Der Alte Rentner

Port side channels, chain plates, deadeyes, and portlights done. After a brief pause to enjoy a photo op, I will turn my attention to the starboard side.

Slow going here, but save for stain on the fore channel cap, port side channels and chain plates done. Pro tip for other builders, do not glue in any belaying pins. You're going to break a number of them when you're gluing in the caps and messing around with the dead eyes and chain plates. Also, be aware that mizzen channel sports the two smaller deadeyes (5/32" and 1/8" vs 3/16" and 5/32" on main and fore mast channels). I was wondering why I was running low on the 3/16" deadeyes, and noticed only too late, that I screwed up on the mizzen channel. My mistake was that I referenced the kit's plans instead of the Hunt practicum specifics in chapter 10.2 - pages 28 and 29. I guess too many days had elapsed between construction of the dead eyes and that of the chain plates and channels. Oh well. (How many times have I said that over the course of this build? 🤔) I'm going to live with the difference rather than try to pry off the mizzen cap. It would appear that I will be making more dead eyes in the immediate future.

Glad to see you didn't make the mistake I made on the waterways. Your carronades may yet poke through the gunports on the spar deck. Happy swimming..

I love a perfectionist. Simply magnificent.

Shall I throw you a life preserver? 😁

So, How are the deadeyes attached to the fighting tops? There wasn't a single view of the tops of the tops..

Gregg, Where you need to be careful is when you construct the galleries. It turns out that mine are a little too long from stern to bow. As a consequence of my not catching that much earlier, I have to move one of the cutouts for the chain plate/deadeye combos forward. Of course, in attempting to simply carve out an extra slot, I broke part of the channel. You can see the repair clearly in this photo. I need to get back home to deal with some maintenance people, so further repairs here are postponed, at least until tomorrow. Again, my advice to you, be very careful where the forward end of your galleries meet the hull when you construct them.

Gregg That first picture is actually of my ship. What I did was cut a copy of the plans and taped it to the hull so I knew where to place the holes for the chain plates. Sounds like a great plan, yes? Not so much... here's the picture of the port side stern chain plate pattern. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I can think of just two that describe how I feel about this Here's a third, more civilized, word Sigh

Port side main channel chain plates, deadeyes, and eye bolts installed... Mistakes were made but I managed to recover from them. The lessons learned should result in smoother sailing for the remaining five channels. I also marked the locations for the port holes.

Oh snap! My bad. I just double checked the Hunt practicum and learned that I misread that portion of the instructions. The channels are tapered, yes, but only by 1/16" of an inch at their fore and aft edges. Sorry abut the miscue.

It's been a while since I've posted. I feel like I've been busy, but I don't have much to show by way of results. The fore and main channels have been fabricated, and installed. The hardest part of this was not breaking belaying pins, rails or disturbing the carronades while holding the channels in place long enough for the 5-minute epoxy to dry. Try as I might, I could not find a way to clamp these in place with the tools I have at hand. So my hands were the clamps. A close second in terms of difficulty was marking the holes for the pins correctly, so that the channels rode evenly below the outer planksheer.

Jon is correct, the transom is one of the first major obstacles to overcome on this build. I've seen several builders bail at this point. You complicating the process by going for the 1812ish 6 window configuration is going to make this even more challenging. I look forward with eager anticipation to your progress in this endeavor. I'm pretty sure you're already following Haiko, aka the Bitter End, in his scratch build. If not, here's a link to the post that talks about his choice to go with a 7 window transom. Maybe you can pick up some tips and techniques to help you in later stages of the construction effort. Excellent progress to date. Congrats and keep up the good work.

Hello Mustafa, I didn't want to copy the photos from your post after you installed the channel caps and clutter up your build log, but I have a question. Did you taper the channels from the hull to the cap? It doesn't seem to me that you did, which is perfectly fine by me. I'm just looking for justification to follow in your footsteps. Since I can't cover up mistakes with black paint, I have to very carefully consider the steps involved in attaching the channels, chain plates, dead eyes and caps. If you did taper, it's hard to see in those photos.. Thanks in advance.

looking good Jon!

Pretty much what I thought. Thanks!

I just checked my accounting records and online purchase history. While I do have notes in the memo fields for belaying pins, cleats, single and double blocks, rope and wheel kit purchases from Syren, I have no record of having purchased deadeyes. I struck out searching for deadeye as well. So, barring a "senior moment", these are most likely Model Shipways components. (Umm, unless I pilfered them from the Constructo kit?) Next time I'm in the shipyard I'll check to see if they came from Constructo. If so, I'll let you know. For now, assume Model Shipways standard component. For what it's worth, I'll save you the time - I just checked Syren site, and their's are not the ones I'm using.

Seems to me those numbers are inverted. Looks more than 75 by my count. Yikes!

very good point. I'll see what I can do about that. ..and, the photo above clearly shows that the chainplates attach to the deadeyes above the channel. I may have to both angle and widen the slots so the attachment point is in the channel, assuming I don't redo the stropping - eliminate a couple of wraps and shortening the distance between strop and chainplate.

