Beavers Prize 1777 by Mike Y - 1:48 - POF - Hahn style

[jdbondy]

Mike, perhaps you are one of those aliens that has multiple appendages from the Men In Black series of movies?

[vossiewulf]

8 minutes ago, jdbondy said:

Mike, perhaps you are one of those aliens that has multiple appendages from the Men In Black series of movies?

I'm betting he duct taped the phone to his forehead and used his nose to take the photo. 

[Mike Y]

Nah, I just borrowed a phone selfie stick / tripod contraption from my teenage daughter and used a "photo timer" feature on the phone  It is an essential item for her, how would you do some outdoor selfies and group photos otherwise?

[Mike Y]

Tools update time!
A friend printed some vacuum adapters for me
The one for the planer works like a charm! Using the model from Oliver (see https://modelshipworld.com/topic/36705-suction-adapter-for-the-proxxon-dh40-for-download)

Table saw received an update as well, the factory design is squeezing all the air through a narrow opening, generating a whistling noise louder than the actual saw. Now the opening is opened up, so the air can flow freely with a nice wind noise
Link to the model: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4742157
Since I was short on space - decided to make the adapter removable, on magnets. To improve the connection a groove should be machined.
It was impossible to clamp that soft plastic part on the lathe, it was just sliding out of the chuck

So I milled it on the rotary table. A single flute mill makes a dramatic difference - the dual flute quickly jams with a blob of melted plastic, while a single flute cuts clear separated chips (that are light, fly all over the place and get stuck to everything, argh).

The resulting performance is not as great as on the planer, some dust still escapes, but it is still a great improvement comparing to the default adapter. 

Can absolutely recommend both upgrades, especially the planer!

Edited March 2 by Mike Y

[Mike Y]

Experimenting with different woods for the Pillars in the Hold. 

Thought it might be a good opportunity to use Pink Ivory that I had in the stash for some reason. 
It is a very beautiful wood with pink shavings, indeed! 

 

A simple jig really helps to hold these tiny pieces when shaping. Scraping is a great way to get a smooth surface with a clean edge!

Completed test pieces. The one with a tenon was finished with Osmo Polyx and the one on the left (with no tenon) has no finish.

For colour comparison I made a photo on top of some pear parts (one finished and one - a rough sheet cutoff)

Pink Ivory has a clearly pronounced grain resembling walnut, clearly out of scale. Though pillars in the hold definitely have a rough life   I might still go with it, it might add an interesting accent deep in inside the hull when viewed from the side:

As most of such woods it would likely loose its beautiful colour when exposed to UV, and would likely become brown-ish. I left these test pieces exposed on the table and will check them in a couple of months. Does anyone have any experience with this wood?

 

What do think on the colour? I don't want my model to look like a clown car, but a bit of variety might not hurt  

[AON]

I've not used it but it gives it a finished "painted" look.

I prefer a natural wood look and I like it when details stand out!

[tlevine]

I have no experience with this wood.  How hard is it?  I would probably use it for things like hatch covers rather than pillars.

[druxey]

It's your model - your decision. It should reflect your own taste, not ours!

[Mike Y]

Thanks Druxey and Alan! Sometimes a little nudge is all we need  
 

Toni, it feels similar to pear or box when it comes to hardness, definitely not soft. Holds an edge pretty well, but despite a clean geometrical shape the edge blurs visually due to the grain of the wood.

But definitely an interesting wood to have in your palette. Will report in a couple of months on the way it ages!

Edited March 4 by Mike Y

[BradNSW]

Look forward to seeing how this ages! 

 

I'm totally into "painting" a model with different woods.  I hope this one loses some of the pink/purple hue...it seems too "colorful" right now.

 

Glad you have some months to let the color mature.

[Mike Y]

It's been 1.5 months of "aging" the Pink Ivory sample - the plank was laying on one specific side in a sunlight on my table, but not in an extreme way, sun hits it at an angle. As expected, it got darker, almost like a fresh vs aged red brick  Coincidentally I bought that piece of Ivory because of the build log where brick oven was made out of pink ivory "bricks": https://modelshipworld.com/topic/11140-washington-galley-by-yamsterman-148-scale-pof/?do=findComment&comment=436782

 

To simplify the comparison I split it in half, the difference is clear (on the second photo both halves are flipped).

