HMS Bellerophon 1786 by AON – scale 1:64 – 74-gun 3rd Rate Man of War - Arrogant-Class

[AON]

Good eye!

 

Yes they are still 1-1/4" (0.02" or 0.5mm) round but the exposed portion will be flattened.

 

I experimented with a small hex nut of almost the correct width and some taps with a hammer.

it was difficult to hold but the results were not bad.

 

I will be making an anvil jig out of a larger hex nut, cut grooves on either side to hold the staple and possibly just clamp it flat in the vise as I've done before on Charlie.  This way the legs remain round for the holes.

That will be my next experiment.

[BANYAN]

Nice to see you started Alan; this should be a great model (if you survive the scares )

 

cheers

 

Pat

[AON]

Tuesday evening 12 April 2016

 

Made a couple "anvils" using a 1/4" hex nut. I had a few sides to work with!

 

Applied painters tape to be able to draw a straight line from side to side to mark the cut points.

Marked off 9" width of staple.

Used my dremel and a cutting wheel to notch the nut sides.

Fitted a staple to test...   it took a couple extra nicks to get the depth correct to hold the staple properly.

 

 

Set it up in my vise and gave it a "wack"... more of a gentle tap or two.

They look darn good to me.

 

 

I apologize for the poor pics.

My little Cannon Power Plus A520 doesn't seem to focus well on the tiny stuff

(or is it me???)

 

​Environment Canada announced this morning that winter is officially over for southern Ontario.

No more snow... if you can believe a weatherman.

Should be blackening this weekend.

 

[Don9of11]

Alan, see if your camera has a macro mode as this will allow you to zoom up closers and get clear pictures.

[AON]

Unfortunately my little camera does not have a macro feature

My darling wife was going to get her super dooper do-it-all camera but decided to try the camera on her new fangled do-it-all cell phone.

It is a sad day, her phone camera is better than what I am using.

 

Yesterday was a beautiful day in southern Ontario, ruined by spring time yard work and summer-izing the snow blower, taking up the yard furniture from the basement.  Spent the afternoon flattening the staples.

 

Today I intended to blacken them as I read on Wikipedia that they were iron.  The photo I posted earlier from HMS Invincible (1758) states they were copper as do a number of other sources.  One other states they were iron unless the ship hull was copper sheathed in which case the staples were copper to avoid corrosion of the iron.

 

The entire fleet was not coppered until after 1781.  In 1783 a mixture of copper-zinc was used to manufacture the hull bolts to avoid corrosion.  HMS Bellerophon was ordered in January 1782 and launched October 1786.

 

I must decide, today, whether to blacken them regardless for aesthetics, or leave them to tarnish naturally over time as copper.

Edited April 17, 2016 by AON

[AON]

Sunday 17 April 2016

 

Decision made while out spreading the fertilizer on the lawn.

 

I went and assembled a copper staple to the keel and noticed two things...

 

1. it was lost against the wood.  Very difficult to see.  So they will be blackened.

 

2. Flattening them also caused them to stretch a bit from 9" to about 10-1/2".  This means I will need to slot one of all the holes a bit so the are not deformed during installation.

 

Blackening with Liver of Sulphur (LOS)

 

1. Cleaning.

They were washed in white vinegar and rinsed in clean running water while in the cloth.

I draped the cloth over an old mushroom plastic container from the grocery story to keep them from washing away.

 

 

2. Blackening

I did this outside in the backyard.

One set of rubber gloves!

A very small amount of LOS (one small rock) wrapped in plastic wrap and pre-crushed to smaller almost powder pieced.

This was dumped into the empty plastic box.

Steaming hot water poured into the disposable container.

Stirred up a bit to dissolve.  It turned a muddy colour.

I was standing down wind.  My darling wife with her fancy camera were standing up wind.  It smells bad! (REALLY BAD)

Placed the cloth with the staples into the box.

Moved them around a bit with a wooded stick.

Pulled it up occasionally to see the colour changing.  It did not take long.

