Mike Y

Quite unexpectedly ended up in Hamburg maritime museum. Unfortunately I only had 45min to visit it, and the museum is big - 9 floors of maritime history! It was also full of great models, including Oliver Cromwell! I was really surprised to see it in the museum, considering a very boring history behind that ship. 

The model is good, seems to be done in a fully framed manner, but 95% planked. There is a small opening in the bottom of the hull, which is barely visible. 

Sorry for the poor photo quality, museum has a soft light which makes it cozy, but hard to make photos (especially on a phone)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decor:

Nice and easy - if you happen to have a mill and know how to set it up properly , Mike!

 

True, and it is also a matter of taste - some prefer to master the hand tools, some prefer to use mills for such precision tasks

 

 

Probably, but you need to know how to work with a mill first!!!

Well, this sort of task does not require any milling experience - it was my first thing to cut, worked like a charm from the first attempt.

Just fix the plank in the vice, follow the steps, re-measure twice if not sure, done!

No intricate setup.

This is where mill is very handy - I can easilly make joints on 2-8 planks at the same time (assuming the same thickness), and they would be perfectly fit in all dimensions, tight and with a consistent angle. It takes about 8-10min for the batch including the setup. And no need for the careful markup - just make sure that all planks have the same angle in the mill vice.

Without mill, it was a lot of fitting, took around 30min per joint (instead of 10 for a number of joints), and it was hard to get tight fit on a thick stock.

Cutting perfect scarfs by hand is a skill to learn, doing it with a mill is a simple procedure that does not require any skill. Easy-peasy! One of the biggest reasons that pushed me to buy the mill.

 

Here are some basic pictures of the process. I use a wooden "template" that fits under the planks inside the vice to ensure correct angle.

 

 

 

Impressive model!

Still trying to figure out how the mold would be disassembled.

Very nice wood as well!

Looks great! The bolts are tricky, luckily you just got close to them.

One should have a corage to touch such an elegant hull with 80 grit!

Chocks form a nice contrast "dotted line", good idea!

Hm, gently push the bit up after untightening it - and it would be released.

The reason why it gets "stuck" is because the collet is getting squeezed into the chuck when you tighten it.

Never tried to hit my mill with a mallet, that sounds a bit rough

MF70 is a tiny mill that looks quite gentle. 

Really like your approach, it is a pleasure to read. So organised! 

The build board is truly great, I am envious

Thanks for all the warm words, it is very encouraging!

The treenailing itself is in progress and mostly done, but no photos yet. Realised that hand drill is not the way to go - takes 15-20sec to drill each hole, and fingertips are hurting after a hundred of holes. Building process should be a pleasure, so need to change the process to make it enjoyable

Not enough space to use the rotary tool, even the mini dremel. Ordered a tiny chuck and a small motor, should be enough to make a micro drill.

It was a pleasure to follow, your website is now my goto link for people interested in modelling!

Looking forward to follow your next project!

Been busy with apartment renovations - painting, painting, painting, and replacing all floors with a nice oak hardwood

Finally back to modelling!

 

Treenailing the deck clamp, with a plastic pattern to mark holes accurately:

 

Very elegant! Like how smooth an thin the top parts of the frames are.

Thank you, amazing videos!

 

Sadly, the replica is now up for sale. Hope a good buyer will show up!

http://www.thelocal.se/20160527/giant-replica-of-swedish-18th-century-ship-up-for-sale

Chuck, thank you for the very detailed explanation, it is totally clear now. Makes sense, and both models and the approach you have is amazing. Best wishes and hope to see them both in the market! And especially thanks for introducing a proper wood out of the box. 

Hope it will hit the market soon and would be a success!

Maybe I have some wrong bamboo... It looks very uneven.

Did a test. Swiss pear, tung oil as finish.

Two photos done with different lightning.

 

Top plank, left: brass

Top plank, middle: castello boxwood

Top plank, right: copper

Bottom plank: bamboo

 

 

 

 

Horray, innovation!

I will truly miss the Lego jigs and pesky wood strips, they were a small bits of fun

Based on the explanation it all sounds very smart, especially the vertical line idea combined with such a board.

Just a bit worried if the kit will end up too simple? Looking on a photos, where is the challenge?

