Young America 1853 by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper

[Mahuna]

Hi Ed.  Your research, especially this far into your build, is really impressive.  YA will definitely be museum-quality.

[Mahuna]

Hi Ed

 

I've found another way to turn brass and copper into what looks like steel, and I thought it might apply to some of YA's metalwork.  JAX Chemical company now sells a product named Flemish Gray-Black.  I painted some onto a brass bar and it colorized it to silver-grey and looks like a piece of shiny steel.  I dipped a small copper chain into the straight solution and after about 30 seconds it looked like a steel chain.

[michael mott]

Any chance of a picture or two showing the differences Frank?

 

Michael

[EdT]

Thanks for that information, Frank.  I will pursue it.  To my eye, WinOx instead of a selenious acid product produces a more grayish tone.  I used that on the hook/thimble assemblies and the appearance is good - initially.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of handling of the hooks in making and serving the eyes, so some of the oxide wears off.  Some localized retouching may help, but the chemicals must be kept off the rope.

I also tried the aluminum tube.  This makes lovely thimbles very easily, but I am concerned about dissimilar metals and corrosion.  I am testing a brass hook with an aluminum thimble in salt water.  Not sure if there will be a conclusion from this.  Thanks for the help.

Ed

[druxey]

Well sleuthed, Ed! Visually the changes will be well worth the time you spent in making them. And you have the satisfaction of knowing it looks and is correct.

[EdT]

Thanks, Druxey.  Sometimes I long for the clarity of Steel and the Repository.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Ten and a half inches is huge! But here is a comparison with a section of steel wire rope that came off the Main Topmast Preventer Stay of the iron ship Wavertree of 1885. The tape circle is ten and a half inches. But consider that the wire rope section is just HALF of the Wavertree Stay, which ran doubled. 

Edited February 23, 2017 by JerseyCity Frankie

[EdT]

Great photo.  Yes, wire sizes were a lot smaller.  According to a table in S.B Luce, Seamanship 1868,  comparing relative sizes of hemp, iron and steel, a 10 1/2" hemp rope was equivalent to 4 1/2" iron wire cable  and 3 3/8" steel wire cable.  Wire was well along in adoption in Britain in the 1850's but probably slower in America, but it was in use and there will be some on the Young America model.

A 10 1/2" inch rope is quite large, but much smaller than Victory's 19" main stay!  Hemp at 10 1/2" circumference had a working load strength of about 10,000 lbs and a breaking strain of about 64,000 lbs, according to the table in Luce.

Merchant ships were not generally fitted with preventer stays so I assume Wavertree was a navy ship?  In any event, for comparison, the American Lloyds spec for 1200 ton ship topmast  was 9".  On YA this will be a doubled stay.  So, it is roughly in line with what you have shown.

 

Thanks for this input.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

17 hours ago, michael mott said:

Any chance of a picture or two showing the differences Frank?

 

Michael

 

As Michael requested, here's a photo of a small copper chain that was partially colored by dipping in the Flemish Gray-Black from JAX.  The photo doesn't show the color as well as I'd like.  The actual color is more silver than the photo shows.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2017 by Mahuna

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853

Part 197 – Topmast Shroud Deadeyes

 

The last post showed the forward futtock shrouds installed, but was mainly concerned changes to rigging sizes, so I skipped over the work on the shrouds.  This work started with making straps for the deadeyes from copper wire.

 

The first picture shows wire wrapped around a dowel to make consistent-sized rings that will be formed into straps.

 

 

After some testing of ring size, a ¼" dowel was determined to be the right size for this – conveniently.  I was hoping to avoid turning a special size.  After wrapping tightly, the rings were parted as shown below.

 

 

The razor blade shown above makes a clean cut in the 22 gauge wire used for these – but only one or two at a time.  The next picture shows some rings before soldering as well as the test assembly fitted into the top.

 

 

The next picture shows the top with its six deadeyes fitted through slots in the iron reinforcing strip and the wood rim below.

