gjdale

Just wanted to make a comment on the service I've received from Jim Byrnes:
 
A few months ago I purchased Jim's table saw - I see why this is the most sought-after saw for modelers.  Being new to the use of table saws in general, I've been proceeding slowly.  I've been using the standard blade, and wanted to start using a slitting blade, but wasn't sure how to cut a zero-tolerance insert for the blade.  I also had a few questions on the process for cutting very thin planks (1/32).
 
I sent Jim an email via the Model Machines website, and received a personal email from Jim within a couple of hours.  Jim answered all of my questions and was very supportive.  Contrast this to some other sites where it took days for any answer, if one was received at all.
 
Jim's quality machines and workmanship are matched by his commitment to customer service, and he's a pleasure to deal with.
 
Thank you Jim!!
 
Frank
 
 
 
 

Anja -- JP hit it on the head.  This is RC aircraft.  The fly fishing doesn't start for 3 weeks (water is still a little 'hard').  You forget, we 'old folks' need to do something while you youngsters work.
 
Thank you Bob and John.  It's appreciated.
 
Adam ---  left over right, right over left, then pull.  Then replace the eyebolt you just pulled out

Great news on the first interview Anja - no surprises there though!
 
I'm sure your second interview will go just as well.

As promised ..... The first interview with my new employer went very positive, and I think it put me in a good position for my second interview.
 
Especially for Grant, Mark, Sherry, Augie, Frank & Buck ........
Thank you so much for your support and good luck wishes. I greatly appreciate your sympathy.
 

 
Take care,
 
Anja

Dan,
 
Another tip for your ratlines. In order to maintain fairly even tension and avoid creating an hour glass shape in your shrouds, tie every fourth ratline first, then go back and do each one half between the first lot, then finish the remainder. I found that using a highlighter pen to colour code the template worked a treat (not shown in the photo on my log - I only worked it out a bit later).

Dan,
 
Another tip for your ratlines. In order to maintain fairly even tension and avoid creating an hour glass shape in your shrouds, tie every fourth ratline first, then go back and do each one half between the first lot, then finish the remainder. I found that using a highlighter pen to colour code the template worked a treat (not shown in the photo on my log - I only worked it out a bit later).

Hi all,
 
I've had several requests to show how I built some special clamps that come in particularly useful if you are building a Fully Framed hull. They could also come in handy for other more "conventional" builds.
 
 

 
 
There are three types of Clamp :
 
1. The first goes between Frames to hold internal or external planks.
2. "Spreader" clamps that hold internal planking.
3. Parallel clamps that don't pull two pieces out of line like normal spring clamps have a tendency to do.
 
Full Credit for these clamps goes to EdT (Ed Tosti) - I'm only showing my method of copying his ideas. Ed's are probably of superior quality to mine - I've used a more simplified approach that can be done fairly easily by most builders using common Right-Hand threaded screws.
 
"Between the Frames" Clamps
 
 
In Use :
 
 
These are made from 3/4" x 5/32" (19mm x 4mm) brass machine screws or threaded bar and matching Wing Nuts - I found them at Bunnings, but they should be available at any reasonably good Hardware Store. The other brass part is some thin brass strip - I used 0.5mm. Note that you can use any sizes of screws and strip - I just used whatever I had "on hand" or could buy easily. I wouldn't go much thinner than the 0.5mm strip though - it's plenty strong enough and will fit right down into very narrow gaps between frames.
 
I cut the heads off the screws, cut a 4mm deep slot into the cut-off end and Silver Soldered the two pieces together. Then I drilled a 2.5mm hole to accept the 2mm Pin. A bit of "oversize" makes it a lot easier to push the pin through the hole.
 
The wooden pieces are made from a good hardwood - I used Australian Cherry Ballart because I had quite a bit of it in stock, but any other close-grained hardwood would do the job. A 2mm hole was drilled for the pin - this needs to be a good but "easy" slide-in fit.
 
The only item of note not shown in the pics below is some extra bracing I glued to one face of the larger block - this prevents the wood from splitting when pressure is applied. It strengthens the saw cut (these pics were taken before I had my first "Block Failure"). Note the direction of the grain in the large block.
 
 

 

 
 
 
Spreader Clamps
 
 
In Use :
 
 
These Clamps are particularly useful when you need to clamp planking etc and can't use one of the "Between the Frames" clamps, although they can be used in combination with one of them as shown in the pic above. They work very well anywhere inside a hull. I made these in 4 or 5 different lengths depending on the position in the hull they were to be placed. All parts were interchangeable, so a lot of length combinations could be used - the only difference is in the lengths of the brass tubing, the "heads" and "tails" of the clamps are all identical.
 
I used 4mm x 25mm RH-threaded Stainless Steel Machine Screws, Washers and Nuts (again because I had a lot of them in stock - any other combination around that size would be OK). The "swivels" are made from 1/4" (6.5mm) brass round bar that have been drilled and tapped to accept the screws. 5mm brass tubing of various lengths is the only other thing needed.
 
Again, the wooden pieces are made from a good hardwood. The "head" is drilled to accept the swivel, the "tail" is epoxied to the screw to prevent it from falling out when the clamp is tightened. I sanded the end of the "head" to allow it to pivot when necessary.
 
 

 

 
 
Parallel Clamps
 
 
In Use :
 
 
These clamps are particularly useful when you need to clamp two pieces together without distorting their faces from each other. They also avoid the twisting effect that you can get with G-clamps, but are usually used in similar situations to them.
 
They are made from two pieces of hardwood, 8mm x 11mm x 65mm. The same size Swivels as the "Spreader Clamps" are used, with the same size screws as the "Between the Frames" clamps. Again, use any sizes close to the mark that you can get - it's not all that vital.
 
