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Glen McGuire

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Everything posted by Glen McGuire

  1. Glen McGuire
    Welcome aboard, Rick. When you say the folks on this site have more knowledge than Google, you have no idea how right you are!! Seems like I learn something new every time I log on.
  2. Glen McGuire
    I also had a near heart attack moment during final assembly. Somehow I managed to drop a dime-sized blob of epoxy on the display-side of the carriage right between the trunion and the breech ring. And somehow I didn't notice it till the epoxy was almost dry. After alarming the entire neighborhood with my shrieks of anger and panic, I scraped off as much of the epoxy as I could with my fingernail, then spent about 20 minutes going over the spot very lightly with 220 sand paper trying not to take off any more of the wood surface. I finally got to a point where I thought there was no epoxy left, then gave the whole side a light rub with the tung oil. Afterwards, I could not tell any difference. OMG, what a relief.
  3. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Mike. I tried the Jax Pewter Black stuff but it kept rubbing off. I tried brushing it on like others suggest as well as multiple coats but still could not get it to work well. So I ended up rubbing it all off and just spray painting with Rust-oleum flat black.
  4. Glen McGuire
    Thank you, Keith. That was certainly a change of pace working at a roughly 1/12 scale instead of the usual 1/500! A cannon model? Hmmmmm. That is an interesting idea. I may have to put that on the list. It would certainly be easier the 2nd time around. I screwed up so many things along the way while building this one it's not even funny.
  5. Glen McGuire
    The carriage is now complete with the exception of the rigging. I’ll “tackle” that after finishing the ship. 🙄 The first pic shows all the pieces and parts of the carriage before assembly.
  6. Glen McGuire
    Finished making the last pieces of carriage hardware. For the breeching ringbolt I took a piece of copper wire, wrapped it around a dowel rod and soldered the ends. For the capsquare key I took a small brass rod, bent it into a circle around a small nail, and soldered it to part of a small finishing nail. The 2nd pic shows all the completed capsquare hardware.
  7. Glen McGuire
    @Deperdussin1910 Thanks for the comment. I do find the list very interesting. When Chappelle said the Independence was the first ship of the line commissioned by the US Navy, I assumed it was the first US ship of the line. But maybe he was alluding to the fact that the Dept of the Navy did not officially exist until 1794 and the Independence was the first one commissioned after that. The history is always fascinating.
  8. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Mike. Yes, I did put a touch on the end grain of the carriage sides. It was going to be a hair light without it and a hair dark with it. It was not going to be perfect either way, so I went with the slight darkening.
  9. Glen McGuire
    File this under "Questions I should have asked before doing something." The end grain is really exposed with the wheels and as soon as I applied the tung oil, I noticed it was darker that the long grain. So I buffed it quickly. Of course since I did it on 1 wheel I had to do it on all 4. It ended up being a touch darker but I can live with it. Lesson learned - I tested on the long grain but didn't think to test on the end grain. Thanks for your insight. I like the way you tested and laid out all the different shades of stain in your Pegasus build. In hindsight, I think varnish might have been the way to go, but I will definitely test all sides from now on!
  10. Glen McGuire
    OMG Joe! I've got 4 pieces of rail of various sizes lying around (along with a few tie-plates) and it's unbelievable how many things I use them for. Next to duct tape, they are about the handiest thing in my garage! Hey Grant, understood! As I mentioned in the first post, I was trying to avoid my own list of "other priorities" when I began this project! Still very much looking forward to when you are able to start your Amati Hannah. Thanks, Mike. I actually added a light coat of tung oil to the wood before this last set of pictures. It darkened it just a shade and gave it what I think is a richer tone. To my eye, the color is a bit darker than the picture so I'm not sure I'm not sure if I want to do anything more that would change it too much. How do you finish wood with this type of natural color? I've got minimal experience with wood-working like this so any advice is much appreciated. I actually looked for some Kunos oil that @gjdale mentions in his Capstan project but could not find any around here.
  11. Glen McGuire
    After that minor detour, it’s now time for the capsquares. After playing around with several different materials I finally decided brass was the easiest to work with. I bought a 1mm thick brass sheet from Hobby Lobby, cut 8cm x 1mm strips, and bent them into shape (1st pic). Piece of cake! Uh, not so fast. I looked at the carriage picture again and once again spotted something I’d overlooked. The ends of the capsquares are rolled up (2nd pic). Ugh! The only thing I could figure out to do was solder a brass rod to each end. So that’s what I ended up doing. The last pic shows how they look before cleanup. I think they’ll be ok after some filing and painting.
