jablackwell

Got a little work done on the Syren this week, between cooking chores for the big Thanksgiving thing. I have most of the bulkheads sanded and dry fit (no glue yet) and am working on the filler block concept. I also fashioned a jig to hold her straight while all this is taking place. I decided on a jig with one half bolted in place and the other fence made adjustable and managed by using clamps. This way I can keep it tight, but also remove the ship, when needed, with ease.
Happy day to you all.
~john

Got a little work done on the Syren this week, between cooking chores for the big Thanksgiving thing. I have most of the bulkheads sanded and dry fit (no glue yet) and am working on the filler block concept. I also fashioned a jig to hold her straight while all this is taking place. I decided on a jig with one half bolted in place and the other fence made adjustable and managed by using clamps. This way I can keep it tight, but also remove the ship, when needed, with ease.
Happy day to you all.
~john

The length of the struts will depend on the placement and angle of the cabane struts. Make sure these are properly placed and angled out appropriately to match their attachment points in the upper wing. Once those are in place, you can attach the upper wing and check into the length of the interplane struts. These came out very close to their planned size for me, maybe a mm off. You have to cut them a little long in order to file them to a wedge fit into their parts CAW42. They should be tight, as in they will "lift" the lower wing a bit and they will attempt to pull down the upper wing onto the cabane struts tightly. They shold not bend the upper wing... that's too tight ;-)
 
~john

The length of the struts will depend on the placement and angle of the cabane struts. Make sure these are properly placed and angled out appropriately to match their attachment points in the upper wing. Once those are in place, you can attach the upper wing and check into the length of the interplane struts. These came out very close to their planned size for me, maybe a mm off. You have to cut them a little long in order to file them to a wedge fit into their parts CAW42. They should be tight, as in they will "lift" the lower wing a bit and they will attempt to pull down the upper wing onto the cabane struts tightly. They shold not bend the upper wing... that's too tight ;-)
 
~john
 
 

That's unfortunate: just call back to the folks at Model Expo, and they'll take good care of you. I would resist cutting and soldering Brittania Metal, but it can be done if you want to give it a try.
 
~j
 

I measured the width of the fuselage at the joining location for the lower wing.... then set that accordingly. The gap in mine was a tight fit. Note that you need to place a metal fittings (landing gear struts) between the wing's inner most rib and the fuselage. In my build, the fit was too tight, so I had to carve then file away a notch for the gear struts to slide into.  It worked. 
~j

Jesse Lee,
 
It wont really resemble a MSW Syren with the changes you have made, first class. The stern, rudder, and wheel in addition to all the other refinements changes the whole aesthetics of the build. Kudos this Buds for you

Noticed that I hadn't done the rudder chains. Started to do it like the instructions say but after reading what Dubz says about this I did it the way he did. 
 
Jesse

Hi John,  vodka is the way to go.  Have fun with the project, remember it is not a race but a hobby. 

Ahhhhhh!  Well, that sounds like a good way to watch this build ;-) I love a good martini, but the question is this: Gin or Vodka?  It's been a while since my last post, so perhaps I owe everyone a status.
 
I am working on taking the bulkheads and sanding them down, then shaping them appropriately so that they sit on the keel board properly. I am tapping them into place and then cutting small pieces of 1x2 as filling blocks. My main line is a tiny bit curved, but the filler blocks will take care of that. 
 
Welcome to the build!   I'll post some images soon.
 
~john
 

Making slow and steady progress here with the Syren. I spent some good time working on the rabbet, a first for me. I ended up becoming frustrated with wielding a sharp knife and took out a small finishing sander. That did the job remarkably well and in little time.  The stern knee was then tapered to accept the figure head, and then glued on along with the 3/16" square keel along the bottom. I made sure to clamp the bulkhead former onto a flat workspace while gluing things to it... hopefully to help remove some of the slight warp that it has. I know this will be completely rectified when I get the bulkheads and filler blocks installed. Any little thing to help is good, in my opinion!  For the filler blocks, I made a quick trip to Home Depot for a 1x2" strip of pine. I am ready....   
 
I also spent time getting ALL the wood sorted and labeled for easier work in the shop. A Sharpie and blue masking tape made great labels... 
 
