michael mott

Sorry Pat, I have my own "honey do list" Working on the little hinges for the doors the sequence is as follows. The .005" brass strip was bent to a right angle with a set of pliers then folded over with my fingers then snipped off with the scissors Slipped over the .025" steel rod , the right angle bend in the rod made it easier to handle and also for twisting the rod in and out of the hinge the folded brass was then lined up so that as the jaws of the vice closed they squeezed the brass tightly around the rod this took a bit of practice some of the pieces actually sheared off one of the side making it exactly the way the full size hinges look but they will get used for something else later, I wanted the folded one that were full then cut 4 that were scale 2 inches (1/4") these were slipped onto the short leg of the rod to make lining the brass up in the side of the vice to file the edges even, with a # 8 cut jewelers file filed the slots with the same file added the pin I used the thickness jig with some spacers to hold the rails and stiles upright in order to plane down the fillers in them because after deciding to make all the top panels opening I did not need them and it would have been difficult pinning the hinges into place. i really like using this jig it has become a very useful addition to my tooling. marked the holes to be offset from each other and used a 1/16th end mill to cut the recess for the hinge on the stile used the simplest of ways to hold the hinge on a waste piece of maple to drill the .030" holes. some magic tape with a little help from my fingers, it worked surprisingly well this shot shows the hinge positioned to mark the stile and door for the hinge recess it is all just loose fitted so that I can take it apart to cut the recesses. Michael

This image of integrity's shock absorber shows the same type as the one on Kieth's model http://www.stirlingandson.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Stirling-and-Son-Gaff-Cutter-Integrity-Details1-1024x768.jpg Michael

Geert "The only thing that I can mention to my defense is that the boat is not designed to sail on open sea, but in sheltered waters like on a river or on a lake and probably only in nice weather. In such conditions the force on the gaff will not be so heavy." Thanks for your explanation of why you made it the way you did. The actual physics of the arrangement in the drawing would still put a much greater strain on the Gaff regardless of the weather conditions. Please I hope you don't misunderstand my intention It is my opinion the whoever drew that arrangement likely was not a seasoned sailor. That does not detract from the superb model that you have built. Michael

Hi Walter it is on hold while I do some other work. I am trying to finish up the Cutter. and have also done some work on a steam locomotive. I am sorry for you loss, healing does take time. I am glad that you are able to find some peace in your modelwork. Michael

Very impressive work, the 5mm square grid really brought it home as to the tiny scale of this wheel.

Great to hear that you are still progressing Walter. Michael

This model will be a showpiece of brasswork never mind the rest of this beautiful build. Michael

Been there done that! welcome to the club Kris. Michael

I find the the iPhone pictures are sometimes upside down when I load them up to the computer, I use Ifanview (free photo editing tool) to resize and to orient them. Hope that your fix works well on the keel. Michael