Here's an Exploded View of the Clamp :
 
 

 
 
And a description of how it goes together is below. Two Swivels are threaded to accept the screws, one is a "clearance" hole drilled right through, and the fourth is a clearance hole drilled part-way into the swivel to act as a "stopper". This one is glued into the timber with Silicone or Epoxy.
 
 

 
 
I made about 18 "Between the Frames" clamps, 10 "Spreader" clamps and 6 "Parallel" clamps - that seems to be adequate.
 
  Danny

Thanks Robert and Grant.  Your good wishes are a shot in the arm.
 
Now, as for SJORS.  You, sir, are photo-happy.  You want pictures of everything!  If I say I had ham and eggs for breakfast can't you just believe me and not ask for a picture of the dirty plate?????????  You need to understand that, at the height of the conflagration, so much steam filled the room (from coming out of my ears) that photo documentation was all but impossible.

Just for Sjors....
 
Enough Eye bolts for you? I have more!
 
Andy

Kevin,
 
I don't know about others, but I think the creation of your workshop is every bit as relevant as details of the build itself.  Please keep posting updates and photos.

I'd certainly like to build this one Jeff - one day......  It's on my "to-do"list, but not until I have developed a few more skills and experience through some other scratch builds first.

I'm another devotee of dilute PVA. When I wanted to re-do a couple of ratlines recently, I simply worked a bit of isopropyl alcohol into the knots with a stiff brush and they came off easily.

Love the way you've re-posted your log Gil. It's a real treat to re-read and a reminder of some great tips and techniques along the way. I'm still going cross-eyed with ratlines, so by the time your are up to date and moving forward, I should be ready to follow along just behind you.

Thanks you all for the warm welcome back to MSW.   I'll try to rebuild the log near to the original form, however, the sequence may change in order to deal with specific areas from start to finish.  I've learned a great deal from many of you and value your comments.
 
Fortunately, our many online friendships were not lost with the crashed hard drive.  Cheers, Gil

Continuing the journey then. Once the Stern re-build was complete, it was on to the rigging, starting with the bowsprit.
 
Here's a couple of pics of items various and overall bowsprit rigging:
 

 

 

 
I picked up a few tips and tricks from others here.  This is a picture of some Mast wedges, made according to advice from Danny (they are turned from Castello boxwood, with lines scored to represent the wedges):
 

 
When it came to attaching shrouds and getting the distance between upper and lower deadeyes even, I borrowed an idea from EdT, which I found in his most excellent Victory build log:
 

 
For adding mice (or is that "mouses") to the stays, I followed advice from David Antscherl in his TFFM books, and turned them from wood.  Here is a picture of some mice and the snaking between the Main Stay and the Main Preventer Stay. ('tis to be hoped the snake does not eat the mice! ):
 

 
Somewhere around this time, Mobbsie drew my attention to the deteriorating state of the workshop. The Admiral agreed with Mobbsie and I was dispatched (with funds) to procure some better storage and thence to clean up the shipyard.  Here is the clean version, under the watchful supervision of the site foreman, Sam the chocolate labrador:
 

 
After much procrastinating, it was time to tackle the ratlines    We had quite a discussion again over colour.  There many differing opinions on this, but in the end I settled on black ratlines.  To help get them at the right interval and parallel, I used a card template - here's one in use on the Mizzen:
 

 
This is an early shot of ratlines in progress (actually the Foremast):
 

 
Since then, I've been slowly but surely continuing to tie ratlines.  I've now completed all three lower masts on the port side and am ready to start on the starboard side.  To finish this post and bring the log completely up to date, here are a few progress photos taken tonight.  I might add, that I had my own mini-disaster while taking these.   As I was trying to get a better camera angle, I knocked over a glass of red wine - all over the several modelling books I had been using for reference (not to mention the carpet!)   Fortunately, not too much damage was done, but it was a bloody waste of some very good red wine!
 

 

 

 

 

 
That's me up to date folks.  Thank you to all of you who have contributed to my previous log and for advice, assistance and encouragement along the way.  If I've left anything major out of the story to date, let me know and I'll see if I've got some photos.
 
Cheers,
Grant
 
 
 
 
 

Well, here we go with what you might call the "Executive Summary" of my build log.  I started this log when I first joined MSW in Sep 2011.  At that time, the model had been under construction for 15 years, although the last six years had been a complete hiatus while work, family, and life in general got in the way.  This is state of the ship around the time of joining MSW:
 

 
Form here I'll just focus on some of the key events of the last 18 months or so.  First up was a decision over hammock netting.  We had quite a discussion over whether to use black or white (or other colour) netting.  After many, many trials, I settled on black netting made from Tulle (comes white, but painted black).  Here's a shot of the completed netting:
 

 
In Jan 2012, I decided to take a little side-road to scratch build one of the ship's boats.  I settled on the 34ft launch, using lines from AOTS and guided by a mini-practicum by Bob Hunt.  Here's a photo-essay of this little journey:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A little bit further down the track, I became dissatisfied with the look of the Stern and Quarter Galleries.  Although I'd already made a mod to the kit some years ago, my experience here at MSW convinced me that I could do better.  Danny came to the party too, providing detailed drawings and long distance e-mail support, guidance and mentoring along the way.  I owe a great deal to Danny for the way this turned out and this whole exercise summed up for me what this wonderful site is all about.  Enough blathering, here's a little photo-essay of this adventure:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I'm not sure about limits to pictures in one post, so I'll just break this one off here and continue shortly.
 
Cheers,
Grant

That's about enough for me for today.  What's posted so far took 800 hours in the shop ----- and doesn't fill up a page here!!
 
I'll pick up tomorrow with mast construction.
 
Just want to encourage everyone to get back on board if you can.  We'll get the site back up to make us all feel proud again (once we survive the shock).
 
Best regards to all.