tlevine
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Thanks everyone for the "Likes". My next project is beam set 12, which includes the main mast partners. The beam set itself is straight-forward. The main mast partners is similar to the fore mast partners...only larger. The carlings are half- mortised into beams 11 and 12. I had previously made the decision not to cut the mortises on beam 11 ahead of time because any mistakes would be very obvious. My intention was to cut them in once I had the mortises cut on beam 12 so they would be exactly parallel. I could not cut them to my satisfaction because the upper well was in the way of the chisel. I did not wish to remove the upper well and possibly damage it so I faked the fore tenon. In the pictures you can see the recess cut into the carlings for the partners as well as the difference in the thickness of the fore and aft tenons. The next pictures show the fore and aft ends of the carlings after they were installed and before final sanding. The aft partner was addressed next. This has octagonal holes cut into it for the pumps. Now comes the tricky part. These log pumps extend through the previously cut holes in the lower deck main mast partner and insert into the pump intake lateral to the keel. They also need to be perpendicular to the keel and slightly canted away from each other. The holes in the lower deck partner needed to be "adjusted" to accommodate this three dimensional arrangement. That's a euphemism for totally trashing the holes. After the aft partner was temporarily glued in place, I inserted the logs down to the hold. I made a veneer of boxwood and planked over the lower deck partners to disguise the error. In the third photo you can see the widened hole in the lower deck partner before the repair. The fore partner was made and the last picture shows it in place.
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People assume that an advanced kit is one that takes 1000+ hours of construction time. Wrong. An advanced kit is one that challenges you with techniques you have not encountered before and the need for perfection in every piece installed. There is no way to hide a poorly fitted plank on an open boat. Although I replaced most of the wood provided (the basswood was so soft I thought it was balsa), I found this to be a thourougly enjoyable kit which could reasonably be finished in 100 hours.
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The main topsail sheet bitt pins are located within the upper well. These insert onto the aft face of the lower deck beam and there is a score for the upper deck beam. Once the well has been secured in place it will be difficult to access this area so I started them now. The pins are 9" square above the upper deck beam. Below that they taper on the aft face. They are perpendicular to the keel. Rather than make the entire bitt now and risk damage, I only made the pins up to the upper deck beam. To maintain correct alignment I glued on two temporary cross bars away from where the cross-piece and gallows will be placed. Holes were drilled through the score for the upper deck beam and into the beam. Steel pins are holding the pins in place. Holes have also been cut in the hatch cover for the main jeer bitt pins. The pictures show the bitt pins before and after the upper well was installed.
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I am putting this in multiple postings because for some reason I cannot get the photos up insert properly. The stanchions are the easy part. The louvers are next. I made these over wide so they could be sanded down to the correct angle later. I started by making the two fore and aft wall assemblies (two stanchions and the louvers between them). Once they were dry, I inserted the louvers on the port side between these two walls. One of the hardest steps in fabricating the upper well is keeping the fore and aft walls exactly parallel to each other. The short wall on the starboard side was made next and finally the door was installed. The sides were sanded down to even out the louvers. There are a few slats that are not perfect but I left them in place rather than destroy the entire assembly removing them. The only ones who will know they are not quite right will be those of you reading this log. The fore and aft walls fit over the hatches and so the horizontal boards were cut back to accommodate this. A strip of planking was placed under the starboard wall. The height of the stanchions was lowered to just fit under the beams.
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The upper well consists of three louvered walls and one wall that is partially louvered and also had a door. A total of 5 stanchions were made. Three of them had mortises for the louvers on adjoining faces and two (the ones facing the door) only had mortises on one face. There are also vertical mortises at the bottom for the horizontal boards. I was going to try making these on the Preac but after a few failed attempts went back to doing them freehand. I found it easiest to put all of the stanchions on one strip of wood.
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Thanks John,Grant, Ben and all you who have posted likes. I had hoped to post pictures of the upper well by now but the holidays seem to be getting in the way! Two walls down... Two walls and a door to go.
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I have completed and installed the beam arms. Because of their length, these were made scale 10" thick. The deck camber was shaped added after they were fit to the beam. This beam set is just aft of the dead flat, the widest part of the ship. In order to install the assembly, only one beam arm could be glued in place off the ship. The other one was temporarily glued and then drilled for the three bolts. The glue was de-bonded with isopropanol and the bolt holes were used to align the beam arm during the rest of the assembly's fabrication. The hanging knees are now located on the aft faces of the beams. The pictures were taken before final sanding (I was running out of daylight). The next project is the upper well.
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I used a low luster clear coat oil based finish (Testor's I think.) The ink did not bleed.
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John, Druxey, Michael, Mark, mij, Daniel and Elia, thank you so much for your comments. And thanks for all the "Likes" as well. I hesitated answering the question about why the opposing knees exist since I wasn't sure myself. Appreciate your input, Danny. Daniel, as far as the mortises on the sail room are concerned... I did not use any type of jig. Just eye-balled the distances. When it comes to the upper well, I will figure out a better way since there will be louvers on intersecting walls. I also have some thinner saw blades with me this week and will try cutting the mortises on the Preac rather than free hand. I am reading Ed Tosti's Naiad Vol. 2 and he has a great way of making ladder stiles. It would adapt well to these pillars. All of the bolts inboard are made of 24g brass wire which is blackened in a 1:5 solution of Birchwood Casey brass blackener. In the US you can buy it from gun shops and even Walmart. I first mark the locations, then use a punch to set the hole and then drill the hole with a 76 bit. The punch prevents the drill bit from wandering. I have fallen in love with resharpened carbide bits. They are sharper and truer than HSS bits and have an end which fits my medium Dremel collet. They are also more brittle and since I drill all my holes without a drill press, they are more likely to break of there is any lateral movement during drilling. The at least two bolts going in to the frames are structural. The rest are decorative.
