BareHook

I've heard the same and have always used diluted PVA (white glue) with no problems. I have also seen situations where CA will cause paint to discolor or peel as well.

This past spring, ussfrolic reached out to me about collaborating on a project with the US frigate John Adams. He got me access to a copy of a design draught for her and I duly reconstructed it from there. I’ve been sitting on it for a couple months since then and hadn’t started the proper thread for it. At frolic’s prompting I’m finally getting it started. He’ll fill in more of the background in following posts.
 
I intend to do more with the drawings, including an attempt to illustrate later versions of the ship, including the sloop and jackass frigate years. I also found spar dimensions for her as of the Barbary Wars, so I’ll be drawing a sail plan as well. The bare hull isn't entirely finished yet either, there’s still a few bits here and there missing, but it’s overall complete. I suppose “fitted out” would be a better term…
 
I reconstructed the steps, side lights from a deckplan that showed them, the bridle ports, and the head and waist rails. I’m going to fiddle with a couple different designs for the rails as far as waist and forecastle, but this is a start.

When dealing with this issue I run a single lanyard and tighten to my planned tension. This determines how many twists the line does at that tension. I then reverse the twists to the correct count, wrap the lanyard and apply tension and everything straitens-out.
 
Ken

Dye before sewing or the hems will soak up too much and darken.
 
I haven't tried dyeing but have heard of some using coffee to good effect.
 
Ken

I have tried a number of methods of simulating caulking. I found that pencil graphite smudged too much when sanded. I used the marker pen method for a while - it worked OK. I've now come up with a quicker and (I think easier) method. Purchase a liquid shoe polish (in the colour of your choice) but get one with the foam applicator on the end.
 
Load the shoe polish into the foam applicator by squeezing the bottle while holding the foam applicator in a tissue. Mount the polish bottle (foam applicator end up) in a vice so that it is stable and slide the plank along the foam applicator - I find I have more control if I slide the plank along the foam rather than the foam along the plank (don't push down on the plank or the polish will go onto the face of the plank) The polish dries very quickly so you can glue it to the deck immediately. I only `caulk' one side and one end of each plank.
 

 
 

Just to enlarge the subject a bit: gloves and power-tools are No-No. Never wear gloves when working with either hand-held power-tools or stationary machinery. The gloves can easily get caught in tools or chucks and the torque even small machines can exert is devastating. They can rip off fingers.
 
Personally, I rarely wear gloves for any work, as I just don't have the 'feel' with them. Being short-sighted, of course, I always wore glasses and feel naked without them. Past 45, when eye accomodation became a problem, I started to wear protective glasses, either plain or magnifying ones.
 
Unfortunately, I don't have children (and consequently grandchildren) of my own, so I have no practical experience in teaching them. I remember, however, that my father forbid me to use his wood chisels. At that time, I rather thought in order not to damage them, rather than not to damage myself - as I always was building something, I 'lent' them from his unlocked tool-cupboard until I was given my own tools at about age 8.
 
P.S. after having come across another 'thread': yes, I do wear leather gloves when cutting glass ...

Hello friends.
 
The all remaining frames mounted, aligned and bonded.
Now handwork is called for sanding.
Help in this case, belt-sander, long-neck angle grinder
and various sanding blocks.
 
Karl
 
 
 
T e i l  3
 
 

Masts are typically raked aft to some degree, but it can vary widely, you need to refer to the plans for the angle. If you don't have the info, someone on this site should be able to provide the info on the Bounty.
 
If you change the thread title to be specific question regarding the Bounty mast rake angle, you might get a quicker answer.
 
Ken

I believe the bands on the powder kegs were also made of copper instead of iron to prevent any risk of a spark

I believe the bands on the powder kegs were also made of copper instead of iron to prevent any risk of a spark

I believe the bands on the powder kegs were also made of copper instead of iron to prevent any risk of a spark

The day has come.  I spent a lot of time messing with the anchors, but I simply couldn't find a position where they looked decent to me when lashed to the timberheads, so I chose to display them hanging from the catheads.  I then spent far more time than I probably should have messing with the anchor buoys, and in the end was just unhappy with how they looked when properly attached to the anchors, so I decided to display the ship without them.  I may make a couple of rope coils and place them on the empty timberheads where the buoys would be hung and belayed, but other than that, and some inspection and touch-up painting/matting, the Serenity is done.
 
I need to re-do my lighting arrangement (which means rearranging the room I take these in) as I'm not real happy with the way these photo's turned out (from a lighting perspective), so I will probably do a full 'finished' photo-shoot sometime later this week.
 
