6ohiocav

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

Tom,
Thanks for the look. I raise my glass to all of my fellow Niagara builders.
 
Ken, Mark, Alan, Steve and Mike,
Trust me, I needed that glass of Jamison after the mounting process. I only broke off the tip off the dolphin striker, yanked the port side course brace from its pin, and loosened one of the hammock rails......there are just no handles to grab onto when you take a jack hammer to your ship.....so we put in for repairs and were able to make everything right again.
 

RAISING THE FLAG
 
It is time to raise the flag! The shipwrights from Presque Isle have turned the US Brig Niagara over to the US Great Lakes Command and Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry. Capt. Perry's flag carried the famous quote "Don't give up the Ship" uttered by his late friend, Capt. James Lawrence as he lay dying on the deck of his ship the USS Chesapeake in battle with the HMS Shannon.

I printed an image of the flag onto printable fabric, cut it out, rigged it to lanyards,  and ran them through a block on top of the foremast.
 
We christen this ship the US Brig Niagara. I hoist this flag in honor to all of the sailors who fought and died for Country or Crown in the Battle of Lake Erie, a lake where I grew up.
 
And with that, this project is over. Once I button up the display case and take some final photos, I will mark this build log "FINISHED"
 

RAISING THE FLAG
 
It is time to raise the flag! The shipwrights from Presque Isle have turned the US Brig Niagara over to the US Great Lakes Command and Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry. Capt. Perry's flag carried the famous quote "Don't give up the Ship" uttered by his late friend, Capt. James Lawrence as he lay dying on the deck of his ship the USS Chesapeake in battle with the HMS Shannon.

I printed an image of the flag onto printable fabric, cut it out, rigged it to lanyards,  and ran them through a block on top of the foremast.
 
We christen this ship the US Brig Niagara. I hoist this flag in honor to all of the sailors who fought and died for Country or Crown in the Battle of Lake Erie, a lake where I grew up.
 
And with that, this project is over. Once I button up the display case and take some final photos, I will mark this build log "FINISHED"
 

RAISING THE FLAG
 
It is time to raise the flag! The shipwrights from Presque Isle have turned the US Brig Niagara over to the US Great Lakes Command and Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry. Capt. Perry's flag carried the famous quote "Don't give up the Ship" uttered by his late friend, Capt. James Lawrence as he lay dying on the deck of his ship the USS Chesapeake in battle with the HMS Shannon.

I printed an image of the flag onto printable fabric, cut it out, rigged it to lanyards,  and ran them through a block on top of the foremast.
 
We christen this ship the US Brig Niagara. I hoist this flag in honor to all of the sailors who fought and died for Country or Crown in the Battle of Lake Erie, a lake where I grew up.
 
And with that, this project is over. Once I button up the display case and take some final photos, I will mark this build log "FINISHED"
 

Mike,
 
I actually made a cradle out of some curly maple. I used the laser cut template from the bulkheads to trace the vertical supports and cut them out on the band saw. Before I came up with a method to secure the hull, I decided I didn't really like my design. I thought it was too intrusive. That's when I turned to pedestals. The key though is to do this early in a build.

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

I have done a lot of testing. If you want to see all of the faults in living color, you can crank up the light intensity. It actually has convinced me that I need to install a similar lighting system for my work bench. My choices with this system however are endless. It has a warm light function, and I believe that will be the one I chose for the display. Besides that, I can change the light to green, blue, or red, or any combination of all three. I can make it blink, I can program it make it change color. In fact, I can turn my Niagara into a Christmas Tree if I wanted. Having said that, I do like the system and I wanted a remote to turn it off and on. The extra features just came a long with the package.

DISPLAY CASE
While I was away from my log, I did work on building a display case and table. I had some great cherry that I harvested from my farm, and used that for the base. It has great grain. I added a decorative inlay.
I also decided to add LED strap lighting. That took some figuring. I decided to run the cord down one of the corner posts inside the groove for the glass. I cut a channel along the top rails. The strap lighting has adhesive that adhered to the bottom of the channel. I had to purchase corner splices. I have added photos.
When I dry fitted everything together and checked out the lighting, I realized that the channel was not deep enough to hide the glare from the LED light emitters. I will be adding some thin trim pieces to fix this.
I love the lighting. While it is LED, the system has a remote that gives me the ability to change the lighting quite a bit. I can set it with a low warm glow or bright LED. When I get everything put together and put the case in place, I will experiment to see what lighting looks best.
Next up, mounting the ship…. A daunting challenge that I should have considered a long time ago. More on that later.

