druxey

Attack can be used to dissolve cured epoxy .http://www.ottofrei.com/Attack-Glue-Dissolving-Compound-.html and does not discolor wood. Laman

This boat will be built from ready pre-cut wood as I do not have the equipment to create a plank from a large piece of wood.
I have some very knowledgeable people in my Nautical club and they have given me numerous suggestion what wood I can use for what part of the boat.
 
I am finishing up taping the frames to the wood.
 
So I do have a question:
If you build a POF, why cut the frames up into futtocks (sp) and then plank both the outside and the inside of the boat and add a deck?  Is it a sawing exercise?
 

Oops: I meant to write 'methyl hydrate', not methanol!

I've made wooden masters, used RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) rubber and cast using lead-free pewter. The molds were made as two-piece ones with all the details (vent field, trunnions) and reinforced by a two-piece dental plaster outer 'jacket'. This was for safety and because the rubber was quite soft and easily deformed. With a little experience, the results are great.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 21 – Keelson/Forward Deadwood continued
 
 
American Clipper Note:  When Young America was launched in the spring of 1853, her builder, William Webb, incensed by some critical press, issued a challenge to the owners of the fast McKay clipper Sovereign of the Seas to a two-ship, head-to-head race from New York to San Francisco.  Excitement and bookmaking activity ran high.  Unfortunately Sovereign sailed for China.  Major disappointment all around.
 
Work on the forward sections of the keelson and the deadwood continues.  The first picture shows the second section of the lower tier of the deadwood being glued to the frames – held in place by pins with wood chocks buffers.
 

 
Below is a lower view of this from aft.
 

 
This view shows the pronounced v-shape of the most forward frames and illustrates the issue of securing timber to make the floor members of these.
 
Before these keelson sections could be installed, the insides of the floor and lower futtock timbers had to be faired – at least up the the floor heads.  The next picture shows this finish-work more clearly.
 

 
Apart from the issue of flatness across the centers of the frames, it is difficult to do this work with the keelson in place.
 
The next picture shows anoth piece of the deadwood being fitted over the forward end of the lower keelson.
 

 
This picture also shows the mounting nut that is about to be covered forever by the upper tier of the keelson.
 
In the next picture the forward section of the upper keelson tier is installed and anoth piece of the deadwood jigsaw puzzle being fitted.
 

 
In the next picture that piece is being glued in place.
 

 
Again, the dark discoloration on the wood is from washing off the excess glue.
 
Finally, as shown below, the last piece of the deadwood has been installed.  The sun has shown through the window and lightened this picture to help me celebrate the event.
 

 
In the next part, I will cover the risky task of cutting large scores in both sides of the deadwood to seat the cant frames.
 
Ed

Thanks Duffer.
Your right Joe.....
 
So I continued and didn't change the mortices. Getting the round up of the deck into this special beam took some patience...
 

 
Remco

Thanks Piet.
Jan what can I say, the MSW Oracle didn't answer and I went forward taking a 50% bet I got it right 
 
Meanwhile, more knee's opposing knee's gratings and so on. Everything is loosely fitted  before marking the mortices for the ledges. Doing tasks in batches certainly speeds things up.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Remco

Epoxy, before it sets up, can be removed using isopropanol or methanol.

Now,that was fun!
 
You might be interested to know about the 'stone boats' that were used by settlers on the Canadian prairies. These were actually wooden sleds to move stones and rocks away as the pioneers cleared the land. When I first came to Canada and heard that expression, my mental image was exactly that of your stone frigate!

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 20 – Keelson/Forward Deadwood
 
 
American Clipper Note:  In the last part I mentioned Flying Cloud’s record on her 6 passages around Cape Horn from New York to San Francisco before she was retired from that service.  These averaged 116 days - 102 days if the last 185 day trip, during which she was dismasted, is discounted.  In her long career Young America made the passage 20 times from New York, three times from Liverpool and once from Antwerp, with an average of 118 days per trip – her best from New York being 102 days – her worst, 142 days from Antwerp against persistent headwinds.  Her best from Liverpool was 99 days.  This was a stunning 30 year performance.
 
So, back to the model.
 
The remaining frames forward consist of half-frames and cant frames that bolt through the keelson and deadwood.  Since the keelson is bolted atop the square frames, they must be installed first.  So, with all of the forward square frames installed, the forward part of the keelson and the forward deadwood can be constructed.
 
In the last part I showed a picture with two strips representing the two tiers of the keelson.  The forward section of the lower tier – the keelson proper – houses the forward model mounting bolt.  In the first picture a 4-40 nut has been filed down to fit a mortise in the keelson and is being epoxied in place.
 

