Rattlesnake by Pasi Ahopelto - Scale 1:48, U.S. privateer 1781 - Hahn's plans

[Pasi Ahopelto]

Thanks. I've adjusted plane to cut as thin shavings as possible, and then just start cutting On last week's yards I drew circles at the ends to indicate target diameter, but on this week's gaff I didn't do that. What I'll do is take one or two shavings and then visually check how it looks before continuing. But these yards are quite small (diameter 3-4 mm), I'm not sure if that would work with large yards, but I will give it a try in few weeks.

 

This week I made gaff. I'll concentrate on gaff jaws. First roughly cutting outer side to shape:

 

Then I cut a groove on backside, and rounded it with a file:

 

More shaping to outside mainly with scalpel and flat and round files:

 

One finished jaw half and one unstarted, and end of gaff cut to an angle:

 

Gaff jaws glued:

 

And finished the gaff with cleats (it's upside down on the picture):

 

Metalwork and parrals are missing, as are from other masts and spars. I think I'll do those later once I have masts, etc otherwise ready.

Edited October 5, 2014 by Pasi Ahopelto

[Pasi Ahopelto]

Continued by making spanker boom and fore topsail yard. The boom is basically larger gaff with slightly different cleat arrangement, and the yard is pretty much the same as spritsail or spritsail topsail yard except with octagonal center section, so I'll just add one picture showing them both:

 

Pasi

[russ]

Pasi:

Good looking spars. The cleats look very good.

 

Russ

[kees de mol]

Nice to see how something like this is build up.

[Pasi Ahopelto]

Slow but steady progress continues...

 

Lower main mast is quite complete. There are many details missing, but it's at stage where it can safely be left to wait for next phase. I don't have any photos how it was made, mainly because I wanted to first to try whether what I'm doing works, and only then post the in-progress photos while building front mast. It's basicly the same but is slightly smaller. Some detail shots of main mast follows.

 

 

 

You may notice a hidden fix for a slight asymmetry flaw; either deck or keel isn't exactly on center, but the offset mast bottom makes the mast to stand at correct angle. Anyway I think one of the US Navy's first six frigates had bigger issues with hull symmetry...

 

I've started to work on lower front mast. First step to was to plane a 8.5 mm square, and taper it to 5.6 mm at top and 7.3 mm at bottom. Thickest part is at forecastle deck level. I had the dimensions written down at various locations, but what I did was to measure at bottom. deck level and at top, take one shaving with plane, rotate 90 degrees and repeat until dimensions at the three locations were met.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Pasi Ahopelto

[src]

Ahhh, one of my many mentors and hers heroes is posting agin.... can't wait to see the post as build pictures.

Is that a Lie Neilson plane is see?

Sam

Edited February 4, 2015 by src

[Pasi Ahopelto]

Hi Sam, it's Veritas plane. If remember correctly, it's their "block plane". I'm quite fond of their plane designs, blade adjustments are easy, etc.

 

Last week I had lower fore mast squared and tapered to dimensions, and will continue from there.

 

Mast is upside down. Top section will remain square, and anything below will be round. First step was to cut small notches to prevent any wood splits taking part of the top square with it. I'd like to use plane, but there isn't room for it here, so starting with scalpel.

 

Here I'm making lower part of mast roughly octagonal.

 

And shaping it round with sanding block.

 

Next step was to cut mast's sides to accomodate cheeks. The cheeks cover about two thirds of mast's length and thicken towards top of mast. Top side is ready, lower side shows what will be removed: the top's thickness will be reduced to about one third.

 

This is where cheek's lower end will be.

 

And checking that the surface runs true length-wise. This shows welll how thin the very top ended up.

 

 

Cutting mortice at mast's bottom.

 

There's mortice for mast inside hull, but I don't remember its dimensions so using modelling wax to check what's in there...

 

And finally checking that the mast is at correct angle (took some tweaking with tenon, but looks OK to me now).

Edited February 1, 2015 by Pasi Ahopelto

[Pasi Ahopelto]

And next update: making cheeks.

 

Started with a blank sawn off a cherry billet planed to 3.5 mm thickness. There's few mm extra length to allow cleaning away any rips from sawing.

 

Started by tapering the edges. This follows shape of mast's flat sides (see previous posting).

 

Tapered wide edges: thick (top) end remains at 3.5 mm, while bottom edge is half of that.

 

Then used rasp to make area below hounds a bit thinner.

 

And rounded edges with files.

 

Completed cheecks by cutting scores for bibs. I was somewhat worried of splitting the wood, so made repeatedly shallow cuts from each of the four directions. I believe also wiggling the blade instead of just pressing it down helps (and it's easier to keep it in place compared to moving the blade).

 

Finally some glue and clamps.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Pasi Ahopelto

[Pasi Ahopelto]

Only two pictures this time, but finishing the cheecks is simple operation compared to hounds and what's below them.

 

First upper parts of cheeks on sides of mast head (not sure of actual name). The width tapers slightly towards top, but thickness remains the same (a bit under 2 mm -- half of the hounds).

 

Sides glued, leveled to mast head width. I shaped tenon for mast cap with a file and scalpel.

[Pasi Ahopelto]

Lower mizzen mast is similar to other lower masts, except smaller, so wont repeat myself with in-progress photos. Anyway what I have now mast and spar-wise:

 

If you take a look at mast steps, then you'll see that they all are offset to left (if viewed from back). It tells that deck-keel alignment is off by few mm. I think it's visible only now, but becomes unnoticeable once the correction disappears under the deck. One benefit of making fully planked hull

 

Let's see: mizzen top mast, main top and top gallant masts, fore top and top gallant masts, mizzen yard and mizzen top yard, main yard, main top yard, main top gallant yard, fore yard and top gallant yard are missing. Also trestle trees, details (nails), etc need to be made.

[Elia]

Pasi,

 

Those masts and spars look great.  Very nice.  What are next?  Top masts and largest yards?

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[Pasi Ahopelto]

Thanks Elia, I think I'll continue by making larger yards with octagonal center cross section. First one is fore yard.

 

What's happened before this picture was sawing off a oversize piece from Sitka spruce billet and planing it square and to proper size.

I have relatively simple jig for holding the part in place: there's a stopper piece at end, two triangular lengths side by side. What I'll do is take 2-3 shavings from one corner, rotate 90 degrees and repeat until each of the eight sides is roughly of equal width. There are some shavings on background: the thinner the better.

 

Yard with octagonal cross section.

 

 

Only center of the yard is will be octagonal, there's pencil marking near my left index finger telling where the cross section of opposite side becomes round. I'll do majority of shaping with plane, mainly because I like planes ( ), and they also give good control as long as direction of grain is suitable. I'm repeating myself, but what works is take a shaving, rotate and repeat. Final shaping with sanding paper and steel wool.

 

 

Final step was making the cleats. The center ones turned out better than I expected, but I'm not entirely happy with the other four. Have to improve with forthcoming yards, maybe switching from basswood to something denser could help.