bhermann

Marc
 
I'm sorry to hear of your troubles.  Take the time you need to heal - the build (and those of us watching it) will be here when you are able to get back to it.
 
Bob

Daniel - what are dimensions of the wood you are using for the planks? It may be that if you were able to use narrower stock (to allow more planks between the top rail and the keel) they would lay better than the few planks that fit in the space now. I think what you have now looks pretty good but I understand the desire to get everything as smooth as possible. The comments about the importance of fairing are also crucial to getting a good run of planking.
 
Bob

I know some New Englanders have little affection for "Dude Schooners", but you can learn a lot by spending a week on one. We spent a week on the Lewis R French out of Rockland about 20 years ago, and it was really enlightening to learn the workings of an old schooner. And I still want to go back!
 
Thanks,
 
Harvey

One of my finest actual sailing experiences was sweating the jib on the Californian. I had my feet firmly planted on the bulwarks and heaving with all my might on the Staysail Jib sheet as she sailed under the gate. It was over 20 years ago and i still remember that day.
 
More recently I had a chance for a sail on the Amastad. The crew thought I was weird. I didn't want to sit aft like the other tourists and hear the story of the history. I wanted to Sail! And I was willing to pay for the chance to spend 1 day as a member of the crew.

Thanks for sharing, Jay.  The belaying pin coils look like the way I was taught to do it, a couple of turns around the pin flipping the last one to lock it, coil the rope in front of the pin, then pull the working end through the coil with a twist and loop it over the pin, forming a hanger.
 
Isn't it amazing how many jigs start with "put a nail (or two nails) in a block...
 
Bob

Are you the same Dave that ran away with my daughter?

You guys are starting to embarrass me.  But if you want to give credit where credit is really due you should be talking about my wife Donna who is actually the owner of the company. 
 
 For those of you that don't know we started Model Machines about 10 years ago on a part time basis.  Just the two of us,  no other employees to worry about. At that time we were both working another full time job at a design and manufacturing firm in Orlando that I was part owner of.  I was head of the machine shop with 3 other partners and Donna was hired as the controller.  The company was in bad shape finantially when we hired Donna and in a year or so she brought the company back from the edge and made it a profitable business again.  Donna has a 4 year business degree from the University of Indiana and there isn't a lot she doesn't know about the business world.  What she doesn't know she makes it her business to find out.  When we started Model Machines she did all the research to get the company up and running and also thought up the name of the company.  She does all the taxes,  pays all the bills,  does all the paper work and keeps everything running smoothly.   I design all the machines and make all the parts,  do the assembly and ship them out. 
 
When you call us with a problem or an order more than likely you talked to her and 99% of the time she can take care of your needs whether it's replacement parts,  lost screws, diagnosing an electrical problem, delivery times or just how things work.  She is on the ball and has you covered.  She is the one who emails you when your stuff ships,  calls you when your address has changed and generally makes sure you get what you need when you need it.  If it was my job to do all that no doubt we would be out of business a long time ago.    She is the boss.  
 
And to this day it remains,  just the two of us.
 
regards
Jim Byrnes
Model Machines

Some of the bands required simulated hinges.  Here's how I did them.
 
Originally I tried gluing a piece of wire the the band but it did not hold up to trimming and filing very well.  So I decided to solder the wire in place.
 
I folded the wire so it "clamped" over the band and then used two hemostats to hold it in place for soldering.
 

 
Then I cut the ends loose and filed the remaining piece of wire.  Here is the final result.
 

 
The main boom has a couple of sheaves built in at the aft end.  I started with the idea of making working sheaves.
 
Drilling holes at the ends of the sheave locations was where I started this.
 

 
I then started to  carve away at the material between the endpoints with a rasp.
 

 
After going at that for a while, I decided I liked the look well enough and stopped after carving some of the material.
 

 
Bob

Next up, I started on the main boom.  It has a different set of hardware than the gaffs after the initial shaping is done and the jaws are added.
 
First a pair of belaying pins are put into the jaws.
 

 
A cleat is added on the port side.  I didn't pin it initially but I knocked it off enough times that I added the pin later.
 
Gluing and clamping the cleat.
 

 
and after install and shaping.  You can see that I mark top and forward directions - otherwise I'd forget..
 

 
The main boom uses a parrel rope, but no beads.  As there is no need for it to run up and down the mast, that makes sense.
 

 
There is a band with a bail - this was a bit complicated for me.  I started by wrapping the top and bottom pieces over the boom.
 

