Jaager

Drafting gun ports must be boring,  subject to lapses in precision, and more than a few plans have some of them as inconsistent in their pattern.
 
When lofting, I pick a port at midship and develop a gauge/jig for the the distance of the sill and lentil from the underside of deck planking/top of deck beams.  I add the thickness of the sill and lentil timbers to size the opening.  I use this gauge for the rest of the ports, rather than using the profile to determine gun port height,.  Transferring the data to a card and installing the beams before finishing the ports gets the slope of the sill parallel to the deck for each.
 
 

A digital micrometer to measure the thickness would help with your selections and if you enter the dark side (scratch) will be a necessary tool.
 
WoodCraft has Basswood, Hard Maple, and Black Cherry in thin stock as well as a variety of veneer choices.
 
An alternate, since the stock is so thin, use paper (cardboard) instead.   The wood pattern can be painted - probably lots of on-line how to sites.
Or you can find an appropriate wood texture on a 3D CG site and use your printer to turn the paper into "wood".
 
If you search the site for the discussions on knife blades - Xacto vs surgical vs a real violin makers knife - the stock is so thin cutting rather than sawing appears to be what would be the way to free the planks from the board stock.

Drafting gun ports must be boring,  subject to lapses in precision, and more than a few plans have some of them as inconsistent in their pattern.
 
When lofting, I pick a port at midship and develop a gauge/jig for the the distance of the sill and lentil from the underside of deck planking/top of deck beams.  I add the thickness of the sill and lentil timbers to size the opening.  I use this gauge for the rest of the ports, rather than using the profile to determine gun port height,.  Transferring the data to a card and installing the beams before finishing the ports gets the slope of the sill parallel to the deck for each.
 
 

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 - 

Since this is not a contest, it may be more helpful to seek excellence instead of comparisons
 
The NRJ reprinted a log series
LE COMTE: PRAKTIKALE ZEEVAARTKUNDE PT. 1
EDSON,MERRITT
NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
1974
20
170-182  
MASTING RIGGING 19TH DUTCH
 
It is at least 19 parts long
The CD is for sale here,
 
Underhill provides a lot of detail for the hybrid steel and fiber masted and rigged ships
 

SAILING SHIP RIGS AND RIGGING  1938                              
UNDERHILL,HAROLD A                                               
BROWN,SON & FERGISON                                                  
1969
MASTING AND RIGGING      
                                                                                                                                                                                                             
MASTING AND RIGGING THE CLIPPER SHIP AND OCEAN CARRIER  1946     
UNDERHILL,HAROLD A                                               
BROWN, SON & FERGISON                                                 
1969
MASTING AND RIGGING      
                                                                                                                                                                                                             
PLANK ON FRAME MODELS  VOL.1  1958                               
UNDERHILL,HAROLD A                                              
BROWN, SON & FERGISON                                                 
1971
SHIP MODELING            

PLANK ON FRAME MODELS  VOL.2  1958                               
UNDERHILL,HAROLD A                                               
BROWN, SON & FERGISON                                                 
1971
SHIP MODELING                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
 
 

Since this is not a contest, it may be more helpful to seek excellence instead of comparisons
 
The NRJ reprinted a log series
LE COMTE: PRAKTIKALE ZEEVAARTKUNDE PT. 1
EDSON,MERRITT
NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
1974
20
170-182  
MASTING RIGGING 19TH DUTCH
 
It is at least 19 parts long
The CD is for sale here,
 
Underhill provides a lot of detail for the hybrid steel and fiber masted and rigged ships
 

SAILING SHIP RIGS AND RIGGING  1938                              
UNDERHILL,HAROLD A                                               
BROWN,SON & FERGISON                                                  
1969
MASTING AND RIGGING      
                                                                                                                                                                                                             
MASTING AND RIGGING THE CLIPPER SHIP AND OCEAN CARRIER  1946     
UNDERHILL,HAROLD A                                               
BROWN, SON & FERGISON                                                 
1969
MASTING AND RIGGING      
                                                                                                                                                                                                             
PLANK ON FRAME MODELS  VOL.1  1958                               
UNDERHILL,HAROLD A                                              
BROWN, SON & FERGISON                                                 
1971
SHIP MODELING            

PLANK ON FRAME MODELS  VOL.2  1958                               
UNDERHILL,HAROLD A                                               
BROWN, SON & FERGISON                                                 
1971
SHIP MODELING                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
 
 

Wood Craft has Baltic Birch plywood in a variety of sizes and thicknesses.  Hobby locations have aircraft plywood, but the really thin stock is kinda the opposite of what you need as planking support.
there is the option of getting 1/16" or 1/8"  Hard Maple or Basswood, etc- cutting 3 copies of each mold/ bulkhead - one with the grain 90 degrees rotated - and glue up the layers as your own homemade plywood.  All that is needed is a strong press. 

