BareHook

Got this info from BlueJacket, A rigging seminar in May
 
BlueJacket will be holding a RIGGING CLASS here in Maine on Monday, May 5th thru Friday, May 9th.
Space will be limited to 12 people. The class hours are 9-3 with a lunch break.  This gives ample time to do some sightseeing etcetera if you like.
The fee for the course is $400 and is fully refundable up until two weeks before the start (April 21st).  Up until 1 week before (April 28) it is 50% refundable.  Price of class includes a pin vise, 5 x #76 and 3 x #67 drills, needle-nose pliers, tweezers, and a hobby knife with blade.
On Monday afternoon we will tour the BlueJacket facilities, and participants will receive a 10% discount on purchases anytime during the week of class. 
At the end of class, we will ship instructional items and tools for you.  We have arranged a special room rate of $112 at the Fireside Inn (formerly Comfort Inn) in Belfast, which is where the class will be held.  Breakfast is included. When you make your reservation, ask for the BlueJacket rate.  Here is the web link: 
http://firesideinns.com/maine/belfast/
 
Of course, you can stay at any of the other fine hotels and B&Bs in the area if you prefer.
So call us and reserve your spot.  We have always sold out the previous classes we have held in the past.
 
Syllabus
Use of tools
Types of ship's rig
Terms and definitions
Reading rigging plans
Proper shaping of masts and spars from square stock
blocks and deadeye stropping
The bow - gammoning, catheads, bowsprit
Stepping the mast
Standing rigging
Running rigging yardarms, booms, gaff, jib
Knots and coils
Davits, gun tackle
 
If the demand for this class far outstrips our 12 spaces, I promise to hold it again in the fall.  I want everyone who wishes to take this class to be able to have the opportunity to do so.
 
There's nothing I'd rather do than work on, or talk about model boats. Have fun! 
  
Sincerely,
    
Nic Damuck
BlueJacket Shipcrafters, Inc

Got this info from BlueJacket, A rigging seminar in May
 
BlueJacket will be holding a RIGGING CLASS here in Maine on Monday, May 5th thru Friday, May 9th.
Space will be limited to 12 people. The class hours are 9-3 with a lunch break.  This gives ample time to do some sightseeing etcetera if you like.
The fee for the course is $400 and is fully refundable up until two weeks before the start (April 21st).  Up until 1 week before (April 28) it is 50% refundable.  Price of class includes a pin vise, 5 x #76 and 3 x #67 drills, needle-nose pliers, tweezers, and a hobby knife with blade.
On Monday afternoon we will tour the BlueJacket facilities, and participants will receive a 10% discount on purchases anytime during the week of class. 
At the end of class, we will ship instructional items and tools for you.  We have arranged a special room rate of $112 at the Fireside Inn (formerly Comfort Inn) in Belfast, which is where the class will be held.  Breakfast is included. When you make your reservation, ask for the BlueJacket rate.  Here is the web link: 
http://firesideinns.com/maine/belfast/
 
Of course, you can stay at any of the other fine hotels and B&Bs in the area if you prefer.
So call us and reserve your spot.  We have always sold out the previous classes we have held in the past.
 
Syllabus
Use of tools
Types of ship's rig
Terms and definitions
Reading rigging plans
Proper shaping of masts and spars from square stock
blocks and deadeye stropping
The bow - gammoning, catheads, bowsprit
Stepping the mast
Standing rigging
Running rigging yardarms, booms, gaff, jib
Knots and coils
Davits, gun tackle
 
If the demand for this class far outstrips our 12 spaces, I promise to hold it again in the fall.  I want everyone who wishes to take this class to be able to have the opportunity to do so.
 
There's nothing I'd rather do than work on, or talk about model boats. Have fun! 
  
Sincerely,
    
Nic Damuck
BlueJacket Shipcrafters, Inc

Another thing that I did regarding the subdeck was to layout the deckplanks, nibbing strake and butts plan in pencil, I found it helpful when it came time to plank the deck.
The cutouts aren't critical, just reference for location, and I remember some logs where they planked the entire deck and then aded their cutouts after per the plan locations and dimensions.
Most builders also painted the bulkheads and frame pieces black where they were adjacent to hatches or gratings, so they wouldn't show-up through any deck openings.
 
