates as seen above. I installed them low, down on top of the deck clamp as their thickness plus the grating thickness equalled the beam height. This made sense to me. I could find no photos to suggest I was right.
 
I woke up this morning having made a determined decision in my sleep. I should have dealt with it, the hump, when I first noticed it. I hope this time I've finally learnt that lesson!
I measured the damage... about half a deck clamp in height. How it happened is of no importance, besides, I don't know the answer. Possibly my deck clamps slipped under the  wooden clamps used to hold it in place when glued.
 
I determined which deck beams needed to come out. Cut the smaller carlings with my snips and used my flat nosed parallel pliers to persuade the larger ones to come out... almost like pulling teeth. Used the same pliers to remove the deck beams.
 
Marked the deck clamps and chiselled out the material to, at best, make the hump flat with the lowest points either side of it as seen above.

Reinstalled the beams and checked for flatness. Success! Glued and weighted them down until the glue sets up.

I feel much better about it now. When all is said and done I'll be thinking of how I corrected it, not how it is still hidden down there.
 

I spent the week building the windlass mini-kit.  Hats off to Chuck for the engineering of this little thing!  It goes together easily, with the biggest challenge being beveling the edges of the windlass faces.  These didn't all turn out perfectly symmetrical, so I test fit the sub assemblies on the center strip in a bunch of different combinations.  I settled on what looks symmetrical when viewed from the top, and put the best sides facing up.  To get the windlass to snug down on the deck I taped a piece of sandpaper to a 1/16" thick wood sheet and then sanded each of the supports with one side on my cutting mat while the other side was being sanded on the 1/16" sheet with sandpaper.  Since the deck is angled towards the scuppers from the center line, sanding the windlass support bottoms like this allows them both to sit flat on the angled deck.  As far as getting the windlass positioned correctly on the deck in relation to where the bowsprit will go, I put a straight wooden dowel where the bowsprit will be and then marked the center line on the stern cap rail and top of the stem.  I positioned a steel yardstick on the center line and adjusted the dowel parallel to that.  Everything measured out and looked correct.  The proof will be down the road on the build when I'm installing the bowsprit step and bowsprit though!
 
Erik

Thanks for all the likes and nice words everyone!  Rick, the things that didn't turn out the way I would have liked are just small things.   Once a little time passes I know from experience I won't even remember what those little nits were!
 
Erik

Pop the champagne, I'm finished with the deck planking!  While a challenging and rewarding experience, I'm happy to be finished with planking.  Like everything else with this build, planking the deck didn't quite go as planned, even with the tick marks and planks drawn out beforehand.  And as you other perfectionists out there can sympathize with, there are a bunch of things that didn't turn out the way I would have liked.  That said, I'm happy with the results, and the quality of the deck planking is in line with the rest of the build.  Which is all I can really ask for as someone being new to this wooden ship building thing.
 
After thoroughly cleaning my hobby area of sawdust, which is also my home office, I'm happy to be moving on to less dusty parts of the build!  I plan on starting Chuck's mini-kit of the windlass this weekend.
 
Erik

I spent the week building the windlass mini-kit.  Hats off to Chuck for the engineering of this little thing!  It goes together easily, with the biggest challenge being beveling the edges of the windlass faces.  These didn't all turn out perfectly symmetrical, so I test fit the sub assemblies on the center strip in a bunch of different combinations.  I settled on what looks symmetrical when viewed from the top, and put the best sides facing up.  To get the windlass to snug down on the deck I taped a piece of sandpaper to a 1/16" thick wood sheet and then sanded each of the supports with one side on my cutting mat while the other side was being sanded on the 1/16" sheet with sandpaper.  Since the deck is angled towards the scuppers from the center line, sanding the windlass support bottoms like this allows them both to sit flat on the angled deck.  As far as getting the windlass positioned correctly on the deck in relation to where the bowsprit will go, I put a straight wooden dowel where the bowsprit will be and then marked the center line on the stern cap rail and top of the stem.  I positioned a steel yardstick on the center line and adjusted the dowel parallel to that.  Everything measured out and looked correct.  The proof will be down the road on the build when I'm installing the bowsprit step and bowsprit though!
 
Erik

I spent the week building the windlass mini-kit.  Hats off to Chuck for the engineering of this little thing!  It goes together easily, with the biggest challenge being beveling the edges of the windlass faces.  These didn't all turn out perfectly symmetrical, so I test fit the sub assemblies on the center strip in a bunch of different combinations.  I settled on what looks symmetrical when viewed from the top, and put the best sides facing up.  To get the windlass to snug down on the deck I taped a piece of sandpaper to a 1/16" thick wood sheet and then sanded each of the supports with one side on my cutting mat while the other side was being sanded on the 1/16" sheet with sandpaper.  Since the deck is angled towards the scuppers from the center line, sanding the windlass support bottoms like this allows them both to sit flat on the angled deck.  As far as getting the windlass positioned correctly on the deck in relation to where the bowsprit will go, I put a straight wooden dowel where the bowsprit will be and then marked the center line on the stern cap rail and top of the stem.  I positioned a steel yardstick on the center line and adjusted the dowel parallel to that.  Everything measured out and looked correct.  The proof will be down the road on the build when I'm installing the bowsprit step and bowsprit though!
 
