Young America by EdT - FINISHED - extreme clipper 1853

[EdT]

Thank you, Janet.  Would you care to disclose whose drawings?  I only know of one set, those by Bill Crothers, except of course my own that come with the book(s).  I'd like to know if there are others.  Thanks,

 

Ed

 

By the way, we just spent a week in Warwickshire.

[janet bode]

JanetB

                    Ed

                       I am drooling over your terrific build cant wait to get started on Washington one day.

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 169 – Rudder Pendants

 

Another small item of work completed today – the rudder chain pendants.  But first, I made a small modification to the binnacle to give it a larger base and to improve its overall proportions.  The additional base was added as a brass bottom disk as shown in the first picture.

 

 

The rudder pendants, sometimes called preventers, were provided to prevent loss of an unshipped rudder or as a means to operate the rudder from the deck in the rare event of a steering gear failure.  They consisted of chains on either side of the stern, bolted to the hull.

 

I used 30 link per inch copper chain for the rudder pendants.  At 1:72 this equates to 30 links per fathom.  After cutting the chains to length, eyebolts were fitted to the chain.  I am making all eyebolts for the model by spinning copper wire.  The wire is looped over a bent pin hook in a hand drill and the two ends held in a vise.  The drill then spins up the shaft of the eyebolt.  In this case the end link of the chain was first slipped over the wire.  In the next picture the wire (and chain) has been spun and the shaft is being clipped off.

 

 

The wire in this case was 26 gauge.  Most eyebolts on the ship will be made from 22, 24, or 26 gauge wire.  The eyebolt and chain are shown in the next picture.

 

 

Each pendant is anchored to the hull just below the sheer rail at two points, so a second eyebolt was fitted part way along the chain by the same process.  Some 26 gauge wire was then threaded at the other end to make a shackle to the rudder horns.  This is shown in the next picture.

 

 

The pendants were then hung from the stern as shown below.

 

 

The next picture shows some copper-phosphorus solder applied to the shackles.  Silver soldering these this way is a bit risky, but this is what happens when you do not plan ahead.  It would have been much better to have done these shackle connections before the horns were mounted, but this will do.

 

 

The torch flame was kept well away from the wood and at just enough gas to flux the solder on the thin wire shackles.  The next picture shows the finished pendants after blackening with liver of sulfur solution.

 

 

In the picture the rudder is turned hard to port to check that sufficient chain has been provided and rudder movement is not hindered.  Ideally the chain stays above the load waterline at all rudder positions.

 

Ed

[druxey]

Tricky stuff, Ed. I congratulate you for not incinerating the rudder or the whole model! The end result looks great.

[EdT]

Thanks, everyone.

 

 I had a feeling I would be hearing from you on this latest post, Druxey.  Did you know you were that predictable?  I suppose risk aversion is a relative trait, but there is no doubt that bringing a torch into proximity of a wooden ship model is not to be recommended.  Having said that, my main concern was incineration of the chain, which on the bench could be protected with a heat sink.  With the long rudder horns, I knew I could keep the small flame directed away from the hull - with concentration.  Still . . . 

 

The problem of making the small iron shackles used widely during the period of this ship is a problem that concerned me for some time.  Rope seizings are a lot simpler and able to be installed later. Soldered assembly of the small shackles seems unavoidable and that means installing them on eyebolts, yardarm lugs, chains,etc. in advance of assembly on wood parts.  This has invited some odd sequencing of steps that I am still sorting out and that I suspect will begin to appear in some upcoming posts.  Shackles were the last connection to be made in actual practice.  It seems with my method, they will have to be the first.  This problem hadn't entered my mind when the rudder was made.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Further to my lamentations on shackle problems:  Sorry to dwell on this but is has become an issue in the rigging sequence and therefore a puzzle as to how much of this to include in the "pre-rigging" content of Vol II vs. Vol III.  Some may find this interesting.  My plan has been to get all these connections installed in the hull and deck in Vol II then start Vol III with mastmaking.  So....

 

Here is a picture of two eyebolts with shackles. These were made by fitting the horseshoe of the shackle through the eyebolt then silver-soldering wire across the  ends of the horseshoe to simulate a screwed bolt.  This may also be done by making the shackle then spinning the eyebolt over it.  In either case the work must be done before installing the eyebolt in the deck or whatever.   Ideally all the deck eyebolts and the drilling involved should be done before other rigging gets in the way and perhaps blocks should be strapped to the shackle before installing.  Rigging specifications, drafting and planning needed. 

 

This is how I'm spending my summer.

 

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 170 – Rigging Cleats 1

 

Most of the work to be done before embarking on masts and rigging is to install a variety of rigging connection points to the decks and hull.  There are two sizes of cleats on the model.  They are being made by two different methods.  I will start first with the smaller 9" long cleats.

 

There are a few dozen of these, too many and too small for me to consider fabricating them in pieces, so they were sliced off the milled brass section shown in the first photo.

