michael mott

Hi Mark, yes the pictures of the original hull do give some rather deceptive assurances, but the shape is a challenge especially with the first few planks. There is a lot of twisting at the stern. I am also going to have to hollow out a few of the planks which will be new for me. When I planked the cutter I did not follow traditional planking but strip planked it so it was easy. This hull is more challenging because I am trying to build the hull with the best guess about the hull shape from the information supplied by the owner in terms of measurements, and photographs, without actually checking some of these shapes and forms myself. There are no drawings to go on other than my own culled from the information given by the owner. Michael

Thanks for the likes. I glued the garboards today , not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but will have to do. Tomorrow I begin the layout of the next couple of planks. Michael

Hi Druxey the yellow cedar is 3/4 inch scale so 3/32" in "real money" According to Roger the chap who did some repair work on Skipjack told him that because the yellow cedar was not as strong as mahogany that the builders used 3/4 planking instead of the usual 3/8ths. I purchased a couple of lengths of 2x6 Yellow cedar from the local wood supplier. I planed one edge then band-sawed of the plank about an 1/8th then planed the edge again and cut another plank and so on. after the plank was cut to shape I planed it down to the 3/32 with my Veritas low andgle bloch plane. before bending it. Michael

Lovely planking job Keith of course the brass work is up to your usual standard as always. Michael

A better day was had on Sunday, the most tiresome aspect was keeping the young cats out of the workshop as I travelled back and forth from the kitchen Microwave and the workshop. I had to carry a squirt bottle with me on every trip to stop them dashing through the door every time I opened it. Before all the trouble with the stern post I had worked on both of the garboards and they are quite close just a bit more tweaking before setting them with glue. As I mentioned I used the strip method to marl the frames with the position of the planks, the one thing I did notice with this method was that with the frames that were canted forward or aft at the bow and stern the tick marks were angled quite noticeably. so I used the center as the datum point. This is the chart I set up to calibrate the spacing I did not mark every frame but every second frame. I used some stiff card paper to lay out the garboards then transfered that to the 3/4" (scale) thick yellow cedar that I cut earlier from the 2" rough lumber flipped it for the opposite side and cut them out with the bandsaw, and used the miniature lee valley wood plane to finish the edges. I just used the big hot air gun and twisting with gloved fingers to shape the garboards. After the stern post incident I took the opportunity to revisit the frames and basically re-bent most of them, I had forgotten the bit about also using my soldering hot air gut to help set the curves as they were drying. When I bent the first frames before my surgery I had also used the hot air gun and it did make a big difference then. While working on the shaping of the stem and stern I cleaned everything off the form and reworked the dowel buttons into cams and cut full length boards of redwood, (these were cut earlier salvaged from the garage door, the same wood as in the Buzzards bay hull) to act as the lower holds for the frames. I decide this morning that I need to also fill the gaps between the station forms at the bottom because the frames most of them fall between the stations and I want to be able to hold them securely as it will be much easier to control the position between the keel and the build board without the use of pins all over the place. as you can see they are basically stable now. A shot of the re glued stern post. And the stem I see I'm going to have another busy day. Michael

A rather frustrating day, I did get the starboard an port garboards bent to fit and also realized that I needed to shape the stem and stern before going any further when I removed the keel a few, about half of the ribs sprung up like it was spring in the garden. and then I snapped off the stern post while shaping it. I finished shaping it and glued it back on. then using the hot air gun to deal with the ribs had trouble whith them so decided to revisit it in the morning and a new day. Michael

Hi Steve can you use a couple of layers the material is quite forgiving really. Michael

Well the garboard strake is a rather testy little plank isn't it. The old hot air gun works quite well with the yellow cedar. A little bit more tweaking and then this one is a wrap as they say. the plank is just resting there the pins are just to stop it sliding off. I used the strip method to mark the positions of the ten planks. and a long trip to position the bottom of the sheer strake, which is 3iches wide at the bow and stern and 5 inches midships. Michael

Thank you Pat, and for all those who added a like I really appreciate it. Well the little critter look a bit like Spiny Norman, with apologies to the Dinsdale Brothers and Monty Python. It took most of the day to get things sorted ( but you do what you have to do) and no the round supports are not cams I only thought about that as I started screwing them to the board. I did manage to snap one early this morning, and I attribute it to by placement technique. It feel very good to get to this point. I will let it dry thoroughly before marking off the sheer line and also the rest of the shaping of the stem and stern. Then the real fun begins gluing it all together. Michael

Lovely piece of work Toni., I am also curious about the little notations of time between posts I have not seen those before. This model has got me thinking that a cross section of one of the Bristol pilot cutters or a fishing smack would be interesting, and it could be done in a larger scale because it is such a smaller vessel. Michael

Rob it really looks stunning! Michael

Tom and they are on the north side so even light as well. This evening my neck is stiff from hunching over the keel chiseling out little pockets most of the day. The microwave will get a work out tomorrow, I think I will take the model into the kitchen to avoid a lot of back and forth to and from the workshop. Plus the sink is there for the damp paper towels, I am looking forward to getting this part done. Michael

