6ohiocav

Spanker Boom Jaws
 
This is a challenge.  Screw this up and you will back at the lathe to turn a new spanker boom.
 
Since this is going to be painted black, I chose to use the laser cut jaws (one less piece to cut from my cherry). I used the piece to trace the taper on the boom. I made a tick mark at the top of the boom to use as a reference point while I sand the sides flat to accept the jaws.  Then I carefully take the end down on my bench sander.  I put a 400 grit pad on the disc so that it doesnt take too much.  But you still have to be careful.  It will remove material pretty quick.  After some hand sanding, I got it to fit and glued it up.
 
 
 
 

Spanker Boom
 
Back to the lathe where I feel comfortable to get a break from the tedious gun mounting project.
 
This is a tough piece to turn.  It is 11 inches long with a 3/16 inch max diameter.  That makes the piece unstable and subject to wobble.  The key, sharp tools and take your time.
 
1. Get the middle down to 3/16.
2. Turn the outside end to 1/8 and cut the taper. It is always better to work on the side on the spindle first, since it will be the most unstable.  Keeping the beef at the chuck end will help keep the stock stable
3 Turn the side on the chuck to 1/8, cut the taper and create the shoulder.
 
Some photos of the process. Again, all made out of cherry
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mike,
 
I am avid military history reader and civil war reenactor. I am currently reading or have read everything I could find on the Age of Sail
 
Just finished.
 
Six Frigates - Ian Toll (his trilogy on the Pacific War is real good too)
​Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron - Ronald Utt
1812: The Navy's War - George Daughan
Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Ships - Nathan Miller
Struggle for Sea Power - Sam Willis
In the Hour of Victory - Sam Willis
A Brief History of fighting Ships - David Davies 
 
Currently Reading
 
Give me a Fast Ship - Tim McGrath
 
I am always looking for suggestions, so fire away. I would recommend all of these books.

Ken,
 
I have been a Keim's customer for years. The exotic wood section is incredible. It is like a candy shop for us. I get all of my curly maple there for my other hobby. I got my Holly board there. Most of my high end power tools are from their.  The rest were purchased at the annual Hartville Hardware Tool Sale. You probably know that place as well.
 
Being so close to Ohio Amish country, and with good connections, wood stock is plentiful and reasonable.
 
By the way, Keims has a 5 inch diameter unmilled American Boxwood crotch log that they tried to sell me last month. If you go to the site you listed and search "Boxwood", you can see it. They wanted $900 which shocked me, but would give me a good discount since I am a customer. I thought about it.....but figured you were paying a premium for the crotch, which probably means more grain than we want. I can probably get it for half price.  Anyone interested in splitting it (literally).

Brian,
 
Thanks for stopping in. Paint is such a nemisis. Using the various hardwoods I have available puts me in my comfort zone with stains, dyes and finishes.
 
I am caught between centuries with my Niagara. Both of my parents were born 30 miles from Erie, Pa, where Noah Brown built the original ship in 1813. I am more interested in the historical ship, and realize that the current ship is pretty much a replica, and the kit, which is a real good one, is of the replica.
 
I often think of what Noah Brown would have done- or better yet- could have done.  The ship and her sister ship the Lawrence were built in a true wilderness, and in an incredible short amount of time (much less than what it will take to finish my model). While blessed with a plethera of natural materials, everything else had to be sent from Pittsburgh, 70 miles south over cow paths. Was the orginal ship painted? I am not sure we know.
 
In the end, I will be drifting back and forth between the 1813 version and the 1988 one. If anyone has ANY GUIDANCE ON THE 1813 VERSION, PLEASE SEND IT ALONG.
 
I am totally on board with the use of boxwood. The wonderful ships on this forum, including your fabulous AVS, can't be made out of basswood. It is rather ironic. For years in my amatuer furniture making endeavors, I have searched high and low for wonderfully grained woods. Now I am looking for wood that has no grain.  Go figure.
 
Finally, you have a keen eye. The inside of my carronade barrels are not painted  because I shoved a very small dowel stick in the barrels and speared them into a bar of styrofoam so I could paint them. The dowels fit so good, I actually thought I would make some red tompians, but have since abandoned that idea and will be painting the inside barrels with a brush.

