garyshipwright

Update time... Things have not been quiet in the shipyard.
 
I laminated the plans to some MDF and attached a strip of wood at the reference line.  Also attached the stern framing to this so as not to mis-read any critical dimension.

 
The strip allows me to use the Ed Tool without any induced errors from having it canted slightly.

 
I've marked all the plans with appropriate reference marks and rescanned them all.  Also broke up Version 1.0 in order salvage certain bits..  like everything along the centerline... bitts, grates, pin rails, pumps, capstan, etc., some or all of the deck beams but none of the deck planking.   Also salvaged the mast steps and the stern framing.  I'll use the stern framing for some references.

 
I'm currently cutting out with as much precision as I can muster, a new build board.  I noted that on the old one, there were some frame notches that we either too deep or not deep enough.  Stupidity on my part.  I'll be re-using the previous version of the frame squaring jig (on the right in the picture).

 
Hopefully, in the next week or so, I can start cutting the keel, deadwood, and stem.  Since the wood for framing won't be here until early May, I'm planning on building some sub-assemblies such as most of the deck furniture.   I've located a local source of good birch plywood,  and am considering Woodcraft or the local source for masting materials and some other items.

Hi Mark and thank you sir. Some where and please don't ask me were, maybe in Goodwin's book, that the cable was taken around the spool or drum about 5 turns. They then  put a nail  or staple, on the middle run on the bottom of the drum, which means you had two and a half turns to port and two and a half turns to starboard. How far that would turn the rudder, this am unsure, maybe some one know's the answer to this one and will chime in here. This also as you said above gave space for the cable on the drum. Hum very interesting. Gary

Mark I looked in Boudroit book, The 74 gun ship, Vol 2, and seems this is were I found the information on the wheel, rudder and tiller rope. As I posted above the rope was taken around the barrel a even number of turns and then taken back down to the tiller. Boudriot says that the mid point of the tiller rope is nailed to the barrel, and on either side of this fixed point it is wound round twice in opposing directions; thus if the barrel is turned in one direction the rope is wound on of the fixed point and unwound in the other, abaft the fixed point. Gary

Adding 1 part at the time.

Druxey, as usual you are right, though asphalt aging effect is also interesting. May be some day I will find a replacement. I will have a look at this place:
 
http://www.kamapigment.com/store/index.asp?lang=0&catpage=2401
 
For now, another turn of the wheel.

Sorry Jay. Got a little busy but here is a couple of photo's showing them along with the scuppers and manger. Still some work going on in this area so forgive the mess. Hope it helps down the road. Gary

Sorry Jay. Got a little busy but here is a couple of photo's showing them along with the scuppers and manger. Still some work going on in this area so forgive the mess. Hope it helps down the road. Gary

Sorry Jay. Got a little busy but here is a couple of photo's showing them along with the scuppers and manger. Still some work going on in this area so forgive the mess. Hope it helps down the road. Gary

Sorry Jay. Got a little busy but here is a couple of photo's showing them along with the scuppers and manger. Still some work going on in this area so forgive the mess. Hope it helps down the road. Gary

Looks good Alex. Glad to see a update sir and have been missing them. Really like how she looks. Any ideally's about adding a figure of your self to show her scale sir. Keep up the good work and will keep watch her come to life. Gary

Hi Hollowneck. Hawse Bucklers were board's that was put over the holes on the inside and was wedge in place with pieces of wood fitted in holes in the breast hooks, in Alfred time of 1780. They had two types, one was fitted for sea and the other had a hole in it for when they were at anchor. Here's a photo of Alfred's bucklers, one is solid and the other has a hole in it. They are made of two  wooden boards each fitted with a rabbet on the edge so they could be fitted and made water tight. Hum can't seem to find any photo's of this. Most of this infomation that I have on them came from the The Fully Framed Model, Volume II , so on this one the credit goes to David. Give me a little bit and will add some photo's. Hope this helps. Gary

Thanks all.
 
Yuk Grant
 
Sure Daniel, the joints are tinted with graphite to enhance the joints. Otherwise the joints are almost invisible and the bulkhead will look like its made from one piece.
 


