vaddoc

it has ball bearings but they are not accessible. At the top of the spindle there is an opening that you pour oil through. I am not sure though if this is supposed to lubricate the bearings or the rest of the moving parts. I suspect the latter.

Well, I did a bit more research on the net. It appears that indeed 3 in 1 has been traditionally used but there seems to be some disadvantages. Sewing machine oil on the other hand seems to be a very fluid oil, some times fully synthetic, specially formulated for such purposes. I just ordered a bottle

One of my favourite tools is the small proxxon drill press. The manual suggests every 10 hours of operation to lubricate the bearings but does not specify what oil to use. I emailed Proxxon and this was the reply: The TBM 220 drill press may be lubricated with a wide range oils, so we do not recommend any specific lubricant. Sewing machine oil is absolutely suitable. Maybe this will be of help to others. I am not sure what I will use, I think probably what ever car motor oil I can get my hands on. Vaddoc

Thanks for the suggestions Roger. I did try to use the outside of the hull as a form but there are two problems, one that the end of the ribs that slots in the keel cannot be set from the outside and also that there is no way to secure the rib to the hull but to screw it on, and I don't want to open any more holes. Regarding laminating the ribs, I guess it could be done with 4 half mm laminates and there would be no need to steam bend anything. Well, I did not think of this beforehand! It would be a good solution, a bit messy and complex but would produce ribs with almost perfect shape. Still, the beech I am using, if up to temperature, bends very nicely. Regards Vaddoc

Thanks John! Trying hard to scrape an hour here and there to keep the building going. My treenail stash got depleted so I made round 300 more. I have standardised two sizes, one for usual use and a slightly larger one for when the hole gets a bit larger after a failed treenail etc. I am also trying to find an easy way to attach the ribs. It is not possible to glue the ribs to the planks so they will be just tree nailed. I am concerned though that the ribs might break free or the whole hull might get deformed. In any case I installed one more rib. I must now reconsider: This is a slow and rather complicated job. 82 more ribs left... Hopefully in my next post I will be able to show much better progress

Dear Ken You somehow managed to reveal a beauty that I never thought these enormous (and ugly) Maersk container ships had. Very nice and interesting work. What primer are you using?

Today I installed the first of the ribs. I did some simple calculations to position the ribs along the sheer plank. I also got the special Dremel disk to cut some of the frames to make space. It cut the wood like hot knife through butter. Druxey, it is pretty difficult to glue the ribs to the planks. At this scale the ribs are pretty stiff and although they can be bent to follow the contour and twist of the hull, they won't stay in tight contact. Also some of the planks are just a bit out of alignment. PVA glue of course needs tight contact and time to set. I used a couple of temporary screws and then drilled 3 holes per plank and used tree nails with glue. I used the flexi dremel drive as space is really tight. It took a while but I think the rib is very well secured. I used about 60 tree nails for this rib alone taking into account wastage. The good news are that it is doable. The bad ones that there are 83 more ribs left! Regards

Thank you all, it really has been an exciting moment! I gave it a go to install the ribs and surprisingly it was very easy. I soaked the beach strips in water, wrapped them three at a time in a wet towel and heated the whole thing in our old microwave which had been stored in the garage. There was a small learning curve but the strips took the bend very nicely. I got a few in but now the real problems begin: 1. I know where the bottom end of the ribs go (except the bow and stern where I will need to guess). I need now to figure out how to space the upper end along the sheer plank. 2. How should I secure the ribs to the planks? I will use tree nails for sure and in the end probably also put a bit of epoxy to the bottom end, hopefully they will hold well enough. Should I also glue the ribs to the plank? This will be a messy job I think. There is really very little working space. I have the flexible Dremel drive but I might need the angle drill accessory

