Moonbeam

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

After adding the surround planking for two more hatches (I've left the forrard hatch un-surrounded for the time being, given that is sits right in the middle of where the bow planking will have to deviate) …

… it was time to begin the fore-and-aft planking, taking the deck arund the mast as starting point.

This of course means planking around the mast foot and other surrounds, so caulking strip was added to four lengths of 1×5 mm pear strip, the outer shape of the mast foot surround marked onto them and then cut out in a single curve.

As the aft ends of these planks were the first square ones, I also made up a styrene strip jig for marking out the dowel holes on square plank ends …

… drilled, glued, dowelled and weighed down the planks …

… to produce this result.

Given that, apart from the occasional odder shape, one plank is pretty much like another, I will not contnue over the coming weeks (months?) with a plank-by-plank account of the job in hand, although there may be the odd progress report from time to time, when there has been sufficient progress to warrant one.

To be continued …

/Mattias

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hi Banjo

"Slowly slowly catchee monkey"………Springs to mind

Bit of a daft saying really

Are you not tempted to get on the water and do the planking at your leisure?

I`m looking at your plank nails and beginning to wonder?…..Mmmmmm?…..Got a few packets of brass ones that came with the planks. What will you be doing about them?

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Hello Bob,

No, I cannot say that I am all that bothered by letting things take their time; for me, although I'm sure I will very much enjoy the day when I cam finally get her on the water, a major part of the fun is the process of getting there. Also, I am under strict orders (from myself, but still) not to hurry things up; one of my personal weaknesses is impatience, so doing the best job of a build that I can and letting it take the time that it takes to do it properly is for me a character building exercise.

My plank dowels are of course purely decorative, in the sense that they do not act as fastenings in any way. They are intended to represent full scale practice on many decks, which as you know is to fasten planks to the beams with (depending on the materials used) either nails or bolts, recessed into the plank thickness and with the recess then covered with a short wooden dowel or plug.

Such plugs are, I think, most often made from the same wood as the plank itself, so in that sense my walnut dowels in pear wood planks are a fantasy; however, I think that the use of (slightly) contrasting woods on a yacht deck may well fall under the heading of permissible decorative practice.

One of these days, though, I shall try to get hold of a good quality drawplate (this one looks like it might well be suited for feline nightwear: **LINK**) so that at least for future builds, I can produce my own small diameter dowel from whatever wood I choose …

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

For the first planking to go around one of circukar surrounds, I cut each plank to fit one at a time. Although I more or less got away with it the first time, I found when attempting the next bit that this approach made it very dificult to get a shapely and continous curve in the plank ends.

I therefore adapted my technique, and first cut out the requisite number of planks to their exact lengths …

… added caulking strips and temporarily joined them together with some masking tape.

Next, I marked out the rough location and edges of the material to be removed …

… cut away the centre with a knife …

… and then gradually, and very carefully sanded the opening to shape with a sanding drum in the rotary tool, run at the lowest possible speed …

… continuosly trying it up against where it should go, until I had a satisfactory fit.

The masking tape was then removed, the planks plugged and the whole thing glued in place.

Having finished this bit, I double checked a number of measures, and found to my consternation that I had not been sufficiently careful when making up and gluing down the aftmost hatch surround — it was out of whack by about one and a half millimeters.

After some further measuring and thinking, there was nothing for it but to get out a small chisel and hammer …

… remove the entire surround …

… make up and, very carefully indeed, glue on a new one.

At this stage, I was deeply suspicious of my previous work, and therefore marked out and measured the width of the deck in relation to the central line all along the hull. Alack and alas! My suspicions were confirmed, namely that the shape of the hull is not quite symmetrical — the port and starboard sides are out of true by between 0.5 and 1.5 mm in certain places, while in others they are neigh on perfect.In other words, the gunwale line is a tad wobbly, in a soft enough way that it is not visble to the naked eye, but still.

After some long and hard thinking (and even a couple of nightmares on the subject!) I decided to leave what I had already done as were, and to try to correct things as I went along, not by spiling any planks, but by adding extra caulking thickness in certain places. This will of course not be completely invisible, as the below photo shows, but I think it preferable to the alternatives.

To my mind, it is more important to acheive (apparent) symmetry and straight planking lines where the planks go around the corners of the hatch surrlounds, and most of all, that all the planks outside of the hatches are all the same width, as I believe that irregularities in width will show up in a much more marked way where the long planking lines are joggled into the waterway.

