niwotwill

Got up this morning and couldn't bring myself #11 blade and then used a 3mm paring chisel to start digging. Unlike some port side planks this did not just lift and peel off. Piece by piece it came out without causing additional damage. Now just the careful cleanup getting ready for the new plank. I'm going to post the process as it continues rather than wait to the end, so here goes. Here's a photo of the removed plank Closeup of area to clean More to come throughout the cleanup

Major problem today. I was close to finish planking the starboard side when I opened a tool cupboard above the Cheerful work area and when I reached in to get something and the waterline marker fell on the Cheerful. At first it looked undamaged but then I saw a gouge and a long scratch down the side. Most of the repair will be fairly easy as it is above the 1/16" plank but the gouge is on two planks above the wales. I don't feel as if I need to replace the wales and 1/16" moulding as there will be a second layer. The two planks will have to be dug out and replaced. (good thing I've had so much practice) I think I'll go ahead and finish the planking especially since I trimmed and bent the after two pieces. And while at it I make the repairs to the damaged planks between ports 5 and 6. Keep telling my self it could be worse and landed on the boat and knocked it to the floor breaking things. On to repairs tomorrow

Bowsprit completed. As stated I made all the pieces from AYC. Everything was straight forward with the exception of the fairlead which made me think of how to drill holes on a radius. Supriseingly the method was fairly simple. I cut a square piece of material and found the center. Mounted on a rotating table mounted to the mill bed. Using a laser alignment tool mounted in the mill to locate the marked center. Moved the table to the radius and drilled the 6 holes at 21 degree angle spacing. Amazing that when aligned with the drawing it was almost perfect. Now just a matter of sanding the outside radius and filing the inside radius. The chocks were a matter of taking a piece of 1/32" x 1/16" and filing the angle and slicing off pieces using the razor saw and mitre with the stop set to 1/32". The saddle for the spirt sail yard sling was made be sanding using a thickness sander to thickness of 1/64" stained and soaked to be bent around the bowsprit. Same process was used for the top piece. The iron bands are simulated by using heat shrink tubing cut to the proper width and once shrunk they don't move. All the parts made and stained were assembled to the bowsprit previously made. Couple photos of the completed bowsprit assembly on the Syren I've really got to clean the Syren as the photos really show everything including dust.

I've said before how much I enjoy and use you photos as i build my Syren in fact I looked through them Thursday to see how you rigged the bowsprit fairlead to understand how I should build my bowsprit. Great photos and much luck in the contest.

Thanks guys. I'll read the instructions to learn.

Thanks Ben big whoops here's pictures of the tool

I bought a used Sherline lathe and then an acquaintance gave me this tool which I have no idea what it is or how to use it? I'd love to hear any comments.

Spent the morning in final shaping of the bowsprit and finish sanding and then staining. This afternoon was spent making bees and sits. 3 hours of studying the plans measuring by copying the plans and cutting parts. Finally got everything glued and ready for staining tomorrow. And I'm making everything our of AYC its much easier to use and finish. Looking at the bees it looks as if the sheaves are misplaced but its because the bees are in opposite positions. Again thanks for following and all the likes

Thanks for the comment it means a lot after seeing your Syren and all the likes Wow!!!! is this thing going to be big. Making and fitting bowspirt

Longboat finished and lashed down with sweeps, oars, rudder set in place. Lashing the boat down to the gallows and rings on the deck was very time consuming and difficult working inside the bulwarks. Not much to show for all the work but here's a few photos. Now I'm on to full time working on the Syren and should see some visual progress as I'll start the bowsprit. But first I have to go to Lowes for a 1/4" dowel having no idea where the kit piece went it was here when I inventoried the kit at the beginning.

Finished the port side planking up to sheer and did a light sanding. After all the work of measuring and cutting the individual pieces it looks good. When the 2nd layer of moulding is on the planking will look more better as the uneven thicknesses wouldn't be visible. The process of cutting the individual pieces got quicker as I went along so I hoping the starboard side won't take as long. couple of photos of ports side completed Starting starboard side tomorrow

Slow progress with the little fiddly bits for finishing the longboat but there are finished. Spent a couple days making the sweeps and oars and I'm so glad for spares. Finally got all 4 oars and 16 sweeps finished yesterday and stained them this morning. Got the copper gudgeons and pintles colored black (liver of sulfur) and glue in place. Making the oarlocks was a bit of a challenge as I didn't trust my ability to glue the wood on the top cover and then free hand drill the holes with any kind of accuracy so I took a different approach. I took a block of wood the same size as the oarlock pad and made a set up in the mill to drill the holes deep enough to make 8 oarlock pads. Leaving the block of wood in the setup I sliced of .025 layers like bread. Painted the oarlock pads and glued them to the cap rail and was able to insert .026 copper wire. That done more liver of sulfur to make everything black. (side note LOS does not stain wood or paint) I made chocks to mount on the gallows for the longboat to rest and glued it in place. Tomorrow once the glue has set I lash the sweeps in place and secure the longboat to the rings on the deck.

