Mike Y

Today I tackled the channels.  No easy way to make these.   You just have to go old school.   These are unlike the channels most have grown accustomed to.  These are much thicker (5/32") and they are not as wide.  When viewed from the side they gradually get thinner buy a little bit.  The bottom is beveled or angled so the outboard edge is just 1/8" thick.   Maybe a hair thicker.
 
Note how the usual cover or cap molding isnt shown.  Basically small notches are filed into the edge and the chainplates will be bolted to the edge.   Many cutters show this feature but there are other arrangements too.  But I figure the original draft should be followed here.  Its an interesting feature.
 
Then the profile along the edge is made old school with a round file, sanding sticks or whatever you are comfortable with.  Note how the gunport splits the channel in two lengths and the edges in the break are not profiled.
 
I had hoped to make the eyebolts and chainplates today but I dont have enough brass strip so it has been ordered.   While I wait I will continue finishing up the outboard details like the scuppers and rudder.  The channels are not glued on yet as I await arrival of more material.  They will be finished up first with eyebolts.
 
The outboard details shouldnt take very long to do.
 

 

 

 

 

Mike,
 
I use an X-acto saw blade.. there's several types and one that worked great is the one that looks like a #11 blade.  That is the time saver.  The filing and trimming is the time killer but that's part of the job, I guess.   I didn't need to worry about an exact fit on the sills as I'm fully planking.  I found that I got faster after a doing a couple of them.  Still, it's not a project that can be rushed.

Thanks for likes and comments, it is very encouraging
 
Worked on transom wings today. Hahn plans do not have any lines for wings, except a very rough shape for the top one. So instead of a regular "cut-bevel-sand-apply poly-install" process, was using carboard templates to come up with a proper shape.
So far only top wing is installed, others needs to be better fitted. The bevels are small, proper beveling would be done on a hull - the shape is complex, it is difficult to pre-bevel. Thanks to TFFM and various build logs, all the nuances of transom installation are pretty well covered. However, I simplified the joints - instead of cutting slots, just glued wing flat to the last frame. Reinforced with treenails

The wing looks much brighter than the frames, strange. I was careful with the wood selection, probably it is due to light exposure of the frame. Hope it will get darker over time! 
 
Started cutting the gunports, first on the planked side.
The method is simple and is relatively fast, so will share. Sorry if it is too obvious.
 
1) Make cutoffs using xacto keyhole saw:

 
2) Remove wood with a sharp knife. It is easy because all cuts are following the grain


 
3) When close to desired width (in my case - I need to remove exactly half of the frame thickness) - continue with a sanding stick (it is like a file, but faster if using a coarser sand belt)

 
4) Gunport is ready to be finished with files (sill slots would be are also cut with files, and a square piece of wood helps aligning ports on both sides)

Symbolic milestone - all frames installed!

 
Now need to install that tricky transom frames and wings, something that will represent hawse timbers, and cut the gunports.
And then - start the magical process of fairing!

Thanks for likes and comments, they help to move forward!
First made a bow sander and started to smoothen the lines of the transom wings:

 
Looks much better now. But the final shaping would be done later anyway, when I will fair the hull:

 
Now to the gunports.
I seriously underestimated efforts required. It took around 4-5 hours to make the first pair 
 
Square block of wood was used as a guide to ensure squareness and parallelism of the port sills. 
It also helped to file the edges of the ports on a proper angle. I struggled to find a proper working position - too low if you sit, too high if you stand. Ended up with this setup:

 
Careful sanding / filing took an enormous time, no way to use chisel for it (too tight, cross grain, might split).
Also, on exposed side sills were done in a semi-correct way - with angled joints, correct thickness of the lower sill, but the upper sill had the same thickness as the lower one (comparing to a fully correct way, when the upper sill is thicker). Making that angled joints was fun!

 
End result. Too early to say, the joint accuracy would be visible only after the fairing, which I can't do now - will sand away a lot of pencil marks on the nearby frames

 
Sorry for the mess, I hate to show all that glue stains, poly stains, rough edges - but too early to fair. It would be nicer, I promise!
 
Overall build status:

 
Hope that next gunports will be quicker - will measure better to reduce the sanding/filing time.
Would appreciate any hints or tricks. But I doubt there is any silver bullet - I was just totally wrong in a time estimate. With a speed of one gunport per week, I might not finish it before Christmas..

