vaddoc

My understanding is that Tung oil polymerises in the presence of oxygen. So with time it will turn into a plastic like polymer. The 50% dilution is to allow it to penetrate deeper, thus giving better protection. I have a container of pure Tung oil that I have been using for years (its almost empty now), squeezing the metal as the oil gets used up so that there is as little air in contact with the oil as possible. If I do not open the bottle for 4-5 weeks, it is then very difficult as the oil in the cap polymerises and solidifies. Opening the bottle earlier is fine so really it takes many weeks for a full cure. Tung oil finish takes a very long time as many thin coats needs to be applied, waiting a few days in between for some degree of cure to happen. I remember reading that in ancient China it could take a year for a Tung oil finished table to be ready. There is also polymerised Tung oil I think that cures much faster, the equivalent of boiled linseed oil. My 2 cents!

Keith, Druxey and Michael, many thanks I continued working on the hoops but also made the last brass band that will accept two shrouds on each side, the spreaders, the forestay and staysail and the throat halyard. It took a few hours to make and while I was polishing it, it got picked up by the steel brush wheel and ruined. So I started again. This time it took much less time and actually I think it looks better The spreader is the correct length to sit at the proper angle, the top shroud will be at a 15 degrees angle to the mast. The shape looks a bit wrong though, not sure if I need to reduce the thickness or just to round the edges.

I have made many thousands of tree nails with the needle method in various sizes, my current 1:10 boat is held together almost exclusively by tree nails. I was using mostly cherry but recently the whole process start failing as the needle was burning the wood. Only by touching the needle with soap I could get it to work but this slowed down things. No problem with softwoods. What wood are you using? regards Vaddoc

Steer clear away of walnut. Maple is fantastic for planking, cherry and pear are far more stiff and do not respond as well to bending. Maple sands very well, holds nails, glues well and is soft enough to cut with a knife even at 2 mm thickness. Holds an edge well and can be very white with no/little grain Beech as another excellent wood if you don't mind the wood pattern. Never used castelo or holy. Vaddoc

Excellent topic choice Bob. I ve been wanting a set for some time now but as you say the proper ones seem to be made from Stardust and the cheap chinese or indian ones flooding the market are just too cheap. It would be excellent if someone had experience to share. I came across this that seems to be made in Germany and is still cheap but not the generic type. Quality unknown. https://www.reichelt.com/gb/en/screw-tap-set-m1-m2-5-30-pieces-donau-mgs1025-p214261.html?&trstct=pos_1

Welcome David!

I think they were 0.5 mm x 4 mm Keith. I actually passed the hoops through the disc sander to reduce the height to half. Birch, beech or maple would be better choices though.

Very nice Mark! Very elegant work.

Soak the wood and then compress between two flat surfaces with a significant weight on top as it will be distributed across a large area. It will flatten a bit but not all the way. I ve found that for such purposes, it is better to laminate the sheets that the frames will be cut from. Lamination gives very strong, very flat sheets that resist movement. It is impossible to find flat plywood in the thicknesses we use. If I need a 3.5 mm sheet, I laminate 2 sheets of 1.5 mm each using finishing epoxy resin. I have a whole box of 2 mm maple sheets that I received dead flat and a year later are horribly twisted. I suspect improperly seasoned/kiln dried wood. Regards Vaddoc

No worries Mark, "happily busy", what a lovely word combination. Druxey, a small advantage of walnut is that it is soft and sands easily. I finished the 4 hoops I glued yesterday. They are very strong. I sanded all surfaces to 400 grit (took a while...) but I think they came out alright. Tung oil really brought out the beauty of the wood. Next I need to research how to define the number of hoops needed for a given mast length. Regards Vaddoc

This actually would explain Patrick's detailed knowledge of the interior of these boats!

Just looked Okto up. $400,000/week + expenses? Nice one though!

Thank you all for your likes and comments. Carl, this simple jig worked amazingly well. No failures and all hoops came out identical, very quick process too. Druxey, never though of it. However terrible though, walnut finishes superbly. I think once sanded and with a coat of Tung oil on, the hoops will look good and they will be very sturdy as well. Mark, I am a seasoned landsman so I am really struggling with the rigging. My source of info are actually logs like yours, a few sketches from various versions of Debens, a you tube video of a vessel built at Whisstock yard, a couple of books and of course the all-knowing internet. I have no rigging plan or deck plan. I actually had to measure the various lengths of spars on the screen and scale up! It seems though that Whistock yard liked the backstays to end up lower on the mast. Have a look at these photos: Deben 5 sketch Snapshot of top mast from the you tube boat Now you can understand my decision to go for dramatic rather than accurate. 😁 Although I think in the end I wont be far off. It does look however that the Deben carries quite a lot of sail for its size. But then again, all gaff boats seem to have powerful sails eitherway Vaddoc

