28 foot American cutter by druxey - FINISHED - 1:48 scale

[druxey]

You are correct in your observation, Bruce. Tumblehome will be there, but if I put it in now I'll not be able to get the model off the plug without damage. There's lots of thinking ahead required with this kind of build!

 

Speaking of thinking ahead, I have to plan the integrity of the shell. If the boat were clinker built, there would be sufficient gluing area to hold things together. In this case, carvel built, the joints between the planks are so small the chances of failure are almost guaranteed. To minimize this possibility, I shall be grooving the plug for several frames so that the planks will also be attached to them as well as each other and the spine assembly. 

[wefalck]

Let's see what he responds, but if there was a tumble-home (which makes it actually rather elegant), then one could not remove the boat-shell from the plug - unless the last plank is fitted without the plug.

 

Edit: oops wrote the above, while he was responding ...

Edited April 14, 2021 by wefalck

[druxey]

Next was marking out and cutting the grooves for the frames I decided to put in every fourth frame. To assist marking out, I used a piece of thread wedged into two small cuts at the top of the plug. The grooves were sawn and then finished with a narrow pillar file. A piece of stock for the frames was used as a depth gauge.

 

 

[gjdale]

Don’t know how I missed this one, but I’m pulling up a seat now. What a marvellous tutorial this will be. Such a privilege to watch a real master at work and to be able to read your explanations of both the “how” and the “why” of everything you are doing here. Thank you for sharing with us.

[Hubac's Historian]

This is going to be a lovely little boat, and I will gladly follow along.

[druxey]

Work on the plug is finally complete. Small blocks have been glued as shown for attaching the temporary extensions of the frames. In an earlier stage of developing this technique, I grooved for every frame (top of photo). This proved to be very labor intensive and, when the model was removed from the plug, resulted in quite a number of frames detaching. I was able to reattach them, but it involved extra work. The current plug will, I hope, work better.

 

Next will be to prepare about 5' 0" (actual) of framing stock. It will be a few days before I post again. Thanks for following this!

 

[Maury S]

Druxey, will the frames be cut or bent?

Maury

[druxey]

They will be bent in using moisture and controlled heat, Maury. Stay tuned!

[allanyed]

David, 

This is an excellent build log and great to see.   

Is there a reason you prefer water lines rather than station lines for making pieces for the plug?   I can see the waterlines giving some ease in shaping with the grain, but is there any other advantage?

 

Is there a reason you prefer making grooves to hold the frames in the plug?   I found the grooves to be very possessive of the frames and do not like to let them go when it is time to remove the shell from the plug.  The dreaded CRACK when removing the shell is not a fun sound to hear as you pointed out as it creates extra work.  I  switched to an alternative method quite a few years ago.  It does  require a little bit of editing of the plug dimensions to the inside of the frame but have never had one stick to the plug, even with all frames and planking in place.   Pic below.   The spacers keep all the frames in place while the planking goes on just as the grooves would do this.    

 

I REALLY like the substantial  grove at the bow and stern for the stem and deadwood and the use of gesso.   Thank you for sharing your methods and experience!!

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by allanyed

[druxey]

Thank you, Allan. Certainly fewer pieces are required for horizontal rather than vertical slabs for the plug. Also, as you point out, there is far less end grain to deal with. I had considered redrawing the lines to 'inside of frame' and doing what you show, but as I'm only putting in a few frames and making the slots a loose fit, I decided to be lazy! Different strokes....

[wefalck]

I didn't do many of such builds, but the frames getting stuck in the grooves was one of my worries. I indeed edited the lines so that I only had grooves in the garbord area, which fixes the frames at three points, namely in these grooves and locating holes as per Allen's example.

 

If the prototype construction allows it, one could also have grooved keelson. Or, again prototype construction permitting, one could have the grooves in the keel-piece.

[Ab Hoving]

This is a wonderful tutorial David.

Almost a pity that I don’t work in wood any more. 🙂

Ab

[Roger Pellett]

IMHO, the attraction of this model is its graceful lines.  In attempting to accurately redraw these lines to the inside of the frames it is easy to distort this shape.  Maybe the magic of CAD eliminates this concern but I’ll leave that to others.

 

Roger

[allanyed]

  Roger,

Cad indeed makes things easier, for me at least, and I am very very far from being an expert.   Drawing the station lines, then paralleling each with an inboard line that is the moulded dimension of the frames less than the station line is all it takes.   Not sure this would be so easy using water lines, but probably should work.

 

As to  the plug itself, water lines or station lines both work so it comes down to the builder's preference.   I see advantages to both methods.  

