Roman

It seems that this summer has been more busy than usual, which means the shipyard has been fairly quiet.
Thought I'd include a couple of pictures of our garden bounty. The cherry tomato plants, that I'm standing behind, went a little crazy this year. I'm 5'7" and they are a couple of feet above my head!
 

 

 
I have a small update as well:
 
The upper portion of the second planking is complete. I've made and installed the support beams and columns for the fore deck, and the second planking is done on the lower section of the stern - not sure of the name of this part - it's the thick section below the lower gallery.
 
I salvaged a beautiful block of cherry wood from the wood pile and have been drying it now for a couple of months. I'm thinking of using it for the deck furniture etc.......but first, the rest of the planking.
 

 

 

 

Hi Sherry,
 
I have found some drawings of mine, maybe they can help you.
 
Regards Kay

Hi Sherry,
 
I'm new here at MSW and immediately stumbled over your building report. I think it's great that you try you at the San Felipe. It is a very nice ship, if it they ever was does not matter. I have built from 2004-2009 according to the plans of Lusci 1:60 scale. It was my first scratch. I then created my own drawings, as the Lusci plan was very inaccurate. Keep it up and it is a very nice ship. Here are a few pictures of my San Felipe.
 
Regards Kay

I finally have a small update!
It's been very busy...brother had a heart attack, daughter broke her foot...and that was just one day!
Anyway, things have settled down now and I have a chance to work on my San Felipe!
 
Even though I was "coping" well and not "fretting" too much with my hand sawing...I now have a scroll saw!
The first picture shows the brand new saw that lasted about 3 1/2 minutes...until the plastic bearing collar broke and parts flew!
The second picture shows the used scroll saw that I replaced it with (all metal, 22 inch). It works like a charm!
 

 

 
This is the finished knee of the head/keel parts that I fine tuned until they fit properly.
 

 
Next up was the building slip and attached false keel.
 

 

 
 

John, Druxey, Lextin, Grant, Omega, Mark, Sherry. Thank you all for your encouragement with all you positive comments. thanks to all those who added likes.
 
Well I needed to get this next part out of my system, so Jude and I went down to the lake with a bucket of used wheel balance weights and the cutter. to get an idea of what I am dealing with, so this was a test not an official launch.
 

 
it took a while to add them all 60lbs a few at a time, the folk on the beach must have thought we were nuts.
 

 
We ran out of weights so I will need to get another bucket or two.
 
Took a few pics of it floating.
 

 

 
and this is my favorite shot of the day.
 

 
A number of lessons learned
 
1. It will be very heavy because I need a lot more weight to get it another 2 1/2 inches lower in the water
2. the weights will need to be set up so that they can be easily added and removed.
3. I will need a launching vehicle with small bicycle wheels to launch after the weights are added.
4 it was not pleasant lifting the boat out of the water with all the weight in it.
5. the weight was more forward than I expected it to be.
6. total weight was 66lbs with the stand
Tomorrow I will empty the weights out of the hold.
 
Michael

Mark I was thinking about this sort of thing
 

 
and this
 

 
michael

Just got the notification from Donna that mine's on the truck and scheduled for delivery sometime Wednesday. 
 
Cheers

Lucky sod !!!!!,,Enjoy  

I went to the Vaughan and purchased three Bear Hand saws (Japanese saws). Fine, Med & Coarse TPI. I am sold. Have used it one various projects. You get a straight cut downwards, no getting stuck in the wood. I let the saw blade do the sawing, all I do is move the saw forward and backwards.
[in forestry - graduate school - when I taught the timber harvesting classes, first rule of the first day: Hold the chainsaw on the angle you want a cut and let the chain do the job. You have to have a sharp chain to do this]
 
I want to thank you for the suggestion. I am very happy with them
Marc

Hello,
I wish you all a happy new year.

