Amazing work----Notches for carlings and ledges

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I have been looking with awe at some of the builds. I'll use Stuglo's Swan series as an example. I can't wrap my head around how he manages to get all the notches for the carlings and ledges in the right spot without actually cutting them in place. Near as I can understand the notches are cut before the pieces are glued in the ship. How do they mark all the carling notches in the beams and even harder, the ledge notches in the carlings? If they cut them on a milling machine doesn't that mean that they would have to do a separate setup for each notch as none/few of them are equally spaced. I know how long it takes me to set up my mill for a cut and doing that for every notch strikes me as next to impossible. And yet I see pictures of perfect lines of carlings and ledges. Is there some method that I am unaware of? Talent and patience maybe, I'm a little shy of those:) I just don't understand how this is done. Can someone enlighten me?
 
I'm working on 1:84 scale model of HMS Sovereign of the Seas and installed all the middle gun deck supports in a similar fashion to Stuglo (although his work may be a bit neater than mines). Before carlings are installed the beveled notches to be cut using a 3 or 4mm wide diamond file are marked with a ruler and pencil across all the beams. Ledges are simply prestained sticks of wood cut such that they press fit in between the carlings and/or side of the ship. A segment of wood is sanded to the proper interference fit with a sanding block and PVA glued into place, taking care to get it aligned in the correct location before the glue starts drying. It goes at a slow but even pace once you've done a few. The process I used is in my build log at this link: SotS Build Log
 
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Thanks Kurt. You do it much as I do but you manage to line them up straighter. :) I ground the last couple of inches of a common triangle file to the width of the carlings and another to the width of the ledges. It works pretty well. How do you deal with the spots you just can't reach with the file, the forward end of the lower deck for example? I've bookmarked your build for future reference. It looks like there is a ton of info there. I've tried to find builds like yours in the past but there are so many builds and a lot/most of them don't use POF and I get tired of going through page after page of build after build and finding nothing. I know there is a ton of info here but sometimes it's buried so deep as to be almost inaccessible. I find the search feature almost useless. The results seem almost random. Maybe just my not picking the right search terms.
I still don't understand how guys like Stuglo and Dan Vadas can mill all these slots ahead of time. Magic I guess:)
 
Thanks Kurt. You do it much as I do but you manage to line them up straighter. :) I ground the last couple of inches of a common triangle file to the width of the carlings and another to the width of the ledges. It works pretty well. How do you deal with the spots you just can't reach with the file, the forward end of the lower deck for example? I've bookmarked your build for future reference. It looks like there is a ton of info there. I've tried to find builds like yours in the past but there are so many builds and a lot/most of them don't use POF and I get tired of going through page after page of build after build and finding nothing. I know there is a ton of info here but sometimes it's buried so deep as to be almost inaccessible. I find the search feature almost useless. The results seem almost random. Maybe just my not picking the right search terms.
I still don't understand how guys like Stuglo and Dan Vadas can mill all these slots ahead of time. Magic I guess:)
I don't know. I draw the lines, and file a bevel, file the ends of the carling at 45 degrees, test fit, if it fits, glue it. If not, file some more. Check to see that it's lined up with previous segments. There were some angles I could barely reach with a file under the poop deck. I did manage to get the bevels filed, very slowly, sometimes at 35 degree angle instead of 45, but deep enough to accept the end of the carling segment. It came out looking satisfactory because I took the time to make each and every piece line up right. PURE PATIENCE.

For the ledges, those are aligned by eye, so they're aren't perfect but close enough. After putting some PVA glue on the ends, I use tweezer to adjust the ledges into a press fit between the carlings once they are sized correctly. Then, check alignment. All this takes very steady hands. I don't plan out all the milled slots like those other guys because the result for me to just cut and build as I go gets decent results, not as precise as theirs, but all my deck structure will be buried inside the ship and 80% of it will never be seen even with the borescope camera. My model will NOT be a cutaway model. I know the guts are in there, and that's all that counts. I'm doing it this way just for fun, and all this extra work is just for practice and to add detail to a rather plain POB model.

