Greg M

Life just got in the way for the past couple of weeks between the holidays and an amazing amount of random things that needed to be assembled around the house. Haven't even had an opportunity to check in on this forum in a couple weeks, but finally found some time. Finished rough fairing the inside of the hull. There's still about a 1/32" that needs to be still taken down, but all the rough edges have been removed and the final sanding can wait for a bit. Moving onto the stern, I got pretty aggressive with the drum sander on the aft most frames before marking off the cedar. There was just so much plywood to remove that taking it down gave better access to the cedar. I trimmed up the cedar around the aft most gunport and then very slowly and carefully chiseled down frame 28 that made up half of the gunport. In the future, I wold definitely cut those frame back further and frame out the entire gunport. Gunport 14 on both sides was remarkably time consuming trimming up and tested my patience more than an 8 year old. 4 chisel blades later, it cleaned up well. Once that gunport was done, the rest of the frames fell in line pretty quickly. In the last couple days I finally got to break out the tick strips, so I should begin planking the first belt this weekend. I really struggled with the tick marks on the stern. Belts 3 and 4 eyeballed up very well with the appropriate belt mark on the frames, but I kept getting an extra plank width in belt 1 and 2. I tried dividing out 6 plank widths on belt one before realizing that I should run a batten across the frame lines (the line across the filler piece and lower counter). The marks for the belts along the stern post were all good, but I was way off with the one on the counter. Regardless, I'll fix the tick marks for belt one and wait until after finishing the first belt before adjusting belt 2. Fun is about to begin. Can't wait.

Looking awesome JJ; trying to find the moulding you need to fix and can't see it.

Thanks Edward. I ended up buying a small shop vac so I can hold the Dremel in one hand and the hose in the other and it's been good at reducing the amount of dust that flies around. Aggressive hand sanding though I still try to bring it outside, which won't really be an option in my neck of the woods for a few more months.

Thanks Matt. I think my Winnie has a poltergeist. I ran into a string of strange happenings last week; when I sucked one of the anchor linings off the ship and into the shop vac (no damage other than pride), I realized it was time to take a few days off from the ship. The anchor linings bent and installed great, but applying WOP before and after painting the wales sealed the wood to the point that the wood glue didn't hold well as evidenced by the vacuum removing one, so they ended up super glued. The fairing cap went on next. I tried using the scroll saw initially, but one of the weaknesses of the cedar this thin is that the cuts against the grain are extremely weak. Luckily, very easy to cut with a sharp blade. I cut to the outside of the line I drew to measure the rails, faired the outside of the hull and then used a compass to mark a 3/16" line along the inside. The starboard side has been mostly faired. The port side has not been faired outboard yet. Accidental mistake I made was reversing the rails when I installed them (the port one was installed on the starboard side) and they both fit well, so I know the bow is symmetrical. fairing caps installed and there's a couple frames at the waist that are going to need some attention, but the bow and stern are going to need a lot of attention Those stern frames are really going to require a lot of attention. The bow does too. Thankfully, I spent quite a bit of time on the bow fillers and Frame W. I used the drum sander to touch up the tips to match the cap rail, but there's a lot of wood to be removed and I figured this would be the hardest part of fairing inboard, so let's start there. It took a couple days and a lot of different techniques that sometimes well and sometimes didn't, but I made it through the port side. Moving over to the starboard side, there quite a bit of work to be done around gunport 2/3. I started by making a little gauge that was 3/16" on one end for measuring from outboard and 9/64" on the other end for measuring inboard. The 3/16" end has a small block glued on the back side to account for the lip around the gunports. I began by ticking out the measurements along all the horizontal cedar pieces including the gunports. I then carved to the outside of the line on these, giving excellent access to the plywood. I then repeated this process for the verticals. The drum sander came into play here. I found using the drum sander more like a gouge and keeping it messy makes for easier sanding. Too smooth and the sandpaper slides. For that reason, I didn't touch any cedar with the sander including the upright where I had to cut frame S. I then pulled out the 60 grit on a piece of plywood scrap from cutting the frames. It happens to be rounded at one end and flat at the other and has even amazing at sanding odd angles as I can be used vertically and horizontally . Now that the plywood has been cleaned up, the chisel blades comes into play for cutting out that angle between the deck and the uprights and the scalpel blade for any detail work on the cedar. Some light cleaning up with 100/150 to debur. There will still be some light tuning needed, but that can wait. Time to move onto the waist and stern, which should be more straightforward, so hoping to put the sandpaper back away for a bit in a day or two.

