bartley

Post 44:  Elm Tree Pumps.
 
Once again a nice little mini kit from Chuck:
 

 
The first task was to make an octagonal profile from the square stock provided.  Chuck provides a  7:10:7 template.  I made several copies of this and then glued them to each side.  I then used my Veritas mini plane to plane down to the lines.  After painting assembly was achieved as per Chuck's instructions.  The bracket for the handle has to be modified by filing a slot into it to take the handle.  This was quite easily done with a micro file.
 

 
Then assembly as per the instructions was straight forward.  I found that the most difficult part was inserting 28 gauge wire through the bracket and the handle.  Initially one side of my carefully made slot broke off!.  Fortunately Chuck provides three sets of parts for two pumps and the second time I was more careful.
 

 
And here they are installed on the deck
 

 
John

Post 43: Cannon tackle
 
These were made up from Syren 3mm blocks and 3mm hooks from Dafi.  There are all sorts of jigs described on this site for siezing these.  I found it pretty difficult to achieve a neat appearance on these small blocks.
 
Here's the jig I used
 

 
The blocks were held by two copper pins epoxied into the board. Syren 0.3mm rope was threaded through the hook then around the block and held in place by slots cut into the vertical board.   short length of fly tying thread was wrapped a couple of times between the block and the hook just to keep the hook from binding on the block.
 

 
The rope was glued to the block with 50:50 PVA and when this was dry it was tied off to the back of the block with a square knot.  After sealing this with hypo cement and trimmed off with a sharp scalpel blade.  Hereare some examples
 

 
The tacles were rigged on a jig with two eyebolts and jecked on a mock up gun before rigging to the guns on the deck.
 

 

 
Finally, rope cols were made by wrapping rgw rope around a 3.6 mm dowel and sealing with 50;50 PVA
 

 

 
I am not entirely satisfied with the look.  They are pretty untidy and the blocks are very close together (as I suppose they would be).  I could have used smaller diameter ringbolts but this would only have separated the blocks about by another 0.5 mm.  The only advantage would have been that it would probably have kept the hooks in place.  I found that they slipped out of these ringbolts very easly and so it was tricky to get both rings secured.
 
John
 
 

Post 42: Mounting the Carronades
 
Time to mount the carronades on the deck.  But first a couple of points I failed to mention earlier.
 
Blackening, the guns
 
The guns were blackened by the method suggested by chuck involving spraying with black paint (Vallejo warm black in my case) and then brushing with Rusty Brown weathering powder.
 

 
I have some etch primer for brass  but I find that it is quite viscous and destroys the detail a bit.  So I spayed the black directly on the brass cannons after washing them in soap and water and then a dip in acetone.  Because the coating is therefore a bit delicate, I gave them a final coating with matt lacquer. 
 
The final effect can be seen in earlier posts (38 and 41a)
 
Quoins
 
I avoided adding these until I had established the correct elevation of the guns.  I initially made the handles from wood which I thought were nicely to scale.  However they proved too fragile and broke at the slightest provocation.  They were a real pain to drill out and replace, especially if they were already glued to the carriage.  So in the end I replaced them with some slightly larger brass ones which I had obtained from Master Korabel.  They may be slightly over scale but at least they are more robust.
 

 
Mounting the Cannons
 
In post 41 you will see that the ring bolts for the bulwark are of the twisted pair type.  I am a bit paranoid about these pulling out.  They were shortened of course so as not to penetrate the hull planking. They fit tightly into a 0.6 mm hole which had been pre-drilled before the deck was planked.  A few that were a bit loose for some reason were  glued with a spot of epoxy.
 
The cannons were attached to the deck with a spot of PVA on the wheels.  This proved slightly problematic because although the seemed quite firm, a slight bump with my clumsy hands broke the bond.  The deck had a couple of coats of Poly so it was not really a wood to wood bond.  I notice that Stuntflyer pinned his rear wheels to the deck and I can see why he did that.  I decided that this was a lot of effort and just elected to reglue any that were dislodged. 
 
Here are the mounted cannons:
 

 
The next challenge is to make and fit the out-haul tackle.  I will need to think about this for a while.  I will be using Syren 3 mm blocks and 3mm hooks from Dafi.  These are pretty small for old hands!
 
John

Post 39: The Catheads
 
As suggested by Chuck these are made in two parts from 3/16 square stock which was cut on my Byrnes.
 
The first step was to cut slots into the caprail - always a scary business,  cutting holes in nicely fabricated parts.
 

