Kurt Konrath
Kurt Konrath
What is the old saying, Necessity is the mother of inventions.Thursday, I received two, 18 inch long 1-inch wide 1/4" thick, tool steel strips I ordered from online metals. I stacked them together and drilled 2 holes for 3mm bolts 200mm apart. On Friday evening I drew up and printed 2 plastic guides. The dimensions were created by measuring the gaps I needed to fill along the hull. I did 2 different inserts because the front and rear taper are different. Here's what they looked like.
The idea is when the strips are placed together the planks will sit on top of the plastic as shown below.
This worked really well. It eliminated the need to measure each individual plank because I just lined it up with the end of the plastic guide inside. I was able to taper a plank about ever 30 seconds with this method. I showed the c-clamp on the end because when you get more than about 5 inches from the vice jaws the grip of the strips is reduced to the point the wood can slip. This would only be needed if you were taping a plank more than 12 inches (300mm) long. I initially was going to add screws with wing nuts on the ends but realized that could be in the way if the taper was more extreme. I could also do a arched taper by printing the center insert with an arch and pressing the plank into it.
So, then I tapered planks and finished planking the hull.
I planked down 4 rows from the post above and it was becoming clear that my garboard strake was way out in left field. I stopped and measured the distance to the keel on all the frames and the were within 4mm's. So I tore the garboard off and continued planking down. This fit well on the stern.
On the bow it was clear that my previous errors had me backed into a corner where the bend needed to keep adding rows was just too extreme to work. I ended up adding 3 scabbed in strips to fill it in. I really knew pretty early on I had this problem but I didn't want to start over. I know how to solve this in the future.
It's far from perfect, but to this point the best single layer planking job I've done. Actually; it's my first attempt at a single layer of planking so that isn't all the high a bar. For the most part I'm happy with it. With a little filler and sanding it'll pass, and the scabbed in section is hidden from the side. I turned up the contrast in the photo below to exaggerate the rough areas.
Along with smoothing out and finishing the planking I'm going to go back and revisit making some 3d files for more accurate cannon and mortars.
Your tool looks great, thanks for the tool time tip.
