Bob Cleek

Ages of Sail (agesofsail@gmail.com), a ship modeling store, is located in the San Francisco Bay Area in San Lorenzo, CA and are a forum sponsor. Hard to believe they don't ship within the U.S. Maybe you were looking at the Amati link. Anyway, good move on upgrading the kit castings. Quality varies widely between manufacturers and it's a rare kit that can't be improved by some aftermarket parts. At least a 1984 vintage kit will probably have Brittania alloy castings instead of lead-based castings like the older kits. The lead castings had a bad habit of developing "lead bloom" or "lead leprosy," when they started oxidizing and crumbling to dust. 

I bet Jeff and Bob McNeil, Cangarda's owner, would be thrilled to see you build a model of her. Have they seen your Germania? It don't get much better than that!

I may have mentioned it before, but I'd bet Jeff Rutherford of Richmond, CA, the fellow whose boatshop restored Cangarda, would have a lot of photographs taken during her rebuild. (His phone: (510) 233-5441)

Keith, thanks for taking the time to share this remarkable build with all of us. There was so much great information, particularly the metalworking, that taught us all a lot. A wonderful accomplishment!
 
On to Cangarda! I'd expect she'll be an easier build, given the simpler rigging and less deck hardware, unless you decide to do a cut-away and depict below decks and the engine room. In that case, probably twice the work, at least!  
 
Or... how about a working steam-powered pond model?
 

 
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Weldbond is just another brand of white PVA.  It dries clear - just as any other white PVA does.  Whoever does their writing for the directions has a real talent for misdirection.  From reading it, it casts the product as being somehow unique.
 
The yellow versions of PVA dry transparent, but with an amber tint.
For Titebond - it seems that the price / ml is half at the next volume.  The gal is way less per ml than the 4 oz.  If you were in a large club and bought a gal and then divided it up into 4 oz portions spread over the membership, there is a deal - probably not cost effective, but a deal on paper.   This is probably one of those situations where buying a 4 oz bottle and getting a new one as needed actually is cost effective.  Especially if your interest waxes and wains.  Then too, there are stages that are glue heavy and others where not much is needed.
 
 

In terms of shelf life? Obviously, it depends on the type of glue. As for modeling glue, PVA will let you know it's past its expiration date when it gets thick, if not hard, in the bottle. Epoxy doesn't seem to have a expiration date as long as its containers are kept tightly sealed. CA adhesive will last practically forever if you keep it tightly capped in a sealed zip-loc plastic bag in your freezer between uses. Shellac will last forever and can be reconstituted by adding additional alcohol to the mix. As for the rest, which aren't particularly advisable for use in ship modeling, see: Wood glue - Wikipedia and read the instructions on the containers.
 
The only perfectly clear glues used in modeling that I know of are CA and Duco, a nitro-cellulose glue formerly popular for styrene model assembly and balsa model airplane construction. PVA (e.g. Titebond) will dry without color, but is somewhat cloudy and not perfectly clear, although when used to create properly formed joints, PVA should not be visible at all. (Some actually add black color to PVA in order to accentuate the joint lines in decks and timbers in bright-finished models.) As for which are "good" and "clear," I would say Titebond PVA in any of its permutations is about as good a wood glue for modeling as is available these days. Epoxy and CA have their place in joining dissimilar materials, particularly wood and metal. Beyond that, most "modern" adhesives pose risks associated with out-gassing and less than optimum archival qualities. See: Nautical Research Guild - Article - Specifications for Construction of Exhibition Models of U.S. Naval Vessels (thenrg.org) and Nautical Research Guild - Article - Ephemeral Materials in Ship Models (thenrg.org) for detailed discussions of materials to be used in ship modeling.
 
 
 
 

I bet Jeff and Bob McNeil, Cangarda's owner, would be thrilled to see you build a model of her. Have they seen your Germania? It don't get much better than that!

I may have mentioned it before, but I'd bet Jeff Rutherford of Richmond, CA, the fellow whose boatshop restored Cangarda, would have a lot of photographs taken during her rebuild. (His phone: (510) 233-5441)

I'd forget the Dremel.  I have a couple and they just in my closet gathering dust.    My go to for small bits is a hand held WeCheer (WE-242).  Its small, light weight, and and has nice low speed setting.  My hands shake too but this tool seems pretty in my hands.
 
As for bits... I bought a wood box from MicroMark a long time ago that had 20 "tubes" of HSS bits starting at a size 61 and going to 92 (very thin little things).  I don't know if they still offer this set but I have broken all the bits of any ones size yet and I do use it a lot.

