cdrusn89
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Everything posted by cdrusn89
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While messing around with the sail templates I also fitted the three frames I made with cloth and 50/50 white glue (Elmer's Glue-All) and water to both sides (letting the first side dry before coating the other side) of the three sail frames. I also did a small section as a "test pattern". I had to set the frames on the floor to dry as I was afraid if they were not flat they might dry with funny ripples in them. Had to be careful where I stepped and kept the dog out of the workshop. My girlfriend is a pretty handy seamstress (she has about half a dozen quilts in various stages of construction) and she wanted to she what she could do to help. So I took my test piece and a length of .025 Syren tan line that had been coated with white glue and hung to dry and got her to stitch the line into a 3/8" (more or less) seam to approximate a bolt rope for the foot and luff of the main sail. She decided to use red thread to make it easier to see where the stitches went. My next test is to use a pencil to mark the seams in the sail to see how that works. I am pretty sure she could sew them into the sails but I fear it would cause too much puckering (I have seen some pretty ugly examples of this) so I want to try the easy way out first.
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With the hull complete except for the boom I turned my attention to the sails. I had previously taken the sail plan (which is at half scale) had it scanned in and enlarged to make it full scale. I wanted to see how the sails would fit on my model since it is certainly possible that I had mis-measured or tolerances had worked against me and the sails would be too small or large if I just took the drawing as gospel. I cut the main sail out from m y "full-size" sail plan and glued it to a piece of cardboard. I fitted a shackle and halyard to the head and, being careful to route it between all the stays " ran it up to the masthead. Good thing I bothered - I guess the scaling job at Fed-Ex Office was not as accurate as you might like. As you can see in the picture below, the main sail is about 3" short of what it should be. Not surprisingly it is also about half an inch short at the foot. I am going to take Sheet 5 (that shows the sails on the boat) to Fed-Ex Office and get several full size copies made so I can get templates for the "real sails" made. It will be easy to verify that the copies are the correct size - just lay them on top of the original.
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With the back stays in place I used the laser level to check the mast alignment for and aft. I adjusted the model in the cradle to get the laser and water line matched up as hopefully this means that the hull in "level" at least locally. Then I moved the cradle around on the workbench to get the vertical line in the center of the mast at deck level. Then I checked where the laser falls on the mast as it goes up. The laser line is off the mast forward just above the second spreader and at the top looks to be about 8mm (aka 5/16") forward of the mast. This equates to just short of a foot at full scale (5/16 x 35 = 175/16 = 10.9" ~ 1 foot since I am not sure how accurate my measurement was). There is nothing in the instructions about mast rake but I would assume there was probably some. Looking at the full scale sail plan and assuming that the hull is shown "level" (the entire hull length is not shown on this drawing but the deck clearly rises toward the forward end so...) and that the borders are perpendicular to the hull waterline shows about 1 3/4" inches of rack/bend to the mast. I think I will stick with 5/16". Given the amount of clearance between the mast and the deck opening aft I do not think I can get much more rack and I do not want to stress the fore/back stays to get more bend than is there already. With the sails on her I do not think anyone will take too much notice of the mast as long as it does not bend forward.
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With the mast stabilized (side to side) and the new cleats installed and the epoxy set I went and rigged the three sets of back stays. I added new blocks to locations that the plans show as eyebolts to get the horizontal pull on the cleats that belay the two forward most set of back stays. I had previously replaced the single blocks on the deck with doubles at the after back stay to accomplish the same purpose. Here are the three sets of back stays as adjusted. I have not yet decided how to handle the excess line and in some cases the lines are not completely belayed (around the cleat and over the side with a weight since I will likely have to adjust some when I see the mast alignment.
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Before replacing the cleats I decided to true up the shrouds. Used the laser level to get both the model level (side to side) and the mast straight. I used small pieces of wood to wedge the mast in position while I crimped the tubes to freeze the shrouds to the turnbuckles. Then I carefully removed the wood wedges and adjusted the turnbuckles to keep the mast straight. it did not take much more than a turn or two of the turnbuckles to hold things steady. Hopefully doing the for/aft adjustments will not throw this off.
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Keith - when retired and with a cooperative headquarters you can move pretty quickly. I am hearing noises about starting Christmas decorations so I am seizing every opportunity before that evolution begins in earnest.
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After looking at the aft back stay design awhile I decided that having the bitter end of the aft tackle going more or less directly down to the deck edge cleat was not how I wanted to do things. It is much better (IMHO) to have the line going to a cleat such as used here to approach the cleat from more or less the same level as the cleat - i.e. pulling on the cleat in the horizontal plane instead of the vertical. To facilitate this I replaced the aft single block with a double (which I luckily had in my collect of brass blocks). As you can see in the photo below the line comes off the becket, around the deck block, around the becket block, around the deck block again and then forward to the cleat. I am considering changes to the other back stay tackles so they also approach the cleats from deck level not above.
