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mikiek

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Everything posted by mikiek

  1. mikiek
    Maybe the difference between contemporary rigging (belayed to itself) and historical? I know a lot of compromises were made during the rebuild due to the fact that there isn't 150+ guys to work the boat any more. I prefer frapping where possible because I believe the coils on the deck look contrived, would have posed a safety hazard and likely wouldn't stay put for very long. Lavery and Lees both have references to frapping in various applications (guns included), most of which seem to have to do with getting excess rope out of the way. My understanding is that frapping was done in open water where the need for instant release was low. A good application for guns where there was time to unravel and do whatever with the fall before action started.
  2. mikiek
    All of the above and a satin that has almost no shine.
  3. mikiek
    A little sanding to smooth things out. You could also try some filler HOWEVER if you go the route Chuck described stay away from things you apply to the wood. Filler or the glue/sawdust mix will almost guarantee some color inconsistencies when stain is applied. On the other hand inconsistencies can add a lot of character to a build but it's mostly luck. Keep it up Elijah.
  4. mikiek
    A while back I picked up a hi-speed engraving tool - air driven. Spins bits at over 400,000 rpm, which makes them literally melt thru just about anything. Most of the bits are the size of the ones we use in a pin vise, diamond coated. They are pricey, but if you are going to get serious with carving it is a good thing to have in the arsenal. The detail you can bring out is very cool. I can dig up the link if you are interested. One of the things they do with these engravers is copy pictures to clear plastic appliques, then tape the plastic to wood and there is your template. They sent me a few sheets. They claim it will print in a laser printer. So put your rail (from the plans) in the copier, start it up and feed in a plastic sheet. Tape the sheet to your wood surface and go to town.
  5. mikiek
    Sounds like you have a Sherline and need something to do with it. My situation exactly. I just don't have a clue yet how to do anything. As to your rail, would a Dremel with some engraving bits work? You would have to freehand it, but if you work slow it might work.
  6. mikiek
    Well like I said, nothing like a hurricane to get you some quality build time. I'm starting to string up the 2nd mast. Will be doing this one in a different order. For the main I did top to lower, then top gallant to top. Probably the best approach but that mast got tall in a hurry. Bench lights and upper cabinet doors are clobbering the thing while I work on it. Add another 4"-5" being stepped in the boat and it's going to get worse. So for the fore mast I'm doing top to lower, then stepping lower into the hull and finishing all the lower rigging. I'll do the top gallant down the road. But that puts me at the time to step both masts to the hull. I'm trying to think of last minute items to do before then. So fill in this sentence - Before you step the mast be sure you _____________. The pix are still coming out lousy even though I tried a background this time. Sorry. Well here's proof I have been working. 100 meters of thread used for serving and seizing the larger ropes. I panicked until I found a new spool. Can't get much in the way of supplies right now. The whole city seems like it is shut down.
  7. mikiek
    How does that headset do size wise? My hat size is 8 3/4. A lot of the 'one size fits all' headgear products don't fit.
  8. mikiek
    Running out of room on the work bench. Especially as the Niagara rigging progresses. The big problem is, with the added masts and bowsprit, I don't have a secondary place to put her so that I can work on something else. I've also taken up RC boats and had a build in progress there. Trajta was just too much. Nothing wrong with the kit, just overloaded and couldn't give her the attention I wanted to. These last few days I have been considering making some time (and room) to pick that project up again.
  9. mikiek
    Mark - I tried frapping one last night. It definately make sense, a good strong bind and the excess is out of the way. I just wish I had done the frapping a little earlier in the rigging process. Now I'm having to do it using a pair of tweezers in each hand. BTW - I did frap all my gun tackles on this build.
  10. mikiek
    Good call Michael. There are a few "cleated" shrouds in the plans and I did not honestly pay close attention to them. Was also thinking that belayed to itself could be something like frapping. Hope you can stay dry in the next few days. We are soaked through here.
  11. mikiek
    Probably just missed it, but I don't see any references to magnifiers be they glasses, lenses, scopes, whatever. My eyes are good for about 5 minutes with nothing and then they start crying for help. I use readers sometimes but I don't like that they lose focus so quickly when I back away from a piece of work. Partly wondering about the scopes because I have an opportunity to buy one for < $100. It has stereo eyepieces, a large depth of field, on a moving arm- it was used for inspections. Overkill I know and I wouldn't pay hundreds for a new one but this looks like a good deal. It could be helpful with my ultra high speed engraving tool as the bits for that are tiny. Mag range is 2.5x to 50x. Other than that, what do y'all use?
