iMustBeCrazy

Ooh, I'm nowhere near planking yet but I had to think about it sometime and Fincham's words take some thinking about

Turning my head to thoughts of planking. John Fincham has given a description of building a Launch in his various books (ca1820) and I've been trying to get my head around his description. The garboard strake is layed into the rabbet of the keel, and is fastened as other strakes, with two nails in each timber, except when it widens aft, when it has sometimes three. The binding strake is placed to be a parallel distance up from the lower edge of the landing strake, and has its upper edge reduced in thickness, for this strake to lay upon it. The landing strake is then brought on, and the sheer or upper strake, when the gunwale is on, the upper edge of Which corresponds with the upper part of the gunwale, to lap on the landing, according to the breadths, as in general shewn on the draught. The space between these strakes and the timbers, which is left by their lapping on each other, is in general filled up by small fillings; and the strakes are fastened with two nails in each timber; and the upper edge of the upper or sheer strake is nailed to the gunwale. The gunwale, which is the upper boundary of the permanent part of the boat, is in general composed of two or more pieces, scarphed together with a vertical scarph, from about 9 to 12 inches in length; and has its upper side well with the sheer or upper strake. The heads of the timbers are shaped on the inside, from the lower side of the gunwale to about one-eighth of an inch at the upper part, and the gunwale is scored over them. Above the gunwale is fixed wash strakes, sometimes permanently, and at other times to fix and unfix. When permanently, chocks are let through the gunwale, to extend down to the upper part of the landing strake, inside, and up to the upper part of the wash strake, for fastening them to the chock, and are spaced so as to form the rowlocks, with additional ones on the bow and quarter, according to the space. The wash strakes lap on the outside of the sheer or upper strake, and are fastened to it, in addition to the fastenings in the chocks. They have likewise to support them, sometimes, a narrow strip, called a feather band, nailed to their upper edge, inside; but most commonly they are lined quite through. On the outside, close under the wash strake, is fixed a piece, rounded to form a fender; and likewise a similar piece, only smaller, is fastened on the land strake, close to the lower edge of the sheer strake, called a land rail. Inside, to a proper height and for supporting the thwarts, is fixed a strake, called the risings; this strake is in general nailed to the timbers, and the thwarts are let in a small distance. I made the following drawing based on Finchams description and ZAZ7344 which I think is right except Fincham suggests the Landing strake laps over the Binding strake. I then attempted a drawing based on ZAZ7361 and found that the curvature requires that overlap (NOTE. I've left the washboard off). Given how much the planks would need to be hollowed out I think I'll redraw it with 8 x 5 7/8" planks. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Edit, it looks better:

Jolly boat is more a nickname than a description, the smallest boat on the ship and usually a cutter. But there will be exceptions

Only if you're doing inside curves like my futtocks. The contact area doesn't change much. Mine is about 40mm. Make sure you can grab the far end before you have to stop pushing and wet fingers helps prevent slipping. Go slow and take a little off at a time.

All sorts of things. The drum is two (more or less) bits of MDF cutout with a hole saw, drilled and tapped, epoxy applied to the bolt and mating surfaces, screwed on to the bold and lightly tightened together like lock nuts. The head of the bolt is cut off. Once cured it is fitted to the drill and sanded while spinning with a bit of sandpaper on a square block. Sandpaper is then glued to the drum with contact cement, you could do two different grits at different heights. No overlap and as small a gap as you can. The fence must be square, a bit of aluminium extrusion would be nice but wood will do if square. A vacuum to suck up the dust and clean the drum and you're done.

All floors and futtocks have been centre punched (alright, pricked) and are ready for drilling. Centre 'punch' in action: How I drill tiny holes:

Not a problem most days, yet. This week goes 25, 32, 30, 32, 38, 24, 31. Melbourne being on the south coast means northerly winds are warm to bloody hot and southerly winds are cool to almost British

It really doesn't look like much does it?

