MY NEW PROJECT...or two.

Wow. I have never heard of using the glue as caulking. I usually use twine of a relevant thickness, so I am looking forward to seeing it finished. Not putting you under pressure of course!

here's a bit more then Barrie..............

Joggling"....I like that word.......and I like doing it too.....very
theraputic..................NO!! not that sort of
joggling..................instepping planks into the edging strip I
mean........not playing around with balls whilst I'm running........god
forbid????

I don't know why I am actually doing this on these lifeboats
as the joggling can't be seen once the air boxes and other storeage boxes are in
place, but at least I'll know the task has been undertaken.............and yet
again there is no evidence that the planks were joggled fore and aft on the
actual lifeboats...........I just like doing it.............a break from the
monotony of just laying plank after plank............

so here the
planking prior to sanding, and other finishes is shown.

and a start has
been made on the motor sailer too, but I have underestimated the amount of
obeche' needed and had to order some more this morning...........

I just have a feeling this is going to look beautiful!

I hope so Barrie........just hope so, lol

What a difference a little sanding with 40, 80 and 120 grade paper on a mouse will make.........this took me around 20 minutes this morning to transform the daubed mess of planking, into what I had hoped for.

this was a bit of an experiment, as the method I used had only ever been used on 1/64th and 1/32nd thick plywood before ( cut into planks) and the natural sheen on the birch faced ply always gave a little bit of a barrier to the colouring getting into the grain......however, I am well pleased with the results, and they will now take a stain and a varnish..........as Dell boy would say...."Who dares, wins Wodney. who dares, wins!"

I think taking a chance and experimenting is good for the hobby and makes progression.......without chances you never further yourself for the better.

As the old proverb says."ya can't make an omlette without crackin eggs!"

Love it....

a bit more for you......

progress on the motor sailor has been made...almost finished the full
deck.....just a few outer planks to go on..

:B: Nice Works so far Neil, FYI... I added the new Thumbs up smiley to the emotions for all users... think its called for at times lol

it just came up as a little box with a red cross on my box RR, sorreeeee

uff craptastic...



LMFAO

I'm not sure if this is the right life boat..

However 2 years ago near enough i was down at Cambourne fo a open sail day and another club member put this in the pond.



maybe a little inspiration, i did however at the Liskeard show get a look at a similar rowing mechanism, which in fact its rather simple to achieve.. if you have the ability's...

only ever seen that model as a static display, RR.........but it's a beautiful model............mine are entirely either powered with a single motor or via sail.....contrary to you hhaving faith in me to make something similar........I wouldn't have the skills to engineer the geer to pull that off......have seen a fellow member of the enthusiast club's engineering.........and there's no way............I'll stick to sail and motor power.

cheers. neil.

To be honest the gearing system i have seen is done of a single geared motor, simple servo to control left, right or both ore sets, the principle itself is relatively simple, so far infact Tamiya make a single ore row boat kit!

See Here

The principle is the same for multiple men, just connected more of the ore system up via gears or pulleys.
This tamiya system however is over complex, i'll speak to one of the Looe model boat club members i know next time i see him to see if i can get some images of how his works, you will be very surprised how easy it is, which is why i'm positive you can animate one with your skill lvl.

cheers mate.........would like to see that.
Finished the planking on the motor sailor this morning and finally got to sand
the deck late this afternoon after the glue had set.......the boats are now
ready to stain and varnish.

However, it took a long time with the little
pencil sander


seriously, this tool is worth it's weight in
lead.......it can get into all the little gaps a bigger sander can't and gets a
more level surface than using the hand held abrasive paper.

The next major part of the build is to fit out the interior of the
boats..............and before any varnishing of the interior can begin I will
have to convert all those little pieces of timber( from honduras
mahogany............. a piece I have been saving for years for just such an
occasion) that I have sawn and cut using jigs on my band saw into 36 rectangular
frames to support the side benches and thwartes.

They will all be joined
using half housing joints at each corner............ 154 joints in
all........and all in minature......................see ya all
later..........much later,

Three hundred and twenty four saw cuts to a centre line seems a lot to think about, never mind acheive, and so I needed some way of replicating the same cut without thinking about it, time after time after time.........

And so a cutting board and jig was the only way to acheive it.
I chose a little saw that is seldom used in my workshop, and I don't evenm know the name of the type.........it has minute teath with minimal "set" and has a backbone made from brass that gives a finite depth to the cut................perfect for what I needed.

The backboan would act as a "stop" to the depth IF I could control that and so I made a minature sawing block, the same as what we as kids used in woodwork back in the dark ages where there was just wood work OR metal work to choose from.....none of this Craft design Technology where kids go off at a tangent to produce something that they and gawd only knows what it is meant to be.