Sorry to hear about the off measurements. At least you caught it before you got too far into the build, so although you are out some money the feeling of all those lost days, weeks, or even months doesn't have the same demoralizing effect.

Thanks for the likes and advice guys. That's a great idea JJ. Still have a few steps before getting there including fairing inboard, but I'll give that a whirl instead of coming to that conclusion after some frustration. The Winnie is really starting to come together now, but I ran into some major problems as I was planking the wales. While setting up for a clamp at the stern, I appear to have hooked my finger on one of the planks and broke it in half and then about a half hour later when setting up another clamp at the stern, I lost my grip on the clamp and instead of shooting across the room, it shot directly into the lower counter and gouged a couple planks deep enough to not be able to sand out. Luckily, the first was a pretty easy fix and a good reminder to not pull on the planks. The second will be covered by a frieze, so no permanent damage done, more counting my luck that the clamp didn't gouge visible planking. Regardless, things are coming along. I happened to get in new clamps the other day and they have made the Wales and black strake 100x easier. It was one of those needle nose ones that gouged the counter. Apparently they will mar a surface when shot with enough velocity. The wales came out well and I gave them a good working out with 60 to 100 to 150 grit in preparation to paint them. Even though I tapered the planks at the bow, quite a bit of sanding/light chiseling was still necessary, but I did not mar the stem, and got it a nice taper into the rabbet. One interesting note is the top plank of the wale doesn't align completely with the plank underneath it and just happens to coincide with the triangle I had to cut out of the uppermost plank. I realized that because the stern where the 4 wale planks are located is essentially an arc so the outer layer is going to cover more distance than the inner layer. I should have beveled the 4th plank of the inner layer so that the black strake runs along the bottom of the door framing. The good thing is this will only be visible in the gallery and gives me extra confidence that my stern framing is correct. Onward to the black strake. I tried to rip some thin planks of 7/32" and it was a complete disaster, so I stepped back and re-evaluated. First, I installed a zero distance insert into the saw. Then I discovered a way to rip down some of my reject planks to 1/64" by putting a binder clip right up near the teeth of the saw blade. The plank will ride in the groove of the clip and the hardest part is getting the plank behind the saw blade. The end result is that it doesn't create all that much sawdust but a whole lot of strands. A side benefit was some of the plank entering the saw ripped down to paper thin for the first inch or so, so I didn't even need to taper the black strake at the bow at all. Got a nice pronounced step along the entire length. I switched over to white glue for this. The planking is so thin, I was worried about CA or carpenters glue bleeding through and changing the look. Turns out what I thought was paint bleed on the foremost gunport is a chip at the back of the plank. I notice it every single time I take a photo and it's going to be nice when the gunport cover goes in. The black strake landed right at the bottom of the Q Gallery framing. It's amazing once the wale is painted how it changes the overall look of the model. I went and put another coat of WOP on everything and noticed for the first time how much finish sanding is still ahead of me, but this will happen once all the planking is done. I'll get the anchor lining on tomorrow and then settle back in for some inboard fairing.

Thanks JJ and everyone for the likes. The past few days have been a lesson in creative clamping. This update is more about things I learned than showing much progress. The drop planks fit just about perfect, but I had some troubles with the twist from the bow to bulkhead W. The spring clamps made it a bit more severe than it should have been. What I've found amazing is a couple of drops of water makes the cedar pliable, so I was able to iron out the clinker from the bow. Even when I need a severe bend such as at the stern, soaking the plank for about 10 seconds at room temperature makes it pliable enough to not break. I let the plank dry for an hour or so and then start removing clamps one by one from aft forward and ironing as I remove them. The one on the transom is the last removed. The iron removes any springback that I had been getting from just water bending. Really looking forward in a couple steps to edge bending. Stern cleaned up nicely Moving onto the wales, I decided to thin the bow piece down before installing as I just know I will slip and gouge the stem if I do it after installing. I also switched over to CA glue at this point. Glad I did as I thought the wales went in well until I took this picture and noticed the port side being a touch lower at the bow. Fixed, aligned and the rest of the wales should be academic...I noticed a tiny ding on the stem in this picture; not a lot that can be done, but a reminder to be more careful.

The planking is done up to the sheer. I cut out and patched in a couple bad joints on the starboard side, gave it a smoothing sand of 100 grit and a coat of WOP. I'm pretty happy with the results and once the planking is complete, I'll smooth it down to 320. Thanks to everyone for the advice and encouragement up to this point. I finally got a travel iron delivered after some delays in transit, so now to start learning to bend planks.