Dear all Planking is finished! Planking has been huge fun and less difficult than I expected. It took a while though, I started planking Dec 7 2016 so 30 planks in total took me 10 months and 7 days! I learned a lot and having spent 10 months spilling planks I fill quite comfortable with the process. Of course, if there is a prize for rough hulls I probably should get it but I am optimistic it will get better. Next step was to lift the boat from the MDF base. This was actually dead easy, just a few knocks with a large chisel did the job. The interior is very rough as I have sanded the bottom edge of all planks so that they could meet better, due to the curvature of the hull. I sanded much more than needed so there is now a big gap when looking from the inside. I wonder if this could be filled with filler. The notches for the ribs can also be seen in the next photo. Next I experimented with the ribs. I will use either beech or maple but Beech is a stronger stiffer wood. It is supposed to respond superbly to heat and indeed, after a few seconds in very hot water it bent easily and followed the contour of the hull. However bending the strip to shape and securing it in place will be difficult as there is no working space as the frames are close together and the hull deep I thought that if I cut the excess of some of the frames there will be more space. The frames are though made from 6 mm plywood which is super strong. Some not so modelling tools had to be used at a risk of major injury to the model. Wood dust got into every groove so a bit of improvisation with my cycle pump was needed to blow it away I took two frames out and access is improved, I need to smooth the rough edges though. I intend to leave some frames to be able to turn the boat and also have an idea regarding the water line as the frames are set at a defined height. A new page starts today! The amount of work left to be done though is enormous, this boat will take years to complete but then again there is no rush. Regards

I think I hit a milestone. The starboard sheer plank has gone on! It is drying in place waiting for the screws and tree nails to go in. It will be a bit of a challenge to make the port sheer plank exactly identical and I expect a bit of head scratching will be needed. Patrick you are right, it is a big hull! When the false keel goes on, it will be even bigger! I think in my lofting I should have made the sheer a bit more curved, especially at the bow. However I have not deviated a lot from the original lines at the sheer. I have the template for the other sheer plank ready. When planking is completed I will take the boat off its base and start installing the ribs, I wonder if they will actually hold the shape of the boat. I may use temporary screws for the ribs but they will be finally fastened with tree nails, probably I will need close to 4000 just for the hull! This is a very complex build and a lot of thinking and planning ahead is needed. Working in such large scale is great fun but even slight inaccuracies are very much visible and a perfect plank to plank contact along the entire length is very difficult to achieve. The sheer plank is more than 80 cm long! Hopefully I ll finish planking this weekend.

Ever thought of scratch building something POF? In the long run I think much more expensive than kits but very satisfying. Also this way you can build anything you like. Victory as your first model and actually completed, now this is impressive! Regards

Dear Patrick, I have not been able to check on your log for some time and now I am lost in detail! Just too many things happening! It is a beautiful boat and a very nice journey Vaddoc

I just use 120. If something needs care I move towards the centre where it spins slowly. If I need to take a lot of material towards the edge. The aluminium oxide paper lasts ages and although with use the grit increases to maybe something like 150, it continues to sand well. 80 is so rough it leaves scratches and 180 and above is just not aggressive enough, these are more finishing grades. All finishing is done by hand, 400 is silky smooth

Dear all Holidays are over and planking continues at a very slow pace. Planks are now 80 cm long! When all the ribs are installed, I hope they will pull and align all the planks. I decided to use maple for the ribs instead of beech as it probably is a bit harder and generally a more pleasant wood to work with. After filling all the gaps and sanding, the hull should be reasonably smooth.

Mark, Michael and Carl, thank you very much for your comments. Actually brute force is the answer. The wood-MDF joint is very weak so a good wack with a 1 inch chisel shaves off a thin layer of MDF and sends the wood pieces that hold the frames in place flying off. This can be done easily after all the planks are in place. I have had very little time but I managed to install another plank and have ready the card templates for a couple more. I am now past the turn of the bilge and the curves are more apparent, it looks really nice but I cannot capture it well on photos due to the size and the limitations of my phone camera. The next two planks will be again difficult. Progressively spilling got less and less and now the planks are almost straight. Up to now, one edge was concave and had to be cut with the knife, with extreme care and then sanded etc. The other convex edge though could be prepared in seconds with the disk sander. Now both edges need to be cut with the knife and this increases the chances of ruining the piece. Another problem is that the planks are now very long, this is a 50 cm ruler. Maple is a lovely wood for planks, better than cherry pear or walnut, but the sheets I got have (or developed in storage) some warp which makes things even harder. In a few days our holidays start, so there will be no progress for the next 4 weeks. I ll try to use this time to read some of the books I have been buying only to decorate my modelling shelves. The next boat is likely to be a scratch built fully framed one and this will need serious preparation.

