Dziadeczek

Masa, you did not align both rulers precisely - hence you have this discrepancy. Go ahead and ALIGN them again. I have a feeling that everything will be OK, judging by your photographs.

You have to do the burning off rather quickly, passing your thread over the flame, otherwise you run a risk of burning away the thread itself, especially polyester which melts in heat easily.

Tamiya masking tape

Greg, It doesn't matter if the handle is made of aluminum or some kind of plastic, or similar. What matters is the material used for those jaws. It should be hardened steel, so it doesn't wear off quickly. I just had a thought. What if I use a 3 jaw chuck from Dremel (it looks like it does have hardened steel jaws - I bought them for my self-made serving machine, to keep my ropes tightly apart while serving). It is easily obtainable from most hardware stores for little money. I just need to fashion a shaft for it from a piece of a brass rod . Drill the rod on one end to accommodate the length of a drill bit placed inside and cut a proper thread for the shaft to be able to screw on the Dremel chuck. I checked it, by the way, - their chuck tightly holds # 80 drill bit! And everything else up to 3 mm thick. If I want it, I can attach on the oposite end of this rod some sort of a spinning head, wooden ball or similar, to hold it comfortably in the palm of my hand. By the way, the thread size for Dremel shaft is proprietary, but the size of a cutter M7 x 0.75 will work just as well.

I too am looking for a new pin vise to replace my old "General" brand vise, which recently developed a round hole in the center of this 'cross' (see red arrow) and is unusable for the smallest drill bits. I resorted to attaching a separate pin holder to it, but this is only a temporary measure... Greg, can you tell me, if your new vise can firmly hold a drill bit # 80? I don't mind paying more for Starrett, but 90 (!) dollars is a bit stretch for my pocket... 😬 Also, I am looking for a vise that has these two double ended collets, with two different openings on their BOTH sides - for convenience's sake. As far as I know, Starrett doesn't make such a vise; you have to buy two of their separate vises to accommodate drill bits from # 80 up to 3 mm thick. 120 bucks later...

If the bed of your lathe is too short for your masts/spars, turn them in sections, drill holes on both ends (also on the lathe) and insert short pegs there and connect them (wood glue) together. If both pieces are the same thickness, you won't see the connection.

This is how it looks like on the Polish sailing ship "Dar Młodzieży" (Gift of the Youth) - the green area on the right.

Wow! Attention to detail is unbelieveable! Very inspirational! Thanks!

Hi Michael, I am scratchbuilding this exact model in the same 1:48 scale, following the books by J. Boudriot. It is a BIIIG puppy! If you want me to send you exact dimentions, I willl do it. Suffice it to say now, you would absolutely neccesarily need a separate space (a workshop of some kind) to build it. Kitchen table will not do it!!! And prepare yourself for YEARS of work! If you want to build it exactly like the books describe it, it is a monumental task! But, it is doable, especially now that the addendum (all frame profiles and the keel) is available from Ancre. When I started to build it, this addendum was not available, so I had to hand draw all missing profiles, since Boudriot only shows the so called, station frames (every 4th). It took a long time to draw all of them by hand, since I did not own a computer program. There is LOOOOTS of wood cutting, sanding and glueing, so several power tools are a must! Right now I am approaching the running rigging stage and sewing sails from thin muslin. Here is a handful of randomly selected pics of this model. Regards, Thomas

Ronald, Check it out, what Gebhard Kammerlander does with wet wood strips and a hot soldering iron. The video is rather old and not the best quality, and in German, but you can see what is possible with this technique and what is not. You do not have to use his electric plank bender, just a regular soldering iron should suffice (with a heat control, if possible, not to burn the wood). Besides, the degree of wood bending also depends on wood species your planks are made of. Some wood is quite brittle, some very stiff and springly and some very pliable (pear, and somewhat stiffer cherry). The thinner the plank is, the more you can bend it, all the way up to 360 degrees! Pre wet your planks in luke warm water for 5 - 10 minutes and, while they are wet, heat bend them to a desired curve. Sometimes you have to do it in stages, wetting them and bending, and so on. If you overbend your wood, you can unbend it - using the same technique. Your planks look rather brittle, I don't know the wood specie (perhaps mahogany?), but you might try to replace them with some fruitwood and heat bend them, instead of using the planks supplied in the kit. Good luck! Thomas

Why did you enclose plans for the USS Constitution? This link Ship Model Laboratory - Centre for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation - Texas A&M University (tamu.edu) explain the whole process well, and even though it doesn't apply to the Wappen von Hamburg, but the principle is the same.

