Gunboat Philadelphia 1776 by tmj

[tmj]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

Tom, these frames kinda remind me of the treenails for this project. Speaking treenails...... 

Haha Keith... no not nearly as tedious and mundane as those treenails. The frame construction sounds a lot worse than it really is. It's actually pretty easy. I do two sets of frames, after work each day. Maybe I'll bang out 6 or 8 sets Saturday and the rest Sunday. As for the treenail thing, the bottom of the bottom is complete. I still need to treenail the top (interior) of the bottom timbers. I'll do that as I inch along the bottom installing frames. 

[tmj]

More work on the frames. I've now got 10 frames laminated together and ready to be cut/sanded to their final shapes. These ten sets will make 20 actual frames once all is said and done. As mentioned previously, I need 18 sets of these frames (36 actual frames) to complete the port and starboard mid-section of this build. I'll glue the remaining 8 sets together later. I normally don't like to use CA glue, but I'm using it for these frames to avoid spring back after gluing and 'hopefully' also ensure that the 9 ply laminated frames will not try to de-laminate or lose shape in the future.

 

 Here are the 9 ply frames after being bent around a form. The individual components hold their shape really well, however. There is about 1/16" of spring back on each vertical leg. I keep the bent frames in their respective bundles until time to glue them together.

I start by gluing the flat bottoms together. I clamp the pieces in place around the bending form and then simply squirt CA over the laminations letting the resin soak in. 

I then pull the laminations around the form and glue the rest.

After gluing the first side I remove the parts from the form and give the other side a shot of CA. There is no spring back, and the frames are quite solid. They will be easy to cut and sand to final shape during the next operation. As tedious as this sounds, it really goes pretty fast. It only took me an hour to glue these ten sets of frames together. Hopefully, the laminated construction will mimic the appearance of curved, hand hewed framing timbers once finished. I'll glue the rest together tonight while watching Svengoolie and waiting for glue to dry on my canoe build.

 

 

 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by tmj

[tmj]

Just in case anyone is interested, Olha Bachvarov is going to start a live group build of Model Shipways' kit of the Gunship Philadelphia beginning on Saturday 01 May 2025 via her YouTube channel.  

[Keith Black]

37 minutes ago, tmj said:

I'll glue the rest together tonight while watching Svengoolie

 I think that frog is a bad influence.   Speaking of the frog, we haven't seen his slimy face lately. Is he helping with those nice frames?

[tmj]

59 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Is he helping with those nice frames?

Nah, not right now. All the local flies disappeared from Dallas so Ribbit caught a Greyhound to Florida for the winter.    

[bdgiantman2]

Even though probably too cold for frogs here in Colorado, I am certain that one of my neighbors has Ribbit's big cousin hanging out by their front door.