EdT

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 278 – Completing the Main Yard
 
The first picture shows the main yard temporarily connected to the mast.  Most of the ironwork has been fitted.
 

 
At his stage the yard was ready for the copper ironwork to be blackened.  The brass-containing boom irons were pre-blackened before fitting.  The next picture shows the removed yard and the ironwork being cleaned with isopropyl alcohol using a cotton swab.
 

 
The wipe-on poly base coat resists the alcohol and allows any smudges to be removed and the copper to be degreased.  The next picture shows the yard after the liver of sulfur blackening process.
 

 
The blackening was done at the kitchen sink with tap water running.  The yard and its fittings were liberally brushed with liver of sulfur solution and immediately rinsed under the tap. Any unblackened spots were re-brushed while wet and again rinsed.  The yard was then allowed to dry.  The next picture shows a closer view of the dried yard, taken the next day.
 

 
The straight, black wire shown in the last two pictures, is the jackstay rod.  This was next slipped through the stanchions as shown in the next picture.
 

 
Straight .020" brass wire was used for this for its relative rigidity.  It was pre-blackened using full strength Brass Black®.  The eyebolts were spun from 28 gage copper wire.  The fit is tight enough to keep the wire in place.  In the last picture the jackstays have been inserted and clipped off.
 

 
The outer boom irons have also been fitted and a finish coat of satin wipe-on polyurethane applied, using a foam swab shown in the picture.  The finish was "wiped" using a dry foam swab.  The finish was applied to wood and iron alike.
 
 
Ed

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 277 – Main Yard Boom Irons
 
The ironwork on the main yard continued with the fabrication and fitting of the boom irons, the supports for the topmast studdingsail booms.  The first picture shows two steps in the fabrication of the inner boom irons.
 

 
The large circular bands were first made to fit tightly in their positions on the yard.  The smaller bands were sized to be about 1" larger in diameter that the 8 ½" diameter of the boom center sections.  I used brass for the short arms between the rings – mainly because I had hard brass in that thickness.  Making these of copper would have simplified the blackening process later.  Because of the brass, these were blackened before installing on the yard, as will be seen below.
 
The next picture shows a yardarm with its banding and pieces for the end cap and strap that support the outer iron.
 

 
The straps were drilled first, then shaped as shown - in a vise with files, and then bent and clipped to the shape shown below.
 

 
The straps are secured with tight-fitting, stretched rings pressed over the ends of the yard as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the yard with the inner irons installed.
 

 
Only the brass-containing inner irons are black.  These were also fixed in place with a wire "bolt" – really a small wire nail in a drilled hole – riveted to hold the band on the underside of the yard.  The last items to be made were the outer irons – sometimes called "Pacific irons".  These consist of rings at the ends of bent iron bars.  The picture below shows the rings – same size as the inner rings – soldered to lengths of brass bar stock. 
 

 
The rings were fitted with a roller on the underside to ease the movement of the boom.  These were simulated by soldering a small bit of wire under each ring.  The lower assembly shows the soldering configuration before clipping off the excess.  A small round section was first filed out of the wire to help it fit to the band.  Again, making these of copper would allow the yard to be completely assembled before blackening, which would then be done using liver of sulfur solution.
 
The last picture shows the finished yard arm after blackening and installation of the outer iron.
 

 
Final assembly of the yard and finishing will be described in the next part.
 
Ed

Thanks Druxey, The glass was one of those ideas that I woke up with I was wondering how to hold the tiny tab that had been broken off. The key was to sort out how to hold the ladder and be able to soft solder the broken bit back on, realizing that the solder would not stick to the glass (color slide glass) I cut a small strip and sandwiched the good tab on the stair with the glass sticking out just enough to use a soft iron wire hold down in the hole that was already in the tab.  turned down the shank on one of my Eclipse chucks to 3/16 so that it would fit into the third hand. Because of the control with being able to lock one part in position then bring the other part or tool up to it once it was set in place I used a very small  00 paint brush to pick up a sliver of solder with the flux as the agent to pick up the solder one it was placed I used the small nozzle on the hot air soldering station and played it over the joint worked like a charm.
The duz-all flux is a self cleaning flux, and since the joint was a fractured one in brass I did not need to do much prep work.
After washing it off I matched up the paint with some Humbrol and model masters  
 
I  am so glad I made this bit of gear I use it just about every day when I am working on model stuff. I added a new clamp it is made of Castello same as the smaller wood ones but an inch square. it is really useful for working with sheet especially silver and gold because the jaws are wood they don't mark up the metal. 
 
Here is a shot of the latest addition to the clamps
 

 
Ben
Yes I made the holding device there are quite a few different set ups that I have used in this thread log it was this unit that inspired my making a few for the members here. There is a thread about them in the tools thread
Here is the production model that the members have purchased.
 

 
Back to the bench in the morning.
 
Michael
 
 
 

Well hello all, I have been very busy with a number of non model related tasks for the last couple of months. But I have picked up the tiny tools once again. I will need to a bit of catching up by the looks of things on the forum.
 
It feels good to be back at the workbench.
 
The bridge elements that were knocked off are now replaced it took a bit of fiddling to get the 10BA brass screw back into its hole probably a shift on the superstructure that occurred when it fell.

 
Then the next part was re pinned and glued the paint will also need some touch up.
 
 
 

 
The next sequence is for the stairs that go from the passenger deck to the lifeboat-deck
 

 

 

 

 

 
Have to go for supper I will explain the soldering next.
 
