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The GRACIE S - a Lift Model

There are limitations in terms of the torque forces one could apply to the vise mounted on a tee track, since the tee-track is doesn't have a lot of strength for side loads, particularly if applied to a "lever" created by the height of the vise.
Bob,
I am not advocating this - just as a possible way to make it work.
Have a plywood pad under each of the two C-clamps - size and thickness TBT. Attach the C-clamp to the pad with a flat head screw/bolt that is the same diameter and TPI as the threaded rod that advances the clamping pad. Counter sunk.
Easy hold. A wide enough pad should be as resistant to torque as the C-clamps on a table edge. More than one T-track traveler - it is just a matter of drilling another 1/4" hole.
 
A simple clamp for carving half models: A piece of 1” thick board clamped vertically into a bench level carpenter’s vise. A couple of wood screws passing through the board into the the flat back of the model.

Roger
 
A simple clamp for carving half models: A piece of 1” thick board clamped vertically into a bench level carpenter’s vise. A couple of wood screws passing through the board into the the flat back of the model.

Roger

In one of his books, The Commonsense of Yacht Design, perhaps, L. Francis Herreshoff describes and pictures the use of a particularly notched length of stock which is temporarily screwed to a solid wooden hull blank to hold the blank for carving. The shape of this piece permits it to be held in a bench vise in a variety of ways which position the hull at different angles in the bench vise as might be convenient for the carver.
See one thousand word picture below:

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Did some more hull shaping today - other projects have slowed down this one a bit, so it will be on and off for a bt!

I've now changed to smaller finger / violin planes as they are able to remove wood in a convex shape and there is not room for the small hand plane to work where needed.

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Did some more hull shaping today - other projects have slowed down this one a bit, so it will be on and off for a bt!

I've now changed to smaller finger / violin planes as they are able to remove wood in a convex shape and there is not room for the small hand plane to work where needed.

View attachment 564175
Wow. look at those lines! Very sleek.
 
In one of his books, The Commonsense of Yacht Design, perhaps, L. Francis Herreshoff describes and pictures the use of a particularly notched length of stock which is temporarily screwed to a solid wooden hull blank to hold the blank for carving. The shape of this piece permits it to be held in a bench vise in a variety of ways which position the hull at different angles in the bench vise as might be convenient for the carver.
Yes, a useful tool. Here is an illustration of it from Capt. Nat Herreshoff: the Wizard of Bristol by his son L. Francis Herreshoff. Also, here's a photo of mine, which, I must admit, has been used more for decoy ducks than model ships. Somewhere around here there is also a much smaller version that has been used for miniature decoys. Fair winds!

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As I get closer to the proper hull shape I'm changing tools again - first it was the palm plane, then the violin planes, now I'm making use of a set of violin scrapers: to refine the hull. The set of scraper has many shapes and it is not too hard to find one that is appropriate for any given portion of the hull. Most of the cards were in good shape / ready to use as delivered; however a few had burrs that needed to be removed before they could be used.

I'm testing myself on how far I can get with cutting and scraping tools before resorting to any filing and/or sanding.

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