It does of course remain to be seen if I get away with it, but I have at least some hope …

To be continued …

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 09/08/2016 07:30:52

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Deepest sympathy with the misalignment problems, Banjo

All that good work gone to waste too!

That's the problem with being a perfectionist………Only the best will do!

The planks you have already fitted look very nice though…..Keep up the good work

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Thank you very much for your kind words, Bob!

It wasn't all that much work that went to waste, though; just the four lengths of surround planking around the aftmost hatch opening.

Also, i wouldn't call myself a perfectionist; things don't have to be the best, but they do have to be good enough, by which I mean good enough to satisfy me.

One thing, though, which really is absolute top notch here (and that has nowt to do with me) is the quality of the wood that I bought in to plank the deck! Those strips of pear are all exactly the same width, straight as arrows and the edges smooth and perfectly square! I really am impressed, and very pleased inedeed! I bought them from a place called The Wood Rack (**LINK**) which seems to have taken over that part of their business from Twigfolly, when the chap who ran the latter recently retired. Absolute top drawer and worth every penny!

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 09/08/2016 09:08:34

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

I've decided to pretty much stick with the pre-printed planking pattern; as there is no real prototype ayway, one pattern will thus do about as well as another, and this way I can use the plywood underlay as a rough guide to what goes where.

This means that a standard plank is 19 cm long, and to facilitate the production of the maybe 150 or planks to that length that I will need, I've made up an extension piece to my razorblade saw mitre box …

… so that I just need to pop a strip of wood in there and cut it off in the mitre box to get a plank that is exactly the right length to within perhaps a tenth of a millimeter or so.

Not only cutting the planks, but also drilling, plugging and caulking them can then be done in batches, which speeds the job up at least a little.

The three butt shift pattern is offfset by 25 mm per plank, so in addition to the full length, 19 cm planks, I also very carefully measured out and cut two short planks each of respectively 50 mm and 75 mm, to get the butt shift started …

… and then, with equal care, cut rebates into two full length planks to go around the after corners of the third hatch …

… and finally glued them all down, together with the first two standard planks to go in.

If one takes a really close look here, one can see that the port side rebated plank is 2 mm wide at its narrowest, while its starboard companion is 2.5 mm wide; this is in fact a deliberate albeit small step to compensate for the differences in hull width between the port and starboard sides.

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 10/08/2016 07:26:25

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Well done, Banjo

Very well organised and geared up for the task

A model to be proudly displayed at your model exhibitions in Holland

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Thank you very much, Bob! -)

I don't particularly know how likely (or not) I am to ever exhibit my models — the club I'm a member of doesn't much do exhibitions, and although one can participate on one's own, that is a bit of hassle, as one is then more or less tied to one's stand for the duration … But if Moonbeam turns out alright, I shall of course take her compliment fishing around the club pond …

Any road, back to planking!

I realised that before planking the waists, I need to continue the centre line planking forrards, to make sure that I maintain continous lines for the long planking runs while at the same time bringing the centre line forrard of the third hatch the required degree or two to port to keep the bow planking symmetrical.

I also suspected that the additional caulking added to the planking between the second and the thrird hatch would have slightly widened the width to be covered, so first up, I taped together the same amount of planks that had gone in aft of the third hatch, tried them in place, and found my suspicions confirmed: to cover the space in question, a filler strip would be required!

In the below photo a test filler strip of 1.5×1.5 mm pear has been inserted to starboard …

… while the actual piece in question will of course sit on the centre line, as seen below.

I thus cut said filler strip plus eight planks of equal length (121 mm) to cover the area up to where the fourth hatch aft surround will go, and then dryfitted them inbetween a further six standard planks, and carefully measured and checked everything for fit and for symmetry.

Off the model, I then glued together the centre filler and, adding them one by one, also the first three 121 mm planks either side of it …

… and then glued them all down together, again making sure that all corresponding distances to the port and starboard bulwarks were the same, and that the remainder of the planks to go either side would be a nice, straight  push-fit in the space allocated to them.

Finally, when the glue had gripped sufficiently, the final two 121 mm planks were also glued down, and the whole thing left to set.

This should now give me a good, solid datum for framing the fourth hatch, and for taking the planking further forrards towards the bows from there.