 

 

A variety of futtock shroud materials and methods of fastening were used during the period.  Iron bars were coming into use.  Where rope was used, connections might be shackles, hooks or lashings.  Mast connections varied.  I decided on rope with hooks at the top and lashings at the mast eyes, typical of the early clipper years.  The next step was to make the hooked-thimbles.  Some are shown in the next picture.

 

 

These thimbles were cut from 1.5mm brass tube then flared by tapping with a shaped punch.  The thimbles shown happened to be blackened first – not necessary.  The eyes in the hooks must be large enough to pass the served shroud.  To ensure this, the brass rod shown was used as a gauge when forming the hooks.  In the last picture the hooked thimbles have been blackened and are shown suspended from the straps, awaiting connection of the shrouds,

 

 

Making the shrouds will be described in the next part.

 

Ed

Edited February 24, 2017 by EdT

[SawdustDave]

Hi Ed.... Always such a pleasure and learning experience to drop in and catch up on your incredible Young America.
Never cease to amaze me my friend.

 

Dave

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 198 – Making Futtock Shrouds

 

The lower futtock shrouds on the fore and main masts are 5 1/4" rope (meaning the circumference is 5 1/4").  This equates to a rope diameter of about 1 ¾", about .024" at 1:72 scale.  The mizzen shrouds will be 4 ½".

 

I used rope made from three strands of (.012" dia.) Barbour Irish linen suture thread for this.  I hope to use linen for all of the standing rigging – if the sizes I have will work out and if my limited inventory of quality linen holds out.  I like the hardness of the linen and its resistance to stretching for the taut standing rigging, but quality has deteriorated in recent years.  I will forgo a discussion of rope making and sizing here, but expect to fully describe the process that I use in Volume III.  Rope making methods and hardware have been well described in many sources.  I find it to be more of an art than a science that can be described simply.

 

I will instead start with the serving process.  I made my serving machine ten or twelve years ago for my Victory model.  It is shown, with some modifications since then, in the first picture.

 

 

The machine consists of large crank-driven gears at each end connected with a jack-shaft as shown.  These gears drive smaller spur gears in synchronization and at stepped up rpm.  Rope is stretched between tubular shafts through the smaller gears.  The next picture shows one of the crude collets that hold the rope.

 

 

The rope passes through the tubular shaft, allowing long lengths to be fed through at the length needed.  The picture shows the method I use to start the serving thread.  A needle is passed between the strands and the thread pulled through.  The thread used here is Guterman quilting cotton, a long-staple, fine cotton thread with virtually no fluff.  It measures about .005" to .007" diameter, equal to about ½" at 1:72 scale.  A bit thick perhaps for serving yarn, but considering that the actual rope would have been wormed and parceled before serving, not far off.

 

After several turns are lapped over the short end, it is clipped off and the serving proceeds as shown below.

 

 

The rope length between collets is adjustable by pulling the shafts through the spur gears then retightening the set screws holding the gears.  The futtock shrouds are short.  A more complete description of the process may be found in my earlier Victory log, here: 

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/316-hms-victory-by-edt-196-pob/&page=2

 

A number of served shrouds for the main and mizzen masts are shown below.

 

 

Served eyes of this large size are made from the served rope by wrapping it around the thimble and securing it with darkened Titebond glue.  It is held together until well bonded using the surgical clamp shown below. 

 

 

The jaws of the clamp have been filed to form a round opening.  The eye splice in the picture has been bonded through the serving by wetting the splice before applying glue.  When fully dry, the short end is shaved back to blend with the rope using either a razor blade or very sharp scalpel.  The joint from the thimble down to the end of the splice is then coated with glue and wrapped with serving thread as shown below.

 

 

The glued serving reinforces the splice.

 

Because of the (overnight) wait time for the Titebond to fully bond, I also tried CA on the splice with Titebond on the serving.  The CA joint with the linen does not seem to be as strong as the Titebonded joint.  I may need some more clamps.

 

The opposite ends of these futtocks are spliced in the same way, but without hooks.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

Now that is attention to detail.....

Will you be attending to this much detail on the 1/96 version?

 

Rob

[michael mott]

Thanks for this Step by Step Ed, I have to keep reminding myself how tiny all this work is 1.5mm in not very big for the thimbles. lovely work on the mast fittings.

