Bob Cleek

He who dies with the most tools wins!  

He who dies with the most tools wins!  

Strongly agree. It's important to note that there was quite a bit of evolution occurring with (whaling fishery) whaleboats throughout the 19th Century. If one is modeling a particular whaling ship at a certain date, they should take care to identify the type of whaleboat in use at the time depicted by their model. Planking types varied, some being lapstrake below the waterline and carvel planked above at different times. (The lapstrake planked bottom was intended to give the whalers a handhold on an upturned boat. The carvel planked topsides to provide a quiet entry through the water.) Most notably, in the mid-1850's or so (you can look up the exact date in Ansel's excellent book,) centerboards became common. This was coincidental with the depletion of the right whales and the expansion of the sperm whale fishery. The centerboard permitted the whalers to approach resting sperm whales, which were particularly wary, as stealthily as possible by sailing, rather than rowing upwind upon a pod without spooking them by noise or scent. (One can only imagine the distinctive scent of a whaling man after a few months working on a whaling ship!  ) Thus, if you are modeling whaleboats after about 1850, they should have centerboards; before 1850, not.

And today's internet new vocabulary word of the day award goes to Eberhard!  
 
Thanks for occasioning an interesting educational detour. I learn something new every day!  
 
"In mathematics, a hexadecagon (sometimes called a hexakaidecon or 16-gon) is a sixteen-sided polygon.
A regular hexadecagon is a hexadecagon in which all angles are equal and all sides are congruent. Its Schlafi symbol is {16} and can be constructed as a truncated octagon, t{8}, and a twice-truncated square tt{4}. A truncated hexadecagon, t{16}, is a triacontadigon.
 
Hexadecagon - Wikipedia"
 

 

 
Hexadecagon - Wikipedia

I gather, the classic source on whaleboats is
 
ANSEL, W.D. (1983): The Whaleboat.- 147 p., Mystic, Co. (Mystic Seaport Museum Inc.).
 
It has plenty of drawings based on examples in Mystic and on original drawings. If you are building a whaler, this book probably is a must.
 
The ready-made models are probably not based on whaleboats as used in whaling (which were of very light construction), but on the naval boat-type called whaler, which is a double-ended, quite sturdy boat, that was used mainly as a surf-boat, i.e. for accessing coasts without harbours and a strong surf.

He who dies with the most tools wins!  

I bought the JET and am very happy - now I have an entire array of saws without having to change any blades - the mini Preac, Jim Byrnes table saw, Dewalt Scroll 788, JET 10 inch Bandsaw and Dewalt 10 Inch Table Saw all suited to their various purposes in the shop.  Fingers crossed I can focus on model building vs honey dos around the house !!!!!

Why a 10" bandsaw if you will only be cutting 1" thick plank stock and won't be resawing? If that is all you are intending to use it for, it would seem you'd get by just fine with a saber saw or even a quality scroll saw, which would be far more useful for modeling purposes than a bandsaw of any kind.
 
On the other hand, if it is a bandsaw you want, despite the fact that you'd pay half again as much for it, you'd be getting far, far, more saw for the money buying a standard 14" 1hp bandsaw from a quality retailer like Grizzly. The Classic 14" Bandsaw at Grizzly.com The "classic" fourteen-incher is the highest rated and most popular bandsaw in its class and will cut thicker material and resaw just fine if you ever find the need. (Like if your cabinetmaker friend moves away.) The Grizzly is probably made in the same Chinese factory as the Jet, as well. If the extra $300 or so bothers you, consider that saving up that little bit more will provide you with a bandsaw that will hold its value much better and be easily marketable if you want to get rid of it someday. Because these are so popular, there is a ton of after-market blades, belts, and other parts and accessories available for them. Alternately, you can usually easily find one on the used market for a reasonable price and, if necessary, they are easily tuned up and rehabilitated if need be.
 
It really depends on what you want to do with it. If you are only going to be cutting 1" thick plank stock, I'd expect you'd do much better spending your money on a scroll saw that will cut rings around (and inside) anything a bandsaw can do, even with a narrow blade.

