vaddoc

I think an update is in order I have been busy as a bee with all sorts of things and spending the limited free (-ish) time making rope. I made a variety of sizes because my rope walk takes up the whole garage so I wanted to take it down and not put it up until my next model. Overall I made 250 m of rope! My rope walk works fantastically well and I actually had a go at making a cored rope. It did not work but the experience was very valuable. I might actually in the future make a whole new motor-cog unit with 4 positions, to make 4 strand and also cored rope. This are my results in regards to thread and rope sizes Left Twist: Petra, Perle Right Twist: Cebelia, Babylo, Cordonnet, Mara one ball Cordonnet 40 makes about 22 m of rope DMC Petra 3, 1x3---1.46 mm Petra 5, 1x3---1.18 mm Petra 8, 1x3---0.88 mm Petra 8, 2x3---1.25 mm Cebelia 10, 1x3---1.06 mm Cebelia 10, (1x3)x3---2 mm Babylo 40, 2x3---0.9 mm Perle 5, 3x3---2.1 mm Perle 5, 2x3---1.72 mm Perle 8, 1x3---0.81 mm Perle 8, 2x3---1.25 mm Perle 12, 1x3---0.63 mm Perle 12, 2x3---0.94 mm Cordonnet 20, 1x3---0.61 mm Cordonnet 20, 2x3---1.12 mm Cordonnet 40, 2x3---1.04 mm Cordonnet 60, 2x3---0.87 mm Cordonnet 60, 3x3---1.08 mm Cordonnet 80, 2x3---0.82 mm Cordonnet 100, 2x3---0.7 mm Cotton/linen yarn, 2x3---2.3 mm (too fuzzy) 100% cotton yarn, 2x3---2.3 mm (Too fuzzy) Gutermann Mara 30, 1x3---0.81 mm Mara 30, 2x3---1.06 mm Mara 30, 3x3---1.43 mm Mara 70, 2x3---0.77 mm Mara 70, 3x3---0.94 mm Mara 120, 2x3---0.56 mm Various Linen 40/2, 1x3---0.66 (Irregular, bad rope) Dual Duty XP, 4x3---1.6 mm (bad rope) Dual Duty plus, (1x3)x3, 1.6 mm (bad rope) Cottolin 22/2, 3x3---1.9 mm (quite fuzzy) DMC thread are very expensive but really wonderful. Gutermann Mara threads are very impressive, if I ever build a period ship I will only use these. I ll go back to the actual building now. On a different note, I have been very superficially thinking about the next model. A (very) large scale RC cold moulded sailboat is somehow coming up constantly. But I also want to make a simple clinker rowing boat, again at a very large scale, I feel the need to get immersed in the lapstrake planking. I certainly do not have the time, equipment and piece of mind to tackle the two masted schooner I ve always wanted to build. We will see.

Dear all Having spend a lot of time making rope I d like to share my experience. I ve made many rope sizes using all of DMC range as well as a few others. This is what I came up with. Left Twist: Petra, Perle Right Twist: Cebelia, Babylo, Cordonnet, Mara one ball Cordonnet 40 makes about 22 m of rope DMC Petra 3, 1x3---1.46 mm Petra 5, 1x3---1.18 mm Petra 8, 1x3---0.88 mm Petra 8, 2x3---1.25 mm Cebelia 10, 1x3---1.06 mm Cebelia 10, (1x3)x3, 2 mm Babylo 40, 2x3---0.9 mm Perle 5, 3x3---2.1 mm Perle 5, 2x3---1.72 mm Perle 8, 1x3---0.81 mm Perle 8, 2x3---1.25 mm Perle 12, 1x3---0.63 mm Perle 12, 2x3---0.94 mm Cordonnet 20, 1x3---0.61 mm Cordonnet 20, 2x3---1.12 mm Cordonnet 40, 2x3---1.04 mm Cordonnet 60, 2x3---0.87 mm Cordonnet 60, 3x3---1.08 mm Cordonnet 80, 2x3---0.82 mm Cordonnet 100, 2x3---0.7 mm Cotton/linen yarn, 2x3---2.3 mm (too fuzzy) 100% cotton yarn, 2x3---2.3 mm (Too fuzzy) Gutermann Mara 30, 1x3---0.81 mm Mara 30, 2x3---1.06 mm Mara 30, 3x3---1.43 mm Mara 70, 2x3---0.77 mm Mara 70, 3x3---0.94 mm Mara 120, 2x3---0.56 mm Various Linen 40/2, 1x3---0.66 (Irregular, bad rope) Dual Duty XP, 4x3---1.6 mm (bad rope) Dual Duty plus, (1x3)x3, 1.6 mm (bad rope) Cottolin 22/2, 3x3---1.9 mm (quite fuzzy) This is how 230 m of scale rope looks like!

