Mahuna

Great work, Ed. The complexity of the mast top gives a great preview to the amount of rigging ahead of you - that will be a major project in itself! One question - how did you convert the holes in the rim to slots? Did you use a small round file? Best wishes for the holidays.

I use my Byrnes thickness sander all the time, and have had no trouble reducing a stack of wood billets by over 1/16" in a matter of minutes. Besides the strength of the motor, a big advantage to the Byrnes unit is being able to use two different grits on the machine. I use the rough grit for most of the wood removal, then use the smooth grit for finishing the billet. I wouldn't consider having any other thickness sander.

I agree, Tom. I love the simplicity and function of the Skipjacks. Great, Patrick. I'll save you a seat. Me too, Popeye. LOL!! Yes, Druxey - a bow and a stern, and a push boat, and a full rig! I don't think I'll be able to make scale oyster shells, though.

Your iron work continues to be excellent. There certainly was a lot of it on the clippers.

Hi Patrick. I hadn't said yet what my next project would be - but my plan is to build the Skipjack Kathryn, based on the HAER drawings. I'm in the planning stage now, and won't be ready to cut any wood for a few weeks. Kathryn has been designated as a National Historic Landmark, and is unique in its design. I plan to include all of the interior construction as shown in the HAER drawings. She's the oldest of the true skipjacks, built for the oyster trade.

Thanks Bob. I've known about the Irish potato famine for quite a while, but being on the Dunbrody really brought it home to me - so building the model was special for me. Thanks Rich - looking forward to showing to you when we meet in January. Thanks Mike. I was able to put a lot of work into the model in a short time. The next project will be somewhat different, but I'm looking forward to it. Thanks Popeye! Thanks Brian. The time you and I spent looking at the companion on the Star helped me figure it out. Now we all want to see you get some more work in on your current modeling projects! See you in January.

Thanks Gary and Wacko.

Thanks Albert. Thanks Dan. It feels good to be finished - now on to the next one! See you soon.

Hi Druxey - yes, finally finished. I plan to start a new build log during January. In the meantime, here are some photos of my completed Dunbrody model.

Thanks Mark!

Thanks Ken!

Thanks, Glenn. Good thing I didn't describe all of my mistakes - it would have tripled the size of the build log!

Great work, Ed (as usual). I love the detail on the masts.

Thanks Toni.

Great work, Glenn! Heroine is really looking good. I'd be interested to know how you got consistent bends in the uprights.

Thanks Druxey. Yup, it was a pretty long process, but I'm happy with the results.

Thanks Michael. I don't run out of kindling for the fire pit - that's for sure! Thanks Patrick. This was a very interesting and enjoyable project. I learned a lot about how these ships were constructed, and also learned a great deal about modeling. Thanks Ed. The capstan looks simple, but the construction sequence became quite complex.

Thanks Ron - very good video!

Thanks, Gary. Your work on the salmon wherry is superb, and I'm glad you enjoyed the log for the Dunbrody build.

Thanks, Tom!

Thank you, Albert.

Part 54 – Capstan and Bollards The capstan on the replica ship appears to be made from a metal, presumably cast iron, and is somewhat unusual when compared to capstans used on other ships. I decided to try to duplicate this design. I estimated the overall height of the capstan at 5 feet tall, which would put the capstan bars at chest height on a person of average height (5’6”) in the 19th century. Thinking through what needed to be accomplished to create the capstan, I decided to make it from wood and apply a finish that would simulate metal construction. The build process resulted in a lot of trial and error and restarts, but by the end a sequence of steps was developed which consisted of over 45 individual steps. The following text and photos represent the highlights of the process. A piece of square stock was reduced to a cylinder of .55” The cylinder was center-drilled and after mounting the workpiece on a rotary table on the milling machine, this hole was used to center the mill setup. The Y-axis was then locked in place. There will be 12 whelps on the capstan, so the borders of the whelps were marked every 30 degrees using the shaft of a small tool. 3/32 slots were then cut into the top of the capstan every 120 degrees. These slots would be the top bar slots of the capstan. Alignment marks which would be used to align the top and bottom slots were marked on the capstan. The capstan was remounted on the lathe and the bottom of the capstan workpiece was reduced to 7/32 beyond the bottom limit of the actual capstan. This small ‘tab’ would be used to hold the workpiece in later steps. The workpiece was remounted on the mill, and .041 slots were cut every 30 degrees. These slots would be used to position the pawl stops on the base of the capstan. The workpiece was remounted on the lathe, and three separate lines were drawn around the workpiece. The line nearest the top of the capstan was used to designate where the top would be parted off, and the other two lines designated the top and bottom boundaries of the whelps. A wood tool rest was mounted on the lathe, and miniature wood lathe tools were used to shape the concave profile of the whelps. A round diamond ball on a rotary tool was used to shape the concave indentation in the individual whelp positions, while holding the workpiece by hand (I wasn’t able to determine how this could be accomplished on one of my machine tools). The workpiece was remounted on the lathe and the top of the workpiece was then parted off. The workpiece was moved to the rotary table on the mill, and the second set of slots was milled in the top of the workpiece. The top was glued to the workpiece, using the alignment marks to position the slots. After the glued pieces were set, the workpiece was mounted on the rotary table and the tilting table was set at 8 degrees. The side of a milling bit was then used to mill the slant into the top of the capstan. The pawl stops consist of very small pieces of .041 x .0625 stock. These were glued into the slots previously cut into the bottom of the capstan. A scrap piece with a hole that would fit over the tab in the bottom of the capstan was used to ensure that these small pieces were level with the base. After the glue had set on these pawl stops, another scrap piece was used as a template to reduce the stops to the correct length (1/16”). The overall shape of the capstan was now completed. The base of the capstan consists of two pieces – a metal disk mounted on a wood base. Two pieces of .035 stock were glued to sacrificial pieces using Ambroid glue. These workpieces were then turned to the appropriate diameter, and a 7/32 hole was center drilled in each, to allow the piece to mount over the bottom tab that was previously shaped on the capstan. This helped in centering the bottom plates on the capstan. The piece representing the metal plate was then drilled for mounting bolts every 40 degrees. After separating the plates from the sacrificial pieces by soaking in acetone, black monofilament was used to simulate the mounting bolts in the ‘metal’ plate, and the ‘metal’ plate was attached to the capstan. The capstan was primed, then painted with black acrylic artist’s paint, and then was finished with ebony Rub’n’Buff to provide a metal-like finish. The capstan was then mounted on its wooden base, and the bottom tab was ground off. The following photo shows the finished capstan in place on Dunbrody. This was quite a learning process, illustrated by all of the rejected pieces. By comparison, the bollards were fairly simple to make. So work on Dunbrody is now essentially completed. I may replace the current base with a new one, but that will be left for some time in the future. Originally I had thought to mount Dunbrody on a replica of launching ways, but this plan has been shelved. I’ll post a set of photos of the finished Dunbrody in the near future. Thanks to all who have followed this build, and thanks for the ‘Likes’ and all of the great comments. Your encouragement has helped to keep me focused, and knowing I would be posting progress made me re-do all of those things which might otherwise have been ‘good enough’.

Very nice work, Bob. You're making great progress.

Looking good Patrick. I do like the silver bottom. The waterline stripe will really set things off.

Thanks so much, Ed. Working on Dunbrody has given me an even greater appreciation of what you've done on Young America.