Bedford

Oh Robbyn, Robbyn, Robbyn, the shrouds are the nice part !

There are hundreds and hundreds of knots to be done on the ratlines!

In all hoesty though, there was a pic posted a while back when you were asking how the shrouds should go over the mast, it showed how to tie the ratlines

Use the knot shown as it will look right and it will be easy once you get the hang of it. I use a long pair of angle nosed tweezers to pull the line through the knot and you end up doing an action not unlike crocheting. You can also use the tweezers to slide the knot up and down the shroud to get it nice and neat, just grab hold of the shroud with the tweezers ever so lightly and then push the knot by sliding them up or down accordingly.

Cut the line to about two feet long, run it through the wax then start, I leave a  bit at the last knot incase it comes lose so cut about an inch out. keep going up the shroud and when you have used up your two feet of line just use a tooth pick or similar to apply a small amount of pva to the outer knots, don't worry about the inner ones because if the outer ones can't come lose neither can the inner ones.

When the glue has had time to set cut all the tails off leaving avery short tail.

You may find the rigging is quite stress relieving, it is repetitive but not difficult, once you have it sorted you can just do it on auto pilot which leaves your mind free to relax but not so much that you can start thinking about other stuff.

Robbyn, I am sure my first shrouds and very similar to yours, I would be well happy with them.

Well done.

As TMC said "not bad for a teacher"   I may have left a bit of qualifying dialogue out of that quote but

Good to see you back on deck.

You know it isn't hard to make dead eyes and blocks, I have had to do a few. Use a stanley knife.

Use a piece of mast dowel and form the dead eye by drilling the three holes into the end of the dowel and sand the end to the convex shape then trim excess diameter off the dowel with a knife ( careful now ) I lay the dowel on the table and press the knife into the dowel parallel to the end and as far in as it needs to be to give the thickness you need. Roll the dowel so the knife cuts a slit around the dowel.

Now when you cut into the dowel from the end to reduce the diameter, you just take a little at a time, the blade will stop at the cut if you don't push too hard. When you have the diameter right sand it a bit if needed and then start filing the groove for the shroud or you can also do this by rolling the dowel under a knife although not as easily, rolling the dowel under the knife again, you will find that the knife will work it's way most of the way through the dowel to cut the block from the dowel, you will need to lightly sand the centre of the block but the knife will leave a very smooth finish on the whole.

You can make blocks similarly but in that case you drill the holes across the axis of the dowel and form all but one end of the block before cutting it from the dowel with a modelling saw.

I realise this is a bit late as you have already ordered replacements but worth keeping in mind for the next time.

Steve

I would stand correction, especially from TMC, but isnt the C in CA based on Cyanide??????

This is a substance to be avoided as much as possible.

As for you having your own SYREN call, I guess you must, just look at all the sailors who have become shipwrecked in your build thread, there are heaps of us following your every move

I assume the small bright shiny thing you mention is some kind of diamond cutting bit for use in making the Syren

I hear what you are saying about not starting the rigging again or stressing too much due to colour but I will make this note. I have been aboard Endeavour, Bounty (the Australian one), Duyfken and Batavia and although I can't be sure of the Batavia's ratlines I can tell you the ones on the other three are NOT tarred. I have climbed some of them. They are an expendible and very easily replaced item and there would have been tons of short off cuts of ropes onboard ships sp why bother tarring them. Also if you think about it, sailing in tropical waters with tarred ratlines would have renderred the sailors hands sticky with tar, surely not a good thing.

You know that feeling you get when you are helping a student and the penny drops, they get it! They appreciate your time!

So do I

One of the biggest things to remember with rigging is that it is part of a complex machine. It all has to work.

The first ship is very confusing but the next will make sense and you will understand how it all works so it will be much easier.

Think about what each line does as you attach it, don't stress if you don't understand it, without sails attached it won't all make perfect sense and given the quality of the instructions they will not be accurate anyway, but you will get a bit of an understanding.

I have made three ships and the one I am planning now (you've seen the masts) has no plans or instructions, it is all out of my head except for hull profiles. I will rig it to my understanding of rigging and it will work. Remember that the ships were designed by naval achitects, not sailors. I would imagine that as soon as a new ship put to sea some of the running rigging was changed, relocated, to make it more user friendly so even the best plans from original construction could be wrong an hour after she puts to sea.

Just to confuse, sorry, clarify things

1 attach and sieze shrouds to mast

2 insert wire jig into SHIP dead eye

3 wrap shroud around top dead eye

4 locate top dead eye onto the other end of the jig

5 adjust shroud around top dead eye

6 secure shroud in place, if cord is waxed heat from fingers under pressure will suffice.

7 remove jig and sieze top dead eye

8 align dead eyes so the three holes in them form arrows pointing up for the top and down for the ship mounted one

9 introduce the lanyard, tie a knot in one end and pass the other end through the side hole of the top dead eye from the deck side

10 run lanyard through side hole in ship dead eye from the sea side

11 run lanyard through middle hole in the top dead eye from the deck side

12 continue till you have it through all dead eye holes then run back to the top of the top dead eye and tie off around the shroud

This seems to have become confusing, I don't know where you are up to but - the two corresponding dead eyes should be as shown in waynes pictures so the three holes in the top dead eye should form the three points of an arrow pointing UP, the three holes in the corresponding dead eye below should form the points of an arrow pointing down. In other words when you look at the finished product the three lines of lanyard should be short - long - short.