Very nice Geert! Your boat has a wooden loveliness, a pleasure to follow!

I have not been able to follow your work on this boat Elijah and I very much regret it. Your skills have developed so much, you are doing a fantastic job! The planking came out superb. Regards Vaddoc

Large scale small rowing wooden boat, what a fun project! And very nicely done!

Welcome Hector!

I recently used copper wire served with thread. It may work for you and the scale you work at.

Looks very nice Geert! Going back to the planking: I think that you might get away without spilling in 1:62 scale or similar but not in 1:10, especially with 3 mm thick planks. I think a guide to how the planks should be is that when looking the planks from the side, they should look almost horizontal In the Deben, the gardboard and the planks close to it where very curved upwards. The planks in the middle were straight (-ish). The planks near the sheer were quite curved the other way. All of the planks however, when put in place appeared almost horizontal. When defining their position in the frames, I used a 3 x 3 mm pear strip to make sure they were fair. So in your boat, maybe it could be something like this (Sorry for the patches in the picture) Considering the curved plank will need to come out of a straight one, and that trees have a given width, this tells you how wide the planks could be in the real boat and how many planks need to be on each side. Very curved planks need to be quite narrow otherwise they would need to come out of massive pieces of timber By changing the shape of the gardboard in the middle and aft at the sternpost and also changing how far up the stem it will end, you can change the shape of all the other planks. 1:10 is a great scale, you can use 1 mm screws to hold the planks in place and then fill the holes with tree nails.. Another thing, for 3 mm planks you would need to shape their edges a bit so they can sit closer when the hull has a significant curve. Apologies for the long post, hope I did not hijack your log! Your hull looks great so your method in the end worked just fine Vaddoc

Such an enjoyable log Gary. The valve and hose blew me away. Too many new things to absorb, looking forward for more Regards Vaddoc

Very nice work Jose! It's amazing how much wood this boats had, they were floating forests. Your boat is lovely, your hard work shows through.

Lovely work Geert, just found the time to visit. I especially like the scale and the proper steam bending of the frames! The second method of planking you followed is much more likely to produce accurate results. Could I make a few suggestions from my experience: You can take the pattern of a plank in segments, one third first, then add the second etc, see photo bellow Use thicker card so that it cannot be bent laterally. The cardboard in the photo is 2 mm (The planks were also 2 mm) The garboard plank should reach as low at the stem as possible, so the rest of the planks are less cramped and lie more fair. The shape of the planks, after the position in the frames is determined, need to somehow be faired. Your hull looks great. What glue did you use for the ribs? Regards Vaddoc

One last update, probably the last one for some time By attaching a second swivel to the existing one, it now rotates much more freely. The piece of wood is there to stop the line at the other end of the swivel twisting as well. These are the sizes of rope I produce with the various combinations of threads. I think I ve made close to 100 m of rope this weekend. I think that the majority of rope will be 1.1 mm (11 mm in real boat), a few bits maybe 1.3 -1.4 mm and the rest 1 mm or less. It is much faster to make 2x3 rope than 1x3 as tying the threads to the rope walk is much quicker. So I think I ll use Perle 12 and various Cordonnet sizes in 2x3 and also Petra at 1x3 which makes great rope but needs a lot of tying. DMC threads are very expensive but also very nice.

