Greg Davis

This evening I finished adding the three slanted pillars at the rear. Then I had time to make and install the mooring cleats that affix to the last superstructure cross-bar. If I understand the monograph correctly, one way the dredger can be held in place during dredging operations is through the use of four anchors. Two in the front and two in back. The front two would have their anchor cables bound to the fore bit as expected; the anchors being set at angles radiating away from the vessel. Much like the small illustration on the cover of the monograph. The aft two anchors also would have their cables connected to the bitts; however, they would not radiate like in the illustration as they would then foul the operation of the scoops. Instead the cables would go up and over the last cross-bar (between the cleats) and would then drop down into the water in such away that they would not foul the dredging process. The mid slanted pillar helps support the added strain from this method of mooring the vessel. Later, steps will be added to this pillar - a means for crew members to manage the mooring lines.

The mill is the model 5400 12" manual mill made by Sherline. I bought it (and one of their lathes) in 2012 and have not had many issues over the years. I have used the mill much more than the lathe. In hindsight, being enamored with Ancre publications, I now wish that I would have purchased the machines having metric scales instead of inches. I spend a good deal of time doing unit conversions! About 4 years ago, I committed a huge power tool no-no with the mill. My eyesight is not great, so when I use the mill I typically take my glasses off to better see what I am doing. My hair was long at the time and I did not have it tied back / contained at all when I was working and yes, my hair got caught in the belt drive. I was so lucky that this is a hobby mill instead of a larger mill. Even so, the Sherline had plenty of power to pull me to the machine before I could flip off the switch. In this very short time period a good size chunk of hair was pulled out at the roots. It was a dumb move on my part as I am well aware of the hazards and try my best to maintain a high level of safety; but this one time I had rushed, didn't think, and clearly payed the price.

I wanted to share how I decided to make the davits. First of all, according to the monograph, the davits can be constructed in two different ways. One way is to make each davit out of a single piece of wood; the second is to make it out of three pieces - one central piece and two sides. The model presented in the monograph has davits built in three pieces; whereas I've seen the davits made in one piece presented in online build logs. I chose to make each davit out of one piece of wood. After I made this choice, I formulated several orders of operations in which to fabricate them. This is what I finally settled on. I don't know if it is the most efficient way to do the job, but it did seem to work well for me. The first attempt was a fail, but then I got the two I needed on the next tries. I started by rubber cementing profiles of the davit to a length of wood 13.3 mm square in cross section. Note the center axis of the top/bottom profile is centered on the blank. I then milled the top profile. Having the top/bottom profile centered let me mill this portion perpendicular to the blank. Here I have started to smooth the curved region, but you can still see the horizontal lines left as steps from each pass of the milling process. Next the bottom slot, where the davit locks on the superstructure was milled - note this is at an angle and there are specific left and right davits. I then milled the two sides, the last milling operation. Using a scroll saw, the front space was opened up, after which the front length was shortened and then finished on a disk sander. The back length was then adjusted so the davit fit correctly on the supperstucture. Now it was time to remove some material in the middle to provide passage for the scoop chains. First I marked and sawed boundaries for the region to be removed. The unnecessary material was mostly removed with a small chisel. And the final shape of this inner region was developed using a sanding stick.

Since last post, I have been skipping around a bit and getting various tasks completed and/or worked on. I also got to take one of my grandsons down to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum yesterday. While the WWII submarine Cobia was the main reason he wanted to go, he does seem to be getting more and more interested and knowledgeable about the model ships displayed there - I harbor a hope that one day we build a ship together! The museum is in Manitowoc, Wisconsin - a city of about 30,000 and with a strong heritage of ship building. All of the steps are in the big wheel and I am preparing (bending) planking material for that wheel now. The two big davits are shaped and ready for some metal work. All the bollards have gotten their final shaping. The 12 knees that support the pillars at deck level are finished and installed along with the appropriate fasteners. Similarly the two sets of bits and knees are permanently connected to the vessel. The last thing I did today was to cement the superstructure unit to the pillars. The davits are just sitting on the structure for the pic.

All the fasteners for the big wheel timbers have been added. I've lined up and clamped the two rim structures with 18 mm spacers between the rims. The first couple of steps have been attached - there are 60 steps needed in this wheel, nearly twice as many as in the small wheel.

