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[boatmadman]

Nice one, cant beat a bit of whittling to pass the time, just go easy on the beer/wine or else your spars may come out oval!

Ian

[Norseman]

and a sticky red too - ouch 

[rmaddock]

Nice one, cant beat a bit of whittling to pass the time, just go easy on the beer/wine or else your spars may come out oval!
Ian

I may not be as old as some folk on this forum Ian, but I am old enough to know that alcohol before the evening just puts me to sleep for the duration and makes me grumpy    I shall confine my whittling activities to the daylight hours.

and a sticky red too - ouch 

I think every scratch built boat needs a bit of the red and sticky somewhere in its fabric.....gives it soul, don't ya know? 

[rmaddock]

Well, we made it into Wales and back again alive!  I must say, it's a very beautiful part of the world and we had, completely randomly, picked a rather good spot in which to stay.



We "did" Snowdon...on foot, before you ask...as seen above.  We went up the Rhyd-Ddu path and, as it scared me too much, down the Snowdon Ranger path. A fantastic day out.  The sun has shone on us all week and so very little spar making has happened. 

But some did! 



Seen here on our return, I managed whilst away to use my gauge and rough cut the bowsprit to an octagonal profile. The gauge is fabulous.

Now, today, I've further roughed it to 16 sides and then a sort of round.



As I type, I'm waiting for the glue to dry on this!



A rubber clad drum to fit in the power drill.  The plan is to use it to turn an inside out sanding belt and so get a proper shape on the spar.

Watch this space........

[Artistmike]

The bowsprit is looking good ! And tell your dad he looks good in those sunglasses ! ..... 

[rmaddock]

And tell your dad he looks good in those sunglasses ! ..... 

I beg your pardon?  Do I sound that young?  That's me in the dark glasses! 

Anyway, the rubber jobby ( ) doesn't work well with my single speed drill. Far to fierce.  I ended up simply clamping the end of the sanding loop in the work bench and doing it by hand. It worked quite well.

Anyway, a little more fettling and sanding and it fits! 



I must remember to cut a slot in the outer end for a sheave.

[gondolier88]

Hi Rob,

She's looking great! I'm glad you went the right way and used square stock for the mast- you're right, she deserves to look 'just right'. The spar gauge looks very dangerous- almost like you plan to use it in the future....!

We'll have to catch up soon. It's Windermere Steamboat Rally this coming week by the way- should be a few round Fell Foot/Lakeside on Monday and Wednesday at least if you fancy a day out (check weather first!!)

Keep up the good work, she really is looking fantastic.

Happy floorspace in the basement by the way

Greg

[rmaddock]

Spurred on by my bowsprit "success", I decided to tackle the mast.  It's a thing that will make the boat...give it its finished proportions.

So, first I planed the wood down to the 18mm I wanted (I had them cut slightly oversized).  The top of the mast tapers to about half its main diameter.  I marked and then cut this taper first.



Next, as shown above, the spar gauge was employed on the tapered section. This was then carefully cut to eight and then sixteen sides as with the boom before being rounded off with sand paper.



Not bad, eh?  You can see where the hounds will be left square just below the tapered section.  The next job is to do the parallel rounding of the lower mast.

Simples! [squeek!]

[boatmadman]

Very nice, good to see there are no red stains about.

[rmaddock]

Very nice, good to see there are no red stains about.

No red stains.....yet.

A brief hiatus (again) whilst we climbed Helvellyn yesterday.  Why does the mist only ever clear when you're already part way back down again?  Still, the mid-afternoon full-English was a nice reward 



This is the Hearts of Oak's mast as it stood earlier this year..I understand that lazy Jacks have since been added.

And this is my mast to date:



I'm busy drilling for the, currently, temporarily fitted eye bolts.  The next thing will be to fit oak cheeks and bolsters to the hounds and then try to get a good shiny finish on it all.

