21' Fisherman's Launch by vaddoc - Scale 1:10 - Plans from Howard Chapelle's "Boatbuilding"

[Rik Thistle]

Finally, this is a you tube video that I think is fantastic and explains the process in a very simple way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpI7B43KA3I

 

That really was a fantastic video. Great to watch a craftsman at work. The amount of thought and effort that goes into producing and fitting one plank is highly impressive.

 

I liked his comment that he starts all his planking from the bottom upwards whereas shipyards working to a timescale plank from the top and bottom, both sides ie four planking teams.

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

 

 

[vaddoc]

Thank you all for your comments and likes!

 

Wefalck:

Stealers: Indeed the stealers in these small boats are also small and narrow but they are used without second thought so probably it is alright.

Planks: The 10x0.5 mm (I think it is actually wider) walnut strip is not a plank, it is just a strip to check the run of the hull. The planks will be 2 mm thick beech.

Width of planks: You are quite right, this is the next step, to figure out what is the widest plank one can get away with.

Now, this is a combination of the type of hull and the amount of spilling needed-the more spilling, the wider the plank stock needs to be. Next it depends on the stock that is available for the construction and wide pieces are not always available. Heavily spilled 16 cm planks may need 50 cm wide stock. I ll be using 100 mm sheets but in real life 1 meter wide planks are not readily available...I would think the wider pieces will be reserved for the garboard and the most heavily spilled planks. Also, the tighter the curve of the hull, the more narrow the plank needs to be.

I am still working on the planking but the garboard and the first broad strake in this boat cannot be very wide. 

 

Tools: Miniature wood working tools are on the wish list but unfortunately will stay there for the foreseeable future...

 

[michael mott]

On 1/13/2021 at 8:32 PM, Bob Cleek said:

I, too, marvel at the "master machinists" who turn out perfect replicas using state-of-the-art digital age machinery (and I have a lot of tools myself,) but I lament the elevating of the technical above the artistic for therein lies the difference between an art and a craft.

True I echo these sentiments.

 

Michael

[vaddoc]

On 1/14/2021 at 3:32 AM, Bob Cleek said:

I lament the elevating of the technical above the artistic for therein lies the difference between an art and a craft.

 

46 minutes ago, michael mott said:

True I echo these sentiments.

 

I think we should just make our models bigger, a few 1:10 cutty sharks and victories would certainly revive this craft/art😁

I once read that art has no purpose but itself so model boat building should be at the heart of this slowly forgotten art... 

 

Vaddoc

[Bob Cleek]

23 hours ago, vaddoc said:

Also, some planks will need to have the inner surface hollowed, this I am not sure how it can be done.

 

10 hours ago, wefalck said:

The hollowing out of the planks to fit the frames would have been done with either a plane or a spoke-sheave with rounded sole. I think you could find something suitable among the miniature planes luthiers have.

 

Bit of trivia: Curved sole planes can be used for backing out, as noted. Many plankers' favorite tool for backing out full sized planks, other than the edge of a disk sander modernly, is the Stanley #70 box scraper.

 

http://www.findmytool.co.uk/images/old/scrapers/stanley/70/large1.jpg

 

The "two-fisted" handle allows for putting some real muscle into it. Box scrapers were used in the days before corrugated cardboard boxes were common and wooden shipping crates were the norm. Addresses would be painted onto the crates using stencils. The box scraper was used to scrape off the painted lettering on wooden crates so the crates could be reused. Now, they are collector's items, although Kunz makes a short-handled copy of the Stanley original.

 

 

 

For modeling purposes, a bit of sandpaper wrapped around a dowel should do the trick, or simply make a curved scraper blade. It rarely takes much backing out to make the fit on a model and unless you are showing the interior of the hull, nobody's going to be the wiser if the faying surface isn't perfect. Remember, though, that if backing out is required, your plank has to be correspondingly thicker or your final hull fairing is going to be a nightmare, if not impossible. The outside face of the plank in the middle of its width will be lowered by the depth of the backing out, so your plank has to be thicker by that amount or  you'll have to take all the whole hull's planking down to that thickness to fair it. Here again, though, with a model, fairing isn't such a big deal as it is on a full size hull.

