AON

Thank you Mark. Still needs some metal work but I will get to that at a later date.

RUDDER: So here are some photos of my last and final rudder. Major differences are: 1) the chatter groove is cleaner 2) the tiller holes are tapered at 12" square opening inboard; smaller square hole outboard measuring 1/3rd the width of the rudder head. 3) the table joint was made in two different shades of Costello to try to make the joint more visible After comments at our local club meeting yesterday I will be softening the rudder corners/edges some more with a fine grade sand paper, and squaring the tiller holes a bit cleaner with a micro chisel. Files can only do so much to a make a round hole square... and I am certain talent plays a bigger part than the file. TREENAILS: Regarding my tutorial in making treenails last week... I was shown to hold the skewer perpendicular to the floor, flat end up, tightly against the edge of a work table with your thumb clamping it there (thumb safely below the top surface of the table so as not to cut your self). There should be about an inch ( 25 mm) or more protruding above the table edge. Using a sharp knife place the cutting edge on top of the end of the skewer, across the centre as best as you can and push down slightly increasing pressure so the blade slices through to the table top in a controlled cut. Do not do this at your good dining room table unless you are a bachelor and want to remain so. Once scored remove the skewer from the table and turn it 90° so it is horizontal to the floor and place the knife blade back in the scored/cut end. Grab the parted end with your free hand and pull it through the knife. You now have two clean straight cut halves (I haven't tried this yet but I saw it done multiple times). Now repeat with one half, and again with one quarter until you have a length at a size that will feed into the largest hole in your draw plate. You might have to sharpen one end of the piece to aid feeding it into the tiny hole. Grab it with your parallel pliers and pull it through a couple times, then jump a hole and go down to a smaller hole and repeat the process until you reach the size/diameter treenail you need. The draw plate has tapered holes so the smaller diameter on one side is the cutting edge. On mine, the hole sizes are stamped on the large hole side, the out feed side. You feed into the small hole side. I was told that if the wood sliver piece is ever so slightly too large to feed into the small hole you can try pushing it in the out feed side to crush the fibres down to allow it to feed into the infeed side... or resharpen it to a point with a knife. I have ordered the parallel pliers Druxey recommended in an earlier post (#999 above) as they are indeed instrumental in causing less damage to the tiny bamboo. They have not come in yet. I may make a video when the darn pliers show up. It is a simple enough process once you've see it and have done it.

Mark I attended our local club meeting yesterday afternoon and once again I left having learnt a number of things I otherwise would never have read in a book. Two of the fellows there are "professional ship modellers" and they seal everything with a water based sanding sealer to fill the pours and protect the wood. They then sand the work after dried with incrementally fine sandpaper to get the smooth quality desired for a bare or painted surface. I suspect your tape will stick to this. This is from the makers website: EM1000 Universal Sanding Sealer is designed to penetrate deeply into the cell structure of the substrate being sealed, promoting enhanced adhesion qualities. The exceptional clarity of this small particle size resin enhances wood grain color image and magnification. EM1000 dried quickly and is easy to sand. EM1000 can be used underneath all of our interior-grade clear finished. .... and you can get it at Lee Valley Tools! (Road trip)

Thank you Mike and Derek (and everyone else), but if you saw it up close in real life... I just completed my 3rd and last version of the rudder, and will take it to our club meeting this afternoon. I chose two slightly contrasting colours of costello to try to bring out the tabling a bit more clearly. Also, I visited a club member last week and had a tutorial on making treenails. His hands on method made minced meat of my block. But then again he has been at it for ages. I will be posting more later.

It seems my supplier may not have put my order in for my #6-32 stainless steel helicoil thread inserts as they are not in and they have no record of the order being placed just before the holiday shut down. So possibly they might be in by early next week? I took another shot at making the rudder and although it looks much better, I believe the third time will be the charm (practise makes perfect). I decided to drill a hole to create the relief radius in the upper rear ornate shaping. I should have possibly chosen a smaller diameter drill. I was quite impressed with my first attempt at tabling (stepped cut and fitting of the two main pieces) and my second attempt was that much better. The backing and sole plates were glued on prior to sanding down the tapered width this time. This seemed to work better. I cut the chatter groove in the backing plate without any real direction or description. Where does it start and stop? What is the width and depth? With what I know about fluid dynamics, and realising the plates are 6 inches thick, I assumed 3 inch depth and 1/3rd the width would seem realistic. I did not get it cut as straight and clean as I had hoped to, but the practise and process is tried. I will practise on a piece of scrap to get a clean crisp cut for next time. The two square holes at the head for the main and spare tillers were drilled out and the corners were filed to shape. I decided to use one size though the piece where as in reality it was 12 inches square forward and tapered smaller to a square hole 1/3rd the width and height of the width of the rudder at that location. My next and final attempt will be properly sized even though no one will likely see it. While shaping the taper at the pintle cutout side corners I slipped and took a little extra off in one spot that no one will likely see ... but I know it is there and it bugs me. So I will do it once again. I've got the process figured out and the practise in.

