Schooner Germania (Nova) by KeithAug - FINISHED - Scale 1:36 - 1908 / 2011

[vossiewulf]

4 hours ago, BANYAN said:

That's looking very ship-shape Keith; I think the yard's master-shipwright would have considerable difficulty finding fault with that effort.   The run of the planks looks spot-on so your planning and adjusting have served you well.

The part that's getting me is he's nearly done with planking a good solid 17 days or so since he started the entire build. I wish I could go that fast. Keith, please slow down, the rest of us are feeling inadequate

 

[KeithAug]

Thank you Pat.

 

3 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

17 days or so since he started the entire build

Vossie, I think I have misled you. Its 17 days since I started planking. Its about 10 weeks since I started the build. Any way I always slow down over the summer.

[KeithAug]

Planker's Progress 7 - Day 18.

 

Only a little progress today but significant in that the last of the hull planking went on. That is not to say that the planking is entirely finished as I still have the bulwarks to do.

 

I got past the bulb at the front of the keel and that tricky task is now history.

The final plank was a closing piece which required a deal of sanding and fitting and sanding and fitting and sanding and fitting - took quite a while to get it right.

Then it was a case of sorting out the shape of the bottom of the rear of the keel.

I By this stage the residual section was only about a planks width and I decided the best bet was to lop it off which I did with block plane.

I will cut a piece of mahogany to replace this area - but that will be tomorrow.

 

[John Allen]

Keith,

 

Masterful planking well done. Its a pleasure to watch your work.

 

 

John

[KeithAug]

Thank you John.

 

Planker's Progress 8 - Day 19.

 

Two days have gone by but only one day was in the shipyard.

 

I started by cutting and shaping the the keel piece, its tapers in both planes.

The piece I made to hold the bottom rudder bearing turned out to be too narrow so I remade it. The next photo shows a test assembly - not glued at this stage..

I drilled a hole to take the brass rod that will fit through the rudder tube. Better drilled at this stage on the mill rather than freehand later.

I then glued the keel pieces in place while the brass rod was in position to maintain alignment. In the next photo I have already planed the attached keel pieces to roughly the correct size.

Sometimes I just have to stop and a have a tidy up. The workshop had got into quite a sate and it took a couple of hours to recover it.

I used double sided tape to stick a paper sanding guide to the bottom of the keel before completing the shaping.

Sometimes the camera flash catches the mahogany at just the right angle to reveal its inner lustre. 

I now need to have a go at the bulwarks. You will remember from earlier posts that I have been worrying about this for some time. The shaping at the stern is still looking a bit challenging. Anyway that's a task for tomorrow and its now Pizza time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2019 by KeithAug

[Jim Lad]

Been I while since I've dropped by, Keith.  She's looking really nice - as I would expect.  Only problem is, that workshop looks disgustingly tidy! 

 

John

[Bedford]

Keith at this point I am reminded of the case of the missing rudder on your last build. If you make the rudder for this build and put it somewhere safe might I suggest you tell the rest of us where it is so we can help you find it.

[KeithAug]

18 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Only problem is, that workshop looks disgustingly tidy!

John - Don't worry - some heavy duty sanding to come shortly.

 

17 hours ago, Bedford said:

I am reminded of the case of the missing rudder

Bedford - my you do have a good memory - I had forgotten all about that. Broadcasting its position on the face of it seems sensible, however i think stuff moves around on its own because when I want it it's never in the place where i'm sure I left it.

[FriedClams]

Wonderful looking hull Keith, very nice - and a beautiful shop too. 

 

Gary

[KeithAug]

Planker's Progress 9 - Days 20 & 21.

 

So eventually I had to address the issue of the bulwarks - time to stop wondering how they were going to turn out.

 

The frames at the stern provided very little area on which the frames could attach. I was thinking of using 3 planks but in the end decided that 2 would be better.

 

I needed to taper the planks to accurately fit the space between the shear plank and the top of the frames at the level of the cap rail. I started by    transferring the position of the frames on to a piece of paper using a thin strip of scrap wood. I only marked every 3rd frame as I felt this would be sufficient to get an accurate plank profile.

Having done this I measured the lengths of the exposed frames at each position and transferred these measurements to the paper to reproduce the profile of the bulwark.

I then divided the profile down the centre line to create the templates for the planks.

I recorded the plank widths on the template for future reference.

I had previously clad the frame edges in paper to ease removal of the frames above deck level at a later date.

The yellow cladding was .014" card rather than .008 white paper. I used this where I felt the frames needed packing out to give better edge alignment between the shear plank and the lower bulwark plank.

 

I then cut planks to the maximum required width, this turned out to be .340"

As these planks needed to be tapered to the correct profile I made an accurate plank template out of pine and used this in my plank tapering jig.

