US Brig Oneida 1809 by rlb - The Lumberyard - 1:48 scale - POF - Lake Ontario Warship

[rlb]

Thanks so much Steve and Martin.

 

I have to say I don't think of myself as much of a machinist.  It's not my background; I am not knowledgeable.  I'm impatient with having to spend time 'making things to make other things'; but at the same time I'm in awe of people like Michael Mott and RJ Soane on this forum for whom the machining and jigs seem to come so naturally, and which they seem to enjoy doing!  (And so many others, but those were the first two that came to mind.)   But Martin you are right, I often do look at the model and wonder "how did I do that"!?  Not in the technical sense, but just the accomplishment.  You don't know until you try.  It is rewarding, to be sure.

 

Ron

[Koopyetz]

Though you don't see yourself as a machinist you are a critical thinker who can solve a problem . As you have others you are in awe of , I imagine others in awe of your accomplishment with this model. 

 

Your work is amazing. All from the keel up.

 

 

 

 

 

[jwvolz]

Looking very nice Ron.

[Koopyetz]

Ron

 

I hope this post finds you well. I'm find some frames a bit fat for keel. Any thoughts to various grit sandpaper to reduce thickness.

 

Thank you

 

Rick

[Robp1025]

I love this build. I just caught up through it and the carving of the eagle was very fascinating. I cant wait to see how this build progresses for sure!!

[rlb]

Thanks Maliba, and Joe a while ago.  I know I am working very slowly at this point, but I think I will be able to post something in the next few days.

 

Rick, all the frames were far too fat.  What you see in the photo is 80 grit first, then I think it was 220, then 600.  It took forever.   I'm not sure I would bother with the 600 next time around.   

 

Ron 

 

 

[Koopyetz]

Hello Ron

 

Thank you for providing the sandpaper grit information. It helped.

 

Regards

 

Rick

[rlb]

Well, finally a small update:

 

I have been working on filling in some details on the hull, before finishing the channels and chainplates.  Here are some of them.  On the right is one of the Main Tack Chesstrees, to the left of that are a couple of the rub rails (not sure of the name), and the rest are rough blanks of the boarding steps.  A profile has been scraped along the length, and these are in the process of being filed and shaped around the ends, and the width reduced, and then the hand holds will be filed--

 

 

 

Here is the Chesstree glued in position--

 

 

 

And the rub rails--

 

 

 

The boarding steps have been shaped, fixing pins glued in, and the ones which will be attached to the wale have been "ebonized" to match the wale--

 

 

 

Here the pin holes for the boarding steps are being marked, started with a pin, and drilled--

 

 

 

The boarding steps are just dry fit here--

 

 

 

 

They will be glued (epoxy at the pins), and then all these pieces will be wiped with Tung Oil Finish to match the planking and wale.

 

The model is looking very dusty in these photos.  I should probably spend some time cleaning.

 

Cheers!

Ron

Edited May 7, 2021 by rlb

[Martin W]

Some attractive developments, Ron.  Your steps are very neat work, indeed.  I like tung oil for lots of applications, but it takes a long time to polymerize if the weather is at all cool, and until it does it serves as a magnet for dust.  But there's nothing like it for deepening the natural tones of wood.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[rlb]

A small update--

 

Work on the chainplates has been very frustrating, and part of the reason for my snails pace.  Figuring out a way to attach these wiggly things without going crazy took a few tries.

 

After marking the varied angle locations with a string fastened to the point of the mast where the shrouds will come down, holes were drilled in the wale for the lower preventer plate bolt.  The preventer plate was then pinned and epoxied into the hole--

 

 

 

Using the upper preventer plate hole as a guide, the upper pin location was drilled into the wale.

 

Then, the chainplate-deadeye assembly was attached at the same time the upper pin was epoxied into place.

 

Following that, the deadeyes were held in place in their slots in the channel with strips of masking tape attached to the mast--

 

 

 

And the channel molding glued on--

 

 

 

At this point the tape can be removed to check and make sure the fit is good--

 

 

 

You can see my pencil notes on the "Tosti" clamps reminding me which holes were to be drilled for tapping, what size drill, and which were only drilled part way into the wood.

 

 

Ron

 

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by rlb

[smotyka]

Thanks for the updates and your detailed explanations. 

[rlb]

Continuing with the chains,

 

I improved my procedure a bit.  Thread is better for temporarily holding the deadeyes in their channel slots--

 

 

 

This is more secure, easier to arrange, and allows better visibility for checking and gluing the molding--

 

 

 

 

I have only made enough of these clamps to do one channel at a time, so I'm working my way around the ship.  You can see in the next photo that I am also getting ready (pin holes drilled) to glue the boarding steps on the port side.

