MikeR

I have finished planking the decks, installed the main and foremast fife rails, the mooring bits, and the cavils and mooring chocks.

Keith

I turned 5 mast and was satisfied with the  last 2 which I used the chuck at the dead end.  Of the 3 that were rejects one was ok but not great and the other 2 were bad.  The mast core is 1/4" square, I used diagonal lines to find the center, then center punched it and fit the to the live center. after they were turned I noticed the center mark was enlarged and moved slightly off center.  I do not have any problems like this when I turn larger stock.

Keith I  am following your Schooner Germania build and wish I had some of your talent in wood and metal work.

Mike

Greg

Thank you for the offer Greg, but I am not ready to sale any of my models just yet.

Mike

I installed the iron bands (copper tape) on the masts and blacked them with liver of sulfur.

I sanded the square edges off the wedges before putting it in the lathe

Using the live tailstock chuck which held my work true , I am satisfied with the results.

Gluing up the masts

Today I received and installed a live tailstock chuck adapter for my lathe. That should eliminate the problems I had when my work shifted in the lathe.

The pieces of wood required to build the main mast and foremast.

Rob

Thanks you were right, I rechecked the drawings and I am missing 1 band and 1 wedge.    After I finish the decking I will Glue up both masts and try again.  I hope third time is a charm.

Mike

Rob

I am building  the Fly Fish at 3/16" scale.  I am using the top mast in the picture. The bands and the wedge spacing is right on with the drawings I have.  I guess I wasn't paying attention when I glued up the bottom mast.

I took the first set of masts that I made and scraped out the chapeling (a new word for me) and then added the iron bands to the masts. I used thin strips of copper tape and liver of sulfur to blacken them. The top mast is my first attempt, the lower the second.

Then I turned the main mast and when it was clamped in the lathe the end on the dead side moved slightly off center, which I did not realize until it was too late.

Rob & George     This is my second attempt to make the main and foremast.  I used 1/4" stock to glue up the masts and I will add thin pieces of wood to the head and base to bring them to the proper size.  I turned the foremast first and it turned out OK.

During the last month I started to install the main rail which I am making out of ebony.  While the glue was drying I started on the masts. After they were glued up I turned them on a lathe.  I'm not sure if I like the finished masts.  I will decide after I install the iron bands on them.

I started to work on the skylights for the aft cabin.  I was thinking how am I going to drill the 10 boards that hold the bars so that the holes all line up.  So this is what I came up with.  I glued 6 boards together and after they were dry,  I used an indexing table to drill even spaced holes.  I made a few extra in case of mistakes.

They were then cut apart, sanded, and wire passed through the holes while the boards were still glued together. Then I soaked them in alcohol for 10 to 15 minutes.  They came apart without much trouble.  I inspected the boards and removed one since I only needed 5 boards per side for the skylight.

I am still working on the aft cabin and I finished planking the hull.  I  added a few rows of copper plates well copper tape really, until I  ran out. I tried to find brass tape and the suppliers that handled it were out of stock, so I ordered copper. The Flying Fish had yellow metal plated instead of copper.

Here I'm starting to drill the holes for the windows in the aft cabin.  Then I'm using my scroll saw to cut them out.  The next step was to drill the holes for the window bars, and install them.

While waiting for the glue to dry for the planking,  I have been working on the windlass, chain stoppers and mangers

Rob,  I really like working with dogwood, it is a hardwood with a very fine grain.  It cuts and sands well and produces very sharp edges.  It is also great for turning on a lathe.

I have been planking both the deck and hull.

The planks I am using for the upper hull are dogwood.  They started out as a 6" X 24" log cut many years ago.  I cut the logs into 1" boards with a band saw, then ran them through a planer.  Using a Byrnes table saw I cut the boards into slightly over sized planks and then ran them through a drum sander.

After adding a few planks to the bow I used the 3/16" bit to finish the hawse hole.  Then I used 3/16" tubing for the hawse pipe.

Very carefully I drilled the hawse holes, first with a 1/16" bit, then a 1/8" bit and finished up with a 1/8"bit.

I started laying the deck planking under the forecastle and temporarily added the forecastle bitts.