vaddoc

Dear all I thought it is a good time for a short post, mainly one of frustration. Hercules true to the name is fighting me every step of the way and so far, is winning. I ve had difficulties with lofting, difficulties printing the patterns, difficulties gluing them. My laminates that usually come dead straight are bent. My computer died and now, my disk sander started playing up and is in for repair under warranty. But there is more. The new paper template came out in wrinkles. I suspect the spray glue I ve been using has gone bad as all the paper templates I ve glued so far are also coming off very easily. Strangely, the main pattern it is also off by a millimetre or so. The keel does not fully match the pattern - I really cannot figure out why. But there has been some progress despite the difficulties. After a lot of sanding and lots of scraping to remove the paper patterns and the glue residue, the frames are dry fitted. I started gluing the filler pieces, at this stage I will also cut the rabet. I do need to tidy up a bit but it is far too cold. Lots of things to do: cut the rabet, align the frames, epoxy them in place, glue the strengthening pieces and very importantly the planking. I thought I would get away with it by using flat sheets of plywood but I am not so sure now. I think it will need to be a proper planking job. I am not entirely sure how things will work out in the end but it is a fun project! Best wishes Vaddoc

Phil, I have no doubt you are right. It will all be hidden and there is nothing that a bit of sanding and a bit of filler cannot correct. And indeed, a small piece of plank material is enough to just find the shape of the rabbet at that frame. I went through your log and of course your hull came out fine. Apologies, just going a bit overboard with CAD! Not to worry though, things will soon revert to normality and will start going pear shaped the moment I touch the ply with a chisel! Vaddoc

I did a bit more work on the boat, so time for an update. @Mark Pearse Indeed Mark, I wanted to build something much larger and more of a proper ship. I actually looked into building Ed's Young America POF, but this would be an extremely expensive project which at this time cannot be considered. I bumped onto Hercules and immediately liked the boat - rest is history! (in the making) So, I cut the space for the propeller and removed some of the paper template so that the frames can slide into place - they do not actually, all the frame slots need filling as they are not wide enough. I also cut all the filler pieces for both sides and sanded all their bevels. These are needed to give support to the garboard planks as I will not be filling the gaps between the frames with wood. This went remarkably well, although some of the bevels had complex shapes. I only had to redo 3 out of the 30 pieces. This is a piece that had to be redone, the disk sander is not forgiving. I also sanded all the bevels in the frames. It went well but some fairing will be needed for the frames at the middle of the hull. These are all the pieces that need to be glued. This will need a lot of work: the paper template will need to be removed and the surface sanded or scraped to remove the glue residue and the pieces temporarily screwed in to check that the frames can slide between them. I think I ll use epoxy, it is a messy glue but has great gap filling properties. The elegant curves of the hull and frames, or alternatively Hercules after a dose of Delayed Mouse Making Potion. I am assuming that my CAD plans are accurate and that I ve cut the wood accurately. Of course neither is certain. The bevels seem reasonable though. I will need to cut the rabbet before I install the frames. I will first though glue on the filler pieces, as the angle of their bevel will help cutting the hull bevel. In theory, I have all I need to cut the rabbet accurately as all lines and the interaction of the planking with the hull are marked on the templates. However, chiseling plywood is difficult and requires extra sharp chisels. Take care all Vaddoc

This is a very nice 1:1 model Bedford! I like the exaggerated sheer at the bow - it should handle rough seas (and lakes) well! Now, you are very right. This is the way to do it. The problem is that it is very difficult to escape the urge to closely follow the CAD plans with their scary accuracy - I have the illusion the end result will be as sharp as the plans! I ve been watching the Tally Ho videos - incredible what these guys do without using CAD, just with battens and pencils! The hull is very long and not dead straight. The frames will be pre-beveled before installation and even small deviations from vertical will cause problems - I know, they can be sanded or shimed. In the end it will end up with a batten around the hull but I assume the more fussy (or pedantic) I am with accuracy and alignment of the hull and frames, the less intervention will be needed later. This is my first POB boat and plywood responds very differently to solid wood. Having said that, it might very well not work - in all my previous boats in the end I ended up eyeballing the fairness of the hull! Vaddoc