Mike,
 
I was afraid you would ask me that. I don't know the size.  It is from a Dremel carving kit.  It is bit "105". There is no size given but it is perfect for these rings.I used it to drill all of the holes for the rings in the gun carriages.
 
I am adding a picture of the kit.  My kids got me this years ago before I started this ship, and this has come in handy on numerous occasions. I used the larger diamond tipped bit to cut out my gun ports.
 
It is a bit hard to handle without a jig, but with a jig, the tapered collar is perfect for plunge drilling. The thick collar prevents the bit from going too deep and you can zip right along.

Eyebolts
 
.... and more eyebolts.  I twisted up 160. Took most of the evening.  Started with 24 gauge black and used a small drill bit mounted in my bench vice. Not very efficient.  Too many thumbs, and i was handling each one way too much. too many drops and just too slow.
 
So I used my micro plyers with rounded jaws. Wow, what a difference. Much more efficient and they never leave the jaws of the pliers until done.  Not sure  a topic worth photographing,but I add some just the same to show the process.

Mike,
 
The pin vice has its place, but not for the 160 holes I just drilled this morning.
 
No paint or stain for the cherry, just poly. Any part that the plans ask for a natural finish, I will do in cherry stock. Making the parts is good practice, but very time consuming. Some of the items that get paint I will do in the bass wood.

EYEBOLTS
 
Following Mikiek's suggestion, I am also going to get all of the hull fixtures done before I go any further. Seeing similiar looking jigs for the carronade eyebolts, I created my own that would service my diamond tipped dremel bit. This allowed me to quickly and accurately drill all of the holes. It took all of about 10 minutes. The widened collar and the jig prevent me from plunging the bit too far into the hull making the process safe. They all turned out square and consistently placed. Now all I have to do is to twist up about 160 eyebolts ---urgh!!

Catheads
 
I finished the catheads and cut the chock rail and top rail, very carefully, to fit them in. I made these from scratch out of cherry. Turned out good. I will not actually attach them until I get the deck glued down.

Thanks for the insight.  I have seen those jigs, and I need to break down and make some. Good suggestion.

Yards
 
I worked on the lower yards.  Turned them on the lathe and filed the octagons with the flat file using my index key on the Jet lathe. I learned a few things.  Since these all will be painted black, I experimented with some of the wood in the shop before finally settling on my trusted cherry. I had some scrap holly and tried to turn one, but found the holly was not strong enough and as I got down to the small diameter, the length of the lower yard created too much wobble. I didn't like maple either, and as expected, my white oak had too much grain.  Cherry was the best.
 
Next up will be the upper yards.  I don't think I can turn them on the lathe since they are so thin, but I will try.  The alternative, the dreaded filing them by hand. All I can say is that I have gained a lot of experience doing that.
 
Some photos of the finished yards.
 
 

Mike,
 
I am going to look into the suggestion of the crown tip for the Iwata.  I had no idea that was available. thanks for the tip.
 
Darrell

The bowsprit and boom.
 
the ultimate challenge!
 
I have to be honest when I say I spent months thinking about how to create the Niagara bowsprit. It has a very complex shape. The top is totally flat with no taper. The bottom has two tapers, one at the base and then one at the end. At the very base is a notch and then about the first one third of the overall length is a series of octagons. From there going outward, the sides and bottom are rounded with a slight taper. That all ends with a full tapering octagon.
 
My first idea was to follow along with the process I used for the masts - mark off the square portions and file the octagons and  turn the round portion on the lathe. That would be easy enough.  The problem however was that I had to then figure out how to sheer off the top to create the flat non tapered surface. That had to be done after the turning, and figuring out how to create a jig, or special fence to use with the saw to create that true flat surface we beyond me.
 
Once again, the only way was to do it by hand. I started with a square stock of cherry. The first task was to create the tapers.  I cut out pictures of the bowsprit from the plans and traced the lines on the stock and carefully did the tapering on my bench disc sander. Not too bad, but very delicate.
 