Michael
 
 
 

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 8 – Stern Transoms
 
The stern transoms were the next step in my plan from difficult to easier. Because of some careless drafting of a couple of the supplementary waterlines at the aft end of the ship – the butt of the hull - the first completed transom assembly included some transoms that were too small and it had to be scrapped, adding to the growing pile in the scrap box. I would happily have hidden this fact, but I used a different process for the second assembly than the one I devised for the first and I believe both may be of interest, so I will describe both.
 
First, a picture of the finished version 2 assembly – the final version.
 

 
This picture was taken in June, so a lot more work had been done by that time, but it shows the features of the stern transom assembly pretty well. By the time of this picture many of the aft cant frames had been installed, but I will ignore that for the time being and stick to the transoms. There are six of these. The lower four filling transoms are tenoned into the after fashion piece (AFP). The third one from the bottom is a deck transom, so it is rounded up to match its deck. The topmost filling transom rests on the top of the AFP and both it and the wing transom are tenoned into the forward fashion piece (FFP). All the transoms are fit into mortises on the inner post, which were shown in earlier pictures. The four vertical filling pieces are tenoned into the bottom of the lowest transom with their feet resting on the upper end of the bearding line ledge. It is a fairly complicated structure.
 
Some may have noticed a slight anomaly in this picture. I will point it out later. It is easier to find than to explain. So if anyone can explain it, they will have my admiration. It was an interesting problem.
 
Lofting and Making the Transoms
 
To help define the shapes of upper and lower surfaces of the transoms, additional waterlines were drawn from the final body plan at 1 foot intervals in this stern area of the Full Breadth Plan – the one pasted to the board. The heights of these lines approximated the upper and lower edges of the transoms so were used to loft the transom shapes. Once the initial errors in these waterlines were corrected, this worked out fine, as long as some excess was provided when cutting the shapes. The tenoned faces for the transoms were of course, defined by the after edges of their respective fashion pieces.
 
With the patterns in hand the transoms were cut out, very roughly beveled and fitted snuggly into the mortises in the inner post. The next step was to cut the tenons and fit these into mortises on the fashion pieces – some complicated joinery at 1:60 scale.
 
 
Assembly Version 1
 
This next picture shows how I approached this the first time through.
 
 

 
The first step was to set up the upper two transoms, which would be tenoned into the forward fashion piece (FFP), in their correct final position. Spacers of the precise thickness of the space between them were then temporarily glued to them on either side of the stern post. Then spacers of the same thickness but of a longer length were glued between them exactly on the line of the aft face of the (FFP). Triangles were used to set these angled pieces from the drawing on the base. Note that the corners of the clamped squares are set on the corner of the FFP on the drawing and on the piece. This picture was actually taken a bit later after the wing transom tenons were cut. The next picture shows the tenon milling set up.
 
 

 
In this picture a dial indicator is being used to assure that the milling cut will follow the correct angle precisely, defined by the edge of the long spacer. The piece is adjusted in the vise until the indicator remains at zero as the vise is traversed. The long length of the spacer reduces error in these measurements. The next picture shows a tenon being milled. [
 

 
In this picture the tenon is deeper than needed and will be trimmed back to fit snuggly into the mortise after that is cut. In all cases the depth of the tenon was cut to the shoulder line defined by the long spacer and the width was set by the calibrations in the cross feed so that every tenon was precisely the same width.
 
To cut the mortises in the fashion pieces, they were first set up against the squared up transom assembly after the tenons had been cut. The frame was then marked with the tenon locations using a very sharp pencil. The mortises were then cut with a very small hand chisel. The next picture shows the assembly ready to be glued up.
 
 

 
It was important at this stage not to fasten the fashion piece permanently to the deadwood or the transoms to the post. This would prevent the addition of the lower transoms and their fashion pieces.
 
This is another view showing the glue up of the top two transoms.
 

 
The next picture shows the final assembly of the lower transoms and their fashion piece. This was made using a slightly different process that I ultimately adopted for the final assembly version.
 
 

 
When these two assemblies were fit up and fastened, there were two problems. One I mentioned above. The other was that there were some small gaps where the transoms joined the inner post, which could not be easily corrected. Either one of these problems would be sufficient reason to scrap this work and that is what I did.
 
Assembly Version 2
 
The main difference in this final, and I believe better, process is that it is much more incremental, allowing final fit up at each step of the assembly. Here is how it was done.
 
The picture below shows how each transom was marked for machining of its tenons.
 

 
In this set up, the transom, in this case the wing transom, was set in final position on the post and squared up. Two very flat pieces of plywood were set up with the clamped squares so that the aft side of the plywood coincided with the forward face of the fashion piece, in this case the FFP, to which that transom is joined. When this was done, a small strip of wood, equal in thickness to the fashion piece was held against the plywood and a line was made on the transom along this strip. This line is where the transom will join the fashion piece – the shoulder of the tenon. After marking, the transom was removed and a second line was drawn on each end to show the end of the tenon. The piece was then trimmed back to this second line on the disk sander.
 
The next picture shows a lower filling transom set up for machining.
 
 

 
In this picture the dial indicator is used as before but this time with less length to traverse. There are other ways to do this. A strip of wood could be set on the vice and the tenon face aligned with it. All these approaches seem to yield sufficient precision.
 
