Jaager

One more point: a table saw is - any size - not an optimal choice of tool for ripping stock when simulating what a mill does to produce lumber. The tool for this is a bandsaw, but it needs to be big enough and powerful enough to handle the job. With its limited throat depth, a bandsaw gets beat by a table saw for most cross cutting. For turning a log into planks, or planks into model size thickness stock, there is no contest in efficiency, ease or safety between a bandsaw and a table saw. With table saws I started with a 6.5 inch Sears and have a 10 inch Ryobi as well as a Jarmac 4" and a Dremel 4" ( both essentially junk ) and also a Byrnes table saw which is a superb quality machine and can't be beat for doing which it is meant to do. The Byrnes table saw is excellent for the final cut: model thickness stock into planks of scale width, or beam thickness, or keel moulded dimension, etc. For most scales 1:48 or smaller, these cuts are often thru thin enough stock that the finer toothed blades can do the job, Deck beams, maybe not so much with a slitting saw. Anyway, getting the stock thickness to begin with, any table saw will likely fight you. . A bench top 9" or 10" bandsaw will mostly frustrate you in a ripping function. For rough scroll cutting, one of these with a 1/8" blade and a Carter Stabilizer will equal a dedicated scroll saw without the chatter. But the blade is course with significant set - not good for close to the line cutting. I prefer using a disk sander and sanding drum to finalize a curve shape.

One wants as thin a kerf as can be had, and a smooth a surface. This points to using a thin slitting blade whose teeth have no set. The problem comes from the physics of this process. The blade is removing wood. If the gullet of each tooth fills with wood when at the top of the stock being cut it cannot remove any more wood. What is left is friction and heat. I do not remember the exact number, but it is something like 4-6 teeth in contact with the stock at any one time. Too many fine teeth, gullet fill and motor strain and heat and binding. Too few teeth and there is chatter or some stability problem. The blade TPI needs to be matched to the stock thickness. There is a tech PDF here that covers blade choice. Fence and miter gauge together puts force on the stock from two competing directions. Twist and torque produces side pressure on the blade. I foresee a kickback problem that is worse than normal, as well as a binding problem wanting to stop the blade. A sliding table is the solution to whatever problem is wanting you to use the two together. Jim's new AL table is the RR choice, but a thin synthetic floor with pieces riding in the two channels and a fence at both the front and back edge of the floor that is higher than the blade can rise made from scrap will do the job. An addition at the bottom fence to cover the blade as it comes thru is a very, very good idea.

Trees grow out in concentric rings. The tubes have to be open and continuous from root to growing tip to be able to transport water and salts up and sugar down. Only an narrow band just under the bark can produce new tubes. I am thinking that differences in thickness would be due to either the thickness of the wall of the tube or how much polymer fill is between the tubes. For the to be differences in sapwood and heartwood there has to be living cells throughout. They can fill in between the tubes, They just cannot add new tubes. For a lot of the wood we use, the difference in diameter in the section we have cut out is not that much. And where it is significantly tapered, planks cut parallel to the pith, "with the grain" would be toward the roots, no?

I have not looked this up, to verify, however: up or down as a factor = the length of the section that we work is a small percentage the whole and is not likely to matter. Wood is essentially a bundle of tubes. we are rarely able to work it with the plane of our surface being exactly parallel to the direction of the tubes and be bisecting an individual tube. I am thinking that with the grain means that the direction that we are cutting hits the wall of the tube such that it is angled up in the direction of our cut. The force of the cut wants the push the tube down. Against the grain means that we would be hitting the open end of a tube before we hit its body an the force of the cut would tend to peal a tube up and away from its neighbors.

Mark me down as being horrified by the concept of cooking wood in hot water to dye it. That sounds like it should be the first step in turning it into paper and probably seriously denatures it. To brag about the process instead of being ashamed is mind staggering. And that color! why would anyone want a hull with anything but decorative elements showing that color?

Either your camera is adding artifacts or that piece of wood is fuzzy. It looks like it is soft. Yelloeheart is not soft and probably could not be that fuzzy. If your photo is accurate, the blade that cut edge had some set to it. In a game show, I would go with dyed Basswood or if the face is as flecky as it looks at this angle, American Sycamore that has been dyed. Came in after she last 3 posts. Not Boxwood. Genuine Boxwood is akin to the unicorn Castelo is really expensive as far as I have been able to find on line. Gilmer = $45 / BF and a second site with not as clear stock $25/ BF. In the $5 range, I am liking Hard Maple even more.

If you have a straight edged piece of wood on either side of the face being sanded, the tool is kept square, straight and an even plane is filed or sanded. The jig pieces can be fixed with Scotch double sided perm. tape (Iso alcohol neutralizes the adhesive) or made a single unit using a small bolt and nut and up side spacer the thickness of the plank.