NAMEPLATE
 
I put the nameplate together. I scanned the image from the original rebuild plans from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, manipulated it on my computer and added my name, scale and date. I sent it to a trophy shop who burned the stainless steel plate. I made the base from some tiger maple I had in my scrap pile.

Hey Mike, (Meddo)
The boats are indeed stuck to the ship. But I must say, I built them exactly to plans, and the lowering lines are hooked to rings secured to the bottom of the keel. When I rigged them to the davits, I thought I would just let them hang. Except that they kept rolling over to the side. So that begs a question - unless kept totally balance from port to starboard, how in the heck did the crew lower these guys with tipping them over?
 
Mikiek,
Great to hear from you. It has been a while. I am glad you have stopped in to urge me to the finish line. I missed your careful eye and sage advice.
 
Sea Hoss,
Thanks for the compliments. Having a forum member leave comments on my log is even better than successfully spinning a tiny oar in a cordless drill and not breaking it.
 
 
 

RAISING THE FLAG
 
It is time to raise the flag! The shipwrights from Presque Isle have turned the US Brig Niagara over to the US Great Lakes Command and Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry. Capt. Perry's flag carried the famous quote "Don't give up the Ship" uttered by his late friend, Capt. James Lawrence as he lay dying on the deck of his ship the USS Chesapeake in battle with the HMS Shannon.

I printed an image of the flag onto printable fabric, cut it out, rigged it to lanyards,  and ran them through a block on top of the foremast.
 
We christen this ship the US Brig Niagara. I hoist this flag in honor to all of the sailors who fought and died for Country or Crown in the Battle of Lake Erie, a lake where I grew up.
 
And with that, this project is over. Once I button up the display case and take some final photos, I will mark this build log "FINISHED"
 

RAISING THE FLAG
 
It is time to raise the flag! The shipwrights from Presque Isle have turned the US Brig Niagara over to the US Great Lakes Command and Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry. Capt. Perry's flag carried the famous quote "Don't give up the Ship" uttered by his late friend, Capt. James Lawrence as he lay dying on the deck of his ship the USS Chesapeake in battle with the HMS Shannon.

I printed an image of the flag onto printable fabric, cut it out, rigged it to lanyards,  and ran them through a block on top of the foremast.
 
We christen this ship the US Brig Niagara. I hoist this flag in honor to all of the sailors who fought and died for Country or Crown in the Battle of Lake Erie, a lake where I grew up.
 
And with that, this project is over. Once I button up the display case and take some final photos, I will mark this build log "FINISHED"
 

Mike,
 
I actually made a cradle out of some curly maple. I used the laser cut template from the bulkheads to trace the vertical supports and cut them out on the band saw. Before I came up with a method to secure the hull, I decided I didn't really like my design. I thought it was too intrusive. That's when I turned to pedestals. The key though is to do this early in a build.

Mike,
 
I actually made a cradle out of some curly maple. I used the laser cut template from the bulkheads to trace the vertical supports and cut them out on the band saw. Before I came up with a method to secure the hull, I decided I didn't really like my design. I thought it was too intrusive. That's when I turned to pedestals. The key though is to do this early in a build.

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

MOUNTING PEDESTALS
 
I worked on a method of mounting my ship to its display base. And yes, like experienced model ship builders, this was something I should have done long long ago. Kudos to those that incorporate mounting bolts and threaded nuts to their hulls before it is planked. Being my first wooden ship model, when I started this project years ago, I was a lot younger, but not wiser. Just finishing the project was too much to comprehend let alone that there would be a time when I would have to actually mount it to something.
 
I ordered some brass pedestals with long wood screws. But screwing wood screws into a quarter inch wide plywood keel with no backing was not going to do it. So I opted to mortise a notch and glue in a stainless steel nut that would accept a two inch machine screw. The diameter of the screw was wider than the hole in my brass pedestals, so I would have to create new ones. I opted to turn them on my lathe from some spalted maple.
 
This was a long process, and a scary one as well. Working on the bottom of the hull of a finished rigged sailing ship is ridiculous. Taking a drill to the hull, while sitting on the floor, with the ship hanging off the edge of the bench is not for the faint of heart. I paid for my ignorance.
 
Here are a series of photos that show how I did it.  In the end, the ship is stable enough, as long as it is not hit with any rough seas.

Looking good Tom.
 
I like the support rods.