USS Constitution by usedtosail - FINISHED - Model Shipways - scale 1/76

[usedtosail]

Thanks Ken. I hope you can use some of this when you get there. I have certainly used your expertise in the parts you have done first.

 

Thanks Popeye. 

 

And here are the two cutters lashed down to the open waist beams. (The gig I have put away to add to the stern davits after all the rigging). I made cradles for the large cutter, which I pinned to the fore and aft waist rails so the boats would not move after being lashed down. I made the tie downs in two pieces with aluminum thimbles in the middle. I was going to use brass but found the aluminum easier to cut. I did not try heating the brass first, but I will the next time I need to cut brass. I was surprised that the Casey blackening solution worked on aluminum really well. I remade these ties a couple of times until I was satisfied with the seizing around the thimbles. I was also happy to see that the boats did not completely block off views into the waist, so not all that work down there is hidden.

 

 

 

 

So, after nearly two years, I have come to a major milestone. All of the hull and deck work is done and I can now start the mast making and rigging. As you can see I have already started the mast making with the bow sprit, but now I can focus on that aspect of the build. I have always made the whole mast first then mounted it on the model, but I happen to be reading the TFFM Vol IV Rigging book and I like how Mr. Antscherl does each mast in sections. I am not fully decided on this yet.

 

Here is the ship as it looks now, ready for the masts.

 

 

 

Have a great weekend all.

[Tigersteve]

Looks great.

Steve

[CaptainSteve]

That must be one very satisfying milestone to tick-off, Tom.

She looks fantastic !!

Edited December 9, 2016 by CaptainSteve

[xken]

Tom, she is looking great! Keep up the great job you are doing. Ken

[popeye the sailor]

mighty fine progress Tom......congratz on the milestone!     she's looking splendid  

[usedtosail]

Thanks Steve, Steve, Ken, and Popeye. It feels good to hit a major milestone but at the same time it makes me think of all the work still to come. Probably another year or so, which is fine as I love rigging, and this ship has a lot of it, for sure.

 

I got ready to make some rope for the bow sprit collars and gammoning. I put the 4 lines on the rope making machine and hit the switch - nothing! I had left the power supply plugged in since the last time I used it and it seems to have given up the ghost. So, I have ordered a 9v power supply from Amazon which should be in tomorrow.

 

In the mean time, I spent some quality time with the Serv-O-Matic last night. Since the collars are served their whole length, I could use line that I already have as the core, since it won't be seen. I served up about 2 feet which took a while, as this is the first time I have used the serving machine. I was having problems keeping the serving from wrapping over itself, but I found that I could unwind it a few turns and get back on track. There were a few times that I was able to get in the groove and serve a few inches without back tracking. I was pleased with how this came out, but I am going to have to get better before I serve a whole shroud. I'll have lots of practice with this build, though. I will be using sections of this line for the different collars, so I can work around the areas that are not perfect.

 

 

 

This is .028" line as the core with thread that I use for seizing as the serving line. The resultant served line is .038" diameter.

[billt]

Looks great!  The small boats look like projects all by themselves.

[usedtosail]

Yes Bill, it is good to treat them as little projects. I built the Bounty Launch a few years ago and I found it was a good starter for both hull planking and fitting out these boats, although at a much bigger scale.

 

I got the new power supply for the rope walk so that is back in business. I thought I was going to have to swap out the plug from the old one to the new, but it turned out the new one had the same plug, so I just plugged it in. I spent several hours last night trying to make rope large enough for the shrouds and stays, but with no real success. I have just placed my order with Chuck for .04 and .05 diameter ropes for them. I know, I should have kept trying but there is enough rope at .035 and below to make that will keep the rope maker humming. That I can do. Also, bad rope at those big sizes is just so obvious I don't want to compromise the model with it.

 

I made the three bobstay collars but don't have pictures of them. I used the served rope I showed earlier. I have never worked with served line before and I found I have to treat it differently from non served line, especially when doing a seizing. I am used to making a seizing, tightening it up but not all the way, sliding it into place, then doing a final tightening. With served line, it doesn't slide, and if I force it, the seizing gets bunched up and shows the line underneath. It took me a few tries to figure out how to deal wit this, but I was able to make the seizing near where it needs to be, position it, while very loose, and then tighten it up. It seems like the seizing stays tight better on served rope than non-served rope for some reason, so that is a good thing. I also found that the collars are all different sizes, so I couldn't go off the plans, but had to test fit each one as I assembled them.

 

Have a great weekend all.

