Overworked724

Question: Did anyone else in their Syren kit note the absence of materials to make the pintles and gudgeons? I do not see any brass strips in the kit to create the P&G's. (Not that it matters - I already had intention to make my own and have the materials...but still)

Very kind of you and much appreciate! Well, if there is such a hobby that reinforces failures as a learning experience, ship modeling is it! LOL. If you really want a great tutorial on my past challenges and solutions, read my Sultana build log! That reads like a comedy of errors.

Thanks, Dave/Robin/All! The kind words, advice, and kudos keeps me motivated!!👍🏽 Just a bit on the drill...the #75 measures approximately 0.50mm. I believe Chuck’s example in his practicum used 0.55. So these are only very slightly smaller. Moving on to swatch #D. I decided to try a technique a friend from the Rope in Japan uses. He takes sharp (narrow) pencil lead to color in very slightly the nail holes before putting in the tree nail. After sanding and staining, the effect is a slightly darker nail with a halo around it...simulating some caulk. So...here I used a sharpened architect pencil and twirled the lead once in each hole. Added my tree nails...cedar. Gave the nails a haircut and sanded smooth. Followed by some natural stain. It worked pretty good! Upon close up you can see a bit better. I’m sure when the stain dries the nails might look a bit more subdued. I had given swatch #A and B a natural stain touch up to compare A/B/D with wet stain. I’ll update this tomorrow with some pics after the swatch panel dries to see the difference in the nails. My favorite right now is #D. Moving on!!!

True that...and a superb job! I'm both looking forward to and dreading my first plating job... But I deal with my anxiety by procrastinating as much as possible!

Looking really sharp, Steve!!!! Getting that plating on nice and straight must be a relief!

Decided to make a few quick plank swatches to futz around with the nails/glue/stains. I found using a flat pair of tweezers to dip the tip of the nail in some glue solution (2:1 water:glue) worked best. The cedar nails have some backbone and don't tend to break. Good to try now...the #76 drill bit hole was too tight a fit and didn't give enough room to play. No issues after moving to a #75. It was amazingly quick work. I made some 3 plank swatches and simulated the butt ends with a razor blade cut. I wasn't trying to be neat with the alignment of the nails...just wanted to see the size perspective. I think the small nails work well. I tried some natural stain (A/B) and some Golden Oak by Minwax. The cross grain of the nails really soak up the Golden Oak stain and truly stick out. The cedar planks absorb the stain very evenly...very little grain interference. I like the more subdued effect of the Natural stain. I might try some more later using basswood treen nails, but at least I have some clear idea of technique. The nail pattern for B and C are identical. A bit on the fence on the double nail pattern. Did some light sanding on the bulkheads to even out the bow...no issues. Moving on!!...

Howdy, Bill. See my 2 cent answers. Nice to watch your BLOG!

I totally agree with you on the basswood. It is very hard to work with and get and edge, Sanding makes it extremely hairy as well... Regardless, you have done a stellar job with the kit supplied wood!

My fourth of July update...was able to overcome my irritation at the stem nearly popping off, only to replace it with another (hopefully minor) irritation. I bit the bullet and completed the bulkhead planking on the starboard side. Overall, it looks ok. However, that slight 'up sweep' at the bow did cause some issues more on the starboard side than the port. You can see from the pics that the bow planking has a minor 'stair stepped' look as it progresses up the bulkhead. This is from that curvature which I should have (lesson learned) corrected when I initially put in the wales. Even so, I think I can remedy with sanding (fingers crossed). Everything else looks pretty good. I also decided to redo my false deck. The original false deck was basswood stained with Golden Oak - and it was really bugging me. It just looked trashy. So I took some spare cedar stock from my bulkhead plank leftovers and remade the deck with pencil to simulate caulking and natural stain. I love the cleaner look...call me picky. Moving on...

Well...that’s the goal! 😁 We shall see if I keep up my internal promise!

Happy 4th! Took some time to continue planking the Starboard side bulkheads. Not as clean as the port side but hoping sanding will level out some of the rough spots. Pics on this later. Created another nail punch using a smaller gauge needle. Worked well. The new nails fit a #76 drill hole. Meaning I can get 2 tree nails into one plank without it looking too oversized. Although I’m sure it is still over sized!!!! The tree nails on the bottom are a better choice I think. Decision made. 👍🏽 Moving on!!!

Just FYI that my mini drill press and x-y table/clamp assembly I got from micro mark. It was very reasonable. I’m sure the Proxon model is similar and gives the same results. I use mine all the time. 😊

That it 1000% better than the metal pieces. Nice job!! Isn’t it great taking pics of your own great work?!