To be continued …

Mattias

 

Edited By Banjoman on 11/08/2016 07:35:10

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Here's a new word for you, Banjo………

Simply splendiferous!…………ie………A splendid piece of work!

Your steel squares look very much like part of an Engineers tool box?……….Am I correct?

Your work is very precise, exact and splendiferous!

I wouldn't mind betting, you keep looking at the outer planks and all that master trickery?

With a jaundiced eye?

I assume you know the meaning of all my funny sayings,……….You seem to know quite a lot of them?

Keep up the good work, Banjo

Nil Carborundum Desperandum

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Again, warmest thanks, Bob, for all your kind words!

And yes: I do indeed understand your turns of phrase.

As for the try squares, while I would certainly say that they are typical engineer's tools, they don't come out of a tool set — I bought them piecemeal from a place called Clabots (**LINK**), which is a very good ironmongers/tool shop, geared towards professionals.They were not exactly cheap, at between £10 and £15 a pop, but they are among my favourite tools, and I use them as much as the Romans were hated — a lot! They are solid steel, so don't deform or chip, and it also gives them sufficient weight that they don't move about too easily. Their flat (and fairly low) profile also make them perfect for pushing parts together with enough force when glueing. Worth every penny!

And oh yes: I look at the hull edges where the planking shall have to be joggled into the waterways with some trepidation, but, like Baldrick, I have a cunning plan! Well, I have a plan; it remains to be seen just how cunning (or not) it turns out to be …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 11/08/2016 09:54:05

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hi Banjo

I also have a cunning plan, my Lord!

But it`s more of a tongue in cheek crackpot suggestion and I`m not really serious

Cunning plan…..

Fit the planks as normal, complete with the black stuff……….But instead of cutting out the nightmarish outer planks……….Simply fill in the space with filler!

I know it`s outlandish, but there is a glimmer of sense?

Worth remembering for a future application?

Baldrick

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Nah, Bob. — that's too cunning, that is

Actually the joggling shapes are not as complex as they look: the diagonals are simply parallell to the hull, and the ends then cut off square to a predefined width. From what I understand, standard practice is one third of the total plank width, although I'm thinking of making each sqaure-off 2 mm (i.e. two fifths) wide instead, as I can then use one of my micro chisels to mark it out.

Anyway, my plan is to first cut each plank end within a given section of the waterway to its correct joggling shape, then dryfit them together in situ (where they should fit snuggly into the already laid planking pattern) and slide a piece of tracing paper under them onto which the combined shape of that set of plank ends can then be inscribed for transfer to the pear wood sheet out of which I intend to produce the waterway sections. The outer edge of each section can simply be cut slightly overlarge, and, once in place, planed and sanded back to be flush with the edge of the hull.

With some care and patience, I have hope for it to be acheiveable … ?!

/Mattias

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Over the last couple of evenings I've first made up and glued down the fourth hatch surround …

… and then cut off six planks and one filler strip, all 61.5 mm long …

… and also made up the surround that will go under the aftmost bowsprit ring.

These were then checked (again!) for correct width, and found to be fine in that respect …

… so the planks and filler strip were glued together, and the location of the hole for the jib sheet throughput surround marked out on the back of them.

A sandwich was then made up from some scrap wood to go around these planks …

.. so that they could be drilled …

… to produce a starter hole.

The whole thing was then offered up and the hole gradually enlarged, again using a sanding drum in the rotary tool …

… until a satisfactory fit had been achieved, and the planking concerned could be glued down.

The final job for today was to add the two missing planks on either side, forrard of the third hatch …

… needed to fill in this part of the deck.

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 13/08/2016 22:19:18

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Keep up the good work, Banjo

The plank irregularity at the stern is a bit of a shame? Don't suppose it'll be obvious as the planking progresses?

Looking into the future…….The outside planks look extremely fiddly?

You can do it!

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Thank you, Bob! I'll certainly try my best

Yes, it is a bit of a shame that the stern will come out asymmetric, most likely to the point where it'll remain visible if not at a first, then at least at a second glance. However, there's not all that much I can do about it: the two halves of the hull have not come out of their moulds fully identical or symmetrical, and if I try to remove the amount of material needed to sort out the shape of the stern, I will most likely go right through the side of the hull – which would, I think, be rather worse; water should preferably stay on the outside of the hull when sailing …

It will thus have to do as-is, and we'll just have to see to what extent it will be possible to hide it under the planking …

In the meantime, I have planed down the filler strips on the forrard part of the deck, as they stood proud of the rest of the planking by 0.5 mm …

… and also, with the help of a simple jig in the form of a 25 and a 50 mm length of plank, continued laying out and glueing down …

… the forrard butt shift pattern.

