Altair 1931 by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:32 - schooner

[KeithAug]

Hi Pete - thanks for the positive feedback.

 

1st Planking the hull continues. After completing 9 parallel planks the curvature was getting a little excessive so it was time for a change in strategy. I started looking for a natural plank line and then dithered for hours wondering which line would be best. After drawing many options on the hull I decided to be undecided and just ploughed on regardless - reasoning that I'd make the best of whatever line I chose. I marked a line using a stiff plank and used pins to form location points for positioning the first of the next stage of planks.

 

 

Having marked out the plank line on one side of the hull I used dividers to transpose an identical line on the other side of the hull. So far the planking on either side of the hull is identical and I want to keep it this way - silly really as it will be over planked. (My OCD kicking in again).

 

 

I have now completed 3 of the new phase of planking and all is well - so far!!!

 

Edited February 11, 2016 by KeithAug

[Angarfather]

What a beauty! And what a perfect job you make!

 

Cheers HArtmut

[pete48]

Nice work, Keith, The planking looks fantastic

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Jim Lad]

That planking is looking very nice indeed!

 

John

[KeithAug]

Hi Pete, John and HArtmut. Thanks for your encouragement on my planking efforts.

 

Its time for a progress update.

 

I thought I would get the difficult bit out of the way and continue with the tapered planks around the hulls belly. The photos are fairly self explanatory so I'll cut down on dialogue.

 

 

The final closure plank is always the most tricky to get right and I have developed the "black finger method" to make it easier.

I start by loosely laying a piece of printer paper over the hole to be filled. Running a finger over the paper above the hole creates an indent which accurately represents the shape of the closure plank. 

 

 

I find it really hard to see the profile of the plank once the paper is removed so I shave some graphite from pencil and rub my finger in it.

 

 

I then rub my finger over the paper and this gives me a very visible profile for the closure plank.

 

 

I then cut out the profile to make a template.

 

 

The template is transferred to a plank and glued in place using a glue stick.

 

 

The plank is cut out, finish sanded to fit and then glued in place.

 

 

Now I can proceed with the easier task of planking the keel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

I have now completed the 1st planking on both sides of the hull - so far so good. Although I had thought that I would revert to narrower planks at some stage, in the end I found it to be unnecessary.

 

Before sanding I roughly drew pencil lines on the hull to act a sanding guide. Sanding to remove the pencil lines enables me to achieve a smooth finish while avoiding sanding through of the planks.

 

 

I have completed the sanding of one side - it took about an hour and a half using coarse grit emery cloth on a cork block.

 

 

The bow and stern shots show the before and after.

 

 

I have abandoned sanding - family are arriving soon and they plan to stay for at least a week. Boat building has to be curtailed for some time.

 

 

 

 

[pete48]

Hi Keith, The planking looks fantastic, Beautiful work, well done

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[KeithAug]

Having completed and finish sanded 1st planking I had a few things to sort out about future stages. After some thought I decided on the following sequence:-

 

 

1 Drill the hole to take the prop shaft.

2 Mark the waterline.

 

I wanted to compete items 1 and 2 while the hull was still attached to the building board - so that I had a reference datum for the 2 operations.

 

The sequence continues with:-

 

3 Remove the hull from the building board.

4 Trim the frames to size at deck level.

5 Mount the 1/16th inch ply sub deck, with cut outs for the deck house, skylights and hatches.

6 Plank and finish sand the deck.

7 Mount the 3 layers of 1/32 inch ply which form the bulwarks and the sculpturing of the hull sides.

8 2nd plank the hull. (Having manufactured the planks from mahogany).

 

This lot should take care of the next few months.

 

Staring with the prop shaft which is asymmetric - sitting on the port side of the hull.

 

The prop tube is 3/8 inch diameter, angles downwards at an angle of 6 deg and outward from the centre line  at an angle of 8.5 degrees. See Photo.

 

 

I didn't feel comfortable trying to drill this by eye, so I manufactured a simple jig consisting of 2 parallel MDF boards, separated by 3 inch, drilled with offset holes the alignment of which gave the compound angle necessary for drilling. I did have to revert to a bit of school room trigonometry which taxed the brain cells more than I expected (a bit worrying). See Photo.

 

 

Having positioned the jig so that the drill intersected the hull at the correct point I then clamped it in place and drilled the hull with a 3/8 inch by 18 inch long auger drill. To keep things under control I took my time and hand drilled using a woodworking brace. The photographs illustrate the procedure.

 

 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Very nice, Keith!

 

John

[mtaylor]

A scary thing to do but well done, Keith. 