Amazing joinery. Never ceases to amaze me how simple you make these very difficult pieces look.

Thanks Mike. I measured every which way and the rails hit the transom exactly where they should. I'm going to chalk this up as some small deviations to the planking.

Awesome work JJ. Looks phenomenal.

Thanks Ron. Appreciate the words of encouragement. I think the 7/32" billets were all uniform in color and the 1/4" less so, which is what threw me off once I got far enough along with planking. I'm sure once some WOP and time pass, things will look much more uniform. I made it through the 4th strake and I will not miss framing in the gunports in the least. Completely lost track of how many times planks had to be revisited, even after being installed and sanded. Made it through through and have now started on the row of 3/16" planking, figuring to complete the stern up to the aft hance piece before moving on. At the hance piece the 3 measured planks (3/16, 1/4" and 7/32") appears to align up perfect up to the bottom of the cap rail. Following it back, it look like at bulkhead 23, the planks start to slowly rise. The upper solid line is where the top of the final 7/32" plank will rest. This occurs on both sides at exactly the same point, so my measurements were consistent but off. The transom held up for comparison, so it looks like I need to raise the rail. I'm thinking I should be able to pop the rail from bulkhead 23 aft, add a support to the correct height along frame and feather in a small piece on top of the support.

Thanks Chuck; that's good to know. I'm using .3 as well and had gotten used to the consistency up to this point that dealing with a trouble piece of wood is still a head scratcher.

I didn't have any time this weekend to put into the Winnie, but I ripped all the billets I had on hand before it got too cold to take the saw outside. There's one billet where the blade just kept deflecting and about halfway through struggling with it I just gave up and moved onto the next one, which gave no issues. In the picture below are the offcuts from that 1 billet on the left and a plank from 4 different billets on the right. The color is completely different, more cream and not much yellow. I remembered back to the first 1/4" billet I ripped having the same problem, but not quite as bad. I lost maybe the first 5 or 6 planks before I was able to get it under control and chalked it up to learning cvurve. I pulled all the planks from that billet I had left and a few of them had that same coloration all or partway through. I'm assuming there is something different about the density or grain on those planks that is what is giving me trouble. Has anyone encountered this with cedar and if so, know if those planks yellow up with time? I noticed a couple made it onto the ship where they stand out a bit.

Appreciate the likes as always. I finished the 3rd 1/4" strake and it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. I just couldn't find a reproducible technique that kept working for cutting each plank due to every angle being slightly different. Every time I thought I had a breakthrough, the next plank would prove it wrong. In the end, side cutters worked and a sanding stick worked best, as well as taking frequent breaks. I also found a simple jig of a binder clip and scrap piece of wood as an upright went a long way towards making sure the plank was perfectly aligned. I started on the 4th 1/4" strake up through the 4th gunport which is where the first tab will need to be created. Now that the first three gunports are fully enclosed, I gave everything a good sanding to remove any rough edges so I could make sure I didn't mess ups any gunports. I'm pretty happy with the results, although I found the first problem that I can't really fix. I don't know how or why this happened, but on some planks the glue I used caused some paint to transfer. You can see this on the lower left plank of the 1st gunport. I've never known acrylic paint to transfer once cured, but something in the glue must have softened it to allow it to bleed into the wood. Next step is to install the fixed blocks and finish up the 4th strake.

Having just gone through this, I would hold off sanding 28 any further until after 29 and the transom are installed. If you sand 28 to the steep angle off of 27, when you install 29, you'll end up with a bit of a saw tooth pattern between 28 and 29 rather than a smooth run. Sanding the underside of 28 at this point is a bit of a wasted effort.

I placed an order around October 13/14 and it arrived today. Postmark was November 13, so they are shipping.

Very wise advice JJ. I finished up the first run for all the gunports. It took a couple hours of walking away and coming back before I was happy and didn't have to touch anything up before installing the final planks. Looking back, not sure why I found it so stressful. Everything got a good sanding in preparation for the short runs between the ports, which should be pretty straightforward. The Chop-It has been working great for the ones I've done so far. As an aside, I don't know if it's the smell of the wood, but my cat is absolutely infatuated with the Winnie.

