FlyingFish

At least you are seeing in stereo now.

How the saw repair going Keith?

Great subject for a build - M. S-D seems to have been a remarkable chap. Bonkers even. An interesting project!

Yes Roger it's an unusual opportunity to learn from the actual rebuild- from what I've seen, you are correct in that the red tapes mark waterlines and buttocks although these do not correspond to the waterlines from the original surveyed linesplan. the architect appears to have reoriginated these when abandoning the stations to draw in the frames. The stock was marked directly from the templates, and cut out on the ship saw. The templates were supplied from the naval architect with all waterlines marked, including the DWL allowing each floor and futtock to be laid onto the grid accurately, and thanks to the powers of CAD grouped in 8' by 4' ply sheet format for best use of materials. Because I did not have these waterlines on my plans I had to re-originate my frames using my own waterlines which took a great deal of time. The compound curves caused by the 6 degree offset required the frames to be chocked on the assembly floor, this also allowing access for the clamps. The bevel allowance was presumably marked by putting the fore and aft templates on top of one another and the resulting difference written on the template, as shown below where frame 29 port aft and fore sections are being assembled. The Friends of Vigilance facebook site has a great week by week chronology of photogtaphs and commentry which shows all this in more detail here.

Very clean precise work Hakan; the lines are poetic!

Very interesting subject Nils - clearly you have found a corner of your house without a glass case in it!

So sorry to hear of Maggie's stroke; my thought are with you both. As you say the medical folk are so skilled and it sounds as if you too did a great job getting her speedy help when it happened. best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Thanks Keith, Gary, Welfalk Druxey and Rik and all for the likes. It feels more like stupidity sometimes! The reason for framing this way will become clear later inthe build; normally I'd have gone for sectional framing in ply. With your level of skill it would be child's play! Indeed, and watching the local shipwrights putting Vigilance together is very educational. The scale of the timbers even on this relatively small vessel are impressive. I tack the butt ends of the frames with CA and use kicker for speed, as I have over 350 frame parts to assemble, then use Titebond PVA to glue the two frames together as a pair.

Belatedly catching up - grea job with the 'thatching' I was going to suggest natural raffia, but your solution looks authentic. Enjoying the build.

If you mean to go-bar press, here's a proper one in action. My son and I are making a guitar episodically when he visits. the ash bars are flexible and hold down the struts on the inside of the concave surface guitar body whilst the glue sets.

Very precise work Valeriy. It would be wonderful if, some day when you have time, you would write a tutorial on soldering and fabrication in metal. I'm sure it would be a best seller!

That's a blow. Good luck with the repair. I'd get a trilby if I were you.