  12. mikiek
    Thank you Darrell. I've had a lot of time since Friday to work on this. Rain has even kept the shop nice & cool. I could get used to this - minus the water. Hey I posted this in a separate thread but no response. What does it mean when the plans say a rope should be belayed to itself?
  13. mikiek
    The rigging plans for Niagara have several places calling for belaying some running rigging (halyards mostly) to a shroud sheerpole or stave. What does that look like exactly? A few wraps then a coil? Seized? There was even one halyard that come down to a tackle mounted to a top and the plan says belay to itself.
  14. mikiek
    A little rigging underway There's more but the rest of the pix came out lousy. I think I need to make the back ground a little less busy. Main top and top gallant are in place now - no glue. Still have not stepped the main yet. That is going to be a logistical nightmare. I'm already bumping the royal on my bench light fixtures. Putting them on the hull will add another 5"-6". Don't even want to think about the bowsprit.
  15. mikiek
    It's almost a must for smaller scale builds. Even sewing thread can look too big. That said it can have you seeing double before too long. I don't remember the first brand/size I got but I didn't like it. Almost seemed like it was made of lots of pieces and under some conditions it would loosen up, fray and even come apart. From a suggestion here I use Uni-Thread 6/0 now and it has worked quite well.
  16. mikiek
    Nothing like a good hurricane to make for some quality building time
  17. mikiek
    Just to update - I picked up the first volume of several series mentioned here - Kydd and Sharpe for starters. My dad loves them! He's going thru one every 4-5 days and asking for more. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime. Thanks to everyone for contributing! This was a very helpful thread.
  18. mikiek
    Found a good way to eyesplice for stays. Since they are served it's pretty easy. On a serving machine put one end of your rope with at least 3/8" inside the clip so that it is not served. I do this left side to right so this end is in the left clip. Serve about 1/2"-3/4" starting at the left clip moving right. Put a spot of CA at the end of the serve cut the thread, tie a half hitch and CA that. Take rope out of machine. Trim the left end so there is 3/8" unserved rope. Unravel the end of the rope all the way to where the serving starts. Fold the rope over at the half way point of the serving. Where the serving starts and ends should be together now, you should have a loop of served rope and the unfrayed end should overlay. Now for the cheating part. Put some CA on the unfrayed strands and then twist them around the other side of the rope. You may need to do this twice but when complete all the unfrayed strands are now glued to the other side and you have a served loop. Clip the served loop into the left clip on the serve machine. Pull the rope tight and clip rope into the right clip. Take your serving thread and tie a half hitch right where the two served ends meet. The idea here is you are going to serve over the unfrayed rope that is now glued to the other end. This will cover up any messyness from the fake eyesplice. Serve a few inches or so and you should be ready to add your mouse.
  19. mikiek
    Thank you Darrell. I looked at so many pix I can remember where it was but it showed the top stay and jib stay moused. It also showed the eyesplice was threaded thru the outer (side) opening in the top, passed around the mast and then threaded thru the opposite outer opening. Then the fall reeved thru the eyesplice. This sort of makes sense for those 2 stays, but I haven't figured out the the outer jib stay. I may just do as you describe for that one. Need to do something, I've been fretting over this one for several days now.
  20. mikiek
    I've been stumped on how to fasten some of the fore stays to the mast. There are 3 that finish at the fore top mast head,but it is difficult to determine if they are seized (don't think so), or eyespliced & moused (more likely). I found a few pix showing the top fore stay with the standard eyespliced end looped around the masthead and moused. Since the inner jib stay is the opposing line I will assume it is fastens the same way. So I'm still stuck on the outer jib stay.
  21. mikiek
    Still haven't found the answer in the plans, but I did see something that showed the fore top stay & inner jib stay wrapped around the top mast head with eyesplice & mouse keeping it in place.Typical stay configuration. In the plans, the outer jib stay looks like it goes around the masthead also but still haven't found how it fastens.
  22. mikiek
    Somehow I figured that.
  23. mikiek
    Amen to that Darrell, this will probably be another one of those 'I missed it' situations. Can't find how the fore top stay and inner & outer jib stay fasten to the mast. Is it an eyesplice with a mouse like the lower stays? The fore upper top doesn't have much room for ropes to pass thru it. Are all 3 of those stays supposed to pass thru that square opening?
  24. mikiek
    Is there still room to eat dinner?
  25. mikiek
    Have been trying to finish a RC speedboat this week - spent precious little time on rigging. Now I'm in the usual position, don't remember a dang thing about where I was or what I was doing. Took one look at that pile of string - do you remember Lurch from The Adams Family, Uhuhuhuhuhahahahahahaaaaaaaa.

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