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

[Mike Y]

Thank you all, your support means a lot! ☺️

Deck framing preparations

Here is the "final" deck layout that I settled on. Knee shape is quite approximate and would be refined on the model, but the carlings are all in their final spots. Ledges are omitted for clarity, but they would be placed on the top and middle part of the deck, leaving the bottom one fully bare. Depending on the visuals I might add the bottom row of carlings later on.

If anyone can spot any mistake - please let me know before it is too late!

Always a difficult decision point for me - what colour scheme to use for the next phase of the build?
I want some contrast, but not too much. 
After hours of scrolling through amazing build logs here on MSW as well as photos of classical models - settled on the following palette:
Carlings: boxwood, same as the beams. Lighter boxwood would represent the "heavy" timbers of the deck.
Lodging knees: light pear, non-steamed.
Hanging knees, beam arms: Swiss pear, steamed (darker variety)
Ledges: have not decided yet, will try cherry. Something dark, but not black. Hope cherry is not too grainy for these tiny pieces.

Here are the wood sheets planed to thickness and sanded. I will likely keep it unfinished, and use finish only for the top decks that might be touched.

Next is milling the stock for carlings. It took too much effort for pillars, so trying to refine my technology.

Ideally I just need a proper thickness sander, but I don't have one (or a space/time for the DYI variety), so was curious if my Proxxon FET table saw can do if I treat it with some love and care? Any tool shines better if you actually spend time tuning it..  
At least the fence angle needs to be adjusted to avoid pushing wood into the blade (or away from it), it does make a difference!

First was trying a slitting blade with 1mm kerf and no set. It leaves a fairly smooth finish, but tends to burn the wood and is harder to control.
Switched over to the regular carbide tipped blade which has an effective kerf of almost 2mm. Sounds wasteful, but it is easier to control, so fewer planks would end up in the scrap bin.
No burning, but the blade marks are slightly more visible.
Close-up of test pear strips cut with both types of the blade, the surfaces are quite different:

I do not have a proper "thin strip jig" that acts as a bump stop on the other side of the blade, but this saw also has a micro-adjuster that I have never tried before. Fiddly to use, but once you get the hang of it - it actually allows to move the fence quite precisely. 

If I need 4.0mm piece - I move the wheel to 6.0mm and with a blade kerf of almost 2mm I do get consistent 4.1mm thickness (with, say, +/- 0.05 tolerance). Not too bad for a saw that is not really designed for that kind of precision!

They are 0.2mm oversized, leaving just 0.1 on each side to remove saw marks and any imperfections

Boxwood carling blanks straight out of that saw, with no touch-up / sanding / scraping:

Then some very careful planing in my thicknessing jig, taking care to not take too much material. 

I was worried that strips would fall on a side and I will end up with parallelograms instead of squares, but with the narrow face of 2.5mm and a crisp edge it was not an issue, they were standing upright.

Now I have a bunch of blanks ready. They are straight, smooth and satisfyingly square in all directions and with dimensions down to +/-0.02mm! I did not expect to enjoy it that much   

[Some Idea]

Hi Mike - lovely work.  Just a thought would a ship of this size have binding strakes to tie all of the beams together.  If so I would make and fit them before the carlings.  Also a quick tip on the table saw - If I need say 2mm wide planks I just find a 2mm wide piece of wood and put it between the blade and fence.  Thats it!  The fence is set and I just sense check the first cut.  

 

Mark

[Mike Y]

Thanks Mark! I am not planning to show the binding strakes due to aesthetics reasons. Most likely the lower deck would have no planking at all, or maybe a waterway only.  But appreciate the point, you are right!

 

I used to plane thin strips between the blade and the fence, but doing it on the other side is much more convenient. The piece is not jammed between the blade and the fence, reducing unnecessary damage with deep saw marks.

When cutting "thin side outside the blade" - you can easily push it away with your finger (behind the blade), ensuring that the strip would not touch the back of the blade, regardless of any internal stresses and deformations. 

A riving knife would probably be a good idea, but this saw does not have one  

Edited October 2 by Mike Y

[Mike Y]

Framing the deck - continued

Assembling the deck as one piece off the model is really comfortable, I am blessed to have a hull shape without an extreme tumblehome  

First I tried to mark up the layout using the a square. Unfortunately not all beams are perfectly perpendicular, not to a visible degree, but enough to make that method unusable. 

After some experiments I settled on this setup:
The deck is clamped in place and an unusual ruler is used to mark up relative to the centerline. That ruler has graduations in two axises, with notches following the 1, 2 and 3cm from the edge. That makes it ideal for the task - "these two notches should be 18mm from the centerline", while the ruler makes sure your centerline is not skewed. Invaluable! I got it in an arts & craft shop, not sure if there is a special name for that kind of a ruler. 

Suddenly you need quite a lot of precision. Even a 0.3mm pencil feels too thick, and you need to account for the line thickness.
In the end I only used pencil marks as a rough guide. The final markup is done with a chisel with its back resting against the ruler:

Make sure to only mark one side of the notch, "the reference side". The other side can be fine tuned to fit, avoiding an accidental skewing by adjusting the notch width from both ends.

While cutting the carlings I used a new toy - a tiny vice is square and strong enough for such holding, feels very convenient for working on tiny pieces! Can recommend:

The whole process is very therapeutic and is exactly what I needed. The "thinking" part is over, now it's just making tiny wooden things and cutting notches, over and over. I can sneak in a 30min session here and there, cut a few notches every day and keep progressing!
Here are all the tools that I need for a single session, keeping them close to reduce the setup time  

Mini marking gauges are set up in advance, one for the depth and one for the height.

My youngest enjoyed this wooden puzzle, asking me to dry fit the deck over and over again   And yes, she is starting her own first build (MS Midwest Dinghy) as we speak! The build log might follow.

Intermediary result so far, like the contrast of the fresh wood! Only dry fit and no sanding.

Woke up in the middle of the night - how would I remove the deck if hanging knees are installed? They are notched in deck clamps, so I can't lift it or turn it sideways. And installing them later is not possible since they sit between a beam and a lodging knee.

In the end I will be saved by omitting the hanging knees on the open side of the hull (left on this photo). 
But if I would have built a symmetrical hull with both knees on both sides - then I need to somehow perfectly fit everything off the model, assemble it and then sand the deck on the model, without scratching the hull?
The magic of sanding would barely be available then… That sounds very complicated.
A lot of build logs just omit that problem, going directly to a fantastic finished result! Now I am very curious 🤓  

 

Will go silent for a couple of months, the task is repetitive and I just need to finish the rest of the carlings, ledges and knees.

[jdbondy]

If you figure out what the name is for that unusual ruler is, be sure to let us know! I am not finding anything like it on my initial searches.