Ken

A small but fun item accomplished. I made and installed the remaining cabinetry at the stern in the Great Cabin. This consisted of the rudder head housing and two benches. They were made from boxwood sheet and strip and finished with Wipe-on Poly. The "cushions" on the benches are boxwood, shaped and then painted a maroon color. The cabinet knobs are the smallest nails that I had on hand. The penny in the first photo gives an idea of the size of these pieces.
 
Bob

Hi friends,
cannons for assembly on the Gun-Deck prepared.
Karl
 
 
 
T e i l  4 1

Sorry late response, but Alistair got it.
I did my build using the free "Hunt" chapter and the rest using the "Earl" practicum and did fine, but also had all the feedback and support from MSW 1.0. There used to be almost 10 build logs of the AVS to scan through.
I think the most help came from following Alistairs build (thanks!), since at the time he was just a month or two ahead of me in the build, so in a way I may have also built to Hunts' practicum by proxy
The next "tricky" parts ahead for you, that I can recall are:
Cabin/Window framing (keep the windows organized in their position. If you remove them from the sheet, they are very difficult to figure out which ones are inboard and outboard. It took me several times of studying the plans to figure out how the window/cabin frames are supposed to be done. Ironically it came clear to me just after I installed the frames but I decided to keep mine as-is and am happy with how they look. The windows are slanted, but I installed them vertical with the angles following the curve of the wing transom instead of horizontal with the vertical at an angle (I could be wrong though ???  ) there were many differing examples of how the windows were done. Be careful when installing the Wale, its important regarding its alignment/height from the sub-deck and where it terminates at the counter/fashion pieces.  

Hi Brett
I'd use a 1mm thick plank x 4 or 5mm wide. I use a sanding block and hand held sanding, the latter particularly at the bow and stern. Although it is tedious don't go so fast and hard that you fair too much otherwise you end up chasing your tail. I also found that I'd add shims and sometimes end up sanding them off. The stern fillers are often under sanded. The planks need to turn up to the counter in such a way that they don't snap and this needs more sanding than you'd expect - I think there is a reasonable shot of this in my log.
 
Cheers
Alistair

Hi Brett
I may have been a little bit alarmist and misread your photo - I was seeing something different. Do not worry about the stern frames yet. Loose laid is good. You need those fragile little window frames to position them. The stern fillers leading up to the counter need to be heavily sanded and his needs to be coordinated with the pain of shimming and sanding all the misaligned bulkheads along the entire hull. This is the nature of this kit - the bulkheads are never right and the misalignment is a kit problem not yours. The shimming and sanding takes a bit of time and is back and forth but should be done before you go any further and should be combined with bow and stern fillers. Leave off the stern frames until you have sorted this. These in turn need a lot of shaping but once you are past this it really starts to work out. You need a lot of shims by the look of your kit. If you take the time to get the planking flow right you'll be away.
 
If you have Bob Hunt's practicum follow it to the letter, it will get you there in all aspects of the build and any other guide is redundant and dangerous. Bob's way of sequencing things and getting the relationships right is the best part of his practicum and will stand you in good stead for future builds.
 
I'll keep following and if I can assist, I will.
 
Cheers
Alistair

I saw one on EBAY yesterday

Thanks, Vic.  Nicely stated, not understated at all.  Thanks too for the likes.
   
This week I got some work done on the hull despite the snow. 
 

 
The wooden plates of the upper hull have been cut and bent to the required shapes.  The portion from the stern to the end of the waist is fairly flat, with a consistent 13 degree tumblehome.  It was cut, fitted to the rabbet cut into the solid lower hull, and screwed in place.  Temporary support blocks were fitted to the inside face which also support the dummy quarterdeck that you can see in the photos. The transom piece has been cut and temporarily fitted in place as well. 
 
The bow section is much more complex.   In place of the open bow deck with a flat beakhead bulkhead, the ship had a closed bow.   At the waist it has the 13 degree tumblehome, but at the cathead it actually has an outward flare as if it were still open.  Then when it comes around to the stem it is vertical.  To accommodate these requirements, the foredeck corners are bumped out, making it less rounded and the deck overhangs the lower hull.
 
