BANYAN

Thanks all for looking in and for the words of commiseration and advice. I am well progressed with the jib now (photos soon), I am just about to add the bands and wolding etc. the other positive of all this is that I had the preventer sheave and stay sheave in the bees the wrong way around in the original - someone is perhaps trying to tell me not to accept 'close enough' Danny, I thought of you when it happened. Unfortunately, I have not yet made a base board, and as I have already stepped the mizzen and rigged the shrouds I have to turn her upside down in the lap to allow for the mast - I will definitely heed the advice though cheers Pat

And just as I was getting a roll on with the rigging ---- Disaster (well a minor disaster) I don't know how many times I have read of this, and despite taking care, I still managed to drop my Endeavour while working on her in my lap - Bow first. While attempting to refine the patch up on the mizzen deadeyes that had come adrift from their chain plates, I had to try to turn the model upside down to get at the bottom of the channels. Well, some how or another I relaxed my grip, and in one of those surreal slow-motion events I saw her heading towards bow first. Despite my efforts I was not quick enough! The one small positive is that as she went plumb straight down all the impact was taken by the jib boom and as I had some rigging on it, appears to have absorbed all the damage. The boom was broken in half and no other damage from the drop. however to get the inboard end off the model, I had to prise some of the deck planking away. The attached shots show the initial deck repair (some aging to add but almost all will be covered by the new boom. the other shot sows the shaped boom after bending into the required shape. Oh well, something had to happen eventually; I just hope there are no more. cheers Pat

Seriously nice work Remco; a great looking stove. Druxey; subtle cheers Pat

Hi Gary very nice work; be careful though, too cute and Mr Jones may need an attire change to something more frilly cheers Pat

Hi all, I have had practically the same experience as Wefalck with the dental loupes. I bought a pair via eBay (Chinese) but find them near impractical to work with. I am not sure if the medical variety would do any better. Wefalck, if you find a decent set of clip on magnifiers could you let us know please?. I would like a pair for my normal glasses as well as for use with safety glasses but have the same issue re the clip-on mechanisms. Everything I have seen so far either has cheap and clunky clip mechanisms. A set oof clip ons with variable (2x and 3.5x) equal on both side that could flip up out of the way, and that can be used on both reading and safety glasses would be the best of both worlds. However, most of the stuff I have seen is the cheap polished plastic type magnifiers that (for me) do not provide a nice clear working environment that would allow comfortable working over longer periods. We will probably have to settle for interchangeable magnification inserts but a decent glass magnifier would be great. There are now cheap variable / adjustable reading glasses that have a adjustable settings for each eye available in Australia, I wounder if that sort of technology is transferable to the magnification type glasses/visors etc? These are not the ones I have seen, but a similar concept: http://www.gizmag.com/eyejusters-adjustable-glasses-developing-world/22734/ cheers Pat

Excellent work Remco, very authentic look andf feel to it - Congrats on such a remarkable job. Now, I have a BBQ that needs some brick work done..... cheers Pat

Very nice Gary and a big huzzah to Mr Jones for his clothing (and the slop bucket ) cheers Pat

"Don't be too hard??? Gary, that excellent work and a fine example of good craftsmanship! Going to add the slops bucket ? cheers Pat

Hi Doris, the level of finish and quality on this model is superb. I hope you are entering this in a competition as if it does not win a prize I don't know what would - absolutely beautiful work! cheers Pat

Coming along very nicely Ron, the next layer of planking will seem like a doddle after that cheers Pat

Hi Patrick and Mark. The reference I used was Planking Techniques for Model Ship Builders by Donald Dressel. On page 103/105 he discusses the king plank "which will run into the hatches and mast locations, as well as any other obstruction down the middle of your deck. It should run right down the middle of your deck with its centre matching the centreline.." He does not provide any guidance as to its width etc. Harold Underhill also mentions the king plank in his Plank-on-Frame-Models volume 1, but also does not provide any guidance for size etc. David Antscherl in Volume 1 of his excellent series HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780, also discusses the king plank on page 270 under the heading - The centreline plank. "I have shown this as a 12" wide untapered plank (The modern name is the king plank). remember that it is 3" thick, standing 1" proud of the deck flat. The pillars for the upper deck beams will tenon into it. The plank's edges champher down to meet the flat of the deck, and it tapers in thickness by 1/4" aft of the ladderway to meet flush with the mizzen mast partners. Note that the plank butts against the hatch head ledges and mast partners...." I know I found some additional information that informed me that the king plank was wider than the deck planking width. I had no real rule-of-thumb but I went for 3/4 the width of two plank (e.g if planks were 6" wide, then the king plank would be 9" but I STRESS I have no evidence to support this; simply what I chose at the time. I also could not find any information as to whether the plank should be a continuous piece between obstruction or fall into the same 'length rule' as for deck planking (based on the period in which the ship was built). As I had several centre line obstructions (masts, hatches, etc.) I chose to use a continuous length between each obstruction. As Mark Taylor points out, this probably had a construction aspect related to it so the less joints the better. I hope this helps a bit? cheers Pat