No sanding to avoid damaging the "patina" layer, so sorry for some stains or fingerprints. Text says "shadow" and "exposed", but you can easily guess which one is which  

Both pillars were also in a direct sunlight, and looks like the one with Osmo finish aged tiny little bit less.

Even when aged they look quite fine, and I think I'll go with it instead of a pear / box / ebony that are the usual candidates  

The texture is interesting - it has some grain, but not extreme like a walnut. It looks rougher when surrounded by the pear/box hull, but not too extreme or out of scale, even on close-up photos:

 

(I know that this is not how pillars are attached to the beams, these are just test pieces freestanding on the keelson)

 

Edited April 16 by Mike Y

[BradNSW]

First read the post and thought it said 1.5 years but rereading only 1.5 months!  Amazed how the color mellowed and love it as a choice for the pillars!   

 

It really adds character and texture to any model when one uses different woods to highlight specific items!

[Mike Y]

Next was the fitting the lower deck beams.
Fairly straightforward and the alignment "jig" helped, though awkward to use (need to clamp its parts in a specific sequence, I dropped parts of the contraption into the hull many times, etc).

Of course my deck clamps were not perfectly level to begin with, so some notches needed to be cut deeper than necessary to ensure a level deck.
A curved Vallorbe file came in really handy to tune the depth of some notches!

Once all beams were horizontal - the run of the deck was already quite fair, with only a minor adjustments to be done for a couple of beams.

I was worried it would be a never ending process of alignment (fixing one dimension just to re-align the other), but it was not that bad.
End result. Note the tiny gaps on the right side, I do not want beams to push into the frames on both ends to prevent any buckling or tilting due to the seasonal wood movement. The gap would be hidden by the inner planking on the right side, while allowing the hull to "breathe" a bit. 

My mind got carried away with plans for the deck structure, all the carlings and ledges, thinking how I would approach the construction. Marking up in situ? Making some paper template? Add temporary spacers to lift the deck in one "piece"? Use some rubber bands to firmly fix beams in position without drilling pin holes? 
Oh, right, that comes much later, I only did them to install pillars...  

I then remarked the true centerline using a string and placed these two test pillars under a beam.
To my horror the beams standing on the keelson looked clearly off-center! The centerline string was already removed by that point, so I pulled two strings for a quick illustration.

After careful checks the reason was found - the keelson is not perfectly level and is glued slightly tilted, resulting in a skewed pillar if you just place it on top. No big deal, can be easily compensated for. Luckily there is no issue with an off-center keelson or an incorrect hull shape. Always a bit scared of finding some critical mistake done 10 years ago... 🫣 

[Maxthebuilder]

On 4/18/2025 at 7:41 PM, Mike Y said:

Next was the fitting the lower deck beams.
Fairly straightforward and the alignment "jig" helped, though awkward to use (need to clamp its parts in a specific sequence, I dropped parts of the contraption into the hull many times, etc).

Of course my deck clamps were not perfectly level to begin with, so some notches needed to be cut deeper than necessary to ensure a level deck.
A curved Vallorbe file came in really handy to tune the depth of some notches!

Once all beams were horizontal - the run of the deck was already quite fair, with only a minor adjustments to be done for a couple of beams.

I was worried it would be a never ending process of alignment (fixing one dimension just to re-align the other), but it was not that bad.
End result. Note the tiny gaps on the right side, I do not want beams to push into the frames on both ends to prevent any buckling or tilting due to the seasonal wood movement. The gap would be hidden by the inner planking on the right side, while allowing the hull to "breathe" a bit. 

My mind got carried away with plans for the deck structure, all the carlings and ledges, thinking how I would approach the construction. Marking up in situ? Making some paper template? Add temporary spacers to lift the deck in one "piece"? Use some rubber bands to firmly fix beams in position without drilling pin holes? 
Oh, right, that comes much later, I only did them to install pillars...  

