No Idea

This is great advice - you will need 4 - 5 zero clearance inserts dependant on the different width blades you use and its great to have a spare. I use all of the different blades for different jobs. I imported mine to the UK and the customs charge and postage basically added a third or more again to my purchase. So my advice to you is get as much as you can into your parcel and only pay for postage once. You'll be buying its own seat on the plane 🤣 Get a spare drive belt and spare bolts just in case you loose any. If your budget will stretch to it get the sled too. Its a great bit of kit and so well made. Buy as many spare blades as you can as you will save money in the long run. I know that they are expensive and I saved for two years to get mine - Quite simply its the best tool I have ever owned. I've since sent mine back to Jim to get the bigger table. Great back up too - just go for it and buy as much as you can in the first instance.

Hi Michael and thanks for your comment - Now it may look perfectly accurate in the pictures but just like everyone else I have to jiggle all of my joints around a bit to get them to fit. I also have to make loads of adjustments to make the parts fit the master plan as I have found that photocopies have much thicker lines. This may seem like no big deal but a few slightly thicker joints on a model that's a metre long adds up to a 3mm problem at one end or the other. I check against the plan more times a day than I care to admit too. I do quite a lot of machining but I always finish my parts by hand. I prefer to use small Villorbe engineers files as they really rip through the wood if need be. I can also get a very flat finish on the wood using these too which is another reason why things look on face of it smooth and precise; trust me they are not. I don't like using sand paper as it just rounds of the edges which makes good joints look sloppy even if they are not. I think I'm trying to say that I try and keep things flat and as square as possible. If I could recommend one tool to master its a flat file. When I do use paper I use fine silicon carbide paper. Its very thin and seems to last for quite a long time. What you don't see is the amount of pieces that don't make the cut. If its not going right - it's going in the bin. I've spent literally and entire weekend making a part only to destroy it accidentally at the last minute. I hope this answers your question - Mark

So far so good mate! Today I had to first correct an omission on my part. I forgot that the floor side of the frame has a narrower fitting on the rising wood and I had forgotten to do this. So I cut the 3 affected notches which luckily was easy enough. Next I made the lower apron and the apron. Another tricky part to get right but I've done the best that I can. Its now clamped onto the keel waiting for the glue to dry. I'm going to concentrate on the stem rabbet next so I need to put some thought into that.

Hi druxey 🤣 Thanks for the comment - Maybe one of the mods can give me a new screen name I'll leave it to them to choose 🤣 Today I made the sternpost knee extension which turned out to be quite tricky to make. It has many notches at differing angles and then it has to be tapered towards the stern. Not only that it tapers downwards too and then the sternpost knee and the false sternpost have to tapered to match. I found the best approach was to fully mark out the tapers in all directions on all the pieces to that I could envisage how it should look after it was completed. I think this job took me about 9 hours today but I'm quite pleased with the results. It's not quite perfect as its about 0.5mm out in a couple of places but I think its about as good as I can do at the moment. There is a picture below showing it on the keel - since this was taken I spent about an hour making it fit really nicely and now its glued onto the keel. I'm looking forward to getting the clamps off in the morning. Tomorrow I'll have a look at the bow parts and see what needs to be made. Thank you all for the really nice comments they really have blown me away Mark

This is what I would try

I'm glad to say that the sternpost has turned out ok. I did forget to put a tar line across the bottom of the false sternpost but I'll correct that with a line of paint probably in 2023 when I'm nearly finished 🤣 I now have a nice and straight keel which exactly aligns with the plans. I've made a start on the stern rising wood and also the part that holds the transom parts. All of the parts need finishing off at a later date but so far so good. I did make the mistake of drilling the rising wood with 3mm holes - I put 2mm holes in the frames! Oh well its no big deal I'll sort it out when the time comes. I think I'll enlarge the frames to suit the rising wood. These pieces also require tapering so I need to put some thought into how I'm going to do that but tomorrow's another day.

Hi Clogger - I've cut the rabbet using a V carve tool simply by hand. As I got further down towards the keel I swapped to a flat hand file to blend it in. I've put a picture here for you

Thanks clogger 👍 Thanks Greg thats very nice of you to say - would you believe I chose my screen name due to the first time I visited this site. All of the terminology and expert work that was going on made me realise that I had "no idea" what I was getting into!

Hi Shipmate 69 I use the Proxxon MF70 mill and its quite a good little machine. The spindle speed is very fast and its quite accurate but it is tiny. Its designed for modellers work and is not designed for large pieces. I only have machined wood and brass which it has handled ok for its size. Could it do 1mm mild steel that you want to machine? I think that it probably could .........but you would need some really good tooling and also take extremely fine cuts. How you would apply cooling I am unsure about but there are bottle fed cutting fluids that maybe could be used. I have thought about upgrading my mill to something bigger and have considered Sherline and the larger Proxxon machines. But none of them have the spindle speed that I want for cutting wood cleanly and the size of them seems to be exponential if I moved up even a little. I have little space where I live so I am learning to make the most of the machine that I have. I buy the best cutting tools that I can and use my imagination when it comes to fixing the item for cutting. Sometimes I win and get the job done and at others I just have to accept that my little machine is just not up to the job. I don't think that there is a mill that does everything but mine does 85% of what I want and the rest I'll just have to get the hand tools out. I hope you find your solution - Mark

Another quick update The keel parts dried very nicely overnight so I drilled and inserted the treenails through the scarf joints. Next I made the stern post and also cut the mortice and rabbet in it. The false stern post was also made and its now all being glued to the keel. Tomorrow I'll clean it all up and move onto the rising wood hopefully.

