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Bedford

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Everything posted by Bedford

  1. Gary, "elegant and utilitarian" is what makes the craftsmanship of old so very beautiful that even a 119 year old tug boat is a thing of beauty (see S.T. Waratah) and something I strive to achieve. I let the function dictate to basic form then fine tuned it to please they eye.
  2. I'm reminded of making the spars for my boat and the realisation that I could have three near round spars or three perfectly round tooth picks.
  3. Ah yes the old boat build three step. One step forward and two steps backwards! Never mind Chris, you'll get there and more importantly you'll be happy with it. I had an old town plastic canoe which I had to sell to make way for my dinghy build but it had a hand hold in the breast hook / deck at each end so I just made an eye splice in three strand rope around the hand grip and left the line long enough to almost reach the forward roof rack and attached a dog clip by way of another eye splice. I then had a short webbed strap with an eye in each end that went around the roof rack for the dog clip to attach to. This had the effect of creating a fixed length lanyard with which to set the longitudinal position of the canoe on the car while providing the required mechanical restriction against it sliding forward in an accident. I used a ratchet strap to do the same thing aft, this allowed me to pull the canoe against the forward strap. Then just two straps over the hull. Why have I told you this? Well if you went this way you wouldn't need cleats but I'd recommend two screw pad eyes such as the last one pictured in your previous post and I'd probably through bolt them.
  4. Mark, I bought the #2 but decided it looked so nice with just the #1 that it didn't need the #2 and the #1 is a lot easier to re-finish because it's just a case of wash down and reapply. Having said that, if I did another one I might do #2 on the thwarts etc. Here is an oar rest in place and I found that a simple "postie" rubber band should hold the oar easily and effectively.
  5. Thanks Mark, I let the job guide the shape and I'm happy with the result. I use Deks Olje #1 for the interior, all that hoop pine was almost white when I built it but now has a beautiful warm honey colour to it.
  6. It is truly written that a wooden boat will always have work to be done. In my case not a lot although I did recently wash the interior and re-oil it, a very easy task which proves my decision to oil the interior was valid. I always have trouble stowing the oars when I decide to motor or sail and they generally end up in the way but the other day I came up with a solution. I've made rests for the oars that will slip into the aft most inwale space so I just have to swing the oars astern and drop them into the rest. I'm now just trying to find an easy way to strap them down.
  7. I've mentioned before that in the kit the cat davits only had a single line 1:1 pull which is wrong, I'd imagine maybe 6:1 but 4:1 at least. So I turned double sheaves to go in the cat davits a while back and today I made two double blocks to complete the set. They look a bit furry in the pics but in the flesh they're good and I found that by "sawing" a piece of cord back and forth in line with the pull I was able to round down the dummy sheaves in the blocks so I'm well pleased with that. When the ship goes into the display case it will have one anchor fully stowed and one hanging from the davit.
  8. I've obviously slowed down a bit on this build, I went in flat out for weeks but that gets too much so I've been doing other things. Among those other things I've turned a new "plug" for the scroll saw I have. When I did the hand rail the huge gaps around the blade and the dreadfully made hold down foot made the job very difficult so I turned a new plug which supports small pieces much better and while trying that out I put an after market blade in and tried it without the foot and found I no longer need a foot so there's a fiddly part I don't have to make now. An advantage of the new plug is I can orientate the slot on any 90 degree increment I like which keeps it away from snagging small thin fiddly bits.
  9. I have a question for the professor. I would have made the fairlead slots by drilling a hole at each end to allow swarf to fall out and then milled the stock in between. Is there a reason you opted for the drill and cut method that I'm missing?
  10. I made a block to mount on the dial gauge base so I had an adjustable level rest to get the shroud tables nice and level. For some I just clamped a plank between larger tables so it would follow the curve of the deck. The plans call for a bit of string between two dowels to act as hand rails on the stairways. I don't know about anyone else but if I was building a royal yacht for King George II I wouldn't be doing that so I made them out of walnut.
