Echo by Maury S - FINISHED - Cross-Section

[Maury S]

Thanks for all the input.  I tried a very thin cutoff disc as well as a .020 blade.  Both were too rough on the pieces.  I still have extra of the original piece I soldered and cut for the rhodings.  Needs a little more solder fill on the edges to support the center when I cut / file it out but i should be able to get four good rhodings out of it.

Maury

[Maury S]

I filled in some solder on the sides (between the tubing and the flat bottom) to put a bit more meat on the piece, used a cut-off wheel on a rotary tool to cut out the slot on the bottom and sliced off several new rhodings pieces.  Cleaned up, blackened and installed.  Not quite as neat and detailed ones on the bitts, but OK under the circumstances.

Maury

[druxey]

Well, that was a good save without disassembling the axletrees and cranks!

[Maury S]

PHEW!

[Maury S]

The cross pieces for the bitts are made and installed. Making sure the longer piece goes on the jeer bitt (forward).  Next is the blocking for the scuppers.  A question for Greg or anyone else familiar with the scupper layout.  On the plan (see third pic.) the upper dashed line represents approx. height of the top of the waterway.  The next dashed line is the top of the deck beam at the side.  The measurement from the waterway to the bottom of the scupper is well over 1'.  Considering the layout of the scupper block slants about 2 = 3" within the frames, there seems to be something amiss.  Should the scuppers just exit the frame at a level 3 - 6 " below the waterway?

Maury

[dvm27]

The pump dale scupper needs to exit through the wale, so the deeper angle is appropriate. This does create a somewhat wider opening in the waterway but the pump dale covers this. The other scupper has a similar issue but the carriage also covers this up. In actuality, the scupper angle was 24 degrees and I note the shape was sometimes elbowed so that the waterway hole had less inboard lip to it. My advice would be to drill the inboard scupper opening at a steeper angle for a normal final appearance. Then drill the outboard scupper hole in the wale at an angle but don't try to connect them. They'll appear normal and nobody will know they're  not functional (unless you immerse your model in water). Were I to do mine again this is the approach I'd take. You can see the somewhat elongated inner scupper hole in the photo.

 

 

 

[Maury S]

Thanks Greg

M

[Maury S]

Placing the Scupper blocks is difficult lining up.  Several hours to drill, cut and shape the blocks, then cutting and filing the frames to accept them. The waterway has been filed down to line up with the inboard side of the scupper block.    TFFM says you do not need to put these in if you are going to frame the other side.  One set is enough.

Maury

[Maury S]

Time to lay out the planking of the two lower strakes of the wales.  "Top and butt" or "hook and butt"?  I see Greg's "top and butt" (in TFFM III) table saw setup.  A couple of questions.  The two strakes measure 20" in total.  How wide should the widest part of the strake be?  What angle for the two cuts?  The pics. show approx. 2.5 degrees and 7.5 degrees on the Byrnes taper jig.  It looks so clean and easy vs. the hook and butt method.  There probably would only be one joint per strake over the span of the frames.  Comments?

Maury

[dvm27]

I used the top and butt method of anchor stock planking.  The combined two lower strakes of the main wale are 20" wide. I used 12" for the thickest part and 8" for the thinnest part. I used 20' for the length of the plank with a 14' and 6' section. Once you lay this out on paper the angles are set. It's very easy to cut these using the taper jig on the Byrnes table saw. If you are planning to paint or dye the wales you may wish to forgo this and just use plain strakes. As you'll see in the photo my meticulous top and butt joinery is not visible after sanding and staining.

 

One last point - the "black" strake may be either blackened or not.

 

[WackoWolf]

Beautiful work, you have a master piece for sure. Thanks for sharing.

[tlevine]

But Greg, you know that planking was done correctly.  Isn't that all that matters?

[druxey]

Actually, after a while, those joints will 'read' through the paint or dye. Just give it time and seasonal wood movement!

[Maury S]

Thanks for the comments and the pictures.   I spent time with ratios and fibonacci  (Golden Ratio) proportions.  Still unsure.  Then I started laying out test strips (Bass Wood...not the good stuff) for the taper jig on the Byrnes saw and it just came together.   The starting measurement was the 20" for the width of the two strakes.  I started with 8" at the ends and 12" at the max. width.  So I cut some sample planks to 12" (scale) (First mistake!) by 7" (actual) long.  I copied the approximate long-side angle from Greg's TFFM III illustration at 2.5 degrees and cut a piece. The taper meant that the widest part (mid-strake)  was not 12" anymore.  Back and forth a couple of times on starting plank width and finally zeroed in on .325" (actual).  I used my caliper set for 12" (scale) and slid it up the planks 'til I found the 12" width and marked it.  That is the starting point for the short-side angle cut.  Flipped them over, set the taper jig to 7.5 degrees (Greg's picture again) and made the second cut.  All that was left was to set the caliper to 8" (Scale), slide it up the planks and I have the ends at 8".  Total width now at 20".  Good start.   Now to line up the butts with frames.  A smaller angle on the jig cuts will lengthen the spacing between the butts and I need to add about 1/16".   I'll try 2 and 6 degrees.  Greg, I'm going to paint the wales, but all of you and I will know they are done right!  I probably will not darken the seams with the pencil this time though.