Bob you make a really good point there that I hadn't really thought about. I don't actually do very much sanding at all - I use planes and chisels far more than I sand. I hadn't realised until you mentioned it. Most of my wood waste is shavings rather than dust and its really easy to just hoover up. If I need to do a big sanding job like fairing a hull then I take it outside regardless of the temperature. I only swapped to edged tools a few years ago but they have become such a way of life it just seems the normal way of doing things now. Far cleaner for in the home and a better finish too.

Hi Tom All of my wood working is carried out indoors as we live in a flat and have no garden. I use a Bosch Gas20 hoover on all of my power tools which is fitted with a Hepta bag. This works extremely well and captures I would say about 80% of the dust that I create. The other 20% would be extremely messy and quite dangerous so I work the following way. Bear in mind that I have a Byrne's saw, a 10" band saw, a Byrnes thicknesser, an oscillating sander plus many other power tools. 1. I'm really organised and only have out the tools that I need - my room is very rarely in a mess. 2. Making a mess is not a problem but leaving it is. So I spend about 30 minutes after everyday wiping around with a damp cloth and generally tidying up 3. I keep all of my tools and equipment away in cupboards so that they do not end up covered in dust. Its far easier to wipe the doors than all of the tools 4. I try and be thoughtful about when I'm working not just for the family but also for the neighbours. No one likes a hoover running at 23:00 I clean as I go along - I have a small Dyson cordless hoover on hand all of the time just to have a quick blitz. Most people would find my tidy, clean way of working a real pain but I have never had a complaint from my family ever. In fact I reckon that my work room is probably the cleanest in the house. Mark

Hi Mark and thanks for the comment. I thought the same until I put it on the plan and then I can see that it needs a little altering but thats ok Today I cut the mortice for the sternpost and also the rabbets on the straight keel pieces. I then made the forefoot and the stem which went ok after I had thickness the required piece of wood. It then took me all morning and afternoon to adjust the scarf joints so that the keel sat exactly on the plan. It was slow work but I got there in the end. I thought that if the keel is not exactly perfect I will be making adjustments throughout the entire build so I took my time to get it as good as I could. Its now glued up and clamped - I've used our granite worktop as its nice and flat and a 1 metre metal rule to ensure that its glued straight. My wife is very understanding - oh and you can never ever have enough clamps I've also made my first ever tree nails for the scarfs and they came out ok too. They can be drilled and glued tomorrow.

I've made a start on the keel today. So far its pretty straight forward but I did find that the long paper templates stretch a bit. It's not a problem I just needed to check the parts off the plan a lot to get them the right length. I've cut the first scarf which needs a little work before gluing but its ok. I'll cut the tenon for the sternpost next and then cut the rabbets. I'll start moving forward then towards the bow. So far so good.

Hi Alan thanks for the comment I've now finished the final 5 frames as they have the bolts and notches in them. I've made some minor errors which hopefully will be ok when its time to install them. If not I don't mind remaking as many as needs be. So thats the frames finished for now so I'm going to make a start on the keel tomorrow. I just need to work out my wood sizes from the scantlings and I'm away. Please excuse the wonkey stack of frames but its the best I could do and after taking the pictures I noticed that frame 8 is upside down!!

These boats are extremely sensitive to weight when converted to RC. Everything you need to know is here https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,64276.0.html

I have to agree with you here - I took a chance based on what I had heard on this forum and bought some myself. I found Mikhail to be very informative about what he sells and how to look after them too. I ordered my set and they arrived two weeks later!!!! They are simply fantastic and I love my set. The only place I have ever received such great service is from Jim Byrne's last Xmas. He sent me my order with no payment what so ever. I received it and got the bill in January. thats how business should be done.

That really is some lovely planking nice one vaddoc. I've also used thick planks and I found that if I didn't bevel them right to meet the previous plank the error really stood out. The other problem I discovered was if I bevelled the plank too much it looked great when I first put it on, but not so good once I got sanding. The gap just got bigger and bigger. I have to be honest though your work looks pretty much perfect I can see just how much work that you have put into this. Looking forward to your next update.

These are great saws and I use them as my go to saw. Now here’s the thing - you can spend a fortune on some other types but then you have to sharpen them. I can’t be bothered to do that so I get these and when they are blunt I get a new one. Great saws at a reasonable price.

That is a beautiful piece of work thats practical too. That would look nice just sat on a shelf as an piece of ornamental furniture.

Hi Tony towards the end of the monograph there is a page with the scantlings which gives the sizes of all of the parts. You just need to then scale the sizes given to the size that you want to build. As for the amount of wood in the various thicknesses I just guessed based on the building that I have previously done. I over ordered but that’s fine I can use it another time

Just a quick update. The 5 frames are now glued together and I'm getting on with bevelling them. I've done frame 28 and the pictures are of frame 32 sanded to shape which I think has come out quite nicely. When I started this build I never realised that some of the frames would consist of 13 individual parts. It make things much more interesting even if they are not seen when it's finished.

Ha ha well it was a 50/50 guess - Hi ya Jim hope things are good with you and Donna I think if I bought another bit of kit at the moment it would be the end of me. It'll have to wait until I get the all clear later in the year 😁

Hi Greg and thanks for the nice comment. I mean who wouldn't use their Byrnes saw as a flat surface 😄 Its perfectly flat and wipe clean too! I reckon Jim would approve!

I just wanted to say thanks for the advice on this thread. I've taken the plunge and ordered a Foredom SR and I also purchased the drill press attachment too. I'm looking forward to having a lot more control over the speed of the bit and also no run out on the bearings.