Dr PR

George, Thanks. I considered using paper. I think it certainly is easier, and you really can't tell what material is being used, especially if you paint the hoops. And the paper hoops will not be brittle and prone to breaking as 3D printed hoops will be.

Bob, Great suggestions. Thanks! I can see how your method would produce more uniform hoops and the radial thickness should be more uniform. I remembered your post, and as I was shaving wood from the dowel I thought I would try to use it for the hoops. Next time I will try your method. For what it is worth, the aliphatic glue did not stick to the aluminum knife handle mandrel, but I didn't leave the hoops on the mandrel until the glue set up. I should add that I broke a few of the hoops with too aggressive sanding when I was reducing the vertical height. However, the laminated hoops are very tough considering they are only 0.020" (0.5 mm) thick (give or take a few thousandths). No need to worry about breaking them while rigging the sails!

Things slowed down enough that I found some time to work on the model. I made some mast hoops. I need 26 hoops total. There are 11 on both masts to attach the gaff sails, and two spares on each mast. I have looked at metal rings used in jewelry making but they were the wrong size. I thought about making metal rings, but real hoops appear to be rectangular in cross section. I used a technique that I saw on a post on the forum. Sorry I don't recall who came up with this idea, but I thought I would give it a try. Howard Chapelle's "The American Fishing Schooner" (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1973) shows how mast hoops were made in the Notebook section on page 555. The diameter of the hoops is about 125% of the mast diameter. He gives examples of the proportions of several hoops. Using the proportions from Chapelle and the diameters of the masts on the model I decided to make the hoops 0.420" (10.7 mm) inside diameter, 0.020" (0.5 mm) thick (radial) and 0.050" (1.25 mm) high (vertical). I started with some wood shavings that I got when I made the masts. I shaved a square dowel to get an octagonal shape, and saved the thin wood strips. They were about 0.005" (0.13 mm) to 0.007" (0.18 mm) thick. I needed a mandrel to wrap the shavings around so I looked for something that was 0.420 inches diameter. The handle of a large hobby knife was 0.4225 inches - close enough. I applied SIG Sig-bond aliphatic resin glue to the wood strips with a paint brush First the strip was wrapped one turn around the mandrel and then I started brushing on the glue as I continued wrapping the strip to form laminated layers (like the real hoops are made). I needed more than 0.020" thickness and found that something like a 0.030" thick lamination (4-5 turns) was a good thickness to work with. Note: I got best results when I started with an end of the strip that tapered to zero thickness - like you get at the end of the shaving stroke. You could also just use sandpaper to taper the end of the strip. This avoids having a "step" or void at the end of the strip on the inside of the hoop. The aliphatic resin may not have been the best choice. It doesn't set up quickly so the strips tried to unwind. I used small clamps to hold the ends in place until the glue set. This did distort the rings a bit, but that was easy to fix later. I had best results working with them after the glue had set over night. The resulting hoops were pretty crude looking. Next I sanded the hoops to about twice (0.1") the desired vertical height on coarse sandpaper. This cleaned up the ragged edges a bit. Then I slipped the hoops over the end of the mandrel and placed the mandrel flat on the sandpaper and rotated it to sand down the outside edges as shown in this next picture. I occasionally slipped the hoop off the mandrel and measured the thickness (radial) with a micrometer. I repeated this until the thickness was close to the desired thickness (0.020"). I removed the hoop from the mandrel and finished sanding the vertical height to about 0.050". The picture on the right shows three of the original laminations on top and three finished hoops on bottom. After two days work I had 27 usable mast hoops and 7 failures (most broke while I was sanding them). Look closely and you will see they aren't perfect. I didn't taper the starting ends on some so there is a thin place where the second layer overlaps it. The thickness isn't uniform around all of them - I may correct this later. But I think they will work. I will sort them into two groups with similar thicknesses and heights for the two masts so the differences won't be noticeable.

I found two images that are posted elsewhere in the forum in discussions about gun carriages. This picture shows the two rings. The forward ring is for the training tackle (9), and the aft ring is for the outhaul tackle (7). I didn't record the source, but perhaps someone will recognize it. This drawing also shows the two rings and labels them "gun tackle loops). Again, I do not have a reference. Both drawings are for the "English" style carriage with the breech rope around the cascobel/button or through a ring on the rear of the cannon.

Nice work!

Very nice work!

