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Glen McGuire

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Everything posted by Glen McGuire

  1. Glen McGuire
    Hey Keith, I totally agree on less glue the better. There will be no outward stress on the glue joint so it should not take much glue at all to hold the 2 halves together. I'm thinking a 2 very small, carefully placed dots of glue. Plus, when the ship is later glued to the water in the 3rd bulb, that should add some additional strength to the joint. On your "crazy" suggestion, that's an interesting idea that I had not considered before. I think the downside would be that I'd have to cut the hull into 4 pieces based on the bottle opening size. One horizontal seam down the middle of the deck would not be very visible, maybe even lost under all the sails and masts (and Shiloh's corral 😃). Four vertical seams on the side would probably stand out too much. But I love the out-of-the-box thinking! Here's an illustration of glue plan:
  2. Glen McGuire
    Hey Ian, I thought of that as well but based on the width of the ship each half of the hull barely fits thru the opening when they are of equal size. So I'd have to reduce the size of the ship quite a bit to pull that off. To get the overall visual effect of the fleet, I need the main ship to be as much bigger than the other 2 as possible. So I'm kinda walking a tightrope here and pushing tolerances to the limit. We will see how the test glue goes. To your original point, if glue squeezes into the mast holes, then I won't be able to insert the masts nor will I be able to get the full hull back out of the bottle for repair. That would be game over!
  3. Glen McGuire
    That's a great comment!! I'm dying laughing!!!
  4. Glen McGuire
    That's a good question, Ian. Probably why a real engineer should be doing this instead of a Holiday Inn Express one like myself. 😃 Not only do I need to keep the glue from squeezing out into the mast holes like you mention, I also must prevent the glue from squeezing out underneath the hull. Otherwise, I'll glue the dang ship to the water in the wrong place! So my plan is to have a couple of small horizontal dowels coming out of 1 side of the hull with somewhat oversize receiving holes in the other side of the hull (oversize so I don't have to be too precise when I press the 2 halves together initially). I'll need to be very sparing with the glue application with a little bit in each receiving hole and then 2 or 3 dots on the hull mating surface. I definitely will do a test run on that.
  5. Glen McGuire
    Before starting work on the main treasure ship, I decided to do a test run on a few of the things that were causing me concern. First, I made a crude version of the John Fox III hinge to see if I could pull that off. It came out ok for a rough draft. I'll take more time on the real ones, but at least I know I can do it now. Second, I wanted to see if I could install the hinged (and folded) mast into a practice hull in the 1st bulb and then raise it in the 3rd bulb. That went ok as well. Third, I wanted to get a feel for what it would be like trying to put the 2 halves of the hull together inside the bottle. Due to the hull's width and how narrow the waistline of the bottle is, I found I need to put the 2 pieces of the hull into the 2nd bulb, press them together, then pull it forward into the 1st bulb for mast insertion. The practice run also helped me determine final hull dimensions and mast heights that will work. So now, I at least know the concept works in practice. However, with 9 masts and full sails to deal with for the real ship, I think it's going to be quite the challenge. And oh by the way, I told my son he was no longer allowed to suggest new subjects for SIBs.
  6. Glen McGuire
    Same here!
  7. Glen McGuire
    You may have just written my epitaph for this project, Grant!! 😃
  8. Glen McGuire
    Hey Lou - good question. 8 and 9 will fit thru full upright, but unfortunately they will need to fold over so that there's room for 4, 5, and 6 to fold and lay on top of them. I'd prefer to try and make as few of those delicate hinges as possible but I could not think of any easier way to make it work.
  9. Glen McGuire
    Hey Roger, you nailed it. I think the only way I can pull this thing off is to assemble the boats inside the bottle and slide them backwards to their spot. I'm going to try and do the assembly in the first bubble as I've learned that the further back I go in the bottle the less precise I am with the tweezers. The assembly will take some precision since I'll have to keep the hull still with one tool while I hold the mast with long tweezers and try to poke the bottom of it into its proper hole in the deck. Using my highly sophisticated CAD-like software (aka PowerPoint), I’ve sketched out the basic build plan for the main treasure ship along with the dimensions for each part. It’s going to require some unnatural acts on my part to make the ship as large as I think it needs to be and get it where it needs to be: 1. I’m going to do a split hull longitudinally so I can insert each side separately and then glue together inside the first bubble. Never tried this before. 2. With 9 masts, there will be a mix of hinged and non-hinged masts. Because of the hourglass shape, I will have to hinge the 3 main deck masts so they fit thru the narrow waistline. Even though the forward 3 masts are short enough to fit thru the waistline, they will need to fold down to make room for the folded main deck masts. 3. I’m going to try folding the masts forward and push them up with a tool rather than folding backwards and raising them with a pull string. 3. For the hinged masts, I’m going to try and replicate the amazing wireless hinge that @John Fox III did for his Endurance ex-Polaris build. I stole a picture from his build log and included below so you can see his incredible work. So for the first time ever, the moment of truth will not be squeezing the boat thru a tight bottle neck. Rather it will be the assembly process inside the bottle. Anxiety awaits!!