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While waiting for the varnish on the new cleats to dry I started to get the back stays rigged (as far as possible) without having a place to belay them. This involves getting the pendants to the correct length and rigging the tackles through the appropriate block. Here are the after back stays with the tackle terminated with a clamp suspended over the side to provide a little tension. The bits of blue tape mark the cleats that need to be replaced.
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In preparation for rigging the running back stays (there are three sets of two) I made up the six tackles that connect the back stay to the hull. I made two of the type on the left and four of the other. The two with a line to both sides of the block (which is barely visible - sorry) are for the after back stay where both ends belay to cleats and there is a single block at the back stay pendant. The other two sets of back stays have the block shown in the picture at the end of the pendant. That all went without difficulty. The problem started when I tried to belay the aft back stay tackle to the indicated cleat. The cleats in question are the after most ones which are mounted outside of the deck "railing". It came free from the hull with very little effort. I had suspected this might be a problem, especially since the force on these cleats is mostly vertical given the way the rigging is configured per the provided drawings. So I decided that I would replace, at a minimum the eight cleats that belay the back stays (the after most set has two cleats per back stay). I took one of the cleats that came off and managed to drill a .040" (#60) hole vertically through the more or less center of the cleat. I got a piece of .039 music wire to use as a pin through the cleat and drilled a #60 hole in the hull to hold the cleat. That example cleat is shown on the left in the picture below. I had so much fun doing that one that I decided to make new cleats with the hole from scratch. I needed seven so I decided to make a few extra in case I encounter this issue with some of the other cleats. There will be a short intermission while I stain and varnish the crop of new cleats.
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Yves - I am trying to stick with the look as it might have been in the 1930s, so no carbon fiber, white canvas is what I am trying to portray.
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While pondering how exactly to go about mounting the mast/boom I built frames to hold the material for the three sails. They give you an idea of how BIG the sails will actually be. My girlfriend (the quilt lady) is going to cut out the fabric today (maybe) and I will get them mounted on the frames in preparation for the glue/water mixture to be applied.
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The deck is "officially" complete. I am still considering some method of adding some additional strength to the cleats that will be under load. Like drilling down through the center and adding a .025" wire with a drop of thin CA to freeze the wire and wood together. I need to let the Titebond set overnight before I do anything. I think there are only a few cleats where they see much if any load. all the jib sheets go to the winches first so the winch takes whatever load there is. The backstays may be where I need to do something as they might be under some tension trying to get the mast aligned correctly. On to building the frames for the sails and getting the mast, boom and standing rigging aboard.
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I got the last of the blocks for the main sheet and the main sheet traveler installed too.
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I decided to redo the block/eyebolts for the jib stays. I added a small turnbuckle to the block that is there for the jib's downhauls. It was going to be tight getting the jibstays hooked in as it was and now I have the ability to tension the jibstays after the wire is secured. It means that the jib and flying jib will not be positioned as close to the deck as they would have been otherwise but I think that is a price worth paying. I will have to slightly adjust the size of the jibs to account for the slight decrease in length at the luff. I changed out the supplied eyebolt for a bigger one to accommodate the turnbuckle.
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Finished gluing the big pieces an d started on the blocks, eyebolts and chain plates. hope to finish the deck hardware today and start working on the frames for the sails tomorrow. Here are the stbd chain plates and the blocks and eyebolts on the stbd side forward. I moved the out chain plate a b it forward of the inner so the rings holding the turnbuckle do not interfere with the chain plate. The blocks, eyebolts and chain plates are attached with epoxy so hopefully they will not be pulled out when tensioned.
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I finished placing (although not all are glued in place just yet - for instance the forward hatch with the four skylights) all of the major deck furniture and other topside items except the whisker pole, eyebolts, blocks "chain plates" and cleats. Here is how it looks now.
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More odds and ends. I decided to add a molding around the base of the cockpit and the skylights. I find it hard to believe that these were not included as it would be really hard to keep a vertical seam between the deck and structure anything close to watertight without something to force the caulking into the seam. Maybe they were eliminated to save weight and let the crew man the pumps to keep up with the entering water and be miserable below decks. I assume they had to sail this across the Atlantic to try for the cup (no heavy lift ships in the 1930s) but maybe it was towed or carried over as deck cargo. Anyway it gave an excuse to try out one of the draw plates I got from Artesania via Hobby Tools. I used the 2mm X 2mm quarter round slot (upper left) which would be not quite 3" - pretty big but it is the smallest I have.. I used a 3/32 x 3/32 boxwood piece thickness sanded to 2mm x 2mm. It worked pretty smoothly and reasonably fast - although I would not like to have to make 20' of it this was. I mounted the wind instruments prior to painting. I might have gotten carried away on these. The vane would be about 3' long at scale but it is way up there although I am sure they had a readout on deck (there are some gauges on the aft skylight structure just in front of the helm). I have decided to mount a pair of smaller winches (from Bluejackets) on each side of the mast near the deck. There does not appear to be a method for tensioning (or securing) the main halyard (the instruction show an eye in one of the sail tracks with what is apparently a weight on the end as the termination of the main halyard). On a modern sailboat there is a winch located about 3-4 feet above the deck and this is used to tension the main halyard and it secures to a cleat below the winch on the mast of through a fairlead block at the base of the mast to a cleat on deck. I am going to replicate these on both sides of the mast, for the main and either of the jib halyards.
