Bob Cleek

If anybody is game to try to rewire what is most likely a cheesy snapped together handle heating unit from 220 VAC to 110 VAC, they're a better man than I, Gunga Din! The "head" of the device is held simply in the soldering tip socket of a common inexpensive light-weight electronics soldering iron with a single set screw. It's attached no differently than a replacement tip for a standard soldering iron made for printed circuit board work. Buying the unit at a low price would permit simply swapping the head from the 220 VAC iron to a 110 VAC iron in about two minutes' work. In case anybody unfamiliar with the Aeropiccola plank bender wonders how it works, it has a bail, as shown, which can be mounted in either of the two holes in the head. The bail has a spring loaded roller which holds the planking strip firmly against the curved head. The strip can be fed under the bail progressively to heat a specific length of the the strip. The "French curve" shaped head permits bending arcs of varying radii and is much easier to use than the currently available round-headed electric plank bender that requires the use of a forming block to define the curve. To bend a plank wider than the Aeropiccola bending head's bail will accommodate, the bail can simply be removed, the iron placed in a vise, and the bending accomplished against the hot head using both hands to hold it. If one already has one of the below pictured currently manufactured models with a round head similarly fastened to the heating handle pictured below, you can swap heads by simply loosening the set screw. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Model-Shipways-Electric-Plank-Bender/983938564?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=16284&adid=22222222222000000000&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=o&wl2=c&wl3=10352200394&wl4=pla-1103028060075&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=983938564_10000017062&wl14=electric plank bender&veh=sem&msclkid=5314eb852e0711a5e45388b1e5759f87&gclid=5314eb852e0711a5e45388b1e5759f87&gclsrc=3p.ds

From the eBay photos, it appears to be a British plug, so that would be 220 VAC. I doubt it will sell for as little as a pound. I've seen them go for some pretty amazing prices. I don't know why nobody makes these anymore. They are definitely a great tool. Finestkind! I don't know of another plank bender that allows the user as much control as this one.

Correct. For a considerable time, steamers carried sail, not only in case the engines failed, but also to extend the steamer's range, particularly in the trans-Atlantic trade It took a lot of coal to cross the Atlantic and the wind blows for free. It was not until 1892 and 1893 when Cunard launched RMS Campania and her identical twin sister RMS Lucania, that trans-Atlantic steamers abandoned their sailing rigs. Note in the photo below, Lucania still carries her masts and was capable of setting a headsail or three in an emergency, but never did. Her masts also served her cargo derricks fore and aft. They also came in handy in a few short years for radio antennas when Lucania became the first ocean-going vessel to be equipped with the new Marconi wireless system. Lucania took the Blue Ribband from her sister, Campania on her second voyage and held it for five years until the Germans built faster steam turbine powered vessels. When launched, these sisters were the largest and fastest passenger vessels in the world. It wasn't just the "belt and suspenders" redundant engineering of steamships with sailing rigs that was common until the maritime industry finally came to trust steam in the 1890's. Campania and Lucania were also the first ships to be equipped with electrical lights throughout. Note that just above the rail on the side of the bridge superstructure are two running lights, one above the other. One was electric. The other was an oil burner. One of the very few ships ever so equipped. Not only didn't they not trust steam, they had their doubts about electricity, too!

When you get the craves... call your sponsor!

Like many large steam ships in the age when steam ships also carried sail, it appears that Great Eastern flew her fore and aft gaff-headed sails from semi-permanently rigged gaff booms. The sails were furled by brailing them to the masts and gaff booms. When the sails were struck and sent down, the gaff booms remained rigged as if the sails were set, with the gaff peaks raised to the same angle as when the sails are set. The gaff booms could be unrigged and sent down for maintenance and such, but at all other times, the gaff booms stayed rigged with the sails brailed to the gaff booms and mast. In port with gaff booms raised and sails sent down.

1. The ensign is flown from the aftermost gaff peak when a ship is under sail. The halyard is lead down to a convenient cleat on the boom inboard (or sometimes at the mast) so that the halyard belaying point is easily accessible from the deck. In this fashion, the halyard moves with the gaff sail as it moves across the centerline of the vessel. 2. The ensign is flown from a staff on the centerline at the stern when the vessel is not under sail. When not under sail, the aftermost boom is secured slightly to port or starboard of the ensign staff. The ensign staff is struck and and stowed on deck when the ship is sailing. If your model will not have sails set, the ensign should be flown from the ensign staff. If the model has sails, the ensign should be flown from the aftermost gaff peak and the ensign staff should be stowed on deck. When the ensign is flown from the ensign staff, the ensign halyard and its block remain rigged at the gaff peak with the halyard belayed at its cleat. At present, photos indicate that Victory secures her aftermost boom to port of her ensign staff. I can't discern the ensign gaff peak halyard in the below picture. It may be that because she is in a dry dock and never sails, they haven't bothered to rig a gaff peak ensign halyard at all. (I don't see the boom topping lifts, either, perhaps for the same reason. The ensign in the photo is much smaller than the ensigns flown in earlier times, which were much larger for better visibility at sea.) On the other hand.... I expect the duty signalman found himself on report the day this photo was taken! Large ensign flying from the ensign staff while the ship is anchored. A spectrum of various sized ensigns were carried for various occasions.

