Julie Mo

My dad had a 1973 Columbia 45.  Not the prettiest or fastest thing on the water but solid and comfortable.  I knew that boat inside and out.
 
As for winches, Lewmar has these for big boats:

Maybe I could find a carbon fibre rod and turn something close.  
 
I found this RC Harken hardware on another site but the website that sells them is down.  I'd have fun rigging a J Class model with modern racing gear.


 
All this makes me wish we bought the boat instead of the house.

Sigh is an understatement!   Memories of sailing completely melt me.  I raced for about three years but I'm a cruiser at heart.  We used to sail from Chicago to Mackinac Island every year for 8 years.  My dad would take the boat one way, I'd take it the other.  We took one sail from Lake Worth, FL to the Bahamas and back, and one trip from Ft. Lauderdale down into the Keys.  Not once did I want to go back to being landlocked but I always did.
 
As for the wood lathe, do high speed tools work on aluminum and brass or would you need something designed for turning metal?  

Frank, you are like Bernini, start with something that looks nothing like the finished result and end up with a masterpiece!  It's like the old saying: Get a block of granite and chip away everything that doesn't look like sailboat.  Easy peasy!    You do that amazingly well!
 
As a sailor, I appreciate your subjects.  I think I have sailing in my blood.  After we sold the last house we spent a while looking at live aboard sailboats.  We bought another house because it was more "practical" but houses don't get the emotions stirred up like sailing into a harbor at dawn after an overnight journey.
 
It was interesting to see you used a wood lathe to turn winches.  Up to this point I was believing only a metal lathe could accomplish that.  Thank you for the education.  
 
 

Here's the damage:

There's a little crack that was washed out when I took the picture.  It's just above the bitter end of the transom planks that are broken off.  So they all had to be removed.
 

When I started removing the top planking, it took some of the sub planking with it.
 

On the transom there was an extra sub planking laid in so I pared it smooth with a chisel and cleaned up the edges.  I could have used some mini chisels for this operation.
 

I couldn't get the last two planks to stay so I had to remove them for later installation.  They are in place now so I'm waiting for the glue to set.

Before I dive into this, I thought I'd get some feedback, just in case this might lead to buying tools I can't afford.
 
Thoughts are to build the interior as pictured below and allow for the raised deck roof to be removed for easier showing.  The total area represents about 4.25" x 5.5".  There would be a Nav Station, Galley, cushioned seating, two (maybe three) sets of stairs and all the rest.  I've drawn it up to scale (not the one you see below), with dimensions, and will probably create a 3D drawing to make sure it looks proper. 

What skills would be needed?  What tools would be needed for the wood and fabric and cushions?  What about all the windows?  They would have to be flush on the decks.
 
The majority of tools I have are for life-size projects.  I have a Dremel 4000 with the drill press base, flex extension and most of the adapters.  For milling wood to dimension I'd have to make up a router table for a Bosch Colt and/or build some setup for a Jet spindle sander.  No Byrnes table saw.  No milling machines.  I do have a variable speed wood lathe but it's a 36".  Probably too large?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice and warnings. 

Before I dive into this, I thought I'd get some feedback, just in case this might lead to buying tools I can't afford.
 
Thoughts are to build the interior as pictured below and allow for the raised deck roof to be removed for easier showing.  The total area represents about 4.25" x 5.5".  There would be a Nav Station, Galley, cushioned seating, two (maybe three) sets of stairs and all the rest.  I've drawn it up to scale (not the one you see below), with dimensions, and will probably create a 3D drawing to make sure it looks proper. 

What skills would be needed?  What tools would be needed for the wood and fabric and cushions?  What about all the windows?  They would have to be flush on the decks.
 
The majority of tools I have are for life-size projects.  I have a Dremel 4000 with the drill press base, flex extension and most of the adapters.  For milling wood to dimension I'd have to make up a router table for a Bosch Colt and/or build some setup for a Jet spindle sander.  No Byrnes table saw.  No milling machines.  I do have a variable speed wood lathe but it's a 36".  Probably too large?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice and warnings. 

