jud

Forget the swivel top, walk around it instead. If you tilt the top, which may be handy,  you will need a separate  tool table on wheels so you can easily take it with you as you travel around the main table, might put some sort of a fold down seat on the tool table that allows sitting at the required height. If you have air, run a line in there with your overhead wiring, lights and vacuum, all offset from the table at one place, close but clear of the table. That should be enough to cause you to rub a bald spot in your hair.
jud

I agree with the previous replies that falls for gun tackles would not normally be coiled, or 'cheesed' as it's sometimes known, in normal use. This would only have been done for a brief period during inspections, etc. The reasons have been mentioned above. Btw to achieve this the 'cheese' was started from the end, working back to the gun, until all the rope was taken up. It was normally coiled in the direction of the lay of the rope. In the case of exposed guns on the weather deck, the tackles may have been removed or, if used for securing the gun, would probably have been covered.
 
As has been mentioned, hemp rope coils – from the gun tackles to all other lines – were not usually left lying on deck, due to the fact that they get wet or damp, which causes rot. The proper place for them is hanging from a belaying pin, where the air can circulate and so dry them. Even when a deck has been wet and dried out, you can be sure that damp will remain under any coils that happen to be lying there.
 
I think this is a point modelmakers have to bear in mind. Ok, it might look good to have coils everywhere, but I don't think it would have been so in reality.

Get a new thin blade for your table saw, make a new insert and cut the blade slot with your new blade after you check for everything being square. Make some jigs and saw your wood. Takes a very good band saw to re cut limber with a close tolerance and those small cheap saws are not the tool to do so, even if the advertizing would lead you to believe it would do so well. I have one of those cheap tabletop band saws, boy was I disappointed, haven't used it for years and I have a bunch of new blades for it. I think that if I would machine new adjustable guide supports both top and bottom then use bearings instead of the blocks it came with to guide the blade the quality of the cuts would improve but it's way down on the list of things to do. Others may have had better luck, I hope more will tell their experience..
jud

Get a new thin blade for your table saw, make a new insert and cut the blade slot with your new blade after you check for everything being square. Make some jigs and saw your wood. Takes a very good band saw to re cut limber with a close tolerance and those small cheap saws are not the tool to do so, even if the advertizing would lead you to believe it would do so well. I have one of those cheap tabletop band saws, boy was I disappointed, haven't used it for years and I have a bunch of new blades for it. I think that if I would machine new adjustable guide supports both top and bottom then use bearings instead of the blocks it came with to guide the blade the quality of the cuts would improve but it's way down on the list of things to do. Others may have had better luck, I hope more will tell their experience..
jud

Think I would seal them in an air tight container with a damp sponge for a few days, sponge not in contact with the folded plans. Might allow the plans to be opened without damage. If not, let the moisture stabilize back to normal and try something else. Might be some product out there intended for that use other than water.
jud

Thanks guys, but Mike the drums for the Dremmel are way too course. Keep in mind that the wall thickness for these boats is only about .050 inch.
I do have some other grinding wheels and they may help to 'hog' out the main parts, but not for the finishing.

I have been trying to get some sanding drums for the dremmel with a fine grit, but no luck thus far.
In fact, I have made my own drums for a thickness sander that works on my drill press, but those are larger diameter and not for 'special' usage.
 
Jud, I remember 'rolling my own' right after WWII. The hardest thing to get was not the tobacco but the papers. My dad even had a little machine that worked like making sushi. Kind of ages me    

Thanks for the responses.  I think I've got it sorted out:  1) Squirt a pile of glue on wax paper... (this part is now added) go have a cup of coffee and a smoke.  2) Spread the glue as thin as I can on one blank.  3) Put together and squish them.  4)  Clamp between two 1/4" thick pieces of glass with clamps.  5) Go fiddle with something else for a couple of hours.
 
I was using an old bottle of glue until it ran out and when I started the new bottle is when the problem occurred.   Step 1) second part... wait is what I added and seems to be working.

