glbarlow

I've successfully built a number of models using my own method of planking. I wish I'd discovered Chuck's method sooner, I used it on my current model (my simple little project after a long layoff). I am amazed at the results and just how much you can bend planks. I used the travel iron as Chuck suggested at some point in his videos or tutorials and think it’s by far the best approach. Wetting the wood with just my finger then applying the (steam) iron to the wood bent and held by clamps heated and dried the wood quickly, and as someone has pointed out "presses" the wood in the bargain.  I think you''ll enjoy the decision to get the iron - the travel size works best because you really only need the front corner.

1st Planking Task Completed
I was pleased with how this went, the preformed rabbet in the stem post really helped. I used Super Phatic Glue to fixe the planks to the bulkheads. I really using this glue as it gives a good solid bond, and cures so much quicker than normal wood glue.
 

 
Once I have finished with the sanding I will commence the 2nd planking phase.
I have never used Chuck's edge planking method before but will certainly use it for this project. My bending station has been set up and is go to go. I may go out a purchase a travel iron as the hair dryer I used when testing the method had some issues with thermal overload.
 
 
 
 

First off I don't like the end appearance, my personal preference.  Historical accuracy aside the copper draws my attention way too much over the beauty of the model, its lines and all the detail I put into it from furniture to rigging are muffled by the copper hull. It is what you notice first and, again in my opinion, not what I want to see. The white hull just looks so much more like an elegant model sitting on my shelf.  I'm not sailing it anywhere, its one aspect of historical accuracy I don't feel I need to have done the job right.  
 
However in the case of the Vanguard (I also coppered my Pickle) it was the incredible tediousness of placing one plate after another after another in one line after another after another.  I actually stopped for almost a year after coppering the port side before starting starboard. I just lost interest in modeling and did I mention how tedious it is on a large ship. I won't be coppering Speedy, I hope it to join Pegasus and Granado in my study bookshelves, with its white hull.
 
Hope that helps.

First off I don't like the end appearance, my personal preference.  Historical accuracy aside the copper draws my attention way too much over the beauty of the model, its lines and all the detail I put into it from furniture to rigging are muffled by the copper hull. It is what you notice first and, again in my opinion, not what I want to see. The white hull just looks so much more like an elegant model sitting on my shelf.  I'm not sailing it anywhere, its one aspect of historical accuracy I don't feel I need to have done the job right.  
 
However in the case of the Vanguard (I also coppered my Pickle) it was the incredible tediousness of placing one plate after another after another in one line after another after another.  I actually stopped for almost a year after coppering the port side before starting starboard. I just lost interest in modeling and did I mention how tedious it is on a large ship. I won't be coppering Speedy, I hope it to join Pegasus and Granado in my study bookshelves, with its white hull.
 
Hope that helps.

Thank you for your reply.  I understand the repeatable and safety aspect, How does it make cuts the same length?  My example is cutting the very short “borders” of a square hatch, say each just 25mm in length and a 45 mitre didn’t cut, hard to do without losing a finger. Does the sliding table help with month the accurate cut and getting 4 perfect 25 mm lengths?
 
I should just buy it, but not sure I’d know how to use it. 
 
Great video, very helpful. 

I have a sliding top table saw, not the same type but the only advantage I can see is that the wood does not slide on the table so will not get scratched when cutting it. Use my saw for fine wood work like doors, picture frame, cupboards or other fine finished work. It is heavier and not as easy to move.

The advantages of the cross-cut sled on the Byrnes saw are the same as for a sled on a full-size table saw. When making cross cuts, the sled provides greater safety and accuracy, particularly when making mitered cuts and cutting multiple pieces to exactly the same length. A cross-cut sled makes perfect, repeatable crosscuts on a table saw without tear-out, which is something the modeler needs to do on a fairly regular basis. Because both the workpiece and the offcut move with the sled and are backed by a fence perpendicular to the blade, there's much less chance of kickback and blowout as the blade exits the cut.  The Byrnes sled has a metal box which covers the blade as the cut is completed. This is a very good "automatic" safety feature that prevents ever getting cut by the blade as the sled is pushed forward.
 
The Byrnes saw sled is machined to the same .001" tolerances as the saw itself, so, while building your own sled is conceptually easy, incorporating the highly accurate miter gauge of the Byrnes sled in one you build yourself is going to take some doing. Building a sled for your full-size table saw doesn't require the tolerances that making one that will give you what your Byrnes saw is capable of would demand in terms of accuracy. While anything done on a sled can also be done without the sled, the sled saves set-up time, especially with repetitive cuts. It also keeps your fingers away from the blade, which is particularly important when cutting small pieces.
 
Check out this video. It's for full-size table saws, but if you turn your volume down, you can pretend he's talking about a Byrnes saw.
 
