US Brig Niagara by Laxet - FINISHED - Model Shipways

[Laxet]

Brian,

 

I was just getting ready to order & got to thinking. Can you solder this Zebra Wire? It kind of looks like you can't, which makes it a deal breaker. I need to be able to solder it.

[GuntherMT]

I haven't got the faintest idea Dale.  The black is some kind of a coating, and when you cut the wire the end shows the copper, so I assume you could solder it, but the black coating probably wouldn't do well in the area of the solder, but since I haven't gotten into the soldering part of this hobby yet, I don't know.

 

According to this page - http://www.firemountaingems.com/shop/zebra-wire it's made by using 7 coats of a colored enamel. 

Edited November 1, 2014 by GuntherMT

[Laxet]

That's what I read too (about the enamel). That's what made me wonder. I guess I'm back to brass wire. Thanks for the tip, though. It might come in handy later.

[Laxet]

I went to Hobby Lobby & bought a boatload of different wires today. Some were colored, some were not. I decided to try the antique bronze first. this is the result. I might just continue using it. I tried stropping  the deadeyes without soldering the strop, but it was too difficult to get the ends to line up, so I soldered them into a loop. Much easier.

[Laxet]

This is my second try at carving an oar from a strip. Also much better. So I will carve the rest this way. Only takes a few minutes to do one. I will do some while watching tv.

[Laxet]

These two pictures show the intermediate steps I took to carve the oars.

[Guest Tim I.]

I need to do the same on buying a good assortment of wire for my bench. I like your approach to your oars. I did not get a chance to get back to working on mine this weekend for the PdN, but I really like your approach!

 

- Tim

[Laxet]

And voila! Oars. I spent probably 3 hours the first night & 2 hours the second night in front of the tv making these. Plus another half hour today filing the hand grips & staining them. 14 long oars & 6 short ones. Pretty time consuming. Now I have to secure them in each boat & I will finally be finished with the boats.

 

Here is also a picture (again out of focus) of the channels. Pretty tough to edge bend these to conform to the hull, but thank goodness for my Shark!

[Laxet]

Here is how I have decided to make the chain plates. Just wrap & cut. It is also how I will make the hammock brackets when I get to them. I'm not sure how these look, so I will look at some others & compare to see if I need to modify anything.

[milosmail]

Larry, what kind of wood did you fashion your oars from? I take it you cut the blanks from wood the thickness of a shaft, then did a lot of filing/sanding? Did you grind the shafts down first with a Dremel or? They look great, and I want to repeat the process.

[Laxet]

I'm not Larry, but I will tell how I made my oars. I started with kit supplied 3/64 x 1/8 strips. I cut them to length & marked where the tapers are. Then I filed the blade shape & filed the edges thin. This only took a couple of minutes. I used a knife & straight edge & cut the handle. You can see these steps above. Then I sat in front of the tv & filed the handle corners off making them somewhat round. The next night I sat in front of the tv & sanded the handles round. The next morning, i filed the hand grips & stained them. All that was left after that was lashing them into the boats.

 

It would probably take 10 minutes to complete one oar. I used no power tools on them. I think they might be too fragile for that. At this small size, mistakes & inconsistencies are mostly undetectable. I even broke the handle of one oar at the top, but buried the oar at the bottom so you can't tell.

[Laxet]

Chain plates...wow. They are at the very edge of my skill. They are so small. I cannot make them consistently the same size. I've made twice as many as I need to get the right amount of same sized parts, not to mention a few sacrificed to the floor monster. I think my dog is wearing three or four of them. Next I have to blacken them & then attach them.

[GuntherMT]

The important question here is, do they look good on the dog? 

[Guest Tim I.]

I hate making chain plates. I avoid them until I absolutely have to do them. Since you have so many, maybe I can borrow some of yours?

 

In all seriousness, they look good. Are you going to solder them?

 

- Tim

[Laxet]

Unfortunately, I'm at that place.now. I can't rig until they are in place. I'll let you have all my spares. But they won't fit this kit. Maybe a 1/4 scale Victory or something. I debated soldering them, but I figured there won't be much tension on them & I can get them to look better with just a butt joint. So that is what I am doing. Besides, I think soldering them around the deadeye strops would be a nightmare.

 

I saw some pictures closeup of the chain plates on the real ship & they even had some slack in them. Of course, that could be because the rigging had been removed. If that is the case, then there must be tremendous flex in the channels to account for the slack I see. Then again, now that I look again, maybe there is some give in the deadeyes themselves.

[milosmail]

Dale, isn't it nice how we get to be carpenters, painters, plumbers, electricians, riggers, sail makers, steam fitters, etc.

 

I like the photo of the chain plate. These are really simplified from others I have seen, made from links or made from a solid bar. Easier to replicate. Yours will be fine.

By the way, not sure on square riggers, but on a modern sail craft, the lee side stainless steel stays will always be slack as the mast will bend a bit. I suspect this was true for wooden masts with hemp/manila shrouds as well.

[Laxet]

I don't mind being the rest of those things, but I don't want to be a plumber. I'm a rotten plumber.

 

That's what I like about this forum. You just learn all kinds of stuff. It never would have occurred to me that they would be left intentionally slack. I figgered they'd want them as tight as could be.

