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The Bitter End
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Everything posted by The Bitter End
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Day 6 Finally completed, the balsa fillers. This did present some challenges, firstly I only had one 8mm sheet of balsa so I had to stack, glue and cut up to 5 layers at a time. The glue I used made this stack of wood very hard to cut and shape but I am happy with the result. I also had a fraction too little wood to complete the filling I wanted to do. you will see that the area above the lower deck between BHS 10/11 and 3/4 are not completely filled. I had to make do with what I had and my remote location make getting more very very difficult. For some reason the photos make this work look slightly asymmetrical but i cannot for the life of me see this in reality. Again, this is my first build and I would appreciate any criticism. specially the kind that I would want to hear before planking over this. A big thank you to you guys who have helped me so much up to this point.
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Hi Spy! I started replying to you and then got an urge to check out your link again which navigated me away from this page and my reply so Im starting again.. Thank you so much for your attention to detail and help. your work is great to see and you are potentially saving this kit from my ignorance. You preempted almost all of my questions. I do have 2 rookie questions for now, Im sure I had more but for now they are gone. 1. What kind of glue do you use for the hull planking and gun ports. 2. Is there enough excess wood in the kit to plank portions of the lower deck? i would love to as you suggested but I am worried about having insufficient timber and getting caught. This is South Africa so getting new planking will be a nightmare. I am about to start leveling bulkhead No. 9 as per your warning. That will be my sole task for the night, its been a long day. Adios! Haiko
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Hi Vulcan This is great input. I might just make a custom steaming tube. Just because I enjoy crafting this kind of thing. The keel clamp in my photos is one of those things. I like these minor challenges. Regardless I will be sure to work with completely dry planks and exercise all the patience I have. Cheers Haiko
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Day 5 I opted to begin with Balsa wood fillers for this build. I mostly did this because it is my first build and I felt it would be a good learning exercise. I have limited beginners advice at this point other than to work as slowly as possible. I probably wont be getting a Nobel prize for physics for pointing this out but its obviously much harder to build back up a piece of wood that has been cut back too much than it is to just shave a hair more off to make things fit. I also filled some of the gaps with a wood glue and balsa dust mix. I found that the balsa dust doesnt actually work nearly as well as the MDF dust for this application. It is also worth repeating the fact that some of the BHs are not entirely level where the deck will be installed. SpyGlass was kind enough to point this out to me and I found that BH No. 9 was slightly raised for this. I would suggest that and sort of variation in alignment be corrected before beginning with fillers or you will end up doing double work. This is my progress so far. for the record it really bothers me that the work looks so sloppy on the photos but in reality it isnt THAT bad and the shape seems decent. I think this will provide a solid base for planking and the somewhat messy appearance will not affect the final product at all. (for those that are interested the handsome fellow supervising progress is one of my 5 dogs, Cobra)
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Vulcan! Good morning sir Thank you for this advice and the link. I have already started using it for the creating on filler blocks. I will be referencing it plenty in the future. I forged a copper head to go onto an adjustable soldering Iron for plank bending. Do you know anything about this method? is steaming superior and if so what is the best method to steam a plank. I will be sure to test the "no stupid questions theory to its limits!
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Top of the morning to you Spy! Thanks again for helping me through this build. Your advice has saved me several times already. I will definitely not fit the walnut stem until all the planking is done. I love the Idea of bending around the bow(excuse my sloppy use of nautical terms, I got them from working on oil rigs which isn't quite nautical college.) I ended up deciding to start with the balsa infills. Not so much because i feel they are needed but rather because i feel like they are a good skill building exercise. I would like to one day(in the distant and theoretical future) do scratch build and this seems like a perfect baby step to start teaching me about shaping etc. Dont worry I wont attempt to craft a double plank rabbet, I can only imagine the complications that could create. Your first planking looks beautiful. It almost seems a shame to cover it. On a vaguely related note, when I get to the gun ports, is the optimal order of installation as follows: Deck, deck planking, gun ports and THEN first hull planking? also you said in your build log that the gun ports dont fit. I unfortunately didnt fully understand the correct fix for this? must I shorten the ports and then recut the puzzle joint. I will do my utmost to follow your planking/rabbet guid but you may have to tolerate alot more questions when I get there. It seems prudent to ask your views on wood filler at this point. do you stick to a glue/sawdust mix or do you use actual fillers on your work. Its good to know that I am making decent progress, I am very lucky to be in a situation where my time is my own between 1730 and 0800 every night. Please tell me if the quality of my work is not where it should be and I will be sure to take a step back and slow down. I hope you have an outstanding day.