Made me laugh out loud, its a good job I didn't have a mouthful of tea. So the afternoon was much better. In 1976 I acquired a log of rock maple, one of the students when I was working as a technician in the sculpture lab at the U of A asked me if i wanted some maple, because his grandfather was cutting down some big Maple trees in Nova Scotia, I said sure, and didn't think much more about it. a couple of months later I got a call from Canadian National Railways freight Dept telling me that there was some wood on the loading dock and could I please pick it up. There was this 6 foot length of 24 inch diameter rock maple Green standing upright. I had to pay $360 to take it away. I had it laying around for a couple of years eventually moving to the back of a workshop I was renting in 1978 where it sat in the rain and snow for another year. then I chainsawed a slab out of the center about 3 inches thick to make a coffee table, planing it "flat" after the chainsaw was a task that took a couple of days of concerted effort. it sat on a couple of rocks for a few years, then My son took the top to Victoria BC and sat it on a couple of round stumps, then a few years ago gave it back to me when he moved to Whitehorse Yukon. Because I was going to move back to the city I wanted to give it a "better" support structure, so settled on some bits of Mahogany and Ash, it turned out well enough. So back to the Maple the rest of it was cut up into some 2 inch and 3 inch sort of quarter sawn slabs, that i put up in the rafters of the shop. A fair bit of the wood had some spalted areas that were cut up into 1/4 inch veneers and I have been using it for odds and ends ever since. today I chose a nice block that would be enough to make all the new paneling and using the bench planes Bandsaw and table saw prepped all the materials. squaring up two side of the blocks Slabbing off on the the bandsaw. Next the planed side pieces that were going to be used for the rails were dado-ed for the stiles These parts were then cut lengthwise and the same was done to the pieces that were going to be the stiles this gave me the basic structure all half lapped together. The rails and stiles were then given a small dado groove lengthwise so that the panels could slide in. The next shot shows all the parts The top panels will get glued together then the two outside panels will get the dado groove and some spline material will hold them into the groves in the rails and stiles. Now I was able to take them into the model shop I am thinking about the reveal on the top panels i think I am going to keep it more simple and not so busy. you can see some of the black spalting on the left panel insert The three bottom panels were slid up into the framework before the bottom rail is placed. And here it is freestanding with no glue yet. I should have done it properly in the first place, but thought it would be easier the other way. One lives and learns. I am hoping to get these finished off tomorrow. Michael

I determined that the higher powers did not like me "cheating" so I have started over with some maple and will build it properly with dados and inset panels and half lapped joints no backing sheet. I am working on preparing the base material from some 40 year old air dried rock maple. Michael

Well that was a disaster! All was looking well until I began gluing things together which was filly to say the least. I have a whole new respect for all those deck beams that I see in some of the amazing builds. getting ready to glue. I had to pull it all apart because the substrate (card) began to warp and it looked terrible so I will need to rethink this. Time to go have some breakfast and heal my ego. Michael

Following along with Mark's suggestion of laying it flat, you have marked the centre line use that as a datum and put shims of thin material Wood, card or plastic to lift up the areas that are thinner until the center line is equal at all points from the glass. Tape those to the glass so they do not move also tape some blocks to the glass that are taller than your keel to keep it in position then when re gluing place sand bags or other weights to hold the re glued keel in position until it is set. Michael

Nice brass work Kees Michael

Steven it looks like the Bounty to me. But I could easily be mistaken. Patrick Nice work on the Golden Hind, I remember as a little boy my father worked on a very small model of the Golden hind probably not much longer that 6 inches or so I remember the name and the wooden block that was the hull shape. Michael

Passable for sure! A very nice solution for the fabrication I certainly can see the benefits of the square collet block in your work. Michael

Hi Keith I set up the fence like this Here is a shot of the shooting board being used to reduce the width of the rails I planed some cedar to .060" and used a scraping tool to put a reveal along the edge Then parted it off with the exacto knife Used the shooting board to reduce the width to .162" The small inserts will work fine I think. I will need to shorten the panel for the end inserts, I will make enough long ones first. Michael

Mark, the stips inside the thickness jig are 3/16 (4.762mm) x 1/8 (3.175mm) strips of evergreen styrene they are outside the edges of the blade the cross end stop is about .1" (2.54mm) so I can flip them up to work with thicker wood or change them for 3/16 x 1/4 (6.3mm) the blade is of course also adjustable. I find the easiest way though is to add a known thickness of paper under the wood to reduce the thickness. as soon as the edges of the plane ride on the plastic it stops cutting I am able to work with very small pieces of wood that I could not put through a regular thickness planer. I do not like sanding soft woods no matter how fine the grit it is just that grit. A sharp blade leaves a sheen because the fibres of the wood have been sheared not scraped with chunks of rock. the other advantage is there is virtually no dust. I have both of the Veritas (Lee Valley) low angle block planes one is 12 degrees and the other is 20 degrees with the adjustable throats. short pieces can also very quickly be reduced in width on the shooting board with a right angle fence (sheet of 1/8 thick styrene by 3" x 4" I will add a picture of this in the next post. The Yellow Cedar is also called Yellow Cyprus the colour is a little lighter than Castelo but much softer and easy to work. The local hardwood supplier has a good supply of the cedar and occasionally can have the Castelo. I can get a 2" x 6" plank of yellow Cedar 6 feet long for around $45 so it is also considerably less expensive than the Castelo. Michael