 
The next picture shows the mounting bolt screwed up through the keel, filler and into the nut in the keelson.  It is protected from screwing in further by of the larger diameter shoulder butting against the bottom of the keel.
 

 
The above picture was taken after installing the first section of the keelson.  Before that could be done it had to be fitted to the apron at its forward end.  At its aft end there is a large scarph joint with the next segment.  Both halves of this joint were made before setting the forward segment.  The joint is shown below.
 

 
In all keel and keelson joints the face of the joint slanted downward in the aft direction.  This is one good reason for installing the keelson from fore to aft.
 
The next picture shows the lower keelson being glued over the filler and the forward square frames.  The picture shows the joint with the second lower segment, but that piece is still loose in the picture.  The wet spots are from washing off excess glue.
 

 
The installed piece was then “bolted” down into the keel with copper wire bolts.  That process is described below.  The bolts have been filed off flush in the next picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the first section of the forward deadwood being fitted.  The pattern is still attached.  The keelson and the deadwood is sided the same as the keel – 16”.
 

 
The last picture shows the insertion of the copper bolts to secure the piece of deadwood.
 

 
This piece has already been glued in, but the process being used for the bolts will also add strength to the model joint.  First holes are drilled at a size that will allow a slip fit for the 22-gauge wire being used.  This wire is pre-stretched to stress harden it.  The holes in this case are about 1” deep, so the bolts are about a scale 6 feet long.  The bolts are dipped in 5-minute epoxy and pushed into the hole.  They are then moved in and out, removed and dipped in epoxy again, reinserted and again moved in and out.  This distributes epoxy throughout the hole.  These bolts will not come out.  When the epoxy hardens the bolts are clipped and filed off flush.
 
As additional members are added, they are bolted in a similar way with bolts as long as my drill bits permit.  Later, additional bolts will be driven like this, through the forward part of the stem into the apron and deadwood.  The keelson bolts are installed in like manner.
 
In the next part, the forward upper tier of the keelson and the remaining forward deadwood will be constructed.
 
Ed

If it's British naval armament history and extreme detail you want, and have deep pockets, the two volumes by Adrian Caruana are the ultimate in this field.

If it's British naval armament history and extreme detail you want, and have deep pockets, the two volumes by Adrian Caruana are the ultimate in this field.

How often do we spend a handsome sum on either a great new or out-of-print second-hand shipbuilding book?  I’m sure many of us have a nice collection of shipbuilding references on our shelves; however, how many of us know about protecting our book’s dust jackets (often called dust wrappers in the UK and elsewhere)?
 
You may be asking, “Why would I want to go to the bother and expense of putting a cover over my book dust jackets?”  It’s a good and fair question to ask!  Good Mylar covers, with archival paper inserts, are wonderful for protecting your book’s dust jackets when they are either on or off your books or when you're taking your books off or putting them back onto your book shelves.
 
In addition to protecting your book dust jackets, the condition of a book’s dust jacket has a direct bearing on a book’s resale value, which is known to most book dealers but not most folks—this is something I learned along the way as a long-time collector (and reader) of literary first editions.  If your dust jackets are covered, you can count on getting better prices from book dealers if you choose to sell your books.  I won’t go into the ins and outs of book or dust jacket grading, but the protection does help add to or maintain a collectible book’s value.
 
Because model shipbuilding is a relatively small, niche market good books often go out-of-print.  If you’re serious into obtaining a good shipbuilding reference library, you’ve probably learned that many of the classic, must have books, are out-of-print. Likewise, some current, excellent in-print references will also likely go out-of-print in time.  In either case, these out-of-print classics are often difficult to find and are expensive.  Therefore, Mylar covers are excellent choices for protecting your investment.
 
Additionally, in most cases, our books will long outlive us.  Thus protecting these classic work’s dust jackets is one way to ensure that these classics are in good condition when they are passed on to future hands.
 
Lastly, in my opinion, a book just simply looks good when it's protected with a Mylar cover!
 
Before I go on further, I want to mention here that it’s also a very good idea to document someplace in your personal papers which books of yours are valuable.  Why?  It’s so that your next-of-kin can know the value of your collection and hopefully not give your references away or sell them for a song because they think these obscure books aren’t worth much (for example, if you have Sim Comfort’s edition of Steel’s Naval Architecture…do you really want it going onto eBay for $1.00?). 
 
