Jump to content

Shepherd

Members
  • Posts

    13
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Shepherd

  1. I tried clamping and wetting down the skeg to bend it into shape, but I don't think I wound up making much of an impression on the shape. I decided to roll with it as it is, figuring nothing is more traditional in boatbuilding than the builder deviating from the plans. The hull sides being one piece should help keep some of the lines from deviating which otherwise may have. Once I was finished playing around with the keelson, I added the skeg and the other few pieces below. The cutout for the centerboard wrapped in wax paper proved very helpful for gluing on the centerboard battens. If I'd thought about it I should have cut the skeg a little fuller, as the bottom is not quite a straight line with the different keelson shape. I can add or take away some material later to correct that, even if I'm the only person who will ever notice such a thing. The chine logs didn't wind up lying flush with all the molds, but pressing them down into place resulted in an unfair curve. The wood knows best what shape it wants to be bent into, so I let it do that. I was hoping this boat would be one of the skipjacks in Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft. If I had the full lines or a table of offsets I would be able to puzzle out how to get the chine logs and the molds to meet correctly at each station, but without these things my choices seem to be to encourage the wood to bend into a curve it doesn't like, or let the wood encourage me to let it take the curve it wants to take. I splashed the sides with hot water and clamped them in place overnight before gluing them on. Between sanding the bevels onto the chine logs and then sanding the bevels into the sides, and my reluctance to refresh my sandpaper when I swear it should still be good a while yet, it's been slow going before moving on to the bottom planking.
  2. The keelson isn't quite adding up. I made a tick stick first to make sure the sheer was marked correctly on the molds and to move those marks to the centerline for easier comparison of sheer to keelson. Then I marked the tick stick with my best quick approximation of the sheer to the bottom (when right-side up) of the keelson. What I wouldn't give for the complete lines of the hull, as the sheer on the plan is interrupted by all the deck furniture and I had to spring a batten and pencil in my best guess to its location to get two of the marks. I'm not entirely sure I hit the right spots, and am probably going to use the cross sectional lines to get a better idea of where things should lie at each station. What became clear too is the cut-out keelson provided doesn't match the plans. It is flatter and thinner beginning partway along the centerboard cutout. Everything else is built up from the lumber provided so I could just build it to this shape, but changing one line will change much else about the hull shape and without a thorough exercise in lofting I can't be sure it will make for a fair hull. I guess it will be less fair, being flatter in its run.
  3. Having just finished the Lowell Grand Banks Dory, I find myself not yet ready to begin a model of the schooner I'm meaning to build in my garage. And so I reached for the second of the two kits I bought in April 2020 before a bunch of other weird stuff happened, the Willie L Bennett Chesapeake Bay Skipjack. It was quite a contrast opening this kit compared to the little dory model! I'd been advised that this was a good beginner kit when I first looked into this, and I must have even read a build log or two on it before deciding it was a good choice, but if so I had forgotten that I would be greeted with more or less a pile of lumber upon opening the box. It was a little intimidating and I considered putting the whole thing back away since it seems like a lot to get into when I have other projects coming along. Then I got started anyways. I found a 1/4" plywood cutoff just a bit larger than the size shown in the plan, left over from when I built my kitchen cabinets. It was a little bowed, so I fastened a cutoff bit of 5/8" OSB to the bottom and that flattened it right out. I pricked holes through the mold plan into the plywood and connected the dots instead of cutting out that part of the plan and gluing it down, then set the mold up using the cutouts as bracing. I moved on to the keelson tonight. After gluing the three pieces together and sanding it smooth - the laser cutouts weren't quite square, giving it a sawtooth sort of look on end - I sanded an initial bevel into the outer 1/8" strip on each side. I clamped down a straight edge to scribe a cut line, then figured out I could use the straight edge as a guide for an emery board to sand in the rabbet. The keelson sits a bit oddy in the molds, with the forward end sitting quite proud of the notches and the after end recessing in to the point that it will have to be lifted up to fasten the bottom. The next step is going to be some careful measurements and seeing if I need to modify the mold at all.