Robin, your build is inspiring me. Not sure what my advice means! I’m very much a novice! 🤣

The x-y table is the key. Clamping the wood and simply rotating a knob a full turn between punches makes the prep work very quick. I’ll use my table saw rather than sanding next time to give me cleaner edges. Also wanted to try with a smaller needle.

Very nicely done!!!!

Last night tragedy struck my Syren. I'm typing this in so that folks know that these things simply happen. Live and learn. I was working on the starboard side bulkhead planking when I noticed the top of the stem was slightly askew. Upon closer look, the top of the stem was detaching from the rabbet. I think my problem was using that PVA glue which turns translucent upon drying (Titebond translucent wood glue) instead of normal carpenters wood glue when attaching the rabbet strip and stem/keel. I noticed some slight glue residue along the seams of the rabbet after my discovery and noticed that is was not solid but a 'gummy' type of residue. Great... What I think happened was that some of the planks at the bow still retained some slight 'curvature' and when pressed into the rabbet was applying slight lateral pressure on the stem due to the wood strip want to retain it's original shape...add that minor force over multiple planks and you get a lot of torque pushing the stem 'away' from the bow. ... which is what was happening. No pics here because I'm a bit pissed at myself. I simply reinforced the stem with additional spot glue and clamped it to kingdom come. I am also ensuring to use my heated plank bender to ensure the remaining planks have no curvature which might put additional strain on the stem. It all looks ok as of my writing this...but aside from tearing the whole bloody thing apart to fix a problem I can only guess...so, I'll be pressing on. I decided to take a break from planking and revisit my intention to use toothpicks for treenails. I used them on the Sultana and made them by pushing the toothpick through a draw plate. Tedious, irritating, and tiring. I do not want to revisit that process. Chuck's method of using filler does offer a good alternative. However, I like using wood, and the stain really makes the treenails pop out. So, I looked along the forums and found a good process for treenails using a needle and a drill press. You can use pretty much any needle size. I used a medium gauge needle - used my Dremel disc sander to bevel both sides of the needle to create the 'coring shaft'. Placed it in my drill press with above a 1/4" wood strip (ensure the wood grain is vertical to the ground...so you are creating the nail 'cores' with the grain). Make sure you don't punch all the way through - leave some wood for the core to remain 'attached' inside the wood block. This way the core maker won't get jammed. I tried using both basswood and cedar. Both worked well. Then I just used a sanding stick to take off the wood 'backing'. Then I used a pin (the tip was squared off with the sander so it would not damage the end of the nails) to push the nails out the other side of the block into a container. It's amazing how easy this was...it took me 5 min to make each pre-punched wood block, about 2-3 min to sand down the opposite side and expose the cored out nails, then 2-3 minutes to push the nails out! Making the needle 'punch' takes all of 30 seconds. (I made 100 each of the basswood and cedar) I can only imagine how many hours of tree nail making I could have saved on my Sultana if I had done it this way. I won't take credit...I saw this posted by another member but can't find his name. I've already identified the drill bit size and will make more when I'm ready. Off to bed...no more planking for today. Moving on...but quite irritated with the wood glue.

I think it looks really good!

Really nice work, Steve! So clean and crisp!

Me as well! Welcome to the forum! I’m sure you’ll be glad you are posting. It helps greatly and you get a lot of supports and helpful comments.

By the way...coming from you ... I take this as a great compliment!!! Your Syren is beautiful!

Here is how I carved my planks. Guessing it’s similar to others, but the cedar made all the difference. Tools include a triangular (not square) micro file. Mark where you want the gap Mark how deep you want the gap to be Use a straight razor to etch the wood up to (but not past) the point of depth. I went slightly less than the required depth. Got good results. Use a #11 to chip out the meat. I use a block to set the plank on to ensure the blade is square with the surface of the cutting edge. Do one side of the meat then the other. I use a 220 grit sanding stick (popsicle stick) to take out the roughness. Use the triangular file for the corners and the trim up the vertical edges. That might be a novice way of doing it. But it works for me. The wood makes all the difference. Try this with basswood and you are in for a world of frustration. It’s just too brittle and soft. The cedar really holds an edge. 👍🏽

Awesome. Lots of shipmates here building the Syren! Enjoy your journey! 👍🏽

By the way...I think it would look beautiful!

It's actually much easier with cedar. I'll send some pics in another post. But I tried this is basswood and it is simply too soft and it falls apart. With cedar...it's easy. More to follow.