Boccherini

Thanks Snowmans. Progress has been a little slow, all the gun carriages are complete, just need to blacken the barrels to finish. Due to numeracy issues, I have too few ring bolts. So here is a 'how to' for any that are interested. The copper wire (stripped from electrical cabling) is approximately 0.5mm diameter and has been annealed to soften it, the rings are formed around the shank of a 1.8mm bit. The spiral is then cut using a jewllers saw. The rings removed, separated and sqeezed together. A small amount of silver solder paste is placed on the joint, then heated until the solder melts. I'm using a cheap pencil torch. Followed by a quick touch up with a file. Bent wire can be straightened by rolling under a timber strip. The wire end needs to be flat to give a good contact with the opposing surface, (solder paste is not good at filling gaps).The eye of the bolt is formed around the shank of a 1.0mm bit, then opened up and the ring attached, then squeezed shut. A dob of solder is applied as before, the ring is gripped with pliers (this also provides a heat sink to protect the existing joint), making sure the eye of the bolt is level or tipped slightly backwards, otherwise solder will run with gravity around to the ring fusing the pieces . Grip the assembly in pliers and straighten, then cut it off. This is not a difficult task, just fiddly. The tools and materials are cheap, you have no excuse. Regards, Grant.

Snowmans, the planking looks great, nice 'n neat. Should look good with a finish coat. I always found drilling treenail holes a tedious pain (particularly in places the dremel wouldn't fit), so congrats on your unbridled enthusiasm, long may it last. Regards, Grant.

Larry, the colour of the timber has come up beautifully. The beam arms are a real bugger to get right, yours look fine. Joss is right about getting the sealing done before building over, it might be good idea though, to not seal where the knees will be placed, your glue may not bond to the sealed surface properly leading to joint failure when you can no longer easily access the area for repairs. Hate to tell you this, from the pictures, it appears your knees are incorrectly sited, they should be alongside the deck beams, not underneath them. Check the drawings. Regards, Grant.

Olphart, the colour of the walnut looks great. Re the spacers, I lined mine up by sight as the frames were glued together on the keel, keeping them clear of the future gunports. They were placed near the top of the frames to reinforce the structure whilst sanding. Worked out ok. Regards, Grant.

Marius, welcome to the "bottom of the page". You're off to a good start. Grant.

Dave, thanks for the link. Regards, Grant.

Thanks for the interest and kind words guys. 42rocker, scale is 1:48 as per the plans. The cannons will eventually be chemically blackened. Regarding timber, the "orange" coloured timber is Fijian mahogany, dark red timber is jarrah, the deck and exterior hull planking is probably Tasmanian oak, though I'm not entirely sure. The jarrah and Tassie oak are recycled from old kitchen cabinet carcases. Old timber tends to be of a better quality. If you are going to all the trouble of framing the deck, might as well show it off. Grant.

Rusty, nice workmanship. How did you cut the mortices in the deck beams? They look really precise. Grant.

Dave, where did you get the gears from? I have been looking for reasonably priced gears for my future ropoewalk. Thanks, Grant.

Click on the "more reply options" box, this will open a different reply set up that allows you to add pictures. If you are still having problems working it out, I'll try to walk you through it. I only just figured it out myself. Regards, Grant.

Bob, it's good to see you restarting your build log. Regards, Grant.

Ron, good to see you finally got started. Nice to see someone else using recycled timber. Grant

That is some good clean work. Grant.

Starting over with a few pictures to show where I'm currently at. Still saddened by the loss of years of accumulated knowledge. Regards, Grant.