Boom Jaws

[CLovehitch]

Hello, I am trying to contruct boom jaws for the Bowdoin.

Can someone please help me an tell how  me to contruct them.

 

I have been using basswood  for the jaws, and a 3x5 card paper as a template then gluing the pater with rubber cement.

My cuts are not coming out evenly, this is my 3x trying to build them.

 

Should i be measuring these out and using a a straight edge.

 

Thank you very much!

Nick

[MikeR]

Nick

What are you using to cut them out?  If you are using a scroll saw you can stack two layers of wood, I  use double sided tape to join the layers and rubber cement the pattern to them.  Cut it out and you will have two identical  pieces.

Mike R

[Roger Pellett]

For small wooden parts like this you might find a harder wood easier to work with.  As wooden parts get smaller, it can become harder for soft woods to hold their shape.  Using a harder close grained wood can make it easier to make the small cuts that result in nicely shaped parts.  To work these harder woods it is not necessary to have access to a fully equipped workshop as there are many commonly available items made of woods that could be used as better raw materials  than Basswood for carving these small parts.  For example: Tongue Depressors.  To get a symmetrical shaped set of jaws glue two pieces together and carve them.  When you are happy with the result dunk them in the proper solvent to separate them.

 

Roger

[allanyed]

2 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

For small wooden parts like this you might find a harder wood easier to work with.  

Second that comment.   There are myriad discussions here at MSW on different hard woods that should help if you do not have a specific species in mind.

Allan

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

3 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

  ...  you might find a harder wood easier to work with.  As wooden parts get smaller, it can become harder for soft woods to hold their shape.  

 

Roger

  Don't I know this ... a blue pill might help 😉 

[CLovehitch]

I have been using an xacto knife,  i do have a very small belt sander I can use. I also have a scroll saw but i thought the parts would be so small.

I do have Cherry wood stock 

[CLovehitch]

This is my attempt with basswood and an xacto knife. Not happy, i did use a template and glued the paper on the wood.

I will try some hard wood next. Thanks for the help, Nick

[Dr PR]

I have used thin aircraft plywood for small wooden parts like the boom jaws. Plywood is much less likely to break while working on the parts. They were cut out to rough shape and then filed to the final shape:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=1012539

 

I am modeling an early 1800s vessel so I used metal bands around the boom jaws:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=1012900

 

Later vessels used bolts instead of the metal bands. I don;t know what the Bowdoin used.

[wefalck]

It might be easier to glue oversized roughend out parts to the boom and then shape them using the boom as a handle. Also leave the parts longer at the jaws end so that can drill a hole first where they open - in this way you can get the hole in line with the boom. Then trim to shape with files and sanding sticks, rather than a knife.

 

Another strategy could be to take a single flat piece and cut a steep V-shaped notch to match the flattened sides of the boom. Glue in the boom and then continue as above.

[BANYAN]

Hi Clovehitch.  I had to do these for my build at 1:72 recently.  I found I had to use very dense grained wood for any success. My method was to first file flats on either side of the boom inner end.  To make the jaws I printed scaled copies of each jaw set as templates l(that is, the jaws as a full integrated piece). 

 

I thicknessed the wood to the appropriate thickness, and pasted the paper template onto it; and double sided taped (low tack) a sacrificial thin piece of wood under it to keep a clean cut.  I then cut these to the required shape following the outer lines.  Once cut, I sliced these in half to get the individual jaw pieces and sanded the centre cut back to the required line (to allow for boom neck thickness and taper. 

 

I removed the template but before separating the sacrificial piece away, I drilled holes at the required places to simulate the through bolts (leaving the sacrificial wood in place helps with protecting these thin pieces.  I then removed the sacrificial piece and edge glued (two part epoxy for strength) to the flats on the neck being sure to keep them aligned.

 

The following shows my test boom to prove the method and the final results.  I hope this helps?  The outer reefing combs look slightly large, but at this scale they are quite small and look better scaled to the naked eye.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Pat