Finished the transom wings. It is an interesting area of the hull, a lot of fine tuning and shaping
Left the wings slightly oversized and with rough corners (too square), will properly shape them while fairing the hull. 
As usual, ignore the right side of the photo - it will be fully planked, so it is less accurate
 

 

 
Now starting the gunports.

Thanks for likes and comments, they help to move forward!
First made a bow sander and started to smoothen the lines of the transom wings:

 
Looks much better now. But the final shaping would be done later anyway, when I will fair the hull:

 
Now to the gunports.
I seriously underestimated efforts required. It took around 4-5 hours to make the first pair 
 
Square block of wood was used as a guide to ensure squareness and parallelism of the port sills. 
It also helped to file the edges of the ports on a proper angle. I struggled to find a proper working position - too low if you sit, too high if you stand. Ended up with this setup:

 
Careful sanding / filing took an enormous time, no way to use chisel for it (too tight, cross grain, might split).
Also, on exposed side sills were done in a semi-correct way - with angled joints, correct thickness of the lower sill, but the upper sill had the same thickness as the lower one (comparing to a fully correct way, when the upper sill is thicker). Making that angled joints was fun!

 
End result. Too early to say, the joint accuracy would be visible only after the fairing, which I can't do now - will sand away a lot of pencil marks on the nearby frames

 
Sorry for the mess, I hate to show all that glue stains, poly stains, rough edges - but too early to fair. It would be nicer, I promise!
 
Overall build status:

 
Hope that next gunports will be quicker - will measure better to reduce the sanding/filing time.
Would appreciate any hints or tricks. But I doubt there is any silver bullet - I was just totally wrong in a time estimate. With a speed of one gunport per week, I might not finish it before Christmas..

Mark, thanks for the idea. I remember it from your log.
But it's faster to just quickly cut away the wood you want to remove, takes just 10min or so. Requires some sharp knife though
What takes significantly more time is sanding / filing / scraping / polishing the cutoffs to install the sills on a proper angle and without gaps.
But maybe it will come with practice.

Nice work on the gunports, Mike.  They are a pain to do.  And a little mess (or a lot in my case) is seemingly normal.
 
What I did was cut on the lines for the waste and and then soak a bit with some rubbing alcohol.  The wood separated at the joint and the waste removed. A clamp at top and bottom and let it dry.  The glue re-grabs and holds.  Then it's just a little cleanup.  If you were using spacer blocks between the ports and completely planking, you could mark the ports and do this before mounting the frames.

Thanks for likes and comments, they help to move forward!
First made a bow sander and started to smoothen the lines of the transom wings:

 
Looks much better now. But the final shaping would be done later anyway, when I will fair the hull:

 
Now to the gunports.
I seriously underestimated efforts required. It took around 4-5 hours to make the first pair 
 
Square block of wood was used as a guide to ensure squareness and parallelism of the port sills. 
It also helped to file the edges of the ports on a proper angle. I struggled to find a proper working position - too low if you sit, too high if you stand. Ended up with this setup:

 
Careful sanding / filing took an enormous time, no way to use chisel for it (too tight, cross grain, might split).
Also, on exposed side sills were done in a semi-correct way - with angled joints, correct thickness of the lower sill, but the upper sill had the same thickness as the lower one (comparing to a fully correct way, when the upper sill is thicker). Making that angled joints was fun!

 
End result. Too early to say, the joint accuracy would be visible only after the fairing, which I can't do now - will sand away a lot of pencil marks on the nearby frames

 
Sorry for the mess, I hate to show all that glue stains, poly stains, rough edges - but too early to fair. It would be nicer, I promise!
 
Overall build status:

 
Hope that next gunports will be quicker - will measure better to reduce the sanding/filing time.
Would appreciate any hints or tricks. But I doubt there is any silver bullet - I was just totally wrong in a time estimate. With a speed of one gunport per week, I might not finish it before Christmas..