 

 
The two pieces are clamped together while drilling the holes for the bail.
 

 
Then the bail is soldered to the bottom of the band.
 

 
The top of the bail is them placed over the bail, a piece of stripwood is placed over the band and clamped with clothespins, and glued in place with CA.
 

 
After drying the whole thing is removed, the edges are roughly clipped, then finish filed.
 
Here are several of the bands that will be installed on the boom.
 

 
And in place on the boom.
 

 
Bob
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

My most recent work (which means I've been working on the main gaff for over a year ) was to install a block on the underside of the gaff jaw.  The topsail sheet will be run through this block en route to a belaying pin on the starboard side.
 

 
This pretty much finished up the main gaff.  There is one more block for the topsail sheet at the upper end of the gaff but the only thing left to do there is to mouse the hook.
 
The fore gaff has much the same hardware on it except the blocks for the peak halliard are attached to bands rather than bridles, and there are two sets of blocks for the topsail sheet as it needs to be able to be set on either side of the main topmast stay.
 
Bob

The next thing is the linkage for the block that will be rigged to the throat halliard.  I built the first one by adding the parts in place on the gaff.  It was a pain to get the shackle installed through the links, so for the second one I assembled all the parts off the gaff, then installed the completed assembly.
 
First there are a couple of links to make.
 

 
The complete assembly is  eye-link-shackle-link-eye.
 

 
After that the eyes are glued to the gaff jaws.
 

 
And finally a shot with the block installed.
 

 
The parrell beads are beads I picked up at Michaels Craft store.
 

 

 

 
 
Bob

For the symmetrical tapers I use a similar sanding technique (because I didn't trust myself to keep from removing too much material if I tried the "chuck the dowel in the drill" method I have read about.
 
First I lay the spar on the plan and mark corresponding points on the mast and the plan.


 
The I use the caliper to measure the width of the mast at one of the points
 

 
and to transfer the width mechanically to the dowel.
 

 
This spar has had several locations marked and transferred.
 

 
Then into the vice for removing excess material as I did for the asymmetrical tapers.  I do this in 4 different planes to form a square section which is then sanded round to finish up.
 

 
And here is the result.  The top of the mast will be shaped later to form the ball that belongs there.
 

 
After shaping, staining and painting (and a bunch of other work) this is what they look like.
 

 
Bob
 

JP - I'm glad to be of service - it is one of my "big 3" reasons for doing a log.
 
Thanks for stopping by, Elia.  I find that I am rediscovering things as I look back through the old photos.
 
Dave - yeah, those sails are scaring the crap out of me.  I have two different piles of cloth in the corner of the room waiting their turn... it's coming soon.  I look forward to seeing your success story...
 
And now a word on tapering spars.  Bluenose has two different types of tapering going on... the traditional symmetrical, taper to a point type that is done on the topmasts, and an asymmetric, one side stays straight while the other narrows that is used on the lower masts, the gaffs, booms, and bowsprit.  I am going to start with the second type.  I am showing the mainmast, but I used the same process for all of these.  First I lay the dowel on the plan and mark the final width at the end of the dowel and the spot on the dowel where the taper starts.  Then I put the dowel into the vice with the section to be removed rising above the jaws.
 

 

 
Once that is positioned, I sand everything off that is above the jaws until I am left with a flat side that gets wider at the end of the dowel.
 

 

 
After this is done I carefully sand the flattened section until it is round all the way up the dowel again, taking care not to remove any material from the side that has no taper.  The finished product for the main and foremasts looks like this:
 

 

 
The masts just have a taper at one end.  The other spars are tapered at both end (so they have a bowed profile when viewed from the side).  This is done by applying the same technique on both ends, one after the other.
 
Bob

When I saw this thread name, I thought I would volunteer, but now I know it`s real purpose :-)

Next up, I started on the main boom.  It has a different set of hardware than the gaffs after the initial shaping is done and the jaws are added.
 
First a pair of belaying pins are put into the jaws.
 

 
A cleat is added on the port side.  I didn't pin it initially but I knocked it off enough times that I added the pin later.
 
Gluing and clamping the cleat.
 

 
and after install and shaping.  You can see that I mark top and forward directions - otherwise I'd forget..
 

 
The main boom uses a parrel rope, but no beads.  As there is no need for it to run up and down the mast, that makes sense.
 