Before I dive into this, I thought I'd get some feedback, just in case this might lead to buying tools I can't afford.
 
Thoughts are to build the interior as pictured below and allow for the raised deck roof to be removed for easier showing.  The total area represents about 4.25" x 5.5".  There would be a Nav Station, Galley, cushioned seating, two (maybe three) sets of stairs and all the rest.  I've drawn it up to scale (not the one you see below), with dimensions, and will probably create a 3D drawing to make sure it looks proper. 

What skills would be needed?  What tools would be needed for the wood and fabric and cushions?  What about all the windows?  They would have to be flush on the decks.
 
The majority of tools I have are for life-size projects.  I have a Dremel 4000 with the drill press base, flex extension and most of the adapters.  For milling wood to dimension I'd have to make up a router table for a Bosch Colt and/or build some setup for a Jet spindle sander.  No Byrnes table saw.  No milling machines.  I do have a variable speed wood lathe but it's a 36".  Probably too large?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice and warnings. 

Before I dive into this, I thought I'd get some feedback, just in case this might lead to buying tools I can't afford.
 
Thoughts are to build the interior as pictured below and allow for the raised deck roof to be removed for easier showing.  The total area represents about 4.25" x 5.5".  There would be a Nav Station, Galley, cushioned seating, two (maybe three) sets of stairs and all the rest.  I've drawn it up to scale (not the one you see below), with dimensions, and will probably create a 3D drawing to make sure it looks proper. 

What skills would be needed?  What tools would be needed for the wood and fabric and cushions?  What about all the windows?  They would have to be flush on the decks.
 
The majority of tools I have are for life-size projects.  I have a Dremel 4000 with the drill press base, flex extension and most of the adapters.  For milling wood to dimension I'd have to make up a router table for a Bosch Colt and/or build some setup for a Jet spindle sander.  No Byrnes table saw.  No milling machines.  I do have a variable speed wood lathe but it's a 36".  Probably too large?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice and warnings. 

Before I dive into this, I thought I'd get some feedback, just in case this might lead to buying tools I can't afford.
 
Thoughts are to build the interior as pictured below and allow for the raised deck roof to be removed for easier showing.  The total area represents about 4.25" x 5.5".  There would be a Nav Station, Galley, cushioned seating, two (maybe three) sets of stairs and all the rest.  I've drawn it up to scale (not the one you see below), with dimensions, and will probably create a 3D drawing to make sure it looks proper. 

What skills would be needed?  What tools would be needed for the wood and fabric and cushions?  What about all the windows?  They would have to be flush on the decks.
 
The majority of tools I have are for life-size projects.  I have a Dremel 4000 with the drill press base, flex extension and most of the adapters.  For milling wood to dimension I'd have to make up a router table for a Bosch Colt and/or build some setup for a Jet spindle sander.  No Byrnes table saw.  No milling machines.  I do have a variable speed wood lathe but it's a 36".  Probably too large?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice and warnings. 

Hi Dan and thanks for the warm welcome and kind words.    You're right on that I do feel a bit "out-of-place" maybe with my choice of subjects and my approach to model building.   This is all something I just started in the last few years since I retired so I'm honing all new skills.
 
Re: machinery and techniques ... I have a band saw and a collection (8 I think) of Dremels (Chinese knock-offs) all with flex-shafts and different tool-bits.    In the last 6 months I bought a hobbyist metal lathe but that has only made some wire wheels for my latest racing car model.
 
So, to answer your question it's all done with hacksaw and files ... maybe 200 by now, then wet-sanding the aluminium and working up to 1000 grit then metal polish.
 
I dismantle and save all kinds of machinery ... old computers, hard drives, VCR's etc so I have a stash to sift through for something appropriate to make a part.
 
Computer hard drives are a favourite as they are cast in a reasonably soft alloy that's nice to work with and polishes well.
 
Here's a selection of pics showing how I made a pair of fairleads for a friend's half-hull Beneteau 51 using a hard drive chassis ...
 
Dremeled out the rough shape with a rasp-type tool ...

File to shape further ...
 

Hacksaw the piece out ... 