Just a few of my tries, the twist of the rope produced was pretty tight. This thread has a right hand twist but can be untwisted and twisted the other way easily. Mara 30 3x3 1.43 mm 2x3 1.06 mm 1x3 0.81mm Mara 70 3x3 0.94 mm

My DMC threads arrived and today I ve been making ropes. The rope walk takes up the entire garage and is a bit of a job to set it up so I would like to make all the ropes I will need or that is likely to need. So I ll just produce huge quantities of various sizes and then take the rope walk down so I can work on the boat. The DMC threads are wonderful and the rope equally great. I actually like the ecru colour.

Indeed Druxey, this modifications improved the lay up dramatically. Glad you found it helpful G.L., the current problem I have is the swivel at the weight end. It is a fishing swivel and although in the hand it rotates very freely, it does not during rope making and this puts strain on the threads. I have not found yet a solution for this. Many thanks Daniel! The Debens are small boats but actually pretty complex, you ll have a lot of fun Thanks Michael, now I really liked your solution, very elegant. I bought some tube but also some fishing double barrel copper crimps to experiment. I am not sure if your crimps are just copper tube but they look great.

Very nice Patrick! This boat is turning out more formal and business oriented, compared to the others that were a bit party animals. Is that a pool in the upper deck? Maybe putting in slightly blue gel might stand out more. Vaddoc

So I managed to find some time to work this Sunday, mainly because it has been raining for days and the admiral is busy looking for furniture. Still, to be allowed into the garage, I had to draw and render our living room and all the proposed furniture on CAD! Today it was all about ropes. I know, this subject is beaten to death but I will need a lot and I needed to standardise sizes and colours. First, I made the second Highfield lever which came out pretty much identical to the first one. I have though some concerns whether they will fall apart. The reason is that although this is a static model, the mast will all stuff on will be quite heavy and the backstays will be doing some actual work. The 0.6 mm wire rope is very strong and needs some tension to be taught. We shall see! I took out my rope walk and decided that it needed improvements. I was never happy with the way the cone moved and also the pulley design for the counterweight. After a bit of head scratching and a thorough search through the garage, I found solutions that seem to work pretty well. I also improved the cone, the grooves had to be sanded much deeper. Now I can make 2.8 m of rope on each use of the 3.3 m rope walk and things seem to move relatively effortlessly. I ve taken a video, it really takes probably less than 10 min to set up the ropewalk and produce the rope. I used the thread Chuck suggested, the Gutermann Mara and I liked it. However, I experimented with many others and I will use either DMC Perle (expensive) or DMC Petra (less so). The rope is beautiful, both threads are left twist and I am happy with ecru colour. Regarding the twist, this little list may be of help to others: DMC Cebelia is right twist DMC Perle left DMC Petra left Guttermann Mara right DMC Cordonnet Right Cotolin (Venne) is left The next photo shows some of the ropes I made. Apart from the cheap polyester and the expensive polyester/cotton mix, they are all very good and do not untwist. The Gutermann Mara looks indeed nice. Time to put the little ones to bed Regards Vaddoc

I gave this thread a try and I think Chuck is right, it looks pretty good. I ve used polyester threads before and after they are twisted into a rope, they generally feel like cheap nylon cord. Not this one, the rope it produces is quite supple and it retains to a large degree the look of cotton rope. It still is plastic though so the rope will retain whatever shape you give it, unlike natural fibre ropes that lay as they will. I somehow feel it will not stretch with time under load which is a big plus. Mara 120 is very thin thread. I ll stick to cotton for my current boat as I do not have a colour limitation but if I was making a period ship I think I would use this thread as there are endless colours to choose from and Chuck has provided the right numbers which can be found. Overall very positive results, at least on my home made ropewalk. Regards Vaddoc