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Gerty - Thanks. Working odds and ends now. Here is a picture of my replacement winch grinder. Not very elegant but it should get the job done. Also put the ship's wheel together - all the parts were there and unbroken too. Also this is the beginning of my anemometer that will go at the top of the mast. It will be painted white and I am hoping no one notices that the cups on the end are not hollow. I used some jewelry beads that I filed down to a hemisphere (more or less) but the only way I could get them to stay on the arm was to glue them on both ends so the arm extends through the "cup" and pretty well fills it up. Maybe I can put a spot of black paint in the center of each one. It will be at the top of the mast in any event and not exactly in the normal line of sight unless you are 7'6" tall. Sorry picture of the more finished anemometer will not load. I will get another picture when it is painted.
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Thanks Yves.
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Three coats of Wipe-on-Poly satin. 24 hrs to fully dry and it is on to deck furniture and rigging installation.
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You would think that having built five previous model kits I would have checked out all the materials and pieces provided to make sure I had everything and nothing was broken. If you thought that you would be wrong in this particular case. I failed to thoroughly check the "special" pieces provided in this case the winch pedestal. I found it, still inside the packaging envelope in two pieces. Since it is "Britannia metal" (or something similar) and the break is at the thinnest point (where else?) I see no easy way to repair this piece. So I used my new drill press as a poor man's lathe and turned a piece of dowel into approximately the shape and length of the kit supplied part. I am trying to decide now whether to flatten the sides on the top or "quit while I am ahead" and just drill a hole for the handles, stain Mahogany, varnish and call it a day.
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I got all the holes drilled for the eyebolts, blocks and main sheet traveler (winches and skylights were done earlier. I painted the inside of the skylight holes black to match the blackened file folder in the bottom of the skylight structures. I did another sanding with 320 grit and wiped down with paint thinner soaked rag and now I should be ready for a first coat of Wipe-on-Poly in the morning. I guess I am going to have to get serious about making the sails as I should have the hull and rigging finished in the near future.
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HQ approves and not one to allow time for additional consideration I managed to locate a suitable drill press locally, procured, set up and drilled the required 15 holes in a little more than five hours, including an hour each way to get the drill press. Worked like a charm and now I only have to find a place for it in the workshop. It is too heavy (almost 100 lbs according to the box) to move around much. It may just have to stay where it is until I need that space for something else, then maybe in the corner somewhere. Here is a picture of the hull on the drill press table and the deck with the winches and skylights sitting in place.
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Jonathan - that is Alaskan Yellow Cedar from Syren Ship Model Company. It is sold in 14" X 2" "slabs" in your choice of thicknesses. I had to rip and then thickness sand the pieces into 1mm X 2mm planks. Not too much of a problem if you have the right tools. And the glue was Titebond Original.
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Final sanding (320 grit) and rub down with paint thinner completed. Now the question is apply finish and then drill mounting holes for eyebolts, skylights, winches, blocks, sheet traveler or do that now and then apply finish. Speaking of skylights (the six round ones in the deck) as I was planking over the holes in the subdeck I wondered if the recessed skylights should have been glued down and then planked around. If not then why have the holes in the subdeck. But careful examination of the supplies skylights shows a 15/64" (6mm) diameter "shoulder" on the skylight with a sloped surface above which would have been very difficult to plank around since there is nothing "solid" to which to plank. At that time I decided to plank over the holes and relocate the skylight locations after planking - not that there exact locations are in any way critical. So now how to drill the appropriate holes to mount both the skylights and the winches. Luckily both have mounting shoulders the same 6mm in diameter. Short of buying a 6mm drill bit the next largest size English bit would be 1/4". Luckily Forstner and quill point drill bits are readily available in this size. My set only goes down to 5/16" but Amazon delivers tomorrow with a 1/4" Frostner which I think would be the tool of choice to drill into the deck since the hole will cross at least three strips of planking. Hopefully I glued them down really well and the drilling will not tear them up. Now to decide if my cordless drill is to weapon of choice or do I need a larger bench drill press that would allow the entire hull to be mounted under it. Both my "model" drill presses are too small to get the hull under. I have to consult with HQ about this subject. You have to have the right tools! So, given the possibility that there could be deck damage from drilling the installation holes (at least for the deck skylights and winches) I will wait until they are done before applying the finish to the deck.
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