I had these next 2 Strakes soaking since yesterday so it has been close to 24 hours!
I’m kind of sick of what happened… I had to use a Cheater on the Port Side which doesn’t even up with the Starboard…
Meh… Most of the Ships had some sort of unevenness.
I had to make a long Cheater for Strake #3 in order to even it out.
I ordered some .6x5mm Maple Wood for the 2nd Planking.
I just made 1 long piece and bent it around the Hull for these initial Strakes.
This is the last Strake from the Keel that goes all the way forward.
I’m kind of ashamed to say that I had to resort to using the Plank Bender. I suppose it has its uses… Although I just don’t like the idea of breaking the Plank. But… I couldn’t do it any other way.
Well… This is the situation that I was trying to avoid… Making these odd looking Filler Planks. Oh well. It is only the 1st Layer.
Nature of the beast I suppose with Planking. A lot of times you just don’t know where you’ll end up.
It looks like the Starboard side is going to be closed up a bit better than the Port. Although I will still be stuck making these funky odd-shaped Filler Planks. At least the lines look good for the most part.
I ended up going up and over on the Starboard side… I figured the Filler Planks would fit more easily on this side like this.
I decided to just go with 2 Strakes going all the way forward instead of 3. In order to get 3 in there, I would have had to make them too thin. So I’m just using 2 and I’m going to just use filler Planks for the rest.
I feel a bit of a failure because my intention was to have all the Planks reach the Bow and for them to all go to the Stern. I suppose experience is the only cure for this miscalculation… I’ll just know better next time.
But… I must say that all in all, I’m quite happy with what came out, filler and all.
This one was a bit awkward… I ended up holding it with my finger whole watching NCIS for about 30 minutes. I tried Superglue but I ended up making a mess of it so had to wait until the Titebond II set.
I’m having a bit of a problematic area on the bottom. It’s always someplace that is risky that way.
I had to bring the #6 Plank across where the Gap is and make for 2 Wedges I need to make for these Gaps. Oh well… What are you going to do eh?
I keep thinking to myself what I could have done differently to avoid this… But looking at it, I don’t see where I could have done anything else? Hmmm… I’m sure a more experienced model maker could tell me, but right now? I have no idea. 🤔
On the Starboard side, I decided to extend the Plank out and sling a Rubber Band across it instead of holding it with my fingers! LOL!!! ðŸ¤ðŸ˜²ðŸ¤£
I mean… Looking at it?… It’s not horrible.
I calculated that I need to taper this Plank down to 3mm to be able for 8 Planks into the space of Bulkhead 1.
I was just taking measurements and I calculated that I need to make 5 more Planks with all of them going down to a 3mm taper at the Bow.
They’re going in good, but they’re starting to take a lot of twisting to go in… But not unreasonably so.
Starting this one with some Superglue interspersed with Titebond II with the pressure off…
Here I’m bending 2 #12 Strakes on the Plank Bender so that I can get more of a gradual bend.
Also, I didn’t bother to taper the after party. I’m leaving that until the end to be able to adjust the ticknesses of the final upper band Planks.
On the Strakes… As they come to the back, under the Transom. Well, I found out the hard way to not cut the excess off until the glue sets. The reason being, the excess gives your Clamp something to grab on to.
Well, the bow section of #12 Starboard side went in… But only just. The limit on the pressure was definitely there.
I had to use some Superglue interspersed with the Titebond for this one. They kind of got mixed together and it became a bit gooey.
I’m pretty happy with how all the Strakes ended up at just about where the Batten was. I almost hit it right on the nose! ðŸ¤ðŸ¤£
As I bend this #11 Strake around, I realize that I’m almost getting to the limit of bendability with these Planks around the Bow bend.
The Stern portion looks like it’s coming along great and that the numbers worked out perfectly at 12 Planks to the Transom.
While I’m at it, I might as well make a mention of bending the Planks across the Jig.
This one is the last #11 Strake. I’ve been slowly making the Strakes as I go to allow me to adjust the thicknesses as I progress. This last #11 Strake is for the Port side and will match the one on the Starboard side that I made on this Jig.
Anyway, I soak the wood in the Wood Soaker for about 1 hour. I use 1/2 Cup / 118ml of Ammonia per 1 Cup / 235ml of Water.
Then when I bend it on the Jig, bend it nice and slow so as not to allow the splinters to come up.
I learned the lesson for slow bending after making a few Planks that raises Splinters as I mentioned before in a previous post.
The Strakes are curving around nicely around the Bow.
I was afraid that I was going to run out of space but I think it’s all going to fit together nicely. I may need a Stealer but I’m not sure yet.
Just doing the Starboard side of #9 and I was thinking to myself that the Batten was right at around 11 – 12 Plank’s worth of Planks on the biggest Bulkhead which was the #9 Bulkhead. It actually landed on 11.6 Plank Widths… So figured I would round up for comfort’s sake.
To be honest, this whole time I was planking, I thought that I was going to run out of space.
The cardinal rule in Planking is to apparently not cut your Plank to any smaller than 1/2 if your original Plank. What is frowned on is for a Plank to come up to the Bow in a Point. The reason being, there was no way to secure a pointed piece of Timber.
I probably should do a Post on some rules on Planking.
It appears that #8 on the Starboard side is also giving me problems. Hmmm
It developed this crack right at the #3 bulkhead. Guess I’ll be using a bit more Putty in the Starboard side.
I was a bit worried about #8 Strake, but I think the whole thing is coming along pretty good.
