Snug Harbor Johnny
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Everything posted by Snug Harbor Johnny
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Welcome aboard, mate !
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Pin holes for the masts ... a great idea !! (I never thought of that.) I'm not glueing masts into their sockets anyway, since the rigging will hold them in place AND allow for someone down the road to repair or renew the rigging later. The masts will then be removable to do whatever work may be needed decades from now. A challenge is to drill is a hole for the bowsprit at the right angle, and there are examples where the vertical (or horizontal) angle is off in either direction. A hole for pinning may just solve the problem in that location as well, and bowsprit rigging can perfect the spar angle both in the vertical and horizontal planes. A small lathe or a drill jig can assure a central, straight pin hole in the end of the mast or bowsprit dowel. -
I'd might prepare the correct mast locations before decking everything in, by adding extra material on either side of the mainmast location (& the 4 corners of the new fore and mizzen locations, since they are at an intersection of frame members). Then after decking, a drill press with the hull held in a jig (allowing for rear mast rake) and a forstner or other wood bit would make decent holes.
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She's looking good, 'yar' that is !
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'Guess you have a lot of sanding dust. I try and vacuum at intervals for wood chips & dust, metal filings and odd bits. Hmmm, lost pieces get sucked-up too, but by then I already made duplicates and put them in plastic bags.
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When gluing down laser-cut aftermarket wood veneer decks to plastic model decks, PVA craft glue was recommended - and I tried it successfully on a decking project, which required some weights put on top to 'clamp' while curing (to avoid deck edges from curling up). I suppose that contact cement could work in this application ... yeah, I'm aware of what I said about contact cement on wood-to-wood applications elsewhere - but this is wood to plastic over a relative large flat area.
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Dear fellow builders, I regret having used the word "most" when I posted about the possible failure of using contact cement on ship model planking. I've experienced product failure more than once, yet do not have statistical evidence and/or test results to indicate what percentage of failures might occur. So in fairness, I've edited my original post to change 'most' to "some", of which I can personally attest. Please forgive my oversight and premature assessment based on anecdotal evidence. The revised post is pasted below: Some contact cements may not pass "the test of time", depending on the right amount being used with the right procedures (e.g., temperature, humidity, film layer thickness on each surface, correct partial cure before assembly, assembly technique, the absence of air bubbles, clamping pressure, time under pressure, etc,) ... While there are many examples of professionally produced laminated products lasting at least 50 years or more without delamination, there are also examples where cheaper products have failed - like in the 'builder grade' countertop in our kitchen that started failing 15 years after installation (we were the 3rd owners who bought the house 13 years after construction). We lived with it until we could afford to have the kitchen remodeled 10 years later, and wisely chose fused quartz counter tops.
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Some contact cements may not pass "the test of time", depending on the right amount being used with the right procedures (e.g., temperature, humidity, film layer thickness on each surface, correct partial cure before assembly, assembly technique, the absence of air bubbles, clamping pressure, time under pressure, etc,) ... While there are many examples of professionally produced laminated products lasting at least 50 years or more without delamination, there are also examples where cheaper products have failed - like in the 'builder grade' countertop in our kitchen that started failing 15 years after installation (we were the 3rd owners who bought the house 13 years after construction). We lived with it until we could afford to have the kitchen remodeled 10 years later, and wisely chose fused quartz counter tops.
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I suppose they could do a card version of the Mary Rose or Great Harry.
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I find that wood can be re-worked or improved easier than plastic or metal - although a project can easily be multi-media as desired.
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New discoveries are often resisted when presented. Examples: Sea fossil evidence found in the 19th century on mountain tops indicated that the Earth is vastly older than the approximately 4,000 years suggested by the Bible; Darwin & Wallace described Natural Selection as the mechanism of Speciation (still stubbornly rejected by some even today - there is a 'full size' Noah's Ark in Kentucky where humans cohabitate with dinosaurs); Hubble's discovery in the 1920s that there were other distant galaxies - and not 'spiral nebulae' close to us in a 'small' universe; Continental drift due to plate tectonics; that a meteor triggered a mass extinction 60 million years ago that finished-off the dinosaurs ... So it has been throughout history (ever read Carl Sagan's 'The Demon Haunted World'?). Don't be surprised or disheartened, mate - for your research is appreciated by more than a few among us.
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'Don't know about PREAC, but I have a "Chicago Tool" (Harbor Freight) mini saw that came with a far too coarse blade (4" diameter - 40 tooth, .060 kerf) for cutting planks and such for modeling. I needed a fine blade of 100 or more teeth - .040 kerf with a 1/2" arbor. 'Seems that is a DIFFERENT arbor than Dremel or the equivalent, and I had to search the internet to find something. Two brands were found - Tenryu and Warrior. So be sure to know the arbor size and blade diameter for your machine, then search the net for the # of teeth desired ... kerf appears to be proportional to the number of teeth. BTW, the mini saw I have is a cheapie - and I had to improvise a DQC fence for it (DQC = Dirty Quick and Cheap) by clamping wood to the table and adjusting by trial and error (lots of error) each time ... yet it cuts (no guard) 'good enough' for my low standards. Serious finger injury is possible with mini table saws, thus care and attention is required without being in a hurry to do anything.