;-)  Some images below.
~john
 
 

Ahhhhhh!  Well, that sounds like a good way to watch this build ;-) I love a good martini, but the question is this: Gin or Vodka?  It's been a while since my last post, so perhaps I owe everyone a status.
 
I am working on taking the bulkheads and sanding them down, then shaping them appropriately so that they sit on the keel board properly. I am tapping them into place and then cutting small pieces of 1x2 as filling blocks. My main line is a tiny bit curved, but the filler blocks will take care of that. 
 
Welcome to the build!   I'll post some images soon.
 
~john
 

Ahhhhhh!  Well, that sounds like a good way to watch this build ;-) I love a good martini, but the question is this: Gin or Vodka?  It's been a while since my last post, so perhaps I owe everyone a status.
 
I am working on taking the bulkheads and sanding them down, then shaping them appropriately so that they sit on the keel board properly. I am tapping them into place and then cutting small pieces of 1x2 as filling blocks. My main line is a tiny bit curved, but the filler blocks will take care of that. 
 
Welcome to the build!   I'll post some images soon.
 
~john
 

The length of the struts will depend on the placement and angle of the cabane struts. Make sure these are properly placed and angled out appropriately to match their attachment points in the upper wing. Once those are in place, you can attach the upper wing and check into the length of the interplane struts. These came out very close to their planned size for me, maybe a mm off. You have to cut them a little long in order to file them to a wedge fit into their parts CAW42. They should be tight, as in they will "lift" the lower wing a bit and they will attempt to pull down the upper wing onto the cabane struts tightly. They shold not bend the upper wing... that's too tight ;-)
 
~john
 
 

That's unfortunate: just call back to the folks at Model Expo, and they'll take good care of you. I would resist cutting and soldering Brittania Metal, but it can be done if you want to give it a try.
 
~j
 

The length of the struts will depend on the placement and angle of the cabane struts. Make sure these are properly placed and angled out appropriately to match their attachment points in the upper wing. Once those are in place, you can attach the upper wing and check into the length of the interplane struts. These came out very close to their planned size for me, maybe a mm off. You have to cut them a little long in order to file them to a wedge fit into their parts CAW42. They should be tight, as in they will "lift" the lower wing a bit and they will attempt to pull down the upper wing onto the cabane struts tightly. They shold not bend the upper wing... that's too tight ;-)
 
~john

The length of the struts will depend on the placement and angle of the cabane struts. Make sure these are properly placed and angled out appropriately to match their attachment points in the upper wing. Once those are in place, you can attach the upper wing and check into the length of the interplane struts. These came out very close to their planned size for me, maybe a mm off. You have to cut them a little long in order to file them to a wedge fit into their parts CAW42. They should be tight, as in they will "lift" the lower wing a bit and they will attempt to pull down the upper wing onto the cabane struts tightly. They shold not bend the upper wing... that's too tight ;-)
 
~john
 
 

That's unfortunate: just call back to the folks at Model Expo, and they'll take good care of you. I would resist cutting and soldering Brittania Metal, but it can be done if you want to give it a try.
 
~j
 

I measured the width of the fuselage at the joining location for the lower wing.... then set that accordingly. The gap in mine was a tight fit. Note that you need to place a metal fittings (landing gear struts) between the wing's inner most rib and the fuselage. In my build, the fit was too tight, so I had to carve then file away a notch for the gear struts to slide into.  It worked. 
~j

Aiee! What a complex set of procedures to carry out, Ed. I would have been strongly tempted to simplify and fudge those blocks at that scale. My hat is doffed to you, Sensei!

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 251 – Sheet Blocks
 
Each square yard, except for the skysail yards at the tops of the masts, will be fitted with an iron sheet block suspended from an eyebolt below its center.  These "cloverleaf" type blocks contain two sheaves, one for each of the two chain sheets for the sail directly above.  The sheets pass through sheaves in the yardarms, or cheek blocks on the larger yards, through fairleads under the yard, then to the sheet blocks.  The blocks direct the sheets downward to tackles that are belayed on deck in most cases.  The first picture shows the seven fabricated, 21" sheet blocks with eyebolts attached.
 

