keelhauled

Hi Harry! Merry Christmas and new years! (belated) to answer your question about the Cutty, she is sitting there unhappy for lack of attention. All of my time from July until Christmas was taken up with that lathe from my post in June. What began as work to just clean up the lathe and get rid of the chipping paint turned into a complete tear down to the bed frame. All disassembled, striped, cleaned, repainted, and reassembled. I'll post some photos soon. Now that the rebuild is finished and a table built to hold the over 450lbs (don't know the kilos) of iron, I will start back on the Cutty sometime this month. best, marc

Grant, Harry, Michael, Peter, thank you for the kind words about the lathe and the model! I really appreciate the words of encouragement!! I'm currently working on the ratlines for the lower main mast. the rest of the main mast ratlines are in place. I'll send photos soon. best Marc

Hi Joushua, The plans are still available. They just moved the page: https://shop.rmg.co.uk/collections/maritime-gift. I went to the sight and I just copied this link. They currently have the prints in stock. They are pretty large 3/32" scale if I remember correctly. Just for info you can always check the cutty sark gift shop, if the link doesn't work anymore. The plans are great! Also they are copyrighted. Best Marc

Hi all, Well, I'm the proud owner of a 1941 South bend model A lathe! It has some wear, but so would anyone born in 1941! I'm the forth owner. The third owner bought it three years ago, but never set it up and ran it. The the machine never ventured past the suburbs of DC. Even have the original shipping info. It needs some cleaning and surface rust removed on the tooling, but the gears and the gear box are clean- no chips in the gears of the box. Everything works as it should and was well lubricated. Just VERY dirty and in need of a good cleaning, new oil and probably new felts in the wipers. Lots and lots of tooling included as well as several options were ordered with lathe. Even came with the 2nd owner's machinist tool box. The tool box was also full of tools, micrometers, gauges, etc. There were three boxes full of tooling and a box full of cutting bits. His Union record book and certificate were still in one of the drawers So, although the lathe was extremely heavy (between 300-400 pounds), two people were able to move it. I was lucky a good friend was available as was his truck. Saved me from trying to figure out how to get it in and out of my wife's SUV. For me, it was VERY heavy. I used my legs and saved my back. The tools and tool box are heavy enough to bend my table. In fact, the chucks actually deformed the surface. Oh well, who cares.. I've got a lathe!!! Now I just need to learn to run it. Now I need to turn my focus back to the ship! I need to focus on the rigging!!! Ignore the lathe... focus on rigging... ignore the lathe ...ignore the lathe... Did I mention that I got a lathe!!!

Hi Michael, You are too kind! This is my first wooden ship build. Although at this rate (speed) it might be my last. I was hoping to do three other builds, but I'm already 50. Not sure how much time is left.😉 Thanks for the input Harry! On a side note, for the past three years I've wanted a little bench metal lathe. I finally found one on craigslist that was the model I was looking for. I'm going this weekend to take a look. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but it might be too late. Hopefully it won't be a let down. By the way, 400 pounds seems a little heavy for a bench top lathe - at least to me. Luckily I have a 2 ton shop lift once I get home, but how am I going to get it into the SUV? The current owner said two people can lift the largest part and have done so in the past. He also said that he would help me put it into the SUV, which is extremely nice of him and raises my faith in his assessment that two people can lift it. Still...... I need to get some friends with trucks!😁 back to rattling down the main shrouds! Marc

Thanks Harry, Good points and advice. I'm checking the deck fixtures -Deckhouses/Skids/Davits/Pumps/Hatches//Boats as I rig to make sure that they can still be put into place. I'm most concerned with the davits and boats aft the main mast. So far the big issue was not checking access before glueing the sheets for the main stays sails into place. As I said earlier, the sheets blocked easy access to the front of the lower main mast and would have been a big issue for rigging the pin rails. Luckily I was able to release the sheets from the sail - Hopefully I can get them re-attached ok when the time comes. I appreciate the info on rigging the braces. best, Marc