I derived the shape of the quarterdeck from the plans and cut a dummy deck.  This was mounted at the correct height on a sturdy block and screwed into the solid lower hull on the centerline.  Rough patterns were cut from cardstock and transferred to ¼” basswood, which was cut oversize at the top.  Multiple dados 3/16” deep were cut across the pieces, closer together at the tight bend at the corner.  The pieces were wet for an hour in a bucket of water, then forced into shape in the hull rabbet and against the dummy foredeck.  They were screwed in place and the top line marked out above the foredeck.  The pieces were removed and trimmed, then reinstalled and left to dry. 
 
This is where you see it in the photos, with a dummy stem piece in place.  Although I have never used this method of both kerf and wet bending together in a model hull, it seems to be working out pretty well.
 



 
Meanwhile, I continued with some of the deck pieces that will be needed.  Here is the bench that sits on the quarterdeck for the captain’s convenience.  I’ve never seen this before, but Budriot has it on the plans.  If anyone has seen such a fitting, I would be very interested.
 
Here are his drawings.
 

 
And here is how the completed bench looks, with some of the components.  The primary wood is birch, with cherry veneer for the accent work and arms.
 

 
The arms were built up of four layers of veneer stacked vertically.  The outer layers of the horizontal pieces for the arm are sandwiched around two vertical pieces for the post.  On the right is the arm piece shaped oversize to the desired curve.  On the left it has been trimmed to shape.
 

 
Here is the first one completed from another angle.
 

 
And here are the finished pair with my scale figures for comparison.
 

 
I also set up for the four ladders which will connect the gun deck at the waist with the gangways between the quarterdeck and foredeck.  They have only four treads but are wider at the base than at the top.
 
As you can see in the photo, my ladder technique is to make a long box from which separate ladders can be parted off individually.  Two matching rectangular pieces for the stringers have dados cut across the grain.  A web of veneer sheet woods are fit into these slots for the treads.  The grain runs across from stringer to stringer.
 

 
Sorry, this enlargement did not come out too well, but you can see how the dados are cut halfway through the stringer material.
 

 
The ladder block was set up so everything was square or, rather, symmetrical until the glue hardened.  A ladder was parted off on the band saw at the calculated angle, cleaned up, and finished.  This angle might not be right, so I only made one to test.  Whatever the ultimate angle, the rest of the block should be enough for at least the four needed for the first model. 
 

 
I will need a pair of longer ladders from the quarterdeck up to the poop deck on top of the captain’s cabin, and a wider one from the quarterdeck companionway down to the gun deck.  They will be made in much the same way.
 
The companionway itself will be next.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

Practice may not make perfect, but it does make quicker, easier and, hopefully, better. The second side of the copper is done and I like it better. Now if I had a third side to do......... 
 
The last photo shows the copper with a coat of Floquil Flat Finish brushed on. Although it still looks quite shiny and bright, it is less so than before the flat finish was applied. Looking at my Syren of a few years back, which was finished comparably, I  expect a nice mellowing of the copper on Essex as well.
 
After finishing the copper I decided to move the model from a cradle to a brass pin mount, which is how it will be permanently mounted after completion. This involved using epoxy to install pieces of brass rod into holes drilled through the keel and slide these into brass tubing installed in a base. This will avoid contact with copper as much as possible during future construction, but still permit removal of the model, if necessary.
 
Next up will be some items that I've already done some work on, the rudder and the gun deck hatches. Other deck items will also be done after that.
 
Bob

I finally got my sailmaker to complate the topsail. I must say, anyone who has done sails for a full square rigged ship, my hats off to you!
I'm overall happy with the results, but it was certainly challenging.
I shaped the sail, then stiched it to the topsail yard and then loosly rigged it to the spreader yard.
I then hung this assembly with the topsail yard halyard and attached the yard parrels.
Next the spreader yard jeers.
Then I did the sheets, clewlines, and lifts.
I then added two buntlines which I cleated at the spare shroud cleats #3.
Finally I did the Braces for both yards.
 
I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, just 3 foresails, rope coils, swivels and final clean/touchup.
 