Thanks for likes and comments, they help to move forward!
First made a bow sander and started to smoothen the lines of the transom wings:

 
Looks much better now. But the final shaping would be done later anyway, when I will fair the hull:

 
Now to the gunports.
I seriously underestimated efforts required. It took around 4-5 hours to make the first pair 
 
Square block of wood was used as a guide to ensure squareness and parallelism of the port sills. 
It also helped to file the edges of the ports on a proper angle. I struggled to find a proper working position - too low if you sit, too high if you stand. Ended up with this setup:

 
Careful sanding / filing took an enormous time, no way to use chisel for it (too tight, cross grain, might split).
Also, on exposed side sills were done in a semi-correct way - with angled joints, correct thickness of the lower sill, but the upper sill had the same thickness as the lower one (comparing to a fully correct way, when the upper sill is thicker). Making that angled joints was fun!

 
End result. Too early to say, the joint accuracy would be visible only after the fairing, which I can't do now - will sand away a lot of pencil marks on the nearby frames

 
Sorry for the mess, I hate to show all that glue stains, poly stains, rough edges - but too early to fair. It would be nicer, I promise!
 
Overall build status:

 
Hope that next gunports will be quicker - will measure better to reduce the sanding/filing time.
Would appreciate any hints or tricks. But I doubt there is any silver bullet - I was just totally wrong in a time estimate. With a speed of one gunport per week, I might not finish it before Christmas..

Thanks for likes and comments, they help to move forward!
First made a bow sander and started to smoothen the lines of the transom wings:

 
Looks much better now. But the final shaping would be done later anyway, when I will fair the hull:

 
Now to the gunports.
I seriously underestimated efforts required. It took around 4-5 hours to make the first pair 
 
Square block of wood was used as a guide to ensure squareness and parallelism of the port sills. 
It also helped to file the edges of the ports on a proper angle. I struggled to find a proper working position - too low if you sit, too high if you stand. Ended up with this setup:

 
Careful sanding / filing took an enormous time, no way to use chisel for it (too tight, cross grain, might split).
Also, on exposed side sills were done in a semi-correct way - with angled joints, correct thickness of the lower sill, but the upper sill had the same thickness as the lower one (comparing to a fully correct way, when the upper sill is thicker). Making that angled joints was fun!

 
End result. Too early to say, the joint accuracy would be visible only after the fairing, which I can't do now - will sand away a lot of pencil marks on the nearby frames

 
Sorry for the mess, I hate to show all that glue stains, poly stains, rough edges - but too early to fair. It would be nicer, I promise!
 
Overall build status:

 
Hope that next gunports will be quicker - will measure better to reduce the sanding/filing time.
Would appreciate any hints or tricks. But I doubt there is any silver bullet - I was just totally wrong in a time estimate. With a speed of one gunport per week, I might not finish it before Christmas..

Thanks for likes and comments, they help to move forward!
First made a bow sander and started to smoothen the lines of the transom wings:

 
Looks much better now. But the final shaping would be done later anyway, when I will fair the hull:

 
Now to the gunports.
I seriously underestimated efforts required. It took around 4-5 hours to make the first pair 
 
Square block of wood was used as a guide to ensure squareness and parallelism of the port sills. 
It also helped to file the edges of the ports on a proper angle. I struggled to find a proper working position - too low if you sit, too high if you stand. Ended up with this setup:

 
Careful sanding / filing took an enormous time, no way to use chisel for it (too tight, cross grain, might split).
Also, on exposed side sills were done in a semi-correct way - with angled joints, correct thickness of the lower sill, but the upper sill had the same thickness as the lower one (comparing to a fully correct way, when the upper sill is thicker). Making that angled joints was fun!

 
End result. Too early to say, the joint accuracy would be visible only after the fairing, which I can't do now - will sand away a lot of pencil marks on the nearby frames

 
Sorry for the mess, I hate to show all that glue stains, poly stains, rough edges - but too early to fair. It would be nicer, I promise!
 
Overall build status:

 
Hope that next gunports will be quicker - will measure better to reduce the sanding/filing time.
Would appreciate any hints or tricks. But I doubt there is any silver bullet - I was just totally wrong in a time estimate. With a speed of one gunport per week, I might not finish it before Christmas..

Thank you Greg and Albert .
 
In case you thought I hadn't been doing much lately (yeah, a bit of "life" did get in the way ) I've cut all the frame pieces. Who'd have thought there were THIS many just for a little cross-section :
 

 
  Danny

I shaped and attached the bowsprit.  A couple of decades experience soldering in my model railroad hobby have made that element of the build easy.   Also, I'm getting the hang of my poor man's lathe using a drill, so I'll shape the boom and gaff now.
 