Once each transom was tenoned, it was set up on the post and a line was drawn on the fashion piece to mark the top of the transom. When removed, mortise lines were added. The mortises were then cut by hand as before. The fashion piece was then fit up to the transom and everything checked for alignment and tightness of all three joints – one transom at a time, starting at the bottom. This approach assured a good fit at each transom fit up.
 
The following pictures show these transoms being glued up, one at a time from the bottom – to the fashion pieces only – not to the post. Again the fashion pieces are only pinned temporarily to the deadwood until the whole assembly is finished.
 

 
In this picture the second lowest transom was being glued. First, the previous assembly had been moved forward, the new transom set on the post and then the assembly brought back into position and the fashion piece glued and clamped. These things were difficult to clamp. There are two variations of clamps that I had made years ago and those, plus some new ones, came in handy for this. I will describe these clamps in the next chapter.
 
The next picture shows the (conservatively sized) upper deck transom being glued.
 

 
Because of the round up, the fitting of the deck transom required some special handling. First, it was, of course, made from thicker stock measuring precisely the thickness of the timber plus the round up. Before fitting to the post the center part only was cut back on the bottom by the amount of the round up so the notch into the post could be fit. The ends needed to be left unshaped so they would be square in the milling vice. The tenons were then cut from the bottom edge, leaving excess to be removed from the top, which was then done. Both bottom and top were then rounded to the correct profile. The wing transom, which is also rounded up, was handled in the same manner.
 
One point worth mentioning regarding deck round up is that it is specified at mid ship. At the ends the deck is less wide, so round up of the transom needs to be reduced accordingly.
 
The next picture shows the top filling transom being glued to the tops of both AFPs, and also to the starboard FFP, which is also being glued to the starboard AFP. The port FFP was glued later.
 
 

 
Below is another view of this step. Note the tenon on top of the inner post. It was about to be removed. Why?
 

 
Finally the attachment of the wing transom. Like its predecessors, it was set on the post and the assembly, still not glued to the deadwood, brought up to meet it so it could be glued to the FFP. This is why the tenon at the top of the post had to go. Otherwise the assembly could not be removed. An alternative would have been to glue the fashion pieces to the deadwood and all the transoms to the post at this step, but I wanted to take this slow and make sure everything fit. The post tenon is hidden, anyway – but now you all know its not there.
 
 

 
These last two pictures show how conservative I was in sizing this last rendition of the wing transom.
 

 
I will wrap up these stern transoms in the next part and discuss clamps.
 
Has anyone found the anomaly in the first picture? It has something to do with the last two pictures.
 
 
Ed Tosti
 
 
2013 Copyright Edward J Tosti

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 6 – Stern and Stem Construction
Original post 10/18/10
 
Stern Deadwood
 
After the timbers of the aft deadwood had been fayed and glued together, the next step was to reduce the deadwood above the bearding line to the final width of 14 ½ inches. This width is equal to the full breadth of the deadwood, 18 ½ inches, minus the 4 inches required for the two 2 inch ledges to support the cant frames. These ledges follow a curve on each side of the hull called the bearding line. On Naiad, this was a continuous curve, not stepped.
 
The bearding line needs to be located accurately so that when the hull is faired the feet of the cant frames remain at roughly their 2 inch thickness (.033” at 1:60) and do not get faired down to less or, in the worst case, nothing. The bearding line can be copied from the original draft and put on the CAD version, but I think it is preferable to develop this line directly from the CAD body plan profiles, which are being used for all the other lofting.
 
The bearding line passes through all the points on the hull at which the moulded breadth of the hull is equal to the deadwood thickness - 18 ½ inches. Placing a vertical line on the body plan at half this breadth from the middle line, allows heights to be taken off at each frame line to plot the bearding line in the sheer plane. This was the approach used to plot the forward and aft bearding lines on the Naiad CAD drawings. The bearding line was a bit of a mystery to me until I visualized it in this way.
 
With a pattern for the aft bearding line in hand, the line was then marked out on the stern timber assembly, which was then set up in the milling machine as shown below.
 

 
The next picture shows a closer view of this setup.
 

 
I will not walk through all the steps of this milling process, but only touch on a few points. First, the work, of course, must be horizontal when milling both faces, so the assembly, which when finished will be narrower at the bottom, was not tapered until after this process was complete. Second, the machining was only carried up to within, say 1/16 inch of the bearding line, leaving the final cutting to be done with hand chisels. Finally, with the top deadwood machined to its final width, the centerline of the assembly was then determined from this and marked on all edges of the piece.
 
After this machining, the sternpost and inner post assembly was attached and the whole fastened to the keel. In the following picture this assembly is shown shored up by one of the clamped squares discussed in Part 4.
 

 
Again, at this stage I was taking few pictures. Cutting out and shaping the sternpost assembly was fairly straightforward. Heights and sizes of the mortises for the transoms were taken from the large Centerline Structures drawing.
 
 
The stem, apron and forward deadwood assembly was made and attached to the keel in much the same way as its aft counterpart. Here is an image of the pattern sheet for the forward structure.
 
 

 
There are more complicated components here, but the process is essentially the same. A separate pattern sheet was made for the knee-of- the-head parts. When all these parts were assembled and attached to the keel, the entire assembly was set up as shown below.
 

 
Permanent supports for the beakhead and sternpost were added later to replace the temporary clamped squares shown in this picture holding the ends vertical. The keel was maintained on center with the small wood blocks screwed into the base with another placed just behind the sternpost.
 

 
In the above closer side view, the bearding line still needs a little trimming and the stem rabbet has only been cut at the top, leaving the section down to the keel rabbet still to be done. The “rising wood,” that is, the deadwood in the center section of the hull is also visible in these pictures.
 