Ken

Brett,
Your harsh reality diagram was pretty much correct for me. After cutting the rabbet down near the stem where the rudder will be, the false keel was almost transparent do to being so thin. Dont forget you lose some thickness from sanding though, you want the final plank to protrude a bit, so it can be sanded flush. Dont worry too much about the angles of the cut, just follow the bearding line and slowly "shave" away at the rabbet. Shave is the key word, don't do deep cuts, just take you time with shallow cuts and do a lot of fit checks with a piece of sample planking. Just slide a few bulkheads in place and lay the planking on it and against the keel to see where material needs to be removed.
 
I was worried about the strength, but after planking, she is rock solid.
 
PS In future when sanding, be careful not to go too deep with final layer, you can easily sand through it.
 
DocBlake,
Nice to see another wood finished hull AVS, looks really good!
 
Ken

Hello friends.
Fitted deck beams provisionally loose
from the Upper Deck  /  Quarter Deck.
 
Karl
 
 
 
 
T e i l   4 0

Bill
 
Yes they will be available from Expo. I dont know what process or method they will be using to distribute the corrections. I do know that they are holding off on shipping any new orders until the process plays out. In speaking with Marc we're shooting for no later than April (God willing) to have everything re-worked.
 
From there then the rigging kit. I don't know if the rig will be through Expo and or released from me (or maybe Syren)?..............
 
ESSEX has become to me akin to one of the "Labors of Hercules" from ancient mythology - As punishment from the Gods Hercules would push a huge boulder up a mountain and just as he reached the summit the boulder would slip and roll down hill and he'd have to start all over again.................LOL!
 
Sam
 
Sam

Well the new bulk head assembly finally arrived this morning.
 
As I've said it's a total re-work of the build. 
 
Here's what I can say right now;
 
Allowing for the heavier thickness of the plywood the slots on the bulkheads were increased
The tabs on all pieces were reduced and in most cases limited to one per piece
Additional vertical arm width was added to the first and last few bulk heads (#'s 1,2,3 & 20,21,22) to facilitate better/easier beveling
The vertical arms of the Quarter Deck bulk heads was extended to better allow for the loss of material from the laser cut
 
I'll assemble the set this week and check for fairness of frames and line
 
Report back soon
 
Sam

I took my few days off from coppering by doing the bulwark eyebolts and ringbolts. These are very small and I chose to use commercial eyebolts and rings. The parts are all brass and were finished with Birchwood Casey Brass Black. This is the first time that I have used that product (which has been recommended by quite a few on MSW) and I must say that it works better than any such product that I have tried before. Chalk up another satisfied customer.
 
The eyebolts are permanently glued in place. The ringbolts are just sitting in their holes and will be removed when I do the breeching ropes later.
 
I did one other small project. I made and installed the sliding doors from the great cabin to the quarter galleries. No reason to do them now except that I just felt like making something.
 
Back to the copper.
 
Bob

After some minor cursing and a small change of method, I've completed the first side of the copper. The change was to go, as much as possible, to one continuous strip of copper tape for each row, rather than piecing two or three pieces together. This took a little more care to avoid twisting the strips, but ended up taking less time and looking neater.
 
While I'm generally pleased with the look of this side, I have no doubt that the refinement of method, and the practice that I've had, will make the second side easier and better. I will take a day or two off from the copper, however, because I am a little bleary-eyed from looking at it for a week. Now that my Brass Black has arrived, I think that I'll do some eyebolts and ringbolts for a bit.
 
Bob

Brett,
Your harsh reality diagram was pretty much correct for me. After cutting the rabbet down near the stem where the rudder will be, the false keel was almost transparent do to being so thin. Dont forget you lose some thickness from sanding though, you want the final plank to protrude a bit, so it can be sanded flush. Dont worry too much about the angles of the cut, just follow the bearding line and slowly "shave" away at the rabbet. Shave is the key word, don't do deep cuts, just take you time with shallow cuts and do a lot of fit checks with a piece of sample planking. Just slide a few bulkheads in place and lay the planking on it and against the keel to see where material needs to be removed.
 
I was worried about the strength, but after planking, she is rock solid.
 
PS In future when sanding, be careful not to go too deep with final layer, you can easily sand through it.
 
DocBlake,
Nice to see another wood finished hull AVS, looks really good!
 