What Jaager and maylor said. And now moving from the novella to the encyclopedic treatise...
 
We all own Dremel Moto-tools of one model or another, or, in many cases, we own several. Over time, they seem to secretly breed in dark tool drawers. There are lots of handy uses for a Dremel tool, such as grinding small metal parts, using cut-off wheels for cutting metal, stirring modeling paint with a length of coat hanger wire with a little loop bent in the end, trimming your dog's toenails, and so on. Drilling with tiny numbered-sized bits, however, is not one of them. Neither is drilling in the Dremel "drill press" which mounts the Moto-tool in a cheesy, lightweight and way-too-flexible press. [While not the best substitute for a dedicated full-sized bench top drill press, the much higher quality Vanda-Lay Industries Dremel- or Foredom handpiece-powered drill press is better than the Dremel offering by an order of magnitude. The same goes for their Dremel- or Foredom-powered mill and other accessories. Vanda-Lay's lower-powered offerings do provide a less expensive option for sometimes expensive machine tools, keeping in mind that Dremel tools trade speed for torque which works okay for sanding and grinding, but not so much for drilling and milling. See: HOME (vanda-layindustries.com]
 
Numbered drill bit sizes really aren't designed for powered hand-held drilling at high speeds. Even at a Dremel's low-end 15,000 RPM speed, the slightest movement of the motor out of line with the bit is likely to snap the bit. Similarly, hand drilling with a pin vise requires a very steady hand, a sharp bit, and light pressure to avoid breaking the bit. Use in a drill press, with metal particularly, requires center-punching before drilling and a slow speed and light pressure is to be preferred. There's really no way around these facts. Numbered bits are skinny little things and they can't handle a lot of stress.  One thing than goes a long way towards preventing bit breakage is to "choke up" on the bit by chucking as much of the bit as possible and leaving only enough of the bit extending beyond the pin vise or chuck to drill as deep as you require. This really cuts down on "whip" and stiffens up the bit shaft. If a deep hole is to be drilled, it often pays to only extend a short length of bit and drill down as deeply as it will reach, then extend the bit a little farther from the pin vise or chuck and lower the bit into the previously drilled hole and drill a bit farther until the bit is fully buried in the hole, repeating this process until the entire depth is drilled. The trick is to have as short a length of bit between the hole and the pin vise or chuck as practical, which will keep the bit shaft more rigid and less able to "whip" and snap.
 
Bench top drill presses can be found on sale second-hand and "old 'arn" is often a good investment as long as the machine hasn't been destroyed by a generation of abuse in a high school shop or daily hard duty in a commercial shop. (If you are really lucky, you may find a 1950's vintage Craftsman bench drill press made by King-Seeley which has a threaded quill that permits exchanging the Morse taper mounted Phillips chuck for a quarter-inch collet chuck that converts the drill press into a light milling machine when a suitably sized X-Y table is mounted on the press table.) It would be a good idea to bring along a dial indicator to test for excessive quill run-out before buying a used drill press... or even if buying a new one of those $79.00 Chinese-made mini-drill presses. A drill press that "wobbles" the bit may work for use with larger bits that can take the abuse and drill a less than round hole, but a tiny numbered bit won't survive excessive quill run-out.
 
 

I bet Jeff and Bob McNeil, Cangarda's owner, would be thrilled to see you build a model of her. Have they seen your Germania? It don't get much better than that!

I may have mentioned it before, but I'd bet Jeff Rutherford of Richmond, CA, the fellow whose boatshop restored Cangarda, would have a lot of photographs taken during her rebuild. (His phone: (510) 233-5441)

Ages of Sail (agesofsail@gmail.com), a ship modeling store, is located in the San Francisco Bay Area in San Lorenzo, CA and are a forum sponsor. Hard to believe they don't ship within the U.S. Maybe you were looking at the Amati link. Anyway, good move on upgrading the kit castings. Quality varies widely between manufacturers and it's a rare kit that can't be improved by some aftermarket parts. At least a 1984 vintage kit will probably have Brittania alloy castings instead of lead-based castings like the older kits. The lead castings had a bad habit of developing "lead bloom" or "lead leprosy," when they started oxidizing and crumbling to dust. 

I bet Jeff and Bob McNeil, Cangarda's owner, would be thrilled to see you build a model of her. Have they seen your Germania? It don't get much better than that!

Since you are experiencing difficulty, yes, there is an easier way to tie in "reef points" on a sail. Real reef points have a "figure-eight knot" tied into the line on either side of the sail. The figure-eight knot will not jam and is easily untied, no matter how much tension has been placed on the knot.
 
