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Der Alte Rentner

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Everything posted by Der Alte Rentner

  1. Der Alte Rentner
    My orthopedic surgeon would disagree, but he hasn't yet seen the model.. 😁 I did not have much success with mustafa's lamination technique. If I were painting, this would not be a problem because I could fill the gaps with putty, sand, and hide the offending areas. I might go back to just making wider panels and cutting the shapes, per the Hunt Practicum.
  2. Der Alte Rentner
    Wow! Very ingenious. And it looks like it'll work.
  3. Der Alte Rentner
    Now, that is an interesting approach to shaping the gun carriages. I assume that you did not have a router bit with the appropriate shape and size..
  4. Der Alte Rentner
    No worries Haiko, that's what these forms are for, the sharing of information. Here's a nugget of information I'm going to share today. I installed the two knees at the transom that I failed to do in the initial round of top rail planking. Amazing how such little task can take so many hours..
  5. Der Alte Rentner
    When I last looked at my Constitution, I was bemoaning the fact that I had forgotten that step when I finished the main and top rails. The glue between two pieces of boxwood is curing as I type these words, and I will be attempting to retrofit those knees myself tomorrow or Tuesday.
  6. Der Alte Rentner
    I cannot stress enough the value of a thickness drum sander for situations like this. You can get fairly close with a saw, then run the parts through the thickness drum sander for final dimensioning. It's a shame that the Byrnes company no longer makes theirs. I've had my Jet drum sander for about 15 years for my woodworking hobby and with proper setup, I can dimension with amazing precision.
  7. Der Alte Rentner
    I've never seen that spelling for gunwale before, but turns out it's a legit alternative spelling. You're referring to the planking at the top of the hull, working your way down toward the wale. I haven't seen anyone at MSW put any visible caulking between these planks. Oddly enough however, for the deck planking people do attempt to simulate caulking. In reality I'm guessing there must be caulking between the planks on the hull to keep water out. No? I would think that since most people sand, apply putty, then send some more, and then paint the hull black, no one is concerning themselves with this issue. In my experience, I glued the edges of all the hull planking. As carefully as I prepared the planks, there was still much trimming with a chisel and some finish sanding. In the end I couldn't see any glue seams. I don't think I'd worry about it if I were you. By the way, you are working away a quite the pace there. At this rate you'll be done by the end of the year.. Kudos on what you accomplished so far.
  8. Der Alte Rentner
    As you may know from following my build log, gregg, I used boxwood. I wish I'd bought it when I started building Connie and use it for everything, but better late than never.
  9. Der Alte Rentner
    If I were a betting man, and I am, you'll be hearing from Jon soon. 😁
  10. Der Alte Rentner
    To all, I just spent a few minutes consulting the Practicum. Hunt doesn't address the "top rail" until Chapter 12. A lot of stuff happens between where I am in the build now and the point where Hunt finally adds this rail. I'm wondering. Is there any practical reason to wait until then? In the Chapter 5 Hunt explains why he held off on adding the top rail, "We will not install the topgallant railing at this time. When it is installed, the head rails must also be installed. I fear that installing them now might cause us problems later when we plank the lower hull as they are delicate and could get damaged with the model turned over on its side. We will come back to those rails once the outer planking is complete." But, since I've already completed the hull and deck planking, I don't see the reason to wait until all the deck furniture is addressed. Do any of you? For what it's worth, I'm considering skipping the copper plating..
  11. Der Alte Rentner
    aha! It was not so much that I forgot the post, but I didn't fully appreciate what you meant by "different".. I just spent a few minutes consulting the Practicum. Hunt doesn't address the "top rail" until Chapter 12. A lot of stuff happens between where I am in the build now and the point where Hunt finally adds this rail. I'm wondering. Is there any practical reason to wait until then? In the Chapter 5 Hunt explains why he held off on adding the top rail. "We will not install the topgallant railing at this time. When it is installed, the head rails must also be installed. I fear that installing them now might cause us problems later when we plank the lower hull as they are delicate and could get damaged with the model turned over on its side. We will come back to those rails once the outer planking is complete." But, since I've already completed the hull and deck planking, I don't see the reason to wait until all the deck furniture is addressed. Do you?
  12. Der Alte Rentner
    Probably more a case of I forgot that I saw the post. 😁
  13. Der Alte Rentner
    Hmm, I hadn't thought of that - a lapse in my research, I guess. Had the notion come to me days earlier, I might have skipped it as well. I must admit though, that I do like the way they look. Thank you.