  11. Time for shroud tables, first step lash down the ship to the build frame to keep the hull level to allow the tables to be attached level
  12. I've made more progress, 1st instead of using 6mm dowel to make the flue for the galley stove I used 6mm brass tube, it looks good painted black. Then I moved onto the brass rails, I have no idea what they're called but they took a lot of fiddling to get them shaped and fitted. There is still some fine tuning to do on them. I don't know if I mentioned it before but I also turned up double sheaves for the cat davits because there is no way those anchors were raised with a single line offering no mechanical advantage. It has to be 4 to 1 at least.
  13. I've mentioned a block of river red gum I have in a few other builds, I like to put a little of it in every build because it's such a beautiful Aussie timber and it machines very well. In this case I've machined a strip of holes to separate into the freeing ports.
  14. I've been fitting the knights heads/bollards and you'll see a piece of sheet brass bent to straddle the walnut cap strip. This was first used to protect one part of railing while sanding adjacent pieces but now I've drilled the guide hole for the knights head dowels. It's such a simple way to keep the hole in the centre of the strip. I would have left the knights heads varnished if they were walnut but they are beech so I decided to paint them red which most fixed tie off points would be anyway. I've also made and attached the stern lanterns. I've come across a problem I had with the Bluenose kit I did years ago in that while the walnut plank stock varnished normally, the thicker square stock doesn't seem to let the varnish dry. From memory it took up to 2 weeks on the Bluenose and it's been 4 days for the cat davits and adjacent bollards and they are still a little sticky. Does anyone know anything about this?
  15. Since this ship has quite a few knights heads which all require the same shaping I milled a piece of scrap brass to accept the timber sizes required and then milled two right angle grooves for the file to follow and glued in a stop so they will all come out the same.
  16. Well Chris, I saw you're "likes" on the Model Ship World FB page and followed the link to find this thread so I'll add my comments here as well. I crew the S.T. Waratah on Sydney Harbour. She is still coal fired and very original. We strive to maintain original equipment in the original ways and only add modern equipment as is sensibly required for safe navigation. The model is quite well detailed and includes little things we have added like the wing awnings on the wheelhouse, the life jacket boxes which are either side of both the fore and aft accommodation hatches and one either side of the upper engine room as well as the aft awning and the small square plastic drinking water tank under the original cylindrical tank on the boat deck (we couldn't keep rust out of the water) It should be noted that all such modifications can be easily removed to return her to original. I'm not into card models but do have a set of plans I bought from SHF which portray her at approx 1/33 scale so 1 metre long. She's a beautiful old girl!
  17. Messis would you mind measuring the length and diameter of the falconnets for me, just the main body of the gun. I might turn some up for my R.C.
  18. Thanks Michael, my son came for a visit last weekend and was impressed with it and with the doors and windows still to be done on the forward wall of the kings cabin he was able to see into it well enough to see what's in there so I'm glad he saw it and knows what's there first hand.
  19. It's looking good Mark, I don't know how I'd go about making that. I can build up but the idea of cutting away to reveal the shape is beyond my understanding. I know Ian Smith is building a ranger for his retirement, do you know which one it is?
  20. I would imagine that would be preserved for King George and his queen, Caroline.
  21. I've got the rudder hung now, not real happy with the chains hanging below waterline but that's where the plans put it.
  22. Thanks for the input kirill, I might have to do some investigating on that. Mark I'm high and dry but there's a hell of a lot of water going down the Nepean through Camden and it's all joining the spill from Waragamda Dam and head for Penrith & Windsor. I agree that there would be various tones in the finish, there are 3 distinct tones at work here but I'm hoping that with all the handling I've given them and their exposure to oxygen they will become less different over time.
  23. I've got the decorations done on both sides now, more frustration because the opposite castings were different lengths and sizes so it made fitting them a bit of a puzzle and I had to re-arrange them a bit on the starboard side to make them fit but they're on. I've also finished the stern decoration, the hardest part there was fitting the lower two either side of the rudder. I found the radius of the curved section of the transom and drilled a hole through some hard wood with a 32mm speed bore which was the closest to the correct size then cut the wood through the hole to give me a mold to hold in the vice. Then I annealed the castings, laid them in the curved mold and tapped them into the curve of the mold using another piece of wood as a drift so as not to mark them. A little bit of adjusting and they fit beautifully. Unfortunately they are now a slightly different colour but I can't do anything about that, I tried gold paint but couldn't find one worth spit!
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