keelhauled

Hi George

Mantua's model has the ship as she is now.  So the stern deck house entrances are completely different.  There are three entrances.  The incorrect entrance shown in my first photos was scratch built.  Just built wrong.  The whole deck house with the exception of the compass, bell and windows were built from scratch.  I built the skylight from wood and brass.  I turned the balusters and buckets and made the rail from scratch.  The buckets don't actually taper toward the deck and the tops aren't actually all the same size, but I don't think anyone would notice.

Actually, I stopped using the model plans shortly after planking the hull.  I've been using Campbell's plans and filling it in using Longridge's book on the Cutty and Campbell's book on clippers.  Also I use as many photos as I can look at.  Much of my model is scratch built (except the blocks and dead eyes).  It seems the more I build, the less I use of the model.

However, I don't think that the model as built by the directions is bad at all.  I just kept finding that I could do better. Although it takes much more time.

Thanks for the feedback

Marc

you are becoming quite a sculptor!

Here is laying down the roof.  

And here is the new entrance, complete with booby hatch.

Here is the work on the stern deck house.

The previous entrance was too tall.  I had the height the same as what the current height is.  

So I gave it a hair cut!  I took the measurements off of Campbells plans, made a template and cut the top off with a dremmel cutting disk.  I did ware safety glasses.

your bollards look great!  what are they made from?

yep George, you're right about the dead-eye orientation.  good catch!,  the dead-eyes are just loose enough in their brackets to rotate. I was concerned about not getting the exact angle orientation for the holes, so I made sure that I could rotate them if I needed to.  When I was placing them, I ended up rotating some of the dead-eyes.  In fact most of them are rotated to some degree. 

Thanks for the catch, George!  

Marc

Nenad, George, Grant and Thomas,

Thanks for the comments.  Having the right tools definitely reduced my frustration and waste and allowed me to make what I needed.  It sounds like I might be getting the Byrnes saw for Christmas - Fingers crossed .

I was able to get the lower dead eyes mounted for the fore and main masts.  Had to re-drill the holes on the deck for most of them.  I don't know how I screwed up the angles a few months ago when I drilled the deck holes.  This time I checked and rechecked the plans and ran dummy shrouds for each position to check the angle.  I finished drilling holes for the belaying pins (wish I had caught that they were missing back before I had mounted the rails).

The fore deadeyes

The main deadeyes

I need to finish the mizzen. Also, I noticed that the entrance to the aft deck house was too tall, so I've started ripping that apart to rebuild.  I'll post photos next time.

Thanks

Marc

You are too kind!  But I'm glad to drive you further down the devil's details!

Next I'll make the hatch that covers the top of the entrance.  It slides back so that the crew don't hit their heads.

So using my new saw and x-y table I made the fairleads and the bolsters for the masts.  I've found that I love ripping wood.  Took me a few attempts before the 1/32" x 1/32" came out clean.  I think the answer was feeding the wood very slow and not pressing it against the fence.

Had to make the fairleads for the fore mast twice.  I couldn't fit enough holes in the length that I had available.  I also made sure that the lines would actaully fit through the tiny holes.  They do, but I think that I'm at the limit.

fore mast fairleads

Mizzen mast fairleads

Thanks George!

Nenad,  Thank you for the advice!  Sounds like very sound advice.  I want to make sure that I keep my fingers and my eyesight!  thanks for the examples, I'm very glad no one got hurt.  

When I was a teenager I worked for a metal repair shop sanding the items.  I forgot to put on my thick leather apron once and the orbital sander bounced and hit my leg.  the paper cut right through the canvas apron, my pants and luckily only my skin.  Amazing that paper cut through the thick canvas in a  split second.  I was lucky.  

Marc

Hi Nenad,

I'm in the process of rebuilding the entrance to the aft deck house.  Here are a couple of photos of mine.  I thought they might help to illustrate what I was trying to explain.

Excuse the entrance roof I'm still working on it.

Marc

Hi everyone,

I've been running into issues trying to buy 1/64" x 1/64", 1/32" ,x 1/32" and combos of those size strips. The two sources that I've used in the past no longer make them.  I tried cutting those sizes from walnut with an xacto knife and razor blades without much success.  too much variation in widths.  so I decided to by a table saw.  I wanted the Byrnes, but didn't think I could get the support to drop the $600-$800 for the loaded saw.  So I bought the Proxxon Saw.  Also after drilling all of the holes for the belaying pins in straight rows, I decided it was time to get an x-y table.  I know that I'll be making fairleads with holes somewhere ranging from #60 to #75 holes (not sure what size yet) and I didn't think that I could hand drill the holes close enough and consistently enough.

I received two Proxxon tools: an table saw and an x-y table.

I ripped a stack of 1/32"x1/32" and 1/32x1/16 walnut strips.  worked great with the fine tooth saw.  

I ended up creating a stop, mainly because I was worried about getting the fence too close to the blade. 

I don't have a nice drill, just an old minicraft drill press and the x-y table didn't bolt into any of the holes.  Since I wanted to be able to easily remove the x-y table I created a wood sled that the drill press slides into.  I was able to get it to where the drill press slides in and out of the x-y table easily and index drill sizes 60-75 lined back up to holes previously drilled across 6 inches.  The alignment held in the extreme x and y directions in those same drill size ranges.  good enough for what I need.