I recall seeing a bottle of Radium salts emulsion that you were supposed to drink for upset stomach - about 1915. But Radium taken orally causes stomach cancer. Before the Food and Drug Administration was established a lot of useless and dangerous "medicines" were sold. I remember when the FDA stopped the sale of Carter's Little Liver Pills. Research showed they did nothing for the liver. My favorite was "Qzarko." I remember it from my childhood. It was a black foul smelling liquid that was an instant cure for athlete's foot, ringworm and other skin fungal infections. It was a mixture of coal tar in rubbing alcohol that was bottled in my home town. I always imagined some guy stirring it with a 2x4 in a 50 gallon drum in his basement. Coal tar is a very effective antimicrobial agent, but, unfortunately, it causes cancer.

Valeriy, How do you get the holes for the prop shaft in the propeller struts to align with the openings in the hull?

Bob, While the board feet in the log might not be worth $100,000, by the time they go through the selection process, then get a long log like that into the shop and do the processing into a mast the total cost might well be that high.

Bob, Your "big prime Doug fir" in the photo in post #19 appears to be only about 3 feet diameter. When I moved to Oregon in the 1970s loggers scoffed at such "toothpicks" - they weren't worth bothering with. A really BIG Douglas fir was about 15-17 feet diameter. Each piece was hauled out of the forest on a single railroad car. We used to see a single tree going down the road on three log trucks. One carried the huge base. The next carried the large second piece an perhaps the top. And the third truck carried two to four pieces from just below the top. But now they have cut most of the big trees, and what few are left are locked up in wilderness areas. Now we see trucks loaded with dozens of sticks less than a foot diameter. They are chipped to make "oriented strand board," a fancy term for garbage. A 120 foot long 3 foot diameter log has about 10,000 board feet. Douglas fir is currently selling at about $700-$800 per thousand board feet (milled). So an ordinary log that size would sell for less than $7000 to $8000. However, there is a premium paid for long poles (they are really difficult to get out of the forest on typical sharp curved logging roads). And really clear logs from trees with no lower limbs (knots) bring a high price for making plywood veneer (I worked many years automating plywood lathes). A $100,000 tree would be VERY special!

Perhaps they were belaying points to accept hooks on the mast tackle?

pocojo, As Allan said, Howard Chapelle's "The American Fishing Schooners 1825-1935" (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1973) is the best reference for schooners like Bluenose. It has 370 pages of illustrated notes describing in detail the small features of these vessels. There are also several Bluenose builds on the forum where you can see the problems and solutions others have found. If you are looking for general terminology and other information about schooner rigs I have posted some information here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/25679-topsail-schooner-sail-plans-and-rigging/?do=findComment&comment=750865

I am surprised that Netfabb has those file name errors. When I first used it (many years ago) it was not from AutoDesk. I can believe AutoDesk hasn't bothered to fix the file name errors - just milk it for all the cash it can bring in with minimal expense to maintain. I suspect it is the parentheses in the file names that causes the problem in Windows. I have used hyphens in file names many times. Microsoft's 3D Builder is easier to use, but it doesn't offer as many options (or need as many menus, pop-up windows, etc.) However, the user interface is pretty strange, unlike any other program I have seen on any operating system. It takes some getting used to. After 3D Builder repairs the file I just save it under the same STL file name to eliminate the unrepaired version. I rescale files in the slicer program (Chitubox). **** The only problem I have found that 3D Builder cannot repair is zero thickness surfaces within openings that should penetrate the part. This is a problem with the DesignCAD program I use - it thinks the interior of the holes does not exist. I eventually discovered it is due to the way DesignCAD defines surfaces with openings in them. It creates a plane with a hole in it by wrapping the outer edge in and around the hole and back as shown below. This surface has only one "outer" edge (the visible line), and apparently that isn't legal in STL files. So 3D Builder just makes a rectangular plane that fills in the hole. The solution is just to not do this in your files. You need two or more separate planes wrapping around the hole - with no one plane wrapping around more than half the hole. It's all part of the joy of 3D printing!

Valeriy, It certainly looks like you have lost none of your skills! Nice work!

I use Microsoft's 3D Builder (free) to check STL files for errors. In most cases where my STL files have problems it fixes them.

Per, I am glad you found my build interesting. It has been a learning experience for me. And I am also glad to know that I am not the only one who takes decades to finish a build!

