HMS Triton by Gabek - 1:96 - cross-section

[Gabek]

Well, I know that I'm ready for retirement. Work is getting in the way of all the things that I really want to do!

[Gabek]

Well, I finally got some time to work on the Triton. Even though its been a while I have been thinking non-stop about this little model and I have been making some wild plans for her. One thing that I felt I needed to change were the keel, keelson and false keel. The dark contrast between the birch frames and the chechen was not what I wanted...not terribly realistic. So, I fabricated new pieces from birch. With the keel piece in place I used an exacto knife to mark the top of the rabet, and used an even larger straight gouge, finely honed, to cut the notch out.

 

 

I cut the keel, etc., longer than needed so I could clamp the ends down. I saw this on another Triton build where the builder had screwed down the ends and thought it was an excellent method. However, I should have realized that I don't have screws small enough to do this at my scale. I ended up clamping them down with some planking screw clamps. I glued down a print of the frame plan to a work board to help with lining up the frames when the time came.

 

I spent quite a bit of time shaping the notches for the keelson and keel to get a tight fit. I kept the frames clamped together to help line things up and to help support the wood to prevent breaking another frame.

 

 

After I had the keelson fitted I made use of a couple of miniature machinist clamps to make sure the keel and keelson lined up properly.

 

 

When time finally came to glue the frames in place I oringinally wanted to use carpenter's glue so I could adjust and fiddle. However, when I was dry-fitting and rehearsing the work I realized that it was going to be a nightmare to clamp and hold these small frames in place. So, I decided to go with cyano gel...should give me a few seconds to play but only need to be held in place for a short time.

 

I thought that starting at the middle would be best so I picked frame 1 and, wouldn't you know it, as I was working out how to align the frame I forgot how delicate these were and I snapped it right in the middle. Let's just say that I dug deep into my lexicon of swear words. Clamped together, these frames had been sturdy and a few months away from this model made me careless.

 

I grabbed some brush-on CA and managed to fit the parts back together rather easily. I put it aside and decided to push on with frame O first.

 

When the time finally came to glue down the frame things went fairly smoothly. A small machinists square helped.

 

The first frame glued in...and the wounded Frame 1 lying off to the side

 

 

 

I continued to frame C in fairly quick succession. I had cut many spacers of the correct width to help me with this and future stages and they proved invaluable. By the time I got to this point Frame 1 had had enough curing time so I just kept on going. I think the entire gluing stage may have taken 20 minutes. Thank you CA!

 

 

 

 

I had to do a bit more filing to fit the keelson to my liking, but eventually it was glued up as well.

 

Edited April 4, 2015 by GabeK

[bigcreekdad]

Looking good...I've got to get back to mine.

[ziled68]

Hello Gabe,

I'm glad you didn't give up on your Micro Triton. Your choice of timber and your level of care at these delicate pieces is rather impressive. I look forward to more of your updates.

 

Ray

[Gabek]

Thanks for the comments, Ray and bigcreekdad. I won't be giving up on this any time soon even though it may drive me nuts. Which is what most of us ship modellers probably are, come to think of it!

 

Clear skies and sharp tools!

 

Gabe

Edited April 6, 2015 by GabeK

[Gabek]

Well, it's been a while since my last entry...but I haven't been entirely inactive. My progress has been slow primarily because I was working out some problems with making dimension lumber on my little Microlux saw. Try as I might, I just couldn't rip some maple into 1.5 thick strips. At first, the strip would start off fine but after a few centimetres it would wander out and get wider. I played with the fence and stopped the wandering, but then the pieces were coming out tapered from top to bottom. I guessed that the blade was slewing out so I opened the saw and tightened things up. No luck.

 

I finally realized that the fence was still the culprit and ended up clamping a chunk of wood to the table as a more reliable fence and I was off to the races.

 

After ripping a bunch of 1.5 mm thick pieces, I marked the frames for the deck clamps. This is where having a framing jig would have been nice. Even though the frames were clamped together while I wasn't working on the model, the spaces between them were not even when set up to install the lower deck clamps. So, I used spacers. Looked like a mess...but it worked.

