desalgu
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Everything posted by desalgu
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I've been slowly working on the long boat mast. I had a lot of trouble drilling holes in the iron bands. The brass is only 1/32" wide, so the hole needed to be centered. But I had a terrible time punching a starting dent in center with small awl. I couldn't hold it in center and tap. It would slip every time. And when I drilled hole slightly off center it was too close to edge. I was using #78 or 79 drill, so it was a small hole. I tried several times. I felt like I needed a punch the size of a straight pin or smaller, and not sure where you find such a tool. I was using a punch from a micro screw driver set, so it was pretty small. I finally gave up on that idea and decided I could simulate a hole in iron band with eyebolt. So I made a plain iron band and after gluing it on mast, I drilled small hole as close above it as I could, right next to it. Inserted an eyebolt so the ring was just outside the end of the iron band, and now I had a ring or hole to tie the blocks to. I did the same for a hole for boom to hook into. It was a work around, but when it's all painted black, no one will notice unless looking extremely close. Also had trouble drilling holes for sheaves. Had a hard time keeping them straight. Not too bad and being black, it doesn't show. My drill press, which isn't all that large, is too large for this type of work, so was doing it by hand using a small battery powered screw driver / drill. It drills very slowly, but still had trouble getting it aligned. I'll have to think about this more next time. A jig of some sort was needed.
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Just checking in. All I can do is echo all the previous comments and say "Wow"! Your Syren is really a museum piece. Love all the photos. You do a great job with them also. You are getting very close to being done. I find the little differences between yours and mine very interesting. I still haven't gotten around to taking some final photos of mine. This time of year I get distracted with yard work and stuff outside. Still working on finish on display case, but getting there. Maybe another week. I assembled the frame and it sure got big! It's going about like my Syren, ok, but not by any means perfect. Is there a way to send more of a private message to you? Just curious what you're working on in grad school. i was aero engineer...long time ago, ha!
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I've got the uprights mounted to the display case frame, and holes drilled for the top frame to attach to the uprights. Before I work on fitting plexiglass in the frame, I decided to go ahead and add more coats of lacquer, so the finish will be done other than perhaps a little touchup. First photo shows how I aligned and clamped together everything to drill holes in the top frame and uprights to hold top frame on. Small pieces of plexi were placed in the grooves to make sure grooves line up. I used the same approach when drilling holes for the bottom frame and uprights. I'm using 2" deck screws to hold top and bottom frames onto uprights. I also used epoxy on bottom frame/upright joints. I was little disappointed joints weren't cleaner, so must have had something not quite square when I made cuts with saw. Second photo shows the frame assembled, although screws for top frame haven't been tightened. All of a sudden it gets big. Of course it has to be pretty good sized to cover the Syren. I used clear gloss lacquer for all but the last coat or two, and then I'll use satin. I'm about to put the satin coat on the frame now. It's a slow process, because I spray each side separately and let it cure overnight. I only spray the flat surfaces to avoid drips, and then turn the frame each day to get the next surface sprayed.
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Just checking in. Every time I look at your photo's I say "wow!". Love the boom irons. Looks like you used brass tubing. I used aluminum tubing because it's softer and easier for me to work with, plus I had some laying around. Yours always come out cleaner and more precise than mine. Very impressive! I'm making slow progress on 18th century longboat. It's much needed practice for me, and hardly a beginner's model. Display case is on hold waiting for warmer weather to work in garage. Shouldn't have to wait long, but in you never know in Kansas.
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I've been working on the rudder and tiller, so took some pictures. Other than cleaning up a couple of things, like getting the red paint on top to align with the hull and a cleaner masking line, it's basically done. The rudder hinge doesn't secure the rudder to the hull that well. I didn't make the pins quite long enough, but there had to be enough room to get the pins over the hinge and eyebolt. As it is, the rudder pops out pretty easily. Since this model will just sit on a shelf, I'm thinking I'll glue the rudder on. If someone else were to touch it and the rudder popped off, they'd feel terrible even though it's nothing. It's not like anyone will play around with the model. I opted for a straight tiller like Chuck's in the manual. The photos show some wood pedestals that I'll use for mounting the long boat. Just getting started on them. It was something to work on while paint was drying.