 

It's to make narrower planks in the way of heavily curved frames than to try to back out a thick wide plank.

[vaddoc]

I did not do a huge amount of work but I did a bit of thinking and took some photos, so we can continue our reckoning. At this point I d like to say that I am not an experienced boat builder but just sharing my thought process as I go along. I would like to do the same with the yawl, which however will be much more difficult to plank (clinker in 1:10)

 

So in the last post, we managed to define the sheer and the three planking zones and we also defined the garboard and the first (not so) broad strake.

Now, we need to work out the rest of the planks. We have their general direction of the planks but we now need to define their width and decide how many planks we will aim for. The width of the planks will depend on how curved the hull is at a specific point but also on how much spilling the plank will need. I have 100 mm x 1000 mm sheets to cut my planks from but the actual boat builder would have much more narrow stock to work with.

The planks need to lie and be in complete contact with the frames. Even hollowing the plank, a certain plank width can only accommodate a certain hull curvature. After that, the width needs to be reduced.

Considering the above, my feeling is that the garboard and first broad strake cannot be any wider because a wider plank will not be in complete contact with the frames. The next photos show that even at the current width of the first strake, without contouring the surface, the plank will not lie in contact with the frame.

Wefalck suggested that planks should be 15 to 20 cm wide. Perhaps this is the case for large ships but for such small boats, I think the planks would be much more narrow but again it depends on the shape of the hull. I would think 13 cm would be a good number but actually, it can be much less. But lets continue and we ll pick this up later on.

 

So, now it is time to divide the middle zone into planks. The planks that are at the edges of the zone will need to accommodate quite tight curves so need to be pretty narrow. Based on that, I eyeballed that it makes sense to divide the zone into 8 planks-this was a completely random choice.

 

I first removed the wide walnut strip and replaced it with a baten.

Then I measured the widest frame, which on this boat is very near the stern, and divided the distance to 8 equal lengths.

Did the same with the transom

and also the same with the stem

This are the widths, pretty narrow

So I went ahead and marked these widths to the transom, frame and stem and then threw a couple of batens to see how the planks at the edges of the zone would run.

Now, we cannot use wide planks where the hull is very curved so these planks cannot be made any wider. However, the rest of the planks, in between these planks on the edges of the zone, run on a reasonably flat part of the keel so potentially they could be made wider.

 

Lets go back to the very nice you tube video. That boat builder, is actually doing the same. His planks are very narrow where the hull is curved and wide where it runs flat

Note the difference in plank width at the transom

Somewhere on the video, he actually lays a ruler across the plank-it is 8 cm wide!

Even planks as narrow as this can be easily and safely screwed in place

Back to our model, I think that the 5 middle planks shown in the next photo could be replaced by 4 or even 3 wider planks

I feel a bit uneasy with the sheer, the batens are not secured well. I need to think a solution.

 

Regards

vaddoc

[vaddoc]

58 minutes ago, Bob Cleek said:

or  you'll have to take all the whole hull's planking down to that thickness to fair it

Now Bob, this is bit of worry! I have only 2 mm wood sheets and no thickness sander so I think the future holds a lot of sanding and scraping. Too bad that this particular beech wood I got seems really hard...

[Bob Cleek]

7 hours ago, vaddoc said:

I have only 2 mm wood sheets and no thickness sander so I think the future holds a lot of sanding and scraping. Too bad that this particular beech wood I got seems really hard...