Different ships, different long splices, I guess. Me, when I see the word Victory, I just yawn and keep on scrolling. I'd rather see a good model of a working boat than a naval vessel any day. I guess I'm just a pirate at heart.

Please read Jaager's above post again and definitely read the link listed at the beginning. This is an internet forum and free advice on the internet often costs much more in the end than one paid for it. The reader must always separate the fly specks from the pepper. Too quickly believing what you want to hear is an ever-present danger. The author of the above post is one of the most experienced and accomplished modelers on this forum. Seven members (as of this post) have endorsed his advice to you. One of those who gave Jaager's post a "thumbs up" is Chris Watton, owner of Vanguard Models and world-renowned model ship kit designer. I believe he is currently working on designing a kit model of HMS Indefatigable, a 64-gun third rate ship-of-the-line designed in 1761, which, in modeling terms, poses most of the challenges posed by any fully-rigged ship of the same period as HMS Victory. Notwithstanding the well-intentioned encouragement of some responses to your post, what does Chris Watton's endorsement of Jaager's post tell you? Choose wisely, Grasshopper. Master walking before you try to run.

Right on! Truer words were never spoken. Excel 55666 - Mitre Box w/ K5 Handle and Saw Blade - Midwest Model Railroad (midwestmodelrr.com) This will do just fine for $17.50 and you're about $150 or 25% of the way to getting your Byrnes "Jim Saw" with the sliding miter table! Byrnes Model Machines - Thickness Sander Come on now. You know you really want one. You know everybody eventually gets one and then wonders why it took them so long to getting around to it. You know it will pay for itself over time in savings over the cost of pre-cut strip wood and it's accurate to a thousandth of an inch. Set aside a few bucks a month and you'll be able to buy one without the purser ever missing it from the sugar jar. Go on! Don't be a wimp! Show some spunk! JUST DO IT!

Attach AC outlets below the rolling bench top and wire these to an extension cord that hangs from a hook on the side of the bench. You then roll the bench around and plug it in wherever's convenient like a big "power strip." I have pegboard covering all the walls of my shop bench area which aren't already covered by hanging cabinets. I also should mention that architectural recycling outfits, places like Habitat for Humanity stores, and many kitchen remodeling contractors will have used kitchen cabinets available. (Some contractors will readily give these cabinets and bases away for the taking, because the generally have to pay to take them to the dumps.) I have kitchen cabinets hung above all of my wall-mounted benches.

Oh, yeah! Copper is through the roof. The next time I need some, I'm considering going to my local scrap yard to see if they have any they'd sell me cheap. That's where the "tweakers" who steal wiring from unoccupied buildings fence heir loot.

Might I also suggest AC outlets in the front of workbenches just below the bench top?. These make it very easy to plug, unplug, and use hand-held corded power tools like Dremels and soldering irons at the bench with the cords hanging down in front of the bench rather than running across the bench top where they can foul on stuff on the bench top. Each power outlet circuit should have a ground-fault interrupter on it for those occasions when you inadvertently lay your hot soldering iron across it's plastic power cord. 15 amp service is fine for lighting and small power tools, but I'd suggest you provide 30 amp service to all outlets for when you may need it. (Like when your electric coffee pot, microwave, and portable space heater are all running at the same time. ) As you anticipate doing full-size woodworking in your shop, I think you'd also be wise to run 220 VAC to power outlets in appropriate areas. You may well come across a really great deal on a used stationary power tool that requires 220 VAC power, as all the best ones do. Having 220 VAC available, will greatly increase the number of available quality used tools for sale to pick from and if you are going to spring for a new 10" table saw or other stationary power tool, the 220 VAC will enable your stationary tool to operate at its full potential In addition to workbenches against the wall, I suggest you also acquire a free-standing workbench on locking casters that can be rolled around as the job requires. It should as big as you can make it, 8'X10', if possible, and be the same height as your table saw + router table (in the saw table extension) so the bench can serve as an extension table if needed. I've found a free-standing, solid, heavy, rolling table is necessary for working on things that are too large to fit on the wall-mounted bench, like furniture and model cases. Since you are planning on doing full-sized work, your rolling workbench should have a decent below the bench top woodworking vise mounted on it (preferably one with a raising bench-dog bar on it) and your wall-mounted bench should have the biggest machinist's vise the bench can handle (4" jaws minimum) very securely mounted on a corner of the wall-mounted bench. (Think in terms of something that will hold a workpiece rock steady while you really put your back into a pipe wrench with a breaker bar.) A large rolling workbench can have drawers and cabinets installed in the body of it for tool storage. The added weight of the tools contributes to the stability of the table. Since this workshop area will be in the back of your garage, I'd suggest you provide a way to roll your free-standing workbench and stationary power tools out to the drive way or at least to the threshold of the garage doors and, if it's not a huge undertaking, that may involve running 120 and 220 VAC outlets closer to the doors. When this is possible, and with a large fan at your back, spray painting, powered sanding, table sawing, and other messy jobs can be done without resorting to an expensive built-in sawdust and shavings vacuum system. The fan will blow a large amount of the airborne fine dust outside and save you a lot of shop cleanup time. (This practice is subject to the circumstances however... Some neighbors take exception to late-night power tool operating noise and perceive a cloud of sawdust drifting towards their front porch like it was mustard gas.) As your new workshop in the garage is presumably attached to the house and not removed some inconvenient distance away, you will almost certainly encounter the problem of household members employing your shop benches and tabletops... indeed any available horizontal surface in your shop... as a place to dump whatever they don't want to be inside the house at any given moment. Alas, as hard as I've tried, I've never discovered a solution to this problem that didn't involve getting a divorce. If anybody's solved this problem, please share your secret!