Image dump (bigger than usual - 1600x on the long side)...
 

OK, the threadtitle might be a bit stupid but im having a real problem here.
Im currently trying to cut and assemble the various parts of a ship's keel but im constantly frustrated by the low accuracy of my work. I tried cutting/sawing as accurately as possible but with little success. I tried leaving something "extra" to later sand it to shape with the Dremel but this isn't working either. Especialy conkave surfaces and these damnable scarph joints (can't cut them with the tablesaw since the lower side of the round blade of course cuts a bit further than the upper side) give me trouble so im asking for advice.
 
How do you people manage such tight connections between the various parts of your ships's keel/stem/sternparts.

From experience and I'm still learning... I'm not there yet, but getting there...  Ok... so much for the personal disclaimer.
 
No dremels on joints, ever!  I use files and even then have to gauge.  Just a stroke or two at a time and keep offering it up to check.  If I can, I will use a disk sander but it's only to get close.  Files finish the job.  Sanding sticks can work, but are not as precise as files.
 
A scroll saw can get you close.  From what your wrote it sounds like you're using a spiral blade.  Don't.  Use a flat one with appropriate tooth count. I like the reverse tooth as they don't splinter the wood on the bottom of the cut.  Just leave lots of meat to final fit.   
 
Rather than a scroll saw, use chisels to cut the scarfs.  I haven't got this one figured out and am still working on technique but a lot the builders use them.  Gives a clean and precise cut when done right. 
 
Lastly, practice, practice, practice.  Use scrap wood of course but the more you do something, the better you become.
 
I hope this helps. 

What mtaylor said.  Another consideration is to use a scraper to do the final fitting.  This works best with hard woods like cherry although with care it can be used on fine grained softer woods like basswood.  An Xacto #11 blade works well as a scraper but it isn't the only option.  I have seen broken glass, small chisels and pieces of sheet metal used.  Scrape the joint a little at a time with the scraper held flat to the surface.  Trial fit after each scraping.  Scraping, if done right is better than files or sandpaper for fine fitting work and is the method actually used in old time shipyards to fit tight joints.  A few cavets, if scraping across the grain you can get an uneven surface, be very carefull to keep the blade in the correct plane or you will end up with a surface that is tilted out of line.

Hello and greetings! I am excited to start my second build log on this forum for the US Independence made by Artesania Latina. This is my third ship model that I have been steadily building up to in both complexity and size. I wanted to start this build log a little bit different by taking a few pictures of my work station. I remember building models on mom's kitchen table when I was a kid and constantly battling for space. Some of the tools I use have been in my possession for 15+ years and have been steadily expanded upon with a little here and a little there.
 
Some things I'm looking forward to about this build is constructing my first gun carriages, multiple masts, and more complex rigging. This ship is literally twice a big as my last build so that should work in my favor in the constant battle between big hands and tiny pieces. Well more to come shortly. If you want, take a picture of your work station and share it on this build log
 
oh I will be sure to add a link to my second build shortly.   

Its been a while since I posted an update, but here it goes:
 
Most of the deck furniture is complete, but some is loosely placed.
Completed rigging the cannons, threading 2mm blocks was "interesting" I used these twisted wire needle threaders that I found at Michael's. I did the coils by wetting the line with diluted PVA and wrapping it around a small dowel then using a toothpick to slide the coil down to the deck, where the wet glue held it in place.
I made the ships bell from solid brass in a hand drill and shaped it using needle files (poor mans lathe).
Currently I am completing masts and spars, then the standing rigging.
 
Ken

Thank you all for the compliments and the likes on the rope coils.  I do appreciate them!
 
So yea.  Rope coils.  I don't know why, as they really aren't any more tedious than lots of other things I've done on the ship, but I really had a hard time motivating myself to finish these, but I think the end result is certainly worth the effort expended.  I finally finished up the bow tonight.   There are 11 lines that terminate at the bow (would be more if I was building this with sails).  Here is what it looked like with the lines terminated, but not trimmed, before I started adding the coils.         First step was to add the three coils for the lower tier of ropes on the bulkhead.  I did this over the weekend at some point.     Then tonight I got busy after work, which was a bit early since today was a telecommute day, and I knocked out all 8 of the coils along the cap-rail at the bow.     Next I need to rig the anchors up, which of course means making a couple of buoys and then rigging the catheads to attach to the anchor rings.  I need to decide whether to rig them hanging, or lashed to the timberheads.  I might do one of each.  Then of course, I have to make coils for all 4 of those ropes, and then coil the main anchor cable on the deck after running them through the hawse holes.   Once that's done, I have to fix the few swivel guns that are still not fixed, and I'll be done with the ship (but not the display base).     Strange to be this close to finished after all this time.