 

 

In the next picture a 9" square rod (1/8" actual) has been aligned on the milling plate, clamped, and is having a shallow, concave groove milled in the top.

 

 

Next, the piece was inverted and the sides milled to form the rough fina,l stepped, "T" shape.

 

 

The piece was then rounded and refined by filing before slicing off the cleats.  The slicing is being done as shown below using a thin slotting saw blade and a sacrificial wood fence.

 

 

This method allows the small pieces to be cut to a precise thickness – in this case about 3" (.030" actual).  The individual cleats were then rounded by filing and polished as shown below.

 

 

The brass cleats were then blackened and finally inserted in drilled holes with a small drop of CA to keep them in place – shown below.

 

 

The next picture shows the small cleats installed on the poop deck.  These will eventually secure some of the lighter mizzen rigging.

 

 

The next picture shows cleats on the forecastle.  These are duplicated on the port side and will belay the jib sheets.

 

 

In the next part, the larger 12" cleats for the lower sails' sheets and tacks will be described.

 

 

Ed

Edited August 28, 2016 by EdT

[Mahuna]

Very nice, Ed.  I especially like the way you sliced off these very small parts, particularly using the sacrificial fence.  I imagine that helped to keep those very small pieces from flying off.

[EdT]

Thank you, Frank - and others for the likes.  I confess that a few did take flight.

 

Ed

[Mirabell61]

Super work Ed,

 

I enjoyed your making of rigging cleats as "scliced" from the profile-milled brass bar, Smart idea 

Thanks for sharing this ! 

 

Nils

[albert]

Hi Ed fantastic work,very very nice.

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 171 – Rigging Cleats 2

 

There are ten larger 12" cleats.  These will be used to belay the sheets and tacks for the lower sails on each mast.  They could have been made by the method used on the 9" cleats described in the last part, but the larger size and the lower required number suggested a fabricated approach.  One of the shaped cleats is shown in the next picture with the remaining unfinished silver-soldered fabrications.

 

 

After soldering, each cleat was shaped by filing as shown in the next pictures.

 

 

The hand vise shown above was helpful but most of the work was done with the piece in the vise as shown below.

 

 

In this picture the single bolt is being filed to size.  Nine of the required ten are shown below.

 

 

The tenth sailed off to parts unknown while being buffed with the rotary tool, so another had to be made.  Murphy's rule corollary:  If you fail to make spares, they will later be required.

 

The next picture shows two of these installed.

 

 

Cleats on the rail like the one shown are for the tacks.  Those on the deck will belay the sheets that pass through the bulwark sheaves like the one under the pin rail in the picture.  The next picture shows one of these cleats mounted on each of the catheads.

 

 

These will belay the fore course tacks.  The eight small cleats for the jib sheets may also be seen on the breast beam in this picture.

 

 

Ed

[Kevin]

ED    You make it all look so easy, I could spend all day making a cleat (and no where as good as yours), its the 2nd third and multiples thereafter that

I have followed this build from the start and continually amazed by your work 

[EdT]

Thank you, Kevin and thanks to others for the likes.  All of these cleats will have rigging lines belayed to them on the finished model, so "perfection" was not an objective - fortunately for me.  The first method has the advantage of producing consistent profiles quickly - something I could not hope to achieve at that small size with the second method.  Final filing and rounding does tend to produce some inconsistencies that I trust will be obscured when the lines are belayed.

 

Ed

[EdT]

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 172 – Stay Bullseyes/Eyebolts

 

There are six "heavy duty" eyebolts with shackled bullseyes that secure the two legs of the fore, main, and main topmast stays.  Those of the main mast are anchored in the deck and the forestay is secured to the knightheads.  I'm including these and all deck and hull eyebolts as part of the "pre-rigging" and intend to install all those connections before starting on the masts.  The process for making the bullseyes and fitting the iron shackles is very similar to that used on the channel deadeyes described earlier.  The process starts with the bullseyes.

 

There are two sizes of these bullseyes, 11" for the fore and main stays and 8" for the main topmast stay.

 

After turning a cherry cylinder the small bullseyes were shaped in the lathe and parted off first, followed by the larger size.  This allows them to be turned "overhanging" without end support and without deflection.  The first picture shows one of the 11" bullseyes being turned.

 

 

The edges were rounded with a file before the parting step shown in the photo.  The pieces were then filed/sanded to remove stubs from the parting.  They were then set up in chuck in the rotating table as described earlier for the deadeyes.  The rotating table is not really required for this, but it is easy to center with a dial indicator on the center hole.  I believe this was shown earlier.  The center holes in the bullseyes were then drilled as shown below.

 

 

I did this in the mill as described so the holes would be precisely centered.  Although lathe drilling can be very convenient, sometimes (at least in my aging Unimat) it is more likely to produce off center holes, especially on the smaller pieces.  In fact, for the small bullseyes I started the hole with a center drill before changing to the final small drill bit.  The larger bit shown on the 11" bullseye above was stiff enough to stay on center without that time consuming step.

 

The edges of the bores in all of the bullseyes were then rounded by twirling diamond bits by hand in a pin vise as shown below.