I find a coarse flat file to be the best tool to use for reducing the top section above the hounds (where the crosstrees fit) of a larger diameter mast. Then for the very top tenon that fits into the cap I use a hobby knife and small fine toothed files. I take measurements often to avoid removing too much wood. As for making masts from square stock, I had heard others say this was the way to go. I had always chucked dowels into a drill and used sandpaper to slowly grind the piece into shape. But on my last build I decided to start with a square piece and cut it down to size. First I cut the square piece down to the desired taper of the mast. Then I used a small plane to shave off bits of the corners to create the octagonal shape. Then I shaved off the corners of the octagon to get 16 sides. Then I chucked it into a drill and used sandpaper for the final shaping. This was MUCH faster and easier than trying to reduce the round dowel! MUCH!! Now I understand why all of the experienced modellers use this technique. It worked the first time and was a lot of fun. I have posted pictures and a description of the process here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=908539 Also note that I kept the mast square under the hounds for the cheeks to fit onto. You can't do this if you start with a round dowel. Then I shaped the top, including cutting it octagonal just for show.

Here are some photos of the Syren 5/16" (8mm) assembled blocks with internal straps. I decided it would be better to assemble the straps in the blocks before staining. I assembled some with extensions for attaching hooks or shackles and some without, all determined by the rigging plan for my model. If you look closely you might see that I didn't follow Chucks instructions exactly. For all of the blocks I extended the metal straps across the entire height of the blocks. I am not sure how tightly the aliphatic resin glue will adhere to the metal straps, so I made the straps as long as possible, extending from top to bottom of the blocks. This meant that the holes for the "axles" of the sheaves are blocked by the straps. Chuck includes about twice the length of strap material as needed for the blocks, so if you screw up you can try again. He also supplied a wire (pin) that can be installed through the axle hole in the block and then filed smooth with the surface of the block. But if you run the straps the full length of the block as I did the wire will not fit through the block. Instead I mixed up a batch of JB Weld epoxy and put some of this in the axle holes. The JB Weld is dark grey like the wire, so the holes are filed with something that looks like the metal pin. A you can see these are really nice blocks - even if I didn't get perfect alignment of the extension for the shackles. The hardest part of this was drilling the 0.020" holes in the 0.03125" straps. I had about a 75% success rate - it's a good thing Chuck supplies extra strap material! Now they are ready for staining. If it ever quits raining here (we are well into April and it is still snowing and sleeting) I will get outside and stain the blocks.

No two planks are the same. The width of the "nib" is 1/2 (or 1/3 on some vessels) the plank width from one side to the center of the plank, and is the same on all planks. But the angle back to the other side of the plank is determined by the angle of the margin board. So every plank has to be fit in situ. On my current build I planked from the center outward. I cut the nib to 1/2 the plank width. First I marked the center of the end of the plank with a pencil. Then I slid the plank along the already laid inboard plank up to where the end of the new plank came to where the inboard plank met the margin board. With the new plank in this position I marked the margin board along the end of the new plank, out to the center of the plank. Then I marked the position on the new plank where the outboard edge crossed the margin board. I also marked this position on the margin board. Then I trimmed the new plank back from the center of the end to where it crossed the edge of the margin board. Then the plank positioned over the margin board and the outline was drawn on the margin board. Next I cut the nib into the margin board. Now the plank fits into the cutout in the margin board. This was a lot easier than I had imagined it would be, and the nibs came out symmetrical port to starboard! I have posted photos of the process here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=605072

Allenyed is right that the way lines were belayed changed over time. For earlier smaller vessels the lines were often belayed to cleats or cavels (kevels) on the bulwarks, or just tied off to railings. Sometimes lines were tied off to cleats fastened to shrouds. There was a lot of variation over time. Also, keep in mind that some things were not permanently attached. Runner or lead blocks were often attached to a handy point to allow a line to be redirected to wherever the crew had room to work, and often the attachment point depended upon the tack or wind direction. Some stays had a tackle at deck level that was unhooked and moved to different positions depending upon the tack and where booms or yards were angled. The one thing I have learned from studying sailing ship rigging is that there were no absolute rules. If it could be done it probably was on one ship or another.