  14. Der Alte Rentner
    Amen to that! (I wonder if he still peruses these pages..)
  15. Der Alte Rentner
    will you be adding topgallant rails?
  16. Der Alte Rentner
    I only had 40 minutes at the shop today, but I managed to finish the stern rails.
  17. Der Alte Rentner
    I will be revisiting these pages relatively soon and benefiting from your example and expertise. Very well done! The detail explanations are very welcome as well.
  18. Der Alte Rentner
    Man, you do impressive work. Beautifully done.
  19. Der Alte Rentner
    Es tut mir leid, dass Sie in den sauren Apfel beißen müssen, aber ich bin sicher, dass Sie dieses Chaos in den Griff bekommen und das Kit besiegen werden.
  20. Der Alte Rentner
    Thanks again Gregg. Because I forgot to take photos of the bottom of the topgallant rails - and in case it wasn't obvious, I thought I'd mention that I used the same setup as shown in the first photo of post 406 above to carve out the grooves along the entire length of these. I raised the bit on the mill so that it only cut about halfway into the rail. I had to reposition vice and the rail after each two inch cut - because the vice is only about two inches wide.. As I type these words, it dawn on me that I won't be able to do that on the curved sections at the bow, unless I cut them first and then TRY to bend them to fit afterwards. Wait, wait.. What if I use Mustafa's method of forming these as laminate but in such a way that the center piece of the laminate is recessed?!? I spent several hours yesterday making the combination main rail, bulwark, topgallant rail section for the transom. That was much more involved than I expected it to be, and in retrospect, I should have used the same technique I used for the port and starboard sections. I'm heading back to the shop in a few hours to fit that piece and will add photos to this post then - and I definitely want to try Mustafa's lamination technique! In the mean time, work on the 2025 calendar continues and I'm counting the hours to Manhattan Club. I earned it this week.. Back soon..
  21. Der Alte Rentner
    Hi Gregg, der Alte Rentner here. I only found the link to this build today but henceforth will be checking in periodically along with rest of your fans and followers. Reading through your blog, a memory surfaced from the deep. The first model ship I ever built was the Santa Maria. It was a very small scale plastic kit that I attempted at around age 12. This prompted a search through the photo archive, where I found an old photo of her on the mantle piece in the living room of the apartment we lived in at the time. Now that I think of it, I also featured it in a Columbus Day diorama in grade school. (Geez, that seems like a lifetime ago..) Until today, I had thought the Blue Nose might be my next project. However, I may now be having a change of heart. I'm delighted that you are providing such detailed posts, so that if I do attempt this kit later, I'll have the benefit of your experience and expert analysis to draw from. Have fun, and good luck.
  22. Der Alte Rentner
    Some whittling at the stern yet to come, but getting there with the rails.. The grooves on the bottom of the top gallant rails work great to center them. Rough cuts on the miters. Tomorrow I'll fine tune and build the joining section.
  23. Der Alte Rentner
    Sadly, with year end projects like our 2025 family calendar, Christmas card, and honey do list items, I have had to squeeze in the rare few minutes to get anything done at the shipyard. Continuing on with the main rail and the planking between that and the top Gallant rail.. Once again, Mr Filler Block has been busy. These provide more surface area to glue the planks to and add strength for future add-ons like cleats, etc.
  24. Der Alte Rentner
    It's a one and a quarter inch resaw blade, with three teeth per inch. I bought it when I bought my Laguna bandsaw nearly 20 years ago. Geez, time flies! If you have cleanly sanded or planed faces, you can shave wood almost paper thin. It's a fantastic tool. That resaw blade is not presently on the bandsaw, in case you're wondering about the photos below. I needed a thinner blade for the tricky work on the bow and stern filler blocks.
  25. Der Alte Rentner
    I agree with the Jon that it doesn't much matter the order of assembly here. For what it's worth, I didn't find it that difficult to line up the edges and ends. Perhaps because I chose to taper the planks aft of amidships, therefore requiring very little tweaking with a sanding stick to fit. On the veneer front, I'll suggest again that, if you have access to a band saw with a good resaw blade, you can easily make your own veneer. In the past, I've made my own as thin as two mil, but could have gone thinner. For the purpose I put it to, I thought I'd rather have a bit more material available to sand at the finishing phase of that project. These photos are of an older version of the humidor, which I gave away as a gift, where I probably went 2 mil plus. In the more recent version, which I made for myself to use as photo boxes, I measured the thickness of the zebrawood veneer. It's 1.5 mil. Ironically(?) I forgot to photograph the photo boxes..

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