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I have made and installed the opposed lodging knees. Since I did not go into any detail on their construction for the lower deck, let me demonstrate how I made them. First, I make a template of the knee and saw it out a bit oversized. The thickness of the blank is about 2.5 times the normal thickness to allow for the curvatures. I then mark on the blank the areas that will be removed. I use a combination of my Preac saw, Dremel sanding discs and sandpaper to remove the excess material. The knees are given a final shaping and the bolts are added prior to installation.
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Just a suggestion... When making the caprail, make it very oversized. You can always make it smaller with a Dremel drum sander..
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Everything looks fantastic. I love the jig for the timberheads. I can't imagine cutting out the timberheads neatly while still on the ship. "Cheating" seems to be the only reasonable way to go.
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Thanks, Ron. The real fun will happen when I try the louvers on all four walls of the upper well! Druxey, its people like yourself that keep us striving for accuracy. I really appreciate it.
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The amount of detail is incredible. They look like they are ready to fire!
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Absolutely beautiful work. I feel your anxiety of cutting those mortises on the beam arms in situ. Mine would have probably crashed into the hold.
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A delayed thank you to Maurey and Pavel. Druxey, the tracks are now installed and, like so many details that we add, are now almost invisible! But we all know they are there... Beam sets 9 and 10 are in place. The only unusual items are the opposed lodging knees at the dead flat. I did not have thick enough wood with me this week to make them, so they will be installed next week. They will be identical to the ones on the lower deck. Look at page 10 of this build to see how they are shaped.
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Druxey, you caught me! Actually, I wanted the glue on the door to be secure and then put the track on on top. Going back to my stall door model, there is no track on the bottom. Was there one on a ship? Greg, I thought about cutting the mortises on the Preac (and when I do the upper well that is my plan) but I did not have a thin enough saw blade with me that day.
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Beam set 7 includes the opening for the fore hatch. These carlings are a little larger than the standard ones. As I am building the lower deck structures as I move aft, it was time to build the aft sail room. The fore sail room is one of the small rooms on the port side near beam set 4. This was a fun little structure to make. The lateral walls have louvers to allow ventilation into the room. I do not own a mill so the mortises for the louvers were made with an 11 blade. On Atalanta, the door into this room is a slider, not a hinged door. Consequently, the door must be made wider than the opening and it will be on the outside wall of the sail room. There is a pillar on the inside wall precluding placing the door there. Not having built a sliding door before, I went over to the local stable and looked at my horse's stall door. The latch is a L-shaped bolt on the door with a U-shaped piece of metal on the door frame to receive the bolt. The bolt measured 3" x 4" x 3/8". This would require making a u-shaped channel 0.01" square. Needless to say, this is well beyond my skill set so I have a flat piece of metal on the door frame representing it instead. Decking was placed under the assembly on the starboard side. The last two pictures show the sail room assembly before and after a coat of finish.
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I don't recall havin a problem with gaps but if they are that small paper and white glue should work just fine. What are you going to use for the frame and keelson reduction process? Those frames will need to be thinned by about half. I used a disc sander in my Dremel with low rpm. Be careful with a drum sander as it will have a tendency to tear the frames away from the planking. I used to get them at MicroMark but they no longer carry them. I found this today at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-28982-28983-Sanding-Discs/dp/B001LRQSJ8/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1384799810&sr=1-3&keywords=dremel+sanding+discs
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Ben, I always had problems with the after market micro chucks for the Dremel. Drill Bit City sells resharpened carbide micro drills that are fantastic. (And the prices are similar to HSS bits.) Because they are carbide, they are more brittle and work best with a steady hand or in a drill press. They have a standard shaft that fits into a regular collet for the Dremel, resulting in much less wobble and a true-to-size hole. Usual disclaimers.
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The sixth beam set is relatively straight forward. The aft bulkhead for the boatswain's cabin was temporarily removed to make installation easier. The pillar is supposed to go through the hatch coaming. I cheated and it is simply glued to the surface of the coaming. There is a tenon on the superior aspect of the pillar with a mortise on the under surface of the beam.
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The crosspiece of the bitts is comprised of two different wood species. The fore section is oak and the thinner aft section is elm. Both of these are light-colored species so I did not want a stark contrast between the two pieces. I used pau marfin for the "elm". The crosspiece is attached to each pin with two bolts. The metal work for the bitt will wait until I have a few other metal projects, although the holes to accept the metal pieces have already been drilled.
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Gentlemen, thank you for your comments. It was a little fiddley but I am pleased with the appearance. Druxey, I looked at a lot of build logs and did not see anyone else notch the standards. Remco, this was nothing compared to the detail work on your Kingfisher.
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The bitt standards are knees that extend anteriorly from the bitt pin. They are let into the deck beams and ledges by 1". I rough-cut the standard and then cut in the notches using the Preac saw with the blade elevated 1" above the table. To make things more interesting, the round-up of the deck needs to be taken into consideration. Also, the deck slopes upward towards the bow but the bitt pin is perpendicular to the water line. That angle had to be cut on the aft side of the standard so it would fit snuggly against the pin. Once I was happy with the fit, I transferred the shape of the standard onto the rough piece and cut it to the correct shape. The edges are beveled. After the starboard standard was fabricated, the port one was made. The pictures show the port standard before and after final shaping. The standards are bolted to the underlying frames. The cable stopper hole is drilled near the intersection of the pin and the floor height. It is 2.75" in diameter. I used a #60 drill bit and then enlarged and rounded over the hole with Swiss needle files. The hole is barely visible in the last photo. The color difference betweeen the pin and the standard is because I put finish on the pin but will be delaying putting any finish on the standard until after the deck has been installed.
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