Charles Green

To the list of industrial suppliers, I will add MSC Industrial Supply for any type of drill bit or circular saw blade.  MSC has a UK division as well.

Since the topic of insulation has come up:  I had my shop building made of SIP's - Structural Insulated Panels.  I designed the building and had the panels made for that design.  I used this form of construction since I didn't want the expense of heating and cooling another building.  The walls and roof are made of the SIP's, the rest of the building is conventional.  There is plenty of info on the Net about SIP's.  The building is 1,200 square feet, the workshop is about 700.  Cooling the building is done by leaving the windows open at night and running a large fan out one door for an hour or so in the cool of the morning, then closing everything up.  Temperature rise by end of day may be as much as 7 degrees.  A small, oil-filled electric heater, set at mid-range, keeps the shop area comfortable in the winter.  I'm in Idaho - 100+ in the summer and cold winters.

I'm lucky to have the shop and there was a local maker of SIP's.  The shop didn't spring up in the backyard overnight.  It was in the planning stage for years and I did the shingling, siding, floor, trim, doors, windows, painting, plumbing and electrical.  Anyone contemplating new construction, considering the future of energy costs, should look into SIP's.   

Dziadeczek:

Iron indeed!  Your anchors look susceptible to rust.

My first set-up was in an apartment. I used an 80 cu. ft. bottle of compressed nitrogen.  Clean, dry, easy precision regulation and no noise at all.  I've stayed with the compressed gas since moving to a house.  Welding or medical supply companies sell it and will deliver full bottles to change out.   

Kris:

Glad you are here.  Everyone who has read your post is on your side and will go out of their way to help you. 

Beware the urge to start with a large, complex model.  They are impressive to observers and will generate praise.  But make certain you know who it is you are trying to please; strangers or yourself! Take a look at the Gallery photos at the top of this site.  At this time, there is a beautifully made model of a dinghy.  That small model's single photo has generated more comments than the other, larger models shown around it. 

Consider all the factors - Your interest in a particular ship type, time, tools, time, material and, did I mention it, time!  Make what you like, what you can and will finish and know this is only the first of what may become many.  And above all, make yourself happy.     

I bought the Ship Ahoy upgrade early on.  Perhaps Ship Ahoy is using another type of belt now, but the joint on the belt that came with my upgrade kit was much stiffer that the rest of the belt and made what was a smooth- running, little saw into a lumpy-running, albeit more powerful, little saw.  I put the old motor and belt back on.  I have a Jim saw now but kept the Preac for use when very narrow slitting blades are called for.  Having two saws can save time too.  One can be left set-up for a run of parts and the other used for one-off cuts.   

I made a variation of the suction table shown in Ian Gant's video.  Home supply stores sell 2 x 4-foot sheets of plastic grid with 1/2-inch holes, used for fronts of fluorescent light fixtures.  This grid served very well for the top of the box and all I had to do is cut it to fit the sides of the box I made.  The noise and poor filtration of most small shop vacs is a problem.  I made a five-sided box, with a hole in the side for the hose, to lower over my noisy vac.  It contained most of the noise.  Since then, I have bought a Fien Turbo III shop vac.  Expensive, I have never looked back and it's the most-used power-tool in the shop.

toms10:

Thanks for the information.  My introduction to now, John Leavitt, makes him the third Leavitt I know of in the ship modeling world.  There is Clyde Leavitt of Mechanics Illustrated/Lexington fame and Walter Leavitt, maker of a version of the colonial Hanna on display at the Phillips Academy's, Addison Gallery of American Art, at Andover MA.   I am left to wonder, is there a familial connection between these Leavitts?

toms10:

You mentioned the "Leavitt book".  More information on this book please: Its title, and is the author, Clyde Leavitt? 

In addition to being hard as nails, lignum vitae contains oil that serves as a natural lubricant.  Oil content is a common property of tropical hardwoods.  It's what makes gluing those types of wood problematic unless they are wiped with acetone just prior to applying the glue.

I was led to believe the marks were called Plimsoll lines until your question led me to dig a little deeper.  I discovered the marks on the bow and stern are "load lines" that determine a vessel's trim.  Plimsoll lines (named after Samuell Plimsoll, 1824 - 98) came into being either in 1876 or 1884 and are located midship.  They indicate the maximum depth of the hull for an intended load/voyage depending on water density, as effected by salinity and seasonal changes.  Maby more than you wanted to know but I found it interesting.

Mary:  

That lapstrake hull is a beauty!  Lots of mentors here with sincere interest in aiding you in your modeling endeavors.  

Vinod:

Tell us what you find.  There are a lot of wood junkies on this site, all waiting to hear.

