mtaylor

Harvey, Narrower towards the rear? With a slitting blade...yes. Also, use a push stick between the blade and fence and you'll be less likely to pinch the wood and more likely to keep your fingers.

Congrats Capt'n Andy.

Blackie, The easiest way is to open the hole in the deck slightly and then shim the mast with wedges to get the desired rake.

Try making the cut in two or even three passes... I think there's a limit on the depth of the cut with the various blades. The slitting blades don't have the teeth offset so you could just be loading up the cut with sawdust and that's what is grabbing the blade.

Thanks Mike. Ok.. I lied.. not intentionally... I couldn't wait to shape the whelps. It has a few rough spots to be cleaned up, but I'm pretty darn happy with it.

Thanks for dropping by and the kind words Aldo, Juergen, and Mobbsie. I've been working on the gundeck capstan. I'm on hold for the foredeck capstan as it's smaller and I wanted to see how the big one went first. Taken several tries but that part of learning. Mostly, I had issues with the power tools.. the mills specifically in setting things up. Somewhere around here are probably 10 to 15 bits of things that went flying off before I figured how how to get everything clamped down perfectly.. Live and learn. I also had to do some research. The plans and most of the builds I've seen for French ships show the capstan style from the late 1600's to the mid-1700's. I finally located several pics of some ship models for the mid-late-1700's. First picture is of the parts (but not the whelps). This was the fun part.. using the rotary table. Had a bit of problem figuing out how to secure things to it. Took a couple of runs to various hardware stores for some M6 screws and nuts but I got it sorted out. Below are the parts set up for rounding off and starting the machining. The spindle has been machined down. As for the chunk on the left, I ended up using a tapered wood screw to center the wood square pieces and secured with washer and nuts. I didn't get a picture of that. After machining in the pawl slots on the bottom and the bar slots on the head, I assembled everything (but not glued) for a size check. Twas a bit too high. After re-sizing the height, I finished the shaping of the head and then reset the height again.... it was still to high. It's been taken apart, re-machined for height and reglued. Right now the whelps blanks are drying in position and I'll spin it on the lathe to shape them. Probably tomorrow. I hope. Side note.. I have an old coffee cup that is kept about 1/4 full of alcohol. Simple matter to drop the whole assembly in and in a bit, it comes apart. Wipe off the softened glue and the parts are as good as new. Save a lot of re-making parts when some part of the assembly need re-work or replacement.

Is the fence straight and parallel to the blade? It might be pinching the wood between the fence and the blade.

Mobbsie, She looks great. As for the Spitfires and Hurricaines... I believe they're keeping the ME-109's, 110's and the Focke-Wolfe 190's away. If it weren't for them, you'd have to put up with air raid sirens and all that and possibly some Dornier 17's.

So... today's tally.... one "saint", one "his goodness", and one "the spiders are putting on oxygen masks". This sounds like a "B" movie from the 70's... now you know why I bring popcorn.

I took the plastic one and CA'd a chunk of hobby plywood underneath it to stiffen it up. The plastic is very flimsy.

Sweet work, Ron. The deadeyes look perfect.

Frank and Augie, I'm not sure we want to know what is the "what"....

NIce work, Danny. Can't wait to see the jig.

Hank, Sounds like a carefully thoughtout and rational decision, albiet a tough one. I too will be here for your hoy's return.

I'll ditto both of them.... I'm in awe and then some.

Dan, Just a very sweet and clean build. Speedy lines....

Elmir, Beautiful work so far. I hope you can get your saw fixed or modified and continue.

Here's the instructions I've played with.. http://arsenal-modelist.com/index.php?page=accessories Down near the bottom. But then again, I'm building a French ship....

Late to the party again.... Happy belated birthday.

Looking good, my friend. Ignore the war mongers and carry on.

Very nicely done. This is one of the more interesting brigs and it looks like the kit follows the historical research pretty well.

Harvey, Your zero clearance is to tight. Loosen the insert screws and move it slighty into the blade from both directions then tighten it such that the blade is dead center in the slot with a tad bit clearance on each side. It's fiddly but that should help.

Ah.... fun has started in earnest. Really!

Evan, I haven't said anything yet but I have been following along. That's an interesting and challenging idea to show frames. How did you figure out that there was distortion? Just curious on that.

Grant, Looks great... On the tighter bends, apply heat after soaking and while bending. A low wattage soldering iron or an old curling iron (smallest one you talk the Admiral out of or go buy one... and trade for it. ) will help a lot.