vaddoc

Thank you all! Your support is much appreciated. In between, fevers, teething, Christmas preparations and tons of work, I have not visited the shipyard. The boat, tools, timbers, all are frozen and dark with spider webs building! Still, I decided to make another tabernacle. It will be a different design, much smaller with fewer welds and I intend to paint it off white, the same colour as the deck. I stole an hour to design it on Rhino. I made two versions as due to the curved cabin top, some extra width may be needed. I also thought of a kind of through axle, grooved at both ends, to be used instead of a bolt. I may find some time in January to work on the boat and see how this design will materialise Regards Vaddoc

Very nice videos However, I looked for 01 steel blanks in the UK, cheapest 3x3 mm x 500 mm is £10 when a high end chisel is less than £20. Not worth the effort

A couple of issues to consider 1. There can be a massive difference between cheap and expensive in how the chisels are constructed, as microchisels have complex shapes (V, U) eg uneven thicknesses etc 2. They are much more difficult to sharpen than plain chisels and more easy to ruin My very cheap (non micro) chisels perform as well as my Narex one, but I can sharpen to a reasonable degree. I would invest more to the sharpening than to the chisel itself (although the chisel should be made of some reasonable steel) There is also that Russian chap that makes those wonderful microchisels, very reasonably priced. There are discussions with info somewhere in the Forum Regards Vaddoc

I have had excellent results with system 3 brushes https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daler-Rowney-System-Brush-Case/dp/B001DJ8EPA/ref=sr_1_1/261-5851405-9161227?ie=UTF8&qid=1545252558&sr=8-1&keywords=system+3+brushes or pro arte prolene plus. System 3 and Valejo (thinned with the hand bush media + retarder) produce great results, no brush strokes.

Thanks for the tip Roger, request sent to Santa along with reassurances I 've been a good boy!😁

Following lots of testing I think I ll be alright for ropes. However life got so busy that I have not really been able to work on the boat almost at all. This is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Very minimal progress in 6 weeks! The laminates for the gaff jaws came out fine. My 4 year old saw a piece of the jig I used for the laminates and told me it looks like a boat. Her face lit up when she saw this! The gaff jaws need a bit of wok but they are coming out better than I expected. Still need a lot of work and clearly are way oversized but I think they look promising. Best wishes to all Vaddoc

I think this is really important. This leads to a tighter rope at the small cost of few failures. Isn't rope making great fun?

Thanks both I am overtwisting the rope but not setting it. I will try though to wet it and then stretch it in segments, I assume without distorting it. I think though that the problem is with the structure of the cotton fibres. They are straight and they can slide on each other, so the rope will always stretch more. Wool on the other side, has curled fibres that catch and do not slide, this is why a wool cloth that has been washed and shrank will never come back while a cotton t-shirt can stretch and stretch. Man made fibres have very long fibres that may be elastic but will not stretch permanently. I do not know about hemp and the other traditional fibres used in ropes but probably had very different fibre properties to cotton.

Maybe it would be useful to others to also post my results with rope making. I ve been using my home made ropewalk and have made lots of rope with DMC cotton. The biggest problem is that it stretches and the rigging loosens up and sags. I am not sure what to do to prevent this. So here it goes: When using 1 thread per strand, the twist of the thread is importand. When using multiple threads, it does not matter. Generally linen is fuzzy, maybe it can be burned with alcohol flame, maybe worth it if t does not stretch. 1. Cotolin, 60% cotton, 40% linen, 22/2, left twist. Very nice, supple, much less knots than the usual linen. Quite fuzzy though. 3 strands, 3 threads per strand, 1.9 mm rope 2. Gutermann extra strong 100% polyester. Right twist. Creates a rope with a very "plastic" feel, not nice. 2x3, 1.1 mm rope 3. DMC yarn Left: 100% cotton, No twist, very nice thread and very nice rope, 2x3, 2.3 mm rope Right, 50% linen, 50% cotton, not as sharp as it is fuzzy, no twist, 2x2, 2.3 mm rope 4. Coats Dual Duty XP, 100% polyester, right twist. Despite being polyester, it made an acceptable rope which probably will not stretch. Just a touch fuzzy, barely noticeable. 4x3, 1.6 mm rope. 5. Coats Dual Duty Plus. 75% polyester, 25% cotton, right twist. I had high hopes for this thread but it produced a rope with a plastic feel, not very nice. Left twist. (1x3)x3, 1.6 mm. 6. DMC Cebelia, 100% cotton, right twist. Wonderful like all DMC threads, excellent rope but the other DMC threads probably more useful sizes. Available in 10 weight that Cordonet is not. (1x3)x3, 2 mm rope. 7. DMC Perle. 100% cotton, beautiful thread, no fuzz, left twist. Sizes 3 to 12, lots of colours. Excellent rope. This is my favourite thread for the scale I work (1:10). Perle 5, 3x3, 2.1 mm Perle 8, 3x3, 1.3 mm Perle 12, 3x3, 1mm 8. Bockens 40/2, 100% linen. Left twist. Fuzzy like all linen threads, also quite a few knots. Not as good as cotton but maybe it does not stretch. 2x3, 1.1 mm rope 9. DMC Cordonet. 100% cotton, wonderful thread. Right twist, sizes from 100 weight to 20 weight. The 10 weight size has been dropped. Excellent for small ropes and small scale work. I could not find a rope in my stash but it is excellent. I suspect that the best thread may actually be some synthetic high tech one but these are usually available only commercially and in in huge quantities so unlikely we will be able to find out, test and obtain. If someone has a tip on how to avoid the stretching of cotton ropes I would be very interested. Regards Vaddoc