When I use Elmer's Glue, white or yellow it has been for larger material such as 2 X 4's, 1/2" and up partial board or ply and use a bunch of clamps which remain in place until the glue dries. I want a little glue to squeeze out of the joints, that bit of glue comes off with a wet rag if the joint needs cleaning up before it sets. I have used a hammer to get the air out of a joint for smaller stuff and if successful the part remains in place long enough to clamp. When using contact cement or construction adhesives the hammer is always used to drive the air out of a joint. Also use the hammer on all leather joints with a contact cement called Barge Cement. Upon reflection on your problem and wanting to obtain the flatness of a glass surface, you might try sandwiching the lamination and the two pieces of glass between some 3/4" or bigger boards and clamp them all together until the glue sets.
jud

I'll try that Jud.   I've been squeezing the blank halves with clamps and then putting them under the glass.  
 
Insanity.. doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. 

Dust masks are good to use if you have your nose down near your sanding or when you are generating large amounts of dust suspended in the air. Don't need to worry about a dust mask if you let your nose hair grow naturally, that hair is there to protect you from dust. The one I watch closely is the consumption of tomatoes. It is a proven fact that everyone who ate tomatoes, raw or cooked in 1859 are dead now, I'm not taking any chances.
jud

Dust masks are good to use if you have your nose down near your sanding or when you are generating large amounts of dust suspended in the air. Don't need to worry about a dust mask if you let your nose hair grow naturally, that hair is there to protect you from dust. The one I watch closely is the consumption of tomatoes. It is a proven fact that everyone who ate tomatoes, raw or cooked in 1859 are dead now, I'm not taking any chances.
jud

I got this idea from J. Ponto. 
 
In the past I have had problems seizing or attaching blocks to spars or other places that are high up on the ship.
I took an old desk lamp, gutted the cord and socket and replaced that with some extensions and a special fixture on top.
   
I had this small Sony tripod that I never use, took off the legs and adapted it to a small C-clamp. Now I have numerous ways of twisting, turning and reaching those awkward places with a hemostat or other tool that clamps as shown above. In order to use it at deck level, I simply take off one or two of the extensions.
Thanks Ponto.

Forget the swivel top, walk around it instead. If you tilt the top, which may be handy,  you will need a separate  tool table on wheels so you can easily take it with you as you travel around the main table, might put some sort of a fold down seat on the tool table that allows sitting at the required height. If you have air, run a line in there with your overhead wiring, lights and vacuum, all offset from the table at one place, close but clear of the table. That should be enough to cause you to rub a bald spot in your hair.
jud

Nenad,
 
Can you get a flat lacquer where you are?   Or a matte finish spray.... maybe from a craft store?  That might give you the finish you are seeking.  
 
As for life's philosophy, I think you've got it"  Chill out, man, be cool, be cool be cool. You'll make it all, with or without anxiety, and better without. Be aware that somewhere around the corner waiting in ambush hearth attack or brain stroke, and you smoke so much ...  It's just hard to change, isn't it?  I'm still trying to change some things.
 
Building ships is a good bit of that philosophy.  No stress, no anxiety, just thought, problem-solving, and art.  The spice must flow, but so must the creative part of us.  You are doing impressive work, my friend. 

Another solution is to use a single plank for the strake, then score butt joints into the plank at the appropriate lengths and locations. 