 

 

 

I tapered the top edge of the deck clamps for a better fit for the deck beams when that time comes and glued them in.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2015 by GabeK

[mtaylor]

Excellent improvisation, Gabe.   I agree, the fence on those saws is very problematical but I'm glad you got it sorted and are back building.

[GrantGoodale]

Impressive work.

[Gabek]

Thanks for the comments and likes, folks, but...

 

NOT SO FAST!

Seriously...I shouldn't have been so fast!

 

I was so excited to get moving again on my miniTriton that I made a couple of BIG mistakes:

 

1) When I took the gluing clamps off I noticed something strange. I then realized that I had grabbed the wrong piece of wood for one side!

Edited December 12, 2015 by GabeK

[Gabek]

Limber Strakes

 

After cutting some 1.70 mm thick planks and ripping one to 3.50 wide, it was time to cut the rabbet for the limber boards. I really wanted a marking gauge that could scribe 0.95 mm and 0.75 mm widths. I contemplated building one but thought accurate measure might be tough. I then looked at my digital calipers and those nice sharp edges on the jaws and realized I had my marking gauge. I ran the caliper along the edges until I had nice, clear lines scribed. To keep the two strakes consistent, I laid out the rabbet on one long strip which I would cut to length afterwards.

 

 

These scribed lines were deep enough to run the xacto along them carefully without a straight edge.

 

 

After about a dozen passes down each line a very clean rabbet was formed.

 

 

After rough cutting this piece to length, I glued the larboard strakes into place. A 2.50 mm spacer strip helped line them up parallel to the keelson.

[mtaylor]

Nice work, Gabe.  And that's a neat trick with the calipers.

[Nirvana]

Gabe,

Okay ,this one is from me ...... WOW!

That is a nice build log.

Now I have question:

Where on earth did you find those nice clamps (brass but I also saw black ones).

I would like to get hold of those.

[mtaylor]

Dr. Per,

 

Those look like these:  http://www.micromark.com/SearchResult.aspx?deptIdFilter=0&searchPhrase=clamps+brass   I have some and they are great.

 

Edit:  I found that Lee Valley has them also... http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=31169&cat=1,43838

Edited December 20, 2015 by mtaylor

[Nirvana]

Mark,
Seems like the bars from Lee Valley is cheaper.... which is great. Another great source for tools and draining my account. ​

[Gabek]

Thanks for the likes and the comments, Mark and Per!

 

The black machinst's clamps are also from Lee Valley: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=68938&cat=1,43314

Oh...the Canadian dollar is so low now that it might be cheaper than the US if you do the conversions.

 

Ahhhh..Lee Valley...we have a store in my city

Edited December 20, 2015 by GabeK

[Pete38]

Coming along great, very nice build.   Wish you hadn't posted the link to the clamps, Now I will have to get some!!!!  Thanks for the information. Looking forward to more

[Gabek]

Sorry, Pete! On the positive side, the people around you now have another gift option for you! Start filling that wish list on the Lee Valley site.

Regards,

Gabe

[Gabek]

Thick stuff

Just about fed up with my little table saw...particularly the ripping blade. I just can't get consistent results. I switched over to the cross cut blade and I now have less trouble setting it up and ripping strips, but this blade leaves much rougher edges that need sanding. Well, a little bit of elbow grease is worth keeping my blood pressure in check by reducing my frustrations!

 

Moving along with 1.80 mm thick pieces for the thick stuff. I sanded the edges to get matched pairs of planks and marked them to make sure I butt up the right pieces and sides.

 

 

 

Although I knew there was a reason, I could never figure out why the planks on the inside of the hull were different thicknesses. I figured it had something to do with stability of the hull, but why were they placed where they were? Now that I have built up some frames and I'm at this stage of my build I understand exactly why. The thick stuff planks line up perfectly with the joints in the futtocks, supporting them.

 

Thick stuff lining up with a futtock joint - as seen from outside the hull:

 

Why didn't I realize this before? I think there must have been thick stuff between my ears!

Edited December 23, 2015 by GabeK

[mtaylor]

Gabe,

 

What kind of saw?  Have you tried a slitting blade?  Also, a thinner blade isn't always better.  You get less of a kerf but there's more flex in the blade.

