Rattlesnake by JSGerson - FINISHED - Mamoli - 1:64 - Using Robert Hunt’s practicum

[JSGerson]

That being said, here is the state of the model as she now stands.

[donrobinson]

Very fine build, you are getting very close to the end of this voyage

[Martin W]

Bravo on the new work bench, Jon!  Your old one looks a lot like mine, and I have suffered under the very same problem of too much clutter.  I built a very large one out in my workshop, but it's been taken over with the clutter of other non-nautical projects.

 

Seeing your photos of the Ratt, I'm reminded of what a lovely ship she is, and how nice the contrasting wood looks.  Your updated rigging looks great.

 

Have fun in Florida, and don't forget your sunblock.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[scott larkins]

Looking fantastic.  Looks like you are almost done there.

[S.Coleman]

A real gem. Soon these Mamoli kits will be extinct. A real shame. You have done a beautiful job of her. Great work.

[JSGerson]

Spritsail Yard Stays and Spritsail Topsail Yard

My traveling is done for a while, the Holidays are over, I have no excuses left to explain my lack of progress. It was time to install the spritsail topsail yard. I thought this would be a piece of cake seeing that it was almost a duplicate of the spritsail yard installation. It wasn’t.

 

When I made those yards last year, I added the rigging for the outhaul only to the spritsail yard. The rigging for the spritsail topsail yard outhaul used a block instead of a hook. 

[JSGerson]

Therefore the first thing to make was that rigging. The sling that held the yard to the jib boom  used a finer rope and was smaller and more delicate than the one on the spritsail yard. I must have made at least three slings trying to make the loops small enough and yet still functional and most importantly the proper length. First I made it too long, then too short; the difference was only millimeters. It finally got hung.

[JSGerson]

Let me stop here for a moment and talk about glue. I had been using a very fine drop of CA glue on my knots but per a lot of build logs and builders of high respect, the recommendation was to use 1:1 diluted white glue because it didn’t stiffen or discolor the thread. So I started to use the diluted white glue.

I made and installed the rigging on the spritsail topsail yard, the blocks attached to eyelets that are to be attached to the hull for the spritsail topsail yard stays, as well as the tackle for the stays. Then the trouble began.

 

I was having difficulty working with the fine rope trying to tie the eyelets to the blocks so that the knots wouldn’t large and/or bulky. These too took multiple tries before I could complete them. OK, I completed all the parts and was ready to assemble the rigging.

[JSGerson]

The first thing that happened was the outhaul rigging on the spritsail topsail yard came apart just as I started to rig its blocks. The white glue did not hold and because the threads were all trimmed off, there wasn’t much left to hold on to. Trying to reattach the outhaul while the yard was on the model was a b*tch.

 

I then checked the blocks on the eyelets and they too fell apart when I applied a little tug– all that effort, poof. Screw it, I went back to CA glue which I know holds. I only use a very fine amount. Let’s see what else happened - a couple of eyelets pulled out of the hull and Spritsail yard (used too little glue), I got tangled up in the rigging near the tip of the jib boom and tied things together that should not have, learned to speak that would make a pirate blush (luckily I’m not married so was anyone around to offend and my cat didn’t understand me or maybe just didn’t care), and did I mentioned that I was involved in a fender bender (rear ended at a traffic light – no one hurt, just damage to my car).

 

But I finally got it done save for finalizing the haul line tie-offs.

[Martin W]

Sorry to hear about the fender bender, Jon.  And I can definitely commiserate with you over those knots slipping and eyebolts popping out.  I think my biggest frustrations in rigging came with belaying everything here at the pointy end -- and under the main mast top, where it's almost as crowded and more inaccessible. 

 

Still, you're doing a great job -- your Rattler looks meticulous.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[JSGerson]

The Yards

 

The time has finally come for the construction and installation of the yards. Continuing to read David Antschrel, he stated that “the yards are usually blackened.” I did not know this. I went back and looked at all of the pictures of ship models I had and lo and behold, most of them had black yards. It was too late to make the yards on my bowsprit black, but I did notice some of those models with black yards had light colored yards on their bowsprit. So I guess I’m alright.

 

Neither the Mamoli kit, nor the practicum addressed this. It may be buried somewhere in the MS plans but I did not bother to look. Since my model is colored for the most part through the use of different woods, I wanted my yards to be made of dark wood and not painted if I could help it. Neither my kit nor the supplemental wood that I purchased for the kit bashing way back at the beginning of the build had dark wood to make yards. But as it happens, I bought some additional wood from Jeff Hayes when he was closing down HobbyMills and in that package of wood, were 3 x ¼” x 12” walnut boards. I also had a hunka chunka of walnut that I purchase from a furniture repair shop a while back.