"a cheap needle file in China, about 20 mm wide and 200 mm long, which I want to use on the sanding device. Still have to figure out how to cut the file to size without ruining my cutting tools" I would try a cut-off wheel and use the tip that was in Ships in Scale 28/5 (Fall 2017) by Monroe Mechling = use a thin coat of 5 min liquid epoxy on both sides of the disk to strengthen it.

I would go with the disk sander. A miter gauge - to keep it either square or at the required angle -and a very light touch. 220 grit on the disk.

One question = what was the effect of the heat generated from firing a cannon on a paint layer? Most colors before the late 19th c. would have been mineral, so able to withstand some heat, but black was likely carbon based and enough heat would allow it to combine with oxygen. The binders were also possibly an organic resin, and open to conversion to CO2.

Giving your question some thought, I don't think any species will scale the grain, going down usually at a minimum of a factor of 50. The species with no obvious grain would work best even with White Oak. I am thinking that it is the color that you are focusing on. I am no artist and I do not know their rules, but I bet there is a scale effect on col;or - I just do not know what it is. I scored some Beech from Yukon Lumber last week, and it is a shade darker than Hard Maple- My Maple tends to vary a bit in color but Beech is a fudge darker. I find American Sycamore to be generally awful. What I have has a busy grain, is brittle, can get fuzzy, and splits easily. The only really satisfactory use I have had with it is using it to duplicate a 1 x 1 x 6 inch Xacto sanding block - round at one end, wedge at the other. If the rule on scaling is things get lighter, Hard Maple may work for you, If you want even lighter, Soft Maple. I found Silver Maple to be too soft, too fuzzy for my taste. If you want aged and weather beaten, Poplar -

Cliff, You are golden. A quick search and I found 2 Raleigh hardwood suppliers - at least 8/4 Cherry and Hard Maple up to 12/4 and one has Beech. Both have Poplar also. The open pores can be a problem, but there is Black Walnut - I am thinking that the furniture industry there is gone to Asia, but there may be hardwood mills a bit west on I 40 around Hickory. I kinda think that the time, petrol, and hassle negates any material cost savings though and it may be green. There is a custom lumber company in Raleigh. If you want one of the stars as far as domestic species, perhaps they can find you some Apple. But if you intend to use it for frames, get a lot.

As an armchair experiment: use double sided tape or rubber cement to fix the metal sheet to a 1/8- 1/4" piece of pine and run that thru the saw. A blind cut on a thicker piece of wood would be even safer. Disadvantage = more than one cut would require removal and reattachment of the metal to the carrier.. advantage = the blade would not cut any wood on a second pass. or the notch could be there from the beginning.

As for what you stock dimensions should be, for scratch POF, you need to get works with the scantlings as close as possible to the age of your project. If Swan is your subject: SCANTLINGS OF THE ROYAL NAVY 1719-1805 by Allan Yedlinsky For 19th c. I use Meade, and Rules from ASA. For 17th c Deans. Bob is center target as far as the proper tool for resawing is concerned. You may get 8/4 on one pass, but likely will take at least two, on a 10" tablesaw. As for getting the saw thickness setting that minimizes the number of passes thru a sander necessary to get a 220 grit finish with no blade scars, I use 2x4 framing lumber - Home Depot had it at $3.30 each - they cut it into 2 foot sections for me - my Z can't carry anything much longer. Let us know where you find 8/4 and 12/4 Boxwood - the Pear will be easier to find at 4/4 too. Holly is a small tree to begin with. You may wish to investigate what the result will be at 1/4" as far as the size of the model. I have opted for hulls that are 1/2 the volume of 1/4" scale = 1:60. The hull of the brig USS Porpoise 1836 is about right and USS Flying Fish 1838 also. The hull of the 118 gun liner Commerce de Marseilles is almost overwhelming though. I would not want to deal with the size that the published 1/4" produced. It is impressive - just how much stock is needed for the framing timbers - lots of BF - and the yield - at least 50% will end up as sawdust. Going for a Swan as a first POF, and asking what you are asking - I recommend that you consider framing and planking with Black Cherry- being as how you are a Tarheel, that species should be a reasonable cost and easy to find.

I here remind of a material that was suggested here: Liberon Van Dyck Crystals Wood Dye It is made from walnut husks, so is just as "natural" as tea and according to the materials data sheet - pH 10 - so is not acidic. The concentration in water determines the shade. I figure it as a rigging and sail color agent. Amazon used to sell it - but Google should find a merchant now.

