AnobiumPunctatum

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Since that last view was popular, I will have to take some more. Without the use of mirrors or other micro devices this has to be done while the camera will still fit down in he hull. The picture was taken with a 2 1/2" x 4" Canon Powershot set down onthe keelson. The photo was then cropped. The Powershot is not the smallest of cameras, but it is a lot smaller than the slr I use for most of the pictures. The light from above plays tricks with the colors. I could have done a better job with the post-processing. The picture is a bit light. Here is a better version.
 

 
Ed

Really wonderful x-section

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 62 – Lower deck framing continued
 
Thank you all for the comments and the likes on the last posts.  Work continues.
 
Once the deck beams are fitted, the deck framing is all about knees.  Below is a set of lodging knees that have been fitted between two beams.
 

 
Monofilament dummy bolts have been CA glued in and sliced off flush.  The knees now will be sanded to remove all trace of the CA and to round off the bottom edge.  Note in this picture the two dashed lines on the drawing running parallel to the side.  The upper line is the inside edge of the waterway.  This will cover the butting of the knees as well as the ends of the ledges.
 
In the next picture one of the generic-shaped lodging cut earlier knees is being fit.
 

 
For the lodging knees this is mainly a matter of beveling the edge to fit the frames and to adjust the fore and aft width.  The next picture shows the fit from above.
 

 
In the next picture the forward pair of lodging knees and the hanging knees under the next beam have been installed.
 

 
Fitting of the hanging knees involves quite a bit of trimming of the original cut-out shapes due to the change in hull curvature.  I suspect a bit more lofting work would have been helpful. 
 
I am following up the beam installation progressively with the carlings and ledges.  In the next picture a ledge is being marked for cutting – held by a surgical clamp.
 

 
The ledges are not rounded, so they need to be faired off to match the beams.  A small sanding block is being used in the next picture to fair off the top of all the framing.
 

 
The last picture shows the framing completed thus far.
 

 
The waterways will put a neat cap at the side on the intersection of all these deck members with the frames at the side.
 
Ed

A little progress on the whales, but first tool time.
I should have bought the rip taper jig from Jim when I ordered my table saw. Unsure why I didn't at the time. I made my own version. A few brass bars, aluminum plate & bolts assembled in the right way makes a very useful tool.
 

 

 

 
The whales are made from pear tinted with Fieblings (mahogany and black 6:1) The edges are pre painted as if fear for the paint running into places it shouldn't the sides will first be sanded flush before I can paint it. All planks are pre bend using a steam iron and the admiral's hair dryer
 
All looks a bit messy at this point
 

 

 
Remco

Thanks for the likes and compliments.
 
Maury, Michael, the brass was hard bent off the model. Although 0.2 mm bends quite easily, making 90 degree bends was done on my hold and fold. the other shaping was done with round nosed pliers. Final adjustments were done on the model.
 
Meanwhile the lower counter is planked but not yet faired.
 

 
Remco

So some more pictures...I have been busy on a job but try to work a bit every day on the Triton.
 

 

 

 
I am pretty much at this point fairing the inside, adjusting frames and adding the gunport sills.
 
Here I am fairing the inside using and old plane iron both ends work well.
 

 

 
Measuring the sill height from the frame plan I printed our and taped together, the rueler across the bottom in my Drywall T
 

 

 
I need to put a new outside support (riban) for the frames then I will start build the lower deck
 
To be continued:

Сontinuation
 

Not much progress to show over the last few weeks.  Spring has finally arrived so the model does not get as much attention as it desires.
 
I decided to install the string at the waist and the forecastle and quarter deck clamps.  The string at the waist is a single row of planking with its lower surface forming the top of the gun port and its upper surface forming the top of the bulwark. It continues fore as the forecastle clamp and aft as the lower quarter deck clamp.  Hook scarves are used throughout. The apparent decorative element at the fore end of the quarter deck clamp will actually be used to help lock in the spirketing.   
 

 

 
The upper quarter deck clamp has simple butt joints.  In the pictures is appears that the lower edge of the string overhangs the gun port.  It actually is flush with the top of the port.
 

 
I encountered two problems.  First, I measured the height of the clamp at the stem incorrectly and had to replace it.  On the picture you can see a faint pencil line indicating where the clamp was originally positioned.  The second problem has the potential to be more serious.  I have two rows of planking with the top edge just coming up to the bottom of the aft port opening.  David's layout shows the planking runs above the level of the port with a chock connecting the planks fore and aft of the port.  At this point it is too late to change the port.  I think I measured the port height off David's mylar and the clamp height off the NMM plans.  Hopefully it will all work out OK.  The key is that the top of the opening is below the top of the deck beams.
 