 

 

3. Rinsing

First rinse was in yet another container with cold water and baking soda mix to stop the LOS chemical reaction.

Second rinse was under the tap with cold running water.

 

 

4. Drying

Staples spread out on paper towel to dry.  I did pat them down a bit.

 

 

5. Clean up

 

Now I have 240 staples to install.

Edited April 18, 2016 by AON

[Don9of11]

Alan did you ever look at using copper staples? I don't know if they would have them in the proper scale or are you striving to make a completely scratch build.

[mtaylor]

Alan,

I thought the Billy Ruffian was coppered before she her first voyage?  Or will you be leaving the copper off?

[AON]

Don

Copper staples were the wrong scale, and yes, I want to try to do it all from scratch.

 

Mark,

Yes, she was coppered and I foresee having a small portion done on one side only.... a reverse breakaway showing layers.

Edited April 17, 2016 by AON

[druxey]

Hate to say it, but Wikipedia is not always correct. Here I'm sure they are wrong, as iron below salt water will corrode.

[AON]

Druxey

That has been my experience with Wikipedia which is why I looked elsewhere (a bit late but before the deed none the less).

 

The decision was made and I think it will look much better for it.

Alan

[AON]

Sunday 24 Apr 2016

 

Lesson learnt; opportunity seized.

 

All staples installed.

All staple blackening flaked.

Likely due to being too long in the solution and possibly too strong a solution.

The LOS blackening process is an oxidation layer on the surface of the material.  If the layer gets too thick it can flake or peel/pop off in handling.

 

I figured I would simply install them now and re-blacken them in place later... but when cleaning them up the strangest thing happened.  They were left with a hint of patina suggesting ageing... and I like it.  All of a sudden the copper stands out against the wood and it looks like the real staples I posted earlier

 

Let us wait and see if the feeling sticks with me.

 

Next I tackle the stern post(s).

 

Installing staples - prior to cleaning up.

 

 

After cleaning up

Edited April 25, 2016 by AON

[Mike Y]

Can you tell more about that staples? Never saw them on any model. Why they were used instead of just bolting the false keel to the keel? To make it easier to replace the false keel?

[druxey]

Actually, Mike, it was done this way so that if the ship touched ground, the false keel would pull off easily and spare the actual keel. It was a deliberate break-away system.

[AON]

Yes Mike, it is as Druxey stated.  The false keel was nailed on from the underside (not bolted through) and stapled from the sides.  If she ran aground the false keel would peel off and hopefully create some clearance so she could float away.

 

The copper cladding on the hull terminated between the false keel and keel.  The false keel was sheathed separately so that if it peeled away the hull sheathing would not be damaged.

 

If I were sheathing the complete ship I would have made a major faux pas as (I believe for this to work properly) the sheathing would be under the staples. As mentioned earlier,  I intend to do a reverse break away and install a patch of copper sheathing with the layer of tar exposed outside of and under it.

 

You are also correct when you mentioned it seems to have not been done before.  I've not seen it either as yet!  It could be that it is 240 staples!  BUT I think it is because it does distract you from the beautiful crisp clean lines that are what you normally see when they are omitted.

 

If I could expertly include to scale wood working tool marks on the keel and false keel I would but I am not that good.

 

I have taken some effort to not make the assembly too perfect looking.  I know that sounds like a bold face bucket of blarney (and my name is O'Neill) but if you look closely you'll see some effort in the less than perfect false keel to keel.  My first keel assembly (some time back) was very clean.... but I've decide to try something different.  Pray I don't make an assembled piece of drift wood.

Edited April 25, 2016 by AON

[Mike Y]

Allan, Druxey, thanks for the info. Looking forward to see more of that "typically omitted details"

[AON]

Sunday 01 May 2016

 

Made the Main Stern Post and Inner Stern Post today.

Cut out the two patterns.

Cut a strip of Castello Boxwood to 1/2" thick, Milled to 0.365" (23.36" at 1:64)

 

Per the build contract the stem post is 23" square at the head and begins to taper from the underside of the deck transom to be 12-1/2" at the main keel.