 

 

 

 
Erik

Hi, yesterday I visited my friend Aldo, you showed the photos of the model that has just finished
 

 

 

 

 

Hello,
thanks for the nice notes. It is a pleasure again.
In the following I will show the next steps to build a pinnace.
First, the gunwales are attached to the framework. Next, the keel planks are fastened.
The last picture shows a size comparison between chaloupe and pinnace.

 

 

 

 
 
 

It is a Tele.  I don't remember the pickups used.  I built it for a friend and he supplied the electronics.  It was a fun build because he came into town and I had him do the final shaping on the neck.  He worked on it for three days as I guided him through how to do it.  When it was done, he loved it. That was fun.

 
Not yet.  So far I've only built 5 guitars, 2 Tele-types, 2 Strat-types and 1 Ric bass-type.  I say "type" because I modify them, all except the Tele I mentioned above.
 
Figured woods are highly prized by many guitar fans.  The pros don't seem to be as enamored with it though.  I handed one of my guitars to the guy who is now the lead singer for Kansas.  Every non-professional I showed it to was gaga.  The Kansas guy was like, "Meh."  
 
I am far from a pro, really, really far, so maybe that's why I like figured woods.  When selecting lumber for the necks, I am always looking for woods that will really pop.  Some guitar builders don't use BLO because it adds a yellow tint, especially if you lay it on too thick.  They go to straight lacquer because they want a white maple look.  But if you like it to look aged, BLO will help give that look but you'll still need some tinting if you can't wait for nature to do its thing .
 
Something I forget to mention when making grain pop is using dye.  I use Trans Tint dyes,  They can be dissolved in water or solvent (like alcohol) and the color possibilities are endless.  It takes a lot of experimenting if you go DIY but some finishing pros have shared their formulas.  I have a finishing book by Teri Masaschi that includes formulas but most of the dyeing I have done was trial and error.
 
The beauty of dyes is how deeply it goes into the wood. (Stain just sits on top of the wood.)  Dye is great for closed-pore woods like maple but not so good for open-pore woods like pine.  I have not dyed redwood though.  The natural beauty of it seems best brought with an oil, like BLO.  And it doesn't seem to be noticeably affected by the yellow tinting.
 
We had a hot tub in the last house and the redwood paneling was shot.  I picked up some redwood 2x4s and 2x6s and milled them into replicas of the original panel pieces, being aware of the figured pieces (there wasn't much) and planning for them to go where they will be noticed most.  I then applied several coats of Penofin oil on each piece before I put it on the hot tub.  The figured pieces really popped.  But the Penofin didn't last. Three months and it was gone.
 

 
This is the start of the repaneling.  You can see the few figured pieces on the tub but the picture doesn't do the grain justice.  With figured woods, you have to view it from several angles to see the depth of the grain.  But since this is oil only, you don't get the same appearance as you would when putting a finish over it, such as lacquer, varnish or shellac.

Time to briefly show that I am progressing. I seem to have forgotten a lot of rigging skills (as I used to rather like rigging) but bits are startting to come back to me. Hopefully I will get the gaff up tomorrow.
 

 

 
 

I started the beams of the castle. Before fixing I have to prepare  the tree of the bowsprit to fit in its sill, and the foremast.  I made the bowsprit into four parts; it is a small corvette and I decided to do the same thing for the foremast and mainmast:

 

 
 
 
The cleat of tree parakeet has to be redone: I realized I had made a big mistake by joining the cross on the wrong side!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made some progress on the planking the past few days.
 
Tony

Hi friends.
 
Plan amendment.
I now build the model of the midship to Stern.
 
Regards Karl   
 
 
T e i l  5

Hello,
 
here is the continuation of the construction of the longboat.
Pictures are worth a thousand words.
I hope you like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Incredible! The build process looks so simple on your photos
What types of wood were used?

Hello,
it is done 
These battens cost me years of my life, but I'm glad that you have forced me to do it.
 

 
Then building the back supports was easy   My black alder bends wonderful.
 

 

 
The rest was routine
 

 

 
When I saw this picture, I got the brush out again and painted the rest I did't. The color was still wet at that time.
 
Regards,
Siggi