 

You will also see that I have not glued the carronade breech rope through-bolt locations on the port side, as I did recently with the starboard side.  Having made up the pieces many years ago and stored them away, I have now somehow lost a few, and don't have enough to complete the port side.  I will have to make up some more.   My backstay chains have to be blackened (that's one reason they are not getting attached now, with the shroud chains), so I will blacken the new breech rope bolt ends with them, and that will be next.  --

 

 

 

Looking at the starboard side, here are four phases of the channel/chainplate fixing, and you can see those breech rope bolt ends I mentioned, one at each lower corner of the gunports--

 

 

 

Ron

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by rlb

[Martin W]

Nice work, Ron.  I'm pretty much at the same stage and dreading the task of figuring out/ guessing at the angles of the lower plates.

 

Most of all, I have to admire your clamps.  You hint that you made them?  Wow!  How about giving us some background on those?  I have long thought that miniature handscrews would be invaluable in all sorts of situations, and so I would love to see how you fabricated them.  Are they beech? ash?

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[rlb]

Hi Martin,

 

Credit for the clamps goes to Ed Tosti (Naiad, Young America builds here on MSW).  In post #19, of his Naiad build log, and in Volume 1 of Naiad from Seawatch Books, he explains how to make them.  The book has a bit more info including a drawing, but I think you could figure it out from the build log post.  I had some extra maple, and had to buy the threaded rod, a tap for that, and a dowel for the handles, but they were inexpensive, and relatively easy to make.   I'm not sure what else I would have used (that I own) for the channel gluing, they were perfect for that.

 

Ron

Edited June 17, 2021 by rlb

[rlb]

Here is the work to make up my lost breech bolt ends.

 

A strip of cut brass sheet, a bit of wire--drill holes in the sheet and insert the wire--

 

 

 

Solder the wire in place, then trim them and cut apart.   I made the mistake of placing the wires too close to each other.  I ended up only getting half of these, fortunately I didn't need all of them.  I think I might even have one or two extra now--

 

 

 

I wasn't as far along as I remembered on the backstay deadeyes and chains.  I just have the deadeye loops.  So I need to make up a bunch more loops and string up 12 'units'--

 

 

 

Good news is that the shroud dead-eyes and chains are all attached!

 

 

 

Ron

 

[rlb]

Lieutenant Woolsey continues to supervise the building of Oneida.

 

The missing breech bolt ends have been blackened, and installed with the rest--

 

 

 

The brass wire pieces for the backstay chains have been  cut, bent, assembled, soldered, bent some more, and blackened (in that order!).  Then the deadeyes were bent into their loops, and some general remedial bending done to some links that were still too far out of whack--

 

 

 

These will be installed next.

 

Ron 

Edited June 25, 2021 by rlb

[shipmodel]

Hi Rob - 

 

Very nice work on the breaching ring irons and the deadeye chains. 

They will show up beautifully as details that will give you a knowing smile when you see them on the completed model.

 

PS - Woolsey was not the only one supervising.  Ensign James Fennimore Cooper was also there and working on the ship.

 

Looking forward to future progress.

 

Dan 

[rlb]

Thanks, Dan.  Great.  Now I have to carve Ens. Cooper.

 

 Backstay deadeyes and chains are installed.  They were much easier than the shroud chains--only one bolt to locate and drill--

 

 

 

 

The chains will get some tweaking at some point to make them to present a bit straighter, but I'm very happy to have this behind me.   So, to celebrate, a few overalls of Oneida--

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, installing the carronades.   For which I need to strop many small blocks.

 

Ron

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by rlb

[rlb]

As I was doing a cleaning and organizing of my workbench in preparation for the next phase.  I discovered the keel pedestal bolts and NUTS (which had been filed thinner to fit within the width of the keel).  I thought I had epoxied the nuts into the keel years ago!    

 

I felt underneath, and the holes were there, but no nuts.

 

Getting near the point of no return for being able to turn the hull upside down, it was clear this needed to be done now.

 

So--

 

 

 

Here are the bolts and their nuts--

 

 

 

I epoxied the nuts in place, taking care to keep epoxy out of the threads.   The bolts are in place, because the holes drilled into the frames and keelson keep the bolts (so also the nuts) in the proper alignment--

 

 

 

 

Since I have the hull upside down, this is also the perfect time to finally make a decision, and start making the base pedestals.  I've been undecided on this for the entire build!    What finally swung my decision was the worry for lateral stability, especially as the bolts are only in the false keel (though the screws do go deeper).   I've opted for some shaped cradle pieces, and started making templates for those--

 

 

 

 

 

These are VERY rough.  The fore pedestal needs to be just a bit taller (but not this much!) than the aft, due to the keel drag.   Many snips and iterations followed, sometimes lengthening the cradle 'arms', sometimes shortening them, adjusting the base curve, and making the two pedestals more consistent--

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up here, for now--

 

 

 

 

These will be made out of pear, probably about 3/8" wide, and ebonized-- 

 

 

 

Still a good deal of fine tuning to do, but I think these will do to start.