That had occurred to me. The channels are marked to indicate fore and aft, top and bottom. What I am thinking about is whether to try to angle the slots for the chainplates in the channels. I could just fudge it by making the slots wide enough that there's plenty of wiggle room to maneuver. If I make them as narrow as Hunt did, they're barely wider than the kit provided channels - no fudge factor there.. And my perfectionist side is nagging at me about the length between the deadeye and the loop. Remake them with two fewer twists? Back off bro! 😁

On my first go-around I wrapped .45 mm wire around a .8 mm rod. I purchased some .6 mm rod, that I intended to swap the .8 mm rod out with. Forgetting my intention, I wrapped the .6 mm rod around the .8 mm rod and liked the result so well that I made 18 of the 5/32" dead eyes for use on the channels and chain plates for the main mast. Since I already had 10 of the 5/32" dead eyes from the first attempt, I wanted to finish that batch using the same .45mm wire. To reduce the amount of tweaking after the initial wrap, I swapped the .6 mm rod for the .8 mm rod and wrapped the .45mm wire around that. I now have 16 of those, which I will use for the foremast. My concern in using the .45 mm wire was that the loop, which would attach to the chain plate, wouldn't hold up under tension during rigging. After some experimenting, I realized this was not really an issue. Bottom line: it's easiest to work the .45 mm wire then the .6 mm rod. For the remaining smaller diameter deadeyes, that's the option I will go with. I don't think the casual observer will notice a difference.

Beautiful model. very nice save.

Very nicely done! Congrats. Now all you have to do is rig them..😁 (oh, and thanks for including the photo of the dime - for nostalgia's sake. I can't remember the last time I actually handled change of a dollar.) (lastly, does Tom know you're crossing over into his field? I noticed the kit from Model Airways on the floor.)

It just dawned on me that we may have been thinking of different things. I was referring to the rod I twist the wire around. If that were a tad thinner, I'd have a narrower sleeve to pass the wire through, resulting in less tweaking to snug things up - as if I were seizing. You are probably thinking I should use a thicker wire for the strop. I don't think I'll be able to wrap that as easily or as nicely around the .8 mm rod to form the sleeve. I'll know soon enough if .7 mm wire will work better as the strop or the tool to make the strop. For what it's worth, I did try double wrapping the .45 mm wire around the deadeye. Unfortunately the groove around the deadeye was too narrow to accommodate two wraps. One side was riding higher than the other, and I didn't want to bother with widening the grooves on the deadeyes marginally to mimic the look of the real deal. I also tried using the .8 mm rod as the strop, but couldn't achieve the result Mustafa did, and, it was too thick to wrap around itself like the .45 mm wire. I could spend a week trying different things, but I'm happy enough with the above to call it a win.

Exactly. And because I didn't see anything actually connecting the deadeye to the chain plate, I became oncerned that, if I'm tugging on the deadeye during rigging, that it might come undone. So, I've been experimenting with methods of stropping the deadeye with brass wire, and ending up with a loop for the chainplate to pass through later. I won't show you the failed or less than desirable results, but I think I'm on to something: The diameter of the brass rod clamped between the vices is .8 mm. The diameter of the wire that I'm wrapping around the rod is .44 mm. I think if I had some .6mm rod on hand, I'd have even better results. I should be receiving some point .7 mm rod tomorrow. So, I won't be doing much more than this trial run today. Wrap brass wire tightly around a secured rod of diameter slightly larger than the wire. Bend the wire into a loop and pass the end through the coil. Snug everything up with pliers Form a tighter Loop at the other end. Clean things up with snippers and needle nose pliers One down. Before anyone asks, I tried simply twisting the wire like most others have done, but doing so weakened the thin brass which resulted in the occasional snap while forming that final loop for the chain plate. Frankly, I think this looks better too. Also, my deadeyes will ride proud of the channel a bit, as they do in the photos you provided of the Constitution last week. Ken's were flush against the channel.

It's amazing how clearly the mind works when you're out in nature.. While riding my bicycle and turning the problem of deadeye/chain plate marriage over in my head, I realize that a drawback to my plan above is that the hole I want to pass the hook at the bottom end of the deadeye through - is at the wrong end of the chain plate. Since the lengths of the chain plates will vary across the span of the channels, the predrilled hole will need to be at the bottom and a U shaped hook bent at the top where it mates with the deadeye strop. If I want to use the kit provided chain plates, I'll have to change my approach. XKen didn't explain how, or even IF, he attached the deadeyes to the chain plate, so I had to look elsewhere for ideas. Mustafa's approach certainly looks great and will make adjusting the length of the chain plates easy. KMart and Tom (used to sail) used a different technique, which may (or may not?) be easier to do. I'll have to do some experimentation to see which works best for me. For what it's worth, the closeups provided by Jon suggest that I should double wrap a smaller diameter wire around the deadeye instead of using a single thick rod as all three of the above have done. How to do that and fashion an integrated pin at the bottom of the strop? Back to the bicycle!