The building report continues with  the breeching ropes of the carronades.
The special feature is that the rope in the rear region of the
breech is protected by a leather taping in the form of a tube.
Here are some pictures of the work to breeching ropes.

 

 

The bismuth makes the pewter harder, frost resistent and it should better cast.
 
Here a picture of my cannon foundry 
 

 
Regards,
Siggi

Beautiful machining Mark. Those angle gauges are terrific. Just happen to have those laying around?

Dear Greg, druxey, Siggi, Grant and Ed,
 
Thank you for the kind comments. It took me almost a week of long days to produce this one master cannon, and your support on this website kept me going at times.
 
When I first laid out my "recipe" of dimensions, I did not account for the fact that the pointed cutting bit has an angled face. Cutting up to the line on the fine moldings meant that I had already cut away half of its thickness. So If you look closely at the drawing (actual sizes on the lower half, the cutting dimensions on the upper half),  I thickened up the various moldings so that when I cut to the line, I ended up with the right size. But I only got to this through a number of failed trial and error recipes. I confess it got tedious! I did try switching cutting bits to a face perpendicular to the moulding on each side, but then I got so lost in where I was. I finally had to figure out how to use a pointed cutter for the entire length.
 
Greg, I am an admirer of your own machining skills, and I can share with you that the angle gauges did have to come into the shop only after I got very tired of setting angles by trigonometry (moving the cutter in the X dimension down a set length, then dialing in the Y direction to see if it hit the blank forming a 1 degree triangle, then adjusting and doing it again). The manual method was OK at first, but not after so many failed trial and errors. That was one of the reasons it took me so long to produce this master.
 
Siggi, I know how it feels to discover information after you have completed something that is now out of reach for repair. I have a few of those in my project that I keep thinking about. But I looked at your photos, and your cannon look great to me. Also, I discovered that there are a number of variations on this cannon pattern, so who will know!
 
Ed, I have not cast anything before, and I am going to follow the directions in David Antscherl's volume II of the Fully Framed Model. I found lead free pewter at a local jewelry supply, and will see what happens.  I also just bought some Micro Mark casting resin, to see how this turns out in comparison to the pewter. 
 
I would give a special acknowledgement to Michael Mott, whose magnificent machining precision on his skipjack engine inspired me to work a little harder at getting this as right as I could, within my own skill level.
 
Best wishes,
 
Mark

Lead-free pewter has very little shrinkage. I assume that it is the bismuth content that provides this characteristic.

Great precision, Mark.  What do you intend to cast these in?  Have you thought about shrinkage?  With all this accurate work, you may want to research a low shrinkage alloy.  Also, if you cast these vertically in RTV you may get some swell at the bottom.- but this may not be an issue with the size of these - I assume about 2" long.  If you use pewter you may want to get an alloy that has some bismuth added to reduce shrinkage.
 
Knowing your thirst for precision.....
 
Ed

Hi everyone,
 
Well, after a number of rejects, I finally made a master 32 pound cannon for casting. A few details. First, I decided to use the Sherline angle cutting device for the angled cuts, since the angle to the hind of the second reinforce is different from the angle ahead of the reinforce. I used some very handy angle gauges to set the device to the 1 degree and then 1 1/2 degree parts. This was infinitely easier than calculating the tangents of the angles,  and then trial and error setting the angles. The second photo shows setup using the 1 and 1/2 degree gauges.
 
I have a digital readout on my lathe, but this does not work on the angle device. So I had to count turns for distances. To facilitate this, I adapted an old Sherline hand wheel that can reset to 0, turning it down to fit the angle device. This helped enormously with incremental counts down the length of the cannon.
 
And then I drew up a recipe (fourth photo), converting actual scale lengths to numbers of full turns of the hand wheel plus numbers of increments in part of a turn. You can see this in the photo as, for example, 9T 38, which means nine full turns plus 38 increments. Each horizontal and then vertical cut is color coded the same so I could keep track of where I was.
 
