Captain John Smith’s Shallop by JerryC - Ships of Pavel Nikitin - 1:32

[JerryC]

I just ordered Pavel Nitkin’s captain Smith’s shallop and will be posting my progress her when the kit arrives

[thibaultron]

Same here, I ordered it yesterday. Much easier process, now.

[Swinging the lead]

I ordered 2 items yesterday. Having problems making payments and contacting them. They look like excellent kits. 

[Tim Moore]

I’m in the same ‘boat’ - placed an order but haven’t yet been able to figure out a good way to forward a payment from here. They did get back to me by email. Great looking product.

[mnewsholme]

had a similar experience. I paid the amount stated in initial email by paypal, then didn't hear anything for a couple of weeks. Then got a shipping notification and can now see package moving on tracking.

Pretty understandable that communications are a bit disjointed considering situation in Ukraine and incredible that their managing to run a business at all under circumstances.

[sirdrake]

I just ordered the kit, and am looking forward to following along here.

[thibaultron]

Mine has been sitting in the New York USPS import station for the last 10 days! Hurry up and send it to me NY!

[ah100m]

I ordered mine on Oct.15th and it arrived (Florida) on Nov. 12th.  It's the next one in the queue to build.

[JerryC]

Ok, my kit arrived on December 27th. I’m not going to post an un-boxing, James h did an excellent job of that. 
 

so far, I’ve read through the instructions and plans a couple of times. I will do that a couple of more times before I start with unpacking and identifying the parts. 
 

I became ill over Christmas and am still recuperating. I plan to take this one slow and easy. I still have to figure out how to upload pictures.

[mtaylor]

I hope you start feeling better Jerry.  When you're ready to start building, just add to this topic.  It should be an interesting project.

[JerryC]

Ok, the fun has begun!

my plan was to just spend an hour and knock out page 1

That isn’t how it worked out!

it turns out that MDF is really dense stuff. I couldn’t get the scalpel to cut along the lines. The blade stuck and jumped the track even using light pressure.maybe a new blade? Not so easy , same results.

 I wound up just pressing the parts out with steady pressure.then the fun began. It took a lot of sanding and scraping to get the parts to fit. For the most part, the tabs are a little longer than the slots. a lot of dry fitting than adjustment, then dry fitting.

the instructions suggest that you place the first former into the base, add the support pieces, then place the other former. I couldn’t see that working out, so I assembled the two formers with the support pieces and then fitted that assembly to the base.

all in a days workit was more work than I expected, but I like the results. It was good to get a feel for the components, and I’m looking forward to the next steps.

 

not looking forward to scraping and sanding laser char. The parts so far feel substantial and strong, but once the jigs are done and I get into frames and such, I’m worried about snapping pieces. I think I’ll spend some time over the next few days gluing sandpaper to a bunch of different shaped sticks.

 

 

[JerryC]

Ok, the fun has begun!

my plan was to just spend an hour and knock out page 1

That isn’t how it worked out!

it turns out that MDF is really dense stuff. I couldn’t get the scalpel to cut along the lines. The blade stuck and jumped the track even using light pressure.maybe a new blade? Not so easy , same results.

 I wound up just pressing the parts out with steady pressure.then the fun began. It took a lot of sanding and scraping to get the parts to fit. For the most part, the tabs are a little longer than the slots. a lot of dry fitting than adjustment, then dry fitting.

the instructions suggest that you place the first former into the base, add the support pieces, then place the other former. I couldn’t see that working out, so I assembled the two formers with the support pieces and then fitted that assembly to the base.

all in a days workit was more work than I expected, but I like the results. It was good to get a feel for the components, and I’m looking forward to the next steps.

 

not looking forward to scraping and sanding laser char. The parts so far feel substantial and strong, but once the jigs are done and I get into frames and such, I’m worried about snapping pieces. I think I’ll spend some time over the next few days gluing sandpaper to a bunch of different shaped sticks.

 

Ok, todays agenda, continue assembling the jig.the parts for today all punched out. It’s getting easierAfter much filing and sanding, it all fits together.just four extraneous parts left over. Now just need to disassemble it and add glue.

looks just like the picture!

 

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by JerryC
Delete dupes

[JerryC]

I’m getting some extra photos somehow.

Edited January 7, 2023 by JerryC
Delete duplicate photos

[JerryC]

that’s complete

[ccoyle]

2 hours ago, JerryC said:

I’m getting some extra photos somehow.

 

Jerry,

 

Start with checking your uploads -- looks like one photo has been added three times -- then delete the extra copies. You might end up deleting the one  photo from the trio that is inserted in the text; if that happens, just re-insert the remaining photo.

[JerryC]

ThanksbChris!

[JerryC]

Chris, where can I access the uploads?

[ccoyle]

11 minutes ago, JerryC said:

Chris, where can I access the uploads?

 

Start by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner, then select 'edit' from the drop-down menu.

 

 

A tray containing your uploaded images will appear beneath the editing window. Click the 'x' on any photos you wish to delete.

 

 

 

[JerryC]

Got it Chris, thanks!

 

[JerryC]

So, I’m a little stuck right now. I’m waiting on delivery of an inexpensive set of Jewelers files from Esslingler. They should arrive on Monday. They shipped the same day as ordered. I’m expecting that they will be helpful for removing char from the frame pieces and such.

 

also, I’m at page 7 of the instruction manual and have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I get the frame part on the bottom, but what’s the upper frame illustration trying to tell me? I think it’s just saying that I will be assembling frames using glue.

[mnewsholme]

the framing diagram shows you which way round the frames go. The little chisel in a circle symbol means you need to bevel the edges of the frames. on the frames closest to bow and stern you will see a line etched on the wood on one side.

You file each of the steps at an angle from the unmarked edge on one face down to the etched line on the opposite face. This creates the angle for the planks to flow correctly. Effectively your fairing the frames before you assemble them into the jig. The etched lines on the pieces need to face down from frames at one end ( frames 6-3) and face up for frames at other end frmaes 19-22).

From memory a couple of the frames have the L and R labelling transposed., s you need to fit the pieces the opposite way round to get the etched face facing the right way.

[JerryC]

Thanks Matt. That helps, I thought the little chisel was a file for cleaning the char. It looks like they expect me to bevel the inside of the frames for the ceiling also.

[Chuck Seiler]

On 1/7/2023 at 10:45 AM, mnewsholme said:

Effectively your fairing the frames before you assemble them into the jig.

Wouldn't it be better to fair the frames after assembly?  That way you can ensure an even fair where the futtocks overlap.

[JerryC]

So, a little progress was made today.got a nice set of small files. Some of the ferrules are not well fastened. The files work well though. Next time I mix a up a batch of epoxy I’ll take care of that.got the keel glued up and fixed in the jig. There was a little adjustment needed for it to fit nicely.I got six of the frames worked up. 

[JerryC]

[JerryC]

Chuck, I will fair them as they are assembled. There will be an opportunity to adjust them after the construction is removed from the jig and placed on the former jig.

[mnewsholme]

When you start adding frames to the keel check that they seat down fully. I found the keel sat too low in the jig to allow this. I glued a 1mm strip to the jig (NOT to the keel) to raise the keel up slightly to allow frames to seat correctly.

[JerryC]

Matt, thanks, I’ll watch out for that!

[JerryC]

here’s what I’m using to sort the frames.

 I punch out a piece and stick it in the binder clip.

then I use the plastic sanding stick to remove the char.

the files come in handy for small spaces where necessary.

I’ve got lucky thirteen done, enough for today! Tedious.

[thibaultron]

For the char, you can scrape it off with a blade held perpendicular to the surface. Its faster and removes less material.