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Thanks Ryland! I'm still learning. Doing this boat to get more practice working with little pieces, and it's certainly good for that. Just my opinion, but I don't think this is a beginner's model. That's especially true if you don't know about all the information on this web site. I added the remaining knees, and I also added the wire details like oarlocks and ringbolts. I'm always amazed at how adding just a few details to a model makes it look better. I struggled working with the small pieces like sanding the knees. I have a hard time holding onto them, and have been on the floor looking for them a few times.
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Add the aft hatch cover. I decided to use one piece of wood and simulate a joint along the hinge line. The hinges were made as described in manual. I also added the two knees at the transom.
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Love your rope coils, and they go on the belay pins so much easier and hang naturally compared to what I did. I was using a method from a book that wasn't very good or accurate, and of course, I struggled with it. The coils were easier to make, but I could never get them to hang right. Yours look so good, and good job matching the color. I had the same problem taking pictures of rigging. The tan lines don't show up well. I still haven't taken a bunch of "good" pictures yet, because I'm trying to find a good place and I've been a bit lazy about it. Plus I want to do focus stacking and that takes a bit of a setup and processing. I have an off white wall I'm going to try, hoping the lighting will make it look a little gray and rigging will show up. The blocks you are using are so much better than the ones in the kit. I struggled with them, but got better as I went along. Your's look great with the hooks and everything. I'm surprised at how fast you're progressing, although once you get the hang of rigging, it goes faster than you expect. The foot ropes look great! Real ropes instead of wire is a great look. You're always going the extra mile, and it shows. I'm so impressed with your ability to make the eyes, knots, and little details with rigging thread. At my skill level, I was doing good to make foot ropes with wire. Once all finished, they look fine, but yours look so much better in closeups! You're getting close. First couple of yards take some work, but it gets easier with repetition, and as you work up, they are a little simpler.
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Weather turned bad, so I'm back inside working on the boat. Added the thwarts and seats for officers. I've actually been working slowly on these a number of days. The bracket for the mast took a few tries. Thwarts were a little hard to fit in there because the cap rail has a little overhang, so they don't fit up tight to the hull planking. It's something you won't notice unless you look real close. I suspect my cap rail is a little wider than it should be.
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I've got too many projects going all at once, so took a break from the long boat. Here's the bow and stern platforms cut and and glued into place. Despite patterns, I still had some fitting to do. I've also added the risers. No real difficulties on these steps.
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I haven't checked in for a while, and I'm always stunned at your rapid progress, and how clean and crisp it looks in closeups. Amazing craftsmanship! This will be a stunning model when finished. You'll be amazed at what a difference it makes when you start adding each yard and rigging. Glad you caught the extra block on the crosstrees (I think that's where it was). I didn't notice it, and adding it after you have a lot of rigging on was a bit difficult. Much easier to get all the blocks and details on beforehand. I agree with comments about iron bands around the spars. A very nice detail to add, and kind of surprised it wasn't mentioned in the kit as an optional detail. Chuck added so many small details like this, it really makes the kit. And you have to draw the line somewhere. Yours always looks better than mine in the photos. I had a hard time with the netting on the bow. It was hard to trim to the right shape because it wanted to deform, and when I started tying it, it didn't want to stay flat. I managed, but yours looks a lot better. Perhaps eyes and fingers about 50 years younger than mine make a difference? Ha, ha! It's just patience and your knack for getting details right. I'll be patient for a while, and then get going too fast and make little mistakes. Display case is coming along slowly. I've been sanding & spraying on coats of lacquer on the parts. I'll assemble after I get the parts finished except for a final coat.