All was going well until someone arrived to announce that it was time for a walk.

Walk completed, I made a plank jig to reproduce the curvature and twist in the tricky stern area. I soaked the plank in boiling water before clamping it in the jig and drying it with a hot air gun. I will leave it overnight to see how successful it has been.

 

 

[michael mott]

Nicely done.

 

Michael

[BANYAN]

Seems you have a very workable solution there Keith; and being nicely done (as Michael has already pointed out).

 

cheers

 

Pat 

[KeithAug]

Gary, Michael, Pat - thank you for your comments - and thank you to all other visitors.

 

I got to a point where I needed some therapy so I abandoned the planks for a couple of days (I am probably still worrying about the bulwarks).

 

I have been thinking about the engine control column - fashioned in the style of a ships telegraph.

I had plenty of reference photographs from which to draw a plan.

The height to the centre line of the throttle controls is 1 inch.

 

I made the dial in 3 pieces because It avoided having to turn the part round in the lathe to machine the reverse face. The recesses in the faces were cut with a 6mm 2 flute end mill mounted in the tailstock chuck, followed by a 8mm 4 flute end mill.

The central boss had 2x .060" holes drilled at right angles to take the pedestal and to mount the control box.

The 3 parts are placed on a pin to show the assembly.

The pedestal was turned from  11mm rod (0.433") which was pre drilled at 45 degrees for later addition of the boss which takes the cable tube.

The cable tube boss was soldered in place before being cut to length.

The pedestal then went back on the lathe to be parted off.

The control box was milled out of a piece of .250" diameter rod and then mounted (glued using CA). The cable duct was just a piece of bent .060 brass rod.

I drew the faces for the dial in powerpoint before reducing them to 8mm diameter. I can't read the dials at this size but surprisingly they do become legible when photographed.

The faces were glued in pace with CA - which soaked through. (only a problem in the photographs and cant really be seen on the original)

I folded a piece of .025" thick by .250" wide brass strip to get 2 thicknesses from which to make the handles. I then drilled this to take the shaft and to form the cut out.

I cut the handles out using a jewellers saw and then filed both while still joined.

 

I then assembled the whole thing - not very much for 2 days work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2019 by KeithAug

[wefalck]

 

26 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

- not very much for 2 days work.

... much more than I achieved these days

[druxey]

The 'small stuff' always takes the longest to make.... Nicely done, Keith.

Edited April 1, 2019 by druxey

[Jim Lad]

A wonderful job on the control pedestal, Keith - congratulations.

 

John

[michael mott]

Wow! vera niccce.

 

Michael

[Bedford]

To quote the "taunting french man", "It's vewy narce"

That's a good effort for two days Kieth

[Keith Black]

What beautiful work, a joy to see and thank you for showing how it was done. 

[BANYAN]

Stunning work Keith, if I didn't know they were miniature I would have assumed they were the real thing!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[michael mott]

You haven't finished the handles yet though, have you?

 

Michael

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, michael mott said:

You haven't finished the handles yet though, have you?

[KeithAug]

Eberhard, Pat, Bedford, Keith, Druxey John, thank you for your comments - much appreciated.

 

Michael - even critical prompts are very welcome.

[michael mott]

Looks good Keith, are you going to leave that big nut there?

 

Michael

[druxey]

Michael's not ready to give up yet! That handle looks very nice, Keith.

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, michael mott said:

are you going to leave that big nut there

Hmmm - it does look a little big

 

Maybe I need to buy a smaller die.

[wefalck]

The prototype seems to use cap-nuts - it would be easy to simulate that by making two bolts with hexagonal heads that you stick into the telegraph from both sides.

 

Making bolt and nut in one piece is an easy way to cheat, when the parts become too small otherwise. I have done this e.g. with fastening bolts for winches and the likes.

 

Before I had a lathe, I used my little power-drill to make such bolts: first I turned a brass nail to size and shape; then I formed the hexagonal head with file-strokes, using the hexagonal collet-nut as a guide. By counting the number of file strokes on each side, I managed to produce reasonably symmetric heads.

[Keith Black]

43 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

Maybe I need to buy a smaller die.

or, a bigger finger. Keith, don't let Michael get away with throwing rocks at your nuts.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Keith Black

[BANYAN]

Couldn't you simply file it down in situ to a 'thinner' profile a, to me at least the 'diameter' or max OD of the nut is not too big?  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Roger Pellett]

Kieth,

 

Beautiful workmanship!

 

Your lines drawing depicts Germania Nova as a single screw vessel.  Two handles on an engine room telegraph would indicate a twin screw vessel, but your picture would appear to be for Germania Nova too.  ????

 

Roger