Many thanks Mark, I cannot find any info on rope sizes so your advise/experience is valuable. Druxey, spot on! I deepened the grooves and there was a massive difference. I still have problems with the bearing at the weight end of the ropewalk, it does not spin freely. I need to work on this. I have been making ropes for a few days now testing threads and sizes and I will post the results in a separate thread. I wrapped it up for today though, as I made a Halloween pumpkin with my daughters! I have ordered a few more threads and I will make a few more test ropes this week.

It is very easy and very cheap to make a rope walk by using whatever left over materials that are lying about and a few bits from ebay, like cogs and a motor. But it does need a fair bit of space, the rope machines available commercially are much more compact. My set up is in the photos bellow, theoretically I can make rope of any length but I am limited by the length of my garage so I get lengths of about 2 meters. Not elegant but very robust, it still goes strong after 5 years. It cost me something like £10 but many hours of work: rope making is very satisfying but time consuming. I think it produces good rope and I can make adjustments to improve the quality. This is an old video, I've since changed the cog for a proper cone. I will need lots of rope soon so I set it up last week to play a bit. It is probably more time and even cost efficient to buy Chuck's wonderful rope but I really like rope making, it is a bit of an art!

Mark, this is exactly what I am searching (guessing is a more appropriate word). I think 2 mm for shrouds, 14 mm and 10 mm for bowsprit, up to 12 mm for all other ropes. No idea if this is correct for this boat in 1:10 scale! I ll put three pairs of shrouds and spreaders. A bit of an overkill but I just want lots of ropes! Vaddoc

Dear all It is rope making time! I decided to take a break from boat building and make some rope. I put together my rope walk and got to work. There were two weak points in my set up , one the plastic cog I was using for a cone, the other the bearing thingy that allows the rope to rotate. I cut and laminated discs from cheap lite plywood and with lots of sanding and milling I produced a passable cone. I have not found a good solution for the bearing thingy. The following photos show my set up, I can produce rope up to 2.5, maybe 3 meters long. I will also reveal my secret settings: for 3 yarn rope, I use just the plumber's tool as weight. For 3 strand rope, I add the hammer! I can produce pretty good rope, the problem is what thread to use. I ve searched the forum and the net and this seems to be a common query, not really answered well. I have tried all DMC varieties, Bockens linen and I ordered some more threads. I still have not found one that I really like. Cotton produces very nice rope but for the scale I work at, if produced by three strands it is very stiff. It can be more flexible if produced from multiple yarns. The biggest problem though is that it stretches, in my previous boat the shrouds were sagging a few days after all the lanyards were properly tightened. These are a few test ropes I made: The upper left is cottolin, a blend of cotton and linen fibers. It feels great and soft but is fuzzy. It may be less stretchy though. The upper one is a coats dual duty XP thread, polyester core with a cotton wrap. Nothing too exciting. The one in the upper right is DMC cotton perle, I think the best of them all but it does stretch. The bottom right is DMC Cebelia, pretty good, same as DMC Cordonet (not shown). The bottom left is Gutermann polyester extra strong thread. As a thread is very supple and nice, the more it twists though the more plastic it feels. Bellow are 2 mm ropes, 3 strand polyester and 3 yarn DMC Perle. The polyester rope is like cheap hardware store cord. There are many high tech synthetic or part-synthetic threads that are only available for industrial use and I suspect that one of these is the ultimate thread for scale rope that will have the properties of proper rope. It is impossible to find out which one though and even if known, prohibitively expensive to obtain. I got some DMC cotton and cotton/linen fibres (unspun) to try and I may experiment with dying rope as well.

Welcome Ab! Your background is most intriguing, great to have you on board. Regards Vaddoc

If you varnish, oil or paint the wood, it will be difficult to glue anything to it. In my current boat, the hull, deck and cabin roof are all painted so everything is nailed on.

You can't go wrong either way. Only use Tamiya tape or frog tape. I use thinned Valejo with some retarder with good quality brushes. No brush strokes, even when painting very large surfaces. It does take a dozen coats, 15 min between coats for proper coverage. I have a garage turned into a shipyard but I mostly paint in the dining room table as there is no dust and it is always warm. I decided against an airbrush because of the need to buy the equipment, clean the airbrush, learn to set it up and use, mask the area and always paint in the garage. I thought of going airbrush but I got an 1 inch brush so painting large surfaces is now not an issue. For my use it does not worth the trouble. I also enjoy hand brushing! Hand brushing with the modern paints is entirely feasible. Airbrushing can have fantastic results. If you don't mind the chemicals, long waiting times to cure and generally bigger mess, enamels with a hand brush can be great. I am not using it any more though, acrylics are just too easy.