Not to worry. On a model, the backing out depth dimensions are quite small and it doesn't take much. the sharp turns at the bottom corners of the transom are the worst. If you look at the full size hull pictures above, you can barely see the amount of backing out. You should be able to "fudge" most of it if the inside of the hull isn't too visible in the curved places. On a full size hull, you want the planks laying flush against the frame faces for structural reasons. That's not so important on a model. Keep your frames narrow and you'll be okay.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Bob Cleek

[KeithAug]

Your approach to planking is very meticulous. Much better than my winging it approach. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

[vaddoc]

Thanks Keith, this does not guarantee a good result but it is certainly fun!

Bob, I did a bit of testing and you are right, after contouring the plank it really dips bellow the level of the rest of the planks. Well, lets worry about this later.

 

A problem suddenly appeared. This is the beauty of very large scale modelling, it is not at all forgiving and often recreates the true boat building experience.

 

Last time, we defined the first plank of the middle zone. However, I realised it would not work: It is too wide to sit properly on the frames, at least the two really curved aft ones. I tested with pieces of wood and the initial 10 mm width is far too much.

 It took many tries and a lot of headscratching with the baten to find a fair run that reduces the width of the planks from 10 to 8 mm at those areas . In the next photos the problem areas are circled and the new markings on the frames can also be seen

On the other side of this zone, things will get very tight as the transom and half the frames have a very acute angle. The planks there will need to be no more than 8 mm. The green line is the edge of the zone, I think the distance to the blue line can be covered with two planks.

However, now a new problem appeared. This third plank is far too narrow foreward and there is a visible mismatch with the second plank. It makes sense to reposition the second plank so it gives a couple of milimeters to the third plank.

This was not easy, however finally I got a fair curve that looks reasonable

The next photo shows the new position of the second plank, it now looks better. Maybe I need to split the difference at the stem and return 1 mm back to the second plank. The red arrows show the new position

Aft the changes are less dramatic but overall things seem to be more balanced. The green shows the position of the stealer plank

I hope that my planks are not too narrow but really this hull has so many twists and turns that wider planks simply cannot be used. The next photo show first the bow of the boat in the video-indeed some of the planks are very narrow. The other two photos show another boat being planked with relatively narrow planks, especially at the bow, but this one is a simpler shape.

I do hope this will work!

 

Best wishes

Vaddoc

[vaddoc]

I did a bit more work so another update is in order.

 

This is were we left things in the last post

• The sheer has been defined
• The hull has been divided in three zones
• The bottom zone has been covered with two planks, one being the garboard plank, and a stealer at the stern.
• In the middle zone, the first plank has been marked and the plank next to it (the first broad strake) was slightly adjusted to balance things out
• Two narrow planks will be at the upper edge of the middle zone due to the significant curvature of the hull at that point. The inner edge of these two planks has been defined.

So I started by dividing the upper edge of the middle zone into two planks. Their width at the transom will be 8 mm (8 cm in the full size boat), i checked and with a bit of hollowing they can follow the shape of the transom. I also adjusted the first broad strake (the one next to the garboard) a bit better.

Next job is to divide the remaining mid zone into strakes. The gap is 30 mm at the stem, 40 mm at the transom and a bit more than that midships. This area is very flat so theoretically we can use very wide planks. However, I think that using for example only two planks, 22 mm each, will not look good. I decided to use 4 planks to cover the area, they should have a width of 7.5 mm at the stem, 10 mm at the transom and a bit more maybe midships.

 

So I measured the distances, divided by 4 and marked the frames.

Then I started laying batens to connect the dots and ensure a fair run of the planks, making sure the planks have more or less equal widths.

 

This is one of the batens, I think it looks ok and that the run of the planks is not unreasonable

The next photos show the 4 planks defined.

So the botom and middle zone are finished. The planks will of course need spilling, I think the planks at the middle of the mid zone will be the most curved but I hope the spilling needed will not be unrealistic.

 

So the next task will be to divide the upper zone into planks. This should be the easiest of the three, as it is very flat but also because the clamps are much easier to apply.

 

One thing to remember is that that the planks at the curved section of the hull will need to be slightly oversized and then beveled, so that they will fit snuggly. However, others may need to be cut exactly to size and then beveled.

