Little wooden Flattie

[Leon]

Nice work on cutting the stock and hinges EJ! Looking really good.

[mm2snipe]

Finished up the crib. Now I can install the centerboard and set the model down without breaking it off.







The installed newly made pintles (hinges). It works very nice.











Coming along nicely.











Next - the masts and spars.



EJ

[mm2snipe]

Not much accomplished this week. Installed the brass traveler bar at the rudder. Started to prep parts for the rigging. 8 blocks were supplied (3mm), so I started wrapping them with brass wire for loops, but lost 2 and never found them, broke 4 more wrapping the wire. Tried to make a couple but gave up on that. Ordered a couple packs of them from the LHS and got some smaller brass wire. I'll try annealing it before installation, if not, I have some small soft copper strands from wire clipping in the workshop scrap bucket, from 28 ga to 12 ga. Something's got to work. Also, the eyebolts supplied are actually small brass cotter pins. The eye portion is kinda tear-drop shaped which I didn't like the look of, so, I tried to close the eye and round it off by inserting a round plier tip in the eye and squeezing the shank to round out and "smallerize" the hole. Broke one leg off 4 of those, so picked up a pack of them as well. I think I'll wind up making my own eye bolts from an appropriately gauged brass wire.

The new blocks will be in on Tuesday.

EJ

[Leon]

Looking really good EJ! Looking forward to seeing the rigging.

[BJ---Rest In Peace]

Very Nice..

Can't help but to say.. Every time I see you thread header all I see is a "A Little Wooden FATTIE"

[mm2snipe]

While waiting for my 3mm blocks to arrive, I went shopping at Michal's and Hobby Lobby looking for wire. There is an amazing amount of wire in the beading department.

Sizing wire - well it makes my 73 year old head spin. I still think in inches. Wire and rod are designated in fractional inches, decimal inches (my machinist's thinking), wire gauge and millimeters depending on the product and the manufacturer. I made a spreadsheet for wire from 12 g (gauge) to 32 g so I can get a mental feel for the sizes.

I found some 28 g, (.37mm), 24g (.49mm), 20g (.80mm) and 18g (1.01mm) copper wire in the workshop, most of it I stripped from stranded type building wire scraps or electronic wiring. Also, some 26 g (.40mm) in black, copper and antique brass, and 24g ((.50mm) in antique brass that was in the model room junk that I picked up somewhere. Not sure what they are made of but seem soft enough. I also have some brass rods, 1.57mm, 1.2mm, .81mm, .51mm. The rod is more of a hard brass than soft.

You'd think that would do me right? Guess I must be fussy, cause I really decided on 22 g wire size for what I wanted and had none.

Well, I found some stuff called Parawire. A soft copper wire with a "permanently colored non-tarnish" coating. Comes in several gauges from 16g to 28g and different colors, so I got a roll of "Natural Brass", a kinda antiqued brass color. Wanted truly brass color too but they were out of that. Really nice stuff and works great for wrapping. I'll still use stiffer brass rod to make the rings and eyes from, as that holds it's shape better.

They had ready made rings, but only down to 4mm. 3mm rings were only in silver color so I passed on that.

Meantime, I'm practicing ring making from some .81mm brass rod.

Gosh, I'm thinking in mm now!

EJ

[TRM]

Well, I understood what you meant!! LOL!! Both the sizing and the ramble! All good as I work with 1500 engineers!! You also have auto electronics wire or a viable option...not that you have not already thought of that...and the fact they are copper probably puts a wrench in that idea, as would soldering wire, options there too...of course you were specific in brass to maybe eliminate the painting end of things.

If you heat that brass rod up with a torch first, it will anneal it and bench a heck of a lot easier (probably thought of that too!! LOL!!) I found a nail or the same size drill bit as the wire works great...drill it into a sacrificial block or use a vice and loop and snip! Looking forward to seeing some more on this one....she is really looking great!! Keep at it!

[Biskup.]

That looks so cool Makes me want to try one of those wooden ships

[mm2snipe]

Apr 14, 2015 1:13:24 GMT -5 Biskup. said:

That looks so cool Makes me want to try one of those wooden ships

These little wood boats are fun. A whole different skillset, that's what makes it interesting, instead of the same - ol - same - ol, plastic + PE stuff. I really like learning the history behind these little working boats too. My first one was a strip canoe. Taught me how to bend wood and what "fairing in" meant. Then I was off and running. I've got several small wood kits and a couple larger ones too. I do them in between the aircraft carriers I usually do to break up things a bit.

EJ

[mm2snipe]

Got sidetracked from the build for a bit. Started mentoring middle school kids at my grandson's school for the science Olympiad competition. I would be coaching the bridge building competition. I has 5 teams of two students. In the beginning, our bridges were scoring in the 650 to 750 range, but we found out we needed to be in the 1800 or better range to be competitive.