From there, I mounted the piece in the lathe and filed the octagons using my indexing screw. Again, I lined up the surface to be filed on top and kept a horizontal level with the file. After the octagons had been cut, I had no choice but to file the rounded surface with a file. I marked the very top (where the surface has to remain flat) with horizontal lines to make sure that I did not touch it with the file.
 
The jibs were turned on the lathe. They also have their share of octagons.
 
The bowsprit was probably the only thing I actually did from start to finish and got it right the first time.  I finished the bowsprit with bass wood steps and chocks.  I used cherry to create the bees (traced them from the plans and cut on the band saw).  I also molded the iron band from the kit supplied brass and blackened it.
 
the darn thing turned out so good, I am adverse to painting it the required black.  Any suggestions out there on the bowsprit?  paint or no paint.

In reviewing my last post, I realized I added a photo with a picture of one of my top masts that I had to subsequently scrap (an oft occurrence). For those of you that are familiar with the Niagara plans, the portion above the basket is square. I missed that on my first attempt and went on my merry way and turned it round.  Off to the scrap heap.  In the last photo, you will see the top mast with the proper square portion above the basket.  By the way, I filed the basket to the tapered octagon shape the same way I did the other octagons and the square portion above that had to be free handed on the band saw. I ruined two fully turned and finished top masts trying to get that right. In all, I had to make 7 top masts to finally get 2 right.

Mast and yard material
 
Since I decided to forego using the kit supplied round stock for the masts and yards, I had to decide what to replace that with. For the lower masts, I wanted a light colored wood that I could stain.  All the tops and yards would be made out of my cherry stock.
 
I experimented with a hard maple for the lowers.  After it was turned, I found it to have to much grain.  Following a tip from this forum, I decided to try some holly.  I was able to pick up a single short board at my local Amish wood supplier.  I have never used holly - indeed - did not even know you could find any.  It is very white, just what I was looking for, and no appreciable grain.  While it was pricey, it was a dream to work with.  While not as tough as hard cherry, it turned beautifully and filed true.
 
Again, I started with square stock, turned the round portions, and then filed the large octagon at the base.  At the top, the mast is square, and gently tapers to a square notch. I created the taper by carefully marking the mast, and removing the material on my bench disc sander with 400 grit paper.
 
The finished holly is stunning. The pictures do not do it justice.  I will be anxious to see how it looks after a few coats of finish.

Reaching back in time in a continuing effort to bring this log up to date, I have some photos and narrative of the experience of building the masts, yards and bowsprit.
 
For the masts, I opted to go with square stock that I could turn on my mini lathe. And for the Niagara, that meant dealing with all of the various octagon portions of the masts and yards. At first, I thought that would be easy enough. We always plane down the corners of our stock creating a rough octagon shape before we mount it in the lathe just to take the stress off of our gouges. So I thought I would simply do the same with the square mast, and then turn the remainder round to get it into shape. The problem though was the small size and the precision necessary for my keen eye. Getting an acceptable true octagon shape was an incredible challenge.  Nothing from my wood working experience worked. My table saw with the blade at 45 degrees wasn't going to do it.  I took a short glance at that and realized that would be a waste of time. I tilted the table of my band saw to 45 degrees, and actually ran a few pieces of scrap through that and a temporary fence I made and realized that the cut could not be kept true enough. My octagons had waves. I even mounted a 45 degree router bit on the router table, and ran some stock through that.  It actually worked the best, but to be honest, it was just not safe enough for me to feel comfortable.  And I was using material for the main masts, the largest stock and this was just too small.
 
So, I had to resort to the tried and true method of simply doing it by hand. Something that I am finding to be the case in most of what I have done on this ship. In the end, it actually was not too bad.  I had to purchase a Nova 4 jaw mini chuck for my lather to accept the small stock. After mounting,  I marked the stock for where the round parts and octagon parts were, and turned the round parts to the proper diameter. I then took a flat file and began filing the square areas designated to be octagon shaped. My Jet mini lathe helped me with this.  It is equipped with an indexing  screw, which when pushed in, locks the chuck firmly in place. That would allow me to line up the area to be filed to the very top of the stock, and keeping the file level at the horizontal, I would carefully file down the edges.  Once I filed off a small amount of the first corner, I simply reset the index screw for the next corner, and slowly worked my way around the entire piece.  Once the corners were knocked down, I worked on the flat surfaces, and together brought all down to be flush with the rounded portions.
 
