6/11 to 7/2
I’m back from Vallarta but it took almost a week for me to get my hands on my Bluenose… just too much stuff that needs my attention after being gone for over two months. I’m glad in many ways of being home, but I’ll be glad when it feels like home again.
First up is “what” exactly should I work on first? I decided to work on the chainplates followed by the eyelets.
Lots of written text (even for me) for what ended up a fairly small amount of work.
I liked the way Gary Brinker did them on his YouTube channel (BLUENOSE PART 19… Deadeyes & Chainplates) which is similar to what is shown in the instructions. Looks nice and the deadeyes are functional. The first one took about an hour (minus the three holes) and while I know I’d improve on the time and appearance, I wasn’t super impressed by my work. I also knew duplicating them (there are a total of 20) would be difficult and time consuming.
Then I built one like many builders do including the Suburban Ship Modeler. The first one took about 20 minutes (minus the three holes), and just like the other method I knew I’d improve upon the time and look, but I also felt in addition to looking better, they would be easier to duplicate.
The test came when I put both of these on the ship side by side. Bottom line the second method looked better. Plus I felt it would be easier to duplicate.
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Building them is involved but fairly straightforward except for the drilling of the holes. More on that later.
- Wrap wire around the deadeye
- Twist the ends of the wire tightly together
- Drill a hole about 1/4” from the end in the brass strip
- Feed the twisted ends through the hole in the brass strip
- Fold the end of the brass strip over upon itself trapping the twisted wire
- Measure and cut the chainplate to the proper length
- Cut the tip into a point
- Drill three (or two for the smaller ones) holes in the strip on the opposite end as the deadeye
- Secure the deadeye to the brass strip with a drop of superglue holding the twisted wire between the folds of the strip
I started building them out and I’m halfway done (8 large and 2 small) with the first part of the chainplates.
The second part is drilling the holes for mounting them to the hull - each needs either 2 or 3 holes. Drilling the holes was the most difficult part of the overall process not just because drilling with a pin vice was proving to be difficult, but more importantly, if the hole wasn’t right in the middle of the strip, the brass strip would break when I folded it over. I used a push pin as a center punch, but the drilling was still daunting. I even tried using my GOXAWEE Rotary Tool (a Dremel-like tool) but it was still difficult.
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I’m sure it would have been easier if I had a pair of magnifying glasses and a drill press - neither of which I currently have. I believe my local club (Rocky Mountain Shipwrights) has a drill press that I can borrow so I will wait on drilling the attachment holes.
Saturday June 15th was the club meeting where I picked up the drill press. Hopefully it will make things easier.
There was a learning curve on using the drill press (after all, I’m still drilling into a 1/16” strip), but I was able to finish the 2nd half of the chainplates (other than the 3 holes) in about an hour.
I build a small jig to help with the 3 holes… and yes it’s just stiff cardboard taped to a board but it does the trick.
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As long as I take it slowly, I am able to drill the holes in one chainplate. I really need to focus on taking my time. One poorly drilled hole and I have to completely rebuild the chainplate. Of the 20, I end up needing to rebuild 5. The biggest take away is that with such a small drill bit, it tends to be flexible. When it touches the brass strip, it can very easily bend slightly and move off center. To resolve this, I have to tightly hold the strip against the table which is a bit difficult as the strip gets hot plus I have to hold it very close to the desired location of the hole… right next to the drill’s chuck. I end us using some old tweezers that have a bent tip.
After all 20 are drilled, I add a drop of super glue to where the twisted wire of the deadeye is located in folded strip. This goes fairly smoothly although the glue fills a few of the holes in the deadeyes. I’m able to drill these out on all of them except for one which I have to rebuild.
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I then paint the brass black.
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Looking at the rails that they will go through before being attached to the hull, I notice that while I made the slits for the chainplates for the foremast, I did not do it for the mainmast. And these slits actually need to go through two rails. Ugh. Since it’s been a few months since cut the slits, I looked back at my log to see if I could remember doing (and not doing) them, but somehow I didn’t write anything about them. I’m assuming I did them after painting the hull but before varnishing it.
Putting the slits in isn’t too difficult using a very narrow knife blade, but because of the way I made the chainplates (folding the strip over the twisted wire), the slits need to be more than slits; they need to be wide enough to let the folded section slide into the rail, at least partially. I use a variety of tools to make these holes in the rails; a small drill bit in a pin vice, two different files, one circular and the other flat, and the very narrow knife.
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And even though I force myself to make these holes slowly, I still break through the side of the rail in a few places. These I close up with glue and a clamp.
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While test fitting the chainplates in place, I break one off them causing me to have to rebuild it.
Attaching the chainplates is fairly straightforward as they are glued and nailed to the hull. For the nailing, I get to use a pair of pin insertion pliers that I bought a while back from Micro-Mark. I only had about 60 pins to insert, but these pliers were great. I whole-heartily endorse them.
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As for the super glue, I haven’t use it very much, so it is still a learning experience. One thing I learned from last time was to invest in some long skinny tips for the glue. This seems to have helped a lot.
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After all of the chainplates are attached, I touch up the paint (black, white, and yellow) followed by a touch up of the satin varnish.
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The nail heads need a little touch up, but overall I’m pleased with them.
If I had a mulligan, I would have slid a card behind the chainplates before I attached them and touched up the black paint at that point. Live and learn.
Work time: 15 hours
Total work time: 244 hours