Back to Mylar covers:  these are relatively inexpensive.  Although you can buy specific cover sizes to fit your books, it’s much more economical to buy Mylar covering by the roll (Amazon).  I also suggest you get a large size because you can always fold larger sizes down to fit smaller dust jackets.  While they’re not essential, I also recommend purchasing a “bone knife” (Amazon).  These are used for creasing a cover’s folds and make that task much easier.  The knife doesn’t actually have to be made from bone—it just has to be able to slide easily along a cover and create a good, sharp fold or make a new fold if you’ve made an error with sizing the cover over a dust jacket.
 
As you can see in the photos I’ve included, putting Mylar covers over dust jackets is straightforward if you’ve never used them before.  However, there is one caveat.  Jackets often will tend to move away from the bottom of a cover at the cover’s outer right and left ends. 
 
To deal with this, fold over, but don’t yet crease down the fold, at either a cover's right or left side.  Then push the jacket back down to seat it at the bottom of the cover on that side (lift the bottom cover edge up on that side to make sure the jacket is seated) and then make about a 2” (~5cm) crease with a bone knife along the temporary fold you've made on that side of the cover.  Then weight down that side of the cover with a book to hold the dust jacket and partially creased cover in place.  Then seat the dust jacket on the other side.  You can now crease the entire edge of the fold.  If you didn’t quite get it right, just redo it—with a bone knife, re-doing creases is generally easy and the new creases will generally come out well.
 
Note:  When covering dust jackets, it's usually done with the cover facing down and in between the Mylar and the archival paper like you see in the 3rd photo below.
 

 
You can see here how the right and left edges of a dust jacket tend to not seat against the bottom of a cover:
 

 
Here's what a bone knife looks like:
 

 
The dust jacket is now fully seated in the cover:
 

 
The finished cover:
 

 
Cheers,
Jay
 

Hello,
this carronades are smaller than most people think it ...
 
Look for yourself ...
 
 
 
 

Hello,
the straightening rod from the carronade was secured with a chain.
For this I used a ready-made micro chain of copper wire 0.20 mm.
The ring bolts are made ​​from brass wire 0.25 mm.
Here are some pictures that show these chains.

 

 

Hello,
 
many thanks for the nice comments.
 
Today I will show how the target device of the carronade is made.
The pictures illustrate the process.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Andy , John, the sun is shining again this morning.
 
Just a teaser shot I ran out of battery, more to follow later.
 

 
My trip to the town yielded nothing, so a bit of head scratching and I came up with this, and yes it actually works. these parts are just resting on each other I need to finish the fabrication including glass.
 
Michael

Truly inspiring quality work, Karl.

Jeronimo,
 
I saw your log and the photos of the finished boat - fantastic work. I hope mine is somewhere near as good (although I have my doubts… we'll see).
 
Aykutansin,
 
Thanks for the encouragement - do you have a build log of your own?
 
Here are some more photos of progress to date. I've set the keelson in its recess in the mould and started adding the frames. The instructions suggest pinning through the frames. I decided to use push-pins. A big benefit is that they can be removed more easily once the frames are finished (you don't want to miss a pin after adding the planking - removing the shell from the mould would be a bit difficult…). Another advantage is that lifting a pin slightly allows the frame to be adjusted laterally until its position is perfect.
 
 
 
I'm using apple for the frames as well as the keelson. Slicing it up into 2 x 2 mm pieces results in incredibly smooth faces straight from the saw. I give them a rub-down with 400 grit wet and dry used dry then soak them overnight. The first picture above shows all the pieces cut up: there are 30 of them, corresponding to 30 frames, each strip is 300 mm long. The second picture shows a set of timbers for a typical frame - a long piece for the floor and two shorter pieces for the futtocks.
 
The following pictures show steps in adding the frames to the mould with the keelson in place. Interestingly nothing is glued yet. The keelson is intended to remain loose until the hull is removed from the mould, at which time it will be pinned and glued in place. Initially I soaked the wood in hot water, but I found I broke quite a few pieces trying to bend them round the sharp curve between the floor and the sides, so I added some household ammonia to the water. I am now having more success, but this may be because a] I'm getting better at forming the bends or b] I've left the wood to soak for longer or c] I tried microwaving the container with the ammonia solution before taking the wood out. Anyway it seems to be going OK!
 
     
 
In the first three images the floors are being added; in the last three I am starting to add the futtocks. The darker pieces have been added later and are still wet.
 
 
Rob

Hi friends,
construction and installation of the pumps.
Karl
 
 
 
T e i l  3 8

Sherry, thanks for your kind words.
 
John, thanks yes I think I will get a round tuit.
 