 

Bob said it all - safety, accuracy with repeatable cuts.  Is it necessary?  Probably not, but makes the job a lot easier and safer.  I'm very happy with mine.

The cross cut sled is one of the best accessories for the Byrnes saw, in my opinion. I also made one when I bought the saw a few years ago but the one from Byrnes is 100 times better. I highly recommend it.

Once you have the hatch coming piece positioned on the sled - against the stops - hold it down with a large piece of wood with a hollow that just fits the coming - maybe even involve double sided tape - to keep your fingers away from the blade.  You can even form the hollow from two pieces of wood  and the tape so that you can reuse the cover piece for different sized stock.  A few extra minutes spent on safety can save a lot of time spent on healing.  I think that a table saw is about as dangerous as it gets for a motorized cutting tool.

What I meant was that if you wanted to cut pieces of wood all exactly the same length, the sled does that very easily. If you want to cut perfect miter angles, the sled does that better than using the miter gauge on the table saw and poses less risk of your touching the moving blade.

It is good practice and one I follow. Pre-forming on a firm board, rather than the somewhat fragile frame prevents breakage and is far less a struggle. The board, properly prepared provides firm and easy to access clamping points that also allow me to ease the pattern into the right shape. The ply on a gun port pattern is very stiff, and it is ply, too much soaking it will warp as it dries and possibly even delaminate. Scoring is not something I’d do.
 
Using this process actually saves me time, saves me from the struggle of fighting alignment on the boat frame, and provides a smooth unwavering pattern. You can put the patterns on it lots of ways, but this method works and works well. While the Speedy may be easier given it’s shape, I’d not managed to get the patterns on either Pegasus or Vanguard without it. 
 
While I’m sure there are many methods, this one has made my building easier.  I was just sharing what I do.

I trace the outline of half the ship (from above view) from the plans, transfer that to a piece of 1x4 inch lumber, cut out the half hull profile with a scroll saw, cut a few notches into opposite side, soak the gunport patterns a few hours then clamp and rubber band it to dry on my board. 
 
The pattern then fits the ship perfectly and easily with no risk to the hull. I devised this when building my Pegasus, it also worked great on the bows of my Vanguard. 

I trace the outline of half the ship (from above view) from the plans, transfer that to a piece of 1x4 inch lumber, cut out the half hull profile with a scroll saw, cut a few notches into opposite side, soak the gunport patterns a few hours then clamp and rubber band it to dry on my board. 
 
The pattern then fits the ship perfectly and easily with no risk to the hull. I devised this when building my Pegasus, it also worked great on the bows of my Vanguard. 

In reply to the question "How did you determine the taper width on the stern" I used carboard strips and got the following measurements from bow to stern
Bulkhead position 1 = 35mm
Bulkhead position 2 = 55mm
Bulkhead position 3 = 65mm
Bulkhead position 4 = 70mm
Bulkhead position 5 = 78mm
Bulkhead position 6 = 80mm
Bulkhead position 7 = 80mm
Bulkhead position 8 = 80mm
Bulkhead position 9 = 80mm
Bulkhead position 10 = 80mm
Bulkhead position 11 = 80mm
Bulkhead position 12 = 80mm
Bulkhead position 13 = 80mm
Bulkhead position 14 = 45mm
Bulkhead position 15 =38mm
 
I believe there will be 16 x 5mm planks required for the 80mm dimensions, however this will be reduced to 15 planks towards the stern.
I fitted the first plank as a complete untapered plank and then tapered for the second plank but I only tapered at the bow end based on the above measurements using approx. 2.2mm as the stem post plank width. I also fitted the bottom two (keel) planks and I think I will continue to plank in both directions.

Wow, that must have been devastating. I'm enjoying modelling so much more now that I'm active on MSW and writing my own logs. I'll certainly learn from your experience and keep offline copies from now on.
I'm off to help my wife prepare dinner (steak and fries with a nice red!) so I'll sign off for now.
 
Derek

None of us were! Hard to believe that was seven years ago now. As to the question about drag, I don't know the answer, but I bet that Chappelle discussed it in either Baltimore Clippers or Search for Speed Under Sail.

Take a look at Vane's Speedy log (here). He cleverly saved quite a few strips of boxwood by using a cheaper alternative where it won't show. Well done on the quoting by the way - you picked that up quick!
 
Derek

Our posts crossed in the post, as it were! And you've now got more than me.

Thanks - glad it's helping you. With the first planking I simply eyeballed the taper. Chris explains his method in the build manual, but basically you lay a plank against the preceding one and let it go where it wants, than mark it where it starts to overlap the previous plank. Just give it a reasonable amount of taper from that point to the end - but reduce it by no more than half it's width. The stern is a bit tricky because after the initial few tapered planks that follow the tight curve of the hull, the planks need to get wider again - eventually you need to use triangular stealers to fill the gaps. Hopefully this is clear from the photos. I'm sure you know triangular stealers are not good practice where the planks show, but they're fine in Speedy where they will eventually be covered by copper.
 