[SawdustDave]

Hi Tom:

Just spent the first of what will become countless hours of going through your build log of the beautiful Connie.
As I begin a scratch build attempt of this historic ship, your log will be invaluable as my primary reference resource to guide me along the way.  I can't imagine having a better example of excellence to try to emulate.
Thank you my friend.

Dave

[usedtosail]

Thanks Dave. There are some great Constitution build logs on MSW that I have used a lot, including the current build by XKen. I can't wait to see your approach to this ship.

 

I finished the collars for the bow sprit using three different sizes of served line. It got easier working with the served line as I went along. The lashing lines are on so they are all ready to install on the bow sprit. But before I do that, I want to install the gammoning.

 

 

Since I am building an 1812-ish version of the ship, I am using rope gammoning instead of chains, as on the modern version. I had made the holes for these in the stem very early in the build, and I have pretty good access to this area under the bow gratings. I made two gammoning lines with the rope walk and installed them last night. I was not happy with them, though, because there are no stops on the bow sprit to keep them from sliding down toward the bow. The steps that go over the gammon have cut outs that act as stops, but I am going to install them after the gammoning is on. The forward line was really bent toward the bow. Anyway, I removed what I did and after making more rope, I will try installing them with temporary pins installed to act as stops until I get the steps put on.

 

 

These have since been removed. they look good from the top, but if you looked inside you would see they are bent. The gammoning should be straight up and down when seen from the side, according to the TFFM Vol 4 Rigging book, which I am finding very valuable for general rigging information.

[usedtosail]

Bow sprit gammoning take 2.

 

I made two new ropes last night for the two new gammoning lines. I have to say that making rope in the .02" to .03" diameter range is coming out really nice. I seem to have the process very repeatable with good results. I am using the Dormanoff rope walk in the horizontal configuration as I show in post #505. I am also using the back end from the ME rope walk, although I modified it by threading a bolt with the head cut off into the tube, which I can use with a hand drill to make the rope turns very quickly. The big break through came when I realized if I keep a lot more tension on the back end during the first winding, so that no hockles can form, then clamp the back end while I make the turns for the rope, and keep turning until the rope is nice and tight, this set up works well. I even have much less unwinding of the rope since I hold it under tension for a few minutes before taking one end off.

 

While I was writing this I just got the .04 and .05 " diameter rope from Syren. It is beautiful and I am very happy that I am not trying to make rope this thick. To do it right, you have to make smaller strands then turn those into the bigger rope, which takes a lot of time.

 

To do the gammoning this time, I put one loop around the bow sprit and held the rope vertically, then drilled a hole at that location for a piece of wire to act as a stop while I did the rest of the turnings. After I wrapped the second gammoning and tied them both off, I coated the turns with some diluted white glue to hold them in place while I marked their locations on the steps and filed away a groove in the steps to fit over them. I removed the wires and glued the steps on. Well, let's just say this step didn't go too well, as I broke the steps so now I had three pieces to line up. Here they are glued onto the bow sprit.

 

 

 

 

I am not happy with these, although I probably could live with them. But, since I seem to do all of the hard stuff three times, I am going to attempt to make a new set of stairs, but leave these on until then. I recently bought the Sherline tilting table which I am adapting to the Proxxon mill, so I should be able to make the stairs in one piece. i also want to make them thinner and more even, and I think I have a way to do that. I'll take pictures of the process and post them here as I go.

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

hello Tom........nice bit of progress,  and I'll look forward to the steps redo.   did they leave a gap to allow for the gammoning?  have a very nice Christmas !

[usedtosail]

Thanks guys for the likes. I made up a new set of steps for the bow sprit last night and I took some pictures during the process. I made these while the old steps were still on the model, in case I couldn't do any better. But, luckily that was not the case. I did spend some time thinking this through before I started milling wood, which I think really helped. So, here we go.

 

Bow Sprit Steps Take 2

 

After making the steps the first time, I realized that the right way to do this would be with a tilting table. So, since Proxxon doesn't make one for their mill, I bought the Sherline table and have adopted it to fit. Actually, I didn't really do anything to the table yet, as I can use just two hold down screws into one slot on the XY table. In the future, I should put a couple more holes in the base so I can use more then one slot, but for this job it was OK as is. I will be making some hold down clamps for the Proxxon vise to fit on the tilting table, but for this job the vise was not needed.

 

The steps are 3/16" wide and at first I thought I would use a 3/32" wide strip (which I didn't have). I pulled out a 1/2" wide strip and realized I could use the edge for the hold down clamps and would have access to the whole area I needed to cut. The mill came with the hold down clamps, so I only needed a few extra cap screws to fit into the tilting table to use them, which I had. I first mounted the piece upside down, and with the table flat I milled in a slight curve to fit the bow sprit roundness with a dremel ball head grinding bit. I used a large round file and some sandpaper on a piece of dowel to finish this curve.