I decided to make a tumbler to finish the blocks. I had 39 blocks that needed the edges rounded. It would take several minutes to do each one by hand, or at least an hour and a half to two hours. My fingers would be very sore and the hands would surely start cramping before they were finished. It took less time than that to make a simple tumbler. I glued some 80 grit sandpaper into the interior sides an old peanut butter jar. Nothing special about this sandpaper - I just had some on hand. But the coarse grit is important. A 0.375" (9.5 mm) wooden dowel served as the shaft. A strip of the same sandpaper was folded double and glued to the dowel. I also fastened the sandpaper to the dowel with small brass nails. A few staples held the sandpaper together and pulled it tighter around the dowel. I drilled holes in the bottle cap and the bottom of the jar for the dowel to rotate in. Then the blocks were put into the jar, the lid screwed on, and the thing was chucked into a 3/8" hand drill. I ran the drill at medium speed and checked the progress every few minutes until the blocks were rounded to my satisfaction. It took about 8 minutes to process the smaller 9/32" double blocks and about 12 minutes for the larger 5/16" single and double internally strapped blocks. Neither the drill nor the jar heated noticeably during the operation. After tumbling I finished them with 220 grit and then 600 grit sandpaper to remove any surface marks left by the saw/planer on the original sheets of wood. I think the results speak for themselves. The tumbler produced more consistent results than hand shaping would have done.

After assembling four dozen of these things - without rounding the edges yet - I think I will build a tumbler for all the rest. My fingers are really sore from holding these little things while I was filing and sanding! As I said, some of the glue squeezed from between the sheaves and the other layers and flowed into the channels for the metal straps. After the glue dried some of the channels were blocked. I used a 0.025" (0.6 mm) drill bit to open the channels, followed by a section of a very small jeweler's saw blade in a pin vise to square up the channel. It wasn't much trouble, but was a bit of extra work.

