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Planking screws (Moved by moderator)


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Started work on Constructo's 'Emma' a Baltimore Clipper Sidmouth 1815, she's an older model 1:50 Scale, and what may I ask is your current project?

 

Was a busy builder 20 - 30 years ago.  Spending most of my time building up my tool chest, lost and mislaid most of my kit, but I guess I'm 75% stocked up again.

Edited by Tony H
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  • 1 year later...

I have been using commercially made plastic planking screws for years. They work quite well  but after a while the head of the screw starts slipping in the plastic casing. It is not accessible and super-gluing it on the outside is only partly successful.

 

post-1505-0-98794200-1413878677_thumb.jpg

 

I thought about investing in the Micromark metal clamps, but they are a bit expensive. I then came up with the following idea and made a set of my own planking screws.

 

Sneaking into the back yard under the cover of darkness, I pilfered some of the Admiral's plastic pegs from her peg basket.

 

post-1505-0-84893500-1413878861_thumb.jpg 

 

I dismantled the peg and cut off the ends

 

post-1505-0-43799000-1413878931_thumb.jpg

 

I then used some 8mm dowel and some 4G by 20mm wood screws to make the `handle' of the planking screw.

4G by 20mm was the thinnest/longest screws I could find so I had to recess them into the dowel so they were long enough to go through the bottom. I had to grind the screw heads a little so they would fit through the dowel.

 

post-1505-0-91903900-1413879186.jpg   post-1505-0-44682300-1413879212_thumb.jpg post-1505-0-29162400-1413879241_thumb.jpg

 

I then cut notches, using my hobby knife,  into the `wedge' of peg that I had cut off and drilled a hole as close to the end of the notch as possible (this gave the most leverage when screwing in the planking screw)

 

post-1505-0-06787300-1413879409_thumb.jpg   post-1505-0-45855300-1413879435_thumb.jpg

 

The pic above shows a peg end with

and without the slot

 

I then fitted the dowel `handle' to the peg `wedge' to create the planking screw.

 

post-1505-0-62859900-1413879620_thumb.jpg

 

It did not take long to make up a set

 

post-1505-0-08020400-1413879665_thumb.jpg

 

They worked quite well, especially on straight runs

 

post-1505-0-67891200-1413879713_thumb.jpg

 

I thought I was very clever until the Admiral questioned me about all the half pegs in the rubbish bin! Gulp, I knew I should have buried the evidence!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 5 months later...
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  • 11 months later...

I bought those Micro Mark clamps too. The problem with them was that the material used is very soft (some lead/tin alloy) , leaving dark marks into the planks. They also bend very easily under pressure.

This is why I made my own clamps of 6 mm brass rod, which was knurled and a 2 mm hole drilled into one end. A 2x16 mm screw was epoxied to the hole. Pressure part was made of 2 mm plywood, and the clamp was ready and didn`t cost anything. No dark marks any more into the planks:

 

post-17638-0-29989400-1466323278_thumb.jpg

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  • 3 years later...

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