The end block of the sawing block that I put the timber up against to be sawn, has a fixed depth which allows the saw, with backbone to only penetrate halfway through the timber to be cut........thus giving the same depth of cut every time, as long as the backbone makes contact with the top of the block..................well..........it worked, in all of 324 cuts, only ONE cut was too deep, and that is because I was watching an interesting bit on Top Gear, and the saw slipped.

Also by using a wooden stop clamped to the end block of the sawing block, each piece of wood comes out perfectly aligned with each and every other piece of the same length.

The position of the cuts was regulated by a stop, clamped to the sawing block, and the whole assembly was clamped to a working board, which itself was clamped to a chair......................and hey presto.......after an hour and a half I had made all the cuts............and, after chisseling and cutting the joints out to the saw cuts one small bench support finally came out of the "works" ready to be glued and then sanded...................only another 35 to make

But that's for another day............my fingers and thumbs hurt like h*** tonight........

It's then just a simple thing to alter the wooden stop on the jig to lengthen or shorten the distance and possition for the next length of wood to repeat the process.

and finally out of all that chaos comes a small support frame ready to be glued and sanded smooth. voila'.

Hmm how have I missed all this progress Neil seems the emails have stopped coming through again some great progress thouigh

oh and Aron I've got my own thumbs up emoticon

summat went wrong with my email provider, Incredimail today.....and for some reason I ended up getting copies of nearly 6 thousand emails dating back to last october....

then I look at it and think what would we have done without emails............I'd never have either sent or received 6000 letters through the post in 5 months before pooters...............makes ya think what drivel we write these days, lol

We can all do that Phil!

Neil, I had used Incredimail for years but have stopped now as it kept doing what you describe. A nuisance to say the least!

I'm using incredimail 2.5 and its working great (So Far)

no problems with it today.strange really.

anyway, that's old news, lol.

back to my build........


Surprisingly, with the aid of the jig I made and
some nice sharp chisels the frames for the side benches took less time than I
anticipated to cut, glue together and then sand down to the result shown
below.

Each set (differing in length for each specific area of the boat)
is however, the same height.

They will now be stained to colour and then
the decks can also be stained and varnished before fitting.














PS..........does anyone want to by a small dewalt band saw...........just putting one in the for sale adds for a mate........60 sobs to be picked up in southport or fleetwood area, which ever easier..........almost new

used Colron spirit based timber dye this morning to colour the decks, bulward
sides and the side bench supports, and think that the Mahogany dirivitive
Obeche' has taken the stain well, giving the red mahogany stain a deep rich
colour on which to varnish.

I checked with a friend in Northern Ireland
who restores classic lifeboats for a living, and who's grand father and great
grand father sailed on the Motor Sailor as Coxs'ns that I am building and he
confirmed that they would have been base mahogany stained and varnished to begin
with, and then eventually painted white or grey once the timber became too dirty
and miscoloured to maintain a decent finish...........so feel justified in
colouring my boats so!

another couple of shots with some fittings in
place to be painted and glued in place before the benches are fabricated and
fixed in place.

But sadly there was much physical pain that came with
dealing with these fittings.












There's a hard way to doing
things,..................and then, with a little latteral thinking, there's
always an easy way to do the same job.

yesterday I was taking off some of
the flange to the 12 valve heads for the relief water valves for one of the
boats........the sanding down of these flanges took me almost an hour to do,
resulting in very sore fingers and thumbs through sanding my fingers as well as
the white metal parts plus inordinate amount of pain caused to my already
arthritic fingers and joints..............not much fun.

I had another 12
of these to do for the second boat today, modifying some white metal fittings I
had in stock....................I couldn't go through that pain again and so sat
for a few minutes to think...............
Not bragging about my lott, but I
have almost every conceivable tool in my workshop to call on to do almost any a
job and could I find one do it.............................considered laithe,
sanders , alsorts.............but then???

well yes was the answer, with
nothing more complicated than a vice, some pieces of dowel and my trusty Black
and Dekker power file.
I mounted the pieces of dowel in the vice, put the
little white metal rings over the dowel to hold them in situ, and then used the
power file to rasp away the flanges................it took me a total of 36
seconds filing to get them all to the level I wanted............with setting up
time about 3 minutes and .................no pain, and the pure satisfaction
that my brain ain't dead as some people say, lol.

They say as you get older you get smarter.....

