captainbob

There's differences between the drawings and the actual boat as she appeared in 78/79.  As mentioned before, I refer to photos, especially of her out of the water, to alter my drawings to match. 
 
The shape of the forefoot is much rounder on the actual boat;
 
The propeller opening is more complex.  She has a 5 bladed prop today, she had a 3 bladed prop back then;

The shape of the rudder is very different from the drawings;

She was originally an unpowered  schooner.  When they installed an engine, they added the structure aft of the stern post, and lengthened the hull into that yacht-like transom;

When I was aboard her in 78 she was all white with buff rails and still had the full house with the wheel enclosed.  In 79 the house was shortened so the wheel was outside and the raised portions of the rails fore and aft were painted forest green.  It's this 79 appearance I plan to finish her in.

Nice tight fit.
 
Bob

Sure wish I had had a tug like that when I was sailing One Meters.
 
Bob

Beautiful work, Nils.
Bob
 

That's what I thought but it helps to be sure.  Thanks.
 
Bob

Beautiful work, Nils.
Bob
 

That's what I thought but it helps to be sure.  Thanks.
 
Bob

There are a lot of you how said you are familiar with the Mariefred and offered to help if I had a problem. This has to do with the drawing not the boat, but I need help. There is a mark that looks like a strange "Z" on one of the drawings.   I think it is for millimeters but I'm not sure.  I have circled several of these symbols on the drawing below.
 
Bob

Congratulations on finding and getting the drawings.  Now to start the build.
 
Bob

Beautiful work, Nils.
Bob
 

That's what I thought but it helps to be sure.  Thanks.
 
Bob

That's what I thought but it helps to be sure.  Thanks.
 
Bob

Beautiful work, Nils.
Bob
 

So to finish:-
 
The wheel hub on Altair is made of brass. I made my hub from the barrel of a redundant dart - turned down to 1/4 inch and drilled with 8 radial holes.
 

 
The spokes were coloured with wood dye and then assembled to join the hub and rim. The assembly was glued with CA.
 

 
The shaft (not yet finished) was turned from 1/4 inch brass rod. The wheel is teporarily attached to the pedestal. I still need to varnish the wheel.
 

 
The wheel is really quite fragile so I think I will have to store it away and only attach it as a final operation at the end of the build - still many months away.

Thank you very much Denis,
 
made 2 additional smaller watertanks for the aft boatsdeck today and added the fill- and discharge tubes on all three
 
Nils
 

 

 
 

I started the deck planking.  I experimented with holly and box.  The holly was too soft and the finish came out blotchy.  First task was several tests of color and tone.  Planks were cut to 2.5" x 10" (full size) on the saw and thickness sander and then treated with a Model Shipways black walnut stain (water based).  Two coats was enough for now.  The first plank next to the main hatch was the starting point.  Both ends were set equidistant from the center line and abutted to the hatch.  Planks will be parallel out to the side.  Tapering will be done on the final strake(s).
 

 
Following the planking plan for where joints fall, I started moving out towards the sides.  The edges of the planks are rubbed with a soft pencil to simulate caulking.  The starboard side will have sections left off for exposure of the gears, water tank and great cat.  An advantage of me making all the beams paired from two 6x pieces is I have a center point on each beam for landing joints.  I'm experimenting with simulated plugs rather than treenails for the deck planks.  The plugs will be tapped in once decking is complete.    I'm using thin hypodermic tubing to make the outline of the plug.  Highlighting will be done with either black leather polish or India ink.  Subtle, but not too much so.  
 

 
Maury

There are a lot of you how said you are familiar with the Mariefred and offered to help if I had a problem. This has to do with the drawing not the boat, but I need help. There is a mark that looks like a strange "Z" on one of the drawings.   I think it is for millimeters but I'm not sure.  I have circled several of these symbols on the drawing below.
 
Bob

There are a lot of you how said you are familiar with the Mariefred and offered to help if I had a problem. This has to do with the drawing not the boat, but I need help. There is a mark that looks like a strange "Z" on one of the drawings.   I think it is for millimeters but I'm not sure.  I have circled several of these symbols on the drawing below.
 
Bob

She's beautiful and almost done.  Fantastic.
Bob
 

She's beautiful and almost done.  Fantastic.
Bob
 

She's beautiful and almost done.  Fantastic.
Bob
 

Progress to date:-
 
I drilled the 8 radial holes on the brass rimmed version using the rotary table mounted vertically in the mill. The centre drill was used to spot through as far as the brass tube.
 

 
Before drilling through with a .075 inch diameter twist drill I inserted a plug to prevent splintering.
 

 

 
I also drilled holes in the back up wooden rimmed version. Still not confident on how the brass rimmed version will turn out.
 

 
I remounted the rotary table horizontally and thinned down the wooden hoops using a .160 inch diameter end mill.
 

 
That how far I have got at present. Tomorrow I will have a go at the spokes.

We don't talk about that in nice circles.
 
Bob

She's really looking good.
 
Bob

I started the wheel experiments. I decided to build 2 versions and see how they turned out. Altair's wheel has a solid brass band set into the front and rear face of the rim. Its quite a nice feature and I am wondering whether I can reproduce it without the wheel looking too heavy. The second version is a back up, without the brass band. This is a somewhat simpler and more streamlined design.  The diameter at the rim is just under 1 inch and this introduces some challenges.
 
Anyway to make a start:-
 
Making the rim by turning a dowel to the outside diameter and then boring out the inside didn't appeal as I considered the grain direction would make hoop too fragile. I felt the grain needed to follow round the rim and this meant fabricating the rim from a number of section. This in turn could have introduced joint weaknesses but these were overcome by making the rim out of 2 layers with the 2nd layer rotated to stagger the joints. The photos probably explain this better. The assembly is glued on to a MDF backing to facilitate later machining.
 

 
I gave cutting the rim hoop a bit of thought. The obvious solution was the lathe but I was concerned that the forces be too great and the hoop would break during machining. I felt milling would be a less harsh process and this proved to be the case.
 

 
 
The middle sized hoop is the one I need for the simple version of the wheel. The large and small hoops are a bonus of the process.
 
The hoop was then mounted on a spigot ready for drilling radial holes to take the spokes prior to final shaping.
 
 

 
Ill cover progress on the more complicated wheel in my next post.