 
This picture shows the details of the beakhead assembly with the gammoning knee in place and also the initial fitting up of the bollard timbers. The picture below shows another view of this.
 

 
In the following picture the bollard timbers have been installed, the knightheads shaped and the bowsprit chock installed. Also the first forward cant frames on the port side are being positioned, but I will save the cant frame discussion for later.
 

 
The bollard timbers have a complex shape. The inside faces are curved to match the curvature of the sides of the stem, which expands in breadth as it rises from the keel. The fore surface matches up to the curved rabbet of the stem, then curves aft matching the hull profile. The aft (inside) surfaces are curved to maintain the correct molded breadth at each height. The aft foot is beveled 34.5 degrees vertically with its edge fitting into a relief cut at the same angle in the apron piece above the bearding line. The outside edge, which is thankfully flat, is cut back about 1 inch over most of its length to give an air space when the first hawse timber gets butted up against it. Finally, there is a complicated bit of fancy joinery needed to get the bowsprit retaining chock to fit neatly between the upper parts, called the knightheads, which get their own little bit of shaping. The next picture is a closer view of all this.
 

 
These bollard timbers turned out to be simple forerunners of what was to come with the modeling of their neighbors, the hawse timbers, which will be covered in the next part.
 
Hold Down Bolts
 
At this stage it was necessary to bolt the keel down securely to the building board, and it was a relief to turn to some work I could get my mind around. For the hold down bolts, special threaded studs were machined in brass as shown below.
 

 
Three of these were made and were spaced out on the keel. Eventually they will be the permanent mounting bolts for the model. The idea behind this design is that the smaller diameter threaded part of this (4-40) will come up through the keel. The shoulder of the larger diameter will be stopped at the bottom of the false keel. Three small (4-40) nuts from above and three larger nuts from below will hold the keel down, initially. Eventually a small nut will be embedded just below the keelson. With the shoulder screwed up against the keel bottom, the top of the small section will be cut off flush with the top of the nut. This will prevent the keelson from being popped off by over-tightening this bolt from below later. The larger size nut under the building board or the base of the case will then hold the model down.
 
All this work was completed by the end of February 2010.
 
Ed Tosti
 
 
]2013 Copyright Edward J Tosti

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 4 – Devices and Tools
 
Special Devices
 
The first items to be constructed were the building board and some measuring tools. The building board is shown below, clamped to a woodworking bench top.
 
 
 

 
The board itself is a piece of ¾ inch medium density fiberboard (MDF) with some pine stripping around the sides. MDF was chosen because it is very flat and smooth. Two slots were dadoed into the top to take lengths of T-track. The board was then mounted on the 2” X ¾” pine framing salvaged from the Victory building board and screwed down along the sides and near the middle. It was checked for flatness and shimmed underneath in a few spots to make it perfectly flat and well supported by the frame. Before assembly the top and bottom were given two coats of white shellac to seal its porous surface. The top was then sanded and given two coats of flat acrylic latex paint. The centerline for the keel was scribed into the top midway between the two T-slots and a print of the full breadth plan, described in the last part, was then pasted to the top using artist’s spray adhesive. The plan was then sprayed with Krylon Protective Spray. This spray allows glue drips and blobs to be peeled off and protects the drawing from moisture.
 
Mounting this drawing on the building board is a key enabler in the way the ship is to be built. Positions of frames and points along the frame profiles, like main half-breadth or the toptimber line, can be squared up from the board to assure correct placement. This was particularly important in setting cant frames and in marking out tenons on the transoms, which I will discuss later. I prefer this approach to the use of whole-hull jigs for the “horning” of frames, but that’s just a personal preference.
 
Revisions are inevitable when drawings are used for the first time, and I had to make some important changes to some of the profiles. The sections of the drawing can be removed from the board pretty easily with mineral spirits and replaced with revised sheets as needed.
 
So far, all this has worked out very well. One improvement I would make on the board based on its use so far, would be to use an oil based alkyd finish on the top – matte or semi-gloss white. This is a harder finish than the latex. Another approach would be to use melamine coated particleboard. I use this on my bench tops. It is very durable and anything can be scraped off with a razor blade. It would also eliminate the painting steps. Next time.
 
The “gantry” device in the top picture is shown close up below.
 

 
This device is similar to one I made and used on the Victory model, but with some improvements. The T- track allows easy clamping at any at any point along the ship. The edges of the two base parts align with one side of the top cross piece, so that placing the bases on a joint line, for example, aligns the top with that line. The T-track knobs allow the base to be clamped very firmly in position. Of course, in making this it was important to square it up well in all directions. The top crosspiece is scored with the centerline. A device for transferring vertical points to the inside of the hull will be added to slide on the top rail. This will be made later when needed. It will be similar to the device described below for transferring external hull heights from the drawings.
 
In addition to this, the two sturdy squares shown in the picture below were made. This picture was taken somewhat later in construction.
 

 
These squares also clamp into the T-track and are made strong enough for clamping parts or shoring up frame sides. They were carefully squared in both directions so that the face and the sides of the vertical members are accurate.
 
A device for transferring vertical external measurements from the drawings to the model was also made and is shown below.
 