 

You can see I incorrectly identified the deck transom, highlighted them all in yellow and re-identified them correctly.

 

 

Applied rubber cement to the wood and then to the back side of the templates.  Let it dry to "tacky" and then applied the template to the wood.  pressed them down and let them dry.

 

Cut out the two pieces on the scroll saw about 1/16" outside of the line then sand down flush to the line on the table top disc sander portion of my combination belt/disc sander.  I double checked the table was square to the disc first!

 

Glued the two pieces together with yellow wood glue, pressed together and let it dry.

 

Marked off the transom positions from the templates to the end faces.

Marked of the centre lines on the end faces

Marked off the taper on the end faces

Marked off the rabbet line at the head and foot

Marked off the tenon, cut and filed down to a snug dry fit into the main keel mortise.

​There should be multiple tenons but I simplified it to be a single tenon into the single mortise made earlier in the keel.

 

 

Peeled off the templates

Checked it to the plan.... perfect angle.

 

 

 

Still needs to be tapered and recessed steps cut for the Transoms, but I think I will do the Deadwood first as it tapers with the stern post assembly plus it needs to be cut for the rabbet.

 

The contract also calls for a "a square plate of iron of the knee kind" meaning a L shape, 5/8" thick x 4-3/4" wide with the vertical leg 3'-6" (and 3 x 7/8 bolts) and the horizontal  5'-6" long (with 4 x 7/8" bolts).

 

I find it odd that they call up an iron plate below the waterline... Unless it is the newer mixed alloy... this makes sense.

Then again it is recessed into the wood so it would be coated with tar before the copper sheathing was applied.

Would anyone know for sure?

 

That is enough for today.

Thank you for following.

Edited May 3, 2016 by AON

[AON]

MAY 8 2016 (Mother's Day)

 

Worked on the aft deadwood today and it took a number of tries resulting in numerous pieces added to the scrap bin.

 

As always, after cutting and sanding I checked the fit on my light table (light box).  I found myself chasing my tail a few times where I ended up creating the scrap.

 

 

Eventually I ran out of patterns and had my master from which I traced the pattern onto a piece of translucent graph paper and then transferred the pattern onto the piece of boxwood.  I used a 6H (hard) pencil to get a nice crisp sharp line.

 

 

 

Eventually the pieces fit well enough and were glued together.  I put a few dabs of wood glue onto both pieces, spread it with a small plastic tool I have for the job and then assemble the pieces.  This takes a minute or two so the glue is getting tacky by then.  The two pieces get rubbed together in a rotation to spread the glue between them further, working any excess out the sides and then they are aligned properly and held finger tight until it begins to set.  This usually takes about another 3 minutes.

 

 

 

I ended up with a section of the aft Deadwood done. The Rising Wood section between the main Keel and this assembly is not done, and the Knee piece is not glued on as yet as the top portion of it needs some shaping and fitting.

 

I have purposely not cut the aft vertical end yet.  After I have the Knee and Rising Wood added I will sand the back facing the stern post to the proper angle and add them all to the keel permanently.  But I will need to clean them up and mark the framing heel step notches to both sides first.

 

I find it difficult to not jump ahead and think about the assembly of other parts.  There is so much left to do here at this stage.  I should be concentrating on this stage and what comes next.  Seeing as how I've learnt to slow down and do one piece at a time, I am sure the focusing of my concentration will also come in time.

Edited May 9, 2016 by AON

[allanyed]

Alan,

 

What is the  applicator you show in the photos? Are you using to apply glue?   I have only seen these as combination mascara/eyeliner applicators in my business life and never thought of them as useful for anything else.  Clever way to carry some volume yet apply in "pinpoint" areas.  

Allan

[albert]

Beautiful work.

[AON]

Thank you... but I've barely started.

You don't want to swell my head too early in the game!

 

The applicator is from a microbrush (see photo).  Eventually the "brush" part is ruined and I pulled it off to reveal the fine tipped point which is what I use for spreading (and applying to extra small piece) the glue.