 

Doing this bevels without destroying the planks will be a challenge.

 

On a different note, there is a new residential development near my house in St Neots and today we walked through. They ve built several ponds and one seems ideal to launch an RC sail boat! Def something to try one day.

 

Regards

Vaddoc

[FriedClams]

Just catching up Vaddoc and I see you are progressing nicely.  Very meticulous and careful work.  Excellent. 

 

Gary 

[vaddoc]

Many thanks to all for your likes and comments.

 

In the last post:

• The bottom and middle zones were marked
• The sheer has been defined

So we need to plank the upper zone. However this is not that straight forward.

We still have not cleared the curved parts of the transom and hull. The bottom plank of this upper zone cannot be very wide, I measured and the widest plank the transom can accept is 8 mm. So this plank will have its own width but the remaining planks will need to be as equal as possible.

So I deployed a batten and carved out a reasonable plank. Actually for some reason this took a bit of headscratching. Note that I removed the sheer batens but screwed pieces of wood to make sure I do not lose it.

With the boat right side up, it does not look too bad

For the rest of the zone, I measured the distances and I think the gap should be filled with 4 planks, so that there will be a symmetry with the rest of the planks. Everyone knows that the better a boat looks, the faster it goes!

 

So lets do it

Using the same method, the rest of the planks are marked.

So now all planks are marked and only the formality of actually planking the boat remains!

This is certainly a milestone!

 

I started spilling the planks but I ll make a new post for this

 

Regards

Vaddoc

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by vaddoc

[vaddoc]

So now it is spilling time!

I tried just a bit of spilling, to see how this would go. I have a feeling it will not be as easy as the last boat due to the more narrow planks.

 

So we ll start with the garboard. Although the keel is dead straight, the corresponding edge of the garboard will not-there will be a curve to it. I used pieces of card paper to make patterns. The paper is attached to the frames, then a compass is drawn along the rabet at a constant angle, Then the positions of the middle of the frames are marked and the new edge cut.

it actually took two goes as the strip was too thick and was distorting things. After I had the edge, I marked the points where the other edge crosses the middle of the frames. I used the compass to mark this in relation to a random position on the frames.

This cross points will be connected later with a baten so the edge can be drawn. 

I then moved a bit further and repeated the process.

Then I reached the stem with a third piece. All pieces are connected with pieces of card glued at the junctions, in the end we should end up with a solid piece that lies effortlessly on the frames. The rabet edge will be ready, the other will need to be drawn fair with a baten connecting all the cross points. 

Then the plank will need to be cut, shaped appropriately and installed. Then do the same on the other side.

This will be a mountain of work, still the lapstrake on the yawl will be even more difficult.

 

Best wishes

 

Vaddoc

 

[Jim Lad]

All that thinking and planning for the planking will definitely pay off in the completed model, mate.

 

John

[vaddoc]

Well, so far planking was all talk and no action. So today I cut the first plank. Yep, it went pear shaped!

 

Lets go over this failed attempt.

 

I finished the paper template and it looked ok. I intended the upper edge to be straight, it is not but it is not far off either.

Then I used a batten to connect the markings into a fair curve

The template was cut and seemed ok

Then transferred to the wood sheet. I used one of the warped ones as I suspected this first attempt would not go well.

I used a carpet knife to cut to the line. This went ok but the plank does not fit well.

What went wrong? Well, to start with the plank does not much the template

But also, now the template does not sit as well on the boat!

The card I am using is not stiff enough I think.

Now, this needs some further thought!

[Wintergreen]

Interesting.

One thing, which you probably already know out of experience, is that the plank changes its apparent shape a little when twisted. Hard to mathematically explain though. It is like the twist lifts the plank away from its designed line.

Apart from that, I don't have any ideas (at the moment).

[vaddoc]

Indeed Hakan, this is why planks need spilling.  I think the problem is that the card is not stiff enough. I actually have 2 mm thick card that I used to plank the Deben but it is too thick and difficult to cut. I ordered 1 mm thick cardboard, see how this will do

[vaddoc]

So I gave it another try and this time things worked better.