 
This device, made from boxwood, is used to take vertical measurements from the bottom of keel line on the drawing and transfer them to the work. The horizontal base and the upper horizontal arm are tapered to a sharp edge. They are also held in position and made exactly parallel when the adjusting screw is tightened. This 4-40 knurled screw is threaded directly into the hard boxwood and puts pressure on a concealed brass plate when tightened. The confined brass plate prevents screw damage to the vertical wood post. Below is a picture of this device in use.

 
The various sheer plane (elevation) views of the ship are mounted on ¼” plywood, which are hung nearby. A straight strip of pine is screwed down on the drawing so its top is just on the datum line for measurements, in this case the bottom of the keel, which corresponds to the base of the building board. Dimensions can then be transferred quickly to the work.
 
Other devices and jigs made to support the construction will be discussed as part of the specific construction steps.
 
 
 
Tools
 
This is probably a good point to mention the tools for this work. As far as full sized machinery is concerned, some typical woodworking tools are being used. They include a 10” table saw with a thin kerf, carbide tipped blade, a 14” Rockwell band saw usually fitted with a ½” Woodslicer Blade, a tabletop drill press, a scroll saw, and a disk/belt sander. A reciprocating spindle sander would be nice, but the drill press fitted with a sanding drum lowered into a hole on the baseplate has been serving very well so far. The usual hand power tools, including a pad sander and a detail sander have been useful for fairing and finish sanding.
 
Model sized machinery includes a vintage Unimat SL (lathe/ mill/ drill press/ tablesaw/ etc.), a Sherline milling machine, a Preac miniature table saw, a 4” industrial model making table saw, and a (brand new) Hogg thickness sander. This last item is essential for producing the variety of timber thicknesses called for in the scantlings.
 
As this is being written, I am in the process of installing central dust collection. This will be a major improvement, especially for the sanders.
 
 
Hand tools of many sizes and varieties are of course needed, as are the right tools for keeping them sharp. A variety of measurement tools, like dividers, squares, triangles, digital calipers, etc. are essential.
 
A variety of special clamps have been made or acquired over the years to handle the unique demands of ship modeling. I will discuss these later when they appear in the actual work.
 
In the next part, we will enter into the actual construction work – at last.
 
 
Ed Tosti
 
2013 Copyright Edward J Tosti

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 3 –Additional Drawings
 
 
In addition to the sheer plan, three other large drawings were made to support the early stages in construction of the Naiad model and to be used later for lofting. The main portions of these drawings are shown below. The full drawings also include end views, more notes and other detail.
 

 
 
I will describe below each of the three views shown above.
 
Modeling Waterlines and Cant Frames
 
The top view is labeled “Modeling Waterlines and Cant Frames.” It is, among other things, a full breadth plan. It includes, all the frame lines (including intermediates), a plan view of all the cant frames, plans of the bow and stern framing, etc.
 
This view also includes what I have called “modeling waterlines.” These are not the original draft waterlines, which were not keel-parallel, because the ship rode deeper at the aft end. I put the actual waterlines on a separate view and used them only to check the CAD Body Plan. Then I added keel parallel waterlines based on the that Body Plan. The reason for this was that the actual waterlines are actually curved in the body plan, especially near midship where the profiles are closer together. This introduces complexity and potential error when trying to work with them to generate other profiles. Keel-parallel lines are much easier to use and this justified creating two complete sets of waterlines.
 
So, the waterlines on this drawing are parallel to the keel at 3-foot intervals above the top of keel, plus some additional ones above the heights of breadth and some at closer intervals around the stern transoms.
 
Other key longitudinal lines are also shown on this plan, including the height of breadth line, the sheer line (or toptimber line) and bottoms of the fore and aft top rails. All these lines were drawn from points on the CAD Body Plan. After fairness checking of all these longitudinal lines, they were used to add additional body plan lines, including: all the intermediate frame profiles, additional lines between these near the fore and aft ends of the ship where the frame bevels are pronounced, and all the fore and aft cant frame profiles. The way these additional lines were used to efficiently loft frames will be discussed later.
 
A print of this top drawing has been pasted to the top of the building board as a construction template and for this purpose a lot of other detail and text, readable from both sides, was added to it.
 
Frames
 
The middle drawing in the above image is the “Frames” drawing. It is a duplicate of the original disposition of frames draft with some details added. It shows the location of these frames on the keel and how the room and space requirements were met by the spacing of these and their components fore and aft, while maintaining the correct distance between gun ports. The sidings (thicknesses) of the frame components for this drawing were taken from the Shipbuilders Repository 1788 and these were consistent with measurements on the original draft.
 
Centerline Structures
 
The bottom view is titled “Centerline Structures and Deck Elevations. (Actually the deck elevations, including beams and details, will be done on separate plan and sheer plane views, not on this drawing, so it will be renamed.) This view details the sternpost/deadwood/keelson structure and the forward counterparts to these. Patterns for all these components were made from the objects that make up this drawing.
 
Frame Profile Development
 
The following image shows the way the many additional body plan profiles were drawn and how the use of CAD simplified this process.
 
 

 
Normally body plans are drawn in the vertical position to facilitate transfer of points from the sheer draft to create longitudinal lines in the body plan view. Then waterline breadths, for instance, need to be picked off and transferred to the body plan to create more profiles. In CAD the body plans can be easily split and rotated. Also, once a waterline is drawn, it can be copied, pasted and flipped vertically to show an exact duplicate on the other side of the ship. In the above view the fore body plan is shown at the fore end of the ship and has been rotated to the horizontal. The aft body plan has been similarly rotated placed aft. In these positions points from the longitudinal lines can be directly placed on the body plan by the use of a long movable horizontal line. This eliminates picking off points, so is much faster and more accurate. By this means, profiles for the intermediate frames (on the upper half of these views) and the all the cant frames (on the bottom halves) were drawn. The final body plans could then be copied, pasted, rotated and used as desired.
 