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Day 4 Progress has been slow but enjoyable and I am learning, mostly by error, all the time. At this stage I increased the fairing on the bulkheads as suggested although I probably still need to increase the fairing on the stern BHS. I have also shaped and fitted the blocks. My next step is to install the balsa fillers, I am hoping these will give me a better idea of how the lines will run and assist with further fairing. I do have some concerns about the bap between the rabbet and BH 2/3 as pointed out with my grubby singer in the photo below. Is this going to be a problem when planking? I was also wondering what your views are on using standard hardware store woodfiller to fill small gaps around the balsa wood etc when Im done(all stuff that will ultimately be planked over.
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Hi again Spy As much as I like the look of the mounts you did I think for a first build it is best that I don't complicate things too much and I just go with the cradle option, this is mostly because Im a complete newbie and Ive already glued the bulkhead pieces in place. . I will definitely do this for my next build. I will however take your advice on pre-pinning the keel portions in place once I have sorted this balsa issue out.
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Hi Vulcan! Thanks for the encouragement. Funnily enough my first question for the day was going to be about the balsa between bulkheads. You have answered my question for me. I will begin with that this morning after my post. I think it will also give me a better idea if my fairing is correct. cheers Haiko
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Hi Jaager This is actually a very valid point. I do a fair amount of carpentry and the moment you cut anything other than a dead straight plank the wastage is remarkable. I can only imagine what that must be like when you a cutting hundreds of curves that must all be perfect.(Im guessing a fair amount of the wood winds up in the bin too when mistakes are made). Luckily for old Jolly I hope to farm here for a long time and there is a almost limitless amount of wood here for him whenever he would like it.
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Good evening sir! Thank you so much for your kind offer. I would love to give the drill press a good home. If you would like to come out to the farm and choose your trees and wood you are most welcome to. This is a guest farm so there is plenty of room if you would like to stay the night. Alternately I can just pick and choose a load of good stuff and meet up with you next time I'm in Cape Town, which should be fairly soon. I am still working my way through your build log. A really great experience so far. I am highly impressed by your work.
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Hi again Spy I took you advice and did quite a bit more fairing, particularly on bulkheads 1, 2 and 3 using the negative of the deck sheet to guide me. That was a great suggestion. I took a look at what you said and you are entirely correct. BHS No. 9 is about 1mm higher than the rest. I will be attending to this tomorrow morning once the evenings glue has dried. I also shaped the blocked now as suggested...a pretty challenging task. I think I will need to make further changes to their profile as I begin planking. I am having a really hard time visualizing exactly how planking will lie so I dont want to make any changes I cat fix just yet. Is there somewhere specific that I can look at mounting methods? I didn't consider it AT ALL. Thank you for your encouragement and patience. It is hugely appreciated.
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Hi Vane Thank you for taking the time to give me this advice. I will follow it as far as humanely possible. I have a pile of 600,1000 and 1200 grit paper that I will put to good use. Keep an eye on this build and hopefully you will see improved surface condition from now on.
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Day 3 (Evening) At this point I faired the bulkheads. Predominantly bulkheads 1 to 4 and 10-13. I did this by dry fitting all bulkheads and then removing and shaping one at a time(repeatedly) until i got a reasonably tapered angle for the planking. I suspect there will be some modification as I go. In addition to this I also sanded all the laser cut surfaces a small amount to allow better glue adhesion. I then dry fitted the lower deck. My suggestion to a newbie like myself at this stage is to clean up and sand all mating surfaces as best as possible. I found it to be a hang of a tight fit. After cleaning it up a bit the deck went in somewhat more easily. However once I was satisfied with everything and I had glued the bulkheads in and started to fit the deck things got somewhat panicky because I was really struggling to get the lower deck in and the glue was starting to dry....SO...make sure that everything goes together without effort or you may regret it. Another minor observation is that I fitted and glued bulkheads 3-10 first, then seated and glued the lower deck. I found this to allow me just a little more space to work on the lower deck and then fitted the remaining bulkheads. The plan for this morning is to tidy up the work a bit and fit and shape the "plank termination" pieces as far as possible This is the progress so far, excuse the rather odd keel clamp. It looks strange but works a charm. PLEASE tell me if you see something wrong here, Even the smallest detail. I am here to learn. PS. I realise that my Rabbet lines need some correction But I have decided to attend to this as I begin planking. I suspect that the rabbet is a somewhat "fluid" structure which in some places was not needed at all(particularly on the keel in the bearding area(i think)), some places where it should remain cut at 90 degrees and some places where it should taper in at a currently unknown angle. ...