[JSGerson]

The plan is to mill my own walnut stock for the yards which should be interesting since I have never milled wood before. Ok, what size do I cut the wood to? The Mamoli kit provides overall dimensions and so does the practicum. As near as I can tell, the MS plans do not give numerical dimensions. I guess you just have to do trial and error until the pieces match up with the plans. Hahn’s plans also provided numerical diameter dimensions along the length of the yards to give the yard its proper shape. And just like the old proverb, “A man with one watch knows what time it is, but a man with more than one watch does not,” I compared the yard dimensions of Hunt, Hahn, and Mamoli. You guessed it, nothing completely matched. Some of the dimensions varied as much as 3 mm. Because Hahn provides the interim diameter dimensions along the length of the yards and I followed his dimensions for the masts, I decided to continue using his figures. They appeared to create a finer yard than Mamoli’s and some of his dimensions did actually match with the practicum. The chunk of walnut could make all of the yards except for the main yard, it was too short. For that I would need to cut the board.

 

The Byrnes Saw made the mill work easy. Here is an image of the stock pieces I milled for the yards out of the furniture chunk. I had yet to tackle the big board. Now for the hard part, shaping and making the yards.

[KenW]

Really good work, Jon.  I long ago decided to use Hahn as my go-to source.

I think you made the right decision.  So far, so good (actually, so far, excellent).

Cheers.

[Martin W]

Good luck with the milling, Jon.  I think if you follow Bob Hunt's process (and FFM's) of trimming the square stock into and octagonal, then rounding over, you should have not problem.  Or, you might buy a lathe -- Texxn has some good deals on the Proxxon.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[JSGerson]

When I decided to build the Rattlesnake, I anticipated that I would need a lathe for the masts and yards, so I bought a small wood lathe before I started the kit. I should have waited. I had never used a lathe before and didn't know what I really needed. As it turned out, the small wood lathe (bought from Micro-Mark) was still too big for the delicate work that was required. The lathe has too much torque and can quickly twist and break the small diameter pieces of wood even starting at very slow speeds. My cutting tools leave a lot to be desired as well. Probably I will sell the lathe and get the Proxxon or something like it, but for now it's files and sandpaper. Sigh 8-{

 

Jon

[Martin W]

Well, Jon, before I bought my Proxxon, I used the old "poor man's lathe" setting the wood in a hand held drill.  I broke a good number of spars, but still got the job done.

 

As for MicroMark, I made a similar mistake as you when I bought their milling machine.  Aaargh! nothing fits it.  I should have gotten the Proxxon.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[JSGerson]

There is nothing wrong with my wood lathe other than it's too big for what I need. Nice to know about the Micro-Mark milling machine, I'll cross that one off my list. Just out of curiosity, did you mean the components that came with the machine don't fit, or that standard accessories from other mfgs. don't fit, or maybe both?

 

Jon

[sport29652]

Jon your model is great ! It's nice to see someone getting close to finishing

 

Just a word of caution on the proxxon mill, you will have a hard time getting tooling and other items to fit. Go with the sherline you won't regret it

[JSGerson]

Sport29652 - "close to finishing" what a nice phrase, I wonder what it means? At the rate I work, who knows how long it will take.

 

From the looks of their catalog images, the Micro-Mark and Proxxon milling machines do look very similar so I guess they would have the same abilities as well as faults. But getting one of these machines or something similar (Sherline) is all pipe dreams for now. I'll start to really get serious when I prepare to start the Constitution after I finish the Rattler in the next decade or two. 8-)

[JSGerson]

As mentioned earlier, I used the Hahn yard diameter dimensions notated at regular intervals along the length of the yards and booms on his plans. Because Hahn’s plans were drawn at ¼ scale or1:48 the numerical dimensions were reduced by 74% to get them to 3/16 scale or 1:64 of the kit. You might see my hand written notations above Hahn’s in the second image below.

 

All the yards and booms were made using the simple jig I used before on the masts to hold the square cut pieces so than the corner edges could be trimmed and rounded or left alone as needed. The only tool used was a file. I am not that skilled in using a plane or other bladed tool to trim the wood on these slender and delicate pieces. I can control a file a lot easier because it trims off a lot less material at a time. All the wooded pieces that remain to be constructed and added to the yards and booms are the various chocks, sling cleats, and jaws. The rest is all rigging…as far as I know.