Speaking of good practice, when you're quoting someone else you don't need to copy the whole post - it's just as easy to highlight the bit you want and hit the 'quote selection' prompt that comes up, and it makes it easier for others reading the log. Ccoyle's post immediately before yours is a good example. Hope you don't mind me mentioning this, but I used to do the same until someone else  pointed out the neater method.
 
I look forward to seeing your log.
 
Derek
 
P.S. Just noticed that you and I have the exact same number of posts to our name. Spooky!

I'd certainly recommend Chuck's edge bending method. I've seen him use a hot air gun and a small travel iron. I've tried both, and both work, but I find the iron works faster and, as it literally irons the wood flat, it reduces any tendency for the strip to bend in a direction you don't want.
 
Derek

I know, thing is, I thought there were 28 planks needed! lol. I will add three extra planks in all future kits, as I hate having just enough myself!

I will add in a few more first planking strips in future kits, as I always like to add more than enough of the base materials. If you had told me, I would have been more than happy to send a few more strips.
 
For the sanding of the hull, I now use a small electric mouse type sander for most of the hull, finishing with hand sanding.

The planking begins! It's a long time since I've done a double-planked hull, and I'd forgotten how (comparatively) easy the first planking is, when you don't have to worry too much about historical inaccuracies such as triangular stealers. However I did try to lay the planks as well as I could to minimise sanding and filling later on. The supplied limewood (aka basswood?) 1.5mm timber worked well. Chris recommends soaking in warm water for 30 minutes before tapering with a craft knife and steel rule, in order to ensure that the knife follows the rule and not the grain. However I found that wasn't necessary if I used a sharp scalpel and I did all my tapering without any problems. However I DID soak the ends of each strip by dipping them in recently boiled water for a couple of minutes, so that I could pre-bend them. I clamped the soaked strips to the hull and blasted them dry with my hot air gun. This got them close to their final shape and made final fitting with glue and pins much easier.
 
The first four strakes on the starboard side:

Progressing nicely:
 




Finished and ready to sand:

The 1st planking requires exactly 30 full strips, and the kit supplies exactly thirty. Unfortunately I'd snapped one strip in an early and unnecessary edge-bending experiment. However this wasn't a problem, as I was able to complete the last garboard strake with two shorter planks.

In summary, the kit design makes planking comparatively straightforward. For example the larger than usual number of frames and the ease with which they can be properly faired, and the use of strategically positioned filler pieces that help to support planks in the bow and stern areas. I found the small pins supplied particularly good at holding planks to the frames whilst the glue dried. I had been a bit worried the pins wouldn't hold in the MDF frames but they were fine. They were so sharp I stabbed my fingers several times trying to pick them up - yes, the red patches on the hull are blood! A couple of spare planks would have been nice, but certainly not essential.
 
Next job, sanding. 
 
Derek
 

I struggled with the gunport patterns. I suspect it was me, as the instructions are quite clear and Vane managed to fit them with little difficulty as described in his log. Bending them lengthways was no problem - they're only 0.8mm thick and soaking them in warm water as recommended works fine. I clamped them wet to the frames and used a hot air gun to set the curve. My difficulty came because I also had to bend the strips edgewise. I should  stress that I'm not talking about edge bending as recommended by Chuck in his planking videos - this is unnecessary for the Speedy gunport patterns as they are already curved to follow the sheer. Rather, I'm referring to the bend needed across the width of the strip in order to follow the tumblehome. This is particularly pronounced near the bow. I followed Chris's recommendation in the instructions to clamp the tops of the patterns to the tops of the frames and to pin the patterns at the bottom to hold them against the frames. To hold them tight against the frames I found I had to drive the pins right in - the heads are really small so I should be able to plank over them without causing bumps. Either that or I'll file them flat. This shows the port patterns clamped and glued in place (I must buy more clamps!).

The real difficulty came because bending these thin sheets in two dimensions caused them to buckle. The next pictures show the top and bottom views of the front starboard pattern:

I was reluctant to resort to sanding and filling on such a scale, so I resorted to my trusty travel iron, wetting the offending areas and trying to flatten them on maximum heat. The result was acceptable, I think.

Not perfect, but should be sortable during planking.
 
I'm probably making more of this than it deserves. I suspect that's because the kit so far has fitted together so neatly and easily that I'd forgotten that model ships inevitably require a degree of skill - they're not made of Lego bricks that snap together perfectly. I'll be interested to see what other Speedy builders make of this part of the construction.
 
Roll on planking!
 
Derek