Figure-eight knot, also called by some a "stopper knot:"
 

 
At all common modeling scales, a simple overhand knot is sufficient to portray a reef secured to a sail.
 
Simple overhand knot:

 
The easier way to tie overhand knots in scale rigging cordage is to employ the surgical suturing technique known as an "instrument tie." This requires the use of a surgical instrument called a "needle holder" or the equivalent, which could be some sort of tweezers or the like. A long needle holder works best for modeling, since its length permits access inboard of the stays and other hard to reach places. Another handy instrument to have is a long tweezers or a second needle holder. These instruments take the place of fingers, which are much too large (and perhaps short) for the delicate tasks at hand, be it sewing up a wound or tying scale rigging knots,
 
A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is better than that, so I've attached three videos of various flavors produced for the purpose of instructing medical students in performing a basic instrument tie.  Get yourself a needle holder or three. They are handy for all sorts of modeling tasks. (eBay is full of dirt cheap ones or ask a friend who works in a hospital to obtain one for you.) Watch the videos and practice until you get the hang of it (which should take one or two tries... it's very simple.) Once you have the basics down, you can then apply the instrument tie technique to a wider range of applications than just simple overhand and surgeons' knots.
 
As for tying in reef points, the simple overhand knot is tied first, then the reefing line is sewn through the sail with a needle, making sure that you've left yourself enough length to accomplish the following exercise. Approaching the single end of the reefing line from the knotless side, the bitter end of the reefing line is held in the non-dominant hand while a turn (or two if you prefer to use a "surgeon's knot" for the purpose... which is explained in the videos) is thrown around the needle holder. (This is sometimes more easily accomplished by grasping the line with the needle holder and twisting the needle holder to wrap the line around it, which is why you need to leave yourself some surplus line at the beginning.) Then, instead of grasping the other end of the reefing line as in the case of suturing knots shown in the videos, you grasp the standing part of the reefing line with the point of your needle holder (the same way as if making an overhand instrument tie) with the needle holder clamped on the reefing point as close as possible to the point on the standing part where it comes out of the sail.  Then, with the needle holder clamped to the standing part of the reefing line as close as possible to the sail, using your fingers, a tweezer, or another needle holder, carefully slide the line wrapped around the needle holder down the jaws of the closed needle holder and over the standing part of the reefing line to form the overhand knot and then carefully coax the bitter end through and pull it tight. Easier done than written, but you should be able to figure it out once you have the principle of the instrument tie down. (This is similar to the method described by VitusBering above, but the point of the needle holder replaces the needle he uses in his method. The "needle method" works fine, so long as you have the room to get your fingers where they need to be.)
 
Needless to say, all knots should be secured after they've been tied with a dab of shellac, thinned PVA, or CA. Myself, I prefer shellac because if the knot needs to be untied for further adjustment, the shellac can be softened, and the knot untied by simply applying alcohol to the dried shellac. I don't like thinned PVA because it takes a while to dry, can get messy, and is hard to reverse if need be. I avoid CA adhesive wherever possible because it's just nasty stuff, expensive, and hard to clean up if it goes where you don't want it. Another thing I like about shellac is its adhesive properties. When modeling reefing points, they will inevitably stand straight out or up or everywhere other than in a plumb fashion hangling down against the sail like the prototype. I use shellac, which is very viscous, to saturate the reefing line. As the alcohol in which the shellac is dissolved evaporates, the line will become increasingly stiff and sticky, but still pliable. (This is a very quick process, since the alcohol evaporates very quickly.) When it becomes pliable and sticky, the reefing line can be pushed against the sail and it will stick where you want it, making it very easy to achieve realistic looking reef points with all your reef lines hanging straight down and parallel to one another.
 
There are many YouTube videos on surgical instrument knot tying and much to learn by watching them. Learning use surgical instruments to tie knots will significantly speed up your rigging tasks and reduce the level of frustration that rigging often otherwise occasions.
 
Learn how to Tie a Surgical Knot with an Instrument - Bing video
 
Instrument Surgeon's Knot Tying - Bing video
 
How to make a square knot and a surgeons knot - instrument tie - Bing video

Absolutely. As I mentoned, I really don't understand what the problem is.  He needs to explain it more understandably.

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm not sure what you mean by "as I bend them around the bow I MUST keep their width in the bend the same as the width of any planks I have not cut out ie the straight planks that came with the kit." Pictures would help.
 
