PeteB

I lay black paper between the parts, here's what happens:

Be careful with black paper. I've the exerience that the gluing is not stable. The problem is that paper has different layers and the wood glue will not go through all. I prefer black pulp, which I found in an hobby store. It has only one layer.

Again, thank you for all the great comments and support.  I appreciate all the "follows" and look forward to the popcorn and beer!
Greg- good eye on the "S-curve" of my lower apron, I hadnt noticed this.  Although the glue-up has already happened, it wont show in the final product.  I appreciate the comment and will be sure to incorporate it into my next ship.
 
As for my log - Since EdT and Albert have done such an outstanding job narrating thier logs, not to mention Ed's books, my plan here is to focus more on techniques and sequences not already illustrated.  No sense talking about measurements, since that stuff is already well documented.
 
Below is the lower apron/stem/keel all glued up and ready for final sanding, which will not take place until further down the road.
 
The knee of the head has not been glued in yet.  I still need to taper it as well as cut the gammoning slot.  I am waiting for my new micromark mini drill press that Santa is putting under the tree, courtesy of my wonderful Admiral.  I opted for boxwood on my false keel and did not ebonize it.  I just liked the look.  I used ebony on my Rattlesnake and was looking for something a little different. I also prefer natural woods as opposed to paint. 
 
While I want to be historically accurate (and this build allows that), I am not a strict purist in the sense and will carefully defer to artistic license at times. 
 

 
Over the weekend, I plan to install rising wood, the bollard timbers, taper and install the beak, cut the rabbet, and construct the stern deadwood.  Yes, I am goal oriented...
 
Happy Holidays!
 
G

Hi All,
Thank you for the kind words and warm welcome.  Very motivating.
 
You may note that in my last post of the gantry, I double laminated the crossmember,  this was to mitigate any twisting, which did happen with my first attempt. 
 
I will be building the Naiad from Swiss Pear, West Indian Boxwood, and Holly, all purchased as billets from Dave at D'Lumberyard.  I really enjoy milling my own stock and allow for a few hundredths of extra thickness for fine tuning and sanding.  The false keel will be ebonized swiss pear. I really dislike working with ebony for a variety of reasons.
 
Below is a photo of my calipers as suggested in Ed's book.  I made these of Babinga.  Next time, I would do without the Shellac and would center the screw and sleeve clamp.
 

 
I have been working on the model for the past few weeks and came across a significant pitfalls that I will share:
Scale of pattern sheets - I printed out the pattern sheets from the disk, but neglected to scale the prints to "full size".  This error was not detected until I built the full stem, and beak!  Oh well, back to the drawing board I went.  While it was only off by a smidge on each part, the cumulative affect was significant.  I then read Ed's log and sure enough, he addresses the issue there.
 
Here are the patterns for the stem, cut out and ready for fitting.
 


 
 
You will note that in this second photo above, I glued up the box joint where the stem meets the keel.  In my first attempt, I got this angle wrong.  I decided to do it earlier than suggested by the practicum so that I could better tie the whole thing together.  This is probably one of the most critical angles/relationships in the ships structure.
 
Below is a close up of the box joint.
 

 

 
More to come.  Thanks again for the warm welcome. Gary
 
 
 
 

Greg,
Can you tell if your boxwood that has stayed straight was quarter sawn?  I'm particularly picky about wood choice, and I've found over the years that no matter what the species quarter sawn was the way to go for pieces requiring stability.
 
The billets of Castello I'm cutting in the photos accompanying this thread are quartersawn straight grain...
 
the Buxus piece I have is through the center of the log...I'm going to cut it in half, then turn 90 degrees so as to cut slabs that are quarter sawn....should work out I think.
 
Interesting side note is that for planking the best bending wood is not quarter sawn but rather "flat sawn" which is cut perpendicular to quarter sawn wood.  I've got some Holly for planking I'm planning on flat sawing when the time comes.  Note this follows full size prototype modern woodworking practice for cutting wood to be bent without splitting.  Of course riving is even better but I'm not about to start riving buxus!
 
