Alvin Clark

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Once the coamings are assembled you need to trim the lips at the corners shown in the upper left hand corner in the photo.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Lay out the upright posts i always use a T pin to make a small starter hole so the drill will not wonder once it touches the wood.There is very little room so any slight movement in drilling will make a big error and i do not want to remake the coamings. Next mark out the holes for the iron window rods. Looking at the bottom of the coaming you can see the holes drilled all the way through the coaming for the rods.



Next mark out and drill the holes for the iron window rods. Looking at the bottom of the coaming you can see the holes drilled all the way through the coaming for the rods.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

The next step in the building of the skylight is to make the upright posts. In the photo of the actual skylight you will see these posts were set into the coamings with a mortise and tenon joint. It seems a bit extreme to make the joint but it is not all that difficult and it does create a strong joint. Begin by cutting off the corners of a piece of square stock, next cut the sides down, finally drill a hole the correct size in a piece of hardwood and twist the end of the stick into the hole.



The parts are getting really small

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

It is hard to say exactly how many rods were in each window frame. From a guess the rods were possibly one quarter of an inch diameter rods, which would be so small it would be almost impossible to reproduce in scale. The next best thing is to use three rods per window at a larger scale. First glue on the roof structure and insert the rods from the bottom. A dab of epoxy holds them in place. When all the rods are in, snip them off flush with the bottom of the coaming. Give the sides of the skylight a light sanding and its finished.



Taking a picture of the finished shylight

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

there was a winch that lowered and raised the center board



on the model the suare opening was marked and drilled out



once the a hole was drilled through the deck planking it was squared off




all the parts were made from a machineable Delron plastic and wood.



one knee of the winch sat on the deck and the other sat on the heavy planks that ran down the center of the deck. both knees were cut out the same but
the notch was at a different level so when the lower notched knee sat on the higher center planks the notch would even out.


once the knees were in place it was just a matter to assemble the winch

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

making the windlass


here is the actual windlass on the Alvin Clark



to start i turned a barrel on the lathe



the first thing to do is carve in the ratchet teeth

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

First job on the windless is to cut the teeth for the pawl. To begin the process, take the circumference of the windlass and divide it by 14. This gives the size for each tooth. Mark out the teeth on a piece of masking tape then cut a strip the width of the teeth. Take the strip of marked tape and wrap it around the windlass.





The process of cutting the teeth begins with making a knife cut down the center between two lines. Remove one side of the tape close to the line

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[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Begin by making two end cuts, starting at the center push the point of the knife straight in and then make a slanting cut towards the line. Go back and make a deeper cut along the center tape edge. Make the first cuts in the area where the tape is removed. Cut straight down along the edge of the tape between the lines then cut at an angle towards the line, what your doing is cutting the side of one tooth.





Once you have the valley between two teeth cut out it is just the process of repeating the steps all the way around the windlass




Thickness of the lines is actually about the thickness of the top edge of the teeth. When first cutting out the teeth I stayed a little back from the lines. This was done to save a little material to clean up and straighten out the teeth once they are all cut. The little curl of wood shows how small the final cuts are.

 

[Uwek]

Good work on these notches

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Looking at the windlass the bars are set into groves in the barrel. These bars are there to prevent the chain from digging into the wooden barrel and wearing it away.



A piece of fine wire would do the trick by gluing it on to the barrel or cutting groves and setting the wire in the grove. The wire I had on hand was to stiff and would not conform correctly to the barrel and at the ends where the barrel changes shape. Another idea was to use rigging line coated in Epoxy. A test run proved to work, the line was stiff but not so stiff it would not conform to the barrel. To prepare the rigging line a piece was stretched between clamps and epoxy applied.



To glue the line to the barrel really small rubber bands were needed. These were simply made by tying off the end of a rubber band. A hook was used to lift the rubber bands to slip the line under them.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

When all the lines are in place and cleaned up then apply the rings. Use a little dab of Epoxy or super glue to hold the rings in place. The rings are made of a strong flexible plastic so you should be able to push them on without breaking. In the photos of the Alvin Clark the iron rings look like a dull rust color. I don’t know what they looked like in the working days of the Alvin Clark but I thought the jet black color was a bit to dark, so I scuffed them up with a 400 grit sandpaper