[KeithAug]

Hello Mark

 

I agree it was a bit scary - I imagined the auger drifting off sideways down the hull leaving a nasty scrape on the planks. Luck however was on my side.

 

Hi John - thanks for the feedback.

 

Keith

[KeithAug]

A little more progress..........

 

Having marked the waterline on the hull I realised my previous sequence had missed the vital step of making a building cradle. I had a look around the workshop and came across the discarded cradle from Endeavour. The fuller hull of Altair was fortuitous as a few quick cuts with the jigsaw transformed the cradle into one suitable for this build. (I used the frame templates from earlier to get the correct cradle profile).

 

With the hull finally the correct way up I set about the task of removing the building board. You may recall not all the frames were glued to the board and I had marked the glued frames so I knew where to cut.

 

While cutting away the building board I mused on the various removal stages and decided to name them for fun:-

 

1 THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER STAGE. (Illustrious class I think)

 

 

2 SAWING THE FAT LADY IN HALF STAGE. (Taking care not to get carried away)

 

 

3 THE CHINESE JUNK PHASE.

 

 

4 THE GALLEON PHASE (Forecastle still to be built)

 

 

Having removed all of the building board I started on the frames - the aft most frame removed to deck level.

 

Edited February 22, 2016 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

Removal of up stands and a start on the deck:-

 

I had part cut the frames at deck level so removal of the up-stands wasn't a difficult process. I started by hand cutting but soon abandoned this in favour of a recently acquired multi tool fitted with a plunge blade. It worked a treat and I wonder why I hadn't bought one ages ago. I sanded the frames until I was comfortable with the deck profile which is concave bow to stern and convex across the beam. I used one of the left over planks laid across the frames to test the deck shape.

 

 

I decided to make the sub deck from 1/16 inch ply. Having cut a rectangular piece large enough to cover the hull I laid one of the long edges on the centre line of the hull and marked the position of the frames. I then drew the frame positions across the ply.

 

 

Having established the frame positions I used dividers to transfer the shapes of the deck cut outs from the plans on to the  plywood.

 

 

Again using dividers I transferred the width of the hull on to the plywood at each frame position. The frames width dimensions were taken from the actual hull and not the plans.

 

I then used pins to give reference points against which a plank could be bent enabling the deck edge profile to be marked.

 

 

Having marked the deck profile I temporarily attached the plywood to the hull along the centre line.

 

 

I then marked the hull profile on the underside of the plywood using the hull as a template - thus checking the accuracy of the deck profile previously drawn. All was well.

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pete48]

Nice layout work Keith, She's taking shape, well done

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[michael mott]

Looking forward to the next step Keith.

 

Michael

[Jim Lad]

She continues to look very good, Keith.

 

John

[KeithAug]

Hi Pete, Michael, John.

 

Thanks for the continuing interest. Hopefully I'll get round to attaching the deck in the next few days but in the mean time I need to figure out how I am going to make the mounting points for a strong back (so that I can work on the hull inverted). I find myself laying awake at night planning how I am going to approach some of the trickier bits. Invariably my mind turns to attaching the bulwarks and I start to worry. Eventually dawn breaks.

 

Keith

[Bedford]

More and more beautiful

[KeithAug]

Thank you bedford - not quite on the scale of Miane but big enough for my house. I have built RC models in the past but I rarely got round to sailing them. Maybe I'll reconsider when I see your finished model.

 

Regards Keith

[dgbot]

You have both courage and a steady hand Keith.  Taking a saw to a model like that gives me the willys.

David B

[Bedford]

Thank you bedford - not quite on the scale of Miane but big enough for my house. I have built RC models in the past but I rarely got round to sailing them. Maybe I'll reconsider when I see your finished model.

 

Regards Keith

I don't know what to say to that, I came to a grinding halt on my schooner when I sailed on endeavour, I guess the real thing made the model seem redundant but I will finish her one day. Meanwhile I'm loving your build and have a set of plans for her as an rc model so you never know....

Edited February 26, 2016 by Bedford

[KeithAug]

The sub deck:-

 

The various apertures for the chart house, skylights, hatches etc were cut out using a craft knife before

hacking the deck roughly to shape using the jigsaw. I left about 1/8 inch all round for final adjustment. A prolonged process of plane a bit, pin in place, check, remove, plane a bit more then ensued until I was happy with the fit. With the sub deck in place I drilled through it into the frames at multiple positions. As explained earlier the deck is concave longitudinally and convex across the beam. Some force is needed to hold the shape while gluing and the multiple holes will take the holding pins during in the gluing operation. The photos show the deck temporarily in place.