A month has passed and time for another post. Many thanks Patrick, I am actually quite excited with the ability to make metal objects. This post will actually be silver solder heavy! I had very little free time and a large part of it was occupied making nursery projects with my 4 year old daughter. I made Goldilocks, a bear, space rockets out of plaster, paper owls etc. All pretty over-engineered of course, the teachers at the nursery could never have guessed how many tools and what variety of materials was actually used...Great fun! Back to the boat, I did a lot of thinking and web research and read a bit more of my gaff rigging books. I now have a less vague idea of the rigging. I also cleared the topsail issue, which will be rigged in an unusual way. The boat naturally will be very over-rigged, the more ropes the better! I varnished the tabernacle and used enamel varnish. I had forgotten how good enamels are. Very hard, excellent coverage, maybe I should switch back. I then spent all of my time making the brass fittings for the mast. I first started making the gooseneck: Later on however I scrapped these and made them again. I then made the first mast band This however had to be scrapped as well as I had not understood the rigging well. following this I made a detailed plan of the rigging and re-measured everything. I then made the band that goes at the top of the mast, it will accept the top shrouds, forestay, (?flying) jib and topsail halyard. I have also perfected my technique for making shackles and every now and again, just for variety, I make one in various sizes. These need to be polished. Some of the metal work appears in this photo, many more will need to be made. I also did some work on the bowsprit With the above under way, I though I would start making the mast hoops. Unfortunately, the only thin strips I have are walnut, which is a horrible wood to use for modelling. I really don't want to buy more wood though so I I gave it a try. The mast is 16 mm diameter so the hoops should be 20mm. I made a disc from some plywood and cut a notch. Then I soaked the walnut strip in water and used my mother's old hair thingy. Walnut wood is an unpleasant wood for this purpose, it breaks, has a wavy interlocked grain, terrible. I wish I had some beech. In any case, I wrapped the strip around the plywood disc and used PVA to laminate it. A screw holds everything in place and will be filled later on with a tree nail. Tons more work to be done but I feel a little bit more confident now Regards Vaddoc

Just found time to check things out Patrick. Lovely work, I particularly liked the fleet photo, a few years of hard work and dedication within a square foot or so. But...where is the gold paint? Cheers Vaddoc

Welcome Alan! I visited San Diego a few years back, absolutely loved it. Do start a log, good fun as well! Regards Vaddoc

Dear all Since the last post I did a bit of work on the boat, although it was 2 steps forward and one backwards! First of all, I did not like the tabernacle. I used soft solder and did not wash the acid flux off so the brass started to corrode giving a green/blue tint. Also, I used some old leftover paint from the deck which was probably spoiled in some way. So I stripped the paint off and de-soldered it. I then tried to silver solder it and managed to melt the whole thing! Then I made the tabernacle again which is quite fiddly and not really easy. I had to make the axle once again as the old one did not fit. I proceeded to silver solder it and managed to melt it again! I made it for the third time and of course none of the previous two axles fitted so I had to do that as well. It came out reasonable but not as good as the first time. Then the side pieces were soldered, the corners ground and the mast base shortened and re-drilled. Everything was primed and then painted with fresh paint. Only thing left is some varnish, probably enamel. Next was the bowsprit. I took the dimesions from the drawings in the plans but it looked a bit short to me. I would like a more dramatic bowsprit even though it might be unnecessary and not really accurate. Also, I wanted the base to be square. So, I laminated some beach with PVA glue. I ended up with a thick solid piece of timber. Next was turning it into a dowel. Somehow I managed to set up my horrible cheap plane correctly and the job was pretty easy. Of course I forgot to leave the base square, I remembered only when it was shaped as octagon. Oh well, I think actually there are boats with octagon bowsprits out there... The new bowsprit is much larger and certainly much more dramatic! Next was the gammon iron. Here there is a massive problem. The top of the stem must be left square to allow for the iron to be bolted. I missed this part and sanded it off. I had to think of a way to arrange things, not accurate but close enough. Also, I had to provide a point to attach the foe bits of rigging. I soldered a few bits together and will nail these down with black iron nails. Hopefully it will blend in when all else goes on the boat Next I made the templates for the cleats and cut one, finished with Tung oil I also made the fixes for the bob and whisker stays. These will be secured with either brass or shiny black iron nails Lots more left to do and quite a lot of head scratching coming up Regards Vaddoc

I found a solution with these forceps https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AYLIH1S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 They are stainless steel, very robust and do not transmit heat. Very cheap also. There is a base that goes with it but you can also use whatever else. Highly recommended. I prefer silver soldering as it is much more controlled. Vaddoc

https://www.amazon.com/RHINOCEROS-MODELING-DESIGNERS-VERSION-670526003986/dp/B00AFB9ORO !

The way the metal bends to your will Michael is truly inspirational. Indeed a treat for those of us that when picking a fight with metals we usually lose.

Pleasure! I made a cleat with this template, in the last two photos the cleat had a bit of tidying up sanding and a coat of Tung oil

Actually, it is nearing the time I will need cleats so I sat down today and did a bit of CAD. Maybe this template will help others. The printer settings can be used to scale up or down. The vertical lines are for through bolts/tree nails. cleats.pdf

I am not sure if this project is "little" but I have been patiently waiting for when it would make it near the top of your busy priority list Michael. Looking forward for the rest of this journey. Vaddoc

You are right in both Welfack. It is of course much easier to make U shaped ones and indeed I ll need some later on but horse-shoe is a much more interesting shape! You are also correct about the rings and for the 1.2 mm wire, a 2.7 mm tube would be nearer real life dimensions but I do not have this odd size and the 3 mm looks a bit wrong. There is plenty of thickness to widen the hole to accept same size bolt but there is no real need as the bolt will be invisible on the boat. I intend though to make some smaller ones using 1mm or 0.8 mm wire and same 2 mm tube, this will be closer to real life dimensions. This is a good way of making shackles of any shape and size, quickly and consistently at a fraction of the price for bought ones.

I ve standardised the the method and now it takes less than 10 min for each shackle. I ll post a few more pics: Clean the 2 mm tube and sand a flat and secure for soldering. Cut a piece of 1.2 mm wire, bend with fingers round the pliers Use second round pliers to bend into final shape in one step, using something appropriate to maintain gap Trim the excess and sand flat the ends by touching on the disc Secure for soldering, use a tiny amount of paste Cool, then use the disc to cut free and shape the shackle The shackles come out very consistent in shape and size. These have not been polished yet After a bath in acid and polishing, I think they look great. This is how they compare with the bought ones (expensive) Smaller sizes can easily be made and much smaller brass tubes are available as welding supplies.