[rfolsom]

Dale;

There is slack in the chain plates, in the picture you see, because all rigging was removed.  The channels only held lateral forces away from the side of the ship;  they were not designed to hold or support tension forces (ie the stays) in any way but a small component of the tension forces.  The chain plates transmit the tremendous loads from the;  wind-->sails-->yards/masts/standing rigging/hull;  and the primary structural and inflexible load bearers in this area are the chain plates.

 

Hope this helps.

 

~Bob

Edited November 10, 2014 by rfolsom

[Laxet]

I've been working all day attaching the anchor rigging. I am using some rope that I made. It measures at .047" as called out in the plans, but it is too loose. That will be a lesson learned for the next rope I make. Anyway, I don't know what to do with the other end of the rope (the one not attached to the anchor). It doesn't fit through the grating, so I don't know whether I should enlarge a hole & make it fit or what. Any ideas? What did they do on the real ship.I Googled the snot out this but could not find any satisfactory information.

[kenr]

Hi Laxet

Re the " other end " of the anchor rope

I ran them along the outside of the hull to the hawse pipe holes

Then in through them and at present have them running down the deck

 

Regards

Ken 

[Laxet]

Hi Ken,

 

As of today that is the way my anchor ropes are running. I will have to do something with them eventually.

 

Here are pictures of my hanging anchors. I'm not sure how the real anchors hung, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't like this. You can also see the horrible job I did on the chain plates. I'm pretty embarrassed by them. I can't believe they came out so bad.

 

I also realized that I drilled the sheave holes on the catheads too close together.

 

I hope everybody out there is learning a lot from my mistakes. I'm blazing trails here.

[Laxet]

Started making the hammock brackets. I made a bending jig out of nails like I did with the chainplates. I couldn't get the sides symmetrical so I decided to only use one side to bend the uprights. Then I flipped the piece & bent the other side. What could be more symmetrical than using the same jig? After making all of these, I will tighten up the bends & bend the last small upright for the rail.

 

In the series of photo's, the first shows the first bends. Then flipped & bent the other way. The third photo shows a finished bracket & a scale for size.

[milosmail]

Regarding anchor rope; remembering this large diameter rope could well run over 300 feet or more, and when it was not stowed below deck, then it would have been coiled in a figure eight pattern called a flake, and left on the deck near the bow. Flaking minimized the chance of the line fouling when the anchor was dropped.The working end would have to be available at the capstan, as that was used to pull it up. I believe typically when the ship was at sea, the anchor rope was detached and stowed below. It would be brought out only when anchoring seemed to be a probable event. 

I would run your rope through the forward grate - even drill or cut out a neat gap for it to fit through. Or flake some on the deck for a satisfactory appearance.

 

I was told once that the anchor rope for the Victory was run from the hawse below deck to the capstan and back several times, and not flaked due to its large size. Seems to me this would interfere with gun recoil, but maybe there was enough beam.

Edited November 16, 2014 by milosmail

[Laxet]

Hi Steve,

 

I didn't make enough rope to flake it on the deck, but that would have looked really good. I will more than likely do what you said & pass it down through the grating. I don't see much other choice.

[Laxet]

Okay class. Today's lesson is learning the difference in quality between kit supplied material (KSM) & store bought material (SBM). In the picture below, one bracket is bent using KSM & the other is bent using SBM. If you guessed the left one is KSM, you get a gold star. The SBM is so much more rigid than the KSM that it makes a heckuva difference in the quality of the final piece. There is such a difference in these two materials that I'm weighing whether it will be faster to bend another 35 brackets to replace the KSM ones, or to take the time to tighten the bends of the KSM ones. I hate wasting the material & time-wise it is probably a wash. But here is another  lesson learned *the HARD way*.

[Laxet]

There you are. 46 somewhat less than perfect hammock rails. We'll see how good they are after I mount them. Also in the picture are the blanks for the hammock stanchions. It'll be interesting to see how they turn out. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Laxet]

Here are some progress pictures. The first one shows the anchor ropes, the fore bits that go over the bowsprit, some of the hammock rails. The third one shows the tiller & more hammock rails.

[Laxet]

These are todays progress. I have installed some of the top rails on the hammock brackets. It's not all even, & I don't know how easy it will be to align them, or if it will matter once I get the white cloth over them. This is where that cheaper KSM comes in handy. The last picture shows the rigging for the yawl. I haven't secured the lines yet.

[Laxet]

I came across these pictures on the net last night. There are two different configurations for the deadeyes & hardware on the tops. One shows what I always thought it would be like (enclosed), & the other shows just a slot that the strops fit into. I guess that means I could do it either way, but I wonder how common is  (was) it to rig with just the slots. Does anybody know if this was common practice or if the Niagara ever did this in her first life?

[GuntherMT]

Dale,

 

The first two pictures are of the fore or main top, while the final picture is the fore topmast crosstree.  The topmast crosstree doesn't have deadeyes for the topgallant mast like the lower two mast sections. 

 

The topgallant shrouds go through the ends of the crosstrees (you can use a slot or drill a hole for this) and then they wrap around a wooden stave which is seized to the top of the topmast shrouds.  Look on plan sheet 5, detail 5-E.