I actually remembered that planking the Deben, I had laminated the card to double its thickness. So I did the same and indeed the laminated card holds its shape much better. Also, I used spray glue instead of the water based glue sticks. This made a huge difference as the glue dries almost immediately and does not distort the paper.

 

The new pattern was transferred to the wood but in a different way. I used paper template to define the rabet edge, the stern end and the turn of the plank at the stem. Then, with the compass I transferred the distances at all frame positions and used a baten to connect them with a fair line. This was the outcome, it worked just fine.

Compared to the first plank, it looks more correct as it probably will fill the previous gaps. But the first plank looks just wrong, it is clear the card had distorted at the fore end.

I then tried to install the plank. This was difficult, exactly as the ship builder mentions in the video a few posts earlier, the most difficult thing is to get the plank to twist and this garboard has a huge twist. I had to do a very minimal amount of scraping/sanding and with the help of many clamps, the plank seems to fit well with very little edge bending.

A little filler won't hurt I presume!

 

Now, all boat building activities are temporarily suspended, not only due to professional and family commitments but also because of the weather-it is freezing cold in Cambridgeshire.

 

Best wishes

Vaddoc

Edited February 13, 2021 by vaddoc

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

enjoyable watch.v. 

[Wintergreen]

Glad it worked the 2nd time around 🙂 

I'm happy to share our freezing degrees with you. Today it was only minus 3 outside. Really nice 😎

 

Yes, sanding and filler will do the trick. Just sanding a surface smooth takes out all these small shadows otherwise visible. Makes a lot of difference.

Then stain or paint covers it up. On the other hand, paint can highlight imperfections as well. No matter how one turns...

 

Keep it up!

[vaddoc]

-3 Hakan but there is wind, real feel -8!

[G.L.]

Nice work, Vaddoc. It is very interesting to follow the process.

[KeithAug]

On 2/13/2021 at 7:14 PM, vaddoc said:

also because of the weather-it is freezing cold in Cambridgeshire.

Warmer today - time to crack on. Great work on planking.

[vaddoc]

Some more progress so time for another post.

Many thanks to all for your likes and comments!

 

Now, in the previous post we have cut one of the garboards so next task is to cut its sister plank. This was much more difficult and more complicated than I expected.

The two sides of the hull are not as symmetrical as they should or could be. The garboard I ve cut will not fit on the other side. I am not sure what is the issue, I think the rabet is not cut at the same height in a few areas but everything else looks ok. Still, it will not fit.

I marked the frames to determine where the new garboard should reach and using a paper template I cut the new garboard.

The plank did not come out right. There are unacceptable gaps with the rabet and at places it is not wide enough.

Using the plank as template, I filled the gaps and then with a compass measured the widths again but this time used a different baten to connect the dots, a 2x2 mm pear strip. This time the plank looked better.

It actually looks better than the first garboard! On the boat, the two garboards look identical but put on top of each other, their shape is similar but they do not fully much. But it also true that even tiny variations in the frames will massively affect the curvature of the planks. 

The next photo shows the first plank, the gaps are a bit larger but nothing terrible.

I think also the rabet is not deep enough, I wonder if it would be simpler to sand the plank. They are actually a bit thicker than 2 mm.

The work will now need to stop, I need to make a steamer device to steam the planks. Also I need to add some wood to the horn timbers for the planks to rest on.

 

Vaddoc

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by vaddoc

[Jim Lad]

Wonderful to see the care that you're taking with this, Vaddoc.

 

John

[vaddoc]

Jim and to everyone that hit the like button, many thanks! I think time for another small post.

 

I ve been thinking how to attach the planks to the frames, for the Yawl I ll use threaded brass wire but I do not think this will be possible for this boat, I do not trust the plywood frames to hold the threads securely. So I am thinking of using treenails, like I did with the Deben. I think I ll need 1500-2000 (including wastage) for the outer planking alone so I sat down to make them.