This was a shock, very sad news.

Thanks Patrick. actually the base problem was easily solved. I attacked the epoxied areas with the Dremel and a milling bit. Ate it all up in seconds. Still, this does not guarantee the boat will lift!

Planking slowly continues but now much less spilling is needed and the twist is much less. The planks are becoming though very long. These are two A4 mats, this plank (still unfinished) 2/3 of the way towards the sheer is around 70 cm long! The hull is slowly starting to show its curves and although very rough yet, it already has the inherent elegance of all wooden boats. As I gain experience the gaps between the planks are getting smaller. The starboard plank is temporarily held in place with clips. A problem which I need to figure out is how to get the boat off the MDF base so I can turn it around and install the ribs. The frames are 3 mm made of two sheets plywood 1.5 mm laminated together with epoxy. They are super strong. These are epoxied to wood strips which in turn are glued to the MDF with PVA glue. The whole thing is very solid. After I install the sheer plank, there will be very little space to put any tools in there. Maybe I should soak the whole MDF plank in water overnight up to the level of the joint with the frames, this should dissolve the PVA glue. Or mess everything up!

Thanks Jon! Oh yes, it is coming along and for first attempt it is probably ok. There are significant issues but all part of the learning curve. I guess that now with babies and all I am rushing things and often I am not happy with the outcome since I know I probably could have done it better. But I must compromise: It has taken me one and a half years to get this far! This is going to be a long journey. But sometimes, as I see the hull emerge plank by plank, I feel like a child again!

Thanks Patrick! (Of course I did choose the best angles to take photos) Turning it RC is a temptation! But I would need to invest time to learn about RC as I know nothing about it and money and both are in very short supply right now. Maybe the next (bigger) one!

Planking continues! Thanks Druxey, indeed this boat was intended to be a learning tool as well as a model. I have certainly learned a lot so far! This scale I believe is the most difficult to work at. The planks now are 60 to 70 cm long and all imperfections appear huge! Also, wood needs to be chosen carefully to avoid twisted grain. I have standardised a way of producing planks and I am learning from my mistakes. Still, it is a lengthy and difficult process to produce each plank although both the twist and the spilling are now getting easier. Some photos of the progress so far. When the steamed ribs are in place the planks will hopefully align. Then the screws will go, the temp frames will be removed and the screw holes plugged with tree nails. Then filler will go in the gaps between the planks from both sides and the hull will be sanded. I hope this will produce a reasonably smooth hull.

I was catching up with your log Patrick and I started thinking "where is the galley" and voila! last post answered this one I loved the picture with all 5 decks in a row. I think the 4th one up is for me, having cocktails as the sun sets. Lovely work, very nice!

Actually there are 3 progressively more difficult planks left each side before things get easier. The boat is so large that each 100 cm maple sheet gives about 3 planks only! The ruler in the next photo is 50 cm long. As the twist gets worse, it is more difficult to define the shape as even the cardboard resists going into place. It took a few tries to get the template right. It had to be done in 4 segments which are glued together, now waiting for the glue to set. I have a suspicion though that my planking is actually wrong. This is due to the garboard plank that i feel does not have the right shape. It should go a bit further up in the stern and bow and be thinner in the middle. This way, the rest of the planks would need less spilling. Also, I now realise that the rebate line needs to be cut with extreme care and also that the planks at this scale need to be prepared very carefully as well. I was very sloppy and now all defects appear huge! Lessons learned (the hard way). Anyway, despite all these, it is starting to look like a boat! View from the bow View from the stern

Thanks John, indeed I think I ve cracked this. The twist is causing lots of problems when dry fitting the plank during the actual making. 2 more to go each side though and then it will get much easier as I ll be at the transom.

Indeed, Allan, Druxey is right. The boat I am building turned out to be really complex! I ve cracked the planking, still a handful though with each plank 60+ cm long and 2 mm thick...