Happy New Year to all! I ve been busy these last few weeks so time for an update. Quite a few things going on. I could have actually done more but the temperatures have been consistently subzero so my garage is a rather unhospitable place to be in. So, I have finished laminating the pieces of ply I need but things took a funny turn. The laminated ply that was dead straight, warped. This is the first time this has happened to me. Still, with manual bending the opposite side and heat from a hair dryer, it went back to being almost straight. Now, I need a new bench for the garage. I already have two but my power tools are very cramped and it is difficult to work. For the new bench to fit I had to radically reorganize the layout of the garage - I am halfway into this. The new bench will have the table saw built in to sit flush with the top. I tried to design it by hand but finally returned to the warm embrace of CAD! These are the various groups of timber bits A big advantage of CAD is that it is very easy to arrange how many lengths of timber are needed and which pieces will be cut from each one When the weather allows, I ll get down on this. Now, back to the boat. I glued the template on a flat surface and after lots of thought a sprayed it with a protective spray. Ya, right. That did not work. I printed the pattern again and glued it on a different surface. I used custom settings and long lengths of paper cut from an A2 roll. However, the printer could not align the paper properly and the printout was distorted So I printed the pattern in A3 sheets and aligned them carefully. This actually worked fine, I used a piece of string and all lines are straight. I also did a lot of work to finalise the frames and other parts of the ship. We ll get to these later in the log. I glued and roughly cut the templates for the frames. There are many dots and lines for alignment purposes. I ll sand them to the lines with the disc sander when the weather improves a bit so I can have the garage door open for the dust to vent away - however sanding of all the bevels will take a long time. I finished cutting the keel template which again has many points and lines to allow alignment - each has been drilled through in the drill press with 0.55 mm drill to allow a 0.5 mm pin to go through. The mirror template has been glued on the other side - quite successfully. I have also prepared some extra pieces to glue on the keel to allow some more area to support the planking. These will also help in the alignment and support of the frames. All the bevels are already marked. I have ordered some different blades as I am not satisfied with the performance of the Proxxon scroll saw - but then again it comes with a very fine blade which struggles to cut the 6.5 mm epoxy laminated ply. So next steps: To cut, sand their bevels and glue the extra pieces on the hull. To sand the frames including the bevels. I think I will cut the hull rabbet now before even the frames go on - I have marked all the rabbet and bearding lines. One thing I could have done differently is the thickness of the hull. In my plans the hull is 3.8 mm thick - I did not want to make it thicker as in the plans, Hercules' steel hull is very slim. However, in the bow and stern, the rabbet will need to be up to 1.5 mm deep on each side so not much hull thickness left. I still am undecided on the planking. I think using large pieces of plywood will not allow a fair hull. I may need to plank the hull the usual way. I d like to cut the planks from plywood sheet but plywood does not cut very cleanly on the scroll saw- there are various other blades though. I could however use wood for the planks or a hybrid approach - use ply at the bow and the stern and wood in between. We will see. Till next time Vaddoc

Very nice shipyard Hakan and the boat is coming along fine - very elegant. Love the beefy frames! Great news health wise mate! I looked for "out-of-place items" but the only odd things I could identify was the bike and the old oil lamp hanging from the ceiling. Take care Vaddoc

Many thanks to all for your kind words! @Wintergreen I was hoping nobody would notice Hakan! Indeed my calculations were wildly wrong and a bit too late to correct - I had no more brass left and all were too firmly glued with CA. Not to worry though, Hercules will have a massive propeller which I can always make it a bit larger so between the two boats it averages out fine!

Dear all Although I did a lot of work on Hercules, I have little progress to show. However, there have been changes and upgrades so an update is in order. I had to revisit the plans many times as I found mistakes that had to be corrected. My computer however has been playing up badly so I ordered a new one. I then thought I should not wait for Santa but instead should take things into my own hands. So out with the old, in with the new! Now, all plywood used will be laminated to make sure it is straight and rigid. In my plans I had set the thicknesses but this meant my laminates should actually be that thick and they were not. So I had to redo the plans to match the thicknesses that the ply ended up having. Now, laminating ply with epoxy is a dirty messy business but it went ok. This is how I do it - old textbooks, butane cylinders, anything heavy will do The ply came out very straight, this sheet is 900 mm long. It is straighter than it looks in the photo! I ve done a lot of work on the hull and the superstructure. I downloaded the Occre assembly instructions to get some ideas but generally I think I have massively overengineered and overbuilt the thing. Some pics from the plans so far, there are lots of things going on but best explained as the building progresses: An interesting twist is the propeller structure at the stern. Occre's solution is not very elegant - I think I can do better, we ll see. Before I make saw dust I need to make a new bench where the table saw will be built in. This will take time and money and I need to find the correct wood. I also need to finalize the plans into printable patterns. I intend to use 1.5 mm plywood to cut the planks. I am not sure how this will work, this boat's hull was built with steel sheets so it seems reasonable to use ply, provided it can bend both vertically and horizontally to follow the curve of the hull. Best wishes Vaddoc

Dear all I think we can call this boat finished! So lets break down this final update: I finished the lobster pots and tied them up at the stern. I thought it would be fun to make some oil cans and a crate to put them in. I really wanted to add some fishing nets and an anchor but my initial attempts did not work out and I decided to leave it here and concentrate on Hercules. A few photos of the finished boat: I do need to make some kind of cradle for the model but this will be part of a much larger project, as I intend to space in my loft to display all my models. Many thanks to all for your company in this fun journey and my best wishes for a very happy and prosperous new year! Vaddoc

Great to see updates Hakan! The boat looks beautiful and the scale is proper. Looking forward for the rest of the journey. Have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year! Best wishes Vaddoc

I just use these very common carpet blades, through away when dull. They work very well. 100 pack for £12. They leave a very smooth surface.

Generally, 80 grit will remove a lot of wood fast but will leave grooves that will take some effort to remove- perhaps an overkill for delicate thin wood. 100 - 120 grit will remove material without leaving deep gouges on the wood surface. Progressive 150, 240 and 320 will leave the wood surface smooth. Going to 400 will leave a glass like surface, especially if the wood is sealed. So depends how uneven your surface is. Very important what sandpaper to use. Most are aluminum oxide but I ve only been using 3M 618 silicon carbide sand paper - wonderful stuff. Using a very sharp blade can also remove a lot of wood and leave a very smooth surface. This actually works very well. Vaddoc

Just finished going through the log Phil, highly enjoyable read! Interesting to see the boat still lives on and after your stories, I am happy it does. Very nice job on her you are doing. I like the epoxy coating on the inside - I do the same with filler but thin epoxy is a much better option. Best wishes Vaddoc

Just finished going through the pages George, nicely done. Really interesting ship and a very enjoyable log - you clearly are having a lot of fun! I think your choice of color for the hull works well. Best wishes Vaddoc

Pear wood and Tung oil work really great, brings out the beauty of the wood. Get the polymerised Tung oil version, cures much faster.