As with all structural materials, wood has its structural limitations which vary from species to species. There is very little that can be done to treat wood in order to enable it to exceed its inherent strength limitations. All wood is substantially stronger along its grain structure than across its grain structure, although some species have an interlocking grain structure which affords much greater strength across the grain than parallel grain structured species. This additional cross-grained structure is not, however, sufficiently strong to afford sufficient structural strength in most any application. Obviously, the smaller the piece of wood of any species, the less structural strength it will have.
 
I've worked with wood for a long time and I know of only one method of strengthening wood that affords any real improvement over the wood's inherent structural properties and even that is rather limited. This method employs a particular cocktail of somewhat exotic solvents and epoxy resins which penetrate the surface of the wood. The solvents carry the epoxy resin into the wood and when the solvents evaporate and the epoxy resin which has soaked into the wood cures, the epoxy-soaked wood is essentially "plasticized." The cured epoxy employs the wood structure to form a matrix which is stronger than the wood or epoxy alone.
 
Some employ this mechanism by applying thinned epoxy resin to wood, the epoxy being thinned with solvents such as acetone, xylol. or toluene, but testing indicates that this simple approach is not as effective in penetrating the wood than commercially available proprietary "penetrating epoxies." The only proprietary penetrating epoxy formulation which has shown greatly enhanced abilities to penetrate (i.e. soak into) wood, both into end-grain and the face of wood surfaces is called Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer(tm) or CPES(tm). This product is manufactured by Smith and Company of Richmond, California. it is, however, repackaged and sold in some marine chandleries and hardware stores as "Rot Doctor." CPES has been around for probably fifty years now. It was originally developed for use in the preservation and restoration of decayed architectural embellishments such as  gingerbread" fret saw work, turnings, and carvings on Victorian wooden buildings. It was never designed nor advertised to be used to add strength to structural wood, but rather only to preserve trim. That said, it was quickly embraced by the wooden boatbuilding community because CPES was an excellent sealer beneath wood in the marine environment and a very good primer for bonding epoxy structural laminations in wooden boatbuilding. I've used gallons of the stuff over the years and can attest that, to the depth it soaks into a piece of wood, it adds strength, and particularly impact resistance, to the epoxy-treated wood. A full explanation of this product can be found at Smith and Company's website: http://www.smithandcompany.org/CPES/ (This product, which isn't cheap, but has a long shelf life, can be purchased in most marine chandleries and by mail order from the company's website. Other "penetrating epoxies" are also marketed, but I've been using the original Smith's product for almost 50 years and I don't know a commercial boatyard that has ever used any of the "off brands.")
 
Because there's a limit to everything, I can't say CPES is going to turn all your modeling wood into hard epoxy resin, but it will provide some additional strength to small pieces and "sticks." Whether it provides enough for your purposes will depend on the use to which the piece is put and you'll just have to experiment with it. (It's also an excellent primer for wooden hulls which will be placed in water, whether they be painted or resin-coated.) With respect to "sticks" like small scale yards and such, you might consider abandoning wood altogether and going to brass or copper. The construction standards for many museums and institutional model collections sometimes specify the use of noble metal spars in smaller diameters to minimize the chance of breakage otherwise present in thin wooden spars.
 
In conclusion, frankly, if your wood piece isn't strong enough, I'd think you'd be better off using a stronger species of wood or using brass for that part. It goes without saying that if your piece is "cross-grained," there's no point in expecting it to ever have much strength at all. 