Today I made it to having the big wheel timbers installed. After doing so, I couldn't help but 'mock-up' the vessels configuration with the wheels! You can see in the second picture that I have completed planking the small wheel. The small wheel will now get about 200 fasteners thru the planking and steps. Then the excess material on the steps will be trimmed and it shall be done. Repeat for big wheel coming as well,

All of the foot steps are in the small wheel now. I have gotten the first piece of planking formed and it is now being attached to the wheel. Here you can also see my progress on the big wheel - one rim done. I've still to mill the joints for the other big wheel rim. Quite a difference in diameters between the wheels!

Thank you all - although I'm not too sure about the 'innovative' part. I read a lot and think a bit to pick what I believe will be a reasonable way to proceed. I know that I have a great deal to learn about the model building process, let alone try out in practice. It is my guess that most everything I come up with has been done before. There have been, and currently are, so many involved in this hobby that it is only natural that multiple people we arrive at / discover common solutions to similar problems.

Some more progress on the wheels today. Here is the status of the small wheel. It now has 75% of its steps, the remaining 8 will probably be added tomorrow. They are the ones that need to be cut to exact length before attaching because they fit inside of the outermost timbers. The other steps currently extend beyond the rims and will be trimmed after the wheel is planked. The disk under the cup of steps is not a drink coaster (yet). It is a disk cut to the diameter of the wheel where the planks will be fitted and is being used to induce the proper curvature on the plank material. Here a strip of wetted plank material has been wrapped around the disk and is being held in place with a rubber band as it dries overnight. The 6mm wide planking is just 0.55mm thick and bends easily; however, I want to minimize any strain on the steps as they are fairly delicate. As far as the big wheel, the rim segments are ready to have their scarf joints milled. I also have made a disk for forming the big wheel planks.

The the doublers and fasteners are in; I made the fasteners using 26 gauge copper wire in #77 drill holes. I'm glad to have had the practice with the stiffer 24 gauge copper before having done this work. The 26 gauge wire must be fed precisely into the drill holes or it will easily bend. Step locations have been marked on the inside of each rim. It shouldn't be long before they are attached. I'm starting to go back and forth between the two wheels and started to form the rim components for the big wheel today.

Over the weekend I milled the scarf joints for the rims and assembled them. Next having the wheel timbers milled and connected, they were fastened to the rims - one on top the other so to have well matched pair. Here are a couple of pictures; the first picture taken when the timbers were being attached to the second rim, and the second picture after the timbers had been sanded to the rim's outer contour. There are four timbers still needed for each of these sub-assemblies, they will be doubling the timbers that surround the region that the axel passes thru. After that is done, there is another opportunity to add copper fasteners before the two assemblies are connected via the steps.

Me too

Working on the wheels was the winner. Yesterday I milled wood for the wheels - three 3" x 24" sheets with thickness one each of 2.25mm, 1.5mm, and 0.55mm. This should be more than enough for all of the parts plus a few missteps. Today I was able to start forming the 12 pieces needed for the rims of the small wheel: Now they need to have scarf joints made to join together. This is certainly more tedious than building bicycle wheels. Back in the day when I raced regularly, I laced and trued my own wheels. No more racing now, and technology has changed so much that almost all my current bike wheels are factory made. Still follow professional racing closely - VPN software is amazing for picking up live feeds all over the world! But got a bit more modeling minutes today when today's stage of Paris-Nice got cancelled due to high winds.

Awesome! Certainly deserves to be finished and displayed! Thanks for sharing, Greg

Had a bit more time to work on this project today, so I oiled the hull. Instructions on the can indicate that the oil should be dry in 16-24 hours; however, I'll give it a few days to get really dry before flipping her over and doing anything to the deck. In the meantime, there are many fittings to be made for the superstructure and/or some time could be spent on the wheels ...

Because there was a straight planking edge on the port side, I had a good guide for making the cuts there. For the starboard side, I clamped a strip to act as a fence and got a nice straight cut there as well. So while I had kept putting the operation off, it turned out not to be any where as nerve racking as drilling holes for the fasteners! I 'believe' that all the missing fasteners have been added. I have also added the edging to the deck opening.

Yes, please post some pics!

