School for model ship building

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

The cant frames in the bow are next and they are not like the rest of the frames. The only reference point is the top line where they sit in the jig. the bottom line is the rabbit line and as you can see the cant frames rise up on the stem. The middle line shows the rise of the deck at the bow.

Plank on bulkhead builders will skip the bow construction and installing cant frames. A solid block is glued in at the bow and shaped to fit the hull.



Cant frames are named because they are canted forward to lessen the amount of material that has to be taken off the face of the frames to create a bevel. The foot of the cant frames have an angle.



The angle can be taken off the drawings



How you can get a perfect angle is up to you. But when you get the angle of the foot right the frame will fall right in place.



the foot of the cant frames will follow the stem and rabbit line, you should have a nice sweet arc on the stem.



looking down the hull all the frames form a straight line along the keel and arch at the stem. The term used by master shipwrights and model shipwrights is to ever so sweet curves of a hull. you can see that starting to take shape. Inside and out.



That space at the bow between the first cant frame and the stem is where the ? go anyone know what goes there?

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

some refer to ship building as an art form, in the early days ship were built with no drawings nothing but a set of offsets that define the size and general shape. The hull with all its complex lines and shapes is a sculpture shaped by the eye and intuition of the builder.

At this point we now have the main body and the bow what is left are the last two whole frames 19 and 20 then the half frames that will form the stern section.



Thank you all for following along and reading what it takes to be a model shipwright. See you next Saturday

 

[Roger Pellett]

if by “offsets,” you are referring to a Table of Offsets then these did much more than just define the general shape of the hull. These were a digital representation of the design information; either the half model or design draught. The mould loft then used the table of offsets to scribe the hull lines full size on the floor of the loft. Patterns for moulded shapes, frame pieces, stem, and stern pieces were made from the mould loft hull lines.

The Table of Offsets was the method by which the Naval Architect communicated his design to the shipyard.

Roger