bartley

Post 56: Standing Rigging As mentioned above, I am not sure that old hands can cope with seizing shrouds etc around the mast-head on the ship. So, I have elected to install most of the standing rigging for the lower mast first so that I can slip the gangs over the mast. Most of this is pretty standard stuff - seizing blocks to line using the method described above, making a few hooks, and installing the gangs in the correct order. So here are the running back stays: And also the mainstay which is secured to the stem via a five hole deadeye: Cheerful will largely be on hold for a while as the autumn sailing competition starts at my club next week and the community orchestra in which I play is also in full swing now. So it may be a few weeks before there is another update. John

Yes Glenn, The wood in the best clarinets is grenidilla. Only the heartwood of this increasingly rare tree is black and the surrounding wood is pale yellow but here are other things like the machining and shape of the holes the silver alloy in the keys etc etc. The best ones are hand made of course. The worst thing is that hey do not improve with age like violins. I am not sure why that is. Cheers, John

Looks good Glenn. You are catching up to me fast! My Cheerful is almost on hold at the moment. This is the beginning of the autumn sailing series on Moreton Bay so that uses up Wednesdays . The community Orchestra in which I play is also in full swing. I bought a new A$4000 clarinet last year so I need to make it worthwhile. No wonder I can't afford power tools for modelling! I shall keep following your excellent work. John

Thanks for your response. Sounds like it works pretty well, Glenn. Yes, I always finish off with a lengthwise sanding to take out any fine marks left by the radial sanding. Of course the center support doesn't have to be there and I didn't use it for my mast. It is only necessary for thin spars and it normally slides anyway so i just have apiece of sand paper on either side and push it pack and forth. John

Hi Glenn, Great work once again. On the subject of lathes I would be interested to know how you go about turning thin spars on the Proxxon when you do not have any central support and no tail stock. I did consider buying this but it seems to have limitations. You will have seen my home built job before. Before I installed the central bearing , I experienced considerable wobble on thin spars. They were in danger of shattering but also it produced a strange shape which is hard to describe where the center diameter is kind of offset from the ends. I know on the Proxxon you can run the spar through the chuck but does this not produce a whipping motion? It certainly does on mine. I only pass my spar through the left hand board (the opposite side from the drill) when I need to turn a rebate in the end of the spar and then it only protrudes about half an inch past the bearing so that I can use a small chisel to reduce the diameter of end which is supported by the bearing. John

Post 55: the Main Gaff This was made in exactly the same manner as the main Boom above. The only thing I would add is that in order to ensure that both jaws were identical I used the "spot of glue" technique which I thank Dan Vagas. Here are the two spars completed John

See my comments ion this thread here and elsewhere on this site. Wefalck is correct prolonged exposure or too strong a solution is the culprit. If you dilute the reagent 1:1 good blackening should occur in 30 seconds If it takes longer than this then the surface is not clean enough. You need to use acetone to remove laquer coating and pickling to remove oxide from the surface. See this example. John

Post 54: the Main Boom This was trickier than it looks as the outboard end tapers to a diameter of only 2.5 mm. I first make the boom octagonal using the 7:10 :7 rule and then plane of the corners with my Veritas block plane. Then I turned the inboard end first down to a diameter of 5.3 mm. On my home made lathe the central board is usually a moveable support but this time I clamped it in place at the widest point and then tapered to the outboard end. I use decreasing grades of sand paper from 130 down to 400 but like any rotational method it does leave slight radial grooves so I finish of with 400 and 600 grade paper in the longitudinal direction The bearings on this device are roller blade bearings and I have a number with wooden inserts to reduce the diameter: These ensure that the mast (or boom) in this case fits firmly so that there is no scoring since it is the bearing which rotates. Here is the completed boom after turning to the shape indicated in the plans: The next task is flatten the inboard end to take the crutches which connect the boom to the mast. I used the mill for this with the head set to an angle of 2 degrees : Next the boom crutches themselves. I used my Knew Concepts Jeweler's saw for this, and then finally shaped with files and sand paper. On the subject of Jeweler’s saws: I originally owned one like this I had a problem finding the correct tension and kept breaking blades. This was probably down to my poor technique and perhaps I should have persisted. However, recently I have acquired a Knew Concepts saw and for me this is a much superior tool. The lever system ensures the blade is always at the correct tension. It is beautifully balanced so I can cut really close to the line and I have not broken a blade in nearly 12 months. I would recommend these to anybody about to purchase a jewelers saw. They are not cheap but like most things quality cost money. Some would use a scroll saw for this task. I did own one of these but it was a cheap model – I paid A$80. I was disappointed. Even though I bolted it to the bench over a rubber pad it still exhibited lots of vibration. The foot designed to hold the work down constantly came loose and for thin timber, say 1/16 inch, I could not install fine enough blades to meet the “three teeth rule” so there was lots of tearing. So, in the end I sold it and made more space in my workshop.. I have written about this elsewhere on this site. My local woodwork shop does weekend workshops and demonstration and I have trialed out there a parallel arm scroll saw. These are a very different story. Virtually vibration free and they will take finer blades so quite fine work is possible . A fine tool. They do however cost about A$1000 and are out of the question for me. A nice tool though. I digress! So, here is the boom with crutches installed And finally with the blocks added and ready for installation John