Wood Craft has Baltic Birch plywood in a variety of sizes and thicknesses.  Hobby locations have aircraft plywood, but the really thin stock is kinda the opposite of what you need as planking support.
there is the option of getting 1/16" or 1/8"  Hard Maple or Basswood, etc- cutting 3 copies of each mold/ bulkhead - one with the grain 90 degrees rotated - and glue up the layers as your own homemade plywood.  All that is needed is a strong press. 

Wood Craft has Baltic Birch plywood in a variety of sizes and thicknesses.  Hobby locations have aircraft plywood, but the really thin stock is kinda the opposite of what you need as planking support.
there is the option of getting 1/16" or 1/8"  Hard Maple or Basswood, etc- cutting 3 copies of each mold/ bulkhead - one with the grain 90 degrees rotated - and glue up the layers as your own homemade plywood.  All that is needed is a strong press. 

A digital micrometer to measure the thickness would help with your selections and if you enter the dark side (scratch) will be a necessary tool.
 
WoodCraft has Basswood, Hard Maple, and Black Cherry in thin stock as well as a variety of veneer choices.
 
An alternate, since the stock is so thin, use paper (cardboard) instead.   The wood pattern can be painted - probably lots of on-line how to sites.
Or you can find an appropriate wood texture on a 3D CG site and use your printer to turn the paper into "wood".
 
If you search the site for the discussions on knife blades - Xacto vs surgical vs a real violin makers knife - the stock is so thin cutting rather than sawing appears to be what would be the way to free the planks from the board stock.

The planking run on this kit looks good.

One of the resent articles in SIS was a Viking.  The planking layout was just wrong.  The sheer plank did not follow the sheer.  I hope the kit here is not the one from that series.

A basic overview =  wood is a series of cellulose tubes that are held together by glue: lignin.
The lignin bond can be weakened by heat and pure ammonia.  Water does not dissolve either cellulose or lignin.
What water does is greatly increase heat transfer.  Hot water or steam can soften the lignin bond - allow adjustment and reset when back to RT.
Any ammonia that is in water, does nothing that water alone will not do, is smelly, and messes up the surface of the wood.
If the wood is a rectangle in cross section, bending should be limited to up/down thru the thin plane.  Curving thru the thick dimension tends to break the wood.  Spilling from a wider plank is the better option.
 
I have not seen the 50% PVA before.  I suspect that the wood provided with the kit is fragile and prone to splitting and fiber separation. 
The PVA would mitigate some that when it dried.  It will not help with the actual bending.  At the end and with more experience, you may wish that you had replaced the wood provided with a supply from a 3rd source.  Wood of a species with no obvious pores, that bends well, and use wider planks, that allow spilling for lateral bends.
 
Spilling is a migration from spoiling -  it means that the "S" shape or "C" shape curve is cut out of a wider board, and a lot of the wood goes as waste ie. is spoiled. 

The planking run on this kit looks good.

One of the resent articles in SIS was a Viking.  The planking layout was just wrong.  The sheer plank did not follow the sheer.  I hope the kit here is not the one from that series.

A basic overview =  wood is a series of cellulose tubes that are held together by glue: lignin.
The lignin bond can be weakened by heat and pure ammonia.  Water does not dissolve either cellulose or lignin.
What water does is greatly increase heat transfer.  Hot water or steam can soften the lignin bond - allow adjustment and reset when back to RT.
Any ammonia that is in water, does nothing that water alone will not do, is smelly, and messes up the surface of the wood.
If the wood is a rectangle in cross section, bending should be limited to up/down thru the thin plane.  Curving thru the thick dimension tends to break the wood.  Spilling from a wider plank is the better option.
 
I have not seen the 50% PVA before.  I suspect that the wood provided with the kit is fragile and prone to splitting and fiber separation. 
The PVA would mitigate some that when it dried.  It will not help with the actual bending.  At the end and with more experience, you may wish that you had replaced the wood provided with a supply from a 3rd source.  Wood of a species with no obvious pores, that bends well, and use wider planks, that allow spilling for lateral bends.
 
Spilling is a migration from spoiling -  it means that the "S" shape or "C" shape curve is cut out of a wider board, and a lot of the wood goes as waste ie. is spoiled. 

Joe,
repeat using a blade with fewer teeth.  If that blade also flexes away from the fence, try it with a thicker blade.
 
I would rescue the tapered plank using a thickness sander. Using double sided tape, I would fix it to the ege of a 3/16 block and run it thru.

Joe,
repeat using a blade with fewer teeth.  If that blade also flexes away from the fence, try it with a thicker blade.
 
I would rescue the tapered plank using a thickness sander. Using double sided tape, I would fix it to the ege of a 3/16 block and run it thru.

My take on the progression is:
Log - board  ==  full size bandsaw  ( a full size tablesaw can do some of it, but it is limited in stock thickness and dealing with other than flat surfaces. and is hazardous )
==  thickness sander  ==  Byrnes saw.
I see the sander as producing stock for the Byrnes saw, not something to process Byrnes saw output.  It can certainly do that, but using only the saw is more cost effective - even if the loss to kerf is greater.
 