Ken

Augie
 
The dull coat worked great (as far as I'm concerned)
 
here's a couple of pics of ESSEX after being dulled..............
 
compare then to the non dull shots of Bob's
 
Sam

Moving ahead at a faster pace caused by unusual weather (13" of rain that caused local flooding that pretty much trapped us in our house for a couple of days), the first copper has been applied to the hull.
 
After some experimenting , I decided to try something a little different. Rather than cutting the copper tape into individual plates, I chose to apply the tape in long strips (two or three for the length of the hull). I then burnished the strips with a piece of stripwood and then scribed in the plate division lines. The last step is to use a stamp made of a piece of wood with headless nails to simulate the plate nailing pattern. Because of the scale, I didn't attempt to to do the actual pattern, but like so many other things on the build, used a pattern that seemed to look "right". There is a slight overlap of the tape strips.
 
I found it very hard to take decent photos of the copper because of the glare and reflection and apologize for the quality of  those attached. Now it's back to applying what seems to be an endless expanse of copper.
 
Bob

Brett,
Your harsh reality diagram was pretty much correct for me. After cutting the rabbet down near the stem where the rudder will be, the false keel was almost transparent do to being so thin. Dont forget you lose some thickness from sanding though, you want the final plank to protrude a bit, so it can be sanded flush. Dont worry too much about the angles of the cut, just follow the bearding line and slowly "shave" away at the rabbet. Shave is the key word, don't do deep cuts, just take you time with shallow cuts and do a lot of fit checks with a piece of sample planking. Just slide a few bulkheads in place and lay the planking on it and against the keel to see where material needs to be removed.
 
I was worried about the strength, but after planking, she is rock solid.
 
PS In future when sanding, be careful not to go too deep with final layer, you can easily sand through it.
 
DocBlake,
Nice to see another wood finished hull AVS, looks really good!
 
Ken

Hello again –
 
I got some time during the football games to write up the next installment.  I hope you enjoy it.
 
With the grating sheets made, I made the coamings.  My method here also relies on the table saw and uses no measuring with a ruler.  This time it is based on the specific grating to be framed.  I make the coaming to fit the grating rather than the other way around.  I get a much tighter fit that way.  
 
Here is a piece of grating that has been cut from a sheet.  The edges have been sanded flush and it has received a first finish coat to protect it from any glue stains.  It looks square, but it is slightly longer than it is wide.
 

 
As mentioned, the grating material is poplar.  For contrast I selected cherry for the coaming and cut stock 1/8” x ¼”.  Four pieces of coaming stock were cut longer than each side of the grating piece.  They will be joined with half lap joints at the corners.
 

 
The table saw blade height is set so cuts made from the top and bottom of the coaming stock just meet in the middle.
 

 
One end of each piece has a half lap cut into it.  The length does not matter as long as it is longer than the thickness of the coaming stock.  First, the shoulder was cut using the rip fence as a depth stop.
 

 
Then the lap was made by making multiple passes moving away from the fence to nibble away the unwanted wood.
 

 
A spacer strip was located that was wider but shallower than the lap that was cut.
 

 
Using the spacer and the grating piece the fence was set for the shorter sides.
 

 
A sacrificial stick supports the coaming piece as the shoulder for the second half lap is cut.
 

 
The coaming piece was turned around and the unwanted wood from the second lap was nibbled away.
 

 
The matching short piece was done, then the saw was reset and the longer pieces were done in the same manner.
 

 
Using the grating piece itself to hold the pieces square, they were test fit, adjusted as needed, assembled and glued.  When the glue was dry, support pieces were glued to the inside edges.  Doing only two sides is enough.  If you want the grating to be removable just make sure that the supports are glued only to the coaming.  Here I have glued the grating in place permanently. 
 

 
The corners were trimmed, the piece was turned over and sanded smooth, and all edges and corners were eased.  The bottom edges are left raw and will be sanded to the curve of the deck when installed.   The piece was finished with matte varnish.  
 

 
And here is the set of three for one of the QAR models.  In the insert the lap joint is clearly visible.  The joints were also treenailed for strength.   Two diagonal corners of each coaming were drilled but not filled.  During assembly longer treenails will go through them and into the deck for security.  A length of treenail stock is packed with the set ready for final assembly.
 