I have also started rebating the planks to go around the second and first hatches …

… for the time being …

… only on the port side, and have also made some more progress on the port waist planking.

To be continued …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 15/08/2016 16:20:22

Edited By Banjoman on 15/08/2016 16:22:31

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

You carry on planking Banjo

With that expanse of complex planking, nobody will give a slight error a second glance

They will be too busy, shaking their heads in disbelief!

I like your little violin plane…….Is it razor sharp?

It certainly looks efficient for planing the planks

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

We'll see how it turns out, Bob, although I am now getting more hopeful (see below)!

Yes, that violin plane is quite sharp, and again it is a tool I am very, very happy with, and use a fair bit.

Anyway, I noticed the other day that one of the more recent planks to be added sat about 0.25 of a millimeter off the line of the plank run of which it is a part …

… and as it was still one of the outmost planks added so far, and I was not really happy with it, I decided to replace it, and thus again got out chisel and hammer to knock it off …

… after which I put in a better-fitting one.

I also replicated on the starboard side the last bit of planking done to port. If one looks really carefully, one can see that the rebated planks around the first hatch are not completely identical; the one to port is narrower than the one to starboard, the overall effect of which …

… is to make the planking runs veer ever so slightly towards the starboard quarter …

… thereby at least partially compensating for the assymetries of the hull shape.

This has of course been done on purpose, and I hope that although it is far from perfect and the assymetries will still show up to a careful inspection, it should provide a decentish general impression and at least partially fool the eye into thinking the planking is evenly distributed. We'll just have to wait and see how it turns out in the end …

Before I get to that stage, though, the next step will be to plank the remainder of the waist, which should be a pretty straightforward business of just laying down the requisite number of standard planks against the existing datum, with no special shaping or planning required.

To be continued …

Mattias

[Dave_PParticipant @dave_p]

I am loving watching this excellent planking work coming together. It is going to look a treat when finished.

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Thank you ever so much, Dave, for your kind words! I am indeed beginning to think it might turn out allright in the end, not least with a nice, gloss varnish on top of the wood! Which is of course the advantage of a yacht kind of a boat: one is allowed to go (almost) overboard on the gleam and glint!

That said, I've still a way and a bit (and then some) to go before its time to think of varnishing anything at all.

A rough count seemed to indicate that I would need 22 standard planks each side to finish the waists, and so I cut off 41 more to go with the three I already had made up, pricked out the plugging points at the ends …

… drilled them as pricked …

… added the plugs …

… and also cut a sufficient amount of caulking paper strips.

As I went along, fitting caulking strips to two edges of each plank, I also began dryfitting the finsihed ones in their approximate positions until I had laid out the estimated 22 to port …

… at which point I found that I would in fact need 29 to a side.

Said and done: a further 15 planks were produced …

… and dryfitted them (although I missed out on laying down the last one to starboard before taking the photos).

With a sufficient number of planks made up …

… it was then time to start actually glueing them down.

The more planks already in place, the easier it gets adding new ones; all that is needed is to smear the relevant surfaces of each plank with glue, and push good and well into place. The only thing to look out for is when the end of a plank overhangs the one against which it is being glued, when the temporary dryfitting of the next plank to the inside is necessary to make sure that there is no bend in said overhang.

To be continued …

Mattias

 

Edited By Banjoman on 20/08/2016 18:18:04

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

You are doing well, Banjo…….But you not out of the woods yet!

Hope you understand my English sayings and slang words etc

I only do it for amusement

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Carry on planking?! Ooh, matron …

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Excellent, Banlo

Good reply

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

We can but try, Bob, we can but try …

And, speaking of trying, amongst my carryings-on over the weekend, and alternating with regular planking work, I also had a first look at the bow planking.

The four central planks at the bows do not have joggled ends, but will fit into a rounded section of the waterways; they also incorporate the underlay for the foremost bowsprit ring, so I began by making up and glueing together this section of planking on the worktable, making it slightly too long …

… so that it could be offered up and trimmed to follow the bow profile; in á siilar manner I also produced and trimmed the four surrounding planks, which are to be joggled.