Edited May 9, 2016 by AON

[druxey]

6H pencil is good. However, sharpen it with a sharp knife using long, slightly concave cuts. This exposes more of the lead, which can be repeatedly pointed on fine sandpaper. The wider the mark-out line, the larger the margin of error. And you know where that leads to....

[AON]

Absolutely correct with regards to margin of error.

 

I do not use a very sharp point with a hard lead and get a good consistent width line, but find that a soft lead ends up quite quickly being a wide line.

 

As a draughtsman, early on, I use to carve my lines in the paper.  I learnt to appreciate the different weights (hardness) of pencils or leads and sharpness.

I do not miss the sanding blocks and graphite smudging everywhere.

Edited May 9, 2016 by AON

[AON]

Thank you for the kind words and thought Robin.

If only I felt deserving of them.

 

Some people call it disciplined... I think of it as Irish stubbornness... I never ever quit.

It is my one and only fault ...honestly    

 

As I mentioned it is early yet and I've many MANY more opportunities to screw up... I may need a bigger scrap bin!    

[AON]

Saturday 14 MAY 2016

 

Worked on the aft rising wood , deadwood and knee.

The rising wood is typically 22 inches wide except where the whole assembly tapers as it approaches the stern post.

 

Glued the knee to the deadwood

Glued the aft most rising wood section to the deadwood

Sanded the deadwood assembly to the proper angle to mate with the stern post.

Made the next two pieces of rising wood.

 

Took a couple photos (port and starboard sides) of the pieces dry fitted to the keel.

 

 

 

I have some fine tuning to do with some rising wood joints but thought I'd best walk away right now before I do Too much and regret it.

Once I have these fitting a wee bit better I will taper the deadwood, mark off and cut in the frame heel steps.

Then I think I will finish the shaping of the stern post assembly.

[mtaylor]

Nice work on the rising and deadwood, Alan.  I've found the same thing you have... walk away at times.   

[AON]

Wednesday 01 JUN 2016

 

Went through a couple of sunny outside weekends, Victoria Day weekend and this last one (I took a couple days off so it was extended) and got the outside gardens and yard in order for the summer months.

 

Went back to my deadwood assembly to start work this weekend and noticed there was a wee  (curve or curl) in it. One, possibly two of the joined edges are not quite square. I thought of this as a minor set back but it proved to be otherwise.

 

Tried to lay out the shape to be removed to see if it mattered and it was just too close to call so I had to take it apart.  What a nightmare!

Try to unglue one piece in the middle.  As the wood soaked up the alcohol  I felt my other joints would be compromised so it all had to come apart.

After two days of soaking in a wrapping of alcohol soaked paper towels and that wrapped in plastic wrap it still wouldn't come apart.

I ended up clamping it just below a joint in my wood vice and wiggling it side to side until the joint broke and then the exposed glue joint was seen to not have dissolved completely.  I had to soak the pieces for a couple hours to soften it adequately to scrape off.  Some surface discolouration but that will sand away.

 

Now it is clean, dry, and ready to be fixed.

 

Now I am off to work as my long weekend (vacation) is over.

Edited June 1, 2016 by AON

[mtaylor]

Alan,

 

If there's a next time....  <fingers crossed for you>  just put the part in a plastic tub like you so, add alcohol to cover and put the lid on.  I found it seems to soak in and break apart the joint a lot faster on assemblies like that than the paper towel method.   It still takes some time for the alcohol to evaporate from the wood, though.

[AON]

Thank you for the suggestion Mark.  The likelihood of a next time is very strong.

Alcohol soak towels or soaking in tub, either way I was very impressed by the holding power of the glued joints.

Edited June 2, 2016 by AON

[druxey]

Ain't modern adhesives marvellous?

 

If the parts to be separated can be put in a container and immersed, it's easier to deal with. I use a Tupperware container for this purpose. If the assembly is too large, after the paper towel is applied, the part is wrapped in Saran and rubber bands to keep the solvent where I want it. 

 

The upside is that, the more experience one has, the less often one needs to do this!