Maury that's a lot of accurately place holes. I've had a similar problem with stanchions where I drilled a pilot hole the dia of the stanchion and then squaring them with a square swiss file. If your stanchions are rectangular keep working the edge to elongate. Keep in mind files only cut in one direction so the going is slow and I used a #0 cut file to prevent exit edge breakout. Just how I did mine but hope all works out. The work your doing is looking good and it showing on how well ECB is coming along. On a side not I'll be in Mystic next month and am working on getting aboard ECB. So far they have not said no and I'll seep trying.

Just a quick update with not much to share. Starting up to the sheer planking and as it has been said before it tedious work. Learning to do over if not happy with result has considerably slowed progress. Cut, fit, glue and do it again. I'm starting to make progress with the fitting and less redo but it is still tedious work. Took a break and planked from the aft port to transom for relief and visual satisfaction. Port side planking My therapeutic visual planking Liking what progress I've done but waiting to see the how WOP looks when its finished is hard.

Again I want to thank everyone for following and the likes, comments and suggestions. Completed the planking from wales to gunports 1/16 strip. On the port side I even had to remove the aft section of the wales and planking above. I think the planking is looking pretty good except a small gap on the top wale and first plank of about .01" but I think it will be covered with the second layer of wales. I'll keep looking at it and decide as I go on. I've learned a lot during this process so I'm not too concerned as I know I can fix it if needed. Also knowing I can fix planking allows me to continue planking up to the sheer so I guess that is the next step. completed planking port side completed starboard side

I took option 3 from previous post and removed everything to start a new port sill and sides. I had been wondering how I had gotten the sill off location by 1/32" on the aft end but when I got everything off my marks were still visible and in the correct location. HUH! Made a new sill and how I had forgotten the difficulty to get the sill properly aligned. The sweep of the bulwarks and the upward angle all made for each end to have a double angle cut to fit against the bulwarks. Everything in the proper position and location now to finish sanding and painting. While I have the paint out I'll add a couple of coats to all the ports. Picture of the port removed. Not very pretty. Sill and side back in place with alignment jig in place Ready to finish and paint after installation and fairing Painting tomorrow and then on to planking again for the third time

Chuck and Glenn thank you for your sincere and honest comments which I have taken to heart. This morning I ripped off the offending planks and started the process of preparing the bulwarks for new planks. The first strake and 1/16" trim removed from the starboard side. I tookthe advice to not use alcohol or heat to loosen the glue joints. First using a #11 blade to free the plank from adjoining planks then a sharp chisel to dig out the plank. Surprisingly how easy the glue joints broke apart and then pulling the plank free. Same process for the port side Both side from stem Planks added using spring clips to hold while glue sets on starboard side Finished starboard side with no offending gaps Now on to Chucks comment about the sharp rise aft of the last gunport. This created a perplexing conundrum to study and finally solve. Measuring and checking plans along with both sides I finally saw that problem. The sill on the last gunport was not following the true flow of the deck and wales. The fix won't be so easy as I see three ways to approach. 1. Since the forward edge of the sill, where it attaches, to the bulwark is the correct height and the aft edge is too low a tapered shim might be placed correcting the angle to match. 2. Use a paring chisel to shape the existing sill and then add a shim of the correct thickness. 3. Remove the sill and add a new one in the correct location and angle. Not sure how this happened but then maybe I don't need to know just fix the problem and move on. Planks removed ready for fixing the sill , cleanup, paint and planking. During this process I've learned that it is better to fix the problem and sometimes the problem is worse than the fix. I have a few areas on the wales that I'm not happy with but there will be a second layer to cover these areas so I decided not to fix the minor gaps along the wales. Again thank you Chuck and Glenn you've made me realize that I'll be much happier with my Cheerful model without the good enough attitude. As I progress I'll be looking for any and all input you might offer.