We never cut any of the fur on our cats, but we did experience their claws more than once. Before re-homing them, we spent several months giving them baths on a regular basis in hopes this would control the allergens - it ultimately was a fail. Do you have a build log for your dredger? I looked thru the scratch build 1901 - present logs and could not find one for you. I have a similar backlog of partially finished models. Once my dredger and Le Pourquoi-Pas? are completed I am sure I will start a new ambitious project, but I also have pledged to myself that I would one-by-one complete the partials. The main three that are in line are the Corel kit of Le Couronne, the Amati kit of Scala, and the Model Expo kit of Bluenose. I started La Couronne about 10 years ago; it was to be displayed in my office when I moved into administration at the university I had worked at. A good start was made, but then my attention turned to the Model Expo Niagara kit, which I did finish and ended up being the model that I displayed at work for a number of years. The Amati kit of the Xebec Scala had been started with expectation to bring it to Seattle for display / auction when Pacific Northwest Ballet was having their pre-professional division performing Le Corsaire. My son is a principle with the professional company and was close friends with the person that was staging the ballet - thus the connection. The model didn't assemble as well and/or as quickly as hoped. In fact, it sort of self destructed. When this happened, it was sent to the basement for years. I really like the lines of xebec's, so a couple of years ago the kit was partially deconstructed and then I started to put it back together and is now actually looking like it has good potential to be finished. It's been nearly 15 years since I started the Bluenose kit. The hull is planked - quite well considering how little experience I had when I did it. Unless a second planking is added, this model will need to be painted - a skill I should probably develop even though I prefer a natural finish in most cases. At this point I don't even recall why I stopped that particular project! Here's a pic of La Couronne and the Xebec as they sit patiently on my workbench

After shaping the starboard knees, today I went on to create the opening in the deck for the big wheel. I am pleased to say that the surgery was a success! I have material milled for the edging and plan to fit those pieces next. There are a number of fasteners that will then need to be added to the edging. When I do that, I will also put in the missing fasteners along the other edge of the deck. There is now little that needs to be done to the hull before attaching the bitts, the superstructure pillars, and their associated knees. I think just the final shaping of the bollards needs to be done first. Getting close to being able to oil the deck and the hull exterior.

Since the knees went pretty well for the bitts, I decided that I would stick with making more of them. On each side are 5 knees that join superstructure pillars to the deck. The 5 for the port side are now done, and blanks have been made for the starboard knees. These all require more delicate fitting than the ones for the bitts as there is additional deck curvature near the pillars to accommodate for.

Here's how the fore bit system is looking. All the pieces have been fabricated and now fit together properly. Now they just need to be drilled for their fasteners before they are attached to the model. Druxey, I have remembered your earlier comment and made sure to adjust the direction of the wood grain when making the knees - thanks again. The aft bitt is coming together as well; just the knees need their final shaping.

Yes, we spend a good deal of time grooming our dogs - we actually have 3 Pomeranians, one has a coat that is so challenging that we keep getting him really short haircuts! They're great dogs, but still not the same as having a cat. I was just looking at some pictures of the Billing's kit and see that it has a similar presentation to the Constructo kit. One nice feature is Billing's showing all six of the ship's boats. The Constructo kit only came with 2 of the 6 needed. I'm not sure what I will do about the other 4. At this point I am considering scratch building the missing boats. If I do that, then I will likely make all six as the 2 that came with the kit are not that nice metal castings. So when does the Billing's build start - before or after the Heller kit is finished?

I have nearly all of the fasteners for the doubling planks in place and smoothed. There are a lot of them, especially below the waterline where they are spaced just 5mm apart as you go down the length of a strake. In all there must be nearly 1000 in this operation. Here's what it's looking like now - I'll do a bit more fine smoothing before applying the oil finish. Once I got temporarily tired of sanding little copper nobs, I decided to start working on the bitts. One set of uprights have been fitted so far. The two bitts stand vertically and square with one another when clamped to the rectangular spacer. The spacer also marks the bottom of the cross-bar that will be fitted to the uprights.

John - I had to look up what 'looking the goods' actually meant - not a phrase used in this neck of the woods. I was really pleased when I found out what it meant! Thanks, Greg

I have done a small amount of work on Le Pourquoi-Pas? over the past couple of weeks. She now has a rudder and the screw has been attached. I did drill the mast holes and have embedded metal tubes in the keel for future mounting of the model. It's also getting to the point where I wanted to keep the hull level and secure as the masting process is really not that long into the future, so I put together a cradle for it to sit in. It's probably going to be slow going for the next couple of months on Le Pourquoi-Pas? as I have been spending more time on a scratch-built dredger model that I hope to finish by early May. If the May deadline becomes inaccessible, then I will go back to splitting my time more evenly between the two models.