Roadrunner wrote:

They say as you get older you get smarter.....

unfortunately RR in my case that's the reverse,

my lips are sealed

My good lady's sewing box will never be the same again..........robbery on a
grand scale has just taken place.....more pins than you can shake a stick at


the deck top storage boxes have been cut from mahogany faced 1.8mm ply,
reinforced with 3 x 2mm obeche strip, and glued together with aliphatic resin
and pins ........the tops in two parts will be made as soon as the glue has set
and the edges can be sanded level ( I'm not that good at measuring to the "n" th
degree, and a quick whip over with the belt sander will do nicely, thankyou).

boxes have now got their none opening box lids and when set will be fitted individually into each corner of the boats.









Have been a busy boy this evening, and sanded each box to fit the corner of the boat it was meant for.
Then I gave each one a coat of Red Mahogany stain.......these are going to have another coat to give them a deeper lustre than the planking and set them aside, before all will be given a couple of gloss varnish coats.

I progressed yesterday with the build but thought of it as a day of reflection, ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7946923.stm ) and no one wanted to hear about cockups and mistakes........which there were plenty of.....glued pieces dropped in the dust, restained parts that had to be blended in to the surroundings because they were too dark......................oh and yes................mis measurements that would make a 5 year old shake his/her head, lol

I think my mind was elsewhere.
Anyway, it was a time for fitting the side bench supports, and rather than mark the timber decks with pencil marks I ran a strip of masking tape the length of the deck where the supports were going to go, counted the gaps, and marked out an equal measurement using a nicely cut piece of ply to that measurement.......................errrrr..............wrong!!!..........by doing that I had actually 2 supports measured than I had............luckily the measurements had been made on the masking tape and not the deck...........

back to the drawing board and measuring the gaps for the number of supports I had, I made a correction and was only a mere 19 mm out.............so another piece of ply and a remark got me to where I should have been had I not had brain failure a little while before..........

The moral being, measure twice, or even 3 times........stick once.

slowly making progress, and there is so much woodwork on these two models, every peice has to be cut to size.

Today after fitting the bench supports into the saling boat I then had to cap each support with a further piece of wood to bring the benches up to the right height for the cross thwartes to sit correctly.

I bought some offcuts of 10 x 3 mm x 3 mtrs of Iroko ( of the Teak family) some years ago for 50p each............cleared out the local wood suppliers of it, and thought that they would come in some day for a model................well, today was the day................I also cut the side bench slats out of these pieces and promptly took them for a bath...........

There is quite some sheer fore to aft on these two boats and so to aid the slats fitting onto the bench supports I put the slats ( pre cut to size and numbered) into a warm bath with a support at one end and a heavy battery centre to give the slats a nice curve to sit neatly onto the bench supports.

After a couple of hours soaking they are now in the same possition but on the kitchen worktop drying out........they'll keep that bent shape once dried out and will be easier to glue into place on the boat.

Finally today I started making the flotation bouyancy boxes for under the benches on both lifeboats.

These boxes were placed into many of the older boats and up to the Wooden hulled late Watsons and Rothers for just what they say on the tin..........should the wooden lifeboat's hull be penetrated in any way where water ingress was difficult to stop, these boxes ( which were made from timber and coated with calico and many layers of paint to make them also water tight) were placed inside and under such benches to make the lifeboat practically unsinkable.
I have in total, 16 pairs of the boxes to make ( made 7 pairs today) and NOT ONE pair is the same measurement as the next, because of the curvature of the bulwarks that they fit upto. the only common measurement is the height of all the boxes..................so it's slow going.
However to get them all correct I made a simple rough sketch of the box plan, took the measurements from the bench supports and then transfered the data to plasticard

However getting there, and have made them all from 2 and 1mm plasticard with plastiweld liquid cement
##



















Quite a slog, and mind baffling at times as each pair was different in measurement to the next, but got there in the end......just have to sand them smooth now with some rough abrasive paper, in a circular motion.......it gives a nice texture when sprayed and will represent the calico covering of the boxes.

You have the patience of Job my friend

......not to mention plenty of skill!

Yeah that to Barry

and a propensity to plod on and on and on and ON!!!.
Thanks guys.
I think that is why I stopped making large warships years ago ..........found the monotony of making the same little bits by the dozen so soul destroying that I then had to paint them all grey.........became too tedious.

However, I think that the monotonous work on these has now come to an end, and although there is still some construction before I start adding the fittings, everything else will be plain sailing.

Back to the timber work now, and I'm beginning to
get a little more excited...........these boats are beginning to formulate into
the models I hoped they would be.

the different colours and hews of the
timbers, even before they have been varnished is showing up now to give a very
classic look to them.

The timber slats for the benches have retained
their curved shape now that they have dried out, and all the bouancy boxes have
now fitted into their respective slots between the bench supports, and will be
sanded smooth tomorrow before painting.

