Grating dimensions

[KobusBeukes]

Hi Everyone

 

I once saw a drawing of a grating with the dimensions, i.e. Plank witdh vs space. Can anyone help?

 

Regards

[NMBROOK]

Hi Kobus

I don't know of any such drawing,however I work on between 50 and 75mm maximum hole size.Any bigger and it is a foot trap.50mm is the preferred but at some scales this can be nigh on impossible to achieve.In reality the ledges and battens are quite often wider than the holes.

 

Kind Regards Nigel

[WackoWolf]

I think this is the first time this question has come up. Good question. In does come down to the scale that you are building, and like "Nigel" said to big and a person would get there foot stuck in it. Now to wait and see what the Masters have to say.

[mtaylor]

Per Lavery's Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War, the opening was about 3"  (76 mm) at full size. Other sources say 2.5" (63 mm)  All say the wood should be about the same dimension.  

[KobusBeukes]

Hi all

Thanks for the replies.

 

I'm building the Sovereign of the Seas and the supplied gratings is 2 mm and everyone says that it looks out of scale and are using a 1 mm grating.

 

The sketch I saw refers to the plank width vs hole width. If the hole must be 1 mm must the plank also be 1mm?

 

Regards

[mtaylor]

Equal size of holes and the grating is normally the most pleasing to the eye.  So, if you can, yes, 1 mm. 

[SJSoane]

 

Hi everyone,

 

Steel says, for all sizes of ship, "Grating battens to be 2 ¾" broad, and ¾" thick. The ledges and battens to be of oak, the gratings substantially made, and the openings not more than 2 ¾" square." On the page labeled Folio XXIII.

 

The ledges vary according to size of ship. For my 74 gun ship, they are 3" thick and 4" deep.

 

This is what it looks like at my scale of 3/16" = 1'-0". I showed one way to construct this in my build log.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[SJSoane]

 

Further note:   I had earlier built the gratings in the normal method of a table saw jig, but my first gratings were way out of scale because I did not have a slitting saw of the exact right dimension. In round two, which you can see at postings number 87 and 93, I used a slitting saw on a mill, which allowed me to dial in exact sizes including moving the saw over slightly after the first cut for each groove to make the exact right size of groove. The construction method itself used an idea developed by Clay Feldman, which avoids the problem of assembling tiny pieces in two directions.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[druxey]

I agree with Mark's posting. This holds for British 18th century grating dimensions. I also read somewhere that the hole size had to be less than the size of a shoe heel.

[KobusBeukes]

Hi everyone

 

Thanks for all the comments. Mark, thanks for directing me to your site, lovely work there!

 

Regards

[wefalck]

I have a 1923 textbook on ship's joinery and this recommends 2" (50 mm) for the opening and the widths of the laths. The depths of one set would be 2"-2.5" (50 mm - 75 mm) and the other only half of that: modellers commonly notch both sets in comb-fashion, while in reality smaller laths were laid into the notches. They way modellers make gratings makes them self-locking, but on the prototype both laths types would be notched into the frame that provides the locking.

 

wefalck