Oh dear! It has been a full 2 month since the last post. Life suddenly got into overdrive mode and it feels that 7 days in a week and 24 hours in a day are just not enough. Still, I have kept working on the boat. Today, I actually worked for a good few hours. Mark, apologies for the delay in replying. The plan is to have the gooseneck secured to the mast with two heavy duty brass bands and the belaying pins secured to these bands. I decided to concentrate on getting the standing rigging finished. I will need to take everything down at some point but I feel I cannot concentrate enough with both the standing and running rigging just in plans. I used thick thread to see how the stays and shrouds would look, it was nice to see the boat taking shape. I decided to use 0.67 mm wire, served with black thread. It probably is a bit too strong but the thickness looked more appropriate than the thinner wires. There will be two stay sails, three pairs of shrouds and two back stays so very long lengths to be served. My home made serving machine performed fantastically well and I got all done very quickly. I had to redo a few as I got the lengths wrong and I suspect I will need to redo the backstays as well. Next problem to tackle was how to attach the served wire rope to the mast fittings. I used brass electrical components for thimbles and this worked well. Using thread to tie the ends of the rope though took a long time and I did not like the result I used tube cribs and this was much quicker and consistent. I used black gesso to cover the bright silver tubes, it dries matt and although goes on initially thick, it leaves a thin film. I do not have a photo with the end result but it looks ok. The white serving is just a test piece I used. Next I worked on the mast fittings. They were a bit loose and with the thick wire ropes pulling down, they would not stay in place. I drilled holes and installed 4 brass nails in each one. This was actually not an easy task, overall today I mast have broken a dozen drills or so. I did not have to use any glue. All the mast bands are now very securely in place and feel rock solid. Next I started work on the Highfield levers. The ones that looked more appropriate were actually the simplest ones I could find on the internet. Once again the wooden boat forum saved the day! Picture from http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?93716-Highfield-Giles-Levers I think it came out ok, it actually took a long time but it will provide a lot of slack for the boom to clear the backstays. The end result, a fully functional Highfield lever. Now I need to make another one, preferably identical! Best wishes to everyone Vaddoc

Dear Edward Scratchbuilding can get very expensive quickly because there is always the right tool for a specific task. It can be done with fewer toys at the cost of accuracy and time. As I understand you need something to cut the wood. I think the cheapest and more versatile option is a scroll saw. That jig saw looks a bit...wrong! I have the Dremel moto saw and has served me well and done pretty much everything I ve asked. But each modeller has his one set up and the more tools you have, the easier to overcome the deficiencies of a single tool. I d say buy a cheap scroll saw, no way you will not find it useful. Scratchbuilding complex boats without any power tools is very difficult and really unnecessary. Regards Vaddoc

Mark, initially I used the 3M spray glue, both the repositioning and permanent. Very expensive, messy and not too good. I then tried the ordinary children stick glue (Pritt this side of the pond) and haven't looked back. The paper can be peeled off or gently scraped off later. It is water soluble but does not penetrate the wood at all. If water is used to remove the paper it may need very light sanding to remove the sticky glue residue. I never had problems with distortion but indeed too much glue will wet the paper. Not needed as it is very strong. One of the advantages is that the paper sticks well. With the sprays, the edges were lifting when scroll sawing with dust getting underneath and the paper would half come off I bought three sticks for £2 last week!

Very grateful Kurt My extinguishers are indeed past the workbenches, next to the flammables, pretty far away from the door...will be fixed immediately.

On top of the above I also have 2 large cylinders of butane for the heater. My garage is packed full of wood, fuel, paper, oil etc all in close proximity with naked flame present often enough! I bought 2 extinguishers, a CO2 and a foam one and also a fire blanket. Apparently the extinguisher that does all is the one that throws microscopic water droplets but it was far too expensive. I think a realistic expectation is to be able to extinguish small fires and to feel better with this knowledge. For a big fire, a camera to capture the scene would be more useful.

I now only use deco art (americana) multi purpose sealer. Very cheap, very good, dries in 15 min. Better than shellac. No experience with polyurethane!

The small Proxon drill press is a wonderful tool, to be combined with cheap carbide drills and light motor oil for maintenance. Very highly recommended. We buy tools we need but often tools we get find themselves a use.