 
Two of these have been blackened.  This size will be used on lower, lower topsail, and upper topsail yards on the fore and main masts and on the crojack yard on the mizzen.  The remaining yards will be fitted with smaller, 15" blocks of this type.
 
To make these efficiently, some "mass production" was used.  In the first step, holes for all the plate casings were drilled as shown in the next picture, through two long strips of .010" brass, ¾" at 1:72 scale.
 

 
The holes were drilled using the mill as a drill press, with holes spaced using the calibration wheels, in a prescribed sequence using calculated spacings.  The resulting strips, for both block sizes are shown in the next picture.
 

 
Part of the drilling guide sheet may be seen in the picture.  It shows each movement in a numbered sequence, with penciled spacings calculated from the full size dimensions.  The punch marks on the strips were added for matching. 
 
In the next picture two dressmaker pins have been inserted through the holes on the vertical centerline of two matching plates. 
 

 
The rough shape of the block was cut through both plates using scissors.  The two pins are close fitting, and in the picture below are clamped in a vise where the triangle shapes are being sized with a file.
 

 
There is a thin, drilled wood shim under the two plates for clearance above the vise.  In the next picture the triangular shape has been filed, the plates separated, and the pins have been replaced with lengths of drawn copper wire.
 

 
One of these wires has been threaded through a turned sheave.  In the next picture, with both sheaves fitted, the lower ends of the pin wires are clamped in the vise.
 

 
In this picture the upper wire ends have been clipped off just above the top plate and then peened to form rivet heads.  The assembly was then turned over and placed on an anvil.  The long bolt ends were then clipped and peened.  In the next picture the central pin has been peened on both sides in the same way and the top pin has been inserted through a spun eyebolt.
 

 
As before, the lower ends of the pin wires are clamped in the vise for peening the first side.  The block was then flipped over to clip and peen the other ends, completing the assembly.  The lower block in the picture below shows this stage.
 
 
 
Each side of the triangle was then filed concave, shaped to match the pattern and polished. The fourteen smaller sheet blocks will be made later.
 
Ed

I measured the width of the fuselage at the joining location for the lower wing.... then set that accordingly. The gap in mine was a tight fit. Note that you need to place a metal fittings (landing gear struts) between the wing's inner most rib and the fuselage. In my build, the fit was too tight, so I had to carve then file away a notch for the gear struts to slide into.  It worked. 
~j

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 250 – Fore Yard Truss
 
Lower yards on ships of this type were attached to the masts using iron trusses.  The fore yard truss will position the yard about 6 feet forward of the mast.  It is configured in the form of a universal joint that allowed the yard to be "braced", that is, rotated around the mast, or "topped," raised at one end or the other.  The weight of the yard was taken mostly by a separate chain sling shackled to the center of the yard and bolted to the mast just below the hounds.  Making and fitting of both these parts are described below. 
 
A pattern for the yoke that connects the truss to the yard is pasted to a 1/8" copper plate in the first picture. 
 
 
This curved yoke lies in the horizontal plane, has vertical holes at the ends for bolting to yard band brackets and horizontal hole through its center for a bolt to a universal fitting that will allow vertical rotation and topping.  The shape of the yoke was first cut out using a jeweler's saw, then filed to a rounded shape.  The next picture shows the shaping in progress and the yard band bolt holes drilled.
 

 
The wide band at the center of the yard will be drilled for the sling eyebolt.  The next picture shows the universal fitting bolted through the yoke.  It has an eye at the aft end to fit the bracket in the mast band that was installed earlier. 
 

 
In the picture, two long wire bolts have been inserted through the yard band brackets and yoke eyes.  These were first peened to form rivet heads as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The pliers in the picture have half-round slots filed into the jaws that allow wire to be held for peening of the end. I believe this process was described earlier, perhaps in a Naiad post.  In the next picture one of the long bolts has been clipped off on the underside, leaving just enough for its head to be peened, locking the yoke arm to the bracket. 
 
 
A flat-end center punch was used for this.  The other bolt was then inserted, clipped and peened to complete the attachment.  Unfortunately I did not take photos when making the universal fitting, so a description of that will await work on a later mast.  Note in the picture that the yard bands are pinned to the underside of the yard with small copper bolts.
 