I believe brushing on works better than immersion because brushing limits the amount of reaction and thickness of black. with immersion, too much black can build up and it loses and adhesion to the surface.
 
Just a thought though based upon my own experience blackening
 
Ken

Hey All,
 
So one thing that I managed to accomplish while being out of pocket and away from the shipyard for so long was to tackle a problem with my workbench that had always bugged me.
 
The bench I had picked up was this one from harbor freight
 

 
It is a great bench if you are not familiar with it and probably one of the best purchases I have made.  The trouble I had with it was the drawers.  They don't open up quite all the way.  This leaves a very shallow access to the drawer and with small tools or fiddly bits it was too easy for things to get hung up in the back.  My hands just didn't like trying to dig around back there so it limited my use of the drawers.
 
This is a pic of the drawer as it comes
 

 
However, after looking over the bench and consulting with my father who I had gotten the same bench for and had the same issue, he came up with an idea that was far to simple in it's concept we both couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it before.
 
Replace the runners.
 
So we purchased some runners from amazon,  these runners to be precise
10 Pack Promark Full Extension Drawer Slide 14" 100lb Load Rating 
And when we replaced the stock runners with the above sliders...walla!!
 

 
We had full extension drawers.
 
They handle a nice load on the drawer, slide in and out quite smoothly and make the drawer 100% useful.  Now, there were some minor (very minor) modifications that had to be made to the drawers due to the depth difference of the runners, but a quick shave on the drawers and we were in business.
 
Here is a side by side for ya
 

 
 
Granted, not a huge discovery but I thought it neat enough and useful enough to share with ya all, maybe someone else can make use of it.
 
 
Enjoy!!

Check out the links on this site
 
http://www.modelboatyard.com/techniques.html
 
Ken

Check out the links on this site
 
http://www.modelboatyard.com/techniques.html
 
Ken

Hello everyone and thanks for your comments and likes, it's always much appreciated.
 
Thanks Gunther, my wife is of the same opinion 
 
@ Mark T. Thank you as well and rusty is good - I think    I had a wild idea to file the round brass wire flat to simulate wrought iron straps but where do I end detailing this thing to the nth degree   I'll dunk it back in the straight stuff to darken it some more.  However, I plan on ordering some of the other solutions and see if they work better.
 
Thanks Patrick, All the comments from everyone is very encouraging - - - as you know.
 
Hey Popeye, good to hear from you again. Yeah, I should have had my head examined making the gunport lids workable.  Once they are on and the model is in it's glass house it's a moot point.  But - - - it was a challenge to me to see if it can be done at this scale.  In retrospect it was more trouble then worth the effort.
 
Okay, I have been able to install all but one of the lids and even painted tem flat black.  Could not do the blackening in-situ because of contamination of glue.  Perhaps should have done the blackening before cementing them on - - hind side again.   I had trouble with the CA and even the 2 part epoxy to secure the gudgeons to the lids.  I have no idea why they gave me such a headache but in the end they stayed put with the epoxy cement.  
The one lid I need to remake the pintles and go through the whole process again.  That'll have to wait for another day - - - I need to calm my nerves
 
I took a photo of the port side for yuns to see and comment on.  There is still a lot of clean-up and touch-up work to do including repainting the green to a more authentic color from the mid 17th century. Yeah Hans, I haven't forgotten.
 

 
Cheers,
 
 

So I haven't made much progress since my last update, and I've discovered that I don't really like rope coils very much.  Seems like a great thing to dislike given my subject choices, hahaha.. 
 
In any case, I'm working on getting a jig that makes coils I like, and I think I'm getting somewhat close, but still not there.
 
I started working at the stern, and I'm done with the stern, quarter-deck, boom, and shrouds now.  
 

 
The coils are taking much longer than I expected them to, but oh well.  Getting a bit better as I go along.

I would consider using electrical multi strand wire, it is already in a twisted form and can be found in really small diameters. You could even use insulated wire, just strip the insulation. If the twists are not tight enough, secure one end and put the other in a drill motor, you can spin it tighter. You can find it tin plated (silver appearance) or bare copper that can be blackened.
 
Ken