  12. Glen McGuire
    Every time I look at pictures of the real carriage it seems like I see something new. This time I noticed that it looks like there’s a thin sleeve bearing in the trunion groove on the top edge of the brackets. So I took some copper tape left over from the Alabama and used it for the bearing. It will be painted black later.
  13. Glen McGuire
    It's making my neck sore turning my head to study those pictures, but it's well worth it! Really beautiful work on that whole bowsprit assembly, Rob.
  14. Glen McGuire
    More superb work, Keith!
  15. Glen McGuire
    Welcome aboard! Your username reminds me of a really poor joke I heard the other day: Two robbers were robbing a liquor store when one robber grabs a bottle and asks the other robber "is this whiskey?" The other says "yeah but not as whiskey as wobbing a bank". Sorry! 😁
  16. Glen McGuire
    The axles have a collar and linch pin on each side that keeps the wheels (trucks) in place. For the collars, I took some brass brads, folded them around the axle, then drilled holes for the linch pins. For the linch pins, I’m using finishing nails since their head is similar in shape to what I see in the real pictures. For the trunions, my toolbox sacrificed a 6” long 3/8” socket extension. Unfortunately for it, it was the perfect diameter that I needed. The grommets on the end (which will rest against the bottle) are hard rubber dampeners from my dirt bike handlebars. Nothing is off limits when you’re scrounging pieces and parts! Next up, figuring out how to make the capsquares.
  17. Glen McGuire
    I am making slow progress on the carriage hardware – slow because it takes me forever to figure out what to use and what to do. I spend a ridiculous amount of time fiddling around with a whole bunch of different things trying to find something that works. The carriage has 2 tie-bolts with square heads that run the width of the carriage and protrude through countersunk holes in the side brackets. The front tie-bolt goes thru the transom and the rear supports the stool bed. To make the tie-bolts, I took a 1mm thick metal strip, cut it into 4mm x 4mm squares and soldered them onto the head of a common nail. There are 6 joint bolts that go thru the steps on top of the side brackets and 2 joint bolts that go thru the front bumper. I’m using some small nails with rounded heads for those. Mine are just for appearance as I am not pushing them all the way through.
  18. Glen McGuire
    Thank you, Pat! They help distract from all the flaws in my ship build! 😃
  19. Glen McGuire
    Hey Mike, I'm thankful to have you checking in on me. You always offer great ideas and insight which help make my builds better. For instance, I remember in your Charles Morgan log that you were using different woods for their natural color rather than staining or painting. I really liked that idea and it's one reason I wanted to go natural with the wood for this carriage. Thank you, Keith!
  20. Glen McGuire
    I finished all the woodworking for the carriage. This was definitely harder than I originally thought it would be! Just looking at carriage pictures, it seemed like a simple build. But when I got into the details, there was quite a bit more to it. I could probably say the same thing about my ship modeling in general! One thing I learned for sure is that if I’m going to do much more of this type of wood work, I’ve got to invest in some better tools. It took a looooong time to file, sand, file, sand, file, sand all these pieces to size. Regardless, this was fun! The last couple of pics are a dry fit just to get an idea if this thing is going to have a good look or not. There’s still some hardware to build/add (trunions, linch pins, cap squares, breach rings, etc), which is my next step. I’ll wait till the very end to add the rigging.
  21. Glen McGuire
    It was either house chores or another ship project. No brainer!!
  22. Glen McGuire
    Below are the side brackets, the fore and hind axletrees, and axles. The axles will be cut to their final length later. For the side brackets, I made them with 4 “steps” instead of 5 like the plans show (and pretty much every other carriage I’ve seen). I need a lower profile for the brackets. The normal profile would hide too much of the bottle and potentially obscure the front half of the ship. The fore axletree will sit vertically in the final assembly and the hind will lay flat.
  23. Glen McGuire
    Rum buttered popcorn??? Dang you, Keith. Now I've got to go shopping tonight.
  24. Glen McGuire
    For the “lug nuts” on the wheels, I used brass nails that are 3/8” long with a 3/32” diameter head, which I ground down to a flatter surface. They are supposed to sit flush in the wheel, but I do not have a flat base counter-sinker. So I used an end mill router bit to countersink each of the 80 holes.
  25. Glen McGuire
    The wheels were a particular challenge for me. I do not have any hole saws that were the sizes I needed, so I cut the wood into rough circles and hand sanded them into a final rounded shape. Then I used a flap sanding bit with my drill lathe to give them their final finish. I just love the end grain of the wood, which shows really well when looking up close at the wheels.

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