Growing up a kid's bike ride from Gjoa when she sat in her dry berth at San Francisco's Ocean Beach in Golden Gate Park, as shown in the postcard above, and with a father who worked in the maritime industry as an accountant for Dollar Steamship and American President Lines, I was quite familiar with her and her history and never passed up a chance to check her out up close. Even in the mid-fifties, she was sadly neglected and pretty well stripped bare, although they did get around to building a cast iron fence around her. As you know, when she reached San Francisco, the local Norwegian community, which was strongly connected with the sea (and known locally on the waterfront as "squareheads,") acquired her and dragged her up on the beach. This was in late 1906 and the devastated San Francisco was in the midst of rebuilding after the Earthquake and Fire in April of 1906, so that was quite a remarkable feat in terms of economic priorities. At that time, the area was sparsely populated sand dunes running a few miles inland. There she sat ashore, facing the setting sun and the Pacific Ocean a few dozen yards from the breakers. That exposed location was hard on the wooden boat and she got little care, but it seems they threw a coat of paint on her every so often, at least. Money was short and, as time passed, Amundsen's accomplishment came to be underappreciated. I'm sure that her boats were gone in a flash. They certainly weren't around when I was a kid, although I read somewhere that after the War in 1949, the year I was born, they'd done some major work on her. They'd built an iron fence around her, but the high school kids used to jump the fence and climb aboard with a few six packs, break in, and party on her, at least until the cops got wise to it and started chasing them off! I was out of town when they hauled her off to Norway in the early seventies, so I missed watching them move her. I was glad she was brought home to where she and her crew would be more appreciated. It seems they've done a complete restoration on her, as she certainly deserved.
 
It looks like you have a good handle on modeling her. I look forward to following your scratch build!

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, at least, they were regularly turning large masts and spars on lathes, as indicated by the documentation posted above. As I recall when Ernie Gann (Fate is the Hunter author) donated the new spars for Hal Sommer's restoration of Wanderbird (Elbe No.5) in the early 'seventies, they came from a couple of Doug firs on Gann's ranch up near Seattle, Washington and were turned on a big spar lathe they still had operating up there. They were then shipped down to Sausalito, California where they were stepped into the vessel. 
 
The largest spar lathe I know of in operation today is up in Aberdeen, Washington. It's got a capacity of 122 feet long and owned by The Spar Shop and is the go-to place for large spars. They have their own forest resources for Doug fir and have done the spars on vessels like Amistad. Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport (woodweb.com)
 
 
A big prime Doug fir like this one is valued in the neighborhood of $100,000! 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Large metal-working lathes, particularly for turning large artillery barrels like the 16" Iowa class battleship guns, were also a standard feature of naval shipyards. A few of these have been picked up as surplus and also have been used to turn masts and spars.
 
Amazing swarf coming off this metal lathe:
 

Ah ha! Why didn't you say so?  
 
I'd say your Dewalt scroll saw covers all the bases on any curved cuts you'd ever encounter making models. Have you tried making "dead straight cuts in 1/2-1 inch hardwood" on your Byrnes saw? I regularly run seasoned oak for making case frame stock through mine with no problems at all. The Byrnes saw may have a maximum cut depth of a smidgen less than an inch, but that's not a problem. All that needs be done is to flip the piece over and make a second cut on the other side and you can realize a depth of cut of at least an inch and three-quarters off the Byrnes saw. I have a Delta 3hp Unisaw and it's a scary beast, too. I avoid it like the plague for small work. My Byrnes takes over where my nerve leaves off!  

Band saws aren't really a tool designed to make "dead straight cuts." I know they are all sold with four-inch tall flat-sided fences these days, so I suppose they've gotten better over time, but I can't remember any bandsaw I ever saw in a commercial shop having a fence on it. (Nor did any table saw ever have a blade guard, come to think of it!) Band saws are primarily for cutting curves. They are also used for resawing, but bandsaw blades have a tendency to "wander" or cut at an angle and not want to cut in a straight line. You really have to fiddle with them to get one to want to cut dead straight. For resawing, I've always used a shop-made "guide." I take a piece of wood sufficiently high to support the plank to be resawed and I cut a "pointed" end on it. Sometimes that requires that a taller pointed edge for resawing so the plank can be supported perfectly vertical against the point and so the pointed piece has to be supported on a flat base. The "point" guide is clamped to the table with the point exactly as far from the teeth of the blade as I want the width of the resawn piece to be and just a smidgen before the point of the blade. I run a mortice gauge down the length of the piece to mark the width of the cut I want to make. Then I rest the plank on edge on the table and against the point and feed it into the  blade, following the cut line marked with the mortise gauge. In this fashion, when my bandsaw blade wants to cut at an angle (as most seem to,) I can feed the plank through at that angle, having pivoted the plank to accommodate the blade's whim. It seems to me that is a better approach than trying to get a blade that wants to run through at a slight angle to cut a straight line by holding the plank against a long flat fence. (I don't expect the resaw cut to be perfect, so I cut a bit wide of the line, expecting to run the piece through my thickness planer or, for small stuff, my Byrnes thickness sander. 
 