Tiny pieces I usually Crazy Glue to an arborite sample so I can fine finish it

These fittings aren't needed to be finely polished but enough to replicate the real part.

Hope this is helpful Dan.
 
Frank
 
 

Hello again ... my second model posting.

About 40 years ago my wife bought this kit for me and I put it together as well as I could.    This was all pre-internet and I had nothing more to guide me than the instructions in the box.   We were sailors ourselves so I had a pretty good idea how it should work!     Anyway, I just assembled the hull, made a backing board for it and hung it on the wall where it stayed for about 35 years collecting dust.   A few years after I retired I started scratch building as a hobby and decided to tart her up a bit.
  Here's how she looked when I started stage 2 ... By now we had the internet and I looked at many Dragons there and just chose what features I liked best and incorporated them into mine.   I decided first to plank the deck as it just had the sheet of wood that came with the kit.    Haven't a clue now what I used as caulking in case anyone wants to know.  Have a feeling I scored the tiny gap i left between the planks with a fine triangular file and rubbed something in as caulk.   Cut mahogany strips for a deck edge coaming and as a king plank of sorts. Made a little dog-house from a scrap of mahogany and added a raised coaming with scaled quarter-round around the cockpit and added some nice bases for the winches. I have a healthy supply of wood scraps so of many varieties so I included them whenever possible.     This floor grating is from cocobolo strips ... Tiller uses alternating mahogany and "something else" ... pine maybe?   bent and glued around pins on a board.   Metal fittings scratch made from aluminum scraps. .... Winches and traveller are scratch built too ... Likewise a few deck fittings ... This was as far as I  wanted to take the project as I had no interest in making it into a sailing model.   Oh yes, I finished up the keel, made fittings to support a rudder then ran a tube through to which I attached the tiller ... sorry no pictures. However, good friends of ours make boat cradles for a living so I had to make something they'd approve of so some nice mahogany scraps were selected for the purpose.     I had to make proper tilting supports too so they were scratched from small bolts. So that's where she stands today and has resumed her duties as an excellent dust collector!!   Thanks for looking in.   Frank

Before I dive into this, I thought I'd get some feedback, just in case this might lead to buying tools I can't afford.
 
Thoughts are to build the interior as pictured below and allow for the raised deck roof to be removed for easier showing.  The total area represents about 4.25" x 5.5".  There would be a Nav Station, Galley, cushioned seating, two (maybe three) sets of stairs and all the rest.  I've drawn it up to scale (not the one you see below), with dimensions, and will probably create a 3D drawing to make sure it looks proper. 

What skills would be needed?  What tools would be needed for the wood and fabric and cushions?  What about all the windows?  They would have to be flush on the decks.
 
The majority of tools I have are for life-size projects.  I have a Dremel 4000 with the drill press base, flex extension and most of the adapters.  For milling wood to dimension I'd have to make up a router table for a Bosch Colt and/or build some setup for a Jet spindle sander.  No Byrnes table saw.  No milling machines.  I do have a variable speed wood lathe but it's a 36".  Probably too large?
 
Thanks in advance for any advice and warnings. 

The Interior is one thing but I think on this yacht there are only 2 sky lights through which to view and they are round and oval shaped with lots of triangular fasets your hard work my well be hidden from all to see That been said some of the Bone ships built by the French prisoners of war have full interiors only visible with modern fiber optic scopes 
Good luck with your project 
Andy

The cushions can be made from epoxy or sculpy - painted and until touched you would swear they are leather or fabric - depending on the painting.
Kurt

Glad the picture meant something to you ... not everyone's cup 'o tea.    That was Pipe Creek in the Exumas and we stayed there almost a month.   What kind of boat did Dad have and ... have you done a model of it?
 
OK ... high speed tools, yes, I only use HSS blanks to make my tools for the machine lathe.   You don't need carbide to work aluminum or brass (but carbide cuts them nicely too).   As I said above I used to buy Chinese wood carving tools when I'd find them on sale then re-shape the heads using these disks you buy for Dremels if I needed a particular shape.

e.g. to make the self-tailing slot on a winch I'd taper a carving tool to that shape.