I then got a short length of brass L profile, 8×8 mm outer dimensions, a scalpel and a pencil …

… and scored in the joggling cuts and marked out the forrard curvature of the central section, relative to the hull outer line.

The joggled planks were then cut as scored and had their ends squared off, while the central section was sawed off and then trimmed down to the pencil line.

As the below photo shows, this clearly revealed what I'd expected to see, namely that the port side of the bows is a tad more bluff than the starboard side.

I don't find it disastrously out of whack, and so could live with it as-is, but before I commit (all this is so far only dryfitted) to anything, I shall do a quick transfer of the starboard outline to the port side, to even better visualise the difference between the twain, and then have a good, hard think about whether ot not it would be worthwile to try to file and sand away at least a little of that port side bluffness …

We'll have to see, though, as it depends on how much material would have to be removed! Although the uppermost quarter inch or so of the hull is in one way or another (GRP, epoxy, P38 filler or wood) quite solid, care would still have to be taken that not so much of the edge disappear that it would have an averse effect on the flare of the hull, as once below that topmost quarter inch, the thickness of the material is just that of the GRP moulding and thus cannot be reduced.

Also, I strongly suspect that once the bowsprit is in place, partially obscuring this particular part of the decking, the assymetry will no longer be all that obvious.

All in alll, 'tis food for thought!

I also did a very quick and dirty test of my idea for a method to match the waterways with the planking. A small piece of tracing paper was put under the end of the planking, the outline of said planking drawn on to the paper and then transferred to some pear sheet, cut out and trimmed to shape.

Although the piece offered up in the below photo will have to be discraded (it is a tad too short at it's starboard end, I think the method shows promise; this test was done on the fly, and still produced a decent enough fit of the curve, so with a tad more care …

The below picture also made me realise that for the joggled planks, it would be better to switch the caulking pattern on the starboard side of the deck. So far I have, for ease of mass production, glued caulking strips to (almost) all planks in the same way, i.e. on the starboard and forrard edges of each plank. However, if I continue that practice for the planks joggled into the waterways, I will give myself a quite unnecessary amount of extra work in the form of (parts of) joggles that have to be individually caulked. If I switch to putting the caulking on the port edge of the starboard planks instead, I can then caulk a number of joggles at one go with a single length of strip, as is already possible on the port side of the deck.

To be continued …

Mattias

kkk

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

So! That's the waist planking done!

Next job will be to sort out the afterdeck, and in particular the two rebated planks to go around the after ends of the cockpit hatch opening!

This is going to be a slightly more delicate operation than the previous one of main planking, as it needs to create a gap of the correct width aft of the hatch, and set correct datum lines for the planking towards the stern in order that the latter moves the necessary fraction out of true to compensate for the assymetry of the stern …

To this end, I need the afterdeck planks, so a suitable selection of 16 blanks was found in the pile of offcuts built up while cutting the main planking to length …

… to which caulking strips were added, so that they could be checked for fit across the width of the afterdeck.

From these preliminary checks it appears that 16 planks at standard width should be just right, so next they were sorted for length, carefully squared off at one end …

… taped together and trimmed to fit the stern counter line. Each plank was then numbered, from port to starboard, for easy identification once they're taken apart again.

As an aside, I have also numbered all end plank positions around the entire deck. Given that each such plank will be bespoke to fit a specific position, and that I will need to be able to offer them up and then remove them again a number of times in the upcoming process, it should save a fair amount of time and effort if I can at a glance see where a specific plank should go.

I also made up the first six end plank blanks (which won't be cut to final, joggled shape until the afterdeck planking is sorted), for positions B31–B33 and S31–S33 (B is for babord, i.e. port in Swedish, and S thus for styrbord = starboard), and again tried everything in place, this time with the blanks for the planks to be rebated also involved.

As can be seen, the lay of the planks towards the stern runs pretty much true, and thus shows up the slightly bulkier shape of the starboard quarter; it is this tendency I need to try to compensate for when shaping the rebates so that the whole assembly veers just a little more to starboard.

And here is my first attempt at the starboard rebate, which on the one hand is a nice fit, but also a complete failure, as it has actually brought the lay of the after deck planks a tad further to port, i.e. in the wrong direction.

Oh well. If at first you don't succeed …

To be continued …

Mattias

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