From what you've described in terms of tools on hand, you may want to do some experimenting and see if you really need a bandsaw at all, considering that you have access to your friend the cabinetmaker. Just sayin'. Maybe I'm just an old luddite, the methods described work for me, for model-sized work, at least. Your mileage may differ, but you may be able to save yourself spending the money on a bandsaw you may not need by using the excellent selection of capable tools you already have.

Why a 10" bandsaw if you will only be cutting 1" thick plank stock and won't be resawing? If that is all you are intending to use it for, it would seem you'd get by just fine with a saber saw or even a quality scroll saw, which would be far more useful for modeling purposes than a bandsaw of any kind.
 
On the other hand, if it is a bandsaw you want, despite the fact that you'd pay half again as much for it, you'd be getting far, far, more saw for the money buying a standard 14" 1hp bandsaw from a quality retailer like Grizzly. The Classic 14" Bandsaw at Grizzly.com The "classic" fourteen-incher is the highest rated and most popular bandsaw in its class and will cut thicker material and resaw just fine if you ever find the need. (Like if your cabinetmaker friend moves away.) The Grizzly is probably made in the same Chinese factory as the Jet, as well. If the extra $300 or so bothers you, consider that saving up that little bit more will provide you with a bandsaw that will hold its value much better and be easily marketable if you want to get rid of it someday. Because these are so popular, there is a ton of after-market blades, belts, and other parts and accessories available for them. Alternately, you can usually easily find one on the used market for a reasonable price and, if necessary, they are easily tuned up and rehabilitated if need be.
 
It really depends on what you want to do with it. If you are only going to be cutting 1" thick plank stock, I'd expect you'd do much better spending your money on a scroll saw that will cut rings around (and inside) anything a bandsaw can do, even with a narrow blade.

Hello Chris,
Everybody should have a bandsaw. Well, that may be a little over the top but they are useful.
Tools should be appropriate for the job. The big question is ... what do you want from your bandsaw? What are the model-related tasks you want from this tool?
My bandsaw is a Metabo benchtop model (don't think Metabo is sold in North America but they may be wearing a different badge) and I use it all the time. It has a throat about 200mm so it not big but has adequate power. For modelling jobs I usually swap over to a 6mm (1/4 inch) blade and this gives good performance on curves.
My point? I don't need a bigger throat, more power or a large table for modelling jobs. The wider blade I use for ripping, the metal cutting blade etc. have nothing to do with modelling tasks. 
I can, at a push, mill small logs using a fixture I built, and I also mill some modest size blanks to run through my thicknesser. I could do exactly the same tasks with exactly the same results on a larger bandsaw. If you choose a larger bandsaw for more versatility on other workshop projects you can and still use it for the small jobs if you are prepared to swap blades to suit; however you can't do bigger jobs on the smaller bandsaw. My advice is to focus on quality and spend time learning how to set it up properly for different tasks. 
In my opinion there are only a couple of features that are mandatory regardless of size: an accurate cast table and decent guides. Once you have these, setting it up correctly should be straightforward.
 
Let us know what you decide on 👍.
 
HTH,
Bruce

Why a 10" bandsaw if you will only be cutting 1" thick plank stock and won't be resawing? If that is all you are intending to use it for, it would seem you'd get by just fine with a saber saw or even a quality scroll saw, which would be far more useful for modeling purposes than a bandsaw of any kind.
 