We were not dealing with cast iron and an unloaded hot gun was not attacked with buckets of seawater, we would have used hoses. Destroying a hot barrel with copious amounts of sea water would only be done to attempt to prevent an explosion in the bore, caused by heat cooking off the explosives in the projectile.  If a projectile could not be removed from a hot gun, the cooking off of the projectile was a real danger. Hot guns and explosive projectiles spending much time in them are dangerous, a propelling charge cooking off was not desired but not as dangerous, it would just clear the bore. I have experienced misfires in hot guns,  was successful in re-cocking the firing pin and lucky enough for the round to fire. I have also attempted to re-cock and attempted  to fire unsuccessfully with warm guns, waited 30 minutes to avoid the possibility that it was not a miss-fire but a hang fire instead, then opened the breach and extracted the round from the chamber, always a nervous time. First time I experienced a miss fire as Mount Captain was on a 3" 50 aboard a Heavy Cruiser, I cleared the mount as instructed but I remained with the gun, the Warrant Gunner came up to the gun and we waited our 30 minuets then I very carefully opened the breach, caught the rear of the case and worked it clear of the loader and handed it to the gunner. Horror of Horrors, he upended that round, thumped the primer with his finger and tossed the round overboard while saying defective primer, "even throwing a live round overboard required that the round hit the water case down, if it hit projectile down and the propellent went off, the case would act as a rocket and come back, case down prevented that". Never needed to hose down a hot gun but was prepared to do so quickly if needed. Closest to a projectile exploding in a bore was in RVN, firing old WW 2 ammo while supporting  PBR's in a firefight. Just firing the right gun of a water cooled twin 40 MM, after about 20 rounds the gun made more of a cough than a bang, recoil was short and the projectile blew up just clear of the bore, the shrapnel dispersed in a half moon shape ahead of the gun, none came back towards us that we knew about. The gun quit working so I shifted to the left gun and resumed firing, that kept the rounds going out and didn't allow the loaders to get rattled. When I had time I investigated and found a split cartridge case and broken extractors in the gun, replace the extractors and that gun was up and working. The smoke that the propellent of that round produced was a rotten smell unlike the norm.
I still do not believe that the guns of old, jumped when fired as designed, I have fired to many guns to believe that. Black powder and smokeless powder do have different burning rates under pressure, but neither stay in the bore of a hot gun long enough to change the characteristics of their burn rates. If a gun starts to appear to jump as it warms up, it is because of outside forces or conditions having an effect on normal recoil. There is a reason why no one has came forward with a scientific explanation of jumping guns, that is because there is none. Trails on field guns will work their way deeper on each firing unless they are re fired from the position reached at the end of recoil, but the practice was to push them back into battery, that recoil and pushing back into battery would disturb the ground, the trails would be deeper and in soft ground the wheels would be worked deeper and deeper into the ground. Aboard ship the jumping would destroy the wooden wheels and tear up the deck as well as pulling the breaching  and its rings out of the bulkhead, carronades would destroy their mounting platforms. Think there is a model of a small boat on this site, with a cannon mounted with a track built into the boat to allow the working of the gun and free recoil, If it was normal for guns to jump, they would not be staying in those tracks.
Kind of a windy post, I will not be insulted or distressed if the Moderators choose to remove it, may do it myself later.
jud

I prefer to do bench work standing up using a bench I can walk around, a stout island on wheels with brakes is what I am thinking about. With a heavy mobile island and a regular work bench I could have the best of two worlds. I have two different work benches at different heights, so I usually stand up when working with leather.
jud

Totally agree with you on this one Chris.Many of the models I build have internal decks but no accurate drawings exist for the layout.I try to calculate the serviceable area required for the armament and develop the interior around this.This not only applies to obstructions,but also to deck levels as several of the works by Van de Velde I use for reference do compromise feasability.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Agree with Spyglass, Guns recoil, cold or hot when fired. Often after ships guns were heated up, they would double shot them. Double shoting a cold gun often caused a failure, double shoting would cause more recoil. Getting sloppy when using black powder can cause a a gun tube to fail. The reason projectiles are rammed hard against the black powder charge is that the power curve of black powder goes high quickly and there needs to be a instant reaction on the projectile to get it moving before that power peak is reached, if not rammed hard against the charge, voids will fill up with pressure before the projectile starts to move and the short time to do that  delays projectile movement enough to make a bomb out of the  gun.  Smokeless powder takes more time to peak, that time gives the projectile time to start moving after the voids are filled  with pressurized gas and before the pressure peak. Pick up a black powder cartridge and shake it, because the powder fills the case and often is a compressed charge, shaking will not create the sound of powder moving around. Smokeless powder seldom fills the case and not often compressed, shaking the cartridge will produce the sound of powder moving around inside  the cartridge case.  Sorry for the windy response.
jud