Seven, Keith, Pat, Steve, Moab, and Druxey Thank you all for your kind remarks. Also a thank you for all those who are following along and using the like button. Pat the water will not be a problem because the interior has to be removable in order to place the lead sailing ballast it needs over a 100 lbs to get down to the waterline. At first I was not going to add an interior but I reconsidered it because it will be on display more that in the water. The yellow cedar is such a lovely wood to work with for this small joinery paneling with a sharp low angle block plane in my simple thickness planing jig I can get a lot of control. Using it along with the shooting board is making this work really a pleasure. The way the thickness jig works allows me to thickness very shot pieces without any difficulty. The lower panels have a sloped dado al around so I set up an angled fence on the big table saw 12.5 degrees this way I was able to use a new zero clearance insert (I flipped around the insert for the 8 inch 200 tooth slitting saw blade that I use mostly for brass the holes help to keep the blade cool) I did not want to angle the saw blade. it was a simple one pass around the edges to create the dado bevel I put them back into the thickness planing fixture with a piece of copy paper underneath the wood to raise it up a couple of thou and gave it a single pass to clean them up. Both side are getting close to being ready for the final gluing, I did not want to do any sanding on any of these pieces of wood so keeping it all absolutely clean is going to be a challenge before the tung oil is applied once they are glued up. I wanted to get the two side panels done first because the end once are a little more complicated because of the angles involved. There is a small element that surrounds each panel that I am going to add it is about a 1/32 by 1/16 actual size with a rounded ogee type profile, The upper panels are flat but thinner than the stiles and rails, still a ways to go yet before it all gets glued up. Michael

The second photo looking forward in post #130 looks like the full size boat, superb modelwork!

Hello Geert in looking at your gaff peak halliard if it were me i would spread the load a little wider like this I think that it would lessen the possibility of straining the gaff , Just my own thought. Michael

Welcome Sanada from the cold snowy norther climes. The J class Endeavour is a wonderful Yacht, One of these days I would like to build one of these types of Yacht . Start a build log in the kit section. Good luck with your build. Michael

I have been using my razor saw just like this one for at least 20 years its a bit beat up but still works like a charm one trick to getting the saw to cut vertical when setting up your mitre boxes (you will end up making a few they are really handy) st to use a small square next to the saw as a guide if you don't have a small square a square block of anything to guide the saw works well. Michael

Mark thanks for the link, I have been sorting out how to tackle the side elements of the interior and at the same time discovered an error in the depth of the cabin, I had made it a foot too deep by correcting the error I was able to make the floor in one level. The paper template was how I discovered the difference. I finished up the work on the basic ladder. and using a combination of cad work and then freehand drawing over the print was able to get the pattern for the paneling sorted. I order the save on material and also not to waste some of the divider card that I had been using to plan out the cabin I decided to use the very stiff polished cardstock as the foundation for the wood paneling, first I glued some 1/8+ square stiffeners to the backside of the panels Then cut some 1 inch x 4 inch yellow cedar (had to wear a mask its a nice smell but not too healthy to breath) The began roughing out the wood for the stiles and rails. The upper panels are cabinets that will have opening doors with the dining stuff inside. That's all for now. Michael

Keith, Thank you for the information I do have teflon, nylon, Thordon bearing material which is made from thermosetting resins which are three dimensional, cross- linked condensation polymers. And some rigid PVC and both extruded and cellcast clear Acrylic. I am not familiar with acetal, polyacetal and polyformaldehyde. It is interesting what materials I have collected over the years for various projects in the design and fabrication of displays and exhibits. Michael