tug boat ALVA B

[bill schwartz]

got the deck and bulkheads faired reasonably well and soon it will be time for the moment of truth and see how and whats next, I'm not sure if I should plank the deck or add the keel, I think the planks for the deck could be done in 1/32 x3/32 although there would be a few less planks than on the original plans, any thoughts on material or just basswood and stain or oil, I'm not sure if the planks need a blackened edge

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

that looks great the solid surface for the deck should give you a nice even deck. As for decking itself the Alva was decked with 3 inch square stock.
I think 1/32 x3/32 is a bit to thin for the model because you may still get slight unevenness and end up sanding through the deck.
If it were me i would use something like Red Maple or Poplar which is a little harder than Basswood and has a little more color to it. This was a working vessel and those decks would show wear and tear and be more on the "dirty" side.
For size of the decking i think a bit over size would look better than the scale 1/16 so perhaps 3/32 x 3/32 , to much caulking would look to out of scale i bet on the real Alva you would hardly see caulking.

maybe fill in the spaced along the entire hull to give the planking a solid backing.

before planking the deck you should put in the waterway because the deck planking has to sit against it. Also the companion way sky light and cabin sit on coamings and the deck planking would sit against the side of the coamings. The companion way and sky light are simple square coamings but the cabin has a molded coaming



so you have to lay out the deck structures, the cabin sides are not straight they have a curve from bow to stern

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

i will post high res Jpegs for the deck layout and detail drawings
first i need to correct the deck drawing to match this drawing. On the deck drawing the posts and sky light needs to be fixed

 

[bill schwartz]

thanks Dave, I've got some poplar so maybe I'll try it, my poplar stock is much wider though so I'll try to cut it down and I'll let you know. will the waterway be slightly raised or level with the deck planking? the planks are not nibbed into the waterway at the bow? thanks, bill s

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

thanks Dave, I've got some poplar so maybe I'll try it, my poplar stock is much wider though so I'll try to cut it down and I'll let you know. will the waterway be slightly raised or level with the deck planking? the planks are not nibbed into the waterway at the bow? thanks, bill s

the wayerway is the same thickness as the deck planking

nibbing the deck planks into the waterway is something i need to look into. There isn't much room between the stanchion and the inner edge of the waterway to allow for much nibbing.




on this model it shows the decking butting against the waterway

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

this is the deck layout file and the waterways
attached is a high resolution JPEG and a PDF you may have to scale the file or break it into 2 files to print on 8 1/2 x 11 the deck is a little over 20 inches

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

the cabin walls i would make out of 1/32 plywood and then apply a siding for the boards.
In the lower left corner is the back wall of the cabin i did not add windows. i found images of tugs with and without windows some had one in the center others had 2 windowns like the nack wall of the wheelhouse.

 

[bill schwartz]

this is the deck layout file and the waterways
attached is a high resolution JPEG and a PDF you may have to scale the file or break it into 2 files to print on 8 1/2 x 11 the deck is a little over 20 inches

View attachment 329749

the cabin walls i would make out of 1/32 plywood and then apply a siding for the boards.
In the lower left corner is the back wall of the cabin i did not add windows. i found images of tugs with and without windows some had one in the center others had 2 windowns like the nack wall of the wheelhouse.

View attachment 329752

Hello dave that photo is great, the pdf's print so lightly they can't be read So I printed the other ones and started the decking, thanks for the updates, Bill s.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Hello dave that photo is great, the pdf's print so lightly they can't be read So I printed the other ones and started the decking, thanks for the updates, Bill s.

i will try a JPEG file and see if that works

 

[bill schwartz]

hello dave: thanks for all the work, I got the deck finished over the weekend and cut the rabbit and pinned some keel material to the framework, probably get the garboard strake done tonight. My wife was able to show me how to enlarge the scans to the correct size and was able to print them, so I can progress. My thoughts are to get a run on the planking, and stain and finish the deck, The final detail that I can see now is to get a detail of the propeller and rudder detail, due to it's involvement with the keel. I'll enclose some new pictures soon as I can get them downloaded, Thanks for answering all of my previous concerns. Bill s.

 

[bill schwartz]

here's the pictures of this weeks work, thanks bill s.

 

[bill schwartz]

sorry things have taken so long but I had a few minor setbacks but things are on the build once again, Began the planking with the keel plank and tried to create a "NICELY FLOWING LINE" for the upper belt and merge the two,,Each row was split into 4 planks so the scale would be approximately correct scale after several rows it was time to start measuring the bow planking as they would have to be tapered to make things right at the end,

 

[bill schwartz]

And finally the las lower plank after 3 weeks of spare time working

 

[Pathfinder65]

That looks great.

 

[Uwek]

very good planking work
Maybe it would be good to start a building log of this project ...

 

[bill schwartz]

lots of minor imperfections but as they say in the carpentry business "PUTTY AND PAINT MAKES YOU THE CARPENTER YOU AIN'T" but finally done with that so we could move on to something else, I thought the rudder complex would be a good place to start, The original plans and drawings had a fairly darkened version of this area, I spoke to the Great Lakes library historian at Bowling Green University (as they had received the research material from the museum in Vermillion Ohio, He was able to provide a much clearer version of the crass section of the ship (side view)

 

[bill schwartz]

here's another view possibly clearer

 

[bill schwartz]

Getting a clear view was sort of important,, then I could get the rudder assembly fabricatedThe

 

[bill schwartz]

The base of the rudder was made out a piece of brass from the K&S scrap bag and cut to shape on the 1 inch belt sander, The diagram helped visualize the shape , I needed to get the hull details before turning it over,

 

[bill schwartz]

There was other work adding the edge and banding to the rudder which I'm not quite done yet, moving on to the upper planks I cut out a duplicate of the stern for a plank bending form soaked the wood in an ammonia jug rinsed with hot water and was able to negotiate the upper planks leaving them short of the waterway, hopefully this will give me something to glue to for the waterways and scuppers, Looking at the stanchions for the support of the deck sides I thought that cutting a few stanchions that would be locked in would give it some stability while working on the bullarks after marking the placement of the stanchion just gluing them to the waterway I don't think would be very stable, These notching in the hull were cut with one of my diamond disks from my dental office, great tool but it almost feels like cheating,These supports should give me something to glue the sides to and fill in the rest of them, I used a small jig to make the position of the stanchions,