 

 
 

Moin Jürgen,
 
that's a big surprise. I am really happy that you continue your build.
 
Will we meet next week at the exhibition in Wilnsodrf?

Hi All,
 
The framing of the gun ports is moving along nicely and one pleasant thing I learned was that
there are no sweep ports to worry about.
 
A batten strip was pinned to the bulwarks at the previously marked reference lines and a smooth
run was established. I then marked the bulkheads for the final placement of the sills. The sill and
lintels were cut from boxwood.
 

 
At the bow the bridle port fell over a bulkhead and the bulkhead had to be cut away prior to framing it.
 

 

 
To add the lintels a piece was cut at the correct height and long enough to sit on both sills this
gave a consistent height and eliminated the need to measure each one.
 

 
I have done the preliminary sanding to the out board side.
 

 

 
On to the transom soon!

Thanks David - the wood for the taffarel is Castello Boxwood. I'm using dark Swiss Pear for the Capping Rail.
 
Thank you Greg - I imagine it would have taken quite a while to hollow out all the Coving from one piece   . I notice you didn't fit the Capping Rail or Quarter Pieces to your Pegasus - any reason for that? It would have been nice to see it all fitted to your ship - it was a little difficult trying to imagine the whole assembly from the plans.
 
Thank you too Al.
 
Capping Rail
 
The Capping Rail is very tricky to make. I traced around the taffarel to get the inner shape for the five pieces which I cut on the scroll saw from dark Swiss Pear to match the rest of the railings. Much finessing was need to get a good fit   . I found it best to work from the centre toward the ends :
 

 

 
  Danny

After the drawing works it was time to make sawdust.
 
First part is the keel, which is a little bit tricky. The keel has a light curvature and the joints are perpendicular to the base line.
I cut some small stripes with my cirular saw, make the joints and glue the parts together. Next I added the parts for the stem.
The picture shows the step on the building board. I use Tamiya Tape to avoid that the keel glues on the paper during the build.

 
The next pictures show the complete assembled backbone for the small vessel,

 
the stem with with the changed layout of the parts,

 
the keel and the rising wood,

 
and the stern post with the after deadwood.

 
The next steps are cutting the rabbet, the keelson and the building board. Then I can start with the frames.
 

I was really suprised that I did not find a build log about the Naval Cutter Alert on MSW 2.0. I know that there exist some pictures of a model on the old MSW
 
The first source for building a model of this small vessel are Peter Goodwins book "The Naval Cutter Alert, 1777", published by PhoenixPublications Inc. 1991 and the two original drawing of her sister Rattlesnake (1776) which you will find on the homepage of the NMM.
There also exist two paintings of Joseph Marshall of the ship, which are exhibited in the Science Museum, London.
I found also an Sheer and Profile drawing of Alert which was published by the NRG.
 
The sheer and profile of the NRG and Goodwin differ from the original drawing. They show the maximum width of the ship not at frame 0. Perhaps my Engish is to bad, but I could not find any reason for this. So I decide to draw my own lines. which were based on Goodwin and the original drawing.

 
The drawing is not finished, because I decided only to draw what I need for my build.
 
Next step was the keel. Goodwin shows for the pass between keel and lower apron a solution which I could not find on any original cutter drawings.

 
For the after deadwood he does not offer any possible solution

 
I decide to follow the original drawing of Cheerful 1806 for the pass between keel and lower apron. The flat joint at the foremost keel part is shown on original drawings of this period (for example on HMS Triton). For the after deadwood I decided to use a bearing line. I am not sure if this is common for ships of this period.
The next picture shows my completed keel drawing:

 
Goodwin uses for his design the common frameing pattern of double and single frames. I am not sure that this design was used for the original ship. For the Swan class sloops only single frames were used. This you will also find on the drawing of Cheerful and other cutters. Also the wide of the frame parts are not clear. In his drawing he uses much smaller futtocks than he descibed in the text part of the book. In his "Construction and Fitting of Sailing Man of War" he gives a third solution.
What now? Alert is a practice model for me to get the experience to continue my HMS Fly build. Marshall shows on his paintings an simplified frameing design, so I decided to use this. Every frame is 8'' width followed by 8'' space. For the port side I like to show the clinker planking.
On my drawing the final design for the last frame and the hawse pieces is missing in the moment.

 
The drawings for every 31frames and 21cant frames are finished.

 
I am not sure in the moment if I will use the original practice with chocks or the simplified method of Harold Hahn for my build.
 
It will be very nice if you have further information about the cutters of this time. I found the Marmaduke Stalkartt on Google-books, but they didn't scan the plates. Perhaps one of the MSW user can help me to confirm my decisions.

My holidays are over so the progress is much slower than before.
 