Post 53: Burton Pendants I decided to install these before installing the topmast so that they can be slipped over the mast head. The seizing of the blocks is nothing new but I show my procedure here for completeness. Normally I use a standard whipping of about 10 turns. If a shorter length of seizing is required as in seizing hooks, I use the simpler West Country whipping. And now the pendants in place - tied off temporally:

Modelers certainly do not need to know much chemistry but for the record I have covered it here. I have not used the Caswell product but its composition seems similar to Birchwood Casey in that it contains both selenious acid and molybdate and the acid is phosphoric. The concentration of these products varies but I would recommend diluting then to slow down the reaction. This seems to delay the build up of the "flakey" material which rubs off. John

OK John, pickling solution is chemically sodium metabisulphite. It is used by jewellery people to clean metal and is sold in The US under the trade name Sparex, See here for some discussion of its use in blackening. It is a really good way of cleaning contaminants from brass but if you use it take care not to overdo it as it actually etches the surface of the brass and prolonged use will destroy minute detail. I use 10 min at 60 degrees Celsius. John

Glenn, If you look at posts 30 and 41 in my Cheerful log you can see what I did. I make no claims that these are correct of course. John

John, What is your cleaning method? If you think there is a lacquer coating you need a good acetone wash. I then use a pickling solution but if you do this you must neutralise the pickling solution with bicarbonate and then wash this off before blackening. John

Further to my comments above cleanliness is vital as well. The surface of brass is often treated with lacquer and even if not there is an oxide layer on the surface. These areas will not blacken so the surface must be cleaned to remove these layers. Often what happens is the surface is only partially cleaned. What happens then is that only the clean areas blacken so the article does not seem black enough and we leave it longer. Then multiple "flakey" layers build up in the clean areas and eventually rub off. In neat blackening agent full blackening should occur in about 10 sec. In a 1:1 dilution - about 30 sec max. If it takes longer than this your surface is still contaminated. John

Chuck does deliver to the UK. Just click the "Syren" link amongst the sponsors on the right hand side and that will take you to his site where you will see a description of his "Servomatic" which i use for serving. There are other models but his is simple and inexpensive. John

Dave On my Cheerful build log here I have just posted some information about how various threads influence the final diameter of the line. John

Post 52: Serving the Ropes I am using Chuck’s serving machine and his rope (a historical item now) To my eye many examples, which I see here and elsewhere are too heavy. I like a lighter look. My preference is to choose a different thread thickness depending on the original size of the rope. So, I use three different threads: Veevus 16/0 fly tying thread diameter -. 0.04 mm Veevus 8/0 fly tying thread diameter -. 0.06 mm Gutterman 50 wt cotton thread diameter 0.128 mm Mara 120 diameter 0.15 It is pretty difficult to measure these small diameters but they can be calculated from the Denier measurement and there are also some literature measurements which agree fairly well with the calculation. Of course, the main thing is what the result looks like when served on the rope and if it appear s correct to you but, for comparison, I have made some measurements on the final served lineI also made some measurement on the final thickness of the rope The first thing I should say is that Chuck’s rope is pretty close in diameter to what he says it is. 0.88 mm rope served withwith16.0 fly tyiing thread diameter 0.936 0.88 mm rope served with 50 wt Gutterman Cotton diameter 1.11 1.12 mm rope served with 16/0 fly tyiing thread diameter 1.26 1.12 mm rope served with 50 wt Gutterman Cotton diameter 1.47 1.37 mm rope served with 50 wt Gutterman Cotton diameter 1.60 (with the lay) 1.37 mm rope served with 50 wt Gutterman Cotton diameter 1.71 (against the lay) I prefer the appearance of the final line when it is served with the lay (as recommended by Druxey incidentally). It gives a slightly "bumpy” look as the thread partly fills the gap between the strands. However, this is a personal preference and others may prefer the more regular look obtained by serving against the lay. I generally find that this method produces a slightly lager diameter. I hope these data are of interest John