  4. Once the cap rail was on, I had just a bit of paint that needed touching up. I also needed to paint and glue a fiddly little triangle of no more than 1/8" on a side to the aft end of the starboard cap rail, as it had split undesirably along the short grain. while I was trimming around the transom. The thwarts mostly went in with little modification beyond beveling, but the forward thwart had to be shortened dramatically. This was a bit puzzling, as I am sure I set the risers on the marks on the frame. These were somewhat obscured on a couple frames after sanding them, but I think I made sure of their locations using dividers to compare them with the booklet. In any case, the hull slooks fair and the risers seem to be in the correct place, and the thwart is sitting well after being trimmed. I stained the thwarts and the base lightly with some "new pine" stain I've been using around the house. The beckets were a bit of a struggle. They match the size in the materials list in the instructions, but they were much too large to fit in the holes without reaming them out significantly with a round file. A dab of glue on each end of the line let me pass it through without it coming to pieces. I wish to have done a more seamanlike knot, but anything but the simplest looked far too bulky. The photos of this step in the instructions give me the impression that a smaller line was used for that model than was provided for this one. The thole pins also gave me pause. The instructions mention a provided dowel, the material list didn't include a dowel, and there was none included with the kit. Not knowing where I might have toothpicks kicking around, I cut long slivers off one of the sheets and sanded them as round as I could, holding them in place against the sandpaper and spinning them. The oars I mostly worked with a chisel for the bulk of the material removal, then switched to sandpaper. Inspired by the oars for the Bantry Bay gigs that Atlantic Challenges works on, which I helped get ready for last season during a volunteer work weekend last year, I painted little bands to denote each set of oars. That's it for this boat, folks. I wish I could take the last picture sitting on top of my housemate's dory outside, but the weather is not cooperating with this whim. I'm still slowly working my way through the building key for the schooner I want to build in my garage, assembling material lists for the full-size boat and for a 1:16 scale model. While I am still doing that I will be moving on to the other model I bought near the beginning of the pandemic, the Willie L. Bennett Chesapeake Bay Skipjack.
  5. (Aside - I thought I had been cleverly formatting these but yikes, everything on the post above seems to have run around on me almost as bad as an MS Word document. Is it worth trying to format the photos in amidst the text or is it best to just drop them at the bottom unless there's perhaps just one photo to share in a post?) I've been slowly advancing this project, up to more or less completion. But first, the transom. I did release this and re-glue it much more satisfactorily. I did change some other geometry in so doing, and added a bit of shape I don't like to one of the garboards, but there was a net gain in symmetry. Gluing the transom back in place was quite a challenge though, and involved settling for getting the bottom to stick in place where I needed it to be, walking around for a while pinching it in place, and then finding a way to clamp to the sheer one side at a time. I started painting after this. At least on the interior I wish I had sealed or at least wetted the pieces before putting them in so I could sand the raised grain much better than once built. I used some of a worn out old sanding net for my random orbital sander to get what I could, as well as a small chisel blade to scrape. I thought about painting to match my housemate's dory outside, as I have house paints that would closely match it, but went with the paint that was already in front of me. Once everything had three coats on, I began putting the cap rail in place. Holding my sanding stick to the bottom and the rail to the top with rubber bands, plus clamps further down the sheer to keep the rails aligned with the gunwales, let me hop over to this and glue a bit more at a time while doing whatever else I was doing.
  6. I am using white glue. Thinking maybe I will release the transom knee first, then spring the transom from the sides and reglue it, then set the knee in place once the transom correctly aligned.
  7. I got on the garboards and moved on to the broad planks. I tried a few different ways of holding them in place as I inched them along frame-by-frame, and came up with the solution of using a rubber band to press a clothespin against the plank at each frame, along with a clamp on the next (unglued) frame ahead to help it take the curve. Once I was confident in this I was able to glue a frame, wander off on some house or cooking project (I'm between jobs right now), then come back later to glue the next one. There are the lines burned on the planks for beveling, sure, but I used dividers to help make sure I was setting the planks at similar elevations. After bending the sheer planks I glued those similarly. I had to change my system a bit since I couldn't clamp the plank to the next unglued frame ahead of the one I was gluing. The provided spring clamps don't apply quite enough pressure on their own, so I used one clamp to double up the pressure of a second clamp, all clamped to a clothespin, so I could set up the whole thing to press the plank against the next frame. Building a house mostly on my own has encouraged much innovative applications of clamps, come-alongs, cordage, etc. On Saturday I went to the first of two canvas ditty bag workshops at the Apprenticeshop in Rockland, ME. I've been reading The Sailmaker's Apprentice as part of my studying up toward building myself a full-sized sailboat, so it was a good opportunity to take things off the page. I finished the sheer planks by alternating between gluing one frame, and stitching more of the ditty bag. I jokingly asked my housemate, a professional boatbuilder and bad influence who hasn't talked me out of any of my weird boatbuilding ambitions, to help me flip the dory. I wish I had a better saw blade than the one that came with the kit for this purpose, but the miter saw in the larger toolkit I'd ordered is definitely too aggressive for this. I added the side cleats and did some sanding before adding the false stem. The first side cleat proved to be a literally and figuratively cross-grained little thing, and turned itself into a squiggly line once I wet it down. After that I glued each one first at the bottom, then along the rest of its length so they couldn't choose their own adventures. The false stem has been a bit of a puzzle, as I see no labeled part to use and the instructions didn't specify a stock size. I used the leftover material from the bottom cleats, and it's taken some persuasion to make it stay put. I think it isn't going anywhere at this point, so once it dries I will be back at it. Unfortunately when flipping the boat I found the transom isn't square. Argh, it had been tough to line up and I thought I had gotten it. From underneath while planking it wasn't obvious, and without the planks built-on to provide more reference I hadn't detected the irregularity when I could have easily done something about it. I don't know if I'll go so wild as to open the stern up and rotate the transom...