Erik

I spent the week building the windlass mini-kit.  Hats off to Chuck for the engineering of this little thing!  It goes together easily, with the biggest challenge being beveling the edges of the windlass faces.  These didn't all turn out perfectly symmetrical, so I test fit the sub assemblies on the center strip in a bunch of different combinations.  I settled on what looks symmetrical when viewed from the top, and put the best sides facing up.  To get the windlass to snug down on the deck I taped a piece of sandpaper to a 1/16" thick wood sheet and then sanded each of the supports with one side on my cutting mat while the other side was being sanded on the 1/16" sheet with sandpaper.  Since the deck is angled towards the scuppers from the center line, sanding the windlass support bottoms like this allows them both to sit flat on the angled deck.  As far as getting the windlass positioned correctly on the deck in relation to where the bowsprit will go, I put a straight wooden dowel where the bowsprit will be and then marked the center line on the stern cap rail and top of the stem.  I positioned a steel yardstick on the center line and adjusted the dowel parallel to that.  Everything measured out and looked correct.  The proof will be down the road on the build when I'm installing the bowsprit step and bowsprit though!
 
Erik

Pop the champagne, I'm finished with the deck planking!  While a challenging and rewarding experience, I'm happy to be finished with planking.  Like everything else with this build, planking the deck didn't quite go as planned, even with the tick marks and planks drawn out beforehand.  And as you other perfectionists out there can sympathize with, there are a bunch of things that didn't turn out the way I would have liked.  That said, I'm happy with the results, and the quality of the deck planking is in line with the rest of the build.  Which is all I can really ask for as someone being new to this wooden ship building thing.
 
After thoroughly cleaning my hobby area of sawdust, which is also my home office, I'm happy to be moving on to less dusty parts of the build!  I plan on starting Chuck's mini-kit of the windlass this weekend.
 
Erik

I spent the week building the windlass mini-kit.  Hats off to Chuck for the engineering of this little thing!  It goes together easily, with the biggest challenge being beveling the edges of the windlass faces.  These didn't all turn out perfectly symmetrical, so I test fit the sub assemblies on the center strip in a bunch of different combinations.  I settled on what looks symmetrical when viewed from the top, and put the best sides facing up.  To get the windlass to snug down on the deck I taped a piece of sandpaper to a 1/16" thick wood sheet and then sanded each of the supports with one side on my cutting mat while the other side was being sanded on the 1/16" sheet with sandpaper.  Since the deck is angled towards the scuppers from the center line, sanding the windlass support bottoms like this allows them both to sit flat on the angled deck.  As far as getting the windlass positioned correctly on the deck in relation to where the bowsprit will go, I put a straight wooden dowel where the bowsprit will be and then marked the center line on the stern cap rail and top of the stem.  I positioned a steel yardstick on the center line and adjusted the dowel parallel to that.  Everything measured out and looked correct.  The proof will be down the road on the build when I'm installing the bowsprit step and bowsprit though!
 
Erik

I spent the week building the windlass mini-kit.  Hats off to Chuck for the engineering of this little thing!  It goes together easily, with the biggest challenge being beveling the edges of the windlass faces.  These didn't all turn out perfectly symmetrical, so I test fit the sub assemblies on the center strip in a bunch of different combinations.  I settled on what looks symmetrical when viewed from the top, and put the best sides facing up.  To get the windlass to snug down on the deck I taped a piece of sandpaper to a 1/16" thick wood sheet and then sanded each of the supports with one side on my cutting mat while the other side was being sanded on the 1/16" sheet with sandpaper.  Since the deck is angled towards the scuppers from the center line, sanding the windlass support bottoms like this allows them both to sit flat on the angled deck.  As far as getting the windlass positioned correctly on the deck in relation to where the bowsprit will go, I put a straight wooden dowel where the bowsprit will be and then marked the center line on the stern cap rail and top of the stem.  I positioned a steel yardstick on the center line and adjusted the dowel parallel to that.  Everything measured out and looked correct.  The proof will be down the road on the build when I'm installing the bowsprit step and bowsprit though!
 
Erik

Thanks for all the likes and nice words everyone!  Rick, the things that didn't turn out the way I would have liked are just small things.   Once a little time passes I know from experience I won't even remember what those little nits were!
 
Erik