If the comments and complaints I read in the plastic kit modeling forums are any indicationi, it seems there's an ongoing problem with the fitting accuracy of a lot of plastic model kits. Apparently, it's not all that easy to manufacture plastic parts to the degree of fit accuracy many plastic modelers expect. I'd expect fitting plastic planking would be a nightmare if the problems that are encountered just fitting two plastic hull halves together without gaps is any indication.

I thought I'd "amassed a notable library over my adult lifetime," but I'm truly humbled. I wonder who created that spreadsheet. That was a monumental task in itself. However, please Roger, let's not draw attention to this opportunity until we've had a chance to savor each and every mouthwatering morsel of it before it turns into a "Black Friday Sale!" You can tell a lot about a man by the books he reads. Mr. Curry is a guy I'd have loved to meet! I'm sorry I never got to know him.

I've heard rumors of a Foredom 45 degree adapter for their standard handpieces, but I've never seen one. That said, the belt-driven dental engine handpiece selection is unlimited and angled dental engine handpieces come in a myriad of shapes and sizes. Particularly for working inside a hull, the dental handpieces, which are designed to do fine drilling and grinding in the confines of the human mouth, are the right tool for the job. That would require acquiring a dental engine which is an expensive proposition at around $1,000 for an engine and $200 and up per handpiece, but belt-driven, foot controlled bench model dental engines, while still made, are very common on the used market because many dental labs are now going over to micromotor technology. I was recently able to come across an unused Buffalo Dental Co. bench dental engine and handpiece on eBay for seventy-five bucks. It was listed as a "inoperable steam punk" decorator piece. Upon examining the photos closely, It looked brand new, but was missing a belt and a couple of the belt wheels. The manufacturer told me they had parts available, so I decided to take a chance. It turned out to be missing the belt, wheels, and motor brushes, which cost me another fifty bucks or so from the manufacturer. I suspect it was stock on hand somewhere that had been cannibalized for the missing parts as a matter of convenience and the parts never replaced. Working dental engines and handpieces can be found on eBay for five hundred dollars or less these days. Having a Foredom, I found the dental engine a much better option for very fine work. While I have an older Foredom flex-shaft tool and the two most common handpieces, the collet head and the Phillips chuck, I prefer hanging mine from the Foredom hanger that clamps to the lip of a bench. This allows me the option of putting it wherever I desire on whichever bench I am using. While other's like the benchtop base, before I had the hanging post, I found that with the bench top mount the flex-shaft was always getting in the way of things on the benchtop and, when I was focusing on the handpiece, it was all too easy to pull the shaft across the top of the bench and foul something on the bench with potentially disastrous consequences. The choice of mount is obviously a matter of the operator's preference and I'd say that, considering the relatively small cost involved, getting the hanging yoke and hanging post in addition to the bench base is probably a smart move because you'll have twice the flexibility is setting up for any particular job (e.g. sanding frames inside a hull.) As for Foredom handpieces, you will want both the chuck and the collet basic handpieces. You will also want to purchase a collet set for the collet handpiece. The collet makes swapping 1/8" Dremel bits more convenient than the chuck and if you have a 3/32" collet, you can do the same for standard dental burrs which are available online and of much higher quality and variety than the `1/8" shaft bits offered by Dremel. (You may even get your dentist to save you his old dull dental burrs, which remain just fine for woodworking.) You will also need a "reduction chuck," which permits the use of very small drill bits. This is essentially a small pin vise with a 1/8" shaft. (There's one demonstrated in the video below.) Before you take a look at the Foredom drill press, I would strongly suggest you consider the Vanda-Lay drill press, or, better yet, the Vanda-Lay "mill/drill" with an X-Y table and an optional Z axis as well, The Vanda-Lay system is a reasonably affordable alternative to a much more expensive dedicated heavy-duty micro-mill. The Vanda-Lay drill press is similar to, but probably at a lower price point than the Foredom drill press, and nearly all the reasons a modeler would want a small drill press are reasons why they'd find they needed an X-Y table on it as well. The last time I spoke with Vanda-Lay (a family owned business,) they assured me that they could provide a holder for the 1" Foredom handpieces instead of the Dremel Moto-tool on special order. (Milling one yourself would be an easy task if you had access to a larger mill.) See: https://www.vanda-layindustries.com/ If you haven't seen this video yet, it's worth a watch. The guy is a dentist and master modeler and gives a great overview of rotary tool options.