 

 

Lovely work on the framing and an excellent deduction on the planks.  I never thought of that before and I'm sure others havent' either.

[Gabek]

Finishing the thick stuff in the hold and a sticky conumdrum

 

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to remove the deck clamps in order to replace them with anchor stock styled ones. I had actually decided to leave them as is. I was worried that I would just make a total mess of it and possibly damage things if I tried to remove these pieces. Besides, at this scale I doubt that anyone would even notice the clamps under the mess deck. ( I was mentally composing my excuses and apologies to you folks for changing my mind

[Gabek]

What kind of saw?  Have you tried a slitting blade?  Also, a thinner blade isn't always better.  You get less of a kerf but there's more flex in the blade.

Thanks for the comments, Mark. I'm using a Microlux saw...the one with fixed blade height. The ripping blade is actually thicker than the cross cut, but I can see that it tips away ever so slightly from the fence as I feed the stock through. Just half a mm is too much. I've played with feed rate, types of fences, etc, but I end up ruining a lot of wood. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm wasn't even aware of slitting blades, but I checked them out and I'm on the hunt for one!

 

Lovely work on the framing and an excellent deduction on the planks.  I never thought of that before and I'm sure others havent' either.

Thanks, Mark! It really jumps out at you when you see the Anatomy of the Ship drawings. The deck clamps, beams and spirketting all line up on joints as well. I also wondered why between decks would be so low...it seems like the builders were more concerned with the hull's integrity than sailor comfort!

 

Here's a pic from AotS Pandora

[mtaylor]

Gabe,

I have the MicroLux saw with tilting arbor and all that... the older one, not the new one.  Blade height is also not fixed.   That could be part of the problem is too much blade above the wood... 

 

For blades, I used these:  http://www.thurstonmfg.com/cut-off-saws.html   

I also use Jeff's tips:   http://www.hobbymillusa.com/byrnes-saw-operation.php

 

 

 

I can't answer the question about the glue. I've noticed that also that the wood isn't truly bonded but can be popped off.  Maybe that's a good thing? 

[Canute]

Gabe, the only thing I could think of for the gluing is to rough up or scuff the contact areas with some fine sand paper. Increase the bonding surfaces on a micro level.

 

I'm not familiar with your glue brand, but the Titebond  and Elmer's yellow glues I use seem to bond and hold quite well. The wood will break before the Titebond does.

[Pete38]

As Ken said above, try roughing the glueing surface with sandpaper. The smoother (finer) the sandpaper the more closed the wood cells will be and not absorb the glue as much, the rougher the sandpaper the more open the wood cells will be to absorb the glue and make a better bond.

[Gabek]

Thanks for all the advice Mark, Ken and Pete...

 

And I have Titebond! Didn't think to use it on something this small. Roughing up the surfaces is a standard operating procedure for me, but this model is so small that I have only been using fine sanding and filing. I'll give it a try, though. In this case it was lucky that I didn't do a good job on gluing up!

 

I checked out the site you gave me, Mark, and I'm definitely interested. Any idea what kind of costs we are talking about on the 2" slitting blades?

 

Much appreciated, folks.

 

Clear skies,

Gabe

[mtaylor]

I think I paid $10 US last time I ordered but I use the 3" blades.   Just make sure you get the right sizes for your machine.   You can't order on line but an email or a phone call works very well.  Nice people and fast service.

[Gabek]

Thanks for the kind words...and all the best of the season to you and yours.

 

And thank you to all the likes and comments from everyone...makes me want to work on the model more!

 

Kindest regards,

Gabe

[ziled68]

Hey Gabe,

I was starting to worry you'd given up. Everything looks super and the level of detail you're incorporating into your build is outstanding. Can't wait to see more.

Ray

[Gabek]

Thanks, Ray! Good to hear from you. It's been a bit of a busy term for me...and I was fighting with my little lumber mill to produce planks that were consistent. Still not happy with the amount of time and effort I need to invest in this...but I'll muddle through.

All the best to you and yours!

Gabe

[amateur]

Hi Gabe,

 

She's looking good. Can you tell me how large (small, actually) the cross-s ction is?

 

Jan