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Lowell Grand Banks Dory, First Ever Build

I found that with my first dory I spent nearly as much time repairing my mistakes as I did building my model. I'm not a patient man except when I sit down to my work bench. Who knew that this hobby would teach me patience, my wife might disagree.
 
These are the clamps I have been using. The metal ones have more holding power but will leave marks on soft balsa and indentations. I broke several planks at the bow using them so care is needed. The plastic ones do not damage the wood but are more difficult to position and I use rubber bands too.
Any suggestions for better clamps?

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You can pad the wood you are clamping with small pieces of scrap wood. You can also repurpose clothes pins to grip better and modify binder clips to act as clamps use the "handles" of one clip and place them in the base of two others. Both work well. You never have enough clamps!

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Rob
 
Going to take some sanding and putty. Sheer plank is next. First ever planking a wooden hull. Not as well done as I would like, but passable, I broke the decking three times, crimped the planking at the bow 2 times with my metal clamps, soaked the planking in boiling water for four minutes, think 5 or 6 minutes might have been better. I didn't glue the plank logitudinal ends together, that may have resulted in a better job. If this were a real ship, the crew would have gone crazy bailing out the sea!

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ChefEd said:
A few years into my retirement I have decided to attempt wooden ship model building. My first foray is the Model Expo Lowell Grand Banks Dory.

I know my skill set would make the three-piece bottom fairly simple. However, as it is my first build I took the easy way out and chose the one-piece bottom.
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I measured and marked out the cleats, and chamfered the edges before cutting them, requiring only chamfering the ends when placing them.
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Following the guide I prepared and installed the stem and transom. Then set the bottom curve.
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I encountered an issue (my own) with the frames. They assembled all right. Getting them into the jig, and having them set at 90 degrees was the first issue. After sanding the inside of the slots, where needed, I placed each from and support. I found I needed to file opposite top and bottom long edges to get the frames to align at 90 degrees.
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Now, my next issue with the frames. In a number of builds there were comments about the fragility of some wood pieces due to the angle of the grain to the piece. I found that out the hard way. Attempting to be as careful and gentle as possible I had two frames break from the rubber band pressure. For one frame the broken piece landed in the middle of the workspace. The second broken piece disappeared into the ether. [Update: When cleaning up after this build, before starting the Norwegian Pram, I found the errant piece on a window sill. Oof.] Using the template I was able to manufacture the missing piece. Unfortunately, I miscalculated and the piece was a tad short. When the bottom was laid out over the frames there was a gap of a few millimeters. I filled the gap with a piece of scrap from a piece sheet that was the right thickness. Glued that in place, and sanded to shape. What I learned from this particular occurrence is in the future, put the template on a piece of carboard or dense foam and use pins to wedge the pieces in place while mapping out the 'missing' section.
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Forming and attaching the garboard planks presented a minor problem. While soaking the port plank I used a metal weight to hold under the water. Oops. The metal left a stain, Hoping paint will correct that error. While working the starboard plank, sanding down to the laser printed sanding mark, the edge split and separated along much of the the mark. Apparently I put too much lateral pressure on the edge while cleaning them up. using diluted PVA glue I filled the gap and clamped the piece in place.
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So, to this point I have the port garboard plank glued in place, and the starboard garboard plank bent. While bending the starboard plank the plank split at the guide line, again. Re-glued and clamped. Will attempt to glue into place later today.
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Has been quite enjoyable, a real test of patience (waiting for the next step).

Cheers
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I'll be following your build.
Welcome to SOS.
This was also my first kit.
Now I'm building a four foot San Felipe
Happy modeling
 
Roger Pellett said:
Not familiar with this kit, but if like most kits today, planking and frames are basswood. While basswood works fine for planking, it might be too weak for the frames, especially since scantlings (framing) are small in these open boats.

It looks like the drawings are like those for the old balsa, tissue model airplanes; you can build the frames by pinning them to the drawing. Therefore, why not use a stronger wood for the frames on your next dory model. Wooden Popsicle sticks would be a good choice, provided you have a way to saw them to the required profile. You have the kit supplied basswood frame parts to use as patterns.

If you don’t have the necessary tools to do this, it might be a good time to invest in some. The very simple hand tools required need not be expensive and will be used over and over again on future models.

it seems the tools and reusable supplies add up to as much as the model
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