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This aspect of the log provides real educational value. Firstly, I see now the need for reinforcement of the extended (prow) part of a clipper cutwater (or many 19th c wooden ships). It's not a single piece, but a buildup of many shaped sections joined together. Even though the wood is thick (what, around a foot?), it still can only take so much force before breaking, and a heavy ocean wave encountered at a side angle can present a massive amount of force. On the C.S. and big T, the (typical) reinforcement goes from the sides of the hull (incorporating the hawse hole) out to the sides of the cutwater to make a sturdy triangle when bolted through. McKay's hood is located higher up and joins over the the top of the cutwater. Perhaps this innovation presents greater streamlining in rough seas, and a small advantage over a long voyage amounts to a time savings that might amount to a couple days or more - not inconsiderable for the original purpose of the China Tea trade. There may be other factors not immediately seen as well. Everything on a sailing ship had a purpose, and even though my project is not a McKay design, the information in this log helps me appreciates important construction details. Now I suppose that a clipper with a naval hood that is Christened 'Robin' could be said to have (here it comes) ... a Robin Hood ?
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Ah, swivel guns ... anti personnel should an enemy board and gain ground. And the 'apparent' barrel size is exaggerated by the artist (as well as the upward angle) - but the concept makes perfect sense. The 'large' guns were located in the main hull for broadsides and to stabilize the ship. This is why I think that overloading the Mary Rose with armored fighters and equipment on all decks (and also in the fighting tops) were likely what put her 'over the top' (topsy turvy, actually) in stability.
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Um, I suppose a gang of Pirates could be considered navel 'hoods' ... 😉
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You could consider starting an ETSY shop online. The overhead costs are minimal if it is home-based, and ETSY collects applicable sales taxes and handles the money side of the transactions ... although there are fees for that. It took my Admiral a couple years to gain a reputation for her historic costume products, but she's done OK as a 'cottage industry'.
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Check out the current Gokstad build, where the builder just marks rivets with a pencil point.
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You might try miniature brass nails. The end on the interior below deck would not be visible. The ones above deck would have the ends trimmed with flush cutters inboard. I found some already aged bronze ones that might save you the trouble of finishing. You'd pre drill marked holes with a 'right sized' wire drill (tested on surplus wood first) so not to split the strakes. The heads (from the pictures) look about .046" in diameter - about an inch on the model's scale?
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A solid hull isn't needed to drill into for secure fastening of fife rails, etc. - as long as there is a reasonably thick sub-deck below deck planking. Where the sub-deck provided is on the thin side, additional material (say, basswood sheet cut to fit) can be glued between bulkheads flush with their tops to create a sub sub-deck to glue the sub-deck to. There are few things to spoil your day after a model is finished (other than dropping it or breaking the bowsprit) than for a fife rail to break loose (one that was merely glued to the deck planks).
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New brushes don't cost that much.
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I'm doing a solid-hull model in basswood using a sliced 'bread and butter' buildup from a drawing of accurate ship's lines (but won't document on MSW until the exercise is complete ... as I don't want to post another unfinished build). Things have so far gone smoothly, and (from a restoration of a 70 year old solid pine model) there are advantages to solid hulls. You can fill and re-paint damage, drill into the hull where needed, pin into the hull anywhere you want - and there is a nice 'heft' to it.
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If you could get it, spermaceti oil would be ideal due to its stability and resistance to high pressure and temperatures - and it was traditionally used to lubricate precision machines ... but it has been illegal internationally for some time under whaling regulations. Either sewing machine oil or clock oil are substitutes. In the late 20th century, jojoba oil was discovered to be a better substitute for high-friction applications because it is even more stable at high temperatures.
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The journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step. Sometimes taking that step is the hardest to do. The famous quote by Bilbo Baggins, as quoted by Frodo, is: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off too.”
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I've tried that and it doesn't work. For one thing, the water content in 'Rubbing alcohol' complicates things (70% or 90% IPA is whats readily available). Its also a 'different sort' of alcohol that doesn't work like 'denatured' alcohol (methanol). Pure (lab grade) ethanol can work, but the highest concentration you can get (with paying a lot from a lab supply) is 95% (190 proof) Everclear from a liquor store. I tried that as a solvent for shellac flakes, and the water content still affects the liquid product negatively.
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Wonderbaarlijk !
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