  10. Glen McGuire
    WOOHOO!!! She looks fantastic, Grant!!! The silkspan sails unfurled very nicely. Well done. Now I can't wait to see what you do for the display base!
  11. Glen McGuire
    I hear you, Ian. I bought one for my son when he was young, but once he got a Gameboy, the Erector set hit the back of the closet and never saw the light of day again! 😥
  12. Glen McGuire
    That is so cool. I bet you had an erector set when you were a kid, didn't you?
  13. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Pat. I've still got a bunch of things to figure out with the main treasure ship, but so far so good. In fact, I'm a bit nervous about how well things have gone up to this point. Usually by now, I've screwed up royally a few times. So I'm past due for a major fiasco!
  14. Glen McGuire
    You are right, Grant! Kind of like a cat - easier climbing up a tree than coming back down! I got each mast/sail out of the hull without too much difficulty. But to get the mast/sails to fit back thru the neck of the bottle, I had to carefully scrunch up the sails and angle all the battens relative to the mast. Not easy to do inside the bottle. It took a while, but the whole test assembly was worth it for the peace of mind that I can pull it off when the time comes.
  15. Glen McGuire
    Excellent work recovering from that snag with the sails moving along the lines. The moment of truth is at hand! I can't wait for the next update!!!
  16. Glen McGuire
    While I work thru my anxiety issues on how I’m going to tackle that main treasure ship, I decided to try and alleviate another big anxiety issue - installing the masts (with sails attached) into the hull while the hull is inside the bottle. That would be a first for me since all my previous builds used masts with hinges. So before starting on the big ship, I decided to take the first 2 ships and do a test run. I put ship #2 in the first bulb, added all the masts, and slid it into the middle bulb. Then I did the same with ship #1. I had to put a custom bend on the ends of one pair of tweezers to make things work, but after that it was not too difficult Whew! One less thing to keep me awake at night! Now back to the main ship and trying to figure out what the approach will be.
  17. Glen McGuire
    OK Keith, you got me on that one. Some how, some way, there's definitely gonna be a mini-Shiloh on the deck!
  18. Glen McGuire
    Thank you for the comments and the likes. I’m pretty happy with how these first two turned out. But they were definitely just a warm up. Time now for the main event which is the main treasure ship. A site called The Model Shipyard has a finished version of the main treasure ship for sale. I've attached a few of their pictures below. It looks like a beautiful piece of work. The pictures also make it clear that the ship is going to be a doozy to try and replicate for this bottle project. Seriously, look at the dang thing. It’s like a floating farm! The quarter deck has plowed furrows with row crops growing. The main deck has various animal corrals (and before @Keith Black asks, there’s probably a refrigerated hold below where the penguins hang out). On top of all that, there’s 9 masts to deal with. OMG, what was I thinking! 😵
  19. Glen McGuire
  20. Glen McGuire
    Finished up all the sails and now Junk ship #2 is complete!
  21. Glen McGuire
    I'm getting nervous already! Good luck, Grant!!!
  22. Glen McGuire
    Amazing accomplishment yesterday - I managed to drill about a hundred holes with my #80 drill bit without breaking it! Normally I break one about every 5 tries. WOOHOO! Afterwards, it took an adult beverage or two to uncross my eyes from all that tiny drilling, but then it was time to spend a few hours up close and personal with the drill lathe and a pile of bamboo skewers to make the masts and sail battens. The 1st picture kinda shows the stages of how the battens for the sails are made. I cut the skewers into lengths that will cover 2 battens, drill 4 holes in each for the rigging (#80 bit), slap it into the drill lathe, sand it down to a little bit less than 1/32", and cut it into the 2 pieces. Rinse and repeat. The masts are dry-fitted in the 2nd picture.
  23. Glen McGuire
    Those sails look very sharp, Grant! I particularly like the way you did the reef bands. Well done! I am anxious to see how they survive the smash and un-smash when you put the ship in the bottle. If they come out looking good, I am definitely going to try that material and your method. Fingers crossed!!
  24. Glen McGuire
    On to the deck fittings. Like ship #1, there's not a lot happening on top. I'm going with the 2 half-pipe structures on the forecastle and quarter deck as mentioned above. Also, I'm adding a narrow shelter in the middle of the main deck. And then ladders to reach the forecastle and quarter deck. In previous builds, I made chumpy little ladders by just drawing horizontal lines (for steps) on a narrow strip of wood. I tried to do a little better this time by making ladders with actual poles and rungs. The ladder poles are .15" music wire and the steps are the inside strands of flexible 12 gauge copper wire. In the 3rd pic below, everything is dry-fitted. I'll secure them after I figure out what I'm doing with the 4 masts. I have not decided yet if I'm going to hinge them or try to install inside the bottle.
  25. Glen McGuire
    Great start, Dave. This is going to be fun to watch!

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