Hi Mark and Patrick, Sorry was a bit distracted last night but should get to it later today - haven't forgotten. cheers Pat

Great question, I used it for my Endeavour deck planking as my research at the time indicated it was in use at that time but I do not recall where I read it. I'll have another look at my library this evening to see if I can find it again. I'd also be interested to see if there was any 'rule of thumb' re its dimensions in relation to the remaining planking. Cheers from another Patrick.

Thanks Greg, sorry I wasn't overly clear. It was more a question to myself noting the finish you achieved when I mentioned the Cap. I was referring to simulated leather insert in the hole in the Cap. You said you used copper which you have obviously cut then flanged. I am going to try the same with my paper today. Sorry for misleading you. One thing I have noticed (you have also brought to my attention, is that I have the leader sheaves in the bee the reverse way around so that my topmast stay and preventer will be the reverse fitting. I don't how this happened as I was sure I had it right; I think when I disassembled it to fix the original Cap (which I snapped) I must have put it back the wrong way. I think that rather than disassemble it and risk even more damage I will simply leave it be. The more learned rigging people among us may explain why the preventer or stay should be one side or the other? I will sit on this for another day or so before resigning myself to live with it or not ? cheers (oh yeah! 5 nil, 5 nil, 5 nil ...... how sweet that is :) ) Pat

Thanks for the feedback Greg; that copper came up very well. I have used brown paper which I brushed with stain then dullcote to stiffen it; but I have only done the strip on the boom. I'll post a photo soon. I was wondering how to go about the cap The netting was done in the nick of time lucky you're a fast worker. The netting looks excellent; I'll have to take a look at their site - any particular scale? cheers Pat

Nice work again Greg! What did you use for your simulated leather in the cap? Nice work on the netting also, did you hand make it? It is a really nice scale. cheers Pat

Very nice work; a great enhancement for a model and appears the way to go in the future for scratch and 'bashed' kits cheers Pat.

Hi Tom, Chuck has pretty much answered as much as I could and based on his greater experience. My comments are based on assumptions as I have not actually derived how Jim's spools spin. My assumption is that when you stop the winding by tension on the hand wheel, this causes the spools to engage. As Jim states you need to use RH laid stock thread and load/configure the spools/bobbins in a set way, this implies that the spools are spinning the rope from threads against the lay of the thread which is now pre-tensioned. What I meant in my statement is that I allow the basic/initial motion of the winding action to take affect to pretension the threads before I start spinning the rope. My current 'work flow' is to start the machine at the desired speed and hold the take-up spool so that the machine pretensions the threads and starts to wind the slack to the point I feel resistance on the wound threads pulling on the take-up spool. At that point I tension the hand wheel and hold it to engage the spools. This seems to create a reasonable rope as you have the counter tensions of the stock thread and the made-up scale rope working against each other to keep the rope 'tight' or in suspension/balanced. I hope this clarifies my comment? cheers Pat

Chuck is spot on with the Byrnes ropewalk (and I therefore assume the Russian version as well). You can pre-wind BUT the speed of the machine is the most important. As Jim has a variable speed controller (no scale) this has to be pure judgement. I learned the hard way to first spin the machine for a short while (no tension on the hand wheel) until the strands have wound to a 'certain' degree - this is a judgement thing also based on the number of strands and size of the stock thread. When it looks about right apply tension to the hand wheel to causer the spools to wind the rope strands and lay the rope up. I also harden the same way as Chuck by stretching as it comes off the spool but as I use a cotton-polyester thread it also retains some elasticity so I hang lengths of scale rope with a swivel weight at each end over night to try and remove all stretch. The other factor I have found with Jims machine is to stay SLOW! Jim suggests you can speed it up as you get practice / become more experienced; however, I find that speeding it up too much requires different pre-tensioning/winding of the threads. I have had best results keeping the machine relatively slow - the best I could describe is that I am winding the take-up spool at about one turn every two seconds (ish). I hope that helps. Please note I am still only making LH lay rope and have yet to experiment with RH lay, but as with Chuck's rope, I can cut it with no parting of the strands at all. cheers Pat