 

 

I then marked the locations of the gammoning ropes and the bands on the bow sprit, and milled slots for these. Since I had extra room between the inner edge of the steps and the clamps, i could mill further than the line to get the sides of the slots straight all the way across the back of the steps.

 

 

I then test fit the wood strip and was happy with the fit, so I mounted it right side up, checked everything for straightness, set the table to 26 degrees, and started milling the steps. I started at the top so I had much less chance of hitting the table with the bit, as I was going down hill during the cutting.

 

 

 

You will notice the pieces of masking tape at each hand wheel to remind myself how many turns to make with each cut. i was surprised making them the first time how easy it was to get messed up. This time it went rather smoothly and before I knew it I was at at the bottom step. I removed the cut piece from the table and was unsure how fragile it might be. At this stage having the excess on the side was great as it added a lot of stability to the piece.

 

 

Before I sliced the steps off from the blank, I tack glued it to a backing piece of wood, that I had squared up in the table saw. I didn't want the steps to come apart in the saw while slicing them off.

 

 

After a few minutes, it was a simple process to slice off the steps to width.

 

 

I then soaked the steps in alcohol until I could slide the two pieces apart with almost no pressure. Here was the moment of truth. I half expected the steps to fall apart in my hands, but they were very stable and sturdy, to my surprise. And this was all with basswood. My thought was to try it and if it was too fragile, use boxwood for the next set.

 

 

 

After the alcohol had dried off, I painted the sides around the gammoning slots. Once I glue this down, I can then paint the rest of it without getting white paint on the gammoning lines.

 

At this point I removed the old steps, which came off rather easily with a little twisting pressure from the side. Here are the new steps just resting in place, waiting to be installed and painted, which I will do tonight. I was very happy not to have to redo the gammoning lines for a third time.

 

 

My Christmas vacation starts tomorrow, and I have all next week off, so I am looking forward to making some good progress on the rest of the masts.

 

 

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

new steps look awesome!   enjoy the time off........you picked a great time to do so      I usually do it as well,  but someone beat me to it this time around.

[CaptainSteve]

Looks like second-time around was the charm, Tom. They look very good.

Hope you have a great Christmas/New Year holidays.

[alde]

Great work on the steps Tom. Very clever use of the mill.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Popeye, Steve, and Al, and for the likes.

 

Popeye - I started this new job in Feb. and they shut down next week, so everyone gets it off. I wish more companies did that.

 

Steve - Thanks. Have a great holiday too.

 

Al - It is all new to me but it has been fun playing around with it. My father was a machinist, and my brother-in-law and my nephew are both machinists too. I got nothing on them and they laugh at the size of my machines. But, I have help if I need it.

 

I gave the steps a coat of white paint and just glued them in place. Once they dry I will clean them up a bit more and give them a second coat of paint.

 

 

[usedtosail]

I hope everyone who celebrates this time of year had a nice holiday. I know I did.

 

In between gatherings with family and friends I have been working on the lower fore mast. I was able to use the dowel that was provided in the kit. I first marked off and milled the square section and tenon at the top. I am starting to get an appreciation for these types of clamps instead of a vise for these longer pieces. I also spent some time making sure everything was centered and square before milling, which for these longer pieces is very important, as small errors get magnified.

 

 

 

I tapered the square section and fit the two pieces that make up the mast cap to the tenon.

 

 

I then tapered the round section on the lathe and sanded in the transition from round to square. I cut strips of manila folder to make the 16 bands around the round section, after marking their positions on the mast. I put the joint in the front center of the mast, as this area will be covered by the chafing fish.

 

 

I cut sections of basswood strips for the chafing fish, and rounded the backs of them with the Dremel ball grinding bit in the mill, and finishing them with some sandpaper on a piece of dowel. I also filed in the angles along the edges on the upper part of the fish, where it will join other pieces of the fish. I marked the locations of the bands, then milled slots in the back for them.

 

 

I then glued the fish to the mast, using lots of clamps.

 

 

Next I will add the other pieces of the fish and round the outside faces of them to be parallel to the mast.

 

 

[usedtosail]

Thanks for the likes.

 

I am working on the chafing fish for the fore mast, adding one piece at a time, so I have time to work on other things while the glue is drying. I lashed the bob stay, bow shroud, and fore stay collars to the bow sprit, after gluing the cap and martingale in place. I then made the first and second bobstays and lashed them in place. These are doubled, served line, that I first put through the eye bolts that go in the stem, then did all the seizings along the length, with a seized bullseye in the end. I seized each end at the splice, then wrapped some of the seizing line over the joint. I then glued the eyebolt into the stem and added the lashing to the bullseye in the collars.

