gjdale

Nice to see you setting sail there Robbyn - must feel like the finish line is in sight now!

Your boats look great Mobbsie! (And so much quicker to construct than my little ones )

Hi Meredith, Sorry to hear you are having trouble using your Byrnes saw, but I suggest you stick with it as it is a lovely piece of kit. Jeff Hayes (Hobby Mill) has written some tips and hints for using the saw. He is also very willing to give further advice via email, noting that you are already a customer of his. If you describe your particular issue to him, I'm sure he'll have some suggestions for you.

Fascinating and inspiring all at once Alexandru. Lovely work!

That looks absolutely fabulous Sherry. What a great job you did on the planking - all that 1:1 scale practice obviously helped!

Looks like you've overcome those initial problems Bob. Looking good! Glad to hear you're back to "enjoyment" mode.

Glad to hear of another great meeting John and Piet. Now just turn around and go back and take some pictures please!

I've passed on the details to my wife, along with a heavy hint, as I have a Birthday coming up next month!

Looking great as usual Rusty. Enjoy your break.

Congratulations Sjors - the ratlines look great. Good job. Well done Sir!

Great pics Andy, she really is looking good. Safe travels.

Bummer John. Hope tomorrow goes better for you. Perhaps that nine year old was right after all!

Ah! Real timber from Jeff at Hobby Mill. There is no hope for you now my friend! Whether you realise it or not, you are now an addict. Yup, his stuff really is that good! May as well give in now and succumb to the lure of the Darkside......Bwahahah!

Thanks Mick, Yes the trip was wonderful. We were quite fortunate with the weather - only had a little bit of "Scotch Mist"

You are most welcome Kevin, I hope it meets your needs.

Thanks Augie, Mark, Aldo and John. As directed by certain senior officers, I returned to the shipyard today and re-commenced block production. I had previously made batches of 1/4" and 3/16" single blocks, bedding down techniques on these larger sizes before tackling the smaller ones. Today I made a batch of 5/32" (approx. 4mm) and made a start on some 1/8" (approx. 3mm). It was about a third of the way through the 5/32" batch that I had a major "aha!" moment, or as some might say, a BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious). The BGO came as I was thinking about the drill-press component of the process. As you know for previous posts and Chuck's description of the overall method, the blocks are made from "gangs" of stock strip that are shaped on one end first on the mill, half shaped at the second end, then drilled with two holes, then retuned to the mill for the final end shaping and parting off from the gang. The mill process is quick and easy. It takes a little fiddling to get the set-up right to start with, but once done it remains set for the entire production run for that size of block. Until now, the slow part of the process has been the drill press as the fence has to be re-set for the second set of holes with each row from the gang. This is not only time consuming, but also a source of inconsistency in hole placement as it is very difficult to re-set the fence in exactly the same place each time. Then it hit me! If I set the fence for the holes at one end of the block, and then inserted an appropriately sized spacer against the fence, I could then drill the second set of holes without moving the fence. And of course, this would mean that the fence would be set only once for the entire production run, saving time and providing consistency of hole placement. As it happened, the required spacing was exactly the thickness of a blank piece of stock for that sized block - not sure if that was just a coincidence, or if there is some mathematical logic behind it, but it worked. I'd say this "discovery" has increased my production rate by about threefold, at least, and has also significantly reduced a frustration factor! The not-so-good news is that I think I will have to re-make the stock for the 1/8" blocks. I did the set-up and a couple of trial runs late this afternoon, and it appears that the groove I cut for the sheave holes is too deep. This weakens the side walls to the point that there is a lot of breakage when run through the mill. Chuck did warn about this in his original posts, and I've just learned it first hand. It's not a big deal, just a small amount of wastage and a bit of extra time to prepare the new stock. A job for next weekend me thinks.

This looks to be an interesting build. I have the book by Gib McArdle and will be very interested to see the model built up from his plans.

Great picture John, looks you all had a wonderful time together.

Congratulations on your promotion LCDR Mobbsie! You are in serious danger of joining the Windbags table very soon!!!

Nice to see you back at your Victory Rosemarie. I look forward to seeing more progress over the coming months.

Congratulations on completing a fine build Meredith. Well done.

Almost there Sjors! And then you can do it all over again on Il Defenso!

Nice work on the chains and boats Mobbsie. Looks like you'll be amongst the rigging very soon.

Nice Andy. I did a similar thing with my futtock staves but used bamboo instead of wire. The wire will certainly be stronger at that thickness, so I'll add this to my play book too! Safe travels and best of luck with the leave plans.

She certainly is coming together nicely Augie. Interesting to read your comments on your approach to gluing the false deck - that makes quite some sense to me.