Then again, can we actually trust midshipman Dillon's account? He says that at times the lower deck 'was at times so completely filled with smoke', so how can we be sure the guns 'nearly kicked the upper deck beams' as he says?
 
With the 'excitement' of battle, may he not be 'guilding the lily' somewhat in his account – which we can put down to the exuberance of youth? Also, how much later after the battle did he record this – long enough for him to add a little embellishment perhaps?
 
Of course, he may be telling the truth – but I'm not 100% convinced.

Having recently read Richard Ensor's 'Restoration warship' he does state that recoil was far more violent with bronze cannons,than with iron.An absolute mountain of research went into the book,so I am inclined to agree with him.He doesn't go in to any great reasoning other than to say that many bronze cannon's would develop stress fractures in service which would worsen the problem.I know the time period being generally discussed is perhaps a little later and concerns iron cannons but thought I would add this as it is relevant.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

You asked the right person. I have read that for Green Sand molds, wheat flour is dusted into the mold as a release agent, turns to charcoal during the pore.
jud

Had Ammo delivered by a vessel that looks like this on in RVN, " Uss Brule AKL 28", sometimes she delivered twice a week, it was a small WW 2 cargo ship and there were a lot of them used in the Pacific to move cargo around that did not justify an full blown AKA.  The Brule while delivering ammo was hit with 7 recoil-less rifle rounds, 'some records say rockets, but the crew at the time said recoil less rifles', she had a hold full plus a deck load of ammo for us. A fire was started in the deck load of ammo but they got it out. Needed to inspect every round from that delivery and even then I had a 40 MM round just clear the bore and explode, the shrapnel in the water was a half moon shape away from the gun, split the case and broke the extractors, glad to shoot the last of that load. Believe the Pueblo was a converted vessel of the same type, was on the rivers in RVN when she was taken and we didn't know if it would effect the mess we were involved in. Probably some of those vessels were converted to Buoy tenders after the war, they might have been commissioned as such.
jud.

Cutting such a groove using a router can be done several ways, both require a jig of sorts, one holds the stock and provides a surface for the router to be guided and moved along the desired cut and the other holds the router and used the bit or a fence. I used a 1" X 12" pine board with a round hole cut in the board  that allowed the router to be held upside down, the hole I cut left a flange for the router to rest on with the face plate of the router flush with the board surface with the router clamped into the jig from the bottom. The whole thing was clamped to a riser that I had built. I used that setup with the router bits guiding the board for shaped edges and for groves use a fence type guide, just a board clamped on. My router went into that cobbled up thing several times over the years. Router tables used to be available that did the same thing, don't think they were very expensive. I would have bought one if they were available when I had the need and made my own. Many old windows just had a notch cut in the inside edge of the window framing and a small square or quarter round strip was tacked in to hold the glass, that allowed room for the wood to move with changing humidity without putting stress on the glass, when putty was used, tabs held the glass instead of wood strips.
jud

Let me add to the confusion. This is from a dictionary. “Common twisted rope generally consists of three strands and is normally right-laid, or given a final right-handed twist.
The ISO 2 standard uses the uppercase letters S and Z to indicate the two possible directions of twist, as suggested by the direction of slant of the central portions of these two letters. The handedness of the twist is the direction of the twists as they progress away from an observer. Thus Z-twist rope is said to be right-handed, and S-twist to be left-handed.”
 

 
The strength of a rope has to do with how parallel the strands are with the length of the rope and has nothing to do with which way it is twisted. 
 
Bob