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- Jan 9, 2020
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Hello Dear Friends
Sitting at home the last three days because of the Covid-uncertainty, made me realize just how much I miss working on the little ship. This morning after I had uploaded the students’ homework, I took out a few tools, strips of wood, my X-Acto, some sandpaper and glue.
The next step in the build is building up the bulwarks from the helmsman’s hut to the stern. This required two 1.5mm x 6mm planks to be glued onto the existing bulwarks. and then to be finished off with a layer of inner-planking.
Photograph: @pietsan Piet Sanders. The red frame indicates the section that I am referring to.
It sounds like a simple task, but in reality, it’s not. There is no place for any clamps to hold and the two planks can only be edge-glued to each other and then edge-glued to the rest of the bulwark assembly.
I started off by cutting the two sets of planks roughly to size and made sure that I shaped the bottom plank as well as I could to make sure it lies absolutely flat on the top strip (a 3mm wide strip) of the existing bulwarks.
The two planks that will be edge-glued on both sides of the bulwarks increasing the height by 12mm in total.
My procedure for edge-gluing is as follows: I lay one plank on a normal piece of paper and then apply glue liberally to the other plank’s edge. They are then squeezed together on the paper, the excess glue on the exterior surface is wiped off and the planks are clamped.
My heavy-duty clamps were used for this little exercise.
After three hours’ drying time, the clamps are removed and this is then what the assembly looks like.
After the planks are removed from the paper, I obviously have paper stuck to the seam where the two planks were edge-glued.
Here you can see the paper stuck to the seams on the reverse side.
This is exactly what I want – you have no idea how paper strengthens that seam. And since paper is a by-product of “wood”, there is no problem either when it comes to gluing over the paper. This is important as the bulwarks have to be planked on the inside as well.
And then I got my brain wave. The inner planking again consists of three 1.5mm x 4mm planks which have to be glued to the inside of the two 1.5mm x 6mm planks – both obviously equating to 12mm. So, if I did the inner planking BEFORE I glued the planks into position, I would double my gluing surface (3mm as opposed to 1,5mm) and it would also be easier to align the new bulwarks properly. However , there was a catch.
If you look at this picture you will see that the two red lines indicate where the bulwark can and should be 3mm in width. However, from the point where it goes around the stern frame, it should only be 1.5mm (indicated by the yellow lines). This means that the point where I drew the blue lines on the photo above, had to be regarded as the point up to which the inner planking had to go – no further. Thus, I carefully placed the planks into position and scribed a planking line on the two 6mm planks.
Then it was simply a case of planking the inner part of the two 6mm planks with the three 4mm wide planks. Once that was done and the glue was dry, the whole assembly was glued onto the ship.
And that is where I am tonight after a day's work. The red arrows arrows indicate the new section of the bulwarks that was added on the Port Side. If you look at the inner planking, you will see that it only goes up to the yellow line – after that it is single-planking only.
Tomorrow it's the turn of the Starboard Side.
Thank you all so much for following, looking, commenting or just saying "Hi" - all responses are sincerely appreciated and most welcome!
Sitting at home the last three days because of the Covid-uncertainty, made me realize just how much I miss working on the little ship. This morning after I had uploaded the students’ homework, I took out a few tools, strips of wood, my X-Acto, some sandpaper and glue.
The next step in the build is building up the bulwarks from the helmsman’s hut to the stern. This required two 1.5mm x 6mm planks to be glued onto the existing bulwarks. and then to be finished off with a layer of inner-planking.
Photograph: @pietsan Piet Sanders. The red frame indicates the section that I am referring to.
It sounds like a simple task, but in reality, it’s not. There is no place for any clamps to hold and the two planks can only be edge-glued to each other and then edge-glued to the rest of the bulwark assembly.
I started off by cutting the two sets of planks roughly to size and made sure that I shaped the bottom plank as well as I could to make sure it lies absolutely flat on the top strip (a 3mm wide strip) of the existing bulwarks.
The two planks that will be edge-glued on both sides of the bulwarks increasing the height by 12mm in total.
My procedure for edge-gluing is as follows: I lay one plank on a normal piece of paper and then apply glue liberally to the other plank’s edge. They are then squeezed together on the paper, the excess glue on the exterior surface is wiped off and the planks are clamped.
My heavy-duty clamps were used for this little exercise.
After three hours’ drying time, the clamps are removed and this is then what the assembly looks like.
After the planks are removed from the paper, I obviously have paper stuck to the seam where the two planks were edge-glued.
Here you can see the paper stuck to the seams on the reverse side.
This is exactly what I want – you have no idea how paper strengthens that seam. And since paper is a by-product of “wood”, there is no problem either when it comes to gluing over the paper. This is important as the bulwarks have to be planked on the inside as well.
And then I got my brain wave. The inner planking again consists of three 1.5mm x 4mm planks which have to be glued to the inside of the two 1.5mm x 6mm planks – both obviously equating to 12mm. So, if I did the inner planking BEFORE I glued the planks into position, I would double my gluing surface (3mm as opposed to 1,5mm) and it would also be easier to align the new bulwarks properly. However , there was a catch.
If you look at this picture you will see that the two red lines indicate where the bulwark can and should be 3mm in width. However, from the point where it goes around the stern frame, it should only be 1.5mm (indicated by the yellow lines). This means that the point where I drew the blue lines on the photo above, had to be regarded as the point up to which the inner planking had to go – no further. Thus, I carefully placed the planks into position and scribed a planking line on the two 6mm planks.
Then it was simply a case of planking the inner part of the two 6mm planks with the three 4mm wide planks. Once that was done and the glue was dry, the whole assembly was glued onto the ship.
And that is where I am tonight after a day's work. The red arrows arrows indicate the new section of the bulwarks that was added on the Port Side. If you look at the inner planking, you will see that it only goes up to the yellow line – after that it is single-planking only.
Tomorrow it's the turn of the Starboard Side.
Thank you all so much for following, looking, commenting or just saying "Hi" - all responses are sincerely appreciated and most welcome!
Tell Clyde to behave himself!