Short update on a lot of work. Finished planking above the wales to the 1/16" strip. I measured each bulkhead and divided by 2 and then took a strip and laid out the measurements for shaping. It took what seemed to be forever to get the strips shaped to fit in the space but when done the results were ok. Hoping the wipe on poly will darken the joints and make gaps appear less prevalent. I've debated for two days if I should rip off the planks and even at a dark point to order a new one and start over. Pictures are of planking with light amount of sanding. Continuing on with the planking to the sheer

Thanks to everyone for the comments and likes. Glenn I looked at the skylight photo and could see the need for planks underneath. The side 1/64" rabbits have still to be beaten into submission on another day. Well I did overthink the 1/16" moulding and 1/64" rabbit my little jig blocks worked nicely. I didn't glue them on the sills rather held them and drew a very fine line with a 6H lead sharpened in a drafting pointer. The 6H lead left a line and a small indentation in the soft AYC but not the plywood. I just painted a fine line of glue and aligned the strip using the drawn line as reference. So overthinking again reminded of one of my past engineering manager who said "Its become time to shoot the engineer and go to production". I went through the supplied 3/16" sheets and found several at .188 thick when ripped to strips and placed between the wales and moulding they fit perfectly but will have to cut to fit as the gap narrows. Tomorrows job. I'm really enjoying this part of the Cheerful build especially after reading about the rabbits around the ports and critical distance between the wales and moulding. It is fun to watch it become more of a ship that bare bones. My thinking of the 3/16" strakes is as follows: 1. One long strake 2 Shaped to correct width at each former 3, edge beveled 4, bent per Chucks method 5, verify fit after bending 6, cut to correct lengths 7, installed Ideas, comments, suggestions appreciated Couple moulding photos

With the port and starboard first layer of wales completed it was on to ripping 3/16" wood into 3/64" strips and 3/64" sheet into 1/16" strips. I'm a little concerned about the 3/16" material when measured it is .182 to .184 thick when it should be .188 thick. It doesn't seem like much but when you have multiple strakes or in this case 2 that adds up to be short .010. When I roughed measured between the wales and the top of the sill 2 .188 strakes + 1/16" + 1/64" fit perfectly. If I'm Short I'll soon know because It'd leave a .010 gap. As I was told I might be over thinking this but I'll see tomorrow. Ensuring a 1/64" (.0156) rabbit below the sills and the sides of the ports was causing me a challenge. I made a small set of jigs to create the gap. I rummaged through the scrap and found a piece of boxwood that I surfaced using the mill and then made another cut leaving a .016 tall lip. I've used glue sticks to temporally fasten pieces while working. A little water or alcohol will loosen the bond and the parts come apart leaving the sticky glue to be cleaned. Both port and starboard wales Spent some time touching up paint on the capstan and skylight that I built why I was away and decided I'd have some fun with them 1/64" alignment jigs Aligning the sill Aligning the sides Tomorrow we'll see it my jigs idea will work. Fingers crossed

Hi Paul I just browsed your log and only have one thing to say WOW!!!! I only use the clamp to let things dry and keep it up off the bench. In an earlier post I had a picture of how I use a upholstery foam cushion cut to fit inside the bulwarks when I working of the bottom. This evening I'll go back to your log and have a good look.

We had a little 4th celebration last night and since I was away on fathers day my girls gave me a coffee mug that makes me laugh so I thought I post it. Using my new mug at breakfast

Looking at the pictures I forgot to mention the glue smudges will only be on the wales as they will get a second coat. Henceforth I will be more carful and if I have any I'll wash them off before they smudges set up.

Thanks to everyone with the nice comments and likes it really does make me more motivated to keep going and trying to be better. I look at Cheerful logs for inspiration especially Glenns Cheerful he just finished. Thanks Glenn for the hints on using ebony. My work area is an enclosed single car garage that I've made into a shop with airconditioning and separate air filtration. I alway use the dust vacuum system whenever cutting or sanding but I be extra careful with ebony. Now onto Cheerful wales. I put the starboard side wales on today without any trauma. I used large elastic bands to hold the strakes in place while the glue set. It was very easy to plank after all the fairing i'd done the first strake laid down perfectly flat along the marks and the second snugged right up and also laid flat to the frames. What a pleasure to work on and look at the results of my hours of fairing. As people say time spent paying rewards. The side view From the stem from aft view I haven't done any sanding yet I think I'll wait until above the wales is completed. Happy 4th of July to all

Were home from Colorado. Spent quality time with friends and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and weather. Spent the day tying knots and lacing the netting on the hammocks. I had ALMOST completed the longboat awhile back but now that the netting is done its time to finish. All the little parts need to be made so I slowly got going again. Just a picture of the netting completed What a job my hand are tired and my eyes are blurry so its time to rest on the 4th. Happy July 4th