Edited January 28, 2016 by JSGerson

[Martin W]

It doesn't matter how many power tools you have, when it comes down to it, skill is always the key factor.  And if you can accomplish a task with hand tools, all the better, sez I.  Nice work, Jon.

 

The problem I've had with my mill is that the brackets that fit into the slots of the x-y table require metric machine screws (that don't come with the machine), of a size that Lowe's doesn't keep in supply.  Any clamp or other device necessary to set up a job (and as anyone will tell you, that's the most important and longest step) has only sort of fit, because the brackets are both too small and because they don't quite tighten.  Probably a person with greater knowledge of machining could get the accessories to fit better than I can, but so far I've found it to be a waste of benchtop space, and money.  On the other hand, I did use it to cut the razor blade into a moulding scraper with very satisfactory results.

 

I admire your progress, Jon.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[KenW]

Jon - like your jig, I'll have to make one like it when I get to that point.

Cheers.

[JSGerson]

Thanks for the compliment but it is undeserved. I got it from reading other build logs. Isn't this site wonderful?!

[sport29652]

You deserve every compliment you get. There is only a few posted Rattlesnake builds and maybe two builds that following Hunts practicum. Sure someone else may have posted it before you somewhere, but we saw you do it here. Keep up the great work

[JSGerson]

I started with the Boom and Graff because their jaws looked interesting. The Mamoli kit provided cast metal jaws but I had gone this far with fabricating my own parts, I wasn’t about to stop making stuff here. The jaws were constructed from a couple of pieces of walnut tapered slightly to match the ends of the boom/gaff. Once the white glue set overnight to make sure I had a real solid connection, they were carved to match the drawings on Hahn’s plans. The Practicum stated that Mr. Hunt used lead tape for the three straps that went around jaws. I didn’t have any so I used narrow paper strips colored black using a Sharpie pen. Holes were drilled through the tips of the jaws for the parrals which will be constructed and installed a bit later.

[JSGerson]

The boom also has a cleat, a sheave, chocks, and a couple of eyebolts that needed to be installed. The gaff just had an eyebolt and cleats. Having made cleats for the Gallows Bits a while back I can tell you they are a pain in the butt and I wasn’t really happy with the way they looked. Chuck Passaro of Syren Ship Model Co. solved that problem with his laser cut cleats blanks. Using the 5mm cleat blank, I added a pin and finished the carving it (smoothing and rounding off the edges). Because this cleat already had a very small gluing surface, and it was going on a curved surface, a mechanical connection was required. After all, a line was to be tied to it and I didn’t want it to be pulled off. BTY, with the pin in place, holding the cleat was made carving it a little easier. Once a hole was positioned and drilled on the underside of the boom, the pin was trimmed to a shorter length and inserted and glued into place.

[JSGerson]

The 42 chocks were next. They were made in 6 steps per chock. Yes, this was tedious and exacting work although that actual process didn’t eat up too much – 2 to 3 minutes per chock or 1½ - 2 hrs total once you got into the rhythm. I usually stopped after 6 chocks to apply them to the yard to break the monotony. Using white glue, they were applied to the appropriate positions on the various yards.

1. Measure 3/32” from the end of a 1/16” square piece of stock walnut and make a pencil mark
2. File a corner off leaving about 1/64” (eyeballed) from the adjacent corner and the pencil mark with a flat file
3. File the resulting surface to get an inward curve with a round face file
4. Round off the two corners of the inward curve to the 1/64” faces
5. Cut the chock off from the stock at the pencil mark using a miter box. From experience, I have found that using a knife does not always produce a square cut.
6. File a groove on the bottom of the chuck so it will sit comfortable on the round surface of the yard or leave flat when placing it on flat surfaces of the yard

Note: for some of the smaller diameter yards, 1/16” x 3/64” stock walnut was used

 

PSA: If you every drop a chock onto a messy work bench (like mine) or on the floor and you can’t find it in a few minutes, let it go because it’s gone man, it’s just gone. Make a new one; it’s faster than looking for the lost one.

[JSGerson]

Finally, a coat of Wipe-On-Poly was applied to the completed yards and booms. On a final point, a milestone has been reached – All of the wood working on this model is now complete (as far as I know). All that is left is the remaining rigging which continues with the yards, off the model.

[KenW]

I wonder if the place where your pieces go when they drop on the floor is the same place as where my pieces go.  They never turn up - ever.

There must be a place with lots of parts for model ships somewhere.

Impressive chocks.

[JSGerson]

Ken - Well it's either there or where my socks disappear to 8-)