You'll find that HSS is actually what the better carving tools are made from.   Pry one out of its handle and you'll find the familiar square shape of an HSS blank.
 
Just curious but what colour of finish will your modern winches have .. black, silver or brass.   If black then maybe you could make them in wood or a composite and paint them.
 
Frank
 
 

Hi Julie
 
Funny you should use that expression about "chipping away everything that ....".   I had used it on a car model that started as a block of mahogany and a viewer asked me how I did it and I said "just chip away .... not Ferrari".   I don't really know how it comes out (usually) correctly as I rarely have plans ... an eye for the correct line I suppose.   As I said I'm a retired computer geek with nothing in my background to build on.
 
Ah, sailing.  Retired at 55, sold everything, quit 2 good jobs, kicked out the last kid (23) and moved aboard the Alberg (top of this piece) then left for the Caribbean.   Stayed aboard 4 years then sailed back to Toronto and sold it.
 
Waking up here is what I called living ...

Sigh ....
 
OK, sounds like you've seen what I said about using a wood lathe and, if you don't want to get into a "real" lathe this isn't a bad option.   There's a freedom of movement with a hand held chisel that you don't get with a metal lathe and that is often important with the kind of things you might want to shape.
 
 Frank
 
 

Frank, you are like Bernini, start with something that looks nothing like the finished result and end up with a masterpiece!  It's like the old saying: Get a block of granite and chip away everything that doesn't look like sailboat.  Easy peasy!    You do that amazingly well!
 
As a sailor, I appreciate your subjects.  I think I have sailing in my blood.  After we sold the last house we spent a while looking at live aboard sailboats.  We bought another house because it was more "practical" but houses don't get the emotions stirred up like sailing into a harbor at dawn after an overnight journey.
 
It was interesting to see you used a wood lathe to turn winches.  Up to this point I was believing only a metal lathe could accomplish that.  Thank you for the education.  
 
 

Hi Patrick 
 
Thanks for your interest.   A fan you say!!    So, do I have to start a fan club?    Should we have jackets?    Can I charge membership?
 
I've already commented on your insanely small projects and have just read through your J-boat ... holey moley they're so tiny and so crammed with all the innards!   Do you live in a telephone booth by any chance?
 
Actually, you've got me thinking ... I'm about to take the half-hull of our own old Alberg 37 back to the shop for updates and I've always had an urge to do the entire interior so ... if you can do it in a 7" model it should be a piece of cake right?
 
Maybe you'd like to do it for me?
 
Cheers mate.
 
Frank

 


 
 

Here are the last of my maritime models and, in keeping with my different style of building, they're all half hulls.    I like this format as it can be hung on a wall so I don't have to answer that awkward question from my wife ... "And where do you intend to put THAT".   Well, it's an easier discussion! 
  First up is a model of our own boat, an Alberg 37, which we've since sold.   Ever since I took up scratch building I had intended to build this once I developed enough skills to reproduce it and, more importantly, all the metalwork.   The hull is carved out of a block of Renshape and is at a 3/4" scale.      
Here are a few of the details I scratch built from salvaged metals.              I've had some questions asked earlier about tools so I'll digress here for a moment.   My "lathe" at the time  was a hobbyist wood lathe with a 3 jaw chuck, a tool rest and I used cheap Chinese carving chisels which I would grind to custom shapes as needed.      In the picture above I've got a chuck that I salvaged from a hand drill mounted into the 3 jaw chuck.   This is my preferred setup when making tiny pieces as it gets your fingers away from the deadly, hard, spinning 3 jaws.         Even though I now have a "proper" metal lathe I miss the flexibility offered by hand held tools.   Anyone considering a metal lathe might want to keep in mind that all the turned metal pieces you can see  e.g.steering binnacles and winches, were made by a hand held tool and are considerably more difficult (for me) to make with a metal lathe.      OK ... moving on.   Next up is up is our previous boat ... a Thunderbird 26. These are plywood hulls built to a Canadian design. On the real boat I removed the cabin and cockpit when I bought it and built a totally new cabin so if anyone thinks it doesn't look like a T-Bird ... that's why. I made this simple, smaller model (13") for one of our sons who was very fond of the boat as a child.   Carved from Renshape.     Cockpit details mostly fabricated using Arborite/Formica samples.  My wife can be very indecisive when we go to a hardware store to pick out a colour for the new kitchen so the salesman is always happy to load us up with lots of samples!    These are great for flat surfaces because of their perfect flatness, square and strong. CONTESSA 26's ... Two of them.   Our friends who owned it had split up and they both wanted one.    Both are 12" (maybe 13") models. The original is shaped as usual from Renshape I made a fiberglass mould from the first hull to save same time.   then used auto-body repair paste (Bondo) to make the duplicate.   Both friends are happy with their souvenir ... but still apart.   BENETEAU 51 IDYLLE   This yacht was owned by friends who have it in the charter business in the Caribbean.       The real one ... The hull was fashioned from Renshape (mostly) and generous applications of fiberglass paste and Bondo ... needs must.    My stash was getting very low so I was cobbling together all the biggest bits to create the mass I needed.   She wasn't a pretty baby. But with generous dollops of Bondo and my power sanders I soon had a suitable shape ... It is "close" to 1/2":1' scale but definitely built to scale.   I'll just put in couple of shots of the build ... I won't bore you with all the fabrication that was required but if anyone wants to see how pieces were made ... let me know.    LOTS of pictures available. Thanks for looking in ...   Frank    
 
