New Bedford Whaleboat by CptofMySoul - Model Shipways - 1:16

[CptofMySoul]

Hi Everyone,

 

I've setup an area to start working on my whaleboat model.  Excuse all the clutter in the background; this section of my garage is normally for woodworking.

 

I cut a large rectangle of leather to work on.  I think this will be better than working directly on my workbench for a bunch of reason, not the least of which is that there are dogholes in the bench for things to fall through. I also built this adjustable lamp and have really nice, bright light directly on the work surface now.  Both of these ideas come from Adam Savage and specifically from several YouTube videos he's put out.

 

I found a piece of hardboard to clip the large plans to for reference.

 

I feel ready to get started.  I'm pretty intimidated, though, after having gone through several build logs and seen the incredible results from experienced craftspeople.  This is my first wooden ship model.

 

[CptofMySoul]

Hi Everyone,

 

I got back around to working on my model after some family vacations and work travel.

 

I have disconnected the laser cut stations from the plywood matrix and labeled each one front and back.  I compared each to the drawings.  Three of the stations don't match their drawing in a few places... they are smaller than the drawings.  Station #5 was the worse. You can see a good bit of space around it.

I assume that putting in the work now to get these as symmetric as I can will pay off when I start planking.  So I've been thinking about how to fill in the space best.  What I decided to do was to make shavings from a maple board I have with a hand plane.  Probably not the thickest shaving I can generate, but not wispy ones either.  Then, I tried to use a technique similar to veneering.  I applied hide glue to the saving.  Put that on the edge that needs built up and applied pressure.  There isn't a lot of surface area, and I had trouble getting it to stick and not move around.  In the end, though, I got several shavings attached.  I can trim them when they dry.

I think there must be a better way, though.  The obvious problem with this is that the shaving is just a small thickness.  At least for that station #5, I'm going to have to repeat this several times to get enough shavings attached to fill in the gap.

 

What's a better way to go about this?

 

[Oldsalt1950]

The first thing I would do is mark the center of the piece while it is laid over its position on the plans to determine if both sides are off, if the slot for attaching to the center frame is also not off. Then take a measurement of how much you need to add to the piece. Usually there is some thin scrap you will have from taking pieces out of the laser cut sheets they are in, use this to make your shim if it is a little too thick that is okay as you will be removing some of the material when you fair the hull before planking. Glue the shim on with either wood glue or CA(super glue) and let the glue cure .

[CptofMySoul]

23 hours ago, Oldsalt1950 said:

The first thing I would do is mark the center of the piece while it is laid over its position on the plans to determine if both sides are off, if the slot for attaching to the center frame is also not off.

I checked both orientations to the plan and did find that one orientation was better than the other.  Station #1 showed it very clearly.  Subsequently, I oriented all the stations with the same side of the plywood up, aligned the middle opening to the plans, and marked where material needed to be added.

 

23 hours ago, Oldsalt1950 said:

Usually there is some thin scrap you will have from taking pieces out of the laser cut sheets they are in, use this to make your shim

Originally, I had thought that I could use the plywood matrix the pieces came from to make filler shims.  However, I couldn't figure out a way to do that and get it conform to the curve I needed the fill on.  Of course, I could cut and shape the complementary curve into a bigger piece, but that seemed like a unnecessary amount of work.  I feel like I'm missing something because it would definitely seem better to use some of the same plywood that the pieces came out of.

[Oldsalt1950]

If your kit came with thin walnut pieces for a second planking, you can use that. Either that or visit a local hobby store and pick up a thin sheet of bass wood.

[CptofMySoul]

Ah, I understand what you mean now.  Embarrassed I didn't think of it before.  I have a bandsaw, so I cut a thin... 1/16" to 3/32" thick ... piece off the slide of that maple board.  Then, I used a handy cutting gauge to cut a strip a bit wider than the station plywood is thick.  Now I have thick, flexible shims I can bulk up the edges of the stations with to fill in the gap to the drawing. Thanks!

[CptofMySoul]

Here's an update on the work on my model.  I cut the strips for building up the stations and removed the tool marks from the bandsaw with a block plane.  

 

It took me a bit to realize the next step. At first, I was just planning one with the goal that I could get it thin enough to bend to the shape of the station.  Finally, though, I realized that I could steam, or heat, bend the little strips to conform exactly to the shape. It was quite a revelation.  

 

I took a cup of boiling water and put the strips in it for a couple of minutes.  Then, I was able to flex them to the shape of the station. The strip is being held in place until it dries with rubber bands. I imagine this is good practice for work I'll do later with the actual planks for the model.

 

Here's the first one I did; attached to the form and then once dry.

It took a bit to get a good technique on getting the rubber bands in the right spot and all.  But now, I'm heat forming strips for several of the stations.

 

Now, I'll wait until they dry to attach glue.  Gluing should go easy since the shape of the strip will follow the station profile pretty well. I'll essentially just remove the rubber bands, apply glue to both sides, and then replace the rubber bands in about the same places.

 

[CptofMySoul]

I am still working on getting the molds shaped correctly. 

 

There was about a month that I didn't get a chance to work on my model at all.  When I got back to it, I started trying to get my beefed up molds to match the drawings. I'm using a spokeshave to remove large amounts from the sides.  Then, I have a card scrapper that works well for removing smaller amounts.  Finally, I'm using to 150 grit sandpaper to fine tune it.  Actually, though, I haven't yet got any of them accurate to the drawings.

 

I've worked on Mold #4 the most and thought I was finished with it.  However, I realized a problem with my method.  I was shaping the sides, but referencing off the bottom of the mold.  In other words, I would put the bottom on the bottom line of the drawing and was trying to remove material to get the rest to match.  Later, I realized that I need to be referencing the top of the gap that connect to the bow-stern mold.  That's the part that references all the molds in the final skeleton.... not the bottom of the molds.  Looking at that, Mold #4 is a little light up top again and will need some material added so that I can get the end of the notch to align with the drawing.

 

I think someone was alluding to this above, but I had to learn for myself, I guess.

 

I've changed my technique to try to align to a center line and a line for the base of the notch. 

 

I'm working on Mold  #5 now.  I've drawn an additional line on the drawing across the base of the notch and past the sides.  Then, I've drawn a line across my model mold also at the bottom of the notch.  That way, I can easily align to the notch when I'm checking the shape match to the drawing.  I also have put a center line on my model mold.

 

My technique now is to move my mold along the center line into the drawing.  See where the mold hits the line of the drawing and remove material from them.  I do this until the notch base lines meet. That's probably the clean way to do things, in actually, I'm trying to compare several ways by eye and reshaping the sides.

 

For Mold #5, it looks like I'll have to add to the bottom to get it filled in and straight.

 

[CptofMySoul]

5 months since my last post.  I started a graduate math class, and everything else had to be set aside.  Not having studied math formally in 25 years meant every free moment went into the class.

 

I have a few weeks over the holiday before my next class so I'm hoping to make some progress on my whaleboat.  Before taking a break, I was also getting discouraged about the amount of correction I'm having to make to the laser cut molds.  Surprised by how far they are off, and it makes me feel that I'm doing something wrong.

 

Here's station #3.

For the tab to line up, it needs additional material at the top.  Then, it needs an 1/8 or so removed from the bottom.

 

Now, I'm working on getting some more thin strips together to add to the top of the mold and build it up.

 

[wool132]

What's the math subject? Manifolds? 🙂

 

Jonathan