[druxey]

Thanks for looking in, everyone.

 

Eberhard: in this particular boat, neither keel nor keelson are scored for the frames. Unfortunately that isn't an option here.

[FriedClams]

What a fine subject for a model Druxey.  Simple understated lines, yet so graceful and elegant.  And thank you for explaining your process in developing the plug.

 

On 4/13/2021 at 1:49 PM, druxey said:

If one only scientifically divides the space for the planking, it does not always look fair to the eye. I had to then use a bit of art - and maybe a touch of alchemy - to make the lines run fair to the eye from stem to stern.

 

The mystery and magic of art.

 

I'll be sitting in back and following along quietly.  And oh, the many uses of rubber cement!

 

Gary

[druxey]

So, based on previous experience, I shall remove the formed frames and wax the grooves as well as the rest of the plug before gluing the frame extensions to the blocks. This will, I hope, prevent any from detaching from the planking later. As you can see, the frames are merely clipped in place at present. 

 

The frame stock was first soaked in hot water, then bent in place using controlled heat from the iron I use for restoration work of easel paintings.

 

[Wintergreen]

One does not fully appreciate the size of this model until you let it linger beside an enormous iron or, like on the previous page chuck in a ruler.

One nothing else is present in the pictures it is easy to forget that it's only like 6.5" or some 135mm long.

 

I have but one word - Amazing skill (oh, that was actually two words, well well)

 

 

[druxey]

Small update:

 

The transom proved trickier than it first appeared. It has a slight but distinct bow to it. I first thought that I could bend this, but the thin (1 mm) stock warped in the vertical direction as well. I was forced to cut the transom out on the curve. This was carefully done using a fine blade on the scroll saw. It was then lightly sanded, trimmed oversize and glued to the stern post.

 

Next was to mark out the shift of planking butts. Using my five frames, I was able to make a four strake shift work nicely. (The marks are to one side of the frames, but the planks will butt on them.) This completes preliminary work. Next will be to remove the frames, wax the plug and re-inset them. The spine assembly will them be mounted ready to fair the transom to the plug and begin the planking process.

 

 

[bruce d]

4 minutes ago, druxey said:

I first thought that I could bend this, but the thin (1 mm) stock warped in the vertical direction as well.

Looking good. Can I ask what wood you are using for the frames and keel?  Or did I miss it?

[wefalck]

I didn't check against my photographs, but were the planks really butted ? I would have throught that in the USA at that time it would have been easy to obtain full-length planks.

[druxey]

It's quite possible. Eberhard; but at this scale it will make life a little easier to have a two-piece strake.

 

Bruce: It's Castello boxwood.

[bruce d]

[wefalck]

David, why do you think, a two piece-strake will be easier ? I would have thought that fitting a continuous piece would be simpler in the sense, that one does not need to deal with lifting up or off-set butts.

[druxey]

Well, for instance, fitting the garboard accurately at bow and stern is much simpler with two planks. One can focus on a  good fit at the forefoot and deadwood separately without concerning oneself with overall plank length. Trimming both pieces last to get a neat butt is comparatively easy.  

[druxey]

So, next was to disassemble things and wax the plug. The grooves for the five frames were waxed using a micro-applicator.

 

Replacing the spine on the plug, I shaped the transom. By filing it to shape this way, the shape and changing bevel is automatically correct.

 

A problem I had with a previous boat was that the keel bowed slightly sideways because there was no groove on the plug. I carefully sighted along the boat and added temporary pins to ensure that it was straight. Finally, the boat is ready to plank!

 

I've been preparing leaves of Castello 1/64" thick - a scale ¾" - for planking. Next will be the garboard planks.

 

 

[bruce d]

So, am I right in thinking the frames and keel are not glued to each other?

[druxey]

Bruce: They will be, very shortly! After the shell is removed, a keelson will also run along the tops of them.

[bruce d]

[druxey]

Update: planking has commenced!

 

The stock for this was sanded to thickness (1/64")  using the Byrnes' thickness sander. That done, I needed to stabilize the keel laterally while applying the garboard strakes. These will make the spine rigid once both sides are in place. I had made the mistake of not doing this once on a previous boat and ended up with a laterally curved keel. Not nice.

 

The twist on the plank 'blank' was done using water and the heating iron.  Once it had set, the width at different points was marked, the plank removed and trimmed. It was then glued in place. The aft plank in the strake was processed in a similar fashion. Next will be the opposite garboard.

 

From here on it will be a repetitive process until all 36 planks are in place.