The "straight planks that came with the kit" only are useful for slab-sided areas where you'd may as well be laying hardwood floor or clapboard siding. On the other hand, if you are spiling your planks from a flat sheet, you should get a plank that fits perfectly, bend or not, since you've spiled the exact shape required. Are you sure you are spiling correctly? Have you evenly divided every frame shape by the number of planks that should be required to plank the hull? If so, your plank shapes should be fine. If you are spiling from an elevation plan, the plank seams may all look parallell to the baseline of the drawing. There is no way you can accurately derive a plank shape from that because the elevation will only show the height between the plank seams as viewed orthographically. In the bows, the planks tend to be hung at a greater angle from plumb, farther away at the bottom and closer to the viewer at the top. The greater width in three dimensions rather than apparent height in two dimensions has to be taken into account. 
 
When spiling plank, the entire hull has to be "lined off." This can be done with thread or tape. The limitation as to width is only the scale width of available plank. When lining off, you have to judge the fairness of the plank seams by eye. There isn't any rule that every seam is going to be the same width, except perhaps amidships on a large vessel. When you have "lined off" all your plank seams, you can then measure the width of the plank at each seam intersection on a frame or bulkhead. This is how you account for the actual shape of a plank on a curved surface that has been drawn flat in two dimensions on the plans.
 
Hope this helps. If not... never mind. I had to guess at what the problem was. 

This is probably your primary problem.  A quality tool that is doing its job correctly does not perform like yours is. 
There is probably enough information about the various tools and options for rotary work here to make up a novella sized volume.
The possibilities cover micromotors, surplus dental drills, Foredom models ....  you do not have to use junk.
Unfortunately, Dremel has stopped marketing my go to model: 8050. 
Their current market leader models seem to be closer to full size drills.  It looks bulky and awkward.
 
The idea of even contemplating putting a complete hull under a drill press????   You drill the part and then take it to the hull.
 
I think that most house brand benchtop drill presses are all essentially coming off of the Eurotool drl-300.00 line.  You do not want to buy from a supplier who stocks the QA rejects.
 
If getting a semi precise angle is the goal, a stick with a vertical hole that is just non-binding diameter of the bit can be used a drill block guide.
 
For trunnel sized holes, you could go really low cost.  At AliExpress there are a variety of small DC motors with small chucks.
There are DC power supplies with step voltage output. 1.5 to 14 V 2amp - They should be ~$25 .   A motor that is about three fingers long and only needs two small gauge wires can get inside a hull - if you can get your hand in.
 
 
 

This is the umteenth time that I have posted about drill presses.  You can find lots of discussion here on the forum.  Use the search function.
 
In a nutshell, I see no reason for buying a hobby sized drill press, Proxxon or otherwise.  While Kurt is right, you can lengthen the column, you cannot change  the other critical dimension, the horizontal distance from the quill to the column.  This will limit the tool’s use.  My first choice would be to look for a quality used machine.  Since not everyone is a tool junkie my other suggestion would be to look at the bench top drill presses offered by stores like Menards, Home Depot, etc.  These store brand drill presses appear to offer a lot of capability for the price.  I would prefer a belt driven tool over one with electronic speed control.  
 
Roger

I suggest that you check the diameter of the column and see what a piece of longer stock costs from a supply house near you.  That's what a good friend of mine did.  The excess height is not an issue when doing individual parts and it can allow one to raise the chuck a long way from the base.  It wasn't much to purchase.
Kurt

Thanks Bob, I tried the site you suggested but they apparently don't ship to the US.  I found a close match on ModelersCentral.com and ordered there.  I assume the measurement they give is the height of the anchor from crown to ring.  I needed 26mm but 30mm was the closest I could find anywhere.  It's a kit too which will be fun to put together and you're right, much more realistic than the cast crap that was in the 50 year-old kit.  The shipping was more than the anchors though.  I had to replace the blocks but found those on Amazon made by Model Shipways with free Prime shipping.  The 5mm size I needed seems to be out of stock at other sites.  Spending more on replacement parts than the kit cost. lol

Just order a couple more from one of the parts suppliers. They'll be the same, if not better, than what came in the kit.
 
See: Amati Model Ship Fittings (agesofsail.com)

Tom, yes I have got that one. 
 
Bob
I have made contact with Jeff who has been very helpful, I just don't want to push my luck by placing too big a demanding of his resources.

Just order a couple more from one of the parts suppliers. They'll be the same, if not better, than what came in the kit.
 
See: Amati Model Ship Fittings (agesofsail.com)

I may have mentioned it before, but I'd bet Jeff Rutherford of Richmond, CA, the fellow whose boatshop restored Cangarda, would have a lot of photographs taken during her rebuild. (His phone: (510) 233-5441)