H.M.S. Surprise by Artesania Latina - Build log
- Thread starter RegW
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Time for a decision regarding the finish (treatment) of the masts. I've avoided the use of paint as much as possible and prefer the use of oil based (penetrating) stains. I know these are excellent wood preservatives and bring-out the beauty of fine wood grain. However, oil stains need to dry for several weeks before most glues will adhere. I'll be using trenails to attach the mast strengtheners, so this will not be an immediate issue. But the cheeks and hounds will require glue. I know I create these issues myself. Shrug.
Cleaned up the mancave in preparation for making the ship yards and mast work. The kit masts were unusable due to warping, so I've ordered replacements - but those will take a couple of weeks to arrive. So, I'll work on the yards whenever I have the time.
Clearly I made a big error when I chose the epoxy floor colour.... everything I drop disappears! Sure is easy to vacuum up important items if I'm not careful.
I managed to get the yards all trimmed to the correct length. Just need to figure-out which tools I'll use to taper them correctly.
Clearly I made a big error when I chose the epoxy floor colour.... everything I drop disappears! Sure is easy to vacuum up important items if I'm not careful.
I managed to get the yards all trimmed to the correct length. Just need to figure-out which tools I'll use to taper them correctly.
Work on the yards and masts is in progress. I found an error in the kit plans that is a personal head-scratcher. I'm not sure if this is an A.L. anomaly, or common with all kit manufacturers. So the following issue appears on several mast and yard items in this kit. In the example shown below, the kit provides a 6 mm walnut dowel that is fairly accurate in diameter for the length of it. However, the plan calls for this dowel to be "trimmed " to an 8 square profile with no loss of dimensioning. Magic?
. 
I'm sure this is obvious to all of the experienced builders here - it was obvious to me, and I'm new to this hobby. Shown in the image (above right) I used a 12mm dowel for example. If we take that 12 mm dowel and perfectly trim the sides to 8 square (without any waste) we will decrease the dimensioning from 12 mm
to approximately 11 mm.
So, I'll make some minor dimensioning changes to make my masts look fine. OCD is kickin' my butt. Ack!
. I'm sure this is obvious to all of the experienced builders here - it was obvious to me, and I'm new to this hobby. Shown in the image (above right) I used a 12mm dowel for example. If we take that 12 mm dowel and perfectly trim the sides to 8 square (without any waste) we will decrease the dimensioning from 12 mm
to approximately 11 mm.
So, I'll make some minor dimensioning changes to make my masts look fine. OCD is kickin' my butt. Ack!
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Work has been keeping me away from home, but I've spent a bit of time on the ship this weekend. I've installed a number of parts that I knew were going to be difficult to do properly (considering my lack of experience with these). I completed the netting (screen) on the dec stanchions. Yay!
Managed to get the yards and masts (which were delivered last week, and replaced the warped dowels from the kit) tapered on my lathe. I'm sure that a smaller lathe would make this easier, but the tool rest on my machine spans almost the entire length of the yards. This made it easy to get near-perfect tapers.
I've made 8-square items before, but they were all furniture size. Doing these small units was a concern, however the 12-stops on the lathe made it a walk-in-the-park.
Work on the yards will take longer than I originally estimated as so many of these require battens. In the following image I've roughed-in 3 of these batten yards. All of the yards which have two parallel green masking tapes near the centre also require battens.
When I researched these "battened yards" using James Lees book I noticed that they should have iron rings around them to secure the battens. The A.L. plans do not include these and call for rope to be used instead. If I can find some thin brass sheets in my stored stuff, then I'll make these rings. Otherwise I'll just follow the kit plan.
I couldn't find profile images or advice for exactly how these batten should appear (from the side). So I used my collection of router "rounding bits" to
make the side of the batten that contacts the yard the same profile as the yard. This avoided gaps. I like the look, but am uncertain if this is correct.