 

 

 

The third bobstay is next, as well as starting to shape the main mast.

[usedtosail]

I find I am working on a number of small projects at the same time - finishing up the lower fore mast, starting the lower main mast, making and rigging the bow sprit shrouds, and a few other things.

 

I had made the traveler rings for the jibbooms a while ago but since those spars are not installed yet, neither are the rings. I recently saw a picture of the rings that Syren is now selling and thought I'd give it a try to make mine look like those. I used wire for the rings instead of tubing that Chuck uses, but it worked out pretty well. I used a smaller size wire for the shackle and hook. The rings are glued with a small bit of medium CA instead of soldered. I still need to blacken them. Here they are in comparison to the previous rings I made, which were just rings with a bump for the stays to fit under.

 

 

Here is one of the bow sprit shrouds. I made the eye bolts that will go into the hull, since the eye bolts I had were either too big or too small. I made the eye splice in the line around a small piece of brass tubing, and instead of a shackle between the eye splice and eye bolt, I used a ring. I think it is hard to see the difference, since these are all black against a black hull.

 

 

The fore mast and main mast have boarding pike racks which I made using some sheet wood. I first used a circle template to draw two concentric circles, then divided them up into four parts. In one set I drilled holes for the pikes and the other set is left solid for the ends to rest on. I am going to use straight pins with the heads cut off for the pikes, after I blacken or brown them. i cut out the sections using a razor knife and sanded them round. For the inside curves, I used a piece of dowel with sandpaper wrapped around it.

 

 

 

Here I have glued one set to the fore mast. You can also see the completed chafing fish.

 

 

Finally, I have been making and serving line for the bow sprit rigging. The line on the bow sprit shroud above is some that I made. I was having a problem with the Serv-O-Matic in that my finger was getting really tired cranking with it. I found this crank that I had made for something else and thought to try it on the serving machine. I didn't want to drill into the machine in case it didn't work, so I just zip tied it on. It seems to work really well and now my finger is much happier. I may improve on this in the future.

 

 

The main mast is marked out and I have started milling the square section. No pictures of it yet.

 

[usedtosail]

Those last images are pretty dark. I have to figure out how to take flash pictures with the Aperture Preferred mode. I was doing better but lately they are all too dark. Good thing I can lighten them up on the computer.

 

I have now started the fourth year of this build. I had thought when I started this journey that it would take me three years to build it, but now I think it is going to be another two until it is done and in its case. That is not a problem for me though as I am really getting my money's worth from this kit. I probably average about 10 hours a week, so if I were to look at this as a full time job, I am working about a quarter time. That is time in the workshop and does not include all the time I am thinking about what I am working on or planning for future work on this model. That probably takes another 5 hours a week. I keep a pretty extensive build log as a MS Word document which is up to over 600 pages already. I also keep an Excel spreadsheet of all the steps and in what order I need to do as a work plan, which is also maintained weekly or so. That is 27 pages so far for the work plan, with other spreadsheets in the same document for things like the painting scheme, rigging lines and there sizes, and a rigging plan. All in all it is a lot of work, but fun and keeps me out of trouble and away from the TV!

 

I got the bow sprit shrouds installed. I had one seizing let go when doing the lashing, so I had to remake one of them.

 

 

 

The fore mast is ready to go and the main mast work continues. I have the square section milled and the mast tapered. I put on the manila bands on the round section, but tried something different this time. I chucked the mast in my lathe and hand turned it as I wrapped the manila strips around the mast, after gluing the end of the strip to the mast. I think they came out straighter than when I was just wrapping them with the mast on the work bench.

 

 

I milled more strip wood for the chafing fish (as opposed to chafing dish). I bought a larger round end mill bit that matches the curvature of the masts pretty well. It was too big to put into the mill though, because the Proxxon mill only takes bits up to a 1/8 inch shaft size. It does fit in my drill press though, so I bolted the fence I made for the mill to the XY table on the drill press. The tricky part was setting the height, as I had to do that by moving the whole drill head up and down by hand. It was a lot of trial and error to get it to the right height, but once there I was able to mill multiple strips repeatably for all the main and mizzen masts.

 

 

It made a big difference which direction I fed the strip wood in from, due to the direction of travel of the mill bit (climb milling vs. regular milling, I think it is called). Anyway from the right the strip stayed right up against the fence but from the left it wanted to wander off the fence pretty violently. I need to come up with a mechanism to make small adjustments in the drill head height, but haven't thought too much about it yet. If anyone has an idea or knows of something that would work, please let me know.