The lanyard is the "shoe lace" if you will, that ties and tensions the two dead eyes together.

The wire jig is placed through a hole in the dead eye attached to the ship then after you have done the seizing of the shroud around the mast take one line down and around the upper dead eye which you now put onto the wire jig so you can pull a little tension on the shroud as it goes around the dead eye and heads back up itself. Then I sueeze firmly with my finger and thumb on the two sections of shroud that have now been brought together above the shroud dead eye while removing it from the wire jig. The squeezing and heat from my fingers makes the wax hold the lines together until I can get a knot around them and start the sieze.

Then do the second one as you suggested but I only tension one on each side at a time to help keep the strain even.

If there are an uneven number then as suggested by someone above, just run it over the lot and back down to the other side, trust me, no-one will ever realise you did that and it will look fine

Excellent tutorial Wayne. The only thing I would add is that I bend a piece of brass wire that will fit through the holes in the dead eyes into a U shape  such that I can feed it through a hole in the bottom dead eye and another in the top dead eye.

This holds them all at the same height when you are setting the length of the shroud.

Do it with the dead eyes the wrong way up so the single hole is at the top on the shroud table and the bottom on the shroud, ie two holes closest together, that way you only need a single brass wire to locate, if you try and do it with the dead eyes in the correct orientation you need two brass wires twisted together and exactly aligned to hold both dead eyes by two holes to stop them rotating as you apply tension.

Remember when bending the brass wire that when you rotate the dead eyes back to their correct orientation the gap between the two dead eyes will increas marginally.

Make sense ?

As for building a pinnace, all I can say is when telling your pupils, and friends for that matter, be very very concise with your pronounciation.

I was going to mention the rigging "FUZZIES" because I could see it in the photo. The diluted glue sounds good to fix what is there. I use bees wax and run all cord through it before attaching to the ship. It works quite well. I even had black wax for my first build to give that tarred effect to the standing rigging but have not seen it available since.

I tend to knead it first to soften it and then wrap it around the cord and squeeze hard whle drawing the cord through it.

Gee Robbyn, all the tips that are comming to mind now that you have started rigging, sorry I didn't think of them before.

I have been told to wet all the cord and hang it out to dry with weights on it to take any stretch out of it but I only did that on my second build and since the first one, "launched" in '97 has not sagged yet I have not bothered on subsequent builds.

The wax or something simmilar is really recommended though to defeat the fuzzies, not candle wax though, you need something pure and acid free.

As for the fuse wire, yes it has become obsolete here too, no fuses in any house built in at least the last 15 years or more. Being an electrical fitter I have a reasonable amount of it lying around that I was going to throw out until I discovered its usefulness in ships.

It is not copper, it is a resistance wire which has a shiny coating and is a single strand. I would imagine there are still old houses in the US with fuses, maybe ask a sparkie. (electrician)  but I would think a very fine galvanised tie wire would work the same way. For that matter you could use a brass wire and a product I have seen on here but can't remember the name but it blackens brass.

Talking of securing blocks to masts etc. It's too late for this build but you can do it with subsequent builds.

I buy household fuse wire and wrap it losely around something outside and leave it there to weather. I gets very dull and rough looking.

I use this as a faux rope, I bend a length of it into half then twist it together to form a rope leaving a small loop at the start to attach to the mast etc.

This then wraps around the block and back onto itself with another twist.

I find it perfectly acceptable to look at and very easy to do.

Not sure if the weathering process can be accelerated with heat or something but even if you use shiny and new, it will dull off in time.

Steve

I never spray a tallship, always brush, you are less likely to get runs from trying to get coverage into all the nooks and crannies.

I would build all the masts and yards etc then varnish them then fit them. So much easier to work on all of it that way.

I do two coats because the first stands the grain up and makes it rough, a light sand and a second coat and all is well.

Only other tip at this point is don't just tie knots. Do proper knots, it will look so much better when finished.

I wrap the shroud around the deadeye and squeeze the end back onto the shroud with a tiny bit of pva glue on my fingers. This will hold the ends together and I then wrap black thread around the shroud from the deadeye upwards for about the same length as the diameter of the deadeye and then tie it off and put a little more pva on my fingers and rolling the bound joint between my fingers to work the glue into the binding and it will never let go.

As for cannon close to stairs, hell they even had them in the great cabin on a lot of ships. Look at Jeronimos Bon Homme Richard.

Space is at a premium when spending months at sea with labour intensive vessels and no refirdgeration.

I see no problem with the placement of the guns.

I just noticed the foam work cradle you have for the SF. Love that idea !

I have made an adjustable work stand which is very useful but sometimes when you are working on this side and that, turning it constantly, the stand can be a pain.

I shall have to keep my eyes open for a suitable piece of foam !