Sorry about my weak explanation....I suspect a web search of the terms will yield images that will be more useful than my description.

Hi Michael:
I got some 24"-30" long billets of Castello and Swiss Pear from Gilmer Wood Company...they offer finished wood by the piece...I was able to get a few pieces 1.5"-2.25" thick.  Looking just now they are out of stock of pieces of both, although I imagine they have rough boards they could cut from.
 
I also picked up a billet of Buxus via the web...want to do some test cutting of that to see how the denser wood works.
 
I avoid buying green lumber...did that in the past when I had a shop I could dry the wood in long term, but doing so without warpage involves more effort and technique than most realize...I allowed two years per inch of wood, and that assumes you can stack and sticker the wood with enough weight on top to control initial warping.  Nowadays I'll work with wood that has been kiln dried and/or air cured by others...we don't use that much so the price is not prohibitive.
 
So far I'm impressed with resawing and using the thickness sander...results as nice as wood purchased by the shipbuilding sources...a bit time consuming but results seem fine.  And as you say with the choices of dealers limited these days doing it one's self has great advantage.
 
Dave:
You are right about all the sizes of wood for the Echo Cross Section fitting out kit...looking at the wood list there are 14 thicknesses of Castello called out...plus a half dozen more in Holly.  
I think cutting your own is the best way to go for scratchbuilding...provides all the flexibility needed.

Regarding the wood blanks for masts and spars I have had similar problems (I believe it's referred to as sprung wood). Jeff Hayes, formerly of the HobbyMill, was particularly adept at providing perfectly straight lengths of boxwood for mast and spars. I have some blanks of wood from him over a decade old that are still straight as a pool cue.
 

Cliff - your wood looks great!  I'm looking forward to your Echo cross section build. It will be great to not be the only one.  I milled my own wood for the cross section, too.  Even though the framing and fitting out kits were available, I figured I had bought the table saw, thickness sander, and band saw, so was obliged to use them.  David and Greg were very helpful and let me buy the plans and a cannon barrel separately from the wood.
 
I haven't had any problems with pear, holly, or boxwood billets warping, although my wood has sat on the shelf for a few years prior to being cut.  The big problem as been when I cut the billets into strips.  Not a big deal for planks,  but some of the strips cut for spars and masts for Hannah looked like modern art.  The beauty of having the tools is not having to mill everything at once.  There are tons of different sizes woods after you finish the framing.
 
Best wishes and happy modelling for the new year.
 
Dave

Taking advantage of the week between the holidays by trying out my Byrnes thickness sander...making up a "kit" of Echo Cross Section fitting out wood from the Castello I recently cut over at the college craft center.  I had allowed .030" oversize when resawing...did finish thickness sanding of four 12" pieces, two 11" pieces, and then one each of 10" and 8.5" stock (1:48 scale)...turns out I had plenty of rough cut wood to work from, even with the uneven cut from the shop blade.  In the future I beleive I can start with .025" oversize and be fine. 
 
For today's activities, I started with 8 pieces, thinning them as a group on the rougher grit until I got close to each size...seemed to be a good practical way to work down multiple pieces at the same time. 


 
Anytime I've resawn wood warping has always been a concern....here I'll keep this freshly finish sanded stock under weight for a week or so to make certain everything stays in place.

 
Over the next few days I'll make up the progressively thinner stock that makes up the Echo Cross Section fitting out kit.  I'll also be making up some pear to have for contrasting wood as I get into the build.

Cliff Your resawn lumber looks great, and a good solution for the sharing of tools. On Thursday last week we had some tree pruners come and do some serious thinning of some overgrown apple trees in the back yard. I took the time to share my affection for wood and let the pruners see my collection of wood. I gave the foreman a small piece of boxwood.
Next thing he asks for my phone number and says that they get to cut stuff like Russian Olive, Cherry and Elm. He will call me when something good comes up.
 