On the other hand, if it is a bandsaw you want, despite the fact that you'd pay half again as much for it, you'd be getting far, far, more saw for the money buying a standard 14" 1hp bandsaw from a quality retailer like Grizzly. The Classic 14" Bandsaw at Grizzly.com The "classic" fourteen-incher is the highest rated and most popular bandsaw in its class and will cut thicker material and resaw just fine if you ever find the need. (Like if your cabinetmaker friend moves away.) The Grizzly is probably made in the same Chinese factory as the Jet, as well. If the extra $300 or so bothers you, consider that saving up that little bit more will provide you with a bandsaw that will hold its value much better and be easily marketable if you want to get rid of it someday. Because these are so popular, there is a ton of after-market blades, belts, and other parts and accessories available for them. Alternately, you can usually easily find one on the used market for a reasonable price and, if necessary, they are easily tuned up and rehabilitated if need be.
 
It really depends on what you want to do with it. If you are only going to be cutting 1" thick plank stock, I'd expect you'd do much better spending your money on a scroll saw that will cut rings around (and inside) anything a bandsaw can do, even with a narrow blade.

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, at least, they were regularly turning large masts and spars on lathes, as indicated by the documentation posted above. As I recall when Ernie Gann (Fate is the Hunter author) donated the new spars for Hal Sommer's restoration of Wanderbird (Elbe No.5) in the early 'seventies, they came from a couple of Doug firs on Gann's ranch up near Seattle, Washington and were turned on a big spar lathe they still had operating up there. They were then shipped down to Sausalito, California where they were stepped into the vessel. 
 
The largest spar lathe I know of in operation today is up in Aberdeen, Washington. It's got a capacity of 122 feet long and owned by The Spar Shop and is the go-to place for large spars. They have their own forest resources for Doug fir and have done the spars on vessels like Amistad. Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport (woodweb.com)
 
 
A big prime Doug fir like this one is valued in the neighborhood of $100,000! 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Large metal-working lathes, particularly for turning large artillery barrels like the 16" Iowa class battleship guns, were also a standard feature of naval shipyards. A few of these have been picked up as surplus and also have been used to turn masts and spars.
 
Amazing swarf coming off this metal lathe:
 

She was transferred to a wheeled cradle which was pushed down a large launching ramp by a large eighteen-wheeler tractor connected by a rigid push bar.  The cradle failed on the starboard side.
 
 

Huge lathes are also still required for propeller shafts.

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, at least, they were regularly turning large masts and spars on lathes, as indicated by the documentation posted above. As I recall when Ernie Gann (Fate is the Hunter author) donated the new spars for Hal Sommer's restoration of Wanderbird (Elbe No.5) in the early 'seventies, they came from a couple of Doug firs on Gann's ranch up near Seattle, Washington and were turned on a big spar lathe they still had operating up there. They were then shipped down to Sausalito, California where they were stepped into the vessel. 
 
The largest spar lathe I know of in operation today is up in Aberdeen, Washington. It's got a capacity of 122 feet long and owned by The Spar Shop and is the go-to place for large spars. They have their own forest resources for Doug fir and have done the spars on vessels like Amistad. Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport (woodweb.com)
 
 
A big prime Doug fir like this one is valued in the neighborhood of $100,000! 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Large metal-working lathes, particularly for turning large artillery barrels like the 16" Iowa class battleship guns, were also a standard feature of naval shipyards. A few of these have been picked up as surplus and also have been used to turn masts and spars.
 
Amazing swarf coming off this metal lathe:
 

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, at least, they were regularly turning large masts and spars on lathes, as indicated by the documentation posted above. As I recall when Ernie Gann (Fate is the Hunter author) donated the new spars for Hal Sommer's restoration of Wanderbird (Elbe No.5) in the early 'seventies, they came from a couple of Doug firs on Gann's ranch up near Seattle, Washington and were turned on a big spar lathe they still had operating up there. They were then shipped down to Sausalito, California where they were stepped into the vessel. 
 
The largest spar lathe I know of in operation today is up in Aberdeen, Washington. It's got a capacity of 122 feet long and owned by The Spar Shop and is the go-to place for large spars. They have their own forest resources for Doug fir and have done the spars on vessels like Amistad. Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport (woodweb.com)
 
 
A big prime Doug fir like this one is valued in the neighborhood of $100,000! 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Large metal-working lathes, particularly for turning large artillery barrels like the 16" Iowa class battleship guns, were also a standard feature of naval shipyards. A few of these have been picked up as surplus and also have been used to turn masts and spars.
 