I am not in a position to purchase a Proxxon lathe so I made my own using a hand drill The boards are drilled to accept a roller blade bearing. The far board is clamped according to the length of the mast. The central board is movable and acts as the "steady" to which you refer. If the mast is not the same diameter as the bearing I have a series of wooden "washers" which I insert into the bearing. In fact now I have several bearings with different sized inserts.

There are 10 carronades and two 6 lb chase guns. . The inscription on the NMM plan reads: "Draft for building in the merchants yards by contract two cutters or his Majesty’s Service to carry ten 18 pounder carronades and two 6 pounders for chase guns" See my version here John

Yes, I enjoy Marsalv's work as well. I wondered what you thought of Doris' work? I think my point was that it is amazing what she can achieve with simple tools. I certainly couldn't come close. Doris is Czech and I think Marsalv is Romanian. They probably don't have access to the parts as we do and are forced to make there own. John

Dave, Fly tying threads are indeed confusing. They have a different purpose of course. However, I can give you some information. Nominally the higher the number the thinner the thread so 16/0 is thinner than 8/0. I use Veevus 16/0. This is made of polyester and the diameter is 0.038 mm. Their 8/0 thread which should be twice the diameter but is given as 0.059. The strength (which is what matters to fishermen) is about double that of 16/0. Most threads are polyester but there are also nylon, kevlar and polyethylene threads. John

Good work again, Glenn. Interesting about the use of mills and lathes and things. I don't know if you know the work of Doris Obrucova. Her Royal Katherine is in my opinion an outstanding work of art. She has said many times that she works with simple tools (knives, sandpaper) and owns no power tools. A lesson to us all perhaps. John

JohnU If you read my posts on the chemistry if the process you will see that the selenium in the blackening agent does not "bond" to the brass but is physically trapped in little etched pits. If the process is too fast or prolonged for too long then several layers build up and these rub off easily. You will probably get better results if you dilute the reagent at least 1:1 to slow the process down. John

Post 51: Stepping the mast The mast was a fairly tight fit and so after leveling the ship with a digital inclinometer, a digital level in the cross- hair mode was to check the vertical alignment: Other distractions such as the Australian Open Tennis Championship and the Americas Cup have kept me out of the workshop lately and now it is the start of the rugby union season. I am also waiting for the delivery of some rope from Chuck so there might not be much progress for a while. This will give me time reflect on my rigging strategy. Chuck suggests rigging from the inside to the outside and I can see the logic in this. However does prevent preparing the shroud gangs off the ship slipping and other standing rigging off the ship and slipping the over the mast. They would need to be seized on the ship and, although my Quad Hands would help, I am not convinced I can do it uniformly and without damage to other fittings. I can always slip the shrouds over but not rig them until later. Its kind of messy so I need to think a bit more about it, John

Shipman, Oxygen is the culprit in the decomposition. This may sound like a cop out but oxidation is one of the most difficult processes to understand so it is difficult to predict what the products are. Firstly liver of sulfur is not a single chemical substance . It is a complex mixture. amongst the products of decomposition are sulfates which colourless but also sulfur itself which will be insoluble. In its pure state it is yellow but it tends to pick up impurities and and is often green or brown. If the product has been used there will be copper and other metal present so they may attach to the sulfur. One of my chemistry professors used to say " a little bit of colour goes a long way". Meaning you don't need much of an impurity attached to a pure substance for our eyes to observe the color as close to black. So its difficult to say what the black flecks are but my guess is that its supfur eit some impurites attached. John