HM Cutter Alert by VTHokiEE - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[VTHokiEE]

1 hour ago, Gazzarian said:

Oh well, if it's any consolation I burnt my finger ironing on the second planking.....

I may have done something similar as well... of course now I'm staring at the scraps of pear wood and wondering if there is enough to remake the parts.

[Blue Ensign]

May be a blessing in disguise Tim, the kit provided stocks didn't look right to my eye,  replacing them with the pattern in the aots book is the way to go.🙂

 

B.E.

[VTHokiEE]

20 minutes ago, Blue Ensign said:

May be a blessing in disguise Tim, the kit provided stocks didn't look right to my eye,  replacing them with the pattern in the aots book is the way to go.🙂

 

B.E.

I do believe you're right. I drew out some rectangles on the scrap 3mm pear (really it should be about 2.25mm so I may sand it down to look better). I think I need to find a supplier for some wood sheets in case I mis-cut 😬.

[VTHokiEE]

The saga of the anchors, I have finished up some new stocks for my anchors and I think they came out quite reasonable. Here is the lesser of the charred anchors.

This one concerned me, but after I scorched the second one I really had no choice but to remake the parts. I measured the pieces out on the 3mm scrap pear wood and roughly cut then out with a jeweler's saw.

Next I sanded then down to the lines.

Finally, I shaped them, filed out the channel for the anchor and applied a touch of WOP.

Now I can get back to the puddening and the seizing (which now I'm fearful of since it caused this all in the first place). I think I could get behind scratch building if I can find a way to do it without purchasing a bandsaw in the near future.

[Rustyj]

That looks nice. I think you'll be really happy with them now!

[Old Collingwood]

Thats a really good save.

 

OC.

[Edwardkenway]

Nice bit of work Tim!😉, as to scratch without a band saw, I'm sure there's quite a few builders on here who are building scratch with very few power tools and cutting frames with coping or fret saws.

Imho I think you should give it go, you certainly have the skills. 

Just my two pennies worth. 👍😁

[glbarlow]

Nice work, often times scratch built turns out better.  Seems it did here. 

[VTHokiEE]

The saga of my anchors is drawing to a close. I kept one anchor with the kit supplied stock and one with my new stocks to demonstrate the difference (I think I would highly recommend scratch building these now as the update is a nice touch in my opinion).

 

On 10/16/2020 at 9:37 PM, Edwardkenway said:

building scratch with very few power tools and cutting frames with coping or fret saws

My stumbling block is how to get wood into sheets of the proper thickness. I think I could build exclusively in AYC though, which may be a good starting point since Syren has a good selection of sheets.

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Really nice work there    - you did fab my friend.

 

OC.

[VTHokiEE]

Just now, Old Collingwood said:

Really nice work there    - you did fab my friend.

 

OC.

Thanks OC! 
 

On 10/16/2020 at 8:20 PM, Rustyj said:

That looks nice.

Thanks Rusty!

 

On 10/17/2020 at 12:42 AM, glbarlow said:

often times scratch built turns out better

I agree (and really it is quite enjoyable once I get past the mental block of “how am I going to do this?”).
 

I’ve been doing some research to try to create a wood pile so I can allow myself a higher reject rate but so far I haven’t really found the perfect choice, especially for something like this where I wanted to keep with pear wood. 

[jpalmer1970]

Thanks for this log - it is going to be really helpful for me in the future.

[Gazzarian]

8 hours ago, jpalmer1970 said:

Thanks for this log - it is going to be really helpful for me in the future.

Yes, same sentiment from me.

[VTHokiEE]

14 hours ago, jpalmer1970 said:

Thanks for this log - it is going to be really helpful for me in the future.

 

5 hours ago, Gazzarian said:

Yes, same sentiment from me.

Thank you both; I’m very glad this log is helpful to you both!

[VTHokiEE]

I picked up a rope walk from Syren a little while ago and in order to postpone tapering the mast I put it together and tried my hand at making some rope today. I wanted to replace the anchor rope (really I may end up replacing all the rope either with my own or some from Syren for consistency) because it was a significantly different color than the rest of the rope I will be using. I wanted to end up with about 1.6mm rope so I used Chuck's Mara recipe for .055" (~1.4mm) rope as a starting point, but I ended up closer to 0.047" so I tried again using the 0.065" (~1.65mm)  recipe as a starting point and got much closer, 0.06" or ~1.52mm. I'm still debugging the process a little (my rope unwinds even after baking so I'm asking Chuck what I did wrong). The darker brown rope in the pictures in the kit supplied anchor rope.

[Old Collingwood]

8 hours ago, VTHokiEE said:

I picked up a rope walk from Syren a little while ago and in order to postpone tapering the mast I put it together and tried my hand at making some rope today. I wanted to replace the anchor rope (really I may end up replacing all the rope either with my own or some from Syren for consistency) because it was a significantly different color than the rest of the rope I will be using. I wanted to end up with about 1.6mm rope so I used Chuck's Mara recipe for .055" (~1.4mm) rope as a starting point, but I ended up closer to 0.047" so I tried again using the 0.065" (~1.65mm)  recipe as a starting point and got much closer, 0.06" or ~1.52mm. I'm still debugging the process a little (my rope unwinds even after baking so I'm asking Chuck what I did wrong). The darker brown rope in the pictures in the kit supplied anchor rope.