Amazing swarf coming off this metal lathe:
 

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, at least, they were regularly turning large masts and spars on lathes, as indicated by the documentation posted above. As I recall when Ernie Gann (Fate is the Hunter author) donated the new spars for Hal Sommer's restoration of Wanderbird (Elbe No.5) in the early 'seventies, they came from a couple of Doug firs on Gann's ranch up near Seattle, Washington and were turned on a big spar lathe they still had operating up there. They were then shipped down to Sausalito, California where they were stepped into the vessel. 
 
The largest spar lathe I know of in operation today is up in Aberdeen, Washington. It's got a capacity of 122 feet long and owned by The Spar Shop and is the go-to place for large spars. They have their own forest resources for Doug fir and have done the spars on vessels like Amistad. Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport (woodweb.com)
 
 
A big prime Doug fir like this one is valued in the neighborhood of $100,000! 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Large metal-working lathes, particularly for turning large artillery barrels like the 16" Iowa class battleship guns, were also a standard feature of naval shipyards. A few of these have been picked up as surplus and also have been used to turn masts and spars.
 
Amazing swarf coming off this metal lathe:
 

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, at least, they were regularly turning large masts and spars on lathes, as indicated by the documentation posted above. As I recall when Ernie Gann (Fate is the Hunter author) donated the new spars for Hal Sommer's restoration of Wanderbird (Elbe No.5) in the early 'seventies, they came from a couple of Doug firs on Gann's ranch up near Seattle, Washington and were turned on a big spar lathe they still had operating up there. They were then shipped down to Sausalito, California where they were stepped into the vessel. 
 
The largest spar lathe I know of in operation today is up in Aberdeen, Washington. It's got a capacity of 122 feet long and owned by The Spar Shop and is the go-to place for large spars. They have their own forest resources for Doug fir and have done the spars on vessels like Amistad. Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport (woodweb.com)
 
 
A big prime Doug fir like this one is valued in the neighborhood of $100,000! 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Large metal-working lathes, particularly for turning large artillery barrels like the 16" Iowa class battleship guns, were also a standard feature of naval shipyards. A few of these have been picked up as surplus and also have been used to turn masts and spars.
 
Amazing swarf coming off this metal lathe:
 

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, at least, they were regularly turning large masts and spars on lathes, as indicated by the documentation posted above. As I recall when Ernie Gann (Fate is the Hunter author) donated the new spars for Hal Sommer's restoration of Wanderbird (Elbe No.5) in the early 'seventies, they came from a couple of Doug firs on Gann's ranch up near Seattle, Washington and were turned on a big spar lathe they still had operating up there. They were then shipped down to Sausalito, California where they were stepped into the vessel. 
 
The largest spar lathe I know of in operation today is up in Aberdeen, Washington. It's got a capacity of 122 feet long and owned by The Spar Shop and is the go-to place for large spars. They have their own forest resources for Doug fir and have done the spars on vessels like Amistad. Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport (woodweb.com)
 
 
A big prime Doug fir like this one is valued in the neighborhood of $100,000! 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Large metal-working lathes, particularly for turning large artillery barrels like the 16" Iowa class battleship guns, were also a standard feature of naval shipyards. A few of these have been picked up as surplus and also have been used to turn masts and spars.
 
Amazing swarf coming off this metal lathe:
 

Indeed it does!
 
Read the below threads (from the "articles - more" drop-down menu at the forum masthead) which address the problem of rope unraveling generally and polyester rope unraveling particularly. Note Chuck Passaro's method of "heat treating" polyester rope to eliminate unraveling. The information in these threads will probably solve your problems with unraveling.
 
 
 

If you are getting a gloss finish from the shellac, you are putting too much shellac on. Just apply a single coat of thinned shellac (out of the can if premixed, 2 pound cut if not) and let the line soak it up. If that is allowed to dry without excessive shellac build-up, the clear shellac should be invisible. If you put another coat on top of the thinned shellac, you will start seeing a gloss effect. You should be able to remove most, if not all of the gloss shine by wiping the shellacked line down with an alcohol-soaked piece of cloth or a cotton ball.