Many thanks to all for your comments and likes! My parents are visiting so I got a bit more time for the boat. I managed to do a little reading and finally I started work on the rigging! I have just a vague idea how the rigging should be but I decided to go crazy and make it as complex as I can. I will try to incorporate anything that could reasonably be found on this boat and hope to end up with a web of ropes going to all directions. The problem is I have absolutely no knowledge on this subject. I will rely on Leather's "Gaff Rig" book, internet search and also on other logs from the forum. Also, I have no information at all from the Whisstock plans on the rigging. To get the dimensions of the mast, boom, gaff and bowsprit I used the small drawings provided and measured the dimensions in relation to the beam, improvising a bit with Leather's help to get the probable dimensions. I applied grey automotive primer to the tabernacle and then started painting with Valejo silver paint. The result was terrible. This is a very difficult paint, no matter how much I steer it does not seem to want to mix. It runs and leaves streaks. I ll persevere for a few more coats but I suspect it will need some wet sanding. I then started work on the bowsprit, boom and gaff. I used birch as I did not have appropriate beech dowels and really do not want to buy more timber. In the photo the bowsprit is tapered and sanded to 400 grit but the dowels for the boom and gaff are untouched. I also cut some beech strips for laminating the gaff jaws, the little proxon table saw is great and I also produced some nice 2 mm offcuts strips. The photo shows also the brass strips for the chainplates, pretty stout as they are 1 mm thick. I made a drawing for the gaff jaws, I think I would like quite an acute angle. I also made a jig to steam bend the laminates, this will later be used for the lamination it self. The first batch of laminates went into boiling water for a few minutes. The Admiral was behind my back when I was taking this picture, loosing patience as she wanted the same pot to cook dinner for the little ones... The laminates bent very nicely into shape. Tomorrow I will get the rest boiled and bent. I also finished shaping the boom and gaff. I managed to get my cheap horrible plane in a somewhat functional state and got a taper towards both ends. it is difficult to see it in the photos but it is there. I did not use a jig but they came out reasonably straight and very smooth. I really need a couple of high end mini planes and a honing jig. Can't see this coming in the near future though...

It's a strange thing: The more tools I buy, the more my tools-to-buy list grows. Cannot explain it! I would agree that the quality of the accessories is equally important to the quality of the tool itself.

I have a Dremel 3000 with the flexible shaft. I mainly use it for drilling holes, rarely cutting wood and metal and milling/sanding. It is a very solid piece of kit but I suspect the Proxon would be equally good. Can'y go wrong with either. I went with a corded one and never felt the cord was a problem.

I have never built a kit, only scratch build! I am sure someone else will be able to answer this one. The boat on the pictures I must admit is maybe a touch extreme, some planks were 80 cm long and were cut out of 1000 x 100 mm sheets of 2 mm maple. The planks nearest to the keel and sheer were very heavily spilled. But a spilled plank will always sit much better than one forced to bend sideways into position.

Just a note on spilling. They say a picture is a thousand words. In my current boat I went a bit crazy with spilling. Zack, note the shape the plank (the cardboard template) needs to have, to actually lie straight on the frames. This is spilling. You cannot bend a plank laterally.

I had another go, the wood needs sanding etc. The old steps were an insult to this great forum. This looks better.

A little more work done so time for a quick update Druxey, even very low tack tape seems to lift the varnish so it seem the real issue is the bond of the varnish to the paint. Roger, indeed this was the plan all along and I think it worked fine. John, many thanks for the support and for finding the time to drop by, hope you are recovering and feeling better! The tabernacle is ready, I cleaned the scale and the copper deposits and is ready to be primed, painted and installed. However, I feel that it is a bit out of scale, on the cabin roof it looks massive. I might need to re make it. I installed the rubrails, they are under a bit of tension following the sheer so I used screws (to be replaced by wood nails) every 1 cm. About 150 in total. As I had carved hollow the back of the rubrails, they sat nicely over the edge of the canvas. The cockpit is almost ready, I am not sure of the steps as they don't look very "nautical" but there is quite a climb to the cabin and this looked like a good solution. I am not very convinced though. I also installed the tracks for the companionway hatch. With all hatches temporarily in place, the boat is looking almost elegant! I filled the counter holes on the hand rails with 1.8 mm tree nails, sanded and re applied Tung oil. I think the boat will need some metal hand rails, I thought I could do without but again I think they would look good and actually would be necessary in a bot like this. Another challenge....

Welcome Dave! You are certainly in the right place. The British winter is starting here. It usually lasts 3 years. Too bad I do mind winters...

Do diamond files have any advantage or clog less with brass?