HMS Snake by jim_smits - Caldercraft - First Build

[jim_smits]

Supplies have arrived from CMB! New keel has been cut to fit, I just need to sand it down to the correct thickness as it is 0.5mm too wide. Working and present wrapping this weekend so progress might be a little slow. I'll post picture updates when I can.

 

I also bought myself some Christmas presents, just received a silver soldering kit and a airbrush and compressor. Time to learn how to use these.....!

[mort stoll]

Go for it and make it happen. We are all here for you.

 

Mort

[drtrap]

I'm totally sure that I'll see her more beautiful than ever Jim.

[egkb]

Have a Great Christmas Jim, and I look forward to seeing your repairs to that fine build, and a Ballahoo in the New Year..

 

Eamonn

[jim_smits]

The keel is now back on, glued and pinned in several places. A very small amount of filler to smooth the edges and then onto re-applying the copper tiles.

Edited May 18, 2014 by jim_smits

[egkb]

Looking Good Jim..

 

Eamonn

[drtrap]

Nice revision Jim!!

[jim_smits]

Chrimbo present from partner - 'HMS Victory - Building, restoration and repair' by A R Bugler. Looks really helpful for my eventual attempt at Caldercrafts Victory....!

 

Hope you're all having a good one!

[jim_smits]

Have a Great Christmas Jim, and I look forward to seeing your repairs to that fine build, and a Ballahoo in the New Year..

 

Eamonn

Ballahoo log up and running..... See sig for link.....

[jim_smits]

Couple more repairs today.

 

All of the carronades on the port side of the ship needed to be glued back to the deck. Fortunately because the carronades were all rigged in, they were still held pretty much in place, albeit a bit loose.

 

Also, one of the fenders had been knocked of the hull. This was re-pinned and glued back in place.

 

Finally, the main channel isn't badly damaged, so I have replaced the eyelets and sanded the channel down. It now needs painting again and pinning back on the hull.

[texxn5]

Glad to see you back and getting into your repairs...sometimes they look worse than they are...at least wood is pretty forgiving, keep it up..

[jim_smits]

Channel has been re-pinned and glued back in place.

 

I am now replacing the copper tiles along the keel bottom and at the stem. Port side is almost complete.

 

Time to sign off for the new year. See you all in 2014!

[mort stoll]

If I did not know, I would not know. She looks great.

Happy and Healthy New Year My Friend,

 

Mort 

[jim_smits]

Cheers Mort! Happy new year to you.

 

That image above does show the crack in the stem piece. Possibly more obvious as it is full of filler.

 

Once the coppering is finished it will be gone....!

[drtrap]

Jim, your experienced skill is more and more actually enhanced under those steps of revision of her status. Keep up the work and Happy New Year !!

Edited January 1, 2014 by Stergios

[jim_smits]

Coppering has now been fully replaced and the hull looks so much better now. The new plates don't actually stand out that much from the old plates so I will let them be and see how they look in a couple of weeks.

 

Now working on re-rigging the shrouds. I had two chainplates snap on the starboard main channel, and all five went on the port channel that was torn off the hull. The easiest way to replace these has been to use 0.75mm black thread in place of the deadeye strop, and tie a double knot to the deadeye to simulate the strop.The loose ends are then fed through the channel and tied to the chain plates. I have had to replace these as well as they were bent out of shape.

 

Used a little jig to create new chains from 0.5mm brass wire by looping several turns round two nails and then clipping down the side of one length.

Edited January 1, 2014 by jim_smits

[jim_smits]

Ok. I have now tied down all the shrouds, and I just need to trim the excess thread and paint the chains black.

 

The next main step is to very carefully remove the fore topmast shrouds. I plan to cut the lanyards, and slide the shrouds off in one piece. I need to do this as I have to replace the crosstree assembly, which is basically shattered. I need to do the same for the main topmast. Which leads me onto the difficult part.... I am going to scratch build the cross trees. This means 6 crosstree and 4 trestletrees pieces.

 

Onwards.....

[jim_smits]

Quite pleased with myself! The scratch building is going pretty well so far.

 

Made two of the crosstrees. First cut pieces of 2mm x 15mm walnut to rough size, I then used a file to file the angled ends and then the notches to size.