The ship is looking good Robbyn, the riggin is a big job, don't think you will have it knocked over in no time.

Steve

Bedford, I bow to your soldering experience fore it far exceeds mine but I always thought flux was a necessity...my solder is called 'grade 60/40 solid... is that a resin core? Would it say it on the roll?

Not quibbling, just asking... you know... learn something new everyday... use it in every way...

I never mind a question, hell, I have asked thousands !!

If your solder says "solid" then it is not resin cored and you would need flux. Personally I would consign it to Davey Jones' Locker and buy some resin cored.

Resin cored will say "resin cored" and if it is an old roll and you can't read the label then pull on the end, stretch it until it breaks. You should be able to see the resin cores. There are normally a few cores that are like veins running through the length of the solder. It is brown so easy to see. If not sure then heat up the iron and melt some solder, the resin will become apparent as a brown fluid around the solder.

I have never added flux to a solder joint I have done at home. The resin in the solder is more than adequate.

OK ! Soldering.

I am an electrical fitter, I have made thousands of solder joints with copper and 60/40 resin cored solder.

Forget silver solder for non load bearing joints, you don't need it and it may require specialised heating implements and flux.

Copper is made to be soldered with 60/40 resin cored, they go together like peas in a pod.

Use a mains powered iron, 25watt should be good.

MAKE DAMN SURE THE COPPER IS CLEAN!!!!

I use wet and dry sanding paper to make it shiny and don't touch it where you are going to solder.

Do not set it up on a wooden board unless you are well and truly used to doing it as if you take too long the wood will start to burn and the smoke will wreck the joint.

DO put solder on the iron first, just a little, this increases the contact area between the iron and the job and the heat transfer is much more efficient. For small jobs you may find the initial blob of solder on the iron is sufficient, you will see it flow onto the joint when the job is hot enough.

Solder flows to heat so if you need to add more to the joint then do so on the edge of the joint and it will flow in.

If I was doing those joints I would use a wood base but use a household tile and after sanding the copper clean bend the "U" with tools and leave long ends on it so you can tape it down. Then bend a very short right angle into the shaft part and tape it down so the "L" is in place against the "U" The reason for the "L" is to give more contact area to the joint.

Meanwhile the iron has been getting hot.

Touch the solder to the iron and if it melts quickly the iron is hot enough, touch the solder carrying face of the iron to the job and hold until you see the solder flow. You can add more and if it only flows to such an extent that the blob has ceased to be a blob and started to flow but wont spread then definately touch a bit more solder onto the joint because that will add flux and help the solder flow.

If you get the joint hot enough then when you remove the iron I would drag it down the shaft and this will thin the excess solder down along the shaft rather than leaving a huge blob. It is worth noting that solder has a high lead content so use it in a well ventilated area but more interestingly to modellers, it can be trimmed with a sharp knife. ROBBYN, BE VEWY, VEWY CAREFUL

I made this using an electric iron as well as a larger gas heated iron, it was 50/50 from memmory, resin cored solder.

Fitted to a 3.5Kg vehicle, I can lift the car by the bullbar and it is brass, not copper, copper is easier to solder.

Absolutely beautiful

Yes Lami, info please!

I saw this on the home page and had to find the build log. There is so much I would like to know about this build.

Steve

Good on you for doing the scratch building Robbyn, in my view that's what makes you a good modeller rather than just someone how puts a kit together.

Re your bike trip I have one question.............................how are you going to safely carry the SF on a bike so you can work on it while you are there

Absolutely magnificent

Yes I an saying DO NOT attach the dead-eyes and chain plates yet because you have no accurate way of getting the correct angles.

Not sure what you mean by "racks"

Robbyn, Robbyn, Robbyn.......................

I am sure I have said this before but it has to look right to you.

If someone else looks at it they will be overwhelmed with all the detail there is to see and all the fine detail work you do will not really be noticed anyway. You do it for YOU.

when it comes to doing the chain plates keep in mind they need to continue in the line of the shroud through the shroud table and onto the hull, don't mount them vertically. To this end I don't attach the chain plates until I have the masts stepped and standing.Then run a shroud line from its point of attachment on the mast, down past its deadeye location on the shroud table and to the side of the hull. This will give you the correct point of attachment to the hull to get your angles right, every one will be different. I am sure there are other ways to get it right but this is how I started doing it long before the interweb thingy and it works so well and is so simple,

Now, tools......

You NEED to get yourself a razor plane or mini plane whose blade is an old fashioned razor blade. It has myriad uses and you will find it invaluable if you know how to use a plane, ie with the grain instead of against.

You will find it a great tool for tapering the masts and yards, start by planing the last 20% and turn the dowell as you go, go around two times making sure the second time takes off the edges left by the previous cut. Then start again planing the last 40% making sure you get good shavings all the way, then do 60% and so on, you will end up with a nice taper which can easily be sanded to a good smooth taper..

Love the grating, well done and I love the third pic above, the whole weather deck from the bow. Looks great!

Catfalls is another term.

If you think of them as cats paws and the lines dropping from them as the cats claws you will see where the name comes from.

Now, stop dreaming and get back to work !