Excelsior, an Atkin 'Cruising Canoe'

At least I won't have that problem. 1 1/2" =1' 0" is a standard scale.

When I said I need to run down a scale, I was referring to the missing vertical ruler or scale on the drafting machine. I stuck the pair of them under the passenger seat of my pickup when I hauled the table home, and one is gone. I have no idea when or where it went.

Yep, it's a fancy table. Not bad at all, for a yard-sale special....

But it's no fancier than the model boat you're building. I'm looking forward to seeing pic's of that in action.

 

Why I don't have the molds for the model done yet...

Last week when I taped the pieces of wood to the table so I could loft the molds for the model on them, the protractor head started freezing up. After about twenty minutes, everything on it was locked up tighter than a gnat's *. So I started taking it apart... stupid thing to do, because I knew I was short on time. The problem was fine grit everywhere, that started working into the close tolerances as I used it.

My best guess is that the table and drafting machine spent some serious time in a garage somewhere. A while back I bought a 9mm Tokarev pistol on consignment. The original owner had bought it thirty years earlier and never used it; it spent its entire life sitting on a garage shelf. Even though it was still in the original cardboard box, the same sort of fine grit had sifted into the gun everywhere. I had to take it completely apart (way beyond field stripping it), wash and lube everything, and put it back together again.

Getting back to the protractor head... when I started, I had no intention of doing a complete disassembly. But every joint and every contact point had that friggen grit in it. Before I knew, it I had parts and pieces everywhere. Normally when I do that to something I lay everything out in order, on a table somewhere out of the way. Instead, all the protractor head bits and pieces wound up in a glass jar when I had to break off and head to work.

Nothing like coming back a week later, and trying to remember how the thing goes together. Fortunately, Vemco posts a genuinely useful manual online for its drafting machine; one that includes an exploded diagram of the protractor head. But it still took me several hours to get it back together. I started out with no idea how the thing worked inside, for starters. And there were fine-tolerance shim washers everywhere -- in different thicknesses, unmarked, and definitely not interchangeable. It took me more than a few trial assemblies to get all of them in the right place.

Also, the grit had raised burrs everywhere I looked. I had to get rid of them without enlarging holes or shrinking parts that went through them, introducing slop into a precision machine. So I did some very careful work with scrapers and jewelry files (I was scared to get emery paper anywhere near the thing).

The good news? The drafting machine works as well as it did new, and there's no slop in it. The bad news? This was my only free day this week. And I spent it fixing a tool, instead of using it. !@#$#....

The attached picture shows the protractor head about halfway into being reassembled.... there's gotta be a simpler way to build those things.

 

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Good work! Sometime if you want to spend money and have a blast consider building an rc helicopter. You obviously have a knack for tiny little mechanical things. I did it 25 years ago and had a lot of fun-even when the damn thing chased me......Good luck with the model....

little 5' rotor diameter video piloted heli I built and flew:
-click on image-

 

Ummmm.... no.

Doug, this is the sort of thing I do mostly from desperation rather than for fun, when I'm too poor or too cheap to just buy something new. I have all the respect in the world for your knowledge, skills, passion and perseverance, but I'm not even going to try to keep up with you. You're out of my league.

How's your model coming?

 

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OK-hope to carbonize the deck tomorrow and I'll update the thread. Lots of little detail work and too much sanding. I sure have grown away from sanding and I keep putting myself in a position to have to do it! I've done a lot of tooling and finish work and I've been fairly good at it but not one off building where weight really counts. Normally ,if I'd had the time and money I would have built a plug and mold then built the hull. Not this time and it is real tough to try to get it pretty and not too heavy at the same time.....

 

By the way, the user's manual for the drafting machine says, "we recommend that the user not attempt to dissemble the 50-101 head because special tools are required for assembly."

I managed to get it back together without any special tools. However, I did make heavy use of a special vocabulary -- one honed by years as a Navy sailor, merchant sailor, construction worker, contractor and pipeliner.