  8. Yesterday I began by gluing up the bottom. The three planks didn't want to come together at the tips, but I figured out I could hold them all in plane with a large clamp, then pinch the ends together with small ones. While this was drying, I built the frames and transom assembly. The frames were set into the building board, the cleats and then the stem and transom were glued onto the bottom, and the bottom was attached to the frames. This evening I did some fairing. I was pretty amused by this, because I have a few rolls of adhesive-backed sandpaper I bought for the torture boards I built to fair my old sloop. I used a teeny tiny sliver of this sandpaper to instead fair the frames of this little boat, adhered to a scrap from one edge of the building board. Instead of going across three frames at a time for the whole process, I started by hogging off material (is it even hogging at this scale?) from the frames one at a time, using the bottom as a guide and angling the sanding board at a tangent to that. When I checked the fairing with thinner stock, I only needed to touch up fifth frame and transom. I also needed to reattach the transom assembly, as I seemed to have set it too far back. Then when I set that back on, the transom popped off of its knee. When I reached for it, I knocked the stem free too. Those pieces are now back in place and better glued, although I have to set the transom slightly further backward again. Right now its top is sitting just in front of the notch meant for it, so the back of the bottom is pushed out of shape. I'll do that tomorrow. For now I've beveled the garboards, set them in place, and brushed them with water to get some shape on them.
  9. Howdy folks. I made an introduction topic in early 2020, bought a couple starter kits and tools, and then a bunch of weird stuff happened which brought about my never even opening the shipping box. Now as the weird series of events continues relentlessly toward no clear destination, I've arrived at a point where it makes sense to build some model boats. The short version leading to this point involves: Originally living in my vehicle on the Appalachian Trail, and perceiving some time and a need for some hobby to keep me busy in early 2020 while I was living alone in one of the trail maintenance facilities Having to get out of there after it was condemned and deciding it was time to actually try settling down in Maine as I'd long wanted to do Acquiring vacant land which used to be a farm in Midcoast Maine, converting a shed into a cabin, and building a timber frame house Deciding I'd like to get into sailing, falling in with sailors and boatbuilders, and winding up with full-size wooden boats about the place, including an actual Grand Banks dory which my housemate (one of the aforementioned boatbuilders) brought along Deciding I'm really very interested in building a weird 25'6" Phil Bolger-designed schooner, the William D Jochems, and ordering plans Although I have built a house I still work all over the Appalachian Trail, and having a sailboat that I can trailer without great difficulty, use as a camper during the work week, and easily launch and rig in the nearest handy body of water on the weekends seems pretty snazzy Deciding to build a model of that before building it full-sized, and finally Deciding to build the model boats I already have before building a 1:16 scale William D Jochems before building a full-sized schooner in my garage So there's the short version leading up to today, when I made space on the old table on sawhorses that has floated around the house serving in numerous capacities. It was previously sitting against a wall where I'm going to start building a big buffet cabinet for the dining room part of the large open "great room" space. I cut the packing tape, opened up the Lowell Grand Banks Dory box, and took inventory of its contents plus the other tools and stuff I'd ordered so long ago. That's as far as I got tonight, that and the logging back in here, writing this, and hoping it may be of some entertainment. Cheers, Shepherd
  10. Hello after a few years folks. I hope folks don't mind me bringing back an old post, but this will likely be an amusing follow-up. I selected two kits for starting, the Lowell Grand Banks Dory and the Willie Bennett Skipjack. Shortly after they arrived, I learned I had to leave the trail staff housing in which I'd been staying, so I loaded up my truck having not yet even opened the box. I headed up to Maine since it looked like field work would be suspended for a while and I could try settling down, and so I wound up with a vacant lot which was most of an old farm and began taking care of that land. I ordered a shed which I built into a cabin, then started building a house. Figuring I could actually try sailing, I somehow wound up with a hundred year old 25ft sloop, the Grace, of currently unknown design and history after a prior owner found her abandoned in a boatyard and restored her. This year a friend of a friend who is a boatbuilder moved into the cabin, and just today we moved his project dory into the garage. I've still not taken anything out of the Lowell Grand Banks Dory kit box but I swear I'm going to get around to it before I give in to hanging out with too many boatbuilders and build my own full-sized one... Cheers, Garrett
