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Rich, How are your carving skills? Even a so-so carved eagle will look better than the P.E. part they gave you.

Rich, How are your carving skills? Even a so-so carved eagle will look better than the P.E. part they gave you.

Although the great build is on track and time, we have ordered new hands to help from far, they should arrive in a a week or so :-
 
 
Plank layer one is a working progress,, we are managing two planks per side, per day,.  

Here are some photos of the replanked hull sanded down to 220 grit. I'm happier with it now and will be sure I seal before I LIGHTLY stain. Thanks for reading.
 
Steve

Brigada, Ulises!! (meaning thanks ^^)
 
Sam, she needs some new photos, though, cause I already got to her and made some progress. Ty!
 
Popeye, thank u. That arrow is to show the plank covered inside. Kit plans forgot about that and presents a very unreal view. I could not let that pass. That mark, though, is a problem I found when treating the wood later on, when it should be treated earlier. That will need some sanding, a carefull one.

Sjors,
A compound miter is a miter in two planes; both a bevel and a miter. Think of the miter needed to install crown molding or the miter you need on your planking at the stem. You need an angle to match where the plank meets the stem but there is a second angle running towards the inner portion of the ship. Am I explaining this ok? I can see it in my head but never had to describe one.
Here is a picture of one, maybe that will help.

Sam

All hail the King! Long live King Sjors!

Rich, they look good!

Slog, J, thank you so much! I agree, its great seeing others progress, it helps keep the enthusiasm up.
Sam

Rich,
Great job.
You would think I could do something like what you described , in my head that's exactly how I would approach it. I don't recall what it was I was doing, but it didn't work for me so that's when I did the M&T joint. That's the great thing about hobbies like this, doesn't matter how you get there, it's the end result that matters.
Sam

Rich, I did basically the same as dgbot and augie, with the addition of a mortise chopped into the hull. Most people recommended to use a couple of brass pin like you did on your channels. I questioned my ability to get all those holes drilled accurately enough to keep everything lined up and even. The mortise and tenon gave me strength and the ability to screw things up slowly rather that quickly.
Watching your build I am confident whatever method you choose you'll do just fine.
Sam

Al, you beat me to it!!
Johnny, if not Radio Shack, Freys or any decent electronic store will have them. You can even get 'em with insulation so you dont burn your fingers. 
Oh, umm..... wrong 'hobby"
sam

Well, as I promised, here are some pics. Hope to get to her as soon as possible - since this is what I did about a month ago.
 

Here I was on a start to make side rails and all.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the original plans from AL, there is no planks on the inside, as no stanchions to hold everything up. As my feelings said it wasn´t possible, I searched some pictures to confirm and see that´s all necessary - AL has being putting some wrong in our world I would say.
 
That´s all, for now. My main occupation now will be the doors to the cabin, since I want them to be functional. Already lost some time in that, since scale won´t help. Any ideas are always welcome ^^

Terrific job, Sam! Seeing this has been great motivation to free up time to work on my own Enterprise. I always look forward to my email notifications that you, Bindy and many others have made progress.

Sjors, Now I see the difference! Subtle but nice.
Sam

Here's my new tools for turning that coil of wire into chainplates. One is to flatten an end and the other is to help make loops. Time will tell. I've also finished trimming the channels.

Rich,
When I made the chain plates for my Enterprise I started with a bunch of rings made from wrapping wire around a drill bit the correct diameter, that gave me consistent ring sizes, then it was just a matter of shaping the pre soldered rings. That kept everything consistent. I would imagine the more experienced builders out there can find flaws with my chain plates, but I am generally pleased with them.
Sam

Hi All,
 
Hi Joe, the Missouri would build into one fine ship, look forward to seeing it one day.
 
Thanks David, it's certainly going to test my patience.
 
Hi Sam, its definitely got some presence.  The Admiral got a shock in the morning when it suddenly appeared on top of the computer desk hutch
 
 
Continuing on, the middle deck which separates the upper and lower hulls comes in three parts.  After careful measuring and using a 600mm steel rule to line everything up I joined the 3 parts using big squares of card cut-offs to bridge the joins.
 