 

I used the needle method, in the past I ve made many thousand of treenails. I used a small log  a friend gave me a couple of years ago, I am not sure what tree it came from, either hawthorn or hornbeam. It is a hard and strong wood though. It took a while to make things work, I kept burning the wood but with a bit of trial and error I managed to get things working.

 

I cut thin discs and drilled the tree nails. Then I sanded the back and released the nails. The heartwood was very hard and the sapwood at areas seemed to have deposits that clogged the needle.

 

I was not too happy with the first bunch, they were quite short. I sorted the nails according to colour, I ll use the lighter ones that are more plentiful. The darker ones are from the heartwood, denser and stronger but even the lighter ones are very strong. In the next photo they don't seem a lot but actually they are more than 800.

 

Then I sat down and made a few more, this time longer and better. This time I made close to 2000, so I should have enough to start planking.

So time to steam the planks! The garboards are the more difficult to fit, the twist of the plank is significant and really the clamps are difficult to be positioned securely.

My steamer worked brilliantly and despite taking a long time to fit the plank so that it cooled down halfway through positioning, it accepted the twist just fine. I need to deepen the bevel in a few areas but otherwise I am happy with the outcome.

Tomorrow if possible I ll nail the planks to position but I need to think of a way to make sure all the nails align across all planks and that are spaced equally.

 

Vaddoc

[michael mott]

Nice work on fitting the Garboard plank Vaddoc.

 

Michael

[vaddoc]

Some more work done, time for another post.

 

I installed both garboards, even after steaming some pressure was needed to get them fully into position. Initially I used 1 mm screws to keep the planks in the correct position and then gradually replaced with treenails. I had to deepen the rabet, at places quite a lot. I am not too happy with the bow end of the port plank, it should be spot on but now there is a bit of a gap. Oh well, a bit of filler never did any harm!

Then I moved on to the next plank which I think should be the stealer.

 

So, first a defined the shape that the first broad strake should have. This plank, up to a point, it follows the edge of the garboard but at some point it deviates and this is where the stealer starts. The stealer will not have a pointy end but a square one which will sit within the first broad plank. So things should look something like this:

The position where the two plank ends meet should be here

Then I laid a baten to define a fair upper edge for the stealer

However, when I cut the plank template it does not look right. It seems it needs shortening by one frame.

So that is what I did. It looks much better now. I had to make sure that the first broad plank, which now will be longer, will not be too wide for the curve it must negotiate but it looks fine.

Ten I cut the stealer. With a bit of adjustment, it fitted fine.

 

Now, at this point I was curious whether this plank would fit on the other side. It should, as the upper edge of the garboard should be finishing at the same point at all frames in both sides. Well, it does!

Then I made the other stealer which also came out fine

So all looks good so far. However, today I remembered some more planking tricks and tips. It is coming back to me as I progress.

 

After the plank is cut, minor adjustments can be done by scraping the edge of the plank with the knife. It works like a plane. But also, again using the knife as scraper, the other edge of the plank needs to be "planed" into a fair curve to make it easier to mate with next plank without gaps. Further more, the plank can be cut with the scroll saw to just out of the line and then with the knife plane down to the line. For this to work, very sharp blades are needed so I change mine very often.

 

Regards to all 

Vaddoc

[wefalck]

I think this is what boat-builders do, they cut the planks a tad wider than needed and then repeatedly offer them to the rabbet (or the previous plank) and mark the areas, where material has to taken off.

 

A trick the old Inca etc. used when they fitted these amazing stone-walls without grout: they did not attempt to fit the whole surface fo the stones, but only the outer visible edge. So a minute inward leaning bevel of the planks should do the same trick.

 

Another point would be to fit the planks only dry and not humid, as they would dilate and elongate, of course, when wet and then develop gaps when drying.

 

Apologies, if you had already been through those loops - I must admit that I did not read all your text and only enjoyed the pictures.