 

 

[CaptainSteve]

Lookin' good, Tom. I was thinking that those personal notes (and your spreadsheet) might make a great addition to your log when you are finished. Without doubt, future builders are sure to find your insights useful.

[rwiederrich]

Nice use of the lathe for wrapping the bands....

 

Rob

[usedtosail]

Steve - I think my notes would be too raw for most folks to have to wade through. Many entries are like - today i glued on the port main mast chafing fish piece, then made the starboard piece. Bla, bla, bla. I enjoy writing it down because it helps me remember what I did when I get around to that step on the next model. To me, it would be like having the raw notes an author takes to write a book. Not that I am going to be writing any books. On the other hand, the workplan probably would have value to other modelers. The problem with that is the parts I haven't gotten to yet are just an outline. I fill in details as I start planning those steps, so it won't be complete until the model is done.

 

Rob - it is like having an extra hand, almost.

 

Back in 2008, I visited the real Constitution one cloudy Saturday afternoon. Everyone else in the family was busy doing their own thing, so I had lots of time to myself to walk around and take pictures. It happened that they were in the process of taking down the top masts, which they do in the winter if I remember right, and the rigging and yards were laying on the wharf. I guess I wasn't supposed to be walking around them, but I had about 20 minutes before a guard kicked me out, and I took a lot of pictures. I just went through them again the other night, and I realized there are some good shots that will be useful to me and to others. I will include some in future posts as I get to those sections, but I will include some now so you can see what I mean.

 

Here is one that jumped out to me as I was looking through them, because when I was rigging the third bob stay I wasn't sure how the collar went around the bees.

 

 

When I rigged my collar, the eye loops were on the bees, not hanging below like shown above, so I removed the lashings and redid it. It now looks more like the above picture.

 

 

I am much happier with the new rigging. I notice that the real ship used black line for lashings, but I have always used tan line for some reason. Should I be using black line for the lashings?

 

More pictures in the next post.

Edited January 14, 2017 by usedtosail

[usedtosail]

Here are some more pictures from the real Constitution:

 

The base of the bowsprit inboard, covered with canvas:

 

 

Close ups of some mouses (mice?) on served stays:

 

 

 

Martingale (at the time I took this I had no idea what this was):

 

 

Tressel trees (not sure what mast this came from):

 

 

More to come later, but these may be the most interesting.

Edited January 14, 2017 by usedtosail

[popeye the sailor]

super progress Tom.......the bow rigging looks really good!

[usedtosail]

I haven't had an update in a while, but I have been working on the masts. Here are the fore and main lower masts ready to paint.

 

 

I am currently working on the mizzen mast and mizzen topmast. In this picture you can see the mizzen mast clamped to hold one cheek as it is drying. You can also see the mizzen topmast and the blanks marked for the fore and main topmasts. Also, the pin rail that goes on the mizzen mast is done. It only goes 3/4 of the way around the mast to leave room for the spanker mast behind it.

 

 

I made the topmast by starting with a square piece of wood that was the correct size at the base. I then used Chuck's 7-10-7 fan to mark lines on all four faces for an octagon shape. I used a small plane with the wood in a holder that has a 45 degree groove in it, to cut the corners off, making an octagon shape all the way up the mast from the square section at the bottom. I then put the mast in the lathe and sanded the round section between the bottom and top octagon sections, tapering the mast as I rounded it. I turned the mast around in the lathe and cut the shoulder above the upper octagon section, and turned down the round section at the top to its diameter. I removed the mast from the lathe, then used a small file to taper the faces of the upper octagon into the lower round section. I also had to remove some wood from the faces so the mast would fit through the hole in mast cap. After that I filed the square tenon into the top for the topmast cap. With this method I didn't have to add any wood to build up the sections. I am still not sure about adding the cheeks to the topmasts, so I am leaving them off for now. I may add them when I install the upper crosstrees.

 

Here are some more pictures from the real Constitution. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2017 by usedtosail

[Kelp]

Hi Tom,

 

Do you know when the restoration on the Constitution is scheduled to be completed?  I remember in 1997 there was a major restoration.  Is this the same type of work being done?

 

Your model is looking fantastic!

 

Thanks,

Don

[usedtosail]

Thanks Don. It is supposed to be finished sometime this year, but I don't know when exactly. It is in dry dock this time, I don't think it was in 1997. They are replacing a lot of planking.

[popeye the sailor]

those are some cool pictures Tom....swell job with the masting