I can't help thinking that my mast looks stockier than the real one. I suppose it is, in that I've knocked 20% off the height so as not to over-power the model.  There's also the fact that this is a gaffer and I'm more used to looking at the Bermudan rigged Marblehead in the bedroom....which is much taller in proportion (and fact).  There's no model sail plan with the hull and drawings (unless I've lost it) so I'm going to have to mock up the sail plan soon to get the CoE right. Then I'll be able to determine the correct gaff length.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

[rmaddock]

The real boat's been on Country File. You can still see it on iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01mm6wd/

Shame they're shamelessly motoring about.

[rmaddock]

Progress is slow at the moment.  The summer has been full of "other" things to do.  I'm also angling after a new camera for my birthday and there was much sucking of teeth when I mentioned price    I am, therefore, saving my pocket money (no honestly, I'm given pocket money) and flogging stuff on a certain auction site to try and make the purchase happen.

So, meanwhile, little has been done, and nothing, spent on the good old nobby.

However, I have, just today, glued in a mast step.  It's made from ply and epoxied/pinned straight into the lead ballast.  I'm hoping that this will be solid enough.  Once the standing rigging's fitted the step wont need to do much anyway....famous last words

[sailorboy61]

Keep your eyes on that auction site for a camera.

Picked a faulty spares/repairs one up earlier this year, only needed the battery charging doah!! £100 worth for less than £15 including the postage          

[dreadnought72]

I am, therefore, saving my pocket money...

You don't have £19500 handy, do you? 

(I'm sure they'd take an near offer!)

Andy

[rmaddock]

You don't have £19500 handy, do you? 

(I'm sure they'd take an near offer!)

Andy

Go on Andy, do tell. What little something has caught your eye.

...before you get excited though, no, I don't have £19.5k lying about. Sorry.

[dreadnought72]

Click the link in my message above yours! (It's one for sale!)

Andy

[rmaddock]

Ah! Right! Links 

Yes, that's quite nice, isn't it?  I don't think people would be happy if I bought it though.

[rmaddock]

Time to make the standing rigging 

I've been experimenting with attaching deadeyes to steel cables and the result so far is this:



Now, I was thinking of splicing the wires properly but there are so many strands and it's all so stiff and fiddly that I gave up. I'm going instead for the model plane solution of wire binding and solder (solder yet to be applied).  Then I'll smooth it and bind it neatly in something like white cordage...as per....'n' all that.

Even holding them against the boat looks satisfyingly cool 

[Norseman]

It's nice to see an old favorite back

Dave

[rmaddock]

Thinner wire on order. What I've used is too thick.  I think it'd look okay visually but it's very difficult to work with and by the time all the eyes are round the mast head it'll be an inch thick 

[rmaddock]

The new wire has arrived and I'm heroically modelling in the face of a horrible cold and a sore back.  What a martyr to the cause I am!  Is there a medal for such dedication?

Anyway, the wire I had at first was 1.5mm, the new stuff's 1mm only and seems better.  It still looks the part but is much more workable.



The deadeyes have set into the wire much more neatly.  I've not attached the lower ones yet so it's jury rigged into position for now.  As mentioned before (I hope you've been paying full attention  ) I will bind the bindings with some sort of white/cream cordage.  I'm wondering about trying embroidery silks for this job.  I'll be able to get some subtle colour and can separate the strands to get the thickness I want.  I'm also wondering about using it for the lines between the deadeyes...it's quite strong stuff.



Up at the hounds, we should have to separate eyes but I've decided to do a single split splice between the two shrouds.  This is to reduce the thickness of the wire around the hounds...I don't want it getting too bulky.  Obviously, there are ends to trim yet. 

[rmaddock]

All the fixed rigging has been made now to the first stage at least.



Bottle screw courtesy of RBModel. They share my initials so they must be good 



I'm always amazed at how much these little things make a model look "right" and I've not been disappointed here.

Now I have to figure out how to make the brackets to hold the lower deadeyes.  No rest for the wicked, eh? 