As others here have said - there are books on safe use of a full size tablesaw that apply to the Byrnes saw.
 
As for shop size bandsawa,  I got two take home lessons  1)  you will not be happy with an economy model.  2) a bimetal or carbide blade is the only way to go.

My take on the progression is:
Log - board  ==  full size bandsaw  ( a full size tablesaw can do some of it, but it is limited in stock thickness and dealing with other than flat surfaces. and is hazardous )
==  thickness sander  ==  Byrnes saw.
I see the sander as producing stock for the Byrnes saw, not something to process Byrnes saw output.  It can certainly do that, but using only the saw is more cost effective - even if the loss to kerf is greater.
 
As others here have said - there are books on safe use of a full size tablesaw that apply to the Byrnes saw.
 
As for shop size bandsawa,  I got two take home lessons  1)  you will not be happy with an economy model.  2) a bimetal or carbide blade is the only way to go.

I can and have processed my own stock from logs. For species that are not obtainable in any other way, it is just what has to be done.  But, Basswood is a species that is available commercially.  For me, the work involved in getting a green log into seasoned and usable stock makes it not worth the effort for a species that I can get as seasoned 8x4 or 4x4 boards from a lumber yard -unless the log is free to begin with and that depends on the species.    The suggestions to shop the logs to a commercial yard is a good way to go.

There is one part of this that I suspect may cause a problem.
White pet does not evaporate, at least not in the temperature range where we can exist.
That means that the mixture will remain semi fluid.  On a hot summer day - could it flow out of a vertical surface?
What is the result of using PVA instead of white pet?  Is it compatible with the existing gemisch?

There is one part of this that I suspect may cause a problem.
White pet does not evaporate, at least not in the temperature range where we can exist.
That means that the mixture will remain semi fluid.  On a hot summer day - could it flow out of a vertical surface?
What is the result of using PVA instead of white pet?  Is it compatible with the existing gemisch?

There is one part of this that I suspect may cause a problem.
White pet does not evaporate, at least not in the temperature range where we can exist.
That means that the mixture will remain semi fluid.  On a hot summer day - could it flow out of a vertical surface?
What is the result of using PVA instead of white pet?  Is it compatible with the existing gemisch?

Since Ron has anticipated what I was referring to, I will go ahead and expand
 
Plans and computers
A primary factor is to avoid having the computer or print program perform any "helpful" background adjustments and to counter any artifacts introduced by the process. The product should be set up to print any plans precisely  as intended.
Necessary tools = a printer scanner and a drawing program that can scale, use multiple layers, and process large files.
The bench mark program is PhotoShop and for a one off plan, the cloud rental may be cost effective.  Expensive alternatives are Corel Draw and Corel Painter.
Less expensive is PaintShop Pro. Gimp is free.
A document or canvas size should be a base for any program. It should be as large as can be had without the printer program needing to "adjust" it to match the paper size. I use  8.5 x 11 =  2197 x 1701 pixels   and 8.5 x 14 = 2796 x 1701 pixels..  For Windows  Photo Viewer, be sure to uncheck "fit picture to frame".
It is a given that a scanner will distort its product.  Fortunately, this is a constant for any machine.  What the distortion is must be determined and corrected as the first step in processing a plan in the draw program.  The X Y distortion may be uniform or X may be different from Y.
I did this usng a transparent metric ruler.  Scan it X and Y.  Open the scans in the draw program - the two layers can be both visible and saved as a file.
I prefer .PNG - it is a lossless format and will save an alpha.  A smaller file can be had using .JPG if you are willing to deal with the save fidelity questions.
Print the ruler scan and compare to the original.  Metric is easy to use to to determine the % difference.  In the draw program, adjust a copy of the scan by the % determined - save - print - compare.  Repeat until you get identity. Carve the % scale adjustment in stone and adjust any scan taken into the draw program by this factor as a first step - always.
Scan your keel - or better for getting it flat - the copy on the plans if there is one.
Start with a new canvas in landscape orientation.
open the keel scan as a new layer - probably will need more than one scan unless the model is a miniature.
Adjust -  
Lock these layers.
On a new layer -  type an lower case letter "o" using Ariel Black - print size 4.
On a new layer -  type an lower case letter "o" using Ariel Black - print size 7.
Line up the two layers with holes centered.  Combine the two layers.  This is a pin locator.
Position pin locators along the keel - top and bottom and in places where a hole will not matter.
Combine the pin layers with a copy of the keel layer(s).
Duplicate and flip vertical.
Print out these plans.  
The paper is a bit flimsy -  I coat them with a liberal layer of brushing lacquer -
By using pins and the locators, the mirror images can be aligned on either side of the keel.
I use Best Test rubber cement - a serious coat on both mating surfaces.