Salty Sea Dog

Great pictures Matti!! That has to be awe inspiring to see it in person. Glad you're feeling better. Best wishes,

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the well wishes on my new job and relocation. I had been stressing quite a bit and not sleeping well worrying about how I could pull off the move with multiple U-Haul loads and putting things in storage until we found a house. A friend just reminded me about the "Pods" system which would accomplish the same thing at a much lower cost and save me the back and forth driving..whew! When I moved to Kansas from Texas I was able to get way more house for the money and I think I will have to face reality when moving to Colorado. I have been truly blessed with our Kansas home and feel as if we have been living in a Thomas Kinkade painting: The full basement has a power tool room, my 10x12 office/drydock, a bathroom, a man cave music room, and storage rooms. It will be sad to leave, but we will finally be getting back to the mountains where my wife and I first met. We have been trying to get back for 28 years and we will finally complete that circle. Hi Mark! The tap did turn but I was pressing my luck to not break the handle off, so it's all glued now. The tap (and barrel) are not hollowed out so they don't work. Sorry, I was kidding about the Perrier! I'm hoping to get on the good side of the fellow that runs the Colorado Shipyard. Maybe I can ride my bike downstream from him while he's fishing and scare the trout towards him. They will be so tired from swimming upstream, they will jump into his net to relax! He may not go for that since it seems he has already been training moose to do that for him!

Hi everybody! Things have been nuts this last week and are about to get nuttier. I just got back from Colorado and I accepted a new job out there. I will need to get my current house ready to sell, pack up everything and hopefully find a new place by Sept 1st. I hate to leave my current place since I have the perfect shop and man cave set up. I don't know if I will have any build time with all that I need to get done for a while, but I'll try to keep up with your build logs. Best wishes,

JP, That really is some masterful work. If you were to put a clear sealer coat or two on it before painting, you could sand off the paint should you not like it and it would not have wicked into the wood pores. Just a thought. It really does look wonderful!

Hi JP! Whatcha been up to?

It looks GREAT!! That must have been a little nerve-wracking to begin applying stain! Beautiful job Matti!

Hi David! Looks like you are off to a good start on the Bounty. A lot of folks seem to do multiple builds so you would be in good company if you gave in to temptation! Best wishes

ZyXus, Eddie and Robbyn- Thanks for the great comments- much appreciated. Eddie- the OptiVisor with lights is really handy with the little bits and when working with thin threads. Amazon seems to have good deals on them or you can get it with lights as a package deal from Stewart McDonald (a luthery supply house): http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for_Inspection/OptiVISOR_Headband_Magnifier.html?actn=100101&xst=3&xsr=781

I love that last outdoor picture Matti!

I must have misplaced the dinky chisel when I was hunting on the floor for the dinky sharpening stone! Congratulations Wayne! That is so cool. Wishing you a trouble-free move and I'm so glad that you will finally have a larger drydock area!! Thanks for the nice comment.

Thanks John! I know what you mean. I've been about to finish this thing ever since I started this log! I can't imagine doing 7 of them. At the scale of your ship, how long will your boats be?

Hi Keith! I had really thought about mortising the center post but didn't. I decided that it would be too easy to mess up trying to make dinky square holes and that would ruin the pieces. Darn it...nothing Buckragious about that. I might put trenails in it though!

Hi Tex! I've been working on a Morgan whaleboat and popped over to see how the 'mother ship' is coming along. Looking good! Love that plane too.

Hi Ferit, The Optivisor can be ordered equipped with different lens choices. I have the 2x lens. I wear eyeglasses, and as I've gotten older, I now use bifocals. Looking through my bifocals and the Optivisor, the focus is best at about 10". Without my glasses, it focuses at 4" and objects appear larger and are easier to work with. Here's a link showing the lenses: http://www.doneganoptical.com/products/optivisor They also have an optional loop that I may get to try really small stuff! http://www.doneganoptical.com/products/optiloupe I don't think I could make a whaleboat that small, but this guy could! http://artisticthings.com/the-miniature-world-of-nikolai-aldunin/ Hi Brian! Yes those are lapped dovetail joints. You can click on the pics to enlarge them and see them better. I think "wow" does trump "amazing" but I am trying to improve my skills even further to become "Buckrageous" ! Is your move to your new house still on track? Best wishes,

Of course! But not just any water, it's Perrier!

That is really looking nice Matti! Thanks for pointing out the gunport sizes. I don't know if I would have caught that otherwise. That has to be a real treat to be able to go look at the real one for reference and inspiration!