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Good morning Mr. Glass! Perfect explanations again. I came close to doing all this correctly as you will see in my next post. I just need to modify my rabbet somewhat to take away the 90 degree corner. thanks, Haiko
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Well Explained!
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Day 3 (morning) I have now tried to take on as much advice as possible(bar the mistakes Ive already made...sorry Chris) I have sanded down from the bearding line to the stern. I am not entirely sure if this is a sufficient amount of sanding. I am erring on the side of caution at the moment and i just sanded down to the rabbet line that I cut at the stern which was 1.2mm deep on both sides. I also cut the groove suggested into the stem. Again I am not sure if this is correct. Please advise if you have any input.
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Hi Vane Thank you for your message. I cant really argue with you on this, you are totally right. I will however try and explain my somewhat poor logic....I want to try and really focus on very tiny detail on this build, even the things that dont really matter or wont be seen so that I can get maximum training value out of this for future builds that are more complex. I may well end up following your advice when I realise just what ive bitten off but for now im going to be as German as possible about this process.
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Good Morning Spygalss!(it is 0504 here) This is all starting to make sense. And I am genuinely warmed by the willingness of this community to help me. The detail you have put into this respose makes all the difference. THANK YOU! I do still have a couple of questions, which I hope you font mind answering. I know exactly what you are saying about the fact that I should be too worried about the rabbet as I am going to be coppering the Hull anyway. However I really want to get every single step as perfect as possible so I can learn for future projects. I am in no rush to get finished. I am a very patient man and I live in a very remote place with not much to do after the sun goes down. 1. I think I understand what you mean about leaving the one edge untouched on the bulkhead but how do you determine how much to take off on the other edge?is this just something that you eyeball as you go along? 2. What do you mean by "sort your fixing points out? are you referring to the contact surface between the first layer of planking and the bulkhead section? 3. I notice that you cut the rabbet for the stem at slope and not at 90 degrees(i dont know if this makes sense?) By the time I read this post I had already cut a rabbet at 90 degrees on the false keel should I cut it back to a slope? I know that I was probably not meant to cut a Rabbet at all but I have sort of crossed that bridge already. 4. Thanks again for that tip on bringing the first planking up the the bearding line on the stern. Am I correct in saying that these planks just get sanded so that they taper smoothly to the false keel? Regards Haiko
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Day 2 updates and questions. Progress is very slow but I am really enjoying finding my feet. I have cut the rabbet(1.5mm "high" and 1.2mm "deep", leaving a strip of untouched wood down the middle of the false keel 2.5mm wide) and marked the bearding lines(just a fraction below the bottom edge of the last 3 bulkheads) and Pre-fitted the bulkheads. this leads me to my questions for the day. Do the Rabbet lines in the photos below look correct? I cut the rabbet lines at a 90 degree angle but I see some examples(like in the example so kindly posted by Richard above) where they are cut away at a slope. I realise that I still need to taper the stern from the bearding line to the edge of the false keel(I hope that's correct) My second and third questions are as follows. Is the bearding line marked correctly? Do i need to cut back the lower edges of the bulkheads so that they follow the same contour as the bearding line?
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Hi Chris Thanks for your input! I feel like you might be right about this. What does however confuse me is why the likes of SkipW, Blue Ensign and Landlubber Mike went for the rabbet line. I am totally new to this so I dont know if that is just a design choice or if there is a "correct" way. EDIT- I just found out that you designed this model. I find myself quite amused by what Just happened "you MIGHT be right Chris" 😂😂 😂😂 sorry about that. No further questions. Cheers, Haiko
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Hi again! Customs duty ended up being zero Rand. I only had to pay 15% VAT, which seems fair seeing as I didn't pay tax in Europe Thanks for getting those links for me. I will be bookmarking both and going through them in fine detail immediately.
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Sorry about the delayed response, I just got back in. That is perfect. That is sort of what I was hoping. thanks again!
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It is a bummer indeed haha I will pay careful attention to the framing. That is going to be a whole other challenge. Yes, I do have to glue what they referto as a "true keel" onto the edge of the false keel
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Hi Richard Thank you so much for your response. This now makes perfect sense. The only problem is that I have is that the plans fail to indicate either a bearding or rabbet line. Is it appropriate to just run the bearding line right below the lowest point of the frames?
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