Maury

Edited September 16, 2015 by Maurys

[Maury S]

Wales are finished...8 coats of MS-Hull&Spar Black.  Lower planks are holly.  24 planks from wales to keel, about 10" wide.  The plank below the wale and the garboard plank are 3 1/2 ", the rest are 3". This part is going quickly.

Maury

[Maury S]

Lower planks are done.  Above the wales I'm using Pear for some color variation.  For the "Black strake"... First plank above the wales...(not painted black) it's 10" x 3" (tapering to 2").  The shear is 10.5" x 3.5".  All the intermediate planks are about 9" x 2".  I'm going to put a black paper edge on these (not shown yet).  I think it will show the caulking better.  Once the intermediates are sized, I'll lay them in around the port openings.

Maury

[dvm27]

Very nice Maury. Leaving the "black strake" clear saves you from making  a two toned entry step.

[Maury S]

Pear blanking installed.  I scuffed up the wales while sanding the edged of the planks.  I may re-do some of the wale planks...not thrilled with the top and butt joint.  It must have moved while clamping, because the joint was hardly visible before I glued it.

Maury

[druxey]

Might I suggest masking tape to prevent scuffing next time? No matter how careful one is, it always happens otherwise!

[Maury S]

Thank you Druxey.  I knew better and ignored prior warnings. 

M

[druxey]

Sigh. Make haste more slowly....

[Maury S]

I just got back to the cave after a month of business commitments.  I am using redheart for the interior bulwarks and porthole linings (basically most of what would have been painted red).  I did that on my Fair American and really like the result.  Pictures in the next day or two.

Maury

[Maury S]

The first shot shows the port linings...redheart thinned to 1".  It took several attempts to get the angle of the side pieces correct.  They are still rough on the inner side and will be trimmed and faired once the glue is firm.  The second shows the first plank of spirketing (above the waterway) and the quarter deck clamp (two strakes, the lower one continues forward as the "string in the waist").  All the inner bulwarks on this deck will be redheart.  The bolts are simulated with "Walnut" putty (MinWax).  That's the darkest I could find so they will be subtle.  The holes were marked, drilled and filled before the planks were installed.  The remaining planks of the bulwark go in later.

Maury

[Maury S]

Bulwarks (inner) finished on this deck.  Next up is the Quarter Deck beam and lip.  A little tweaking on the thickness of the beam so it would rest snug on the tops of the bitts and on the clamps.  You can see in the picture I left the thickness deep enough so it would fit to the bitts.  Some cleanup left to do here.  The underside of the beam was drilled out to accept the tenons on top of the bitts. 

The lip on the Quarter Deck beam has a channel in it for water runoff.  This means scraping the concave channel so I had to make a scraper to fit.  This is the first time I've cut a scraper to shape, so here goes.  I heated up the end of an old hacksaw blade and let it cool, cut off a bit of the end and filed a little convex shape on one side.  You can see it (shiny tip) on the lower right side of the of the blade segment.  You can also just make out the channel scraped in to the 3" x 6" beam.  One edge of the lip was bullnosed and the top of the aft edge thinned down to 2 1/2".  The lip was wrapped in a paper towel, drenched in water and cooked in the microwave for 3 minutes, clamped to the top of the beam to dry in the proper shape.

Maury

[Maury S]

I marked, drilled and filled (Minwax Walnut putty) nails for the outer bulwarks.  There are two thru bolts under the gun port that are black mono-filament line used to simulate bolts elsewhere.

 

The gallows cross piece was cut to length (10') and sanded to 7" thick by 12" + high.  I used the Byrnes table saw to rough cut the deco ends and center and the bow in the piece was sanded using the same top and bottom jig I used for the main deck beams.  I finished it off with files and 320 paper. 

The Quarter deck beam now has the lip installed, the molding under (I used a scrap of 1/32 x 1/32 redheart) and has the six holes for the eye bolts.

Maury

[Maury S]

I need to turn some posts, so I bought a Proxxon 250 mini lathe after reading a bunch of reviews.  I haven't used a lathe since high school wood shop.  I practiced on some dowels and actually gained a little proficiency.  Since the posts have a square upper and lower section, I naturally bought the 4 jaw chuck.  So far, I've not been able to get the square piece in the chuck to line up with the center axis of the piece.  Does anyone have a reasonably simple way to center a square piece in the chuck?  I tried adjusting the set screws visually to no avail once  the lathe is turned on.  Perhaps using a snug-fitting dowel and tightening the set screws to just touching the dowel as a starting point, then carefully tightening the set screws equally on the square piece?  Any help appreciated!

Maury

[Dan Vadas]

Perhaps using a snug-fitting dowel and tightening the set screws to just touching the dowel as a starting point, then carefully tightening the set screws equally on the square piece?

 

 

Quite a good idea Maury. It's always a bit of a pain centering a 4-jaw chuck, which is why I also have a self-centering one .

 

A tip I use for the independent chuck when making numerous pieces of the same size is to mark two jaws with a felt pen and loosen just those two when replacing the stock. The other two jaws will center the next piece again if you don't touch them.

 

  Danny

[Maury S]

Thanks Danny, I'll try that.

Maury

[dgbot]

I have used an ordinary 3 jaw chuck and a brass tube that I cut.  Place the wood in the rod then into the chuck and it will be true.  

David B

[GuntherMT]

Does Proxxon make a self-centering 4-jaw chuck?  That's what I got for my Sherline to make all of my masts.  So glad I got it, well worth the investment to make the lathe into a mast making machine.