Here are some of the bridges -















We built and tested about 50 bridges. The first local competition, we took 7 place out of 54 bridges with a ribbon.
The second competition, a regional, we placed 12 out of 42 bridges, with no ribbon, but overall, the school took a 3rd place medal.

We changed our design parameters, and have tested them to a score of over 2000, with some weight to go. The scores are based on the weight of the load to a max of 15 KG, divided by the weight of the bridge. Our entry will weigh in at 6.9 Grams and if it takes the full 15 KG without breaking will give us a score of 2174. It is the last picture. Quite an improvement.

The kids are at Michigan State University today at the state competition - I can't wait to see how they did. I'm very proud of their accomplishments and dedication.

I have finally cleaned up my bench and am getting back in the "Flattie build" mode, so more of that to follow.

EJ

[Leon]

Congrats to the students on some awesome bridge work EJ.

[wbill76]

Those have to be some of the most enjoyable activities to participate in and compete for the honors on IMHO EJ! Hope the bridge held up as planned.

[deafpanzer]

Looks like a fun thing to do!

[mm2snipe]

Got a request regarding the rudder hinges, so I thought I would post my reply here.

The materials used were pieces of brass from a PE fret, miked at .005", brass tube - 1/16" X .014 wall thickness and brass rod - .032 dia.

 

Cut 4 pcs of the brass PE to about 1/8" X 3/8". Bent the fret brass, 2 pcs to fit around the wood stern post and 2 pcs to fit around the rudder. Then soldered the tube to the bent brass pieces. I used TIX solder and flux.

 

Then cut the soldered parts free. Cut 2 pcs of the small rod about 1/4" long and with a bit of super glue, glued them in the parts that would become the bottom half of the hinge.

 

Trimmed the hinge tabs to fit the depth of the stern post and rudder. I just did what looked pleasing to my eye. I glued the rudder parts on with super glue and clamped it for a bit. Using the hinge placements on the rudder as a guide, I placed the stern post halves with the pins in place, glueing them with super glue as well.

I wanted them to have color, but didn't want to paint them, so looked for "blacken-it", a chemical that colors brass. Couldn't find any but did find some stuff that blackens brass, copper and bronze at the gun shop. They also had bluing for steel and a blackener for aluminum. Since my parts were already installed on the boat that was painted with flat white paint, I decided to do a test to see if the stuff would mess up the paint.

I painted a scrap of the rudder material (basswood) with 2 coats of MM acrylic white primer, sanded, one coat of MM acrylic flat white topcoat, just like the boat. I bent up a piece of brass to fit and glued it to the painted wood and let it set.

I used a fiberglass soldering brush and fine sanding stick to clean the metal, being careful not to sand the painted surface. Then applied the blackening agent to the brass with a q-tip. After a bit, I ran the thing under the faucet in the sink to wash off the agent and stop the reaction. I had to clean just a tiny bit of agent from one edge of the paint work, but it came right off with a wet q-tip. I also did a test with a piece of brass with solder on it and found the solder blackened as well.

I think it turned out nice. No "thickness" of paint, but it kinda looks like "iron" parts to me. Next time however, I'll blacken them before I install the parts by just dipping the parts in the bottle. That's how I did the soldered part test.

EJ

[deafpanzer]

Those hinges look great!!! It looks like it will be done in time for summer so we can go out sailing!

[mm2snipe]

WOW, it’s been April since my last post. Summer, heart problems, a bit of travel, illness, man did the time fly. Feeling better now and gonna try to get caught up.

Finished up the flattie back in May, so here goes.

The rudder









The stand ( like a crib I saw in Manistee MI)





Some rigging stuff



























The finished boat













































On to another project.



EJ

[John Everett]

She looks great!

You might put the flattie in a drydock diorama using one of the bridges as a crane.

How well does she float?

[Leon]

WOW......Awesome finish on the flattie EJ! The rigging looks fantastic.

[mm2snipe]

Thanks guys! Geeze, I havn't floated her since page one. I'll float her with the spars and rigging tomorrow and post it.
Good idea with the drydock / shipyard dio.

The teeny hook on the mast and cordage is all from Syren. Nice stuff to work with. Syren's blocks are very nice - better than what I used, but I got mine too late for the build. The wire is all colored soft copper wire from Parawire.

EJ

[mm2snipe]

For John -

Did the float test. In the kitchen sink she sat well. Pretty little thing. Took her out to the birdbath and plopped her in. It was kinda breezy so I had to chase her around a bit. She sailed really nice even without sails.























I'm pleased.

EJ

[Leon]

She's a real beauty and looks right at home in the water EJ!

[wbill76]

Can't beat seeing her in the 'natural' environment! Nice work on this one EJ.

[deafpanzer]

If you can place it at the pond you would have easily fooled us as a real thing!