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Here's photo of the LED lights I decided to use and the remote that turns them on and off. The lights are dimmable, so I opted for 4 of them across the top of the case. I wanted plenty of light since I can always dim if it's too much. I bought "warm" lights. With LEDs you have to be careful. Many have a blue/white look that I don't care for. The lights will drop into a piece of wood extending across the center of the top of the frame. It will have 4 holes in it that the lights will drop into. I'll mount the base of the lights to thin pieces of wood cut to be a slightly larger diameter than the lights. The wood will keep the lights from falling thru the holes. They won't be glued in, but will rest on the center piece of wood. They have batteries that will need to be replaced, or they might have other problems, so you need easy access. They will lift out for maintenance and then drop back in the frame. The 2nd photo shows the center piece with holes for the lights. I haven't quite finished it yet. I cut the holes with my small hobby jigsaw, and it wasn't quite large enough to do a good job. So I've had to do a lot of filing to smooth out the holes and get them so the lights just drop thru. With the center piece there will be two pieces of plexiglass on top, one on either side of the center. So the center piece needs rabbits for plexiglass that match those of the top frame. You can see how the center piece will sit in the rabbit of the top frame, and then extend the rabbit down both sides of the piece. This will be easier to understand when it's all put together.
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Plexiglass also needs to go on top of the frame, so the top part of the frame has a rabbit cut in it for plexiglass to sit in. Since I wanted lights, my design will have a center wood piece on top that will sit in the rabbit, and two open areas on either side that will have plexiglass. This is a little hard to describe, but hopefully as I get further along, it will become clear what I'm doing. Photos show the rabbit cut on the top of the top frame. This is same part shown above flipped over.
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The top part of the frame will sit on 4 uprights (or stanchions!). I've cut these pieces and you can see them in the background of the previous photos. The top part will have grooves in the bottom to accept the plexiglass sides. The plexiglass will slide in grooves in the uprights and rest in grooves on the bottom part of the frame in the base. The top part of the frame will enclose the plexiglass pieces with the grooves. The top part of the frame is slightly larger than the bottom. This gives a little overhang of the uprights and I think looks better than a flush fit. Overhang is small. In my case about 3/32", or just enough to show. The grooves for plexiglass were cut to the same dimensions as the bottom part of the frame. They were aligned with small pieces of wood in the grooves keeping grooves in both parts identical, so the grooves form a rectangle that's square with the world.
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The remaining work is to build the frame to hold plexiglass and sit inside the base. The photos show the bottom part of the frame that sits inside the base molding. I used the base and molding as a jig to size and glue the frame parts. I used some card stock shims between the frame parts and the molding to get a little spacing, so the frame will lift off the base easily. Grooves in the bottom part of the frame are for the plexiglass. I plan to use an art store to cut the plexi for me, and they gave me a couple of scrap pieces I used to size the grooves. I made the grooves a little larger so the fit isn't tight. Wood swells when humid, so I wanted some tolerance. The plexiglass should slide into the grooves easily. Gussets were added to the corners. I strengthened the joints by drilling holes and glueing part of a nail in each one. I didn't trust the glue joint to hold when hammering a nail, but I think I got the same effect by drilling slightly oversized hole and sliding nail in with glue. Wood filler was put over the hole to hide the nail. The holes were drilled from the inside, thru the gusset first, and then into the frame. But I didn't drill them all the way thru, so the holes/wood filler will only show on the inside of the gusset, not on the outside of the frame. The first photo shows the bottom part of the frame sitting inside the base molding like it will be when assembled. The next photo shows detail of one of the corners, but it's been lifted out, so you can see the frame pieces. The last photo shows the bottom part of the frame lifted off the base.
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I designed a display case and used ideas from report by Wes Marden available online. It's worth the cost if you've never made one. It gives you some good ideas. I didn't follow everything, but I liked the idea of the frame with plexiglass fitting into the base, so you can lift it in and out. I used Solidworks because I have an old version, but you could draw it up with any CAD software. I wanted lights in the case, so found some remote controlled, battery powered, LED lights that will work. Strip lights that I found didn't put out enough light. These lights are designed for underneath shelves or inside closets. I experimented and decided to put 4 of them across the top of the display case frame. Reviews said batteries don't last long, but I'll probably only use lights when a few of my friends come to visit. I made the base first. I used cherry because I've always like the look and I plan to put the case on a table made of cherry. Only problem is my nose doesn't like the dust, so I wore mask and eye shield when sanding and sawing and that has helped. I opted not to get one of the "fancy" dust protectors. The base required two pieces of cherry laminated together. I used 3/4" thick wood, which is really about 0.82" thick. After cutting to size (36" x 15" if I remember right), I added some crown molding around the sides. This extends above the thickness of the base over 1/2". The top frame with plexiglass will sit inside the molding. If you look close in photo, you can see some small holes in the base. I put the Syren model on the base and got it positioned where I wanted it, centered, and with clearance on tip of bowsprit and stern boom. Then drilled holes in the base plate of model and base of display case, so I can easily get boat positioned in the future. I don't plan to screw these together. Planning to use dowels in the holes to maintain the position. The display case will just sit on a table, so it's not going anywhere.