I will be re-sawing the apple and stickering it for future work.
 
Michael

Cliff,
 
Good start.
 
You have more bravery than I have. Being compulsive, I would have taken the sanding planer with me.
I am never sure how much thicker my stock must be to get a 220 finish on both
sides and have all of the blade scars removed.
I try to keep it as close to final as possible to get max yield.  The additional passes thru
the thickness sander is tedious, time consuming and poor wood economy.
 
In your place, I would find out the blade length for their bandsaw and if I could use my own on
their machine.  If I could I would purchase 3 or 4  1/2" Wood Slicer blades from Highland.
A 5/8" or 3/4" blade is not better at resawing than a 1/2" blade.  The steel is top quality.
the blade is thin and it only has a minimum set,  so the kerf is as low as can be had.
These blades last longer, but they are expensive and you only want to use  them for resawing.
The trick for efficient tracking when resawing, is not having a wider blade.  The trick is in
the blade position.  The cutting edge of the teeth should ride on the crown of the top wheel.
And, a wider blade will not stop it wandering when the cutting edge gets dull
I know for a fact that even a hard steel blade will snap if you push it when dull.
The blade only needs have just enough tension. A tighter blade does not resist wander,
it just more likely to break.
 
 
I would also make friends with a couple of local tree service companies and pay them for any
Pear, Hawthorn, Plum, and especially Apple butts and large limbs.  18-24" is plenty long.
Cherry is great, and Sweet Cherry is similar in hardness and grain to Black Cherry, but the color is tan.  Unless they
work old fence rows,  a tree service is only likely to cut eatable cherry trees.  Fortunately, Black
Cherry is readily available from  commercial sources.  And half the work is done over self harvest,
billeting, and drying.
 
You are a good haul from the mountains and the deals to be had on rough cut 
Hard Maple and Black Cherry, But it may be worth a trip, especially if you do not have a retail 
yard like Yukon Lumber near by who also sell rough stock.. The mill planers take off significant wood, so a  smooth planed 3/4"
board at a retail yard is 1- 1 1/4" thick at a country saw mill.  And yes, it is a PITA to get
smooth face on the top and bottom edges of slabs resawn from rough boards, But frame  timbers
do not need this anyway and you have up to a 1/2" more width - depending on how much checking there is.

Hi Joe
There are a couple of Bandsaws in the shop...this one is about a 16” model and has a rip type blade with about 5-6 teeth per inch with width being about 5/8”. The blade has a few flaws I could see that created irregularity in some pieces...I’m looking forward to seeing if the thickness sander cleans things up.  
 
I suspect the workshop would allow me to donate a new blade and I may consider that in the future... although I doubt they would allow a wider resaw blade as this bandsaw sees general use by many students and would not be dedicated to redrawing... such is the nature of shared shop equipment.  So I am hoping the slabs I sawed will clean up OK on the thickness sander...if so this will turn out to be a satisfactory solution.
 
The bandsaw had pretty good guides with fairly well adjusted roller bearings...a heavy commercial looking bandsaw.

An impressive pile of resawn lumber!

I don't have room for either a full size table saw or large bandsaw, so I took advantage of a program at our local university where alumni can pay a reasonable annual fee to gain access to the woodshop at the craft center on campus.  This is a boon for my woodworking efforts as it is only a 20 minute drive from my home and while the equipment is not perfect it is fully workable for my needs.
 
Last night I took a stab at first resawing efforts with some Castello, Holly, and Pear I had obtained to make lumber for my Echo Cross Section fitting out kit.  
 
All in all I was pretty pleased with the effort...the magnetic fence I picked up worked fine for resawing.  I do think I'll add a couple more magnets to the fence...they are available separately from the manufacturer.
 
In the photo grouping of resawn wood you'll notice a stack of basswood at the very back...I had picked up a piece of cheaper basswood for testing...this proved to be a wise move as I was able to develop my technique before cutting into the more expensive wood.  I saved the holly to last as I wanted to make a number of thin strips for planking...this proved easy once the fence was properly set and technique was mastered.
 