 
There is a band with a bail - this was a bit complicated for me.  I started by wrapping the top and bottom pieces over the boom.
 

 

 
The two pieces are clamped together while drilling the holes for the bail.
 

 
Then the bail is soldered to the bottom of the band.
 

 
The top of the bail is them placed over the bail, a piece of stripwood is placed over the band and clamped with clothespins, and glued in place with CA.
 

 
After drying the whole thing is removed, the edges are roughly clipped, then finish filed.
 
Here are several of the bands that will be installed on the boom.
 

 
And in place on the boom.
 

 
Bob
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks Marc for taking the time to re-do this.  I love the lines of these ships and will be looking forward to updates as they come.
 
Bob

Nicely done, Wayne.  Seems like a nice quid pro quo to me .  Now let's see some progress!
 
Bob

The next thing is the linkage for the block that will be rigged to the throat halliard.  I built the first one by adding the parts in place on the gaff.  It was a pain to get the shackle installed through the links, so for the second one I assembled all the parts off the gaff, then installed the completed assembly.
 
First there are a couple of links to make.
 

 
The complete assembly is  eye-link-shackle-link-eye.
 

 
After that the eyes are glued to the gaff jaws.
 

 
And finally a shot with the block installed.
 

 
The parrell beads are beads I picked up at Michaels Craft store.
 

 

 

 
 
Bob

My most recent work (which means I've been working on the main gaff for over a year ) was to install a block on the underside of the gaff jaw.  The topsail sheet will be run through this block en route to a belaying pin on the starboard side.
 

 
This pretty much finished up the main gaff.  There is one more block for the topsail sheet at the upper end of the gaff but the only thing left to do there is to mouse the hook.
 
The fore gaff has much the same hardware on it except the blocks for the peak halliard are attached to bands rather than bridles, and there are two sets of blocks for the topsail sheet as it needs to be able to be set on either side of the main topmast stay.
 
Bob

The next thing is the linkage for the block that will be rigged to the throat halliard.  I built the first one by adding the parts in place on the gaff.  It was a pain to get the shackle installed through the links, so for the second one I assembled all the parts off the gaff, then installed the completed assembly.
 
First there are a couple of links to make.
 

 
The complete assembly is  eye-link-shackle-link-eye.
 

 
After that the eyes are glued to the gaff jaws.
 

 
And finally a shot with the block installed.
 

 
The parrell beads are beads I picked up at Michaels Craft store.
 

 

 

 
 
Bob

The next thing is the linkage for the block that will be rigged to the throat halliard.  I built the first one by adding the parts in place on the gaff.  It was a pain to get the shackle installed through the links, so for the second one I assembled all the parts off the gaff, then installed the completed assembly.
 
First there are a couple of links to make.
 

 
The complete assembly is  eye-link-shackle-link-eye.
 

 
After that the eyes are glued to the gaff jaws.
 

 
And finally a shot with the block installed.
 

 
The parrell beads are beads I picked up at Michaels Craft store.
 

 

 

 
 
Bob

I agree that some soldered joints are not under stress, however, soft soldered joints will not take chemcial toning while silver soldered joints will. Of course, you can always paint the pieces, but that will often obscure details. As for flux, I use a prefluxed soldering paste.
 
In the case of deadeye strops and chainplates, they will be under some sort of stress at some point and that is why silver soldering is really the best option for those joints. I have had soft soldered joints in deadeye straps come loose and it leaves the shrouds limp. If I had silver soldered those joints, it would not have happened. This same reasoning applies to eye bolts or rings used in tackles, or eyes on mastbands.
 
Russ

It's interesting to think about this.  I consider the Internet to be the "Wild West" - when I put something out there, I lose control of it and what happens to it from there, so I don't put out things that I don't want the whole world to know about.  I like the idea of license statement up front, but I suspect there would be no enforcement (nor would I expect any) so it would have more symbolic value than any practical purpose.
 
Bob

One other tip I received was about using paper to repair broken wood parts.  Several of the "experts" told me about this possibility.
 
While trying to fit one of the cast stanchions onto the main fiferail, I snapped the rail right at the pre-drilled hole for the stanchion.

I glued the two pieces back together, then glued a piece of paper onto the top and another to the bottom of the assembly.

Then reattached the stanchion

and here is the assembly being trial fitted on deck.

 
After painting the whole thing white, the paper became invisible and it is impossible to see in the finished product.  There is a photo in my previous post that shows how it finished up.
 
Bob