Inspired by Michael Mott's machining, I used a center bit in the mill as seen in the first photo, for drilling the hole for the trunnion. This helped keep the hole accurately located while drilling into a curved surface (the trunnion is off center by half its diameter). It worked perfectly. Thanks, Michael!
 
I intend to cast these, so the muzzle mouth has a dowel on it, onto which I will attach a funnel head for making the mold.
 
At last, I can think about making molds!
 
All for now,
 
Mark

Very nice drawings Mark.
 
Watching that slow motion of the inside of the side of the test panel of the ships side, it is a wonder that anyone would venture below decks during a sea battle. what a dangerous place to be.
 
michael

Richard, I think your opinion is very much in line with most of us. The Byrnes tilt table is a relatively new thing compared to the saw itself. When I first purchased mine it was not available but I did get the micrometer and the fence extension. The taper attachment and a handful of blades came later. I cannot imagine most owners of the Byrnes saw did any different. It is fair to say; grow the machine as your needs grow! Yet it is a good thing if you have the means to get the whole kit in one shot.
 
 
Roman

Shawn, get as much saw as you can afford. Considering that Byrnes makes such a fine tool, look at it as an investment. I have all but the tilt table and it is in my short wanted list. What you think you will not use today, who knows you may end up using it or not in the future; however you will have a complete Byrnes machine that is truly unique. I do not think you will ever lose your money on these and to someone else, it will only make it more desirable that you have the complete Byrnes table saw; in case you decide to sell it or will it to your children. As Mark said the blades are made by Thurston but you can get them from Byrnes.
 
 
Roman

HI everyone,
 
I forgot to mention that my gun drafting came as part of re-drafting the Bellona in CAD. Here are a couple of screen shots of progress so far....
 
Best wishes,
 
Mark

Richard, I think your opinion is very much in line with most of us. The Byrnes tilt table is a relatively new thing compared to the saw itself. When I first purchased mine it was not available but I did get the micrometer and the fence extension. The taper attachment and a handful of blades came later. I cannot imagine most owners of the Byrnes saw did any different. It is fair to say; grow the machine as your needs grow! Yet it is a good thing if you have the means to get the whole kit in one shot.
 
 
Roman

Like Roman said. Sooner or later, you'll find a use for the extras, so get what you can swing now.  I ordered everything except the miter-extension and the tilt-table, but those things are definitely on the list of future purchases. In fact, I've already come up with a use for the tilt-table. Gonna test it for cutting the bevel in the Connie's waterways. 
 
Cheers and Happy New Year to everybody!

I guess I run counter to the majority opinion.
I have the Byrnes Saw and did not go overboard buying extras for the saw. I did get the extended rip fence and a few zero clearance inserts to match the various blades used, but I consider those part of every day operation.   I had decided to wait until I had a need, and skills, before spending a couple hundred dollars on the rest of it.  So far the need has not come up as so far I have other tools that fill in, i.e., micrometer, brass spacers, etc.
So instead I used the money to buy the Byrnes thickness sander which has already gotten a fair amount of use.
 
Richard

Shawn, get as much saw as you can afford. Considering that Byrnes makes such a fine tool, look at it as an investment. I have all but the tilt table and it is in my short wanted list. What you think you will not use today, who knows you may end up using it or not in the future; however you will have a complete Byrnes machine that is truly unique. I do not think you will ever lose your money on these and to someone else, it will only make it more desirable that you have the complete Byrnes table saw; in case you decide to sell it or will it to your children. As Mark said the blades are made by Thurston but you can get them from Byrnes.
 
 
Roman

So I have decided that a Byrnes is in order.
 
For those of you that have them, did everyone purchase the "deluxe" saw? Meaning with the tilting table, micrometer stop, extended fences? Basically a saw with all the works? Or is the best bet just getting the saw?
 
Also where are you purchasing blades?
 
Let me know.
 
Thanks
 
Shawn