In the final photo I've taped bundles of the cut wood so it can acclimate to my home workshop before further processing....I'll be taking delivery of a thickness sander from Jim Byrnes during next week's NRG convention in Florida...I'll post further photos once I start thickness sanding of these pieces.
 



 

 

I've built the Aft 2nd Deck, there are only small details left to do later on. As usual I added a lot more framing, the only ones in the kit were the three central ones :

 
Lots of weights held the deck piece to the framing while the glue dried :

 
Next the walls were glued on, and the detailing added - shutters, life rings and a small conduit made from 0.2mm wire :



 
There's also a conduit either side of the range finder column. I made this from 0.2mm soft brass wire and painted it :

 
Last for now I fitted two bulwarks and the railing. Paint touchups to the railing will be done later on :


 
  Danny

Thanks Henry . Hmm, I wonder where I got that from - probably confused it with Russian ships which are male. I'm a little embarrassed, as I was born in Germany but came to Australia when I was 4 years old and soon forgot most of the German language .
 
EDIT - I discovered THIS DISCUSSION in a forum about Bismarck where the consensus seems to be that Bismarck (but certainly not every German warship) was referred to in the masculine gender. I must have read something similar earlier on.
 
Back to the build, and I've finished and installed the first mast - the easier one of the two. The other one won't go on for quite a while yet, but I've made all the bits for it.
 
I wish there was some way of tapering the mast and spars, there probably is but it would be very difficult due to the small diameters and it's beyond me at the moment. An alternative would have been to make them from wood (very easy ) but I want to use as much paper in the build as possible.
 
Here are the pics of the mast fitted to the conning tower. There was no PE supplied for the footwalks on the spars so I made them from 0.2mm wire. The ladder is PE :


 
  Danny

Hmm ... I don't see much of a challenge in that. You're only doing about 3kph, whereas I was pulling 130kph on one of the worst roads in Australia at the time .
 
  Danny

Actually Pat, yes I have. When I was 19 and rode a motorbike from Gloucester to Newcastle every weekend to see my girlfriend I perfected the art of rolling a (TOBACCO ) smoke in the pocket of my leather jacket with my left hand and lighting it without stopping the bike .
 
  Danny

I spent the rest of today rolling all the Spars for the masts. These were actually harder to do than the masts, as they are only 2.0mm and 1.8mm in diameter and I had to roll them from 0.23mm card which gets pretty tight  :

 
  Danny

Thank you all, you're too kind (but keep it up ).
 
There are four pipes that hang out at angles from the conning tower. These are made from 1.0mm brass rod, and the footwalks are supplied in the PE set :


 
I realised I'd forgotten to fit the support girders underneath the top deck before I'd glued it on. This made the task a lot more difficult with all the fragile things I'd already added making it hard to get a good hold of the tower without damaging anything else. Most of it survived intact, but I had to re-glue a piece of railing :

 
I was in two minds whether to roll the masts and spars from paper or use brass tubing, but I thought I may as well give it a go - I could always revert to tubing if they turned out rubbish. I surprised myself . Here are some pics of the Forward Mast in progress, showing my method of construction :




 
The mast finished and the two tubes I used. The larger one has another plastic tube inside it with a slit cut lengthways to get the right diameter. The outer brass tube clamps the plastic tube tightly, and the thinner tube supports the inside of the paper :

 
The seam cane out almost invisible :

 
And I've also done the Main Mast. This one is 180mm long and 3.25mm in diameter, and it came out as straight as a gun barrel. I'm happy :

 
  Danny

It's already been said Danny but - amazing work!
 
John

Impressive work Danny, some very well presented detail.
 
cheers
 
Pat

I know we're seeing the build, but the result sure doesn't look like "paper".   Amazing work.

amazing structure Danny........the guns look awesome!   you make it look WAY to freak'in easy   

Impressive feat ... you really make paper shine