This is the support layer for the real planking. I would not do anything to the surface of layer one that interfered with the subsequent bonding of the two layers. Unless intended to actually float, the hull's inner layer does not need to have the gaps between planks in the first layer filled. The outer layer will cover that anyway. The hull fairing and support for a proper planking run repairs are a different factor. Practice on scrap, but a top quality water based drywall filler with a bit of PVA mixed in could do the trick. Feathering the dips and depressions without damaging the part of layer one that is correct should be the goal. A strong bond using a material that will bond to the PVA holding the outer layer is needed. It does not need to be tough itself. Severe dips = consider using veneer - actual wood - as a scab-like repair material.

Geoff, You have made if you have access to Apple. It is excellent for about everything. What I learned about harvesting Apple: Get it into 1 or 2 inch thick billets, bark removed, and end grain areas sealed with old paint, varnish, melted paraffin - something to block rapid water loss from the cut ends of the bundle of straws that are what wood resembles - as soon as you can. Apple has sugar in its sap, and if you do not get it dry soon enough, fungus will destroy the wood. I find 2 foot lengths to be as long as I need. Your wooden boat group should have a bandsaw. That is a good way to get a log cutinto billets - that you sticker and dry. Buy your own blades ( 3 tpi hook - 1/2" wide works well enough for this) for the bandsaw, resawing wears out blades fairly quickly and Apple is fairly hard wood. Fix the logs to a carrier plank to keep them from rocking or rolling during the cut - 1/2" ply works - with brackets and screws 2x4 framing braces, 2" drywall screws, and 1/2" pan head screws to fix the braces to the carrier work for me- . Two right angle flat surfaces and the carrier is no longer needed. If you have access to a kiln - use it. I made my own kiln - house insulation foam (a foil surface inside) to make the box, 200-300 watts of incandescent light bulbs for heat and computer ventilation fans to pull out the moisture. It is not a true kiln, but if the wood is at a higher temp than a fungus likes, you win the race. A theory of mine: If I had access to a lot of Apple, for a large butt.- in my imagination, I see me cutting the trunk high up, and using the chainsaw to made a vertical cut down the middle to cut the 4-5 feet still on the roots. I can see that a kick back of a chainsaw at head level could be a bit dangerous, Trying a similar rip cut on a log - I could never think of a safe and practical way to secure the log. The wood loss to a chainsaw's kerf is painful to think about. But there those who use a chainsaw to mill out planks. But the machines have the saw fixed in place and the log doing the moving. Anyway, you will appreciate having one flat surface if you can get one.

Geoff, Looking at the Wood Database for Australian domestic lumber I would look at the following: Tasmanian Myrtle, Myrtle Beech Raspberry Jam Lemon-Scented Gum, Lemon Eucalyptus Kauri, Ancient Kauri If you paint/copper some of the Gum species may be useful course grain is not so bad if hidden.

Your fellow members have the right stock. There is no golden choice. Lots of species will do just fine. The key factor is the look that you are after. Are you doing POF and showing the frames? Will it be clear finished wood with the color pallet determined by species used? The keel vs frames vs beams etc.- not much difference with POF- as far as what to use. Planking - unobtrusive grain - some species bend more readily than others. There is a cachet around using Ebony for black wales, but there are aniline wood dyes that can turn many species black and still show grain effect. The spars are a different matter. Unfortunately - the traditional species are tropical in source and I think pretty much now protected = Lancewood, Degame, Pau Marfim and all but impossible to source. One way is to find a board with straight grain, from a closed pore, tight grain species like Hard Maple, Beech, Birch and split out the pieces - so that the natural grown shape is straight. Over time, the wood will "seek" its equilibrium state. As far as all this goes, should you be considering POF as an engineering demo showing the innards - I am thinking that this is a yacht cost situation - at your present experience level - if you have to ask........ Another factor - with POF - the frame timbers require a lot of stock - depending on the size of the vessel and your choice of scale. 50% going to saw dust is probably on the low end. A 1:48 liner ( 74 or< ) could require 20 bf or more.

My bet: the fumes are the CA itself. The heat of the setup reaction ( caused by contact with water ) also vaporizes unreacted CA. The key with cotton fibers, wool fibers, tissue paper, etc. is that the material has a lot of surface area in contact with air. The heat from the CA reaction, when the vapors contact the organic fibers can reach combustion level, but the "smoke" before visible flame is most likely the CA itself in an aggressive vapor "looking" to react with whatever it can contact. For years, I have seen CSI-type programs using a closed chamber - with a material with finger prints - not suitable for dusting powder use - and CA in a heated petri dish - the CA vapor reacting with the skin residue to reveal the prints. The combustion temperature of organic particles in intimate contact with oxygen, is a lot lower than is appreciated by most. Just ask someone working in a grain silo, or cotton mill in summer about the potential danger. Even gasoline vapor in the proper mixture with oxygen can violently react without an ignition source, at a temp that is pretty close to ambient summer levels. CA can be aggressive and dangerous if not handled carefully - probably causing more sub-detectable harm - than is appreciated. Some day it may follow other once common chemicals - such as carbon tetrachloride and tetraethyllead - into banned status, when industry can find a less dangerous substitute that is cost effective. Until then, damage to user health will continue to be a cost of doing business in order to maintain profits.