 
The inboard part was made first and notched to fit the spirketing and the waterway:
 

 
 Slots were cut for the sheaves using a micro mill.  I do not own one of these but i have access to one via a colleague whom i cut planks for.  However, as always with this kind of arrangement, I am not very competent because I never  learn by experimenting.
 

 
Finally the inboard end was round to fit.  The idea is that it should look like one piece - which as it presumably was.  Cut from the elbow of a tree I presume.
 

 
So finally the two parts were glued in position:
 
 
 
John
 
 

Post 47: Mast Coat
 
This item was made on my friend's Proxxon mill.  I have mentioned before I do not own one of these but since I have taught him a thing or to about its operation and because I cut planks for him he is happy with the arrangement.  In my working life I have been involved with the contract hire of equipment and although there is no fee involved here it suffers from the some of similar problem in that one does not learn by exploration as one would with full ownership,
 
Anyway the technique was to glue a 1/8 inch square plate to a dowel and use a rotating head to cut the ring:
 

 
There are a couple of important point in setting up this head otherwise the item will be oval not round.
 
1. It must be a right angles to the table.  Use a set square to check this.
 
2, The mill head must be centered on the rotating head.  There are several ways to do this but I use a dial indicator mainly because I have one.  Using the shaft of the mill bit set the dial to just touch then rotate the bit 180 degrees and check the other side.  If there is a difference move the table until both sides are give the same reading .
 
Here is an example:
 

 
I am not completely happy with this profile but we are going to purchase some bits with different geometries and then I mighr have another go.
 
John

Glenn,
 
You have clearly solved the problem of fabricating a moulding cutter now but for the record, and perhaps for a later build, this is an escapement file which I used to cut my profile.
 
This is a round one but other profiles are available. The widest part on this one is 1 .5mm and the tip is 0.4 mm - very delicate but with care, especially on brass, very narrow cuts can be made.
 


Cheers,
 
John
 

Others may be interested to note that the inscription reads:
 
"Draft for building in the Marchant's Yards by contract two cutters for his Majesty’s Service to carry ten 18 pounder carronades and two 6 pounders for chase guns       
 
A copy of this draft was sent to Mr Thomas Johnstone at Dover 30 May 1806 for building two cutters named Cheerful and Surly 
 
Approved by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty 17 April 1806 "
 
John

Glenn,
 
I am always a bit reticent about providing any advice here as I am a rank beginner at this game.  However, for what its worth here is a picture of my scraper and the result.  I think I used the one on the left or something like it.  I made about 10 of them in the end.
 


 
The few tests that I did with yellow cedar gave very indistinct results and it was only when I used boxwood that I could obtain a satisfactory profile.  I also stuck the strip to a glass plate on my bench with double sided tape to stop it moving. I found that several light strokes were best until the profile was established and then I could be more aggressive.
 
 
 
John

Glen,
Your planking is excellent.  Much better than mine which has a few deficiencies but because I was using boxwood and my supplies were limited I could not afford to rip off too many planks!
 
On the subject of beveling - I am sure you know this as your planking is so good but perhaps for the benefit of others over beveling can be as bad as no beveling if you have to sand the hull much.  So I think it needs to be reasonably correct.
 
                               
 
 

Jaager,  some of  your facts here are a little misleading.
 
1. Not all PVA preparations are acidic. There are many different formulations.  Titebond has a pH around 2.6 but craft PVA and Bookbinder's PVA are neutral (pH7).  The flip side of this is that the tack time is much longer with neutral preparations so they need clamping.  The tack time for Titebond is only about 2 min.
 
2. When vinyl acetate polymerizes to poly vinyl acetate no acetic acid is released ( it is the vinyl group which reacts) but if the  product is acidic then that catalyses hydrolysis of the acetate side chain to form acetic acid and this process can continue for years.  Bookbinder's PVA is considered archival because the neutral pH slows the hydrolyses markedly although probably does not prevent it altogether.
 
3.  Polymerization, as you say, does continue slowly for some time but it is not that processes that releases the acetic acid.
 
John

Post 46: Chase guns
 
The two 6 pound chase guns on the fore-deck were constructed the in same way as the carronades except that I made the breech rope a little longer since the barrels are longer.  Using the rule of thumb of 3X the barrel length gives about 110 mm.  This seemed a little long and 90 mm would seem to clear the bulwark on recoil so this was the length that I used.
 