I have also started installing my spacer chocks between the frames to stiffen it up before fairing. This work is quite boring. So to spice things up a bit I attempted to make the rudder yesterday. I am also waiting on delivery of some stainless steel #6-32 thread inserts for my mounting threaded rods. I hope they will be in and ready to pick up on Monday. The photos below show the work stages for my first attempt at this style rudder assembly. Rough cutting. Finish sizing, shaping and fitting the tabling, sanding the taper, adding the sole piece and then the backing piece. I did not bother to finish it off (cut the chatter groove into the backing piece, cut the two 12" sq. tiller holes, or shape the leading edge corners - pintle side) - so it can rotate against the stern post) because I made one huge misteak... the head of the rudder is dimensionally too narrow. It was a good first try! Always time to do it again.

So stuff has happened that has kept me distracted from the ship build. Family, Christmas, New Years, meals, drinks, sleeping in. I modified my bamboo skewer slicer (version 2.0). I refitted/reworked the pockets for holding the razor in the rear block halves, then I took the face block, cut off the the top with the existing guide holes, flipped the bottom half to become the new top half, then marked off and drilled new holes. It splits better now and I have made up some treenails at 0.033" (0.84mm) and 0.029" (0.74mm) which is 2-1/8" and 1-7/8" diameter at 1:64. I will be using the larger diameter treenails to pin the feet of the frames of the lower futtocks to the keel and deadwood. It works better than a razor clamped in a vise... safer too, particularly as I am prone to accidents. Try as I might, I cannot tack the bamboo skewer to slice through the razor very well. It always wanders off to one side or the other.

I recently re-organized my play room. Now I cannot find a darned thing. Never ever re-organize!

I was reading post #19 above and immediately thought of all the different things I use my 2D CAD program for besides drawings for ship models. You never stop learning, so I believe a steep learning curve is no excuse if creating computer 2D drawings tickles your fancy. The only two good reasons for me not to learn something knew is 1) it doesn't interest me in the least, or 2) I suddenly stopped breathing (YIKES).... this one never happened as yet.

I must apologize for not responding since the 6th of November!!! For some reason I did not get any notifications of any postings here. The headings were SHIP - YARD - GUNS I suspect if it was a typo (which is as likely as anything I suppose) then the proper ships name was omitted in error. Another posting lists the 24 gun Squirrel as having been launched the following year, having been published in The Scots Magazine on the 1st of May 1786. I have also seen ships built under one name and launched under another only to be renamed again some years later.

I honestly didn't understand. I couldn't possibly have been offended. Now that you explained it to the slow guy, I find it very funny. 😃 If you ever did offend me ....I know where you live 😈 (meant to be funny) For everyone else... Derek and I are practically neighbours. Just a small community college campus "of applied dreams" comes between us.

Sorry Derek, I do not understand your comment. Would you please explain and help me to understand.

Yes she was a replica with auxiliary power. So copper plating formed into the groove.

I spent a few hours this afternoon making a bamboo skewer slicer. There are eight parts: 1 - The front block with three holes at 0.14", 0.09" and 0.06" diameter, there is a bevelled lead in to help guide the skewer. (Skewers seem to be 0.125" max diameter) 2 and 3 - the screws to fasten it to the back blocks 4 and 5 - the back block halves of which one has a pocket for the razor cutter 6 - the razor cutter blade 7 and 8 - the screws to fasten the back halves together. Photos below will explain the assembly. It splits the skewers like a charm.... just needs a tiny adjustment on the upper hole to centre the cutting blade better. But that is for another day... MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.

or more so when I am entered into the equation.