Good morning Joe, I used the lines plan to create the form and because this was a form that was going to be shaped with a file and sanding the station lines are regularly spaced on the build board. the following entry that I posted earlier in post 841, hopefully illustrates an answer to your question. there are 16 frames and there were 21 station lines,. when some of the boat builders use 5 or 6 forms or molds to set the curves then set stringers to create the form before steaming and setting the ribs or frames. This is a relatively small boat at only 19 feet overall. As soon as I began to shape the frames the wanted to fall along the easy line and not the twisted one formed by the station lines, Design and form and function are three related principles that interact with each other in complex ways, the plan view of the rib below because of its shape wider than thick naturally did not want to twist. so giving in to function and form I let the frame follow its natural fall line so to speak. there is some slight twisting but it is minimal. I am assuming that the builders in 1909 used the mold and stringer method to form the lines then added the steam bent ribs after before planking. The owner told me that the frames on Skipjack are approx on 12 inch centers the spacing is closer to the real boat than the station lines that I drew in the beginning. there was obviously no need to add a frame at station 1. I hope this answers your question, and thanks for asking it. I think that one of my problems has been with the placement of station lines and the conjectured placement of the frames at the bow. and thinking that these are one and the same. I have been trying to reconcile a frame at position 1 and am beginning to think that I have this all wrong it makes more sense that the first frame would be at the place I have marked as 2 in this plan view Thanks for the welcome back to the shipyard. Michael

Well I woke up this morning with a hankering to cut wood, so I cleaned off the workbenches and then started cutting wood. I completed the notches on the starboard side now to get back to steaming. Feels good to be back in the shipyard. Michael

Ah but they would not actually work like real rivets, which mine do. Michael

Excellent work Harshil! Michael

Hello Eberhard, actually no I did not. One of those impossible bits to figure out. The geometry reminds me a bit of motor cycle gear changing, but it eludes me. and the chap who supplied me with the only picture of this does not know either. the transmission that was used is the transmission that was on the Morris Cowley. My representation is a little bit heavy handed compared to the rather delicate linkages from the original. Unfortunately I cannot share the image. as I agreed not to. There does not seem to be any other information other than that one photograph which is also at an oblique angle. These cobbled together locos were all scrapped around the early 60's In the 16mm associations special publication on the Penrhyn Quarry there is a double page spread showing this loco but from the opposite side. and they are the only public pictures that I know of. The model railway narrow gauge enthusiasts who know quite a bit about the Welsh quarry locomotives and the miscellaneous constructions, have little information either. So my representation is a bit of guesswork as far as is goes. the three shafts connected in an intricate way. A few other model makers have done their own representations of this type of loco none have gone the same route as me. There are no photographs that I know of of the dashboard or the pedals that were used on the loco so my version is a compromise in order to use the switches that I had to hand, There obviously would not have any need for the steering wheel and associated parts, or how the transmission was set up to drive other than some conversion to a chain system to the two axles. A number of nuts and bolts are not fitted to the frames and wheel bearings because the whole thing has to be dissembled in order to paint it. Michael

Thanks Mark, and thanks everyone for the likes and for you patience while I get this worked through my system, and then get back to the boats. A bit more work done, on the running gear. Fiddly bits for sure. Michael

Wot they said!! great stuff Rob Michael

Lots of nice work there Maury, The metal work is fiddly stuff but rewarding when it comes together well. Michael

A rather lovely little launch, Looking forward to how you do all the rest of it. Michael

Well I still have not got my mojo back for the boats at the moment, I am thinking that as soon as this little project is finished I will get back to the hulls. Had a bit of fun working out how to make rivets, upsetting copper ones did not work out so well but a tip from a model railroader set me on a different path. Using the thermoforming aspects of styrene, I milled a hemispherical indentation into the end of a new soldering iron bit. I was unable to set the temperature any lower than 200F so had to keep turning it on and off at 100F. I made a small bush out of some 1/4 inch diameter brass rod and fed the styrene rod through it until a short stub was protruding (a bit of trial and error determined the correct amount. Then the warmed soldering iron was pushed onto the end with a rotating swiveling motion, which produced a nice rounded end that looked like a rivet and not an melted blob. Then buy using the keeper plate and cutting the pressed in rivets to the correct length I used the same procedure on the other end so the styrene acted as a true rivet. I attached the uprights for the windshield the same way by feeding the rivets out from the inside. The loco runs nicely on three AAA batteries with a small toy motor fed through a worm drive which is basically a short length of 10x24 bras machine screw, on a spare salvaged gear from something eons ago. The controls are through three tiny switches set under the floor boards and set up to represent the foot pedals of the Morris car with a bit of license. The one on the right is the forward reverse, the middle one is on off and the left one his high low speed. And of course we needed a dash board which is some Castello boxwood again with some nickel silver retaining screws around the edge these are .041" diameter and just decorative, the rest are a combination of brass and styrene rod turnings. It will get stuck on after the body shell has been painted. The most recent parts were the couplings and buffer combination. So it is getting close to being finished, but it is keeping my mind off the troubling news, as I focus on the various problem solving aspects of this model as there are only a couple of copyrighted photographs of the original machine and no drawings. Michael

Brilliant bit of kit there sir. Michael

Thank you Kevin for your clarification I appreciate it. Michael

Thank you for the link to this intriguing story Mark. I can see how tricky the whole issue of copyright is. Michael