 

Ron

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by rlb

[rlb]

Continuing with the pedestals--

 

I now cut two new paper templates using my card mock-ups as a guide, folding the paper in half and cutting them out so they were true mirrors.  Using the new paper templates, I then cut some scrap wood templates-

 

 

 

After cutting the keel slots, I could put these on the hull, and refine the cradle arms--

 

 

 

And importantly, check the keel drag--

 

 

 

Using the wood templates, I could support the hull right side up, and check the drag again, and the general look--

 

 

 

I checked for vertical plumbness.   I needed a shim under the port foot, and adjusted both the cradle arms, and sanded the pedestal bottom to correct this.  The clothes pins are just for some additional stability so the hull doesn't topple forward or aft--

 

 

 

Once satisfied with the scrap wood templates, I used these to cut out the final pedestals.   In adjusting the drag, and the vertical plumbness, the bottoms of the scrap wood no longer were exact matches to each other, and I tried to account for this in cutting out the final pedestals.  It may not be obvious, but looking at the scrap templates you can see the difference in the cradle arms to account for the port side of the hull being unplanked (the right side as we are looking at the templates)--

 

 

 

Any remaining differences I could easily sand away after clamping them together--

 

 

 

After sawing, chiseling, and filing the keel slots, I could then I set the hull on the pedestals, and refine the cradle arms--

 

 

 

Check the drag again--

 

 

 

These are now getting close to the final shape--

 

 

 

Some fine tuning of the cradle arms is still needed, and the pedestals themselves look just a bit chunky to me--not sure whether it's the sided thickness of the pedestals, or the thickness (molded dimension) of the cradle arms.   I will live with them for a while before making any changes, as I don't want to take too much off now and regret it.   Once I'm satisfied, or after another round of adjustments, I'll drill the holes for the mounting bolts, and ebonize the pedestals.

 

Ron 

Edited July 5, 2021 by rlb

[rlb]

I decided that the pedestals are indeed too chunky.  So I sanded them a bit thinner, and also reduced the thickness of the cradle arms.  Satisfied with this, I drilled holes for the bolts.  The aft bolt needed to be trimmed about a quarter of an inch.  The front bolt was fine as is--

 

 

 

And located them on the keel--

 

 

 

Tightened them down--

 

 

 

I discovered that unfortunately, I needed to reshape the cradle arms.  Due to various inaccuracies (the bolt not being precisely in the center of the keel, the hole not being drilled precisely in the center of the pedestal, the holes not being drilled precisely plumb, etc.) I needed to readjust the cradle arms, and the flatness of the bottom of the pedestals.  I had to attach and detach the pedestals numerous times, sanding and adjusting them.    If I improved one characteristic, another suffered.   I got to the point where they were much better, though not perfect.  But enough is enough.  Here they are as I will leave them--

 

 

 

The aft pedestal is very good.  The gap between the pedestal and planking on the forward one bothers me (it is better on the port side), but as I said, enough is enough, and I risk having to start over on them.   With the pedestals blackened , that gap will not be as noticeable (I think).  Now I wait for my blackening solution to "ripen".

 

Ron

 

  

 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2021 by rlb

[Dowmer]

Ron, while you are at it, can you explain again how you ebonize the wood. Your solution and technique etc.

 

thanks

[Martin W]

That is some tricky work with lots of problems to solve.  Like you, I wish I had taken care of all that very early on, but there's no way of knowing for sure just how everything will line up.  The shots of your process show a very handsome build, regardless of all the tooth-grinding you probably went through.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[rlb]

Thanks Martin.  I'm glad I stopped to take care of the pedestals.  Even if I had glued the nuts in place earlier, it was much more work, and turning the ship over many times to do it, than I anticipated.

 

Dowmer, I explain the ebonizing in post #51.  

 

Ron

[rlb]

The pedestals ebonized--

 

 

 

And installed--

 

 

 

Now I can retire my not-so-pretty temporary (10 years or so) stand--

 

 

 

 

 

Ron

 

 

 

 

 

[Thistle17]

Nicely done Ron. I sympathize as i have had two large models of late to restore and the stands were somewhat troubling for such a seemingly simple task. Your treatment is quite complimentry to the subject.

Joe

[Koopyetz]

Ron

This is a thank you for this build log. I’m building my own Oneida and have relied on 

your log to assist me. 

Greatly appreciated.

 

[rlb]

Thanks Joe, and everyone for the likes.

 

Thanks, Rick.   I wish you success with your Oneida, and if you have any questions, ask away.   You'll see I deviated from the Lumberyard plans along the way, based on sound historical info sometimes, other times perhaps less so.

 

Ron 

Edited July 20, 2021 by rlb

[Seahawk1313]

Ron,  Wonderful work on the Oneida, really excellent!  Are you going to rig it ?  - Hal 

[rlb]

Thank you Hal, yes, I do plan to rig her.  No sails, though.