 
As you can tell from the brevity of the text, this all goes quite quickly with a some practice.  All of the work making the six hatches and gratings took only a little more than a day.  Doing the photographing and writing these build log entries took longer.
 
I hope that this was instructive and provides another technique to add to your tool box.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

Hi all, and thanks for the comments and likes.
 
The next set of independent pieces to be made were the three hatches with gratings.  One two-part one goes on the quarterdeck, while the other two go on the gun deck under the boat in the waist.  My method for making gratings is a bit unusual in that it there is little or no measuring done with a ruler or calipers.  Everything is done relative to the thickness of the saw blade that is used.  I developed this method because I only have a Preac saw.  A milling machine might make the whole process easier, but I work with what I have.
 
The first thing is to set up the saw to make square section sticks of wood whose dimension will be about 2  inches in the scale being used.  This then has to  match the thickness of a saw blade that you have.  For the small grating I used a slitting saw blade that was 0.032” thick. 
 
To set the saw I sandwiched that blade between a second blade and the rip fence.  The fence is snugged up and locked down.  The cutting blade does not have to be the same thickness, although in this case it was since I have two blades of that same thickness.
 
[These first nine photos are in black and white because they are taken from another presentation on making much smaller gratings].
 

 
Several sticks 0.032” square were cut from a sheet of hardwood.  Only a few are needed.  Then the blade that matches the sticks is mounted in the saw, if it is not already there.   Two of the sticks are sandwiched between the blade and the fence which is snugged tight and locked down.
 

 
One stick is removed and a short section of the other is held firmly against the fence and tacked in place with extra thin cyano.  Care is taken to see that the fence is not glued to the table.
 

 
The fence is removed, leaving a guide strip parallel to the blade and one blade thickness to the right. 
 

 
A rectangular piece of hardwood sheet is selected and held against the guide strip and the miter guage.  The blade height is set up to cut just a tiny bit deeper than halfway through the sheet.
 

 
The wood is run over the blade, cutting a channel one blade thickness from the end.
 

 
The wood is flipped over and the slot that was just cut is placed on top of the guide strip. 
 

 
The wood is run through again, cutting a second channel two thicknesses to the left of the first channel.
 

 
The balance of the sheet is cut in the same way, making a series of channels parallel to each other and spaced two blade widths apart.
 

 
Here is the grating sheet for the QAR. At my scale I needed sticks and channels that were about 0.055”.  I took one of the 0.032” blades and stacked it together with a 0.023” blade, making a 0.055” dado blade.
 

 
Actually, for the small grating I used Portia Takakjian’s technique.  This involves cutting lots of square sticks as well as cutting cross channels across the first ones.  The cross channels are filled with the sticks and everything is glued together.  When dry the solid back of the sheet is ground off with a sanding drum.  This works well for a small grating, but the wider blade did not cut as cleanly so I kept getting tearout.  Also, I needed more than 25 square inches of grating and did not look forward to grinding off so much wood.
 
Instead, I removed the guide strip and set the saw to cut 0.55” using the blades as spacers again.  Strips were parted off the sheet until the material was used up.  I call them toothed strips for obvious reasons.
 

 
Three quarters of the toothed strips were cut into thirds and interlocked with the remaining long strips.
 

 
This created a grating sheet about 2 ½ by 7 ½ inches.  This was only enough to make the gratings for one of the models, so a second grating sheet was made in the same way.
 

 
From the sheets I cut out sections for the grating sizes that I needed, sanded the edges flush and gave them a coat of slightly darkened matte finish to protect them from glue stains when the coamings get built around them.
 

 
Overall, this method worked well for me, and I will try it in smaller scales in the future.  A tip of the hat to Charlie Files, inventor of the Preac, wherever you are.
 
I will have the log of making the coamings in a few days.  Until then, be well.
 
Dan
 
 

I'm well into building the AVS (just finishing deck planking).  My advice is to purchase Bob Hunt's practicum.  The kit instructions are often vague or misleading.  The practicum is extremely detailed and step-by-step.  Also, you can access the practicum's forum for questions, and get  a quick response from Mr.  Hunt.  Just my two cents, but I think the practicum is worth it.
 
Dave