You do not supply your location. An answer to your question would depend on where on the planet is your home. Also, I don't think of "best" as being an adequate criterion. A contest is not really what would answer the question. "Excellent for" would be a more reliable goal. I prefer closed pore species. No open pore species will scale in as attractive a way as a closed pore one. That is the one negative mark against an otherwise beautiful wood= Juglans nigra - Black Walnut - if you get an older tree - a very dark rich color but it helps if you live in the eastern region of North America for a good price. Other species of Walnut - not so much of a good choice- most seem to have a lesser color and more visible pores as well as some being brittle. I agree with Grsjax on his choices, although I seem to like Hard Maple as lot more. The grain pattern depends on the plane of your resaw. You can get clear low contrast or tiger or flame from the same board. It is hard and strong. He is fortunate in having access to temperate fruit wood species in Hawaii. They are as good as it gets. Oak either red or white are a hard strong wood - good for hull timbers and bracing or planking as long as they are used where they can't be seen. Their pores are distracting. Two species that do not get much attention, but seem like good choices = Rock Elm ( death on the edge of my cutting blades and very slow on my 3/4 hp band saw - seems a lot harder than Hard Maple and that is hard. There are pores, but small ones.) and Honey Locust. One species I do not like is Platanus occidentalis American Sycamore - color is close to Hard Maple, but another name now is lace wood because of its busy pattern - it is close to Black Cherry in hardness, but is brittle- splitting easily. I was unfortunate in not realizing that the species that Underhill called Sycamore was actually a species of Maple that is about 80% of the way to Hard Maple in its quality. I would have gotten more Hard Maple and Black Cherry from the mill.

As far as the Fir layer, I first paid attention to that in Marquardt's HMS Beagle monograph from 1831. He has a layer of Fir sheathing under the copper plating. Perhaps the RN slow to change as well as their being subsidized it was not as important to economize on weight or materials cost. The Yankee traders and their competition were likely more sensitive to cost in every sense.

Wefalck, You are correct, I did not remove the backside oxide layer. I do have some old furniture with Lino on ply as a surface that is attached with contact cement. It would not that much to separate the layers now. But it was built in the late 1950's. Contact cement is probably OK for a normal lifetime but not for a 100 year or more span. An aspect of the interaction was that the copper oxide seemed to have infused the cement and left the open area the same color as the plate it once held.I have no idea what that hull looks like now. It went with a partnership split that occurred long ago. An additional factor in the coppering = most of the time I have seen that a layer of Fir was between the hull planking and the copper plates. I think I have figured that out. The Teredo larva enters a piece of wood and does not leave it. No boring from one plank to the next. I doubt that without a welded seam, the larva could have been prevented from swimming behind the copper plates. Just a layer of copper would have not been enough protection. OK for easier removal of barnacles and seaweed, but not the worms eating up the hull. A sacrifice layer of wood with a under layer of sulfur or tar or something else waterproof and toxic the the larvae would have solved the problem. The point being that the hull thickness in the coppered region was more than just the hull planking. If a solid hull type building technique is used and the copper plates laid directly on the shaped hull, the Fir layer as well as the actual planking thickness could be investigated and the result added the hull outline when lofting.

This product offers an interesting possibility. I coppered the MS brigantine Eagle using their copper plates - bonding with Weldwood Contact Cement. The plates were flame treated to oxidize out the new penny look. The result looked good, but after several years, the bond started failing. With that adhesive "right out" , since epoxy seems both too thick and messy, CA I hate as well as it likely being subject to failure over time, having a mistrust of whatever the bonding adhesive is on adhesive backed foil products, I wish to use PVA, so that lets out actual copper. My thought experiment on this is to plate the hull with 100% cotton rag bond dissertation paper cut into plates. Bond with PVA and prime and then coat with Modern Masters copper products and try their patina product to add some verdigris effect. Copper foil may be worth a try in place of the primer and genuine copper application steps. Experimental options: 1. copper layer at individual plate stage 2. copper layer after hull is plated 3. is a credible nail pattern possible by pre embossing the wet plates with a punch and die setup. Is it worth the time and tedium for a detail that is all but invisible at scales below Museum (1:48)?

The Byrnes saw has an anchor at he distal end of the fence. With a threaded rod and fittings, you might think about adding to the length and having an anchor at the other end. The face that the stock rides along does not need to, should not, would produce a kickback problem, if it were longer. But a threaded rod extender should allow the fence to be anchored at the back of the table. Aligning the fence with each position is a pain, but the cost for a lower quality tool is your time.