  11. I think I am going to commit to a model tonight! Mostly because the Model Shipways site has a sale that ends tonight. I've picked out a variety of tools based on the resources on this site, and based on some things I have seen mentioned on various build logs. As a person who enjoys data and documentation, I think I have come to the right place! I've mostly narrowed my choices down to: Bluejacket Shipcrafters - Grand Banks Dory Bluejacket Shipcrafters - Swampscott Dory Model Shipways - Lowell Grand Banks Dory Model Shipways - 21ft English Pinnace Model Shipways - 18th Century Armed Longboat Model Shipways - HMS Bounty Launch Model Shipways - Willie Bennett I think my choices are largely depended between pre-cut (stiled? is that the word I'm looking for?) planks or not, and if I want to do masts and rigging on the first kit. I just want to read a couple of the build logs for suggested beginner Caldercraft kit models to get an idea of what they may entail, before committing one way or another! Cheers, Shepherd
  12. Thanks for the welcomes folks - as pictured I have done some logs in my day, though I suspect this'll be a whole different sort of log here (big pine blowdown blocking the Appalachian Trail up in Maine), and that for once I'll be wishing I had a smaller saw! I'm going to read up the resources on tools once I finish the 18th Century Longboat build I'm currently reading, which is very informative and also making me think that I should consider something where the parts aren't quite so tiny. I'd like to believe I have a pretty steady hand, but maybe I should choose something with larger parts which I'm a bit less worried about breaking for my first time building. (Edit - resized the image!)
  13. Good day folks, I am Shepherd, a somewhat nomadic cartographer working on and around the Appalachian Trail. I'm originally from New Jersey, thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2013 and have lived in my vehicle ever since then since my work has had me on the move so constantly that I haven't had any way to practice hobbies I've been interested in that really aren't very compatible with that sort of lifestyle. Recently though, my work shifted from being primarily field data collection and survey sort of work to staying inside and doing a bunch of tedious stuff with all the data that's been collected over the years. The last time I was in this sort of situation I came close to learning cedar strip boatbuilding, but wound up back on the move before I could do more than read a book on the subject. This time around, it'll be a while until I'm back on the move, enough that maybe I can pick a hobby or two and pursue those for long enough that I can then hang onto them as things with which I can busy myself in between seasons of extensive field work. I've been interested in ships for an awful long time, though being interested in sailing ships (and maybe even trying sailing myself some day?) is more recent. I've come at it from literature, accidentally falling into first one and then several other historical fiction series on audiobooks while I've been on the move. It came into my mind that maybe one day it would be neat to build models of some of the ships from these books that have accompanied for thousands of miles of walking and many more miles on the road. I've read enough here already to dissuade me from jumping into such an endeavour (if only one of the ships depicted in these books bore that name, for the sake of the pun!) for my first model, and am narrowing down my choices to the point that I can commit to purchasing one as well as the necessary tools, in addition to whatever tools I learn aren't exactly necessary but would make things much more comfortable while first starting out. The kits at which I've been looking most closely are either of the Bluejacket Grand Banks Dory or Swampscott Dory, or the Model Shipways 18th Century Longboat. I see there are some kits out there which have solid hulls, though I don't think I would get as much satisfaction out of building something which starts with the hull largely already formed. I see that the 18th Century Longboat and many other kits on a variety of websites can be purchased as beginner sets with tools and other materials, and that sounds like a nice way to start but I'm also concerned regarding the usefulness of those sets. I know in the long run I may figure out what I need or don't need, but I'm worried that in starting with one of these kits I may wind up with items I'll never use and may find myself wanting in other items. I think my biggest question in starting out - how much faith I can have in any of the combo sets, that purchasing one of those sets will be enough to get me started? I'm trying to use the search function here for answers, but unfortunately the terms I can think of putting in to the search bar for this are not terribly pointed and haven't brought me to meaningful results. Hopefully I will learn enough before committing to a purchase that if there are any additional tools or materials I should have starting out, that I will also add those to my cart right out of the gate! I'm looking forward to joining the folks here in getting my hands and my mind busy on one of the projects! Cheers, Shepherd
×
×
  • Create New...