 

 

The bullseyes were then polished up and dyed with a non-fading walnut stain made from VanDyke crystals.  These will later be waxed. 

 

The next picture shows the first step in making the shackle.

 

 

The shackle bolts were silver- soldered to the ends of the shackle with the eyebolts slipped on but away from the solder.  These were then maneuvered over the bolt end of the shackle.  The six shackles with their eyebolts are shown below.

 

 

These were then slipped over the bullseyes, crimped and each whole assembly washed with liver of sulfur to blacken the copper.  The blackened assemblies are shown drying on a paper towel in the next picture.

 

 

The next picture shows two large bullseyes for the forestay bolted through the knightheads.  

 

 

These are often shown bolted into the tops of the knightheads, but this makes no sense to me because the strain could easily split open the top of the knighthead.  I bolted these through the aft side just below the top. (Engineering license.)

 

The connections for the main and main topmast stays are shown below.  Iron reinforcing plates were fitted at the base of these.

 

 

Location of these required some consideration (and again some license was exercised).  The larger mainstay eyebolts are anchored through the deck beam.  The position was plotted using a dummy lower mast and a full sized line to check for interferences with the bitts, the cabin roof, the foremast, and the anchor chain openings. The smaller main topmast stay eyebolts are likewise anchored on the deck and not to a cross member between the bitts as is often shown.  I omitted this member on both fore and main masts because rigging for the double topsail rig greatly increases congestion of ropes in this area, especially in front of the mast.  The location shown seemed logical, and as with the larger stay, will avoid interferences – I hope. 

 

 

Ed

[albert]

Very nice work Ed.

[druxey]

Great thinking ahead, Ed. Hope you didn't leave anything out of the equation!

[EdT]

Me too, Druxey.

[rwiederrich]

As usual..fantastic work Ed

 

Rob(Coming along nicely)

[EdT]

Thank you, Rob - and others for the likes.  Progress these days continues to be small odds and ends and completing other of my unfinished tasks - like the channel deadeye chains and the endless belaying pin turning.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

I'm quite fond of your habit of titling your phases..and presenting them in *chapter* form.  Makes one feel as if they are reading your book as you are writing it.

I'm in the middle of a bathroom remodel...so I have not posted to my *Great Republic* log in weeks either. 

 

I do get excited when you do post though........very pleasing results and I am in great anticipation for the rigging phase to begin.

 

Rob

Edited September 7, 2016 by rwiederrich

[EdT]

Thank you, Rob.  I too am looking forward to rigging the ship - if I can just get out of the current "weeds" - small, but necessary individual tasks that do not seem to be a part of something larger.  For example, I am about to spend a day making and installing the stove pipe on the main cabin.  The rigging should feel more like a campaign and less like a series of small skirmishes.  The rigging work has taken a lot of preparation - more than anything else I have done in ship modeling.  Lots of planning, documentation, and solving of various modeling problems.  I hope to do it justice and hope others will find it interesting.  Getting close.

 

Ed

[rwiederrich]

Indeed.  Looking at the rigging challenge as a whole can be daunting....almost depressing.  But if one takes it in small pieces and accomplishes those smaller pieces...the entirety comes together and you feel progress....  Small accomplishments moves you forward to the final goal.

I'm looking forward to it.  I want to see how you address the trucks` and mast banding.......  Did the YA have constructed masts...I don't recall?

 

Rob( no pressure)

[EdT]

Made masts and made lower yards.

[rwiederrich]

Fantastic.....are you taking the high road and building them by interlocking 5 sections.......then banding with spacers beneath bands on the open spaces?

 

Personally. I shure would like to know how they fabricated these lower masts and yards of separate pieces...turned them round with them all together.....then hot banded them after they were turned.

 

What held them together while they turned them....iron pins driven deep to avoid getting hit by the cutter  during turning?

 

I took the low road...the extremely low road and simply milled the 4 right angle grooves in each mast(simulating the separate pieces)...then banded them and then filled in the fillet piece using hard dental wax.

 

Your process is going to be fun to watch. (I hope to learn something)

 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

Here is a few images of my poor attempt.

 

Cutting in the segmentation.

Banding

Staining

[EdT]

Rob,

 

I intend to simulate, not duplicate mast assembly and have not decided on the exact process yet.  I believe spars were adzed/shaved/planed rather than turned - first squared to the diameters at each quarter, then shaved octagonal, then rounded.  I expect to follow that method.  Still some weeks off, I'm afraid.

 

Ed

Edited September 7, 2016 by EdT

[Jeronimo]

Hi Ed,

very nice.

Karl

[Capt.Bob]

Turned?? Masts and spares weren't turned.  Try to imagine a lathe big enough to do it and powered by what?  They were fashioned as Ed described.  I made a 16' mast for my sailboat by hand, its really quite easy.

 

Bob

[capnharv2]

They may not have been turned in the past, but they can turn them in Grays Harbor WA

 

http://www.thesparshop.org/