Vinod:

It looks like you have drawn a blank from the rest of us!  Have you inquired to local modelers or clubs?  There may be tree species indigenous to India with wood excellent for modeling that are unknown to anyone outside of your country.  It's possible the Asian variety of box wood may range into NE India.

I've done a little digging and found a US supplier "The Lumberyard", that sells West India Boxwood: Gossypiospermum praecox or Casearia praecox.  Not of the specie Buxus, but like many other woods, it has characteristics of box that make it desirable for modeling. It may be available to you locally.

It was posted early on but surprisingly the topic died a quick death here.  Not much more could have been reported but I expected a lot more comment.

In shops where I have worked no one shared measuring tools of any kind.  Doing so was a sure-fire way to create doubt in anything done on any particular project.  The only thing that mattered was being within tolerance of the inspection gages.  Even the finest calipers were called "guess sticks". 

All this being said, Starrett sells a large variety of "rules" (their terminology) graduated in Imperial fractions to 1/64 inch and in decimals to 0.01 inch as well as in 12ths, 24ths, 48ths, and 50ths and 1/2 mm.  They come thick, thin, flexible and in lengths from four to one-hundred-forty-four inches.  Metric rule lengths from 150 to 1800 mm.  With or without hooks.  Any number of them compared will match well beyond the limit of vision.  

FYI: Toothpicks are made of birch.  Matchsticks are made of poplar.

How you remove the tape matters too!  Avoid pulling /lifting it up at 90-deg. to the surface.  Instead, get one end loose and pull it horizontally, back towards the other end.  This will minimize lifting forces that cause the adhesive to take wood fibers with it.   

I've checked MSC (they have a UK branch), and they have 10, 40 mm dia., slitting/slotting saws with 10mm arbor holes - The arbor hole for each item, as pictured, is listed as 0.3937 inch, the Imperial 10mm equivalent.   

Go to MSC and enter Slitting & Slotting Saws.  When that category comes up, here will be a filter on the left side of the page.  At the top of the filter, select slitting & slotting saws, go down and select arbor, then high speed steel, then Hole Dia., 10 mm.

DaveBaxt: 

I may be beating this topic to death, but early on you mentioned difficulty setting the fence, since its scale only registers correctly when the blade is at 90-deg.  To make a 90-deg. "V" slot along the center of a blank with a table saw:

The sides of the blank that will be parallel to the groove must be just that; parallel.  Each end of the blank must measure exactly the same. 

Calculate the center distance for the blank's end and set an adjustable square for that distance.  Measure/check from each side on both ends.  The end of the square must hit the same place when measured from either side on both ends.  If it doesn't, you are not on center and/or, the blank's sides are not parallel.  Mark one end, top to bottom, along this exact center.  Use a marking knife, or something like it.

With the blade at 45-deg., set the fence so the top corner of the blade is on the center line.  The height of the blade's top corner must be at the desired depth of the slot.

Make the cut.

Turn the blank around and make the 2nd cut.

While cutting, horizontal and vertical pressure against the blank must be identical for each cut.  The feed speed must not vary.  A feather-board will help to maintain uniform horizontal pressure.  

When set at 45-deg., a circular sawblade made for rip or crosscuts will not leave a clean "V" at the bottom of a 90-deg. groove.  Slotting blades, having a flat grind, which are made for full-size saws, leave a flat-bottomed slot.  But I don't think a flat-grind blade is made for any hobby saw. 

You could finish the "V" slot you have made to a clean, sharp "V" with a slotting blade made for metal work.  These blades have very fine teeth without set.  On wood, they will burn if used for anything but shallow cuts, but they do leave a flat-bottomed slot. 

In your application though, I would think a common blade made for wood would be OK.  After trimming and rounding your masts and spars has begun, the stock will not contact the very bottom of the "V".  A clean bottom of the "V" isn't necessary.   

And you ought to try orienting the wood so you cut with the grain.  Use a course-tooth, rip-blade. Things will go easier.  

Doing it in one pass with a 90-deg. mill is convenient but there are other ways.  A flat grind table-saw blade set at 45-deg. will do it in two passes.  If you have a router, there are 90's that will do the same job as the mill, with the work set upside down.  Two planks with 45-deg. chamfers, set edge to edge, will make a 90-deg. groove.

I'm glad you stayed with it.  That's a beautiful hull.

Cathead's comment reminds me of Mark Twain's observation:  "People are like moons.  They all have a dark-side they never show to anybody."
 

Jim sells a 4 in., 36 tooth blade marked "Good for Cutting Plastic".

I have the above mentioned blade.  I do not have 1/16 inch styrene but I do have 1/8 and 1/32 styrene.  The blade cut both without issue - no chipping or burning.