 

Oh lovely!   This looks nicely proportioned too.   
 
Winches ... I saw Harken miniature winches available years ago so maybe someone  on here knows where to get them ... I turn my own and they're not hard to do.   Be glad to chat about that if you want to try it.
 
Frank
 
 

Here's today's work

Right now, I'm not liking it.  The crystal ball is predicting some changes.

We'll let the "glamorous" sit at the ends.
 
So I slept on the Spirit deck cabin layout and woke around 3AM finding an Oyster in my thoughts.  What was prominent in my mind was how some Oyster yachts have three flat forward facing windows, the port and starboard windows angled back a bit.  The angled windows creating a different look than the half oval of the Spirit.  Still have to let my 3D mind build the two different models to determine which works best with the hull.
 
Here's an Oyster 118

Not the three flat windows I've seen on smaller Oysters but it gives one an idea of the difference between the two.  One thing I would NOT do is the extended roof.  Great for cruising on a real boat but not right for Slàinte (yes, I've christened the yacht Slàinte ). 
 
Right now I'm still leaning toward the Spirit deck layout.  A little time in CAD world and we'll see how it pans out.

The brain won't stop until it's happy.  If I can be so bold, I admit to hating what the kit provides for the deck cabin.  My vision is to have something less boxy, something that has accommodations for guests, something more inviting and maybe a bit more modern.  Time to push the envelope without committing any aesthetic crimes.
 
I looked at several photos of the current Endeavour and the deck cabins and surrounding woodwork are all pretty boxy except this:

I like the idea of a "safe place" for guests.  Lionheart has this:


Something like that would work.  I like the fact the forward part of the cabin doesn't look as boxy.  Boxy is the one part of the J-Class boats I've never liked.  So boxy has to go.

Here's today's work

Right now, I'm not liking it.  The crystal ball is predicting some changes.

Using .5 x 6 mm strips line the inside of the opening keeping the front edge of the strips flush with the front  edge of the bulkhead. Now install the 1'5 x 3 mm strips recessed 1.5 mm, to allow for the thickness of the door, as seen in P2, thus forming the door stop. The backside of the bulkhead can be trimmed or framed in with 1.5 mm stock, your choice. Next step is to apply the exterior planking, .5 x 6 mm. to the front of the bulkhead, this is installed  so that it is flush with the edges of the door opening.
 The plans, which are accurate, are showing the progression of the build so what might seem like the end of a strip is actually a cross section. Where  the red arrows are pointing there is no veneer, or filler exposed  it is showing the exterior planking and it's thickness, giving you a 3d view of the layers involved in this particular part of the build.