 

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I'm shocked-shocked I tell you.
PS- about 1990 I was working on a project to develop a spinnaker system for rc models. I was having a hell of a hard time. I was sure I had everything right on the mechanism but it still wouldn't work right. So I used my limited "special vocabulary" and the power of my arm to very quickly place the whole mechanism on the other side of the shop. The impact was loud and I instantly felt remorse. I went over , picked it up and tried it: damned if it didn't work perfectly right off the bat! Yes, I do believe in miracles.......

 

I once put three nails into a piece of soft pine door casing, and it split three times like it was un-drilled oak. I blew up and threw my hammer -- right into a beautiful dovetailed, stained and varnished wood box, that I'd spent the previous weekend making for my fancy, adjustable router hinge-template setup. It totally destroyed the lid, and bashed in one side of the box.

That cured me of throwing things. Ever since, if I rear back and start to throw something I hesitate an instant, and look to see where it's going to land first. Which takes me past the uncontrolled impulse to do it...

 

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Yeah, I'm cured too. About two weeks after that incident I was demonstrating the thing on a model of a W60 to Garry Hoyt who did a three or so page article in Sailing World. Had there not been a little miracle as a result of my temper I would have lost a major opportunity. One tends to think about things like that.....

 

Well, I'm back to playing with this design. I had almost resolved to set it aside in favor of stashing money and materiel for Egress, the 28' riverboat that Paul (PAR) has been drawing for me. But the plans for Egress have been delayed due to no fault of his.

I downloaded Dassault's free 2d CAD program 'DraftSight' a couple of weeks ago, and I've spent some time learning it (I may never go back to my wonderful new pedestal table and drafting machine again, but that's a different story).

This last week I used DraftSight to draw the molds at each station, along with a profile, and added slots so I can egg-crate the molds to the profile. I printed everything out on some 8.5"x11" plain shipping label stock I bought at Office Depot, and stuck the sheets onto a piece of 1.5mm (roughly 1/16") birch plywood.

In between the rest of my life, I've been cutting the pieces out freehand one or two at a time, with a utility knife that I keep honed to a razor edge. I haven't been pushing my luck; a little impatience or just tired hands could screw things up. Yeah, I know.... if I screw a piece up, I can just print another one. But I'm a cheap SOB, and I might have another use for the rest of that plywood.

After I get the molds and profile egg-crated together, the next step is to do an approximate planking layout for the glued lapstrake planking I'm planning to use for the real thing. My last cardboard hull model wasn't really accurate enough for that.

Unfortunately, I've misplaced my camera again --the hazards of bouncing around between home, another home, work and a motor home. So I can't post pic's yet. But I'll get around to it.

I also intend to turn this model into an RC sailboat. That should keep me busy and out of trouble for at least a little while....

 

Good luck, Troy. Looking forward to following your progress....

 

Never mentioned the scale, did I? I'm building it at 1"=1'0" instead of 1 1/2"=1'0".

 

Better than sand bags is to freeze a six pack or two inside 25 lb blocks of ice. Hang this cold ballast from the windward shrouds in fish net bags...then blast upwind. As the Ice melts and the leeward rail start to drag, bear off and scoot back home while enjoying a bunch of cold beers. Cant do much with sand on the way home.

 

Hi Troy, how's this boat project coming along? That's a sweet looking boat that has fun written all over it for my teenage son. I'm considering building another fun boat. I would be interested to know how she performs and does on the capsize recovery.

Cheers,

Joe

 

At the moment Joe, I'm still piddling along on the hull model. The original idea for the actual boat was that my son would cough up most of the money for materials, and I'd supply most of the skills and labor. But he keeps finding things that eat his paychecks.... first, a guy who was deploying sold him an incredible laptop for only $800.00. Then his car started limping along, so he decided to buy an engine for my wife's beloved-but-not-running turbocharged Dodge Conquest and put it back on the road, with a promise to her that she could have it back when he deploys. And of course, at his age he thinks the latest and greatest smart phone is an absolute necessity.

So on and so forth. The kid meant well, but army pay doesn't stretch all that far even these days. So it looks like I may have to start stashing cash myself for this boat too -- or fire up a credit card, which I'm loath to do.

On the capsize-recovery thing, I've considered adding a toe rail all the way around. Not because I expect to be running around on the deck, but to make it a little easier to grab onto the boat from the water....