 
Time to make some lanterns, the mullions were completely prepared on the table saw assembling was quite simple, once complete they were sanded down to the appropriate thickness
 

 

 

 

 
Here they are temporary in place, I still need to add a vent but I'm not sure how long to make it, TFFM describes it should clear the deck head. Should it face away from the bulkhead or go up to the upper deck, some advice would be appreciated how I need to interpret this.
 
Remco
 
 

Success breeds progress.  Tonight was to climb the mountain.that I had thought about for a long time  - the pumps.
 
I had lathed out rods to represent the pumps a LONG time ago (in a galaxy / home far - far away).  Ever since then I had known that I wanted to improve their look above the deck where they were most visible.  That decision had churned in my brain ever since, growing larger and larger in mythical proportions of complexity.  Today was the day, they had to be done.
 
The following shows a before and after shot (hopefully you can tell the bottom pump is the before):
 

 
As is usually the case, the reality wasn't that bad at all.  After marking where the pumps came through the deck, that line was scribed with a knife and the rod paired down.  I used a draftsman guide of six sided shapes to find the appropriate size that I wanted.  Wood was cut to these dimensions and I eyeballed the necessary bevel at the edges.  These were then glued together and onto the rod.
 

 
I used piece of boxwood for a cap.  The actual handle will be generated later. 
 

 
Tomorrow the gun deck planking begins.  mark
 
 

This past week, I got a little more decking done and I also added the rubrail along the sides of the hull. This is a 1/32" square piece that follows the line of the planking.
 
Questions and comments welcomed.
 
Russ
 
 

No can do John , but I can tell you it was a nice little project I can recommend to every one. Those shallow drawers are just great. Next to this I use Ikea's little boxes to store other tools and supply's unfortunately they don't sell this type any more, a real shame. I'm still looking for a better way to organize my sanding paper, keeping them in a big stack is not working...
 

 
So back to making bulkheads, I use wooden peg's under the stanchions to temporary fit and adjust until I'm getting a fit I like. 
 

 

 

 
The cook's working space was not very big. Behind the riding bitt's there is another bulkhead drawn on my plan I thin I'll make a nice cupboard for the cook to store his pot's, pan's and other tools.
 
 
 

My general approach for fabricating and installing the beam sets has been one complete set at a time.  This worked well where there was no curvature of the hull but I had difficulty with the run of the outer carlings at the fore end of the upper deck and decided to change my approach as I neared the stern. I set out all of the beams and tack glued them in place.  I then drew fair lines for the outer carlings.  The deck beams were removed as I worked on them, only mortising the outer carlings.  The carlings were then tack glued without gluing the beam.  This continued until the last two beams.  The transom knee abuts the for end of the transom and extends along the hull just past beam 20.  It is set down on to the deck clamp and "bolted" to the frames and transom.  The last two beams are mortised into the transom knee.
 
The pictures show the run of the lateral carlings.  No finish shaping or sanding has been done yet.  I broke off the port counter timbers (again!) and just stuck it back on so that area looks out of whack.  I will probably have to remake it when it comes time to make the counter.
 

 

 

Thank you Mark, John, Druxey and Pat. The puns are flying thick and fast today . Thanks also to all those who have been using the "Like" button.
 
Main Studding Sail Boom Irons
 
There are two pieces of ironwork attached to each main channel. One of these is an Eyestrap, into which a pin on the inboard end of the Main Studding Sail fits allowing it to swing out. The other (aft) one is a Gooseneck which holds the outboard end of the boom when it is stowed.
 
I made these from 1mm thick brass strip. Both pieces taper in width and thickness on the inboard ends. I drilled three holes in each piece for the "bolts", which are made from brass pins silver soldered to the straps and the heads filed square.
 

 

 
The gooseneck part was silver soldered to the arm, as it needed a very sharp bend which wasn't possible to do. I trimmed the brass nails to the thickness of the channel :
 

 

 
The pieces fitted after cleaning up and blackening :
 

 

 
  Danny

Hi all
 
A little bit of progress internally. First, I added t-track and bolts to the building board so my gantry can be used for height measurment and clamping. Then, a new assistant supervisor was appointed.....

Retired Admiral the Lord Bob brings experience to the task.
 