 

 

The trestletrees were a little more complex. Fortunately, I was able to rescue a single piece from the wreckage and use this as a template.

 

 

I cut several pieces of walnut to approximate size and then pinned the trestletree to a piece.

 

 

I was then able to cut and shave the wood to shape using the template. Managed to complete three successfully so far. Two more required.

 

 

 

 

 

[Beef Wellington]

Good for you Jim, those pieces look great, you should be pleased.  My experience was that the walnut can vary greatly from piece to piece, some seem to split by just looking at them but you seem to be managing just fine.

[texxn5]

Looks like you're getting her back together nicely.  Ahhhh yes.....scratch.......be prepared......lol

[jim_smits]

Crosstree assemblies are now complete. They're not perfect but i'm very happy with how they have turned out. I just need to paint both assemblies and then glue back onto the fore and main mast.

 

Getting there......

[jim_smits]

Excellent progress today!

 

Glued the crosstree assemblies onto the fore and main masts and replaced the shrouds that I had previously removed. Rethreaded all of the shroud lanyards and just need to seize the ends around the shrouds. I'm pretty much back to where I was before the accident. After that it's back to finishing off the ratlines again. Never thought I'd be glad to be back to ratlines....!

[texxn5]

Great repair work.  Looks very nice and like nothing happened....

[jim_smits]

Concentrating a bit on the Snake build at the moment. Sorry to the Ballahoo supporters....!

 

Managed to polish off ratlines for the Main Top Mast. Need to add Futtocks and catharpins.

 

I did have a question relating to catharpins, in that at the top of the main top mast, the mast itself lies between 50% of width of the futtocks, and would result in a catharpin that wraps quite considerably round the mast. I know I have a minor issue with this in the other shrouds but seems quite extreme in this case. Would it be correct to just fit a single catharpin between the futtocks or two with one of them pressed against the mast?

 

Starting to think about back stays now for the foremast as well. Time to press on and make up for the lost month of build.....

[Beef Wellington]

Jim, I 'believe' that the foremost shroud was never catharpined, and that similarly any that chafed the mast would also have been excluded.  Does that just leave you with one?  I haven't quite got that far to assess on mine.  Another option would be to go with the infamous cross catharpins.

[jim_smits]

One might look a bit odd so might go for crossed to keep the tension on the shrouds level....

[molasses]

Here's an alternative for crossed catharpins from The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor by Darcy Lever for your consideration.

 

 

This detail illustrates only the rigging of the catharpins without showing the futtock staves and other components. "a" is a sheet of copper wrapped around the mast.

[jim_smits]

Thanks for the image DFellingham.

 

I had a rummage through Lever, and did a little experimentation. I found in the end I prefered the crossed catharpin, even if it might not be the most accurate method, it seemed to work the best in securing the futtocks at the main top mast.

 

Moved onto ratlines on the mizzen top mast. These are surprisingly difficult due to the shrouds being thinner in this area. The issues of twisting the shroud are more evident as I tighten the clove hitches.

 

Finally, I have made a stab at the first back stay on the fore top mast. Got all the rigging together and hooked into the channel ok. The blocks and the rigging of the stay seem to press against the deadeyes and lanyards a touch. Is it correct that the back stay would be 'outside' of the shrouds down to the channel, with the loose end of the rigging crossing under the last ratline in order to be belayed?

[jim_smits]

Been a little bit busy of late, so no huge progress. In fact I have gone backwards a little bit....

 

I decided I really wasnt happy with the positioning of the futtocks on the mizzen shrouds and the tensioning in the shrouds on the top mast. Very carefully have cut the futtock taves and shrouds and have now added a couple of extra levels of ratlines and raised the level of the staves. The angles should look far better now.

 

Just need to re-tie the catharpins in place and get the right tension and then seize the futtock shrouds back in place.

[jim_smits]

Ratlines........ Done!

 

 

Finished off the mizzen mast shrouds and futtocks as mentioned in my previous post, and added in the remaining ratlines on the top mast. Rather glad to have got this all out of the way...!

 

 

Next items to take care are the main stay and preventer stay. The tension has dropped out of both, so I will remove them both and refit. I cant simply re-tension at the heart blocks as they are now to close together. Gives me a chance to try out the serving machine and make improvements to the mouse on each stay.