I had to rearrange the workshop again today, I was bumping the build table every time I used the mill, and I was walking round it too much to do any other work. so basically I have just swapped the build and work tables positions and kept them lengthwise in the shop.
 

 

 
This arrangement will work better I think.
 
Today I thought for a change of pace I would try a cleat the model one is 1 inch long which equates to an 8 inch cleat in scale. I modeled it roughly on the one in the background.
 

 
Thinking about the complexity of the shape and realizing that the most complicated area to make is the underside I tackled it while it was still part of the 1 inch bar
 

 
First the lower sections were cut off with the jewelers saw,then the bottom sides were filed with a couple of needle files  then the wings were tapered with a flat file and given a wire wheel treatment. which makes it look a bit like a casting.
 

 
Next the top curve was cut with the jewelers saw to remove the cleat from the stock.
 

 
Then a couple of .011" counter bores down .050 and then drilled through with a .067" drill some # 1 round headed wood screws were reworked on the lathe to make them a facsimile of a domed cheese head screw. and the cleat cleaned up with files and emery first 220 then 320 then 600 a final polishing with a bit of steel wool.
 

 
Mounted it on the deck, and cleated the tackle for the bob stay. then coiled the rope without any glue or other means, one of the beauties of working rigging.
 

 

 
Michael
 
 
 
 
 

John, if you do eventually get here, there are some great views in the Rockies not too far from here just three hours away. and we do have a spare room.
 
Joe thanks for the kind words.
 
well the bowsprit shrouds were a bit more fiddly than I thought they would be, Had to make a few more thimbles and shackles
 
I decided on the dark rope for the shrouds and a light rope for the tackle.
 

 

 

 

 

 
I need to make some cleats now so that I can tie ropes and lines off better, just need to sort out where to put them and what type to make, they will probably be brass.
 
Michael

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 18 – Framing Continued
 
 
American Clipper Note:  Flying Cloud was launched from Donald McKay’s yard at East Boston a month before Challenge.  She was of comparable size, and like Challenge, bound for California from New York on her maiden voyage.  Inevitably she was drawn into the great “challenge” surrounding the ship Challenge.  She left New York in early June 1851 under command of Josiah Cressy. Three days later she lost her main and mizzen topgallant masts, but reached the line (equator) in 21 days.  She arrived in San Francisco in 89 days 21 hours, beating the previous record of 97 days, set by Sea Witch the year before – and 18 days under the Challenge’s ill-fated maiden voyage performance.
 
After the last post, there was a question about the dark glue that I use to highlight structural joint lines.  The 8 oz. bottle I mixed up for Naiad was just about empty, so when replacing it I took some pictures to help answer the question.
 
The first picture shows the starting point, plus two bottles of ready made dark Titebond glue.  The new bottle to the right is the currently available dark Titebond II.  I find it a bit light for pear.  The old – quite old actually – bottle in the center is the old Titebond dark glue – just about the right shade but no longer available.  T the left is an 8 oz. bottle of the standard yellow.  (The first thing I do with a new bottle of Titebond is pull off and toss the sliding top, cut off the closing nib and insert a length of plastic rod that is easy to remove and replace and does not clog up.)
 

 
At the front right is a jar of raw umber artist grade pigment that will be used to darken the glue.  This bottle is several lifetimes’ supply.
 
 
In the next picture, about a teaspoon of dry pigment was added to about a tablespoon of water and is being thoroughly mixed with the pestle-like Teflon rod until there is no sign of powder or lumps.
 

 
The entire 8 oz. of glue is then added a bit at a time and mixed in.  The next picture showsthe final appearance.
 

 
In the next picture the empty bottle has been thoroughly washed out with hot water and is being refilled with the darkened glue.
 

 
I expect this will be enough to finish the model.
 
The next picture shows the last of the full forward square frames.  The rail stanchios are about to be installed.
 

 
The frame is now ready for beveling.  In the next picture the forward face of the pair is being trimmed back to the forward profile line on the disk sander.
 
 

 
The aft outer profile was previously trimmed back.  The disk is kept away from that line in this step.  This leaves a hump or ridge between the two profiles.  The next picture shows this being removed by hand with a flat Rasp.
 

 
The last picture shows the resulting bevel.
 

 
The insides are only roughly beveled – mostly using a spindle sander.  They could be hand finished as well, but I intend to do that after the hull is assembled.
 
The final bevel will be refined when the hull is finished sanded.  Beveling these pairs before assembly saves tedious sanding work later, makes frame erection easier and yields a more accurate hull profile.
 
There is still some work to do on these frames before erection.
 