I then remarked the true centerline using a string and placed these two test pillars under a beam.
To my horror the beams standing on the keelson looked clearly off-center! The centerline string was already removed by that point, so I pulled two strings for a quick illustration.

After careful checks the reason was found - the keelson is not perfectly level and is glued slightly tilted, resulting in a skewed pillar if you just place it on top. No big deal, can be easily compensated for. Luckily there is no issue with an off-center keelson or an incorrect hull shape. Always a bit scared of finding some critical mistake done 10 years ago... 🫣 

absolutely outstanding!

[Mike Y]

I was trying to imagine the process of marking up the deck inside the hull. Even with carefully prepared notches in the deck clamps it's not an easy work - the downside of Hahn's method is that working deep inside the hull always feels like a surgery, working through an narrow opening on top.
So I decided to make my life easier and do it off the model instead  Luckily that hull has a very modest tumblehome, so getting it in and out is geometrically possible.
Beams are spot glued to boxwood strips and the entire deck would be assembled on them. Later strips would be removed using some alcohol or water. It would require a bit of a cleanup, but much easier overall.

It fits perfectly into all notches, very satisfying! Now I can work with it

The deck has a very gentle curve along the hull, so I will take care to glue carlings and ledges on the model to avoid loosing that curve.

[Mike Y]

Now back to the pillars!
Pink Ivory put my planing jig to the test. It is not easy to work with - burns when sawing, very prone to tearout, one must be very careful with the grain direction at all times. That made it unrealistic to plane multiple blanks in one go without messing up grain the direction.
The other downside of that jig is the requirement to keep the plane straight, without rocking it side-to-side (this photo is exaggerated to illustrate the point).

But in the absence of a proper thickness sander it gets the job done, cheap and silent

I decided to cut real mortise and tenon joints into the pillars, mostly to help myself with the alignment. I doubt I can drill precise holes join them with a pin, and without some mechanical help to ensure alignment - gluing those together without making a crooked mess would be impossible.
Mortise would allow for some adjustments in the very end - if I need to move the end of the pillar a tiny bit - I will just shave off one side of the tenon!
And you can't imagine how satisfying the dry fit is, it is held nice and tight without any glue!

It is hard to make such a tiny mortise deeper than 0.5mm though (due to the angle of the chisel), but it is enough to firmly register the beam in place.

To help mark up the mortises I made a small styrene jig. It has a friction fit to the beam, a bit lower than the beam, and scored marks align with the centerline marked on top of the beam:

On the underside a square opening is centered around these scored marks, and the chisel fits nicely in it. Not much pressure is required to mark it.

But then I overestimated the strength of the beam, cracking it all the way through along the grain imperfection A clumsy builder can break even a boxwood beam!  

Luckily the crack is quite clean, so should be easy to glue back like it never happened.

[Mike Y]

Speaking of wood imperfections - I was visiting the Naval Museum in Karlskrona (the naval base city in the South of Sweden).

It had a fascinating bit of naval archeology on display - parts of the hull of an Age of Sail ships (1678 and 1717) excavated in the area.
I did not realise how massive these timbers are in person! Impossible to convey on a photo, but these knees are a size of an adult human and likely heavier. 

The famous hull cross-section drawings look much more impressive when you can touch them...

Speaking of the wood grain - note some knots and imperfections, as well as a non-ideal grain direction in the knee. 
Here is the deadwood - also far from the prime cut of a tree. That was the real life, a crude build reality rather than a work of art. Unfortunately knots and grain do not translate well in scale... 

 

And here is the rudder next to it:

Sorry for the offtopic, just wanted to share.

It's not often you get to see such structural pieces are on display, and not yet another salvaged cannon that museums like so much!
 

[Chuck]

Very interesting stuff.  Thanks for sharing.

[AON]

I experienced the same cracking and splitting trying to notch for carlings. Ended up scoring and sanding a chamfer instead of a notch.

I see people do it but they are obviously much more talented then me.

[dvm27]

I know what you mean Mike. Looking over the framing, knees, etc of Constitution and Constellation I am awed by both the size and fit of the massive timbers. That they were able to piece these timbers together with  hand tools and simple rigging  makes me marvel at their craftsmenship.