I also placed cut-offs down one side of the centre ‘Keel’ to have a firm edge to hold against when it was time to attach the hull halves.  During glue up I pressed the keel against these cut-offs and stuck down more sandwiching the keel. At I couple of spots I did both sides of the keel and bulkhead. This kept the hull positioned both centrally and longitudinally for gluing.


 
 
When it came time to glue up both halves I placed the horizontal deck upside down on the kitchen counter (and applied more guide scraps) and glued the lower hull down to the deck using PVA glue.  The handy thing about working in the kitchen is I raided the cupboard for tins and jars of soups, sauces etc and used these to weigh down the hull.
 
Once this was left for a hour or so I flipped it over and repeated for the upper deck.
 
Underside of finished hull

 
Topside of finished hull

 
 
Looking down the spine of the hull it is pretty straight(ish), there a few bulkheads slightly to one side or the other but this was my fault due to rushing to get it all positioned before the glue started to go off.

 
 
There is the very slightist twist to the leading edge of the bow.  This is in part to the narrow cross section of the first few bulkheads.  Once you go back 4 or 5 they are wider and support more on the centredeck so resist twisting.  I can get rid of the twist when I come to shape the bow.

 
 
Well the hull frame is more or less complete and as usual being the first time doing this lots of lessons learned and a few ideas to improve the assembly the next time I do a card hull.  Still have the strips of tabs set back from the edge to do.
 
First thing was the amount of gluing surface with the full length of the keel plus all the bulkheads meant that I was working pretty quick during glue up so the PVA didn’t start to skin up.  This caused 1 or 2 little alignment issues.  In future depending on the hull configuration I think I would try locating and gluing the centre keel down first then do the bulkheads.
 
Moving on, apparently only need to fair up and then stick some card strips on to the edges then ‘skin up’ with the hull sections.  This I think would be very difficult to get right, so I am going to get some balsa and bulk up the bulkheads and put in longitudinal stringers before fairing the hull.  Will probably fully fill in the bow and stern with balsa so I can get the correct shapes sanded.
 
Cheers
Slog

Esion, As ken has mentioned Brass is fairly soft and can easily be shaped with small files. this brass was shaped with small files.
 

 

 

 
then using the 220 that you mentioned it was polished up and steel wool for a final finish.
The most difficult part of working with small pieces of brass is holding them while you reshape or polish them, if you have a small hand vice it can be really helpful along with some needle files.
 
The needle files can usually be purchased at craft or hobby shops, the best quality ones can be purchased at a jewlery supply house.
 
Michael

Small update. Sometime back I bought a Proxon table saw. Finally got a chance to see what it could do, and I am............
underwhelmed. Maybe I am being over critical but for $300.00 I expected more. The micro adjustment on the fence is really sloppy and inconsistent, fixable with a nylon or delrin shim. The cross cut/miter gauge is pretty sloppy too, hard to get repeatable cuts unless you push the guide all the way over to one side or the other and then I am afraid it will wear funny. Sigh, I should have sprung for the benchmark and bought the Byrnes saw. 
 
I made a crosscut sled for the Proxon and that went a long way towards making repeatable crosscuts and slots. I used .180 polycarbonate for the base and some polypropylene for the guides. Its kind of crude looking so I didnt post pictures of it. I have some ideas on improvements once I do that and make it presentable I will post a picture. Its likely to be several weeks though.
 
Once the sled was operable I started in on the gun carriages. I am using the dimensions for the Armstrong 6 pound gun found in the database here at MSW. My first set I used some 3m number 77 adhesive lightly sprayed on one side and stacked them up and gang milled the steps, the slots for the trucks and roughed in the curve at the base. I made two mistakes here. The worst was not considering the angle of the sides in relation to the trucks. I made my cuts perpendicular to the sides instead of at an angle and that would have showed up in the finished carriage I think. Also the spray adhesive I used wasnt cleaning up like I wanted and may have interfered with the stain. I didnt want to spend what looks like it will be weeks of work only to find I hate the gaps at the trucks and the stain was uneven so I started over. 
 

