No Idea

😜 - Cheers druxey I did have a big smile on my face when I took the measurements.

Making the beams for the forecastle deck - As always I made one extra as I always damage one; and I did! I then cut them to length and placed them into their correct positions. What I wanted to check was the crown height of each beam and also how they sat on the bowsprit partners. I'm happy to say that I'm actually on the money this time! Each beam sits between 1.7mm and 1.4mm too high and they locate nicely into the partners too. This now gives me the depth of each dovetail joint into the clamps to bring them down to the correct height. The actually depth should be 1.3mm so I'm pretty close. I'm now going to make and fit the deck shelf and cut the dovetails etc so that I have a good dry fit. They can then be put away until the time is right to install them permanently. Mark

Some more done on these two parts. I made the final pieces and drilled all of the required holes into them both. The hawse holes are drilled at about 20 degrees. Unfortunately I drilled the nail holes around the hawse hole at 90 degrees or if you like straight in. So in these pictures they look correct but after milling the top to its final thickness it moved them off centre - Oh well these things happen. So I fitted them onto the ship and also finished the scuppers for the manger. I also thought it best that I protect the ship a bit at this stage so I gave the planking a light coat of shellac sanding sealer. My next job is going to be making the beams for the forecastle deck. I need to do this as I think my alignment of the bowsprit is slightly off. Making the beams above the bowsprit partners will help me to see this. Mark

Hi David - I have not built this model ship so I can only comment on my experience for what it's worth. I think that on a POB model I would bevel the bulkheads after installation. Otherwise how would you know how each bulkhead meets the next? If you do it before then surely its just a guess?

Looks great Dave - I think I would make the floor as you see fit in a thickness that makes the job easy. The reason I say that is because of the stoves location if it's too high you can reduce the height of the stove simply by sanding its base. No one would know but you and I don't think it would alter the finished article at all. I think there's plenty of alteration to suit your needs - keep the updates coming

Hi Mike - thanks for the comments and good to have you along too. Cheers - Now that I've done them its one of those really nice features that adds a lot to the build. I've now (at last) nailed the starboard side and finished the scuppers on that side too. So my next part to make is going to be the hawse cushioning timbers as shown below as part H. I think the easiest way to make these parts would be to laminate 3 pieces together........however I'm going to try and make this out of 1 piece of wood as per the drawing. I really want these parts to look as good as possible as they are very prominent on the finished ship. So here's where I'm at so far with my experimenting. I worked out the centres of each half round and drilled a 1mmx1mm hole into pieces of wood as an index point for the cut. Next I found the centre of the rotary table and placed a corresponding 1mm brass location pin. Then I located the piece of wood to be cut onto this pin and set the radius of the cut by moving the X axis. Then made a cut to check for accuracy by only using the plunge cut and rotating table. After a little adjustment I have my first prototype which I think is accurate enough. To make the 2nd and 3rd cuts I simply moved the piece along to the next location hole onto the brass pin. So thats where I'm at for now - I'll have a go at making the final pieces this week but it's looking promising. Thanks to everyone for the continued support - Mark

Paul I'm with you on this but it's also personal choice. I pretty much only use aliphatic resin as its got good quick grip and can be disassembled using IPA. I have never had a good experience with CA and this was brought home to me last week when I was gluing some pewter together. For some reason in my own mind I always think (incorrectly) that CA is for builders in a rush. Then I see some of the amazing results that builders on this forum get using CA. I think they just have it better sussed than me as you would never guess that they had used CA.

Thanks Tobias but I can assure you that this build is far from perfect mate. I'm constantly having to make allowances for earlier errors but I guess thats ship building for you. The scuppers - The technique that druxey suggested to me works great for finding the line through the hull. On this scale though it's a long way through the hull to make each side meet. I guess you just have to be brave and get cracking with a chisel. So first of all I cut the holes through as best that I could - I did pick up a little damage but nothing really to worry about. I've also learnt that these small errors disappear in the long run as you simply stop seeing them. Next I made a rectangular tube out of pewter - easy to make and difficult to fit through the hull - it just takes time. Then I roughed the tube to the correct dimensions but left some on to sand down later. Its worth noting that that the tube dimensions are slightly different from the outside to the inside. Following on from my previous bad experience using cyano I glued these in using 20 minute epoxy resin. I really like this glue - it gives loads of time to jiggle things around and cleans up easily with IPA. Next was to make the end plates on the inside and outside. So thats one side complete and now onto the starboard side - which I still haven't finished nailing yet! Cheers Mark

I found that the counter timbers and dogs legs are not easy to do and take a lot of effort to get right. Looks like you are on the money there - nice work.

Fantastic start to a really nice ship; good luck with your build and it will be interesting to see the stern only build too.

