tmj

Nah, not right now. All the local flies disappeared from Dallas so Ribbit caught a Greyhound to Florida for the winter.

Just in case anyone is interested, Olha Bachvarov is going to start a live group build of Model Shipways' kit of the Gunship Philadelphia beginning on Saturday 03 May 2025 via her YouTube channel.

More work on the frames. I've now got 10 frames laminated together and ready to be cut/sanded to their final shapes. These ten sets will make 20 actual frames once all is said and done. As mentioned previously, I need 18 sets of these frames (36 actual frames) to complete the port and starboard mid-section of this build. I'll glue the remaining 8 sets together later. I normally don't like to use CA glue, but I'm using it for these frames to avoid spring back after gluing and 'hopefully' also ensure that the 9 ply laminated frames will not try to de-laminate or lose shape in the future. Here are the 9 ply frames after being bent around a form. The individual components hold their shape really well, however. There is about 1/16" of spring back on each vertical leg. I keep the bent frames in their respective bundles until time to glue them together. I start by gluing the flat bottoms together. I clamp the pieces in place around the bending form and then simply squirt CA over the laminations letting the resin soak in. I then pull the laminations around the form and glue the rest. After gluing the first side I remove the parts from the form and give the other side a shot of CA. There is no spring back, and the frames are quite solid. They will be easy to cut and sand to final shape during the next operation. As tedious as this sounds, it really goes pretty fast. It only took me an hour to glue these ten sets of frames together. Hopefully, the laminated construction will mimic the appearance of curved, hand hewed framing timbers once finished. I'll glue the rest together tonight while watching Svengoolie and waiting for glue to dry on my canoe build.

Very nice!

Very nice indeed! Job well done!

Nice work on those small parts! Pardon my ignorance, but I'm curious. What was the tallow used for?

Haha Keith... no not nearly as tedious and mundane as those treenails. The frame construction sounds a lot worse than it really is. It's actually pretty easy. I do two sets of frames, after work each day. Maybe I'll bang out 6 or 8 sets Saturday and the rest Sunday. As for the treenail thing, the bottom of the bottom is complete. I still need to treenail the top (interior) of the bottom timbers. I'll do that as I inch along the bottom installing frames.

I modified my molding form and it works much better now. This is the process that I'm using to form the frames... I cut the 1/32" strips to an oversized length and loosely bundle them together with wire ties. I give them a 15-minute soak in really hot tap water while weighing the bundles down with a knife. I then remove the wire ties and lay the strips atop my form, centering them via eyeball. The strips are well oversized so there is room for error when centering. The fixture will hold two sets of frames at one time. No glue has been added to the strips. That comes later. I'm bending nothing but loose, wet wood. I then add the follower atop the strip bundles and center it up via eyeball. With everything centered, I start working the follower down by hand until I can't move it any further... then I use a vise grip to finish the job and compress the strips tightly between the two forms. I then bake the form and wood in the oven @ 210 degrees for a while, until mostly dry, then let everything come down to room temperature. When cool, this is what I have. I tape the bundles together and put them aside. I won't do anything else to them until I have all of the boat's mid-sections of 18 sets of frames bent. I'll then return these bent frames to the form and start gluing them up. I now have three sets of frames bent and two more sets in the oven. I'll be back after I get the remaining 13 sets of frames bent and ready for glue.

I added some CA and kept it clamped for a bit. There was about .060" of spring back on each side after un-molding. I'll make a new mold to account for this spring back and then bang out the rest of the frames for stations #13-#30.

First set of frames taking shape. There are nine ply's of 1/32" X 3/16" Basswood strips clamped in this mold. No glue, just a test run to see what I'll be up against in bending the wood. So far so good, but I need to modify my mold a little to make it 'less awkward' in loading it with wood strips after glue has been applied to those strips. Each one of these rough moldings will make two frames, one port and one starboard. The frames molded in 'this' fixture will cover stations #13 through #30. The inside geometry of the frames is the actual internal shape. The 'outside' geometry of the frames will be cut to actual shape on the bandsaw.

Back atcha, Keith... "Merry Christmas!"

Very nice, Glen!

Looking good, Keith... looking "REAL GOOD!"

Howdy Keith! Yep, all is well. I'm just taking a little break right now trying to learn the ropes of tissue culturing plants and also studying up for an upcoming FAA part 107 certification. I should be getting back to work soon after the holidays. Have you started on 'your' newest project yet?

Of course it will work! Endeavor to persevere. The more you try, the more you learn, the closer you get to perfection. An old Japanese proverb once said; "Fall seven times, stand up eight!"

Well done, Keith! Definitely something to be extremely proud of! Can't wait until 'Lula' arrives!

My frame molding fixture was finally cut out today. I just need to have two holes drilled and tapped and the fixture itself will be 95% completed. The only thing left will be to shear the .0035" thick stainless steel backing strap and silver solder a loop into the pulling end of that strap. I'm hoping to get that all done this weekend so I can give 'er a test drive and bend some wood. Sorry for the delays. Home and work priorities have gotten in the way of progress lately, but I'm about to be able to get back on track. Thanks for bearing with me...

This is nothing short of 'incredible'! "Very nice job!

"Looking good, Glen!"

Beautiful Keith!!! If you're having a hard time with 'finally' completing this fantastic build, and still find yourself looking for some other little touches that you could add to it... Hmm. Maybe 'further darkening' the walking path around and into the door showing a lot of foot traffic, dirty boots and abuse in that area as well as any 'other' areas that would get significantly more foot traffic than other areas. Just a thought. 🙂

I'm taking a break from the Philadelphia for a couple weeks or so. I've got a lot of irons in the fire right now and need to complete a few 'other' projects before coming back to this build. Up first is to get all of my tropical Nepenthes pitcher plants set up in indoor grow tents before ol' Man Winter rolls in. They've been on the back porch all summer, which was tough. Too hot and not enough humidity. I had a fancy setup to hopefully keep conditions under control, but it couldn't handle our brutal Texas conditions once the dog days of August set in. The upcoming cold winter will be the "Coupe De Gras" on my already stressed plants. They need to come inside and become permanent fixtures indoors. I've almost got tent #1 ready. I'll be working on this for the rest of today. 1 tent almost ready, two more tents to go...

That is amazing! Very nice work!

Don't make a vase like whirlpool as seen in the video. Just make an inner plug and fill it with bird-shot, or sand so it will hold its shape while being surrounded by wet epoxy resin. When all is said and done, dump out the BB's or sand, pull the mold out and "Viola!" I've seen enough of your work and talent to know for fact that you could indeed pull this off! ☺️

"If only you could come up with a way to pull this off in a bottle!" Maybe after 'polishing-off' a bottle some unique ideas will hit you... hopefully before you hit the floor! !!! I'm thinking... model a silicon mold/plug outside of the bottle then stuff it in, prop it up somehow then 'Carefully' inject the epoxy resin into the bottle and around that plug. Once the resin sets, remove the flexible silicon plug/whirlpool form...??? Maybe that silicone whirlpool plug could be suspended from the top of the bottle using temporary clay and toothpicks, etc. until the epoxy cures. That wouldn't violate any SIB rules, would it?