I did the keelson before building the frames. So it is in my opinion much easier to adjust it with the fore and after deadwood.

 
Before glueing the keelson on the backbone It take a long time. All frames have to be installed first.
 
Today I worked on my first frame. It took quite long to find my way to build the frame. The result is not perfect, but I think doing the next frames will be much easier and faster. If it's interesting for someone I will do a step by step description from building one of the next frames.

After the drawing works it was time to make sawdust.
 
First part is the keel, which is a little bit tricky. The keel has a light curvature and the joints are perpendicular to the base line.
I cut some small stripes with my cirular saw, make the joints and glue the parts together. Next I added the parts for the stem.
The picture shows the step on the building board. I use Tamiya Tape to avoid that the keel glues on the paper during the build.

 
The next pictures show the complete assembled backbone for the small vessel,

 
the stem with with the changed layout of the parts,

 
the keel and the rising wood,

 
and the stern post with the after deadwood.

 
The next steps are cutting the rabbet, the keelson and the building board. Then I can start with the frames.
 

Scratch-molding the rabbet will work well, I agree, along most of the keel. However, you will still need to cut the fore and aft ends with hand tools where the changing relationship of garboard angle to keel occurs.

You picked a nice vessel to model.  I have not seen very many of the Alert.  Many years ago I had the pleasure to listen to Roger Cole talk e on about his build.  If memory serves me I believe he published his work in the Journal.  If he did it would be an invaluable source of information.  I always like his KISS approach.  Keep it simple stupid.  I will be keeping an eye on your build and keeping notes.
David B

Christian,
 
I agree with druxey that it is easiest to cut the keel rabbet before framing.  The floor timbers will interfere with the v-gouge.  However, I believe the rabbet can be successfully formed after framing with a scraper like the one below.
 

 
On Young America there is no hogg on the keel so forming the complete rabbet leaves very fragile feathered edges on the upper corners.  I was afraid these would be damaged in later construction, so I only partially cut the rabbet (using this tool) before framing, then went back after framing with the scraper to finish the job.  The scraper rides on the bottom of the keel and needs to be made to clear the floor timbers - like the one in the picture.  I believe this method could be used to form the rabbet after framing.
 
Ed

My holidays are over so the progress is much slower than before.
 
I did the keelson before building the frames. So it is in my opinion much easier to adjust it with the fore and after deadwood.

 
Before glueing the keelson on the backbone It take a long time. All frames have to be installed first.
 
Today I worked on my first frame. It took quite long to find my way to build the frame. The result is not perfect, but I think doing the next frames will be much easier and faster. If it's interesting for someone I will do a step by step description from building one of the next frames.

After the drawing works it was time to make sawdust.
 
First part is the keel, which is a little bit tricky. The keel has a light curvature and the joints are perpendicular to the base line.
I cut some small stripes with my cirular saw, make the joints and glue the parts together. Next I added the parts for the stem.
The picture shows the step on the building board. I use Tamiya Tape to avoid that the keel glues on the paper during the build.

 
The next pictures show the complete assembled backbone for the small vessel,

 
the stem with with the changed layout of the parts,

 
the keel and the rising wood,

 
and the stern post with the after deadwood.

 
The next steps are cutting the rabbet, the keelson and the building board. Then I can start with the frames.
 

Really wonderful Ed

From John Fox from one of the other discussion groups:
 
"Check this out!
 
http://3d.si.edu/explorer?modelid=47
 
Pan, zoom, top, bottom, P&S views of Philadelphia as she sits in the Smithsonian. There's a measuring tape you can use to find dimensions and spacing of chosen features, like beam and frame spacing.
 
Now that is truly a cool thing to view!"
 
It requires Internet Explorer 11 to view (which I don't have yet...but I see it in my Update queue to download).

My general approach for fabricating and installing the beam sets has been one complete set at a time.  This worked well where there was no curvature of the hull but I had difficulty with the run of the outer carlings at the fore end of the upper deck and decided to change my approach as I neared the stern. I set out all of the beams and tack glued them in place.  I then drew fair lines for the outer carlings.  The deck beams were removed as I worked on them, only mortising the outer carlings.  The carlings were then tack glued without gluing the beam.  This continued until the last two beams.  The transom knee abuts the for end of the transom and extends along the hull just past beam 20.  It is set down on to the deck clamp and "bolted" to the frames and transom.  The last two beams are mortised into the transom knee.
 
The pictures show the run of the lateral carlings.  No finish shaping or sanding has been done yet.  I broke off the port counter timbers (again!) and just stuck it back on so that area looks out of whack.  I will probably have to remake it when it comes time to make the counter.
 

 

 

Mark, that looks like a promising start. I wish you all the best for your second attempt