Following is a vertical image the final aft body plan.
 

 
On this drawing the cant frames are shown on the left and all of the square frame lines to the right. Dotted lines between frames are intermediate lines, which will be used later in the frame lofting process to show frame bevels. I will describe this later when we discuss how the frames were made. Also, note that the cant frames are shown from directly aft. These are not true views. These views will have to be rotated to obtain a true view. This will be done in the lofting process for cant frames, which will also be covered as part of the discussion about making those frames.
 
The other information on this drawing includes, the waterlines (in green) including additional ones at 18 feet and above, straight versions of some of the actual waterlines (in purple), the diagonals with their description in a note (in blue), stern post/keel shape, etc.
 
If you have persevered to this point with all this drafting discussion, relief is at hand.
I will move on to the construction in the next part. Additional drafting and lofting will be covered with specific construction topics.
 
So, off to the shipyard….
 
 
Ed Tosti
 
 
2013 Copyright Edward J Tosti

I believe that the spars you refer to are the studdingsail booms. The purpose of these was to support the clews, the lower ends, of the stuns'ls above and also to suspend the yard of the stuns'l below.  These booms were housed just off the line of the yard by boom irons with circular straps somewhat larger than the maximum boom diameter.  The inner boom irons could be opened to allow the inner end to be hauled upward to allow men on the yard to bend or reef sail.  The stuns'l yards that were suspended from these were kept below, or sometimes in the tops,  and mounted only when required with the sails pre-bent.  In the retracted position the booms were usually lashed to one of the jackstay stanchions with some rope threaded through a hole in the inboard end.  There was probably no one standard way to secure these, so tying them off in various ways would be acceptable. Bands on the boom irons were somewhat larger than the maximum diameter of the boom and sometimes fitted with a roller - usually on the outer iron that allowed the boom to slide out more easily.  A temporary tackle was generally used to haul these out.
 
Harold Underhill's Masting and Rigging of the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier is probably the best reference available on clipper ship rigging - out of print but can be found online.
 
Ed
 

That is some seriously beautiful metalwork, Frank.  Very intricate, very precise.  Painstaking work.   What kind of solder did you use and what was used to blacken?
 
It is true that wound stainless or Ni-Cr cable can have a mind of its own  It is hard to stretch.
 
Ed

That is some seriously beautiful metalwork, Frank.  Very intricate, very precise.  Painstaking work.   What kind of solder did you use and what was used to blacken?
 
It is true that wound stainless or Ni-Cr cable can have a mind of its own  It is hard to stretch.
 
Ed

I believe that the spars you refer to are the studdingsail booms. The purpose of these was to support the clews, the lower ends, of the stuns'ls above and also to suspend the yard of the stuns'l below.  These booms were housed just off the line of the yard by boom irons with circular straps somewhat larger than the maximum boom diameter.  The inner boom irons could be opened to allow the inner end to be hauled upward to allow men on the yard to bend or reef sail.  The stuns'l yards that were suspended from these were kept below, or sometimes in the tops,  and mounted only when required with the sails pre-bent.  In the retracted position the booms were usually lashed to one of the jackstay stanchions with some rope threaded through a hole in the inboard end.  There was probably no one standard way to secure these, so tying them off in various ways would be acceptable. Bands on the boom irons were somewhat larger than the maximum diameter of the boom and sometimes fitted with a roller - usually on the outer iron that allowed the boom to slide out more easily.  A temporary tackle was generally used to haul these out.
 
Harold Underhill's Masting and Rigging of the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier is probably the best reference available on clipper ship rigging - out of print but can be found online.
 
Ed
 

That is some seriously beautiful metalwork, Frank.  Very intricate, very precise.  Painstaking work.   What kind of solder did you use and what was used to blacken?
 
It is true that wound stainless or Ni-Cr cable can have a mind of its own  It is hard to stretch.
 
Ed

Thanks everyone for the likes and comments.
 
Ed - I use  62/36/2 Silver-Bearing Solder from Radio Shack.  It's .015" diameter wire, so I can cut very small pieces.  I also use Stay-Clean liquid flux.
The blackening of the winder was done with JAX Chemical's 'Pewter Black'.  Most of the other metal components will be blackened with their "Brown Black" product, which gives a warmer black and won't be as stark.  In the photos of Kathryn (and in real life) the blackness of the winder is striking, while the other components not so much.  The winder was painted with Rust-Oleum gloss black the last time I saw it.  I used the JAX Flemish Grey-Black, very diluted, on Kathryn's wheel and will likely use that in some diluted form where appropriate. 
 
Patrick - thanks for the compliments, but the super-miniature work you do is already outstanding - so your skills and talent are already 110%! 

That is some seriously beautiful metalwork, Frank.  Very intricate, very precise.  Painstaking work.   What kind of solder did you use and what was used to blacken?
 
It is true that wound stainless or Ni-Cr cable can have a mind of its own  It is hard to stretch.
 
Ed

That is some seriously beautiful metalwork, Frank.  Very intricate, very precise.  Painstaking work.   What kind of solder did you use and what was used to blacken?
 
It is true that wound stainless or Ni-Cr cable can have a mind of its own  It is hard to stretch.
 