The bench slats have also been
cut to length and are now seated where they now sit, but will not be glued into
place until all decks and surrounds have been varnished, and bouyancy boxes
painted and glued in place.............or I won't be able to get them
in.......the pictures below are a dry fit only.

and here's a tale of warning........don't write on white plasticard with black
sharpy pen......even if you sand it down so that the writing is almost
invisible............

the paint brings the black ink out as dark as ever,
and it takes 8 coats of white satin paint to almost cover it........bah humbug!!

Now that the decks have been varnished, and the
boxes painted, I can now glue in the boxes, after lettering them freehand as the
real boat was with box possitions, using two part epoxy.

The bench slats
were glued onto the bench supports using the same, and pinning them with small
brass pins.

finally I cut the thwartes and temporarily fitted them to the
Motor sailor.

However, unlike the motor sailer which according to the
plans and photos of a couple of boats of period, which shows the thwartes
sitting on top of the bench slats, the pulling and sailing boat has the thwarts
fitted on top of the bouyancy boxes, but under the bench
slats.....

Unfortunately the wood I have bought for the thwartes for both
boats is too thick for the sailing boat and so haven't fitted the bench slats
permenantly and so will have to go to my local shop for some thinnner stuff on
monday.......ceste la vie.........looks like rest time tomorrow then.

The
small delicately turned spindles seen on the stern box in the last shot were ( I
have to be brutaly honest) not turned by me but by my friend who was selling the
tools the other day, but these are going to be used as the thwartes supports for
the motor sailor.....and they are lovely little works of arts.

working towards the point where I can glue on the bow end box top, I have been fabricating the small ancilliary storage, lantern and fog horn boxes for both boats, plus their supports and the compass box for the aft end.......all made from 1.8mm mahogany faced ply, glued with 2 part epoxy and all will be stained and varnished, hinge barrels added along with hasp and staples plys padlocks before gluing in place `

managed to get the Fuel tank covers and part of
the aft gearbox cover made this evening.......will complete them all tomorrow,
but am now seeing double after so much measuring so time to call it a day as I
can't concentrate any longer.

Last shot is of the gear box cover under a
"press" and gluing.

Neil, I haven't been posting very often but I have been following the build with great interest.
As usual you are doing a great job. They are going to be brilliant when finished

Geoff

thanks geoff.......how are you, have you not been well.

take care.

neil

ahhh, aha!....not all is as seen lol.

I
must write out 100 times........."I must not be arogant and not bother looking
at my plans"

You'd have thought that after nearly 52 years of scratch
building that I could get a model right...........but yet agai I failed to do
the basics and check sizes......the rear gearbox housing cover wasn't and I made
the rased combing about 10mm too high, so had to chop it today using a drill to
route it all off and then sand down to a level so that the top would fit onto
the base, made last night.needless work that a quick check on the plans would
have shown........ceste la vie....

anyway all made and fitted now.

Great recovery Neil!

I think I cause myself more work by thinking I can blunder on regardless than taking a few minutes to check...............it's not an age thing, and not just restricted to model making, Barrie...........I am a gemini by birth, and really live up to the profile of being impetuous.........I suppose at 61........going on 62 though, I'll never change, lol

So I'm not the only Gemini that does these things feel better now.

theres three of us now, I was born day before you damien and old neil:lol!: was born the year before:lol!: check profile, that's spooky: thoses words are so true neil

david

we should get together in 4 years and have a damn good party, lol

as for the model...............................oh well!!


I started a job today, that I have been putting off for a while now........the making of the brass tabernacles for the two boats.....4 in all.

I had priced up fancy ones in brass etched stuff and at the thickness I wanted 1.5mm brass ( needed to be heavy guage to take the masts and sails as they couldn't be "stepped" into the deck or keel) they were going to cost me over £150 quid for the four............so decided to cut the brass and silver solder together the parts using my propane torch and portable hearth.

I don't like sawing metal as I can never seem to get a straight line, but was amazed how well I did with a minimum of filing to straighten up................I also filed the four upstands for each pair together to get them all exact shape.

All went well, and they are a very simple and sturdy tabernacle with no cutting out of centres and I was soon down to the soldering.....set them up with simple jigs.......and a soldering away I went................two down, two to go......................and I ran out of propane

Have had the bottle for nearly 8 years, and it has to run out when all the gas shops are now closed for 4 days for Easter..........bah humbug.

last two shots are of the 3rd tabernacle sat waiting for the gas man

What do you use for flux ? Borax ?

Neil, If its 8 years since you bought propane stand by for a shock when you go for a refill

Barrie