Florida Sharpie Fishing Schooner of 1899 by Thistle17 - RESTORATION

[Thistle17]

In my wailing and nashing of teeth I almost forgot to state some good news. Thanks to my granson home from college and Mahuna modeler of Kathryn a restored skipjack I now have a near ready rendition of a ships wheel designed in Solid Works.

 

One of the greatest elements of Model Ship World beyond inspiration is the willingness to share. Mahuna had gone aboard Kathryn and taken measurements of her wheel (along with her scaled dimensions) and posted that on this site. I had picked a quite similar wheel off the internet. We confered and as a result I now have an STL file for a 3D rendition of my own. Some minor tweaking is needed before submission to a vendor but here was the design process.

 

Joe

SOLIDWORKS Shipwheel.pptx

Edited January 21, 2022 by Thistle17

[Thistle17]

In regard to the ship wheel and the resultant STL file (a 2MB high resolution file) I asked a friend to do a "pre flight" check for me before I sent it off to Shapeways. When it was run through his Slicer program to produce the "g" code it generated 40,000 faces (or slices). It was much too big for his computer to process. So now I have learned another lesson. When you don't know what you don't know you can run aground! At least from a home computer standpoint. I am quickly getting the impression that 3D printing is a bit more complicated than CNC processing where feeds and speeds are the watch word.

After discussing the issue it was suggested that the 'productuion' run should be resin as opposed to filament printing. I suspect this will not be a problem with Shapeways as they limit their file size to 64MB or 1 M polygons (I am pretty sure this can be interpreted as faces). Anyone correct me please.

 

Joe 

 

[Thistle17]

A number of things have kept me away from modeling that I seem to have no control over. However recently I have been able to carve out some time to proceed further with the rigging. This model has some very straight forward rigging and in no way compares to the challenges of say a 5th rate ship of the line. Having said that it certainly continues to present its own subtle resistance to me. Given the age of the model, which is somewhere in the 70 years of age range, is very fragile. Glue joints separate seemingly at will and metal fittings (which are scratch) break at the slightess touch. The other obstacle has been the exquisite execution of the original modeler.

 

I had started out with a conservetorship mentality in the restoration. Having been at it for some time now I realize I was a bit naive! I have been challenged in coming up with like materials in terms of gauge, size and material as the original modeler used a mix of ferrous and non ferrous material. Gaff and boom bands for example were hand made and wrapped around these elements and soldered at some point. The gauge of the metal is less than 0.031! The holes for attachment of hooks or shackles are incredibly minute. In another example, his/her hand made shackles are of size and gauge I just cannot match. I have some (working) ones that broke that are approximately 0.125 in size!!!!!

 

In rigging the model I am convinced that the modeler was interrupted in the process. I say this as some deck furniture was not secured to the deck, and given that some terminations were to the main cabin for example, permanent rigging could not have been accomplished. I also find that some rigging is missing. Missing meaning it was never applied. I have had to consult with Reuel Parker who is a sharpie expert and David Bennett of the NC Maritime Museum to gather enough information to proceed.

 

So with this new found humility I have continued the rigging and have forgiven myself as I find the need to compromise. For example, in the attached picture the main and fore gaff had shackles of the size I described connected to the mid section of each element for hauling. I have reattached them with 'S" hooks in place of shackles. They are carefully "crimped" and in appearance only the most astute eye would recognize this transgression.

 

The rigging is about 70% complete. I had originally intended to add furled sails but have decided against this as I reason there will be an incongruity of that presentation with the base I am making which at this moment will be an "out of the water" depiction. We will see if that is indeed the fianl word.

 

Those vertical posts on the aft end of the main and for boom/gaff setups are temporary rigging aids.

 

Joe

Edited March 26, 2022 by Thistle17
Mis spelling