The weight of the yard, as mentioned above was mostly taken by a chain sling.  This is shown in the next picture, shackled at one end to an eyebolt temporarily inserted through the central yard band.
 

 
To set the length of the chain, the yard was temporarily hung and the chain held with tweezers as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The tweezers were used to hold the chain at a link that could be fitted with an eyebolt into the mast that would hold the truss level.  The chain was cut at this point and an eyebolt spun onto it.  The hole for the eyebolt was then spotted on the mast, again by holding the eyebolt with tweezers and marking the height that would hold the truss level.  The next picture shows the yard hung temporarily with eyebolts inserted.
 

 
The next picture shows the yard fully braced around to the point where it contacts the forestay and almost touches the forward lower shroud.
 

 
There is still much work to do on this yard before installing it permanently, some of the parts were shown earlier.  Others will be described in the next parts.
 
Ed           

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 249 – Lower Fore Yard 3
 
There is a variety of ironwork to be installed on every square yard.  Beginning with the iron sling band at the center and the reinforcing bands on made yards.  These and other bands, as well as some structures attached to bands, like studdingsail boom brackets, must be sized to each individual yard.   Others, like iron sheet blocks that hang from the center of the yard, cheek blocks for sheets at the yardarms and to some extent iron trusses, are more standardized and lend themselves to a "mass production" approach, if making seven or eight identical parts can be considered "mass."  So, while the work shown in this part and the next was able to proceed, progress was soon hindered until a batch of standard parts could be produced for all the yards.  Developing processes for those has taken some time and this has slowed work on the first yards.  This and the next part describe work on the fore yard before interruption to make sheet and cheek blocks, to be described later.
 
The first picture shows iron (i.e. copper) banding at the center of the yard.
 
 
Most of this is ½" thick x 4" wide – actually slightly thicker (.010").  The center sling band is thicker (.015") – and wider.  It will eventually be drilled top and bottom to secure eyebolts for the chain sling and the sheet block.  Outside of that are two more thicker bands that will secure the iron yard truss, then the first reinforcing band, a band to secure a block,  then a band than will attach a sheet fairlead, then two more bands, one reinforcing and one for a block.  Additional bands were added out to the first studdingsail bracket that is described below. 
 
But first, the basic banding method.  This was described in an earlier post.  The first step is cutting banding material to a length that will form a ring slightly smaller than the yard diameter at its location.  Some ways to do this were described earlier.  The ends of the band are then butted together and silver soldered.  A soldering setup to keep the ends together is shown in the next picture.
 

 
Two steel blocks were used for this.  After soldering, the misshapen bands are then pushed on to a wooden mandrel to shape them and provide a holder for filing (if needed), smoothing, and polishing as shown in the next picture.
 

 
Using a separate mandrel for this helps keep the spar clean.  This one is maple, one of a pair in different sizes to be used for this purpose.  The mandrel may also be used for sizing bands.  This was described in Part 184.  After this step the band is fitted to the yard, with the last ¼" or so a forced fit.
 
The next picture shows fabrication of a studdingsail boom bracket.
 

 
The band is made a fitted to the spar first.  The square piece of hard brass is the silver-soldered to it as shown in the picture.  The two brass bands under the brass leg are used to center the leg on the band width.  The leg is then cut to length and the outer bands for the booms soldered on.
 

 
These are test fitted to the studdingsail booms as shown in the next picture.
 
 
 
The outer boom irons are made in a similar way, with the addition of a simulated roller on the bottom side of the boom band.  The next picture shows the setup for soldering the roller to the bands.
 

 
The rounded out area on the copper wire will be placed under the band in the final setup before soldering, after clipping off the wire.  This is a simplified simulation of the actual roller, which would be on an axle within the band diameter.   In the last picture, the outer arm has been bent and inserted into the end of the yard and shown with the yard temporarily mounted.
 
 
There is more work to do on these parts, including blackening.  Also, the reinforcement of the yardarm is not shown.  This includes a u-shaped band wrapped around on the axis of the yard and two circular reinforcing bands over it.  I will show pictures of this later.  Also, this photo shows the yard truss that will be described in the next part.
 
Ed

this piece is finally 100% done now that I just installed the railings.