If your lines were rigged during summer and are now sagging during winter be careful with tightening them. You might find that they shrink again in summer and could warp your masts. I paint oil portraits on canvas (both linen canvas and cotton canvas) They sag during winter but will become drum tight during summer (this is in a heated and air conditioned home that is kept at the same temp year round). Some canvas stretchers (the frame that the canvas is tacked to) have wooden wedges to adjust the tightness during painting to compensate and then is loosened once the painting is finished. Once I re-stretched the canvas during winter because of the sagging. When summer came the cavas became so tight that it bent and warped the frame so severely that it twisted the frame and cracked the oak 1"X 3" parts, that I had to remove the canvas and stretch it on a new stretcher(frame). I pre-stretch and wax my cotton standing rigging lines. I don't know if it makes a huge difference, but I haven't noticed much sagging of the lines on the model and it is in the same house as those paintings. Best Marc

Harry, can't thank you enough! You saved me possibly hours of work and the cursing that comes with mistakes!!

Thanks Nenad! I hope you are doing well! Harry, Thanks for the warning!!! I'm looking at the plans. I believe I see what you are alerting to. If you are looking at the plans, It appears to me that on the main mast, just below the band that supports the crane for the Main course , that there is a block attached to the aft most shroud, which says " 9" single seized to shroud." To me it looks like BOTH the mizzen lower topsail brace and the mizzen course brace run to THAT same block (although the plans say that it is a "single" block. In reality it should be a 9 inch Double block. Is that correct? Sorry I don't have an ability to insert a photo of the plan. If needed I can go back and do so. This also reminds me that I need to make sure that I rig all blocks attached to the shrouds right after finishing the ratlines. As you said it will be almost impossible one the sails go into position! I also need to check all of the blocks attached to the masts for what seems like the millionth time. I checked over and over on the fore and still found about 4 single blocks that should have been doubles after the rigging was underway. Each block took a couple of hours of tedious work to remove the incorrect block and replace with the correct one. It was almost impossible to fix (at least it seemed that way). Thanks!!!!!!!! Marc

Great work!!

Looking Good! Keep it up!

Thanks Dennis! I need a little sailor to take care of those rope coils and the rigging!

Thanks Harry! I appreciate the complement! I seem to be rigging every line at least 3 times. Seems each time I run a line, I don't like the run and think that it can be done better. I'm also finding the close-hauled sails are a real pain to rig around. They almost completely block access to the starboard side of the masts. Makes rigging that side of the ship a very slow, delicate process 😳😖

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been working on the ship. Not as much as I'd like! Life gets in the way. I've been traveling for work then I was traveling weekends to visit my wife and a sick family member she was taking care of for a month. Everything is quit for a month! Time to get back to working in the shop. I finished rigging the fore mast and rigged the main stay sails. Problem there was I didn't think far enough ahead and the sheets actually prevented me from working on the lower main mast and would have prevented me from rigging the yards and sails on the main. Lesson learned - don't get carried away. Her is a couple of photos to give you an idea of where I'm heading as far as the sails. I wanted to reduce the sails blocking the deck and reduce some of the bulk aloft. Essentially my model is close-hauled with the fore sail set, the main sail and mizzen will be hauled up in their gear, and the royals and sky sail will be furled. The photos are from the Cutty Sark and Other Famous Clippers. My sails are cork-screwed according to diagrams and actual photos of clippers. The Thermopylae photo above shows this effect. Here is some of my progress The ship without the royal and then with the royal rigged. I ran the lines through the sheaves A couple of photos of the pin rails. By the way, the lines coming down would be a mess without the fairleads. I don't have a current photo, but will go back and take some to show how effective they were. The other challenge was with the pins that have two lines belayed. Once the lines are belayed with three figure 8 wraps on on those little pins there isn't much room for the line coiled lines (especially if they are the correct length). Most only have one coil of lines on the pin. although if one of the lines were short and the coil not that thick, I belayed both coils (mainly on the for mast pin rail and the spiders of the main and fore mast). the aft view of the fore royal and top Now on to the rigging the ralines on the Main Mast! thanks for looking! marc