 
This time I cut each side separately. That required more care in holding the part safely and took quite a bit longer. 
 

 
They need some clean up but these should work out. Rather than roughing in the curve on the table saw and then filing to shape I think I am going to get a carving chisel with the correct sweep and try that. My next step is to make a jig and cut a slot into the trucks. I dont think this is how a real carriage is built, it appears weak but it will help keep a consistent space and angle to the barrel. 
 
More to follow
 
Comments and constructive criticisms always appreciated.
 
Sam

Rich, thanks for the kind words. The blond wood is boxwood from Hobby Mill. Lorcan (the cat) wasnt pleased with the material that came with the kit so she forced me to build my own.
 
Mark, thanks for the condolances, they really work their way in dont they? He was a package deal with the Future Admiral and ended up adopting me also. I am not sure who misses him more, my better half or the cat; they were best friends. Not that I dont miss him. 
 
A bit of progress these last few days. I finally rigged the gun ports. I am not totally satisfied with the knots and seizing. If I had rigged them before I mounted the transom like I planned I think i could have done a better job. I am going to accept them for now. once I have done some more rigging I might go back and have another go at them.
 

I started out with some tape to mark out the holes for the 'leather" tubes I made from rolled paper and painted
 
 

glued the rope into the tube and inserted into the hole. They dont look bad, but I think when I have some more experience I might revisit these. The seizing could be better but I had trouble getting in there to work, tight squeeze between the ring and the transom. A better way would have been to seize the cross rope to the rings and then mount to the transom. Another lesson for the future, Make a plan and stick to it to the best of your ability, dont alter it without a good reason.
 

Not bad at all from normal viewing distance.
 
Ok back to gun carriages.
 
Sam
 
 
 

Woo! Hooo!!! is been months since I had something to show. I havent been idle, just busy with work etc. 
 
When I last posted an update I had just re-cut my carriage sides, the next step was to let in for the axels, I made a two sided jig so I could cut everything on the table saw safely. Clamp to the sled and cut away for all the left side parts, flip it over reset and finish the right side parts. Worked pretty well over all, a little sloppy on a couple of the cuts, nothing the wheel and a filler wont hide. Something slipped when I was milling, I dont think I had everything clamped down as tight as I should have. Some short work with a carving chisel and I had a mostly finished side. Still some work to do final sanding, cut the slot for the trunnion, etc.
 

 

 

 

 
Next was the Axletrees. I milled them in pairs it was safer; make a cut flip the part around and make the matching cut. After I separated them into individual parts I puzzled over how to make a nice round axle. I started out chamfering the corners and planned to file everything round. That wasnt working so well, I was getting ovals and eggs. After ruining two I made a plug cutter out of some brass tube that was about the right I.D. After chucking that up in a drill motor I had more or less round axles, just a bit over sized so I made a drawplate out of brass. steel would have been better but I only had 70 or so axles to true up so brass worked out well. It started getting dull towards the end, a quick pass with a #4 cut file and all was well.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The entire time I was doing all this I was noodleing over how to  assemble all these carriages easily and consistently. I made up a plug to the same dimensions as the inside of the carriage and then built up guides and keys around that. After that it was just a matter of inserting two sides and gluing everything up. Like all my jigs its not pretty like some I see here but its functional.
 
 

 

 
Sometime whilst all this was being done I spent a couple of evenings making a drilling jig for the rings and predrilled for those - on the wrong side! a little bit of filler will take care of that since its on the inside.
 

 
Thats it for now, hopefully its not 3 months till my next update.
 
Sam
 
 

Thanks Rich, I am plodding along here. a couple of carriages a day. Hope to have something to show for my troubles in a day or two (or five  )
Sam

Thanks Rich, I am plodding along here. a couple of carriages a day. Hope to have something to show for my troubles in a day or two (or five  )
Sam

Nice mass production.