texxn5

Today was such a beautiful day here (sorry for all you New Englanders and northern folks) 80 degrees and bright clear sunshine. This was an opportunity to photograph the Morgan outside, so I'm taking the opportunity to show her off a little. I also made the Mizzen Top Mast, finishing it and making the Main Topmast. I used my Proxxon DB 250 Lathe to turn the Mizzen and Main Top masts and Royal. This is done from one dowel so I set it up in the lathe and used sandpaper to reduce the diameters down to the proper size. One nice advantage of this lathe is that the longer dowels can go through the center of the motor freely. You could stick a 5' or longer piece through it and just turn the area you want.

Hi Dave and Augie, glad to see you stopping in. Thanks Dave...challenges ahead. By the way FYI we made some really good cheesy garlic grits the other night - still some of those we got from you. We hoard them for special meals...still can't find them here but at least the package has a website we can order from.
John

Finally got the courage to start serving the shrouds today. Got setup and working on the first one....still working on it.

Hi Henry, good to see you. Thanks for stopping by. I did not worm and serve, my lines were getting thick, and my next smaller size is too small. I hope to improve as I progress through these. how've you been? You guys have really been getting socked! What do you do with your time now that Conny is in the yards? More time on the workbench? Hope all is well.

Actually Henry, it took me a minute to remember what you told me about worm & lay, and I answered too quickly, I havent done that yet, but will be probably today and yes, it will be correct - thanks to your explanation on board, I understand the importance, and I would not have know that otherwise...thank you again my friend...

tightening up Lanyards

Thanks for the explanation Les. I'm hoping to improve my serving as I progress throug this, it isn't quite as smooth as I would like.

Today, I finished the first shroud, made the eye and added it to the stbd. foremast. Was real busy with the business today, so didn't get much done, but at least a little progress. The Lanyards are taught, but not finished, just tightened up for spacing. Now for Port.

That looks great John....Now to address the worming discussion. the standing rigging on the Morgan is wire rope. the last time it was wormed parceled and served was in the early 1980's... when we stripped off the old down to the wire and after we wire brushed it to clean we inspected it and found that it was in great condition. no corrosion. we did replace about 5% of the standing rigging only because of kinks and some corrosion but other than that it was re worm parcel and serve. If it is done right then the rigging is waterproof. the thing with parceling is when you do the eyes on the standing rigging you "shingle the parceling so that it is pointing towards the deck in this way it acts like shingles on a roof. also after worming you apply a liberal amount of pine tar before parceling. after the parceling is put on another coating or pine tar. then the service. after serving you apply a coat of black tar which is pine tar and shellack which becomes semi hard thus completing the water proofing of the standing rigging. John has a lot of pictures that I sent to him showing all this if you want Henrey I will send you the pictures also so you can see the process first hand. I really documented everything that i did... hope this helps. of course there is a lot of discussion about this but it seems that this works the best after all the standing rigging has been on the Morgan for decades out in the elements and was found to be in good order....also have videos of this too...

tightening up Lanyards

tightening up Lanyards

Today, I finished the first shroud, made the eye and added it to the stbd. foremast. Was real busy with the business today, so didn't get much done, but at least a little progress. The Lanyards are taught, but not finished, just tightened up for spacing. Now for Port.

tightening up Lanyards

Today, I finished the first shroud, made the eye and added it to the stbd. foremast. Was real busy with the business today, so didn't get much done, but at least a little progress. The Lanyards are taught, but not finished, just tightened up for spacing. Now for Port.

Finally got the courage to start serving the shrouds today. Got setup and working on the first one....still working on it.

tightening up Lanyards

Today, I finished the first shroud, made the eye and added it to the stbd. foremast. Was real busy with the business today, so didn't get much done, but at least a little progress. The Lanyards are taught, but not finished, just tightened up for spacing. Now for Port.

I not only sell them but use them. I have had no problems with mine or heard any complaints from my customers. No it is not a Sherline, it would just amount to how close your tolerances would need to be. If machining or milling metals perhaps you could justify the cost differences to Sherline. I have had Sherline lathes and mills and they are great tools, but for most of the woodwork and light metal use the Proxxon tools are outstanding. Check my site as I offer the Proxxon line at very discounted prices. Thanks, and even though I sell these tools, I am not predjudiced to them, it becomes a matter of what fits your needs.
 
http://www.proxxontoolsdiscount.com
 
John

I not only sell them but use them. I have had no problems with mine or heard any complaints from my customers. No it is not a Sherline, it would just amount to how close your tolerances would need to be. If machining or milling metals perhaps you could justify the cost differences to Sherline. I have had Sherline lathes and mills and they are great tools, but for most of the woodwork and light metal use the Proxxon tools are outstanding. Check my site as I offer the Proxxon line at very discounted prices. Thanks, and even though I sell these tools, I am not predjudiced to them, it becomes a matter of what fits your needs.
 
http://www.proxxontoolsdiscount.com
 
John

My yellow ochre paint finally arrived, so today we didn't have electricity most of the day - don't know why - nothing except something must have blown somehwere in the lines. Then when we had electricity we didn't have internet. Not good. Sitting in the dark, mostly cold weather...naps were in order. so only got a little bit done. So the masts now are 100% done, got the paint on and the masts stepped. Ready to actually serve.

Alexeys' serving machine makes the job easy.  Did you worm and serve with the lay, then turn and serve the other way?
 
Regards,

that is a really good looking set up to serve the shrouds......actually it is easier than doing the real thing. keep on going.. I think I have a video I can email you that shows Sara using the service mallet that matt invented to do the serving quickly...lester

Finally got the courage to start serving the shrouds today. Got setup and working on the first one....still working on it.

Hi Dave and Augie, glad to see you stopping in. Thanks Dave...challenges ahead. By the way FYI we made some really good cheesy garlic grits the other night - still some of those we got from you. We hoard them for special meals...still can't find them here but at least the package has a website we can order from.
John

I would appreciate feedback on the proxxon compound (x-y) table. I will be using it on the Proxxon TBM bench drill and wanted to check its quality and accuracy.