Then, to learn about making decks and platforms, I decided to start with the aft magazine and platform, as it looked a lot simpler than the fore platorm. First I used the bulkheads I had made from Matai in the last progress post to construct the walls of the aft magazine.

 
And I also cut the aft platform beams from Totara, and checked their positioning for height along with the magazine.

 
I started with the idea of milling the mortices, but that took longer than cutting them with a scalpel and small chisels. This effort highlighted two things - I need smaller chisels and I need to cut away from the hand ... blood is on the underside of the beams.
At this stage I realised my potential for getting all the angles and measurements wrong while working inside the hull was immense, so made slots in a piece of offcut wood to allow me to construct the platform off ship.

 
This allowed me to line up the timbers and their mortices and hold everything nicely in place while I worked, so I ended up with this....

 
Which when placed back in the hull with the magazine looks like this ....

 
So I still have to do the knees, and until I do, the platform will not be fixed inside the hull. You might notice, in the close up of the top down image attachment below, the magazine has its floor planked (Rimu), next for it will be the internal bulkheads, lightroom fittings and doors. The "jig" for the platform worked so well, I plan on continuing that method for the orlop deck and fore platform, however I want to finish this aft area first.
 
oh, almost forgot, another "take-away lesson" from this was to avoid the use of blu-tack to test fit the beams in place ... it was difficult to get off afterwards.
 
Cheers
Rob

The next step was to make jigs to space the upper deadeyes above the lower. I used a line attached to the masthead to get the angles of the shrouds lined up with the lower deadeyes. This will make sure the the two levels of deadeyes are parallel. I used plastic sheet and drilled holes through each deadeye through the plastic Then a second pin in a side hole of each to keep the deadeye from spinning. The bottom row has wires holding the plastic down in place at each deadeye.
 
I started with the mizzen due to the way the mizzen forestay runs. It had to drop down a deck level going through a bullseye attached to the rear of the masinmast, down a bullseye at the deck right behind the pump.
I've mentioned that this is my 2nd rigging attempt. Originally I had put a thread through this difficult to reach bullseye before installing the pump so that I could glue it to the stay and easily run the stay later. But now I had to thread this line down in there past all those fine railings and pump wheels without bending and wreaking them. Yup, it was difficult.
 
Bruce

I'm picking this log back up starting with the rigging stage of this model. The masts and yards are complete, and the hull's deadeyes and etc. are on.
 
My goal with this model is to accurately depict the appearance of a prime example of a clipper ship. My concern is to depict all components scaled correctly and to do all at the best of my ability hoping to show the highest development of the wooden merchant ship.
 
I like speed. I like the example these ships made in the form follows function regard. These ships came about at a period in history when speed was essential. Generally they were driven without mercy as a true racing machine should be. As an old worn out motorcycle racer and builder these clippers really grab me by the guts
 
You see the model after she has had a first attempt at the standing rigging stripped from her. As with most of the build I've had to do everything at least twice.
 
I'll post as time and health permits, hope you enjoy the rigging process.
 
Bruce

Thanks for all your compliments
Edwin - the hold down for the drill is part of Micromot drill stand MB 140/S (http://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/28606.php?list).
 
Today I will post some pictures from sheet bitts production. It was a great challenge for me, what I can make from the wood. The result you can judge for yourself.
 

Thanks friends for your kind words, they are great motivation for further work on the RC for me.
Work continues with the preparation of gun tackles - breechings, side and train tackles. It goes slowly in this size, thank God, there are only 8 guns on RC

Rest of pictures.

Last part of re-posted pictures - new pictures will follow.

Making some headway, the last connection to the berth deck was the ladder.  I decided a jig was necessary and I came up with below:
 

 
The length of the gaps allowed some tension to be available to hold the treads while the sides are applied.  I first measured the tread depth from the plan unfortunately from the stairs from the gun / main deck to the quarter deck.  After putting the stairs in place it was pretty obvious this didn't leave a lot of room for sailors to make it through the coaming!
 

 
Upon further investigation I found a view off to the side that showed a much skinnier tread.  The jig now paid off since it was just five minutes before I had a replacement made.  The result was much more viable:
 

 
With the windlass plate off you can see the two sets of stairs from both decks. This will definitely work.
 
As i complete the deck requirements from bow to stern I will very soon be laying the deck planks.
 
Mark