January 12th, 2020

This month's meeting was held at Lee Valley Tools.  The theme was Capstan and Windlass construction with a presentation and demonstration by David A.

With the aid of images found in Volume II of The Fully Framed Model, David explained the different parts of the Capstan and Windlass, and then proceeded to demonstrate how to mark off the square stock to create a ten or twelve sided spindle for the Capstan, or the eight sided (octagon) spindle of the windlass.

David has a simple home made jig with a stop at one end, and a shallow V-groove along the length of the plate to hold the edge of the stock as he shaves away the corners, down to his pencil mark, with a very sharp chisel.  The following short video shows his technique.

cutting_an_octogon_from_a_square_spindle.wmv
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​Then David explained how he uses the same concept to shape his masts.  He had a mast that was painted, and described how he lightly scores around the trunk with a sharp knife edge to stop his paint from bleeding beyond the painted portion.  He uses shoe dye as the black paint, and a Q-tip as the applicator.

David also brought in a 1:12 scale Norwegian Pram Dinghy, part of a kit he is creating for Model Expo.

Ray had brought in the half model he is repairing.  It is missing the rudder which had fallen off and been lost.  Ray had made a new half rudder which he had shown us, but it is unfinished (needs sealing and painting) before he mounts it.  He seals his wood pieces with water based acrylic sanding sealer prior to any finish work (painting).  This is then sanded incrementally increasing the grade of sand paper until he is happy with the smooth finished quality of his efforts.

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Alan brought in the rudder he scratch built for his ship.  It is 1:64 scale.  The two main pieces of the rudder blade (5'-6" x 33 feet) are Costello boxwood.  He chose two pieces of different shades of wood in an attempt to accentuate the tabling joint between them.  There are two tiller holes in the head. The lower hole would have a tiller installed that is controlled by ropes and pulleys connected to the ships wheel.  The upper hole is for a spare tiller in case the lower tiller, ropes, or ships wheel are damaged.  They are 12 inches square inboard and tapered down to 1/3rd the width of the head of the rudder on the outboard side. The 6 inch thick sole plate and 4 inch thick backing plates are Hemlock.  The faux 1-1/2" diameter bolts are black monofilament fishing line.
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