Lovely work Tobias 👍

For anything above 4mm thick I now use a 1mmx100mmx64T blade. It works great and gives a good finish.

No problem mate I’m glad you’ve got it sorted. I’ll put mine back together again now! Only joking these are old pictures that I took 😂. Good luck with your milling 👍

You are correct there is a large washer on either side of the blade. If you have a look one of them has a small step machined into it. The blade locates on the step which makes it central and run true. If the blade is not properly located on the step it will visibly not run straight.

Yes of course - they are what you describe as the washers that secure the blade. If installed correctly they look like this and the blade runs true with no vibration or wobble.

Hi - If you had the arbours wrong the blade would not run true and give you all sorts of problems - you would know it wasn't right. So assuming they are ok if your wood is tapering during a cut it could be one of many reasons. 1. The edge of the wood that is on the fence is not straight and true. This will need correcting. 2. You are not keeping the wood tight up against the fence as you cut? 3. The blade is too thin and is deflecting - what size blade and with how many teeth are you using? Cheers Mark

Cheers @druxey that worked nicely. I've tried it on one and slowly enlarged the hole up to 3mm. Then I used a small milling bit to remove some of the excess material and finish the hole with a chisel and file. I now have a nice rectangular scupper running through the hull. It should look good when lined with pewter.

Thanks 👍 Thats a great idea using a small drill I hadn't thought of that so I am going to give this a try. I do have a lot of material to remove from the water way to join the holes up as a square opening. When I made the waterway I couldn't quite see how to cut the opening and get the angle right. I can see it now and would do this differently in the future. What a learning curve ship building is.

Hi All I hope that you all had a really nice Xmas and are looking forward to new year tonight like we are here in the UK. Also thanks very much for the nice comments Some more done on Le Rochefort - I got on with the planking between the whale and rail. As this blog is aimed at new builders like myself I thought I would share how I go about planking. Funnily enough I see planking as a mathematical problem which just needs solving. So first off at various places along the hull I measure the gap that the planks need to cover. I then use this as my basis for the plank widths when shaping them up but also gives me my widest point which is what I cut the planks too on the table saw. The picture shows that I need 3 planks 8.2mm wide that this point. Then I cut the planks and shape them to my measurements that I have already taken. I use a plank vice to hold them whilst planing them as I find I get the best results this way. Then I just get planking - you can never have too many clamps. I also pierced the hawse holes and scupper holes at the bow too. For some reason I always seem to plank one side better than the other! Then I marked and cut out the scupper holes and also marked out the nailing pattern. At this moment in time I must be honest I don't think I'm going to go all of the way through with the scupper holes along the hull. I don't think I'm brave enough. I've only nailed one side at the moment as for some reason I just can't get into it at the moment but so far the results are quite nice. In-between nailing the planking I decided to have a go at making the bowsprit. It is 14.5mm in diameter so to get a piece this thick I started by gluing two 10mm pieces together. I don't have a lathe so I thought that I would give it a go on my rotary table on the milling machine. Now this was fun as I don't have a support of any kind yet but I thought well let's give it a go anyway. I guess I could have made something but the chatter wasn't too bad and I left some on to sand down at the end by hand. I was going to cut the square location pin on the mill but in the end I simply did it by hand using a small saw and chisels. The end result looks ok and its a pretty good fit. I was never going to have full size masts on this build as rigging at this stage just does not appeal to me. Maybe it will later in my building career? So I just need to complete the nailing on the starboard side and then I can think of my next move on the ship. Cheers Mark

Very nice work Tobias and happy new year to you too

Anything that involves watchmaking then from what I've read on the forum wefalck is the man and I would take his advice. If I'm drilling into brass I always use cobalt drills. I don't know the availability of these in the US but here in the UK I can pretty much get any tiny size and they last for ages.

Without a doubt yes they are but it does depend on your previous experience. Before I started building my current and first plank on frame ship I seriously considered a cross section first. The reason I personally chose the ship was because I knew deep down I would prefer the final outcome of a complete ship. I also thought that if I thought I was capable of building a cross section - well I could probably build the whole ship. I was seriously mistaken as the commitment is so much more as is the learning curve. I will say though that the experience for me has been amazing and I would not change my personal journey. So - If you don't feel that a complete ship is for you yet then this is a fantastic way to test the waters of scratch building and learn loads along the way. It also requires far less capital to get it done too.

Happy Xmas Kev to you and yours 🎅

The accuracy of your bulkheads is CAD perfection its almost a shame to cover them up.

Hi Oliver - love your work mate it's absolutely fantastic to see it coming together. I really like the tool you have made for marking out the hull on the inside. This is something that I have found difficult during my build I I would like to make a tool similar to yours. Is there any chance you could send me a picture of this tool so that I have a better idea of what I need to make - Thanks Mark