Ed

That is some seriously beautiful metalwork, Frank.  Very intricate, very precise.  Painstaking work.   What kind of solder did you use and what was used to blacken?
 
It is true that wound stainless or Ni-Cr cable can have a mind of its own  It is hard to stretch.
 
Ed

That is some seriously beautiful metalwork, Frank.  Very intricate, very precise.  Painstaking work.   What kind of solder did you use and what was used to blacken?
 
It is true that wound stainless or Ni-Cr cable can have a mind of its own  It is hard to stretch.
 
Ed

That is some seriously beautiful metalwork, Frank.  Very intricate, very precise.  Painstaking work.   What kind of solder did you use and what was used to blacken?
 
It is true that wound stainless or Ni-Cr cable can have a mind of its own  It is hard to stretch.
 
Ed

Part 51 – Kathryn’s Dredge Winder Cont’d
 
It has been quite a while since my last post.  Here in Arizona, February and March are very popular months for visitors, and we had our share this year.  So time in the shop has been hard to get for the past 6 weeks or so.  I did mange to get a little done, and the last few days have been fairly productive.
 
The last photos showed the winder completed but still not blackened.  The next photos show it after blackening (yes, I thought about leaving the brass natural, but I want to show Kathryn as she actually looks, so I needed to blacken the winder).
 
                        
 
                        
 
The dredges are hauled on cables, but metal cables would be difficult to wind around the winder drums, so black rope was used on the model instead.  After winding the rope around the drums, matte medium was painted on the rope to keep it from loosening.
 
                        
 
The frame around the dredge winder is constructed from angle iron.  There is 1/16 and 1/8 brass angle iron available, but neither size was appropriate (I needed 3/32).  So 1/32 was milled off each side of the 1/8 angle iron using the setup shown in the following photo.
 
                        
 
The silver-colored clamps are homemade clamps that provide additional reach over the standard Sherline clamps.
 
The ends of the frame are constructed with angles rather than straight, and the ends are canted inward, as in the following construction drawing.
 
         
 
A wooden form was made to support the construction of the winder frame.
 
                        
 
                        
 
The angle on each side of the end pieces is 130 degrees, so the disk sander miter gauge was set at 65 degrees and the ends of the angle irons were sanded to this angle.
 
                        
 
                        
 
The end pieces of the form were removable to allow for clamping of the pieces.
 
                        
 
Although the form is wood, it was able to withstand the resistance soldering which localizes the heat.  This setup probably wouldn’t work very well for soldering with a torch.
 
                        
 
Once the individual sides of the ends were soldered, the complete form was used to join all of the pieces to the crossbar.
 
                        
 
                        
 
In the above photo, a small hand vise is holding the form, and this small vise is being held in the bench vise.
 
The basic frame was completed, but still needed the cross-braces.
 
                        
 
                        
 
The soldering of the cross-braces required some extra effort to keep from opening the joints already soldered.  Pieces of paper towel that had been soaked in water were clamped around existing joints to prevent the heat from opening those joints.
 
                        
 
The following photos show the winder frame completed and blackened and temporarily in place.  Additional work on the blackening is still needed.
 
                        
 
                        
 
Here’s a photo of Kathryn’s real winder and frame.
 
                        
 
The pulleys hanging from the crossbar still need to be made, as well as the boards that are beneath the I-beams.  The housing for the engine that drives the winder also needs to be made.  The winder configuration will then be put aside until later in the project so it doesn’t interfere with other delicate construction work.
 
Thanks everyone.  I hope to post more frequently now that work is again under way.
 
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 277 – Main Yard Boom Irons
 
The ironwork on the main yard continued with the fabrication and fitting of the boom irons, the supports for the topmast studdingsail booms.  The first picture shows two steps in the fabrication of the inner boom irons.
 

 
The large circular bands were first made to fit tightly in their positions on the yard.  The smaller bands were sized to be about 1" larger in diameter that the 8 ½" diameter of the boom center sections.  I used brass for the short arms between the rings – mainly because I had hard brass in that thickness.  Making these of copper would have simplified the blackening process later.  Because of the brass, these were blackened before installing on the yard, as will be seen below.
 
The next picture shows a yardarm with its banding and pieces for the end cap and strap that support the outer iron.
 

 
The straps were drilled first, then shaped as shown - in a vise with files, and then bent and clipped to the shape shown below.
 

 
The straps are secured with tight-fitting, stretched rings pressed over the ends of the yard as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the yard with the inner irons installed.
 

 
Only the brass-containing inner irons are black.  These were also fixed in place with a wire "bolt" – really a small wire nail in a drilled hole – riveted to hold the band on the underside of the yard.  The last items to be made were the outer irons – sometimes called "Pacific irons".  These consist of rings at the ends of bent iron bars.  The picture below shows the rings – same size as the inner rings – soldered to lengths of brass bar stock. 
 

 
The rings were fitted with a roller on the underside to ease the movement of the boom.  These were simulated by soldering a small bit of wire under each ring.  The lower assembly shows the soldering configuration before clipping off the excess.  A small round section was first filed out of the wire to help it fit to the band.  Again, making these of copper would allow the yard to be completely assembled before blackening, which would then be done using liver of sulfur solution.
 
The last picture shows the finished yard arm after blackening and installation of the outer iron.
 

 
Final assembly of the yard and finishing will be described in the next part.
 
Ed

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 277 – Main Yard Boom Irons
 
The ironwork on the main yard continued with the fabrication and fitting of the boom irons, the supports for the topmast studdingsail booms.  The first picture shows two steps in the fabrication of the inner boom irons.
 