Here are holes drilled into a 1/32"x1/32 walnut strip. 

Drilling test holes for the fairleads .  The holes are too large - I won't be able to fit enough holes in for the number of lines. So I'll have to go down probably 5 sizes.  The good thing is that with this large of a hole it shows that the x-y table is aligned well.  The slight variation in up and down position is becasue of the grain.  I tried it with other woods and they were dead-on straight.

 Notice how small the little 2 inch blade is compared to the razor blade   

Marc

Looking great! each new grating  is better than the last!

Originally the doors didn't extend past the aft deck house.  So the deck between the house and the rail was essentially the same across the entire front of the deck house just as in Campbell's plans.  the rail was continuous and the fire buckets were consistent across.

You are correct about the picture of the Queen. When they changed the entrance, they extended it right up to the rail and cut off the lower platform that held the buckets in front of the entrance.  The shape of the intersection between sections of the rail is called a scarph joint.  It would be a nice detail to add.  I wished that I had done these types of joints instead of the angled joints that I did at the time.  Live and learn.  I'll do it on the Victory when I finally get to her.

Enjoy your vacation!!

What can one say that hasn't been said before?  Amazing, beautiful,....  It's all true. 

Not only the quality, but the build speed with the depth of detail of all of your work is incredible.  And you post it all!  Do you sleep?

Thanks for giving me hours and hours of joy!

Marc

thanks for the tutorial.  Very informative!

Nenad, 

I just realized that the doors are open in Woodget's photo.  At least you can see the height of the opening.  The painting has the doors closed.

There are two half width doors.  If you need me to shoot a photo let me know.

I looked for the other photo and couldn't find it.  I included one similar, but it has the new entrance. Notice the difference in height of the entrance between this photo and the Woodget photo in the last post.

Just a side note

The forward hatch to the crew accomodations also had two half doors in the same manner (and a booby hatch since it was so short).  Note that both the forward hatch and the aft booby hatch were only lashed and easily removed (they used the aft hatch to load tea, just like the hatches in the middle.  I included a photo of the aft hatch removed

Note that although the photo is old it has the modern entrance to the aft deck house

When she was the Fierra you can see photos of the forward accommodation hatch removed with just a flat cover.

grating looks great!

I built the aft deck house with only one entrance as in campbell's plans

The painting is supposed to have been painted for Willis around the time of her launch.  It has a clear shot of the doors, and yes it shows that the buckets and rail continue in front of the door.  Hard to see, but they are there as in Campbell's plans  I have a 1:1 print that I purchased twenty years ago.  If you need that area larger, let me know and I'll take a photo.  The area is dark, but you can see the doors.

The photo is during Woodget's time and has the single entrance.   Also notice the buckets! I know Woodget took another photo of the aft hatch with the deck house in the back. I'll look for it.

The photos are fairly large so you can zoom in.

Marc

Beautiful iron work!  Love the guns.  Just amazing work!  you are an artist!

she's looking great.  Love keeping up on your build!

nice grating.  I'm looking forward to version 2.  I know you, you'll have an updated version tomorrow

Nenad.  The grating is a nice touch.  There is also one by the ship's wheel to keep the deck from wearing down.  Sometimes they are also in front of the companion ways.

Izzy, nice photo.  It's my understanding that it is similar to how the Cutty operates.  According to Longridge, the Cutty has a turned up angle on the tumbler rod that holds the cat stopper chain. When the tumbler is rotated the chain slides of the bent portion of the tumbler.

As to the scale and cleats.  I'm right there with you.  I was drilling a line of holes for my fairleads with  #77 size holes in a piece of walnut with a  1/64" x 1/64"  cross section by hand.  Crazy.    No one will ever see something that small or care.  I ended up switching to 1/32 X 1/32 to make my life easier and no one will ever know that they are off scale 1/64 of an inch.  Also finally broke down and purchased an x-y table for the drill.  That should help as well!

Marc

Nenad,

What are the rectangles beneath the windlass handles on the drawing?  The cleats you have identified for the jibs (3 on each side), I think that they are eye rings for attaching the blocks for the jib if I remember correctly.  You might want to check it against some other clipper plans.

Looking good!

Looks much improved.

Thanks for the info.

nice work.  If I had to do it again, I think that I would build up the capstan like you instead of turning one piece on a lathe.

my decision was easy...I turned the capstan on my home made lathe and then screwed up the alignment of the holes when I was drilling them.  So..I have the bars stored in the rack.

I was also going to have the ship with all of the sails set, so I thought that they would be such a hazard on the real ship, they would never be left in place while under way.

Still, sometimes it's nice to have details like this.  Thus why I'm going to have my anchor chains around the windlass and attached to the anchors (like yours).  Under way they would "ship" the anchors onto the fore deck and stow the chain in the locker.  But I'm sure everyone would think that I forgot to attach "ropes" or chains to the anchors.  

The choice is yours, but in the end....the spice must flow