The process has worked pretty well. I have used this for all of the masts and yards. I spent a 3 weeks in April just working on them, and still don't have them done.  Working on my lathe however is actually fun, and working with such small stock has been educational. I have never turned any table legs this small! ... or at least ones that I would want to sit on.
 
Here are some photos I took while turning one of the top gallant masts, THE smallest one, with 3 very fine octagon shapes. In the last photo of the final product, the octagons are hard to see, but trust me, they are there.  

This is probably a good time to share something with my fellow ship builders. After I finished planking the hull, and sanded and painted it, I could not get over the new feel of the ship.  For months I had been handling this wooden frame with multiple sharp edges and such.  And now, a smooth shaped surface designed to cut through the water to beat any windward challenge.  I could not get over the feel and the weight of the ship. Holding onto it created a completely new sensation.
 
Forgive me if this sounds a bit corny but I also had to overcome the strong urge to float that baby in the bath tub, but my son disavowed me of that crazy idea.

Going back in time again, I thought I would post some photos of the hull and discuss the painting process. I learned long ago in my styrene plastic model days, that any great build can be ruined very quickly by an average paint job. My wood working experience has taught me much about stains, dyes and finishes, but paint can be a bit nerve racking.
 
I decided to paint my hull flat black. No green. My decision was based mostly on asthetics, and because the large model of the Niagara at the Presque Isle Museum has a black hull, and it looks great. I have seen some research on this topic posted on the forum, and I have to agree that the original Niagara Hull was not painted green. I of course realize that this kit is not of the original Niagara, but the replica ship recreated by the State of Pennsylvania in the 1980's. Yet, I cannot even find a photo of the current Niagara with a green painted hull.  It looks copper colored to me, and when I actually toured the ship years ago, I never even thought to look at the hull paint, even if I could have seen it below the water.
 
So, Master Modeler (MM) flat black was the choice. That brand was chosen for two reasons. First, it is a good quality modeler paint and readily available. More importantly, it fit my plan. I have an Iwata Eclipse air brush.  It is a great product.  I recommend it. However, spraying large surfaces with a fine airbrush can be a bit tedious. What I have done is to use commercial spray cans for rough coats and then the airbrush for the final finish coat. I was able to purchase a small can of MM flat black and a small MM bottle that allowed me to accomplish this. 
 
I did not take any photos of the hull during the prep work. I carefully masked off the painted bulwarks, inside and out. I then sanded the planking and borrowing a great idea from XKEN from his Niagara build, used an automotive glazing putty to fill in the seams. It goes on smooth, dries quick, and is easy to sand away (in fact, almost too easy, so be careful). I followed that with a finish sanding and a coat of MM Gray primer from a can. The primer will reveal any defects, so a little more glazing here and there, and then another coat of primer. After the surface was acceptable, which for me, required quite a bit of sanding to reveal the plank edges, I was ready for the paint.
 
I used two coats of flat black from the MM can for the initial coats, being very careful not to over spray the surface (commercial spray cans emit large amounts of paint). I used 600 grit sand paper for light sandings in between, and then went to the airbrush for the final coat.  I used the MM paint from the bottle, with about a 50/50 paint to thinner mixture for that last finish coat.  Despite my fears, the hull turned out really good.
 
Here are some photos of the final product. 
 
 

Mike,
 
Thanks for the love. However, this work is a cumulation of all of the tips and techniques I picked up by our fellow Niagara builders, and other model shipwrights on this forum. The talent here is unbelievable.
 
As a follow up, the picture I posted of the circular flattened wire used for the carronade carriages is misleading. I took the picture after I cut all of the metal bands, and the flattened wire I used for the photo was a scrapped piece that did not pass my quality control department (there is a lot of stuff in that pile). To get the right radius, the circle has to be tighter, about 50% so. Just a heads up.
 
I feel like I owe you a lot being that I have referred to your log repeatedly over the past several months. So I will try and give back.
 