This site is the coolest. I keep learning new things and find inspiration in builds and techniques others have done. Lately I have been working on the water barrel and have adopted ideas from my friends Ferit and JPett. Ferit's barrels in his Berlin build are things of beauty (well actually his whole build is!) and JPett showed the coolest technique for running toothpicks chucked in a Dremel through a drawplate. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1799-frigate-berlin-by-ferit-kutlu-corel-scale-140-year-1674/page-3#entry41545 http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/45-rattlesnake-by-jpett-model-shipways-ms2028-scale-164th/page-8#entry34842 The water barrel on the whaleboat had to hold enough water for 5 people and I'm guessing it was somewhere about a pony keg size, maybe 7-1/2 to 10 gallons. The oak barrel itself probably weighed 15 to 20 lbs and filled with water that would be from 77.6 lbs to 103.5 lbs depending on capacity and barrel weight. It wouldn't seem likely that the crew would pull a cork from the barrel, hoist it up and chug a lug from it like a canteen. As heavy as it was it would also need to be well secured since a barrel rolling around loose in even small swells could easily break an ankle or leg or damage the boat. The plans show the barrel stowed in the rear compartment. It seems like it would be very awkward to unlash the barrel and drag it out whenever you wanted a drink. Ferit's build gave me the idea of mounting the barrel on a cradle and sticking a tap in it. Seemed like a practical solution so I decided that's how this whaleboat's water barel would be set up. I found pictures of wooden barrel taps online and did my best to copy one. A real tap My scratch made tap Scale check! The pieces for the tap were fashioned from a white birch toothpick. Small holes were drilled for the handle and the cross spigot. I was surprised how small you can turn the toothpicks down. The base of the handle has a very small round tenon that was glued into an equally tiny hole in the cross spigot! The cradle in progress. The stretchers have little dovetailed lap joints just because I'm a geek! The assembled cradle The barrel lashed to the cradle with its tap installed Of course the crew needs something to drink the water with! My wife got me an Optivisor with a Quasar led light kit on my last birthday and it was a real help while making this stuff. I had an Acuvisor before, but it has plastic lenses while the Optivisor uses optical glass lenses and are much nicer. The lights are always shining where you look. Highly reccomended! Edited to add missing pictures back - thanks for the heads up Keith!

Cold Coors, baked river flounder and marmot burgers. It's the Rocky Mountain way!

Sorry Augie, I didn;t see you there! Thanks for the kind words Michael -much appreciated!

Absolutely stunning Ferit! I get so inspired every time I look at your build.

Robbyn, That sounds like quite the project on the dogs' luxury hotel! We have 3 dogs and it's cheaper for us to take them with us and rent a cabin in Colorado than board them and stay for free with my folks. So when you go out of town, does someone come over to feed them and give them water, or did you work out an automatic feeding and watering system too? Mark, I always feel like the long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs when I ride my motorcycle in traffic. It seems every 3rd person is on their phone or checking emails and texting these days. The type of riding I like is on back roads, paved or dirt, where there is hardly anyone else. There are a quite a few "adventure" bikes these days that are designed for the open road and off road. Around where you live, I would go nuts! You have the mountains, the coast and those amazing redwoods not too far away. Of course you would want to make sure that it was a fast bike because of all those bigfoots lurking in the woods where you are!

Hi Matti and Tony - Michael (md1400cs) had a similar break on his Corel Wasa and worked out a great repair for it: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/329-wasa-by-md1400cs-corel-175/page-3 You probably already saw this but I thought the link would be a good reference and reminder. Matti, your stern just keeps getting better and better!

ZyXus - Thank you for the awesome comments! I have been reading your blog (not finished yet) and your stern lantern is incredible! The way you 'decorated' the bulb to look like a lantern is genius! Really cool! Thanks for visiting my build. Ferit- Thanks for the kind words. They really mean a lot coming from a master of detail like you! I'm going back to your build to study your barrels. Matti- Thanks for the great comment. Just don't click to enlarge the pics - step away from your mouse sir! To put a size to it, the steering oar brace is 10mm long horizontally and the leather lining is 6.5mm wide at the widest outer points. Keith - The Golden Hind has been getting a lot of attention with me checking out her plans and handling her parts. ..wait that sounds a little pervy...anyway she is happy! Carl - Thanks for the kind words! Just stay away from that mouse clicker to enlarge the pics! I think I will try to carefully burn the fuzz off the oar brace with a soldering iron. You should get a motorcycle! Riding in Europe would be amazing! Wayne - Thank you for your nice words! If I could learn how to get really small, it would be easier! So were you able to get the house in Maine with the view and the great drydock/sewing loft? Robbyn - Thanks for your awesome comments.They are much appreciated. Have you made headway on the enclosed porch drydock?

Thanks David and Carl! The weather has been pretty nice lately and I've been out riding my motorcycle. But I have made a little progress with the boat. The steering oar brace was fitted with chafe mats and a 'leather' wrapped strop. The mats were made by wrapping sewing thread around the wood and the strop was made from cloth insulated wire that was stained and shellacked to give a leather look. The strop was terminated with a figure 8 stopper knot. The super macro shots are kind of cruel! (so don't click to enlarge the pics, OK?!! ) guess I need to try to get some of the fuzz off. Some leather was scraped really thin and used to line the clumsy cleat in the thigh board. Best wishes,

Nice job Dennis! I really like the blue and gold look too.