Well, it is getting warmer, and today we saw the sun. But it is supposed to start raining again next week. This has been a very wet winter and spring has also been WET! But it is almost warm enough to start staining and painting, so I am preparing for that. The current project is preparing blocks and hearts for staining. I have several sizes of blocks and hearts from Syren that must be assembled. The picture shows the 5.5 mm open and closed hearts, 9/32" double blocks and 5/16" single and double internally strapped blocks. These parts must be assembled, and this is my first time doing this, so I thought I would describe the process. These are very nice pieces, but you do need to be careful assembling them. The tabs that connect the pieces to the surrounding frames are extremely thin and will break easily. You can see two of the open hearts that escaped from their confines while I was handling the parts! With all of these parts you must be very careful applying the glue to avoid breaking the pieces from the frames. But, as you will see, this isn't too much of a problem. The hearts were the easiest to assemble. They are three layers, one inside layer and two outer layers. You just apply glue to an outer layer and position the inner layer on it. Then you glue the other outer layer to the inner layer. The inner layer is a bit smaller than the outer layers, creating the groove for the stay that you see in this photo. Chuck's instructions say to use CA glue to cement the layers together, but I don't "do" CA. I used SIG-Bond aliphatic resin. CA might work for the simple hearts but there was no way I could have applied CA and put the more complex five-layers blocks together before CA hardened. The aliphatic resin gave me plenty of time to get the parts aligned before it started to set up. The 9/32" double blocks were a bit more complicated with five layers, but went together like the hearts. There are two outer layers, a center layer, and two sheave layers that are sandwiched between the inner and outer layers. Above you can see an inner sheave layer glued to one of the outer layers. At left is a complete five layer assembly on the left, still in the frames, the starting two layer assembly on the right, and the remaining three layers. The outer layers have grooves for the rope strop on the outside of the blocks, so be sure that you don't glue this surface to the sheave layer. Chuck's instructions say to align the inner corners of the frames and this works nicely to align all of the layers. He also says to apply the glue only to the parts of the blocks and none to the frames. And he says to apply liberal amounts of glue because you don't want these things coming apart because the layers weren't firmly attached. The 5/16" internally strapped blocks were a bit more complicated. In addition to the wooden parts there are several metal wires and flat straps to be assembled after the wooden parts are glued together. The single blocks were three layers, but the outer layers have a groove on the "inside" where the metal straps go, so you have to pay attention to which side you are gluing to the internal sheaves. The photo shows an assembled three-layer set on the left, a partially assembled outer and inner layer on the right, and other the six-part outer layer center left. I assembled seven sets of blocks without much trouble. However, when I opened one of the six-block 5/16" single block packages all of the internal sheaves had been broken from the frames and were loose in the package. This might have happened here after I received the sets from Syren. In any case, it really didn't matter. I glued the center layer (minus sheaves) to one of the outer layers and then glued each of the sheaves into place individually. You can see three of them glued in on the right and the other three waiting to be glued in place. After that the other outer layer was glued on. You can see the channel for the internal strap in the outer layer second from the left. Just be sure to assemble the blocks with this groove adjacent to the sheaves. The 5/16" internally strapped double blocks were a bit more complicated. There are five layers, as shown in the photo. When you are applying glue be sure to get plenty on the thin crescents at the ends of the block so they are firmly glued in place on the finished block. You need to pay attention when gluing the sheaves to the center layer - the grooves for the straps must be oriented against the center layer. Also, notice that the "sheaves" (oval center piece) are attached to only one of the outer crescents. You should orient both sheave layers the same way, with the sheave attachments on both layers on the same end of the block. This will allow your ropes to pass over the sheaves on the same end of the block. If you forget to do this you can always drill out the obstruction. The outer layers attach as with the single blocks, with the strap grooves on the inside against the sheaves. These blocks have double straps, one against the center layer, and the other in the grooves in the outer layers. You should use caution when applying glue to the inner sheave layers. The tabs attaching the parts to the outer frames are very thin, and you can easily break them off while applying the glue. As I noted above, this isn't a big problem because you can always glue each individual sheave in place before attaching the next layer. After the glue has set you can cut the blocks away from the frame. Chuck warns against the temptation to push them out with your fingers, because you might split off part of the blocks. I used a sharp hobby knife. As you can see in the photo the blocks come away with bits of the tabs attached. If you have followed chuck's instructions the frame layers will not be glued together. These actually turned out to be useful. I want to stain the blocks and I will use these frames to test the different stains and staining methods. The picture on the left shows the first steps for cleaning up the blocks. The tabs have to be cut away. This will leave a bit of a stub. I used a coarse flat file to remove these stubs and to smooth the three layers. If you follow Chuck's instructions the three (or five) layers will align closely, but there likely will be a bit of a mismatch. The file shapes everything into a smooth surface and removes the char from the laser cutter. The photo on the right shows the finishing steps to shape the blocks. If you are doing a lot of blocks a tumbler would be good to round off the edges. I don't have one so I used a finer file to round the edges. Then I smoothed them a bit more with 220 and 600 grit sandpaper. This is a tedious process, but I found it to be a relaxing form of meditation. However, I no longer have fingerprints on my left thumb and forefinger! Here is a photo of the four steps and the files I used. I encountered one minor difficulty as a result of the liberal amounts of glue I used. Some of the strap channels were blocked by glue. I cleared as much glue as I could (being careful to not break off the sheave from the frame) before attaching the layers together, but there was some glue blocking the strap channels on a few of the blocks. In most cases the metal straps supplied with the kit pushed through with no problem. But on some I used a piece of a very thin jeweler's saw blade to push through and open the channel. You could also use a drill bit. With these blocks and hearts assembled I can now proceed with staining these and all the other blocks that I will use on the model.

For me the main benefit of a drill press or milling machine is that the bit is held securely on the vertical axis (axis of rotation). If you are drilling by hand into wood that has growth layers (grain), when the bit encounters the interface between soft and hard layers the bit will tend to cut more into the softer layer. This causes it to wander, and there is virtually nothing you can do to stop it. But in a drill press or milling machine the it will be held in alignment in the vertical axis so it cuts into the harder wood - if the machine has very little runout (wobble). As mentioned above, with very small drill bits you must chuck the bit with the minimum necessary length protruding out of the chuck so the bit doesn't flex. The second benefit of a milling machine (or a drill press with an X-Y table) is that you can drill a series of holes in a straight line. The X-Y table allows you to move the piece by an exact increment in a straight line, allowing you to create a neat precisely spaced series of holes. Again, if you are trying to do this by hand and the wood has grain the bit will wander and the result looks like it was made by a drunken sailor. Another benefit is that holes that are drilled with a drill press or milling machine will be vertical/perpendicular to the surface. When using a pin vise or hand held drill you really can't expect to get perfectly perpendicular holes. And you can always use an angled support (or tilting vise) to hold the piece at a desired angle to get repeatable holes at the same angle to the surface.

Be sure to let us know how it works! I have a couple of old models that could use a bit of line handling.