Darrell

I am switching between work that I did over the winter months and current work.  In February and March, I worked on the masts and yards. The Bowsprit was quite the challenge.  I did not take many pictures, and I am working on recreating some of the techniques I used for later posts.
 
For now, I worked on the chock rail and catheads over the weekend.  Since I am swapping out all non painted parts from the basswood to cherry, I had to recreate my own rails and catheads.  I milled some cherry strips, traced from the laser cut pattern, cut the parts carefully on the bandsaw, and sanded to a fine finish.  I cut the sheaves in the catheads very carefully with multiple drill holes and finished with an exacto knife.  As usual, I broke one, and had to start over. I am going pretty close to a 3 to 2 clip.  It always seems to take at least 3 tries to get 2 right.
 
Here are some photos.
 
 

and here are some photos of the finished product....times 20.

With the deck complete, time for some deck furniture.  That starts with the carronades and long guns. I painted all of the platforms and carriages.  then built a jig from the laser cut sheet to drill the holes for the rings. I again used one of my very small diamond tipped cutters for the dremel. I just put a measured hole in the jig and used it for the platforms. I drilled one hole and then flipped the platform over and drilled the hole on the other side
 
I also used the same jig to cut the notch for the buckled ring on the back of the carriage and the notch on each side for another set of rings.
 
I placed some photos to show how I made the rings.  I basically drilled a series of 20 holes in one of the kit supplied brass strips, inserted 20 rings, and then cut each off of the main strip.  It made it easier to handle such small pieces.  I then blackened all of the parts with Birchwood Brass Black ( a great product  and another great tip lifted from this forum).
 
For the rounded metal straps on the nose of the platform, I started with a 24 gauge black wire, made a tight circle, pounded it flat with a hammer, and then cut small sections to fit on the front of the platforms.  I then blackened that as well.
 
I painted the gun barrels with the kit supplied black paint.  I have an Iwata double action air brush that puts down a great finish.
 
I used bass wood strips for the quions. I cut the small triangles and put a small hole with a push pin in the back, and inserted the tip of a touthpick for the handle.
 
 
 

I next moved on to the deck.  I decided to use 1/8 wide cherry veneer strips on a 1/16 thick sheet of birch plywood. I cut out the picture of the deck from the plans and used it to trace an image onto the plywood.  I then cut it out on the jig saw.  After a little bit of sanding, it fit good enough. With the plywood set on the ship, I took strips of the veneer and glued them down around the perimeter. This assured a perfect fit against the waterway.
 
Once the perimeter strips dried, I removed the plywood from the ship and went back to the bench.  I decided to use 4 inch strips on 1 inch centers. I marked the 1 inch lines and then ran a series of lines long way to act as guides.  I cut a pile of 4 inch strips and used a black sharpie to line the edges. On the hardwood cherry, the black ink penetrated just enough to simulate caulking.
 
I then started glueing them down using yellow wood glue. I was able to move at a pretty good pace and loved the look of the cherry. I was able to do the entire deck in an afternoon.
 
Once it dried, I punched nail holes with a puch pin and blackend the holes with a sharp No. 2 pencil. A good but gentle sanding (the veneer is paper thin) completed the process.
 
Using the veneer on birch plywood and laying the planks OFF the ship was a good decision. I recommend it.

And that finally brings me to 2016. When i picked up this project again, after being dormant for years, and realized my build log was gone in the crash, I figured I would simply plug away and gave up the idea of starting the log all over again.  Therefore, as I get closer to the present, the next few posts will cover alot of work but with only a few pictures.
 
First up, the overwhelming project of planking the hull. It ended up being the typical, think about the daunting hurdle for weeks, read everything I could get my hands on, nervously glue on the first strake, then get totally consumed with finishing. In the end, after I laid the last strake (which I did take a picture of for posterity), I sat back and had one of those "did I actually do this" moments.
 
Since the hull is painted (allowing all of the gaps to be filled and sanded), and single planked, I opted to simply lay the strakes in the recommended bands from the kit plans.  I did not taper many strakes, and heavily relied on steelers when necessary. It was a good exercise. When the time comes for a future build requiring a double planked hull where the paint and filler crutches are unavailable to cover up the work, I should be ready.