It was fiddly enough at 1:16, I had to nest several pieces together, sand the inside of the top one on a spindle sander, cut the top one off then proceed to the next. Then I had to sand the outside of each piece on a disk sander without sanding too much off my fingernails, I only had 3mm to hold on to. All done now but it's a tiny pile of matches for a lot of work.

Unfortunately yes, I didn't have any bent trees It's simply a bit big and as it turns through almost 90 degrees the cross grain would be just as obvious as the laminations, or that's my excuse. All the floors and futtocks have been shaped, next I have to drill and 'bolt' them. Keel has been scarphed:

Initially and for larger timbers they found trees that had partly fallen over and continued to grow. Later, for smaller timbers they tortured them in diabolical machines.

Michael, you might look at using this schooner as a template, she is roughly the same size and date. She has a room and space of 24 inches versus your 22. Scaling the timbers and spaces (sided) down to suit gives: Floor ..................... 5 5/8" 1st Futtock ............5 3/8" 2nd Futtock............5 1/8" 3rd Futtock.............4 7/8" 4th Futtock.............4 1/2" Top Timber.............4 7/8" Stanchions Heel.....4 7/8" ...................Head...4"

You should have started putting 'bends' in twigs twenty years ago.

They also used bent trees, modelling woods tend to come with straight grain so many of the futtocks will have short grain at some point.

Slow going Tim, welcome. Scarph, keel to stem, done. I'm happy with it. Stem still needs to be sanded to width.

A tiny update. The jig is complete and dry fitted but I'm not going to glue it until I'm sure I don't need to change it. Frame production is underway (strange, I could swear I'd made three times as many as I have).

If you do, just dampen the paper with a cotton bud (Q-tip) and it will peel straight off. It will leave a glue residue which will need to be washed off (again with a cotton bud). Practice on some discards.

No, but I'm going to. Ok, glue needs to dry. Tim, your extensions might be a little long. You need to be able to clamp in as well as down: And when you are doing it for real, sand the planks before fitting them, particularly the inside.

Some progress, luckily I realised I needed to leave tabs sticking up from the moulds to hold the floors in place:

Michael, when you go to print there will be a size or scale option. The default is probably something like "Fit to page" or "fit to Margins". You want the option that allows you to set a percentage like the "Custom scale" option in the screenshot. Print first at 100% and check the print for size. If it's wrong then "measurement I want" divided by "measurement I got" times 100 should give you the percentage to print at.

It's been too hot to cut wood so I separated out the floors and futtocks which I had forgotten to do.

Yes yes, yet another Bounty Launch. This will be the third being built at the moment. Allan's at 1:48 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33539-23-foot-launch-by-allanyed-bounty-late-18th-century/ Tim's at 1:24 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33565-hms-bounty-launch-by-oakheart-scale-124-%E2%80%93-18th-century-based-on-drawings-from-national-maritime-museum/ And this one at 1:16. As far as I can see these are the first scratch built Bounty Launches on this forum excluding those built for Bounty models. Allan has been asking lots of questions in preparation for his build which has driven much research and given us some facts to work from. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33217-bountys-ships-boat-details/?do=findComment&comment=945945 We have settled on building based on ZAZ7361 with some minor tweaks: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33217-bountys-ships-boat-details/?do=findComment&comment=947122 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/33217-bountys-ships-boat-details/?do=findComment&comment=948363 We have each done our own drawings and I have now reached the stage where I can start building in earnest. I have made a few pieces but wanted the jig designed before starting this log. We shall see how it goes.

Those are very nicely done. A worthy addition.

You tempt me to do a 1:24 in Huon Pine. Depends on how the 1:16 goes.

Good to hear. I took a break from the drawing. I now have frame H, a keel with deadwood and sternpost and a piece of laminated timber for the stem. But before I can scarph the stem to the keel I have to finish the frame drawings so I can design the building jig. So back to drawing soon.