[DickyD]

Nicely done, very neat.

[rmaddock]

No, honestly, I've made a gaff and I'm proud of it! 

According to Nick Miller's book, the gaff's quite a complex spar, starting (at my idiosyncratic scale) at 9mm at the mast, widening to 10mm in the middle and then narrowing to only 7.5mm at the far end.     I know I've posted about spar making before but please excuse me for repeating myself; there don't seem to be many posts about it on here and somebody might find it useful.

So, one starts with square stock, planed down to slightly over the maximum diameter:



I used my Peter Plane (my favourite tool) to reduce the square sections to those listed above.  The spar gauge is then used and, by its nature, copes with the change of section.

Then, the spar is planed down to the pencil lines giving it an octagonal section.  After that the new edges are planed again to get closer to a round.  I did this by eye but with full size spars I understand then often mark them again.



If you click on the first of the above pictures you should be able to make out the taper. By the second it's ready for sanding.



So here it is, round(ish) and sanded and tapered 

[rmaddock]

I've made my first, prototype block 



This is the gaff uphaul block...real one shown here:



I'm quite pleased with my first try.  It work very nicely.  Of course, it needs cleaning up and a drop of varnish spreading about....and some rust adding 

[Netleyned]

Looks great

Come on then only 20 more to make

Ned

[Jerry C]

 That's Perfick. Jerry.

[Stormbringer]

really good 

[rmaddock]

Thanks chaps 

And Ned, don't be silly! Now I've made one I'll simply send it to China to be copied and mass produced for 5p a go. 

[gondolier88]

Hi Rob,


You do know Nick Miller is a local man- have you met him at all when you've been hanging around HoO? He's a very nice guy, with heaps of knowledge on local boats- he gave me couple of handy bits for my 1:1 Windermere Skiff. He's also a naval architect, so is a very handy guy to know when it comes to modelling. Oh, and he also builds models...!


I can pass on your email to him if you wish, I'm sure he would be in touch. He might pop in at my regatta next year too, so he can see her on the water when you bring her to Coniston in May!


I'm pleased your rigging is coming together so well, it will absolutely make the boat.


Greg

[rmaddock]

Hi Greg!

No, I didn't know Nick Miller was a local man...although it doesn't surprise me.  I don't know if I've bumped into him at HoO meetings but I've taken that book and nobody jumped up and claimed to have written it 

By all means pass on my email.

Today, I am tidying up the standing rigging...photos to follow soon 

[rmaddock]

As promised to Greg...

Here is the forestay:



As you can see (and as I think I suggested) I didn't try to splice the tiny wires but rather bound them with copper thread (from speaker cable cores) and then soldered them.  In the above picture, they are at the stage of having been filed down to a sensible shape...my soldering having been a little creative



Then I painstakingly bound each one with cordage...as per the original.  I had bought some Amati 1.6mm hemp rigging rope for the working rigging and split some of this into the four cores to use for this purpose.  It looks quite convincing I think.  I have to admit to cutting corners again by super-gluing the ends rather than finishing the whippings off properly.

The following "clicky" thumbnails show the top of the forestay at the hounds and two of the finished deadeyes...all finished in the same manner.

 

[boatmadman]

Very nice, well done that man!

[rmaddock]

So, all of the 2mm nuts and bolts finally arrived so the rigging is UP!! 



A very old tin of aluminium paint is going service as a galvanised finish on the brass work.

And before anyone mentions it: yes, I know that my rope work betwixt the deadeyes is not the "proper" way to do it. It is, however, the way it's been done on the real boat.

Anyway, as a totally objective observer, I'm very chuffed with the finish indeed! 

Next, I think that the wooden jaws for the boom and the metal saddle for the gaff are in order.

[Neil]

so you should be chuffed ........chuffed to bits.............it's beautiful, and giving me a great deal of info as to how to rig my lifeboat.
cheers.
neil.