 

Michael

[EaglzEyes]

Recently began working on the Flying Fish wooden model. Says 1/8" =1ft. ts quite a task for my second ship in over forty years are you up to a few questions? The other had a preformed plastic hull, this is a zillion planks.

[EdT]

Thanks again, everyone for the comments and likes.  The progress is slow these days - half development, half production.

 

Rob, I have no plan at present to complete the 1:96 version of the model.  It was always intended as a demo piece for describing a POB type hull for Volume I the book.  I wanted to include that simpler, smaller version for modelers not wanting to build to big version or not wanting to go fully framed.  Methods used at 1:72 may also be used, with some exceptions, to complete the 1:96 model.  There may be fewer opportunities to use details like thimbles for example, but judging from the abilities I see demonstrated on this site, I have little doubt the many could scale down all the details used on the 1:72 version.  Volumes II and III will will support either scale, including drawings for both.

 

Micheal, thanks for your comments on scale.  Much of the work is very small, perhaps too small for my aging fingers that seem to grow in size and become less cooperative with each passing year.

 

EaglzEyes, I like questions even if I cannot answer them.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 199 – Setting up Futtock Shrouds

 

The lower futtock shrouds are lashed to mast eyebolts as shown in the first picture.

 

 

The picture shows the first two secured.  Before lashing the lower ends, eyes and thimbles had to be worked into the shrouds with the lengths set to provide relatively consistent lengths to the lashings.  This was done by hooking each shroud to its deadeye strap and then grasping the rope at the desired length with round tipped pliers as shown in the next picture.

 

 

The rope was then looped over the jaw to set the position for the eye.  This picture demonstrates the problems caused by a lot of handling of the masts after blackening of the copper ironwork.  All the ironwork on the masts was retreated after all the pre-erection detailing – as will be seen in later pictures.

 

The next picture shows an eye with the thimble inserted with glue applied at the splice joint – as described in the previous post.

 

 

The next two pictures show the six futtock shrouds installed on the lower fore mast.

 

 

 

The ironwork has been mostly re-blackened in these pictures. 

 

The next two pictures show a test I felt compelled to make to satisfy myself that the lower shrouds would clear the futtocks.  I felt some trepidation about this, not knowing what I would do if there were interferences.  Fortunately there were none that miniscule movement of the collar could not cure.

 

 

The next picture shows the positioning of shrouds 3 and 4 that straddle the center futtock.

 

 

The white rope used in the picture is some reject 4-strand linen rope that approximates the size of the served 10 ½" shrouds.  The uneveness reflects the difficulty of making four-strand rope without a central core.

 

The foremast is now ready for installation and work is proceeding on the other two.  In the next to last picture a mast coat may be seen at the deck covering the wedges.  This will be described in the next part.

 

Ed

[MartinCJM]

Beautiful craftsmanship and attention to detail Ed. I'm particularly struck by the visual difference in the diameters of the futtock shrouds that prompted your re-work. A lesser mortal would have left it at that!

[michael mott]

Your attention to the details and the documentation of them is really very useful and educational Ed. Thank you for taking all the extra time that this takes.

 

Michael

[rwiederrich]

Several things Ed.  First....Great job!  

Second, I gather the diameter of the shroud is the size you previously described in your discussion on the subject? aaaand the deadeyes are of the adjusted re-sizing?

Thirdly, was it tedious using the iron ring hooks to adjust the tension on the futtock shrouds?  Things must have been tight.   Things are getting awesome and shipshape.

Lastly, how will you pair the shrouds?  1&2, 3&4, 5&6....or.....1&6, 2&5, 3&4?

 

Rob

[EdT]

Rob,

 

The specified shroud size is now 5 1/4" (actually closer to 5.5" model rope) and the deadeye size is 9".  Rule of thumb is 1.5X, but sources show 9" up to 10" for these. The hooks are not adjustable.  The futtock shrouds are given an initial tension by the lashings at the mast, but the real tension in the futtocks will be applied when the lanyards on the topmast shrouds are are hauled up.  The lower shrouds will be paired 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, which I believe is standard.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

I guess what I mean is you are dealing with 2 separate fixed fixtures...one at each end of the futtock shroud...so.. for you to attach it with any tension..you had to open and re-close a copper hook and then adjust its tension...otherwise you would be left with shrouds that barely allow connection and then they will slump because the hook tip is longer then the body of the hook.  Do you understand what I mean?