Glad to see your surgery was a success and you're back at your bench. Your work is truly and inspiration. Thanks for sharing it with us.

They used raw, non-prestretched canvas, tacked down around the edges over and Irish felt underlayment. They threw hot water on the canvas to get it to stretch tightly over the shape of the roof. Some actually applied the paint over the canvas when it was still damp. I wouldn't recommend using waterbased paint for this purpose. I'd use a solvent based "porch enamel." It's best to use an enamel that chalks when it ages, in order to minimize paint buildup on the canvas. The enamel paint was thinned well to soak into the canvas easily.

Common practice was to lay tongue and groove planking over beams, lay Irish (flax) felt (similar to a thick tar paper) bedded in white lead bedding compound on top of the planking, and canvas nailed, then shrunk in place with boiling water, which was then painted to produce a watertight covering. (This same method was used for railroad coaches of the period, as well.)

Someday, hopefully soon. Spare time is in precious short supply these days and SWMBO lays claim to most of it!

Goodness! I certainly hope not! Yes, the stainless steel fittings and all the modern design below is rather jarring to a "classicist's eye." In this day and age, though, the modern materials promise a much longer-lived boat than the traditional wooden construction. I'm not a big fan of it, mind you, but if I were spending that kind of money on a cruising boat, I'd sure be looking for something like that boat for the lower maintenance, if nothing else. Maintenance aside, I'd prefer a laid wood deck and bronze hardware to the modern steel construction: The original Dyarchy built of wood is a much "saltier" boat. I have a set of the original Dyarchy plans and a license to build one model from them. I hope to get around to it one of these days.

Keith, as a former classic yacht broker, I'd say $380,000 is way more than this NY30 is really worth. I don't doubt they have every bit of that into her, but the market is in the toilet right now and they are asking a lot of money for the "cachet." That kind of money will buy a lot of boat in that class these days. If money's no object, you and TBlack might want to consider that this one: sold for and asking price of only around $200,000 with the purchase price likely considerably less, and it's a new steel hull with state-of-the-art construction and technology: https://dailyboats.com/boat/162322-buy-laurent-giles-54-steel-gaff-rigged-cutter-for-sale

I think Lieste has found some authority for the "screening" explanation. Good research work!

I considered and discarded all the explanations mentioned, save this one. The trouble I have with it, though, is that as soon as a black powder cannon was fired from that embrasure, it would be pretty obvious that it was there and, at the firing distances involved, the movement of the crew and running out the gun would probably not have been all that discernable. Furthermore, for the purposes of concealment, canvas curtains painted the color of the rock face would be much more effective. I was hoping RN vet could explain with certainty what those things are.

This is a gun station cut into the living rock of Gibraltar. Note the "curtain" of lines hanging from the bar in front of the gunport. Does anybody know what they are called or what purpose they actually serve? I've never seen anything like them before.

There's another NY30 on the market for $390,000, so you can draw your own conclusions as to the condition of the one on eBay for $112,000. ( 1905 Herreshoff New York 30 Antique and Classic for sale - YachtWorld ) She's probably due for a major rebuild. These beautiful classic boats are worthy of major rebuilds, but few can justify putting the mid-six figures necessary into doing so. The higher priced one had 95% of her frames and floor timbers replaced, a new interior and decks and deckhouse done in a major rebuild about six or eight years ago, and that work probably cost quite a bit more than it would have to simply have built another one completely new. A lot of money for that much boat, but if you want to rub shoulders with the high and mighty at the NYYC, that's the price of admission, I suppose. There's not much to see below on these old time class racers. They would built lightly and with Spartan accommodations. The furniture as designed is elegant in its simplicity, but not intended for "company." These were essentially large "day sailers" intended for racing only.