 
The large circular bands were first made to fit tightly in their positions on the yard.  The smaller bands were sized to be about 1" larger in diameter that the 8 ½" diameter of the boom center sections.  I used brass for the short arms between the rings – mainly because I had hard brass in that thickness.  Making these of copper would have simplified the blackening process later.  Because of the brass, these were blackened before installing on the yard, as will be seen below.
 
The next picture shows a yardarm with its banding and pieces for the end cap and strap that support the outer iron.
 

 
The straps were drilled first, then shaped as shown - in a vise with files, and then bent and clipped to the shape shown below.
 

 
The straps are secured with tight-fitting, stretched rings pressed over the ends of the yard as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the yard with the inner irons installed.
 

 
Only the brass-containing inner irons are black.  These were also fixed in place with a wire "bolt" – really a small wire nail in a drilled hole – riveted to hold the band on the underside of the yard.  The last items to be made were the outer irons – sometimes called "Pacific irons".  These consist of rings at the ends of bent iron bars.  The picture below shows the rings – same size as the inner rings – soldered to lengths of brass bar stock. 
 

 
The rings were fitted with a roller on the underside to ease the movement of the boom.  These were simulated by soldering a small bit of wire under each ring.  The lower assembly shows the soldering configuration before clipping off the excess.  A small round section was first filed out of the wire to help it fit to the band.  Again, making these of copper would allow the yard to be completely assembled before blackening, which would then be done using liver of sulfur solution.
 
The last picture shows the finished yard arm after blackening and installation of the outer iron.
 

 
Final assembly of the yard and finishing will be described in the next part.
 
Ed

Hi Ed,

I always like to look into your report to learn.
In addition, it is very nice, the emergence of an absolute top model
to be allowed to watch.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 277 – Main Yard Boom Irons
 
The ironwork on the main yard continued with the fabrication and fitting of the boom irons, the supports for the topmast studdingsail booms.  The first picture shows two steps in the fabrication of the inner boom irons.
 

 
The large circular bands were first made to fit tightly in their positions on the yard.  The smaller bands were sized to be about 1" larger in diameter that the 8 ½" diameter of the boom center sections.  I used brass for the short arms between the rings – mainly because I had hard brass in that thickness.  Making these of copper would have simplified the blackening process later.  Because of the brass, these were blackened before installing on the yard, as will be seen below.
 
The next picture shows a yardarm with its banding and pieces for the end cap and strap that support the outer iron.
 

 
The straps were drilled first, then shaped as shown - in a vise with files, and then bent and clipped to the shape shown below.
 

 
The straps are secured with tight-fitting, stretched rings pressed over the ends of the yard as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the yard with the inner irons installed.
 

 
Only the brass-containing inner irons are black.  These were also fixed in place with a wire "bolt" – really a small wire nail in a drilled hole – riveted to hold the band on the underside of the yard.  The last items to be made were the outer irons – sometimes called "Pacific irons".  These consist of rings at the ends of bent iron bars.  The picture below shows the rings – same size as the inner rings – soldered to lengths of brass bar stock. 
 

 
The rings were fitted with a roller on the underside to ease the movement of the boom.  These were simulated by soldering a small bit of wire under each ring.  The lower assembly shows the soldering configuration before clipping off the excess.  A small round section was first filed out of the wire to help it fit to the band.  Again, making these of copper would allow the yard to be completely assembled before blackening, which would then be done using liver of sulfur solution.
 
The last picture shows the finished yard arm after blackening and installation of the outer iron.
 

 
Final assembly of the yard and finishing will be described in the next part.
 
Ed

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 277 – Main Yard Boom Irons
 
The ironwork on the main yard continued with the fabrication and fitting of the boom irons, the supports for the topmast studdingsail booms.  The first picture shows two steps in the fabrication of the inner boom irons.
 

 
The large circular bands were first made to fit tightly in their positions on the yard.  The smaller bands were sized to be about 1" larger in diameter that the 8 ½" diameter of the boom center sections.  I used brass for the short arms between the rings – mainly because I had hard brass in that thickness.  Making these of copper would have simplified the blackening process later.  Because of the brass, these were blackened before installing on the yard, as will be seen below.
 
The next picture shows a yardarm with its banding and pieces for the end cap and strap that support the outer iron.
 

 
The straps were drilled first, then shaped as shown - in a vise with files, and then bent and clipped to the shape shown below.
 

 
The straps are secured with tight-fitting, stretched rings pressed over the ends of the yard as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the yard with the inner irons installed.
 

 
Only the brass-containing inner irons are black.  These were also fixed in place with a wire "bolt" – really a small wire nail in a drilled hole – riveted to hold the band on the underside of the yard.  The last items to be made were the outer irons – sometimes called "Pacific irons".  These consist of rings at the ends of bent iron bars.  The picture below shows the rings – same size as the inner rings – soldered to lengths of brass bar stock. 
 

 
The rings were fitted with a roller on the underside to ease the movement of the boom.  These were simulated by soldering a small bit of wire under each ring.  The lower assembly shows the soldering configuration before clipping off the excess.  A small round section was first filed out of the wire to help it fit to the band.  Again, making these of copper would allow the yard to be completely assembled before blackening, which would then be done using liver of sulfur solution.
 
The last picture shows the finished yard arm after blackening and installation of the outer iron.
 

 
Final assembly of the yard and finishing will be described in the next part.
 
Ed