 

 

I mentioned in a previous post that the frames were spaced randomly on the plan and I had thought that this was for some greater purpose - to be revealed later in the build. It would have been sensible if the frames had been organised around the deck apertures but this wasn't the case - so the mystery of the random spacing continues.

 

 

With the deck temporarily in pace I marked the aperture positions on the frames and then removed the deck and cut the frames away with a razor saw. In one position I reinstalled an offset deck beam to support the deck. In two other positions I intend reinforcing the ply to compensate for local removal of the frames. I decided to install 2 oak blocks threaded and tapped (M8) to take the bolts for later installation of plank to handle the hull inverted for the 2nd planking operation. I find oak takes a thread well and shows no tendency to strip.

 

 

Finally I marked the edge of the deck on the line where the mahogany deck planks meet the teak planks.

 

 

Nothing to do now but glue the deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pete48]

Hi Keith, The deck looks good, Nice work 

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[KeithAug]

Thanks Pete

 

I stayed at Coeur d'Alene once on the way to visit the Scablands and Glacier NP. A nice part of the world.

 

Progress of a different kind!

 

Having glued the deck in place and strengthened the areas unsupported by frames (g clamps in photo), I thought I had better take stock.

 

 

 

For the deck edge planks I needed to cut .040" x .130"  mahogany strips from a 40"x12"x7/8" former table top. This involved planing and sawing operations on my full size wood machines as well as sawing on the Byrnes saw using TCT and slitting saw blades. Multiple operations and setting on different machines is always something I am inclined to put off. This instance was no different and I found myself looking  for something else to do. My diversion project started out as cleaning up the workshop (photos attached) but very quickly expanded into clearing out my tool draws. I set myself the challenge of throwing out all the tools that I couldn't remember having used in the last 20 years. It was quite a haul but I failed with a few items that I thought might come in useful some day!!! They will probably be thrown out by the kids when they come to sort out my affairs in another 20 years time. The up side though is that I discovered stuff that would be useful if I had only remembered that I had it.

 

 

Having exhausted all my diversionary jobs I made the 6 deck edge planks, yawn!

 

 

I have a question for all you experienced posters. I see that when you sign off your posts you frequently attach reference to all your past, ongoing an future builds. I assume that you don't type this stuff out every time and that somehow you have set it up automatically. How do you do this please?

 

Keith

[pete48]

Hi Keith, Coeur d' Alene is a beautiful part of the North West. The Deck is looking good. The way to add all references to your posting is done in the Signature. go to your profile page and hit the edit my profile button in the upper right corner, Then on the left side select signature, it will then display " my current signature" scroll down and in the edit signature, you can set it up however you like. I hope that helps

 

Best regards,

Pete

[mtaylor]

Keith,

 

A good step by step is here:  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/760-how-to-add-a-build-log-link-to-your-signature/

 

Nice workshop... 

[KeithAug]

Pete / Mark

 

Thank you for the advice. I think I have sorted it out.

[mtaylor]

Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!!   You got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pete48]

Awesome 

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[KeithAug]

Starting the deck planking:-

 

I decided to make the deck planking .045 inch thick. This is thicker than the previous build (Endeavour) which was circa .030 thick. The additional thickness should make the caulking easier. 

The mahogany deck edge planks were glued in place taking great care to make sure they were equidistant from the centre line. It's really easy for the deck planking to become unsymmetrical about the centre line and this can look pretty bad.

 

 

I wanted something that looked like teak for the deck planks and the nearest thing I had were slats recovered from a broken wooden venetian blind. The deck planking is a bit unusual in design in that the centre line planks on the fore deck are greater in number than over the remainder of the deck. The centre line planks are also wider than the other deck planks. I decided to go for a width of 0.188 inch for the centre line planks which equates to a scale width of 6 inch.

 

I decided to caulk between the planks using .008 inch thick black card. This equates to a thickness of 1/4 inch which is about right fro deck caulking.

 

The caulking was accurately cut into strips .045 inch wide using a set up on the mill. This consists of a MDF board clamped to the mill table with a steel bar clamped into the chuck to form a guide. With the card taped to the MDF the steel bar is positioned a couple of thou above the card and this forms the back stop for the set square. The mill table is then indexed in .045 inch steps and at each step a strip is cut from the card using a craft knife.   

 

 

The centre line planks are then glued in place - making sure they are symmetrical about the centre line. In the photos below you can see one of the caulking strips laid on the deck and the tail of one of the installed strips.

 

 

The centre line planks are now complete but at this stage not sanded.

 

 

The caulking effect looks pretty good.