Thanks John, Alister, Mike, Greg, Brian and Slog for looking in and the encouragement. Once I get these shrouds sorted I should be able to proceed at a better pace. John, yeah, this was a surprise as these were silver soldered, The served shrouds tend to not stay straight and need a little pressure to keep a neat appearance - perhaps I am serving them too tightly. Greg, the shrouds are giving me enough grief (getting them to the right length as the serving on the foreleg of the front pairs proves to stiffen them, and then when the shrouds are 'pinched' together near the tops, it shortens them again (no planning/foresight by me on this so a big learning curve) - oh well live and learn - and... thanks (I think)) for the warning on the ratlin' Slog, Mike and Greg, the basic idea for this rigging station is one adapted from Hubert Sicard (Wooden Ship Modelling for Dummies); he calls it his 'rigging crab' due to the multiple appendages. I have made all bar the small drawers in the base (which dictated the width and depth of the station) which I obtained from an artists supplier (used to store their brushes etc) and are reasonably cheap. The upright can be adjusted up and down depending on what length you need for the job at hand. I still need to add an adjustment device on the horizontal that holds the alligator clips to give me just a little more room behind the rope when serving or whipping etc. The only other planned addition is a jig to hold the yardarms when rigging footropes but I haven't worked that out fully yet. cheers Pat

Hi again folks, a small update to the build. I have been busy preparing some details for the rigging. The ropewalk is now up and running along with my server and I have manage to produce a couple of shrouds etc with a decent serving on the fore shroud of the front pair (mizzen). Not happy with the length of these so I will probably redo them. I also have to repair a chain plate that came adrift under pressure but unsure whether to attempt this on the model or remove the channel edge strip (afraid I may damage the whole channel though in doing so) and then replace the whole chain with deadeye after repair. One of the photos shows my rigging station which is being modified as I find better ways to setup various rigging activities. cheers Pat

Hi Jim and Ulisis, firstly I hope all had a great Christmas. Jim, thanks for looking in over your break - much appreciate the feedback to Ulisis as it helps me isolate my issues also. Ulisis, the looks of your rope is very similar to this the problems I experienced and described when I had a loose inner belt. Mine is starting to go that way again and the 'o-ring' on mine is relatively new (replacement). Jim, mine is still creating rope that I can use but I have to select parts of it and stretch it (a lot) after making to remove the bumps Ulisis reports. To my non-mechanical mind, it appears to be the belts slipping again as when looking closely at the rope, it seems to be one strand that stands proud of the others (as if not the same amount of tension is applied. I have checked and isolated spool winding as I have a rig set up now to supply the right amount of tension evenly to all spools as they are wound. Would a leather belt work in lieu of an o-ring on the inner pulleys or do you need a certain amount of flexibility so as not to overstress the mechanism? cheers Pat

Very nice Slog! keep jumpin about mate, keeps the reader more interested also cheers Pat

No problem at all. This is a well machined ropewalk and when the belts are tight makes very nice LH rope (still experimenting on RH) using a very small footprint - its a pity these belt issues are arising (well for me anyway). I don't want to pull it apart to measure the belts at the moment as I am trying to make the LH (cable) laid shrouds and stays at the moment. I have tired with shroud laid (fourth rope through body from the spool behind) but the lay just not sit very well - early days though and could be partly related to the loose belt. I would put up pictures but it is hard to show the detail of the issue. In appearance my rope looks like one of the strands sits slightly proud of the other two which is what makes it look lumpy; then every so often a small kink n one of the strands appears (like a small crows foot, I am now making smaller lengths (about 1.5 to 2 m max) which when I stretch to set it and take the elasticity out, settles the lay and it is acceptable to work with. cheers Pat

I have got mine up and running now (finger problems - I was not holding the tension wheel at the right time) - I wish there was a way to secure this - tried the rubber band trick you mentioned but it kept slipping - will need to try a better/stronger rubber band. You really need one hand free and without a motorised take-up spool it just makes it too hard to control speed etc. I am now making rope but having the same issue as you mention, it appears lumpy. The made-up scale rope does improve if I stretch it, but shouldn't have to I also think the belt is a bit loose; this is the same problem I had in the first instance when I had to return it to Jim for checking and it proved to be the belt being loose - made beautiful rope straight up after he returned it, but now. I really do think the belts are suspect as my main drive belt is severely cracked and looked perished, and my new belt on the spool pulleys is already starting to show some perishing (and I have had it stored away under cover). The new belt seems quite loose again, I can push it all the way back to the hub centre with very little fingertip pressure. I am waiting for Jim to return and see if he can provide the appropriate data for the belts and I think I am going to try those 'green' (felt or leather?) belts that drive the small mills and lathes used by Jewellers. They seem to be much better quality. These rubber ones are hopeless!