While working on the yard and mast "tapering", I made use of my smallest steady-rest. This unit saved me great frustration and permitted me to stick to my self-imposed accuracy limit of +/- 0.05mm for all measurements.
Managed to get the yards and masts (which were delivered last week, and replaced the warped dowels from the kit) tapered on my lathe. I'm sure that a smaller lathe would make this easier, but the tool rest on my machine spans almost the entire length of the yards. This made it easy to get near-perfect tapers.
I've made 8-square items before, but they were all furniture size. Doing these small units was a concern, however the 12-stops on the lathe made it a walk-in-the-park.
Work on the yards will take longer than I originally estimated as so many of these require battens. In the following image I've roughed-in 3 of these batten yards. All of the yards which have two parallel green masking tapes near the centre also require battens.
When I researched these "battened yards" using James Lees book I noticed that they should have iron rings around them to secure the battens. The A.L. plans do not include these and call for rope to be used instead. If I can find some thin brass sheets in my stored stuff, then I'll make these rings. Otherwise I'll just follow the kit plan.
I couldn't find profile images or advice for exactly how these batten should appear (from the side). So I used my collection of router "rounding bits" to
make the side of the batten that contacts the yard the same profile as the yard. This avoided gaps. I like the look, but am uncertain if this is correct.
While working on the yard and mast "tapering", I made use of my smallest steady-rest. This unit saved me great frustration and permitted me to stick to my self-imposed accuracy limit of +/- 0.05mm for all measurements.
Notwithstanding my last update, I have been outside of my "comfort zone" a number of times during the recent ship construction... And have felt a little like
this...
this...
The kit provided several different yard diameters, and 10 yards require battens. In my attempt to figure out the most accurate method of attaching battens I probably chose the most difficult way. I used some basic math to determine the circumference of the various yards in order to trim the battens so that each yard would have 8 battens set at 45º to each other.
I know that Circumference = 2πr, and r = the radius (half the yard diameter).
For a yard dowel with a diameter of 5 mm the radius is 2.5 mm
C = 2 x 3.1415 x 2.5
C = 15.70 mm
For 8 battens to fit perfectly 15.7 ÷ 8 = 1.96 mm wide.
This yard will be the most difficult to assemble. The larger dowels will be easier (I thought).
The kit instructions do not provide any details for this part of the build. At first glance it appeared they wanted this:
But this would have gaps between the yard and the batten. So I knew that I would round the bottoms of the battens to fit without a gap.
And I trimmed the battens to permit each to fit the yard correctly (in my opinion).
Building these using the above method was a challenge for me. I can think of much easier ways to do this (now) LOL!
I know that Circumference = 2πr, and r = the radius (half the yard diameter).
For a yard dowel with a diameter of 5 mm the radius is 2.5 mm
C = 2 x 3.1415 x 2.5
C = 15.70 mm
For 8 battens to fit perfectly 15.7 ÷ 8 = 1.96 mm wide.
This yard will be the most difficult to assemble. The larger dowels will be easier (I thought).
The kit instructions do not provide any details for this part of the build. At first glance it appeared they wanted this:
But this would have gaps between the yard and the batten. So I knew that I would round the bottoms of the battens to fit without a gap.
And I trimmed the battens to permit each to fit the yard correctly (in my opinion).
Building these using the above method was a challenge for me. I can think of much easier ways to do this (now) LOL!
Here are the 10 yards with battens attached:
The smallest yard, show on the right below) tested my questionable skill:
Next step - rig the yards. I was hoping to use one of my semi-transparent stains on the yards, but some of these have strange wood grain anomalies which will probably be emphasized by staining. I may have to "throw in the towel" and paint these items. Oh darn
The smallest yard, show on the right below) tested my questionable skill:
Next step - rig the yards. I was hoping to use one of my semi-transparent stains on the yards, but some of these have strange wood grain anomalies which will probably be emphasized by staining. I may have to "throw in the towel" and paint these items. Oh darn
what about just painting the area where the battens are black and then staining the remaining part of the yards?