After all the carlings and ledges are installed and the glue is well dry, a 2" wide x3" long sanding block with 80 grit sandpaper was used LIGHTLY with lots of careful strokes to reduce the high spots in the deck structure, because some of the carlings protruded slightly higher than the deck beams. The result was smooth enough to lay 3-ply 1mm thick plywood sections on for the false deck, which will be planked over with strips of Tanganyika wood to become the middle deck. The plywood is thin enough to cut with sharp scissors and sections will have their seams located on the middle of beams and carlings in whatever pattern seems easiest. Electrical wires for the LED's will run in gaps provide in some of these seams. The wires will then get planked over. That's the plan at this point. It took me 7 days to build the entire deck structure, cutting little sticks with a guillotine razor wood cutter and filing to length one at a time while rocking out to music.

Most guys who build like Stuglo build at 1:48 scale, so they can mill parts to perfection and installation is easier. At 1:84 scale, I have a much harder time duplicating that level of detail. Certain shortcuts in detail have to be made as you go from 1:48 to say 1:100 scale. Look at my first build, La Couronne, for a really BUSY model at 1:100 scale. It has full sails and rigging, but little on the inside. For HMS Sovereign of the Seas, I wanted to add as much as possible on the inside to a certain level of detail, but when I started making the middle gun deck support structure, things got out of control and the level of detail took off like a rocket because it became a fun challenge.

Hey Don, all my support to the truckers of THE HONKENING up there in Canuck land!
 
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I have been looking with awe at some of the builds. I'll use Stuglo's Swan series as an example. I can't wrap my head around how he manages to get all the notches for the carlings and ledges in the right spot without actually cutting them in place. Near as I can understand the notches are cut before the pieces are glued in the ship. How do they mark all the carling notches in the beams and even harder, the ledge notches in the carlings? If they cut them on a milling machine doesn't that mean that they would have to do a separate setup for each notch as none/few of them are equally spaced. I know how long it takes me to set up my mill for a cut and doing that for every notch strikes me as next to impossible. And yet I see pictures of perfect lines of carlings and ledges. Is there some method that I am unaware of? Talent and patience maybe, I'm a little shy of those:) I just don't understand how this is done. Can someone enlighten me?
At first I measured from the plans in the TFFM practicum, but then found that my hull was not exactly the same. Particularly the port and starboard are not exactly mirror image. Even 0.5mm difference has an accumulative effect. With all beams temporarily seated I mark the centre line which is not necessarily the center of the beam (but if perfect, should be).The carlings are equidistant from this line. Therefore after the first few beams, I use a combination of where the carlings and ledges should be, a ruler for direction/angle and eyeball. I take each beam at a time but check it against the previous, already fixed beam, and anticipate the requirements of the next to be fitted. Marked in pencil the area to be removed. To have "squared" cuts uppermost, I mill the mortis with the beam on its side. Usually 4 mortises to each side. After making the Knees to size, I mill the notches in the Lodging Knee with the paper plan still stuck in place. I With Knees fitted, again temporarily , I cut and fit the carlings. Taking a straight line, connecting the mortises cut in the Knees, the Ledges are marked as if they cut across the carlings. This notches are now made. Being short, little adjustment is needed for the mill.
Despite everything, mistakes are made. Small ones can be rectified by widening the mortise in either direction, Small gaps filled with dust or chips, otherwise remake the piece. Remember that even when further along, if the alignment/symmetry seems wrong to the eye, cotton swab and alcohol allow the part to be refixed or remade.
PS before moving a temporarily fixed piece, mark for place and orientation. More than once, I have stuck a carling incorrectly as they often LOOK the same.
 
Thank you Stu. I'm on the upper deck of the Discovery1789 now. Maybe I'll try your method on the quarterdeck. I only have a full sized mill (well, a small full sized one) so It may be tough to do.
 
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