Framing – assembly. Vigilance has 10” paired frames from # 1 – 34. Each consists of two 5” frames, with a 21” ‘room’ between pairs. Five further 6” single perpendicular frames #35 to #39 before the cant counter timbers in the stern. There is no datum shared by all frames. Because of the rake, Waterline #0; top of the frame foot and the sheer/centerline datum for this frame is about 0.6” different fore to aft, at 1:32nd scale which is less than 0.5mm and is lost in the final sanding to attach the keel, keelson and covering board, so can be ignored. I just lean them a tad aft to get that tiny offset required. In the centre of the boat the differences are minimal, so this only really becomes obvious at each end where the bevel is much more pronounced. I have found that in practice you just need to eye it carefully to make sure the two halves look aligned. It’s a bit hit and miss to be honest. Frame pair #3 templates, Framing Jig (After Ed Tosti) As you can see the Yard are laying out frames on a lofting floor using plywood templates. Note the bevels and the shape made more complex by that 6.5 degree rake. The frame is fore-face up, the floor timber being aft. It’s very skilled work, although they make it look easy! I’m using the Ed Tosti-style jig. The only adaptation is the addition of a removeable mini go-bar press (familiar to luthiers) which is useful to hold down any parts of the frames that need keeping still. The futtocks have previously been roughly sanded to the line for bevelling thus: from stem to centreline, the fore frames outer edge is sanded, and aft frames inner edge. The opposite from centerline to stern, if that makes sense. Wider of the two frames in the pair (aft in this example) is assembled first, by laying onto its template in the framing jig. This keeps everything aligned. The joints between futtocks are wiped with superglue set with kicker. The second frame in the pair (fore) is assembled in the same way. When dry the paper backing is removed. I thought of then gluing it onto the centre template and rough sanding to the line, but its really not necessary other than for the very offset pairs near the stem. The frames are carefully aligned one on top of each other, using fresh aft template as a guide, matching the waterline, sheer and keel line together. When all is lined up the frames are glued with titebond and held down using the clamps. The next pair are prepared on the right, and some sort of flow established. So far I can produce three or four frames in a session. The frames are then carefully bevelled by hand. Holly and field maple being very hard timbers produce superfine dust which simply floats about the shop, so I sand into an extractor funnel which seems to help, and run the extractor throughout. Body plans for fore and aft frames printed on transparencies and laminated serve as a quality check to ensure the sheers match, and the beam is correct. These will be used for erecting the frames later. Frames will later be pinned in scale bolts (5/8th = 0.5mm), and the wood was chosen to give a variation in colour, and grain to help see the separate parts. I'm grateful to the Friends of Vigilance CIO for continued access to the boat, plans and information. A great collection of photographs of their restoration can be found here.

Its a good point, Wefalck. We shall probably never know for sure. Too right, Gary; it's taking a long time. finished cutting out the last of the components today, and making steady progress on assembly.

Try Boulevard Online, based in Worcester UK - listed on a well known online marketplace!

Hey Gary - great to see the shipyard doors back open! Congratuations on the Underwood - they are very fortunate to have such a handsome craft in ther collection. Pelican's planking looks great - and some very helpful tips and tricks as well! I agree with John - flush, otherwise exposing plank end grain would result, as well as increasing friction; neither desireable I'd have thought.

Excellent job Nils, congratulations.

I'm looking forward to the tutorial on turning square coamings! Presumably you use a dovetail bit and clamp the timber in the tool holder. We've been missing a trick here Haken! However from the photos, I;d say you are doing well without.

Ha! You are a tease Keith. My mind went all floppy for a bit! Why the black marker on the edge - is this for a white tick strip?

No - I have a wheelbarrow.

No illusion - and well spotted! Yes, 6 degrees aft. See post #13 - and I'd welcome any thoughts you may have on its purpose!

When I said 'it's going alright so far'... I spoke too soon. Well, despite knowing that the foreword frames will need a wider bevel I went ahead a stuck the templates on the wood too close together. A silly mistake, and costly in time. At least I didn’t cut the wood yet. It’s an example of one of those repetitive tasks, cutting out and sticking down multiple templates (whilst listening to a podcast) that allows the mind to slip into neutral. In my case neutral never seems far away… This photo below illustrates the bevel required on the first 4 frame pairs, and that 6° rake makes it even more pronounced of course, as well as adding twist into the frame. So ‘two steps back’ as they say, and this time I printed a framing plan-view to act as a visual check when setting out. Final cut-outs of frame pairs 1-25 in aft and fore versions, waiting assembly. All for now.

Well despte your cold you are making good progress. Working things out without having the right machine tool is very good for the soul. I pity all those people with lathes, mills and suchlike. Must take all the fun out of it.😉

Congratulations on the Whiskey plank Hakan - Looks wonderful. You have earned that dram!

After cutting out on the scroll saw, each futtock is sanded down to within 0.5mm of the line – this should be enough for the bevel. The ends were squared on the disc sander. The tweezers are for retrieving futtocks that go down the pipe into the shop vac and end in the pre-Cambrian layers of dust. Frame pairs 15- 25 ready for assembly. Only another 28 pairs to go. It’s been a productive day. And England won the first test match against India.