What I would be tempted to do with the end fraying is to keep it taut  then serve it with fine thread  near where you want the end to be to stop it fraying,    you would only have to do about 5 -10mm.

 

OC.

[DelF]

That looks like very good rope, especially for a first attempt. 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by baking. The technique I use, as taught by Chuck, is to stretch the rope after you've spun it, wet it down and then let it dry before you cut it free from the ropewalk. If you do that you might find the last few millimetres are slightly loose, but if you cut the rope back to where it looks tight it should stay that way.

 

Derek

[VTHokiEE]

2 hours ago, DelF said:

That looks like very good rope, especially for a first attempt. 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by baking

Thanks Derek - I wasn’t using a cotton thread to start so I had to add some heat to help the unraveling. This is the recipe link for Mara: 

 

 

What thread do you use? I was having trouble finding DMC which seemed to be a favorite.

 

7 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

then serve it with fine thread  near where you want the end to be to stop it fraying,    you would only have to do about 5 -10mm.

That’s a good suggestion, I’ll have to give it a try. A touch of glue has been suggested as well and I may give this fly typing laquer a try as well.

[DelF]

18 minutes ago, VTHokiEE said:

Thanks Derek - I wasn’t using a cotton thread to start so I had to add some heat to help the unraveling. This is the recipe link for Mara: 

Thanks Tim - that explains my confusion! I use DMC which doesn't require baking.

 

Derek

[VTHokiEE]

This morning I added a drop of the fly tying glue that @DelF recommend and I think it worked perfectly (I should have bought two bottles 😁). Low quality iPhone shot but it shows the results on the thicker rope.

[drjeckl]

Professional looking rope; very nice first try.

 

.John

[Kevin]

love the rope, i will have to look at chucks machine as my rope walk fell to bits doing the Victory

[VTHokiEE]

57 minutes ago, Kevin said:

love the rope, i will have to look at chucks machine as my rope walk fell to bits doing the Victory

Thank you! That’s quite unfortunate that yours fell apart; Chuck’s machine seems quite nice so I would recommend taking a look at it.

[glbarlow]

I make my rope by selecting the size and quantity on Chuck’s website and a few days later a envelope with my rope inside appears.  I congratulate myself on a job well done. 😂🤣🤪😁

[glbarlow]

On 10/24/2020 at 7:32 AM, VTHokiEE said:

the fly tying glue

Did you find a US source for Derek’s special glue?

[VTHokiEE]

39 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

Did you find a US source for Derek’s special glue?

No, but I was looking mainly for the fly line at the time so I purchased it all from “The Essential Fly” and it took about 3 weeks to get here. A quick google search showed at least one company in Canada that sells it though, I’ll have to do some more searching as so far I like it a lot and I may start using it more often with the poly rope. 
 

58 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

I make my rope by selecting the size and quantity on Chuck’s website and a few days later a envelope with my rope inside appears.

Ha! Yes, like a sane, normal person would 😂

[Edwardkenway]

2 hours ago, glbarlow said:

I make my rope by selecting the size and quantity on Chuck’s website and a few days later a envelope with my rope inside appears.  I congratulate myself on a job well done. 😂🤣🤪😁

I may have try making rope your way😂 as there's  not many suppliers this side of the pond for good quality rope!

[VTHokiEE]

Things have slowed down a little as I moved above the hull. Shaping the mast was quite the slow process but I think that it came out reasonably well. I have my eye on the yards and I hope that there is enough excess wood to allow for a chunk on each end to sit in my drill (not certain how to shape them otherwise without buying more tools 🙂).

 

I did purchase mast hoops from Vanguard - I trimmed off the little tabs, sanded them up and applied some wipe on poly and I think they came out well. I believe that I'm going to use some 5mm cleats instead of the supplied belaying pins and ring as I get there.

I also tried my hand at serving some rope and found out that I don't really know how to connect the ends into a circle, but I managed by removing some of the serving line and creating a false splice at the point of the connection.

Here she is right now, the hull is really in storage to avoid getting dust on her while I work on the masts further and the yards but I wanted to dry fit the mast to get a feel for it.

[Old Collingwood]

Very nice progress with the First mast  mate.

 

OC.

[Blue Ensign]

Looking good Tim,

 

Make sure you have enough space below the cheeks to allow for the shrouds and pendent of tackles (if you intend to fit them)

If you intend to serve the shrouds around the masthead they will take up far more room than the  kit indicated 4mm, I placed the stop 14mm below the cheeks.

It is also easier to fit the shrouds before adding the trestletrees;  seizing the pairs is easier off model, less tiring on the arms, they can then be slipped over the masthead.

 

B.E.