Aren't you going to cover these "holes" with a waterway strip?

This painting reminds me of another one - a large mural in the Air Museum in Palm Springs, California... Different ships, different planes though, but... Thanks! 🙂

I recently turned all yards for my "Frenchie" on my Sherline lathe (long bed type). With the exception of a few shortest ones, all others were too long to do it from one square piece of wood. So I had to do them in sections (three), two 'arms' and one center octagonal piece. Afterwards I glued them together with round pegs (flutted dowels) and Titebond glue into predrilled holes. The joints are invisible.

"The Home Machinist's Handbook" by Doug Briney and "Tabletop Machining" by Joe Martin Both are talking mostly about the Sherline, but general principles are the same for all.

With a metal lathe you can turn soft metals (brass, copper, aluminum and perhaps even soft steel) as well as wood, but with a wood lathe you can only turn wood. Good quality lathe (Sherline, Proxxon, Taig) doesn't come cheaply, though... On the other hand, it is an investment for life...

I once made a handful of such mini C clamps from a length of aluminium U channel, slicing it on my Preac saw into narrow sections, drilling holes and thread tapping them to match my screws. Mine have 1/2 inch throat size, but perhaps you could also find your size in a hardware store. These are not heavy duty, plenty of power to hold planks, though.

This is how it is shown on the newly (then) constructed replica of the San Salvador galleon in San Diego. Right or wrong, I don't know? And here is the USS Constitution in Charlestown

I have done some search on the silk span for sails. On this forum and elsewhere. Also bought a brochure by D. Antscherl. I am thinking about using this material for my sails. What grade (thickness) should I use? Light, medium or heavy? The scale of my model is 1:48.

Thank you all for your input. I decided to follow your advice and get a PM40 vise for my table. I'll let you know, if it fits. Thanks again, 😀 Thomas

Hi, Sometime ago I bought their compound X/Y table KT70 and now I am pondering whether I can mount on it their Proxxon machine vise MS4, and avoid these ungainly clamp jaws ? I am unable to determine this based on my search, if the two are even compatible? Neither the net, nor the original instructions clearly state this. Did anyone managed to do it? How? Thanks in advance! Thomas

Anchor is just as good as DMC, if not better.

THANKS. 😀 Yes, I did it. (The pic I attached is now, sort of, old...) The more current state of affairs is here (entry # 60) + recently I attached all 5 anchors as well.

I know, I bought that brochure from Ancre. But, it was only AFTER I drew the remaining frames by myself, so, for me it was like a proverbial "mustard after dinner". You are right, my model is in 1:48 scale. I intend to build it fully masted and rigged, with sails, if my endurance will permit. Whether it is built strictly in Admiralty style or not, is of less importance to me. I used this name remembering all those models with unplanked lower hulls and partially planked decks. OK, perhaps the better name is - a Navy Board ship model! It is some kind of hybrid, I think. What I wanted to show here is the way I built it - in the H. Hahn's method, upside down, mounted in a flat base board, with those extensions of frames (later on to be cut off). Yes, that way is a lot more wasteful of wood than shaping individual futtocks and faying them together and assembling the hull right-side up. But, at that time I was less experienced and fell that the Hahn's method was better suited for me. I also used American walnut for frames (which I wouldn't do today). Some fruitwood would be better... Overall, my model represents largely my own artistic license and not necessarily some rigid convention, Admiralty or Navy Board, or such... The principal reason for my build was to learn all those intricacies of historic ship building practices - in this case French ones. Just reading Boudriot's books was very educational, but later on building a model after them, was an entirely different quality... 😄 Best regards, Thomas

Years ago I built my French 74 gun ship upside down, mounted in H. Hahn's building base, following his method (sort of). I remember, I had to add (draw) the remaining frames, since J. Boudriot only has shown in his books the so called, station frames. The hull turned out OK, not perfect though, but - for the first scratch built, Admiralty type model, - acceptable. Right now I am starting to install the running rigging on it. Thomas