Things have really slowed down the past few days as I work my way through the gunports, but I've been making great progress. As the planking touches the bollards, I switched over to 1/16" thick planking and sanded it flush to the bollards. Still more light sanding to be done, but it appears to have worked out great. Slowly working my back on the gunports and building up the planks in between. I'm definitely finding the gunports to be pretty stressful as invariably as much as I think something is lined up and perfect, after it's glued in and the clamps removed I find a new angle where something just doesn't seem right. I've done alright carefully trimming after installing, but I'd prefer to not do this at all. Just have to continue to try to stay slow and methodical. I soaked and clamped all the planks on the second course, then notched out gunports 6-11, which are the last ones that have to be cut out. I think I'll carve out the port stops and then clamp them back up onto the Winnie and walk away a few times before installing them permanently.

Looking great and that's a good tip on the moulding. I'm at least 3 or 4 months away and I was already starting to think about this earlier today. One less thing I'll have to stress about.

Thank you all for the likes. I didn't quite finish the first run today, but I did successfully create the tabbed plank for the 12th gunport on each side. It took 3 tries to get the process down and the first one done. I started by measuring out a little bit from each side of the gunport as well as scribing a 1/4" plank against the rest of the run as below left. I then removed all the excess and measured a 1/32" shim against the bottom of the gunport. I cut the bottom of the gunport and then used the shim to measure out to the uprights. Then the plank went to the cutting mat where I scribed each mark against the 45 degree angle and chipped out that piece. End result for the starboard (on top) and port (bottom). I'm trying not to obsess over the difference between the aft notch on the two planks. ...and installed.

Thanks for the likes; it continues to motivate. Long update on pictures for what seems a very little amount of work today, but it feels like a critical milestone. I installed the first plank under the gunports on each side and finally got everything level. I thought everything was great yesterday, but turns out there was one small, but critical element off. I'm much better with a knife than a file, so I found a process that works well for me. I started by carefully carving out plank to match the gunports after making sure the plank was solidly in the rabbet. Then I used a scrap piece of 1/32" wood to rough in the boundaries of the ledge around the gunport. I then cut out to the width of the ledge and finally just had to carve/file/sand another 1/32" deep across the width. and the final result installed Now this is where it gets interesting. When I started carving out the 1st gunport on the port side, it seemed like I was removing a lot more wood than I had on the starboard side, but the plank still lined up properly at the bow and the 2nd gunport. When cutting the gunport, I had sanded it excessively deeper than the starboard side, so all the measurements I had been doing had never taken into account that I'd taken almost 1/32" off the sill. The notch in the picture only had to have the uprights cut out and be sanded smooth. I didn't have to cut it any deeper Now I feel comfortable that the port and starboard sides are in alignment and looking forward to finishing the first run under the gunports tomorrow./

That looks fantastic. The first photo almost looks like a drawing.

Thanks very much for the likes. Final run of the wales went in and once I cleaned everything up I discovered the best course of action turned out to be option 2. I used a 1/4" plank for the first section of the black strake (stem to aft of gunport 3) and it just required tapering from the 2nd gunport fore and aft back to 7/32". Now all the gunports are in alignment. Hopefully no more surprises from here. That was fast. Looks like I'm going to have to notch the plank directly under the bollards. This seems to be a pretty common issue, so I won't lose any sleep over it and will just notch the plank and carry on. Really looking forward to notching out those gunports tomorrow. So far, so good at the stern as well.

Thanks JJ. That makes a lot of sense and a really good point on getting up to speed on edge bending. Plenty of scrap to work with and I think before installing the black strake I need to clean everything up and check my measurements before I get to the gunports. I'm noticing some small inconsistencies starting to creep in and will need to resolve them. For example, I discovered even with all the measuring and remeasuring, when I was dry fitting, the black strake was riding a little higher on the q gallery entrance on the port side. Turns out to have been an issue with the angle on the lower framing, so a tiny wedge has everything measuring up properly now on the stern. At the bow, it looks like the gap between gunports 2 and 3 and the wales is between 1/32-1/64" larger than on the starboard side, so I have to think through the best course of action. The measurements are good on the first gunport and from the 4th again, so it's only the space between 4-ish bulkheads. So I can 1) shim between the wales and black strake on the port side to get everything in alignment and make up the difference with the second layer. 2) Use a 1/4 plank for the port black strake and taper it into alignment 3) Use a 9/32 plank for the first run under the port gunports and fit it into alignment. 4) Make up the difference in space between the gunports. I'm leaning towards option 3 as that run goes the first 5 gunports and a very gradual taper that is broken up with notches for the gunports should not be noticeable. I think once the wales are installed and faired, I can take better measurements and see how best to correct.