 

Your shrouds are tight...what did you do to tighten them?

 

Rob(Thanks for all the other info...)

[EdT]

Rob, as I said in the last post, the shrouds are given an initial tension - after hooking - by the lashings at the mast.  These lashings consist of 6 turns of small rope that allow the shroud to be pulled straight when they are hauled up.  the lashings are then secured by wrapping the rope around the turns and securing it.  Although visibly straight at this stage the futtock shrouds will not be put under tension until the topmast shrouds are tensioned and secured using their deadeye lanyards.  The deadeye straps have a sliding connection at the rim of the top so that this tension can be applied from the topmast head to the lower mast eyes through each futtock and shroud.  If either shroud were fixed at the top, that light structure would be subject to failure from bending forces at the rim.  With the sliding connection at the rim the top cross trees are only subject to horizontal compression.  Clear?   

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

Yep...thank you...It wasn't clear initially, that you were going to use the top mast deadeye lanyards to actually tighten the futtock shrouds(As I would assume was accomplished in reality)

 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

Upon further investigation It has become clear to me that you (Lashed) the futtock shrouds at the mast band.  I assumed they were secured in similar fashion as to the top deadeye loop band.

Apparently not.

 

Thanks for the clarity.

 

Rob

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 200 – Lower Masts Continued

 

It is hard to believe we are at the 200th post on Young America – almost 3 ½ years into the project.  Still as exciting as ever – for me at least.

 

Since beginning work on the lower masts, most of the reporting has been on the fore mast – the guinea pig for construction, finishing and rigging – and only one version in the scrap box.  However, though mostly unseen, work has been proceeding on the other two, so here are a few pics.  The first is the most recent, taken yesterday and showing the main mast ready for fitting the deadeyes and rigging the futtock shrouds. 

 

 

The mizzen mast to the left is almost to the same state, but needs its masthead detailing.  The next picture shows the main top before fitting the deadeyes.

 

 

At 18' 6" in breadth, this is somewhat larger than the 17' fore top.  The "pre-rigging on this top includes a pair of brace blocks for the mizzen lower yard, the crojack.  These may be seen dangling from shackles below the aft crosstree.  Because of the soldered shackles, any shackled connections, including eyebolts, need to be either fitted with their blocks or left off until later.

 

The next picture shows the forward chafing batten being glued to the mizzen mast.

 

 

The batten is concave on the mast face and was rounded on the forward face after gluing.  The top, with the 9" diameter spanker mast inserted, is to the lower left.  The below-deck rings have been blackened and the ring of wedges is in place.  After this step the above deck ironwork was buffed with a clean wheel and blackened as shown in the next picture.

 

 

The sanding stick in the picture was used to clean the glue off the batten's nail heads (not shown).  The next picture shows the mizzen at this stage.

 

 

The top and the spanker mast are permanently attached in this picture.  The picture also shows small brail blocks hanging from the mast.  These will be discussed later.

 

By this time, the foremast was complete and could, if desired, be permanently installed.  The last picture its base with a mast coat fitted over the wedges.

 

 

The mast coat simulates a tarred canvas cover with surrounding rope to pull it tight at the mast and at the base.  It would also have been nailed before tarring.   I could find no standard method for these – only brief and varied descriptions.

 

Ed

[druxey]

Superb, Ed!

[michael mott]

Beautifully executed so far. Ed in the last post you had mentioned that a description of the mast covering would be explained. It looks like wrinkled canvas from this height, but are you keeping how you made it a secret......I have my own thoughts about how you made it, which are likely different from what you did.

We are a vigilant lot sir!

Michael

 

 

[Mahuna]

Ed, your level of detail continues to amaze.  Thanks for 3+ years of sharing this great work with us.

[Maury S]

Ed, AMAZING.  BTW, why would they use a chain (even canvas covered) to hold down the lifeboats?

Maury