No jokes intended, would be interesting to hear your thoughts about the right balance when it comes to difficulty. Longboat or pinnace was a very fun build because it was just on a sweet spot!

Unless the wood grain of the boxwood is absolutely straight, it will not draw without breaking in smaller sizes. Use split bamboo, as Mike suggests.

Yes, the grain is not perfectly straight in the pieces I tried. Bamboo seems a bit too grainy when used as a treenail.. Will try it again though, thanks for the advice!

 

Current status: need more clamps to install the deck clamps!

 

I fitted joints to be a bit loose, so they are clearly visible from the outside:

 

The only problem is a not perfectly smooth run of the clamps around midship. I made them out of 100% straight planks, instead should have curved them just a little bit. Well, next time, on the next model

Hi Mike,

 

Would bamboo be easier to draw than boxwood? Instead of brass nails maybe you could use copper. I would think that you could file the nails down if you used a #0 or #2 flat riffler without damaging the hull. http://www.ottofrei....nd-LR12711.html. Anyway, just a

 

Thanks for the advice!

I experimented with brass wire, copper wire and a boxwood treenail on the pear plank with tung oil on top.

Copper looks a bit not how I want it, brass looks better, but both are very difficult to sand/file if it is a concave surface inside the hull. Also, I am not confident in the glue bond between the nail and wood if using CA, and do not have an experience with CA.

So boxwood is the safest way to go. Bamboo is too grainy when exposed cross-grain.

 

Try like this http://forum.modelsworld.ru/topic1392start160.html

Yes, I was reading that topic and followed advices from it. Hope that method will work with a larger needle, waiting for it to arrive.

Deck clamp installation is in progress.

Some clamps are curved (bow and stern), edge bending will not really work with such thick planks, so cut them to shape.

Tracing paper helps a lot, just make sure it is fixed in place and will not move:

 

 

 

In a meanwhile, was trying to make treenails. I do not trust the glue joint between the deck clamps and the frames, it might be too weak for the humidity varations. So will reinforce it with a boxwood treenails, brass nails would be really hard to sand inside the hull.

Drawing through drawplate is really difficult after 0.7mm diameter, and is also very time consuming.

Tried another method - drilling with a hypodermic needle, sharpened as a crown.

So far my experiments failed - after first few nails wood gets stuck inside the nail and you get burned holes.

After careful reading, seems like the trick is to bend the edges of the needle to the inside, so there would be a gap between the inner surface of a needle and a treenail.

Tried the same idea with a large needle (designed to inflate balls) - but it is not polished inside, so I get burned wood again.

Also, dremel drilling stand vibrates too much, so mill is the only option for that method.

 

 

Test results, fail:

 

Ordered a bigger hypodermic needles, will try again.

Precision work. Too bad it will not be seen.

It will be seen

There is also a good model scale converter for the iphone, that can also convert between different units at the same time: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/model-scaler/id528641484?mt=8

You are truly a master of wood tone selection!

And it is an eye candy to see how precise and sharp your woodwork is.

Thanks for the comments and likes!

 

The idea with soft inner side of the clamps paid off, it flexes in difficult tight corners, no damage to the wood or to the finish:

 

Just need to make more of them, waiting for the shipment of nylon screws.

 

In a meanwhile, used my mill for the mass production of the scarph joints. Took 40min for two batches, including mill setup and a cleanup!

 

Rough cut angle planks are fixed in the mill:

First some passes to make them all level.

Then cutting the ends to the depth of the joint (2mm in my case):

 

Dividing the remaining joint in 2 equal parts, using mill table to measure the distance (do not forget to offset the cutter diameter). Cutting with the same 2mm depth:

 

The resulting joint is perfect, but a bit too tight, needs force to be assembled, no space for glue.

 

Sliiightly trimming ends of the planks on a disk sander, carefully with the angles:

 

And that's it!

 

Without a mill, it would take me half a day to make all these joints with chisel and file, and they would not be so straight..

 

Result of the day:

clamps are steamed and fixed into place, left overnight to dry

 

 

The table on the first photo looks very good, like a fullsize slab table

Ben, maybe dissolving some glue joints and inserting extra spacers will solve the problem? The hull is so great!