Tapering masts

M

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What's the best way to taper the masts, I've seen videos use planers but that seems a little risky to me. My plan is mark off 1" sections, sand the whole mast then move another inch down and sand again, keep going till its tapered, yes its slower but less risky.
Is there a better way I haven't thought of
 
is the mast going to be rotating or stationary when sanding?
what part of Canada are you in as i'm in Ontario just south of Barrie which is north of Toronto?
 
how long & what is the diameter of the mast(s)?
i have a sister that works in Ottawa but lives in Gatineau.
 
I just secure an end of a dowel into electric drill chuck. Then I take a drill with my right hand, take a piece of coarse sanding paper into the other hand and apply it onto the dowel. I am measuring the taper diameters once in a while. I change the sandpaper to finer one a few times towards the end of the job. I did all masts and spars this way for my Victory model 1:90 scale.
 
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Y.T., depends on how the dowel lays on the belt sander, laying perpendicular to the belt or lying parallel along the running centerline of the belt.
 
How to turn a spar without a lathe:

As described above: Place the dowel in a drill chuck on a drill press or electric drill motor held in a vise. Take a long straight, stiff, batten and glue a strip of 120 grit sandpaper to one side of it and a strip of 320 grit sandpaper to the opposite side. (The purpose of the straight, stiff batten holding the sandpaper is to ensure that when placed against the dowel, it will sand a uniformly flat shape. Just using a loose piece of sandpaper tends to result in a "wavy" tapering of the dowel.)

Turn on the drill, taking care that the dowel doesn't "whip" (and ultimately break) when spinning. If it tends to whip, steady it with one hand at the free end. A piece of cloth held in the hand works well, but take care that the friction doesn't create heat sufficient to start the cloth burning.) Alternately, make a supporting jig, which can be as simple as a piece of wood held upright with a hole slightly larger than the dowel drilled in it which can be clamped to the bench or drill press table with the free end of the dowel run through the hole to prevent whipping. (It goes without saying that the dowel must be longer than needed for the spar to allow for the additional dowel length needed to support each end of the dowel with the tapering done between the two supported ends of the dowel.)

With the dowel chucked and supported as necessary, spin the dowel and apply the batten parallel to the dowel with the 120 grit face of the batten against the spinning dowel at an angle approximating the angle of desired taper and sand the dowel to form the taper. Measure with a calipers at each end of the dowel to ensure the correct taper is being created. When slightly shy of the exact tapered diameter, turn over the batten and finish sanding to exact as before but with the 320 grit sandpaper side of the batten against the dowel. (This finer grit sanding removes the fine horizontal lines that are created by the circular motion of the rotating dowel against the heavier grit sandpaper, thereby yielding a smooth surface. The 120 grit sanding may look satisfactory, but there's a high likelihood the 120 grit lines will show up when any sort of clear finish is applied to the spar.) If you intend to apply a bright finish to the spar, apply some finish (e.g. thinned polyurethane, Minwax, etc.) to a soft cloth and apply to the spar while spinning. When the spar is tapered and, if needed, finished, cut off the surplus dowel ends (and touch the cut spar ends up with your clear finish) and you're spar is good to go.
 
For masts with a lot of taper, I have used threading dies to quickly tough the mast close to the correct diameter, then sandpaper to finish it.

Anyone ever try combining both of the previously described techniques? Clamp a belt sander to the bench (belt side up ;)), then chuck the dowel in a drill and hold it at a shallow angle to the belt. I might give this a try myself since I find mast tapering to be a rather laborious process.
 
Bob Cleek said:
When the spar is tapered and, if needed, finished, cut off the surplus dowel ends (and touch the cut spar ends up with your clear finish) and you're spar is good to go.
Click to expand...
Here I would like to add that most of spars I had seen have octagon shape at one end or another. Then the square dowel is getting four edges removed with a plane till octagon shape is obtained all across the length of the dowel. Sometimes an octagon shape is also getting tapered. This I did on a disk sander. Then the round portion of the spar is getting turned as I described above or more elaborate here:

Bob Cleek said:
How to turn a spar without a lathe:
Click to expand...
 
Y.T. said:
I would like to add that most of spars I had seen have octagon shape at one end or another.
Click to expand...
Thanks YT, this is really interesting and new for me. Can you post some sample photos of spars or spars with this shape on either end? Speaking for English ships, from Lees' Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, for the main and fore yards, in the eras when there was an octagon, it was in the middle but never on the ends. Same situation for the fore and main topsail yards. The mizen yard was round the entire length. The drawings below with the various cleat designs show all round yards outboard, but it sounds like you found exceptions. The fish davits were commonly octagonal outboard after about 1773 and for their entire length from 1840 but so far I cannot find any other ancillary spars or mast rigged yards that had an octagonal shape at the ends. That said, exceptions are usually fun to find :)
Allan
1742948986052.jpeg
 
Namabiiru said:
For masts with a lot of taper, I have used threading dies to quickly tough the mast close to the correct diameter, then sandpaper to finish it.

Anyone ever try combining both of the previously described techniques? Clamp a belt sander to the bench (belt side up ;)), then chuck the dowel in a drill and hold it at a shallow angle to the belt. I might give this a try myself since I find mast tapering to be a rather laborious process.
Click to expand...

I'd expect it would take a very steady hand, since that's going to be a pretty aggressive wood removal process. In my experience, most of the time an untethered dowel end is going to whip around a bit and any movement of the spinning dowel against the sander belt may well create an uneven taper surface. It's sort of like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time! :) Worth a try, though.
 
Y.T. said:
Here I would like to add that most of spars I had seen have octagon shape at one end or another. Then the square dowel is getting four edges removed with a plane till octagon shape is obtained all across the length of the dowel. Sometimes an octagon shape is also getting tapered. This I did on a disk sander. Then the round portion of the spar is getting turned as I described above or more elaborate here:
Click to expand...

Yes, indeed. That process is left to the builder's creativity, I suppose. What I do is to carefully mark off the segments that are to be squared, six, or eight-sided on the tapered spar while it is still mounted in the drill motor or drill press (or in one of my lathes :).) This is easily done with a knife or sharp pencil with the spar turning. If the knife or pencil is held steady, it will mark a perfect circle around the spar as the spar turns. (If you can do it freehand, you're a better man than I!) Then cut down on the lines a bit and then shave four flats suitably deep between the marks so that you can glue four pieces of wood onto the flats, thereby building up a thicker section of wood between the marks which then can be planed or carved to the number of sides required. The flat sides can then be again turned and sanded at each end to fair the flat sides into the round mast.

Alternately, if the flat sided section of the spar is at the end(s) of the spar, that shape can be carved into the original (now larger) end section of the spar dowel which was chucked into the drill and/or left unsanded at the free end. Other accretions on masts and spars, such as chaffing strips, eyebolts, bands, and such can be added in the usual manner.
 
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