 
John
 

Post 46: Chase guns
 
The two 6 pound chase guns on the fore-deck were constructed the in same way as the carronades except that I made the breech rope a little longer since the barrels are longer.  Using the rule of thumb of 3X the barrel length gives about 110 mm.  This seemed a little long and 90 mm would seem to clear the bulwark on recoil so this was the length that I used.
 

 
John
 

Post 46: Chase guns
 
The two 6 pound chase guns on the fore-deck were constructed the in same way as the carronades except that I made the breech rope a little longer since the barrels are longer.  Using the rule of thumb of 3X the barrel length gives about 110 mm.  This seemed a little long and 90 mm would seem to clear the bulwark on recoil so this was the length that I used.
 

 
John
 

Post 46: Chase guns
 
The two 6 pound chase guns on the fore-deck were constructed the in same way as the carronades except that I made the breech rope a little longer since the barrels are longer.  Using the rule of thumb of 3X the barrel length gives about 110 mm.  This seemed a little long and 90 mm would seem to clear the bulwark on recoil so this was the length that I used.
 

 
John
 

Post 46: Chase guns
 
The two 6 pound chase guns on the fore-deck were constructed the in same way as the carronades except that I made the breech rope a little longer since the barrels are longer.  Using the rule of thumb of 3X the barrel length gives about 110 mm.  This seemed a little long and 90 mm would seem to clear the bulwark on recoil so this was the length that I used.
 

 
John
 

Jaager,  some of  your facts here are a little misleading.
 
1. Not all PVA preparations are acidic. There are many different formulations.  Titebond has a pH around 2.6 but craft PVA and Bookbinder's PVA are neutral (pH7).  The flip side of this is that the tack time is much longer with neutral preparations so they need clamping.  The tack time for Titebond is only about 2 min.
 
2. When vinyl acetate polymerizes to poly vinyl acetate no acetic acid is released ( it is the vinyl group which reacts) but if the  product is acidic then that catalyses hydrolysis of the acetate side chain to form acetic acid and this process can continue for years.  Bookbinder's PVA is considered archival because the neutral pH slows the hydrolyses markedly although probably does not prevent it altogether.
 
3.  Polymerization, as you say, does continue slowly for some time but it is not that processes that releases the acetic acid.
 
John

Jaager,  some of  your facts here are a little misleading.
 
1. Not all PVA preparations are acidic. There are many different formulations.  Titebond has a pH around 2.6 but craft PVA and Bookbinder's PVA are neutral (pH7).  The flip side of this is that the tack time is much longer with neutral preparations so they need clamping.  The tack time for Titebond is only about 2 min.
 
2. When vinyl acetate polymerizes to poly vinyl acetate no acetic acid is released ( it is the vinyl group which reacts) but if the  product is acidic then that catalyses hydrolysis of the acetate side chain to form acetic acid and this process can continue for years.  Bookbinder's PVA is considered archival because the neutral pH slows the hydrolyses markedly although probably does not prevent it altogether.
 
3.  Polymerization, as you say, does continue slowly for some time but it is not that processes that releases the acetic acid.
 
John

I don't think so.  At least not the way I do it.  When I make the octagonal shape using a V jig there is no taper.  I establish the taper during the sanding.  I calculate the diameter about  5 or six times over the length and then keep checking with a micrometer as I go.
 
John

This my home made wood lathe. 
 

 
The plate contains a roller blade bearing and there is a ledge on the back so I can clamp it to the table.  The id of this is about 10 mm . for narrower spars I insert a wooden "washer".  I have two of these boards and for long masts I place one in the center to add more support.

It also helps to reduce the spar to an octagon first and then apply any of the methods described above.  There are several reports on this forum about how to produce a regular octagon.
 
John

Post 45 Installation of the winch.
 
The actual winch was constructed some time ago (in Post 32) as a little scratch build:
 

 
  Here it is mounted on the deck
 

 
John

Post 45 Installation of the winch.
 
The actual winch was constructed some time ago (in Post 32) as a little scratch build:
 

 
  Here it is mounted on the deck
 

 
John

Post 45 Installation of the winch.
 
The actual winch was constructed some time ago (in Post 32) as a little scratch build:
 

 
  Here it is mounted on the deck
 

 
John

garthog,
 
I don't know the answer to this but the curve is very gentle, as you find out when you do it on a model.  Depending on the timber I suppose they may have edge bent them with the help of steam. They did also force trees to grow with bends in them but considering their woodworking skills they may have just cut them from a wider plank.
 
John

Post 45 Installation of the winch.
 
The actual winch was constructed some time ago (in Post 32) as a little scratch build:
 

 
  Here it is mounted on the deck
 

 
John