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Thank you bruce d. Here's the patterns I came up with for bow and stern platforms. All these do is get you close to the final. I cut out the stern platform, but found I needed to tweak it a fair amount to get it to fit good.
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You're really making progress. You're going a lot faster than I did, and yours looks cleaner or crisper than mine. I can only echo everyone else saying excellent work! Thanks for including photos of rope you made. This is first time for me to see homemade rope, so it was most interesting! I'm not sure I'm ready to take that step, but you definitely tweaked my interest. I've been sawing and sanding pieces for display case. I'll try to remember to post some pictures soon. I'm not sure the pieces will make a lot of sense, but it might be interesting to some people.
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I added floorboards to the inside of the hull. I had a little trouble getting them aligned and parallel. Afterward I thought of a way I could have done this better. Isn't that always the way. I aligned them (or made them parallel) by eye, but I could have put small shims between them to keep the distance between floorboards the same. First photo shows the floorboards. Lighting in photo makes them look lighter than they actually are. Then I started working on patterns for the bow and stern platforms. I saw how the platforms have notches, and I knew basswood has a strong tendency to split. To avoid this problem, I glued the planking strips to a 1/32 sheet piece of basswood crossgrain. The planks run one direction, and the grain on the sheet runs 90 deg to them. Afterward I sanded bith sides so the total thickness was about 1/32". Laminating two pieces of basswood with wood grain 90 deg to each other reduces its tendency to split. It all but eliminates the problem. This is a common solution to the problem when building model airplanes with balsa. Balsa splits easily also. The 2nd photo below shows what this looks like.
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The next step is to add molding strips below the side friezes. I tried to round the 1/32" square strips on the two outside edges, and I painted them white before gluing to hull. After gluing to hull, I ended up sanding them slightly less than 1/32" so they matched up with the cap rail better. I added a little molding under the frieze on the bow stem. All this required quite a bit of touchup paint.
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I had little trouble gluing on friezes along the side. I decided to use cement glue. I didn't like the idea of spray adhesive on such small strips of paper. It worked out fine. I suspect almost any type of glue could be used. The stern frieze was more difficult. It took several tries to get a pattern, and then a couple of tries to get the real one to fit. I'm very glad the kit included two copies of the stern frieze. Here's some pictues. For whatever reason, photo doesn't show the frieze continuing on to the tip of the bow, but it does.
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It's been a while since I added some photos, but I've been slowly working and making progress. These pictures show the cap rail after it's finished and painted. I don't think I got it quite as narrow as I should have, but I was starting to hit the inside frames and there's not a lot left on the outside of the hull.
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Beautiful ratlines!! And you managed the clove hitches. I'm impressed. I was not able to tie those knots, or I should say, I lost patience trying to learn and opted for simpler knot. I ended up just using overhand knots or loops. It worked, but closeups of yours sure look good. I believe they are a little straighter than what I ended up with. I'll have to give it another try on next boat. And once you get started, no matter what method, it goes faster than expected. Turned little too cold for me to work in garage, so haven't made any progress on display case. Need to wait until I can use table saw without getting too cold. I did find some remote controlled, battery powered LED lights for the case. I discovered you really need some lights on inside, and may have to modify the old case to add some.
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Here's cap rail glued on and partially sanded. I can make it a little narrower, but not as much as on plans. I didn't sand the frames thin enough. I'll sand cap rail as narrow as I can, until it almost hits the frames on the inside.
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