Ed
 
 
 

The sixth beam set is relatively straight forward.  The aft bulkhead for the boatswain's cabin was temporarily removed to make installation easier.  The pillar is supposed to go through the hatch coaming.  I cheated and it is simply glued to the surface of the coaming.  There is a tenon on the superior aspect of the pillar with a mortise on the under surface of the beam.
 

 

 

 

My next project is the Chaloupe Armee en Guerre or Longboat Armed for War. This will be a scratch-built model at a scale of 1:36, from the plans available here: http://www.ancre.fr/vaisso25.htm.
 
I ordered my copy of the monograph and plans direct from ANCRE and they came speedily and at a very reasonable rate of postage. This is the first publication from ANCRE that I have seen, and I must say I'm impressed. The six sheets of plans are drawn beautifully and the accompanying booklet, which describes the boat and the construction process, is very well laid out. There are many illustrations of the construction process, as well as detail photos of a 1:18 version of the same boat. I should note that the original text was in French and has been translated into English by David H Roberts, who has done an excellent job.
 
 
 
Whilst finishing my Agamemnon (http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1115-hms-agamemnon-by-decoyman-caldercraft/) I have been collecting pieces of wood I thought might be useful when scratch-building. I discovered The Toolpost (http://www.toolpost.co.uk), a treasure trove of woodworking equipment, in Didcot, about 15 minutes drive from where I live. They have a good selection of hardwoods and fruitwoods, mostly in turning blanks, as well as a selection of pieces of boxwood of varying sizes. They were also happy to cut every piece I bought into 1" slices on their bandsaw. This means I can now machine them to exact dimensions on my Byrnes table saw, which is a pleasure to use! I haven't finally decided which woods to use where, but I'm starting with apple for the keelson and ribs and will probably use cherry for the planking. I acquired a box full of odd pieces of wood, including a large amount of ebony, from eBay for a very reasonable sum: I might try turning one of the ebony pieces to make the large bow-mounted cannon.
 

 
The picture above shows (from the top) ebony, apple, box and cherry.
 
Before I could get going on the good stuff I needed to make a mould, over which the basic hull will be constructed. The instructions say to make this from 5 mm ply, which actually measures nearer to 4.5 mm thick. Unfortunately French plywood is not available in England; here we have 3 mm and 6 mm, which isn't much use. In fact the nearest thing I could find was 4 mm MDF, available on the internet in packets of ten 400 x 300 mm sheets at a reasonable price. This is still not thick enough. The mould is made from layers cut to the shape of the waterlines, if the layers are too thin then the whole boat will end up compressed vertically.
 

 
My solution was to interleave the MDF with layers of 0.5 mm cherry veneer, which I happened to have around, so that each layer was 4.5 mm in total. There were some benefits to this method: I could glue photocopies of the plans to each piece of veneer and then cut out each layer accurately using a scalpel. Once that was done I coloured the edges with a black permanent marker. This was so when I sanded the mould to its finished profile I knew that when I reached the black I was nearly there.
 
    
 
The next step was to glue the veneers to the MDF and remove the photocopies. I left them to dry overnight, interleaved with cling film and weighted down, and then cut each MDF layer out with a fret saw, slightly larger than the veneer stuck to the top. Each layer was drilled on the centreline at stations 5F and 5A and then stacked up and glued in order with dowels in the holes to provide alignment. I used dowels instead of the drill bits because I could sand the dowels along with the MDF.
 
    
 
There was a lot of arm-aching sanding to bring the mould to its final form. I used a Surform for quick removal and then coarse sandpaper on a block for accuracy. The end result was pretty accurate but not perfect.
 

 
To check the profiles while sanding I glued copies of the frame profiles to 1.2 mm card, as well as the keel. I used these to check I was getting the shape right, but I also cut them so they would slot together. Once the mould fitted all the card frames and the keel I was just about done!
 
  
 
In the last of the photos above you can see marking out for the recesses to take the keelson and the knee of the stern. To ensure the keelson recess was the right size I made a start on this piece. It's cut from a piece of 2.3 x 6 mm apple on the table saw, which I also used to cut the rebates for the frames. It curves up towards the stern so I soaked it in hot water for a while, then taped it to the mould.
 
   
 
Once the keelson had the correct profile I used it to adjust the recess in the mould. The last thing to finish the mould were two coats of varnish and a polish. The purpose of this is to protect the markings showing the frames and the wales and to try to stop the glue sticking the frames to the mould. We'll see how we get on with this in due course.
 

 
In the meantime the next task is to bend the frames round the mould.
 
More soon!
 
Rob