A few weeks ago I made up some material for the deck doubling, this is from Huon pine the width being exactly to scale with the thickness a little thicker than scale, this was following Ted Frosts description which says 7”x 1” boards were used.

After machining to size I “weathered” the planking individually in the same way I did the deck planks in an attempt to have a more random effect.

I decided to glue the Deck doubling together before gluing them to the deck, I did this so I could cut the holes for the Coal Bunker Rings later as there was a bit of fitting to do along with a recess in the deck planks to take the thickness of my Coal Bunker Rings, basically I wasn’t confidant I could do it all in one hit. To make sure I was gluing the doublers in the right spot I put some Tamiya tape on the deck and marked it then marked out the positions of things on a piece of waxed baking paper and then glued the doublers together on the waxed paper.

After the glue mix had set a bit I trimmed of the excess the same way I did the deck.

Then before completely drying I clamped them to conform to the deck shape and left it overnight.

Next day I was pretty happy with how they looked and proceeded to tape the doublers down and start cutting a circle with my new circle cutter, with a modified cutting blade (area that I removed marked in Blue), this all went pretty smoothly taking my time to cut the holes.
I set up a small Carbide burr in the Proxxon rotary tool held in the router jig and preceded to machine a recess in the deck to allow my Bunker Rings to sit flush with the Deck Doublers.

Next step was to Chemically blacken the Coal Bunker Rings and Lids, I followed the instructions I had found and after de-canting a small amount into a cup then applied the chemical directly with a brush. This proved to be a slow process with extensive cleaning and repeated applications to achieve the desired colour. Once I had the colour I cleaned the chemical off with water and without disturbing the surface left it to dry in the sun once completely dry I sprayed some clear lacquer that is formulated for Brass and Copper to seal it up.

One thing that was bothering me even although I had pushed ahead was that the doublers looked too big when sitting on the deck, eventually this got to me and I measured what the plan says and compared it to what I had made. There was a 2 mm difference in width at this point I decided it was best to go inside as I was feeling a bit unhappy with myself for not paying more attention to the plans instead of rigidly sticking to Ted’s description.

Seeing I only needed to remove 2 mm I decided to divide it by 4 and remove .5 mm from 4 planks and set about removing the outer planks which came away without damage this enabled me to trim down the 4 faces. Thankfully this made all the difference.

On the 2 removable Coal Bunker Lids I have added a small eyelet to attach a lanyard too, I did this because I could see myself easily loosing them at the pond.

On the Coal Bunker Rings and cap head screw I have engraved a line and painted it so I can easily tell if the removable deck section is locked in place.

Thanks for the having a look, more to come.

Again I welcome constructive comments.

Cheers,
Stephen.

At long last I have installed the Coal Bunker Rings & Lids, funny this is something that I thought wouldn’t take all that long, how wrong could I be…

There was a bit more fitting to do before gluing up, gluing went pretty smoothly thankfully.

After gluing I wanted to seal the deck before I progressed any further, this required masking all the stanchion recesses and any deck fittings already attached. Also the “O” rings on the Coal Bunker Lids were installed along with a very fine smear of grease around the top edge to prevent said Lids from being glued in place due to the paint.

Once this was done I sprayed several coats of Full Gloss Automotive Clear Coat.

Then followed by a couple of coats of the same paint with a flattening or matting additive added to get the desired Matt finish.

The finishing of Coal Bunker Rings & Lids is a small mile stone, as the mechanism that locks and unlocks the removable section is completely hidden now, just have to remember which lid to try and remove...😉

Thanks for the having a look, more to come.
Again I welcome constructive comments.

Cheers,
Stephen.

As pointed out my original Fish Port surrounds were not quite right due to only being one piece instead of 4 so I decided to re-make these, anyway how hard could it be, shouldn’t take long.

Well it took a while, with a few disasters along the way needles to say it was a learning experience.

I thought it would be a good idea to glue the 4 parts together then drill the hole, using a simple jig on my drill press to help with consistency.
I found out this didn’t quite go as planned, and after 2 failed attempts I looked for another way.

In the end I altered the original idea by gluing the part using normal PVA to a sturdy piece of cardboard then drilling the hole, most of the time this worked.

I have also chemically treated the brass fish rings and lids using the JAX Flemish Grey Black, funny on my test piece the colour was quite different.

I have packed these parts away as I don’t need them for a while and I will decide if they need more attention before fitting.

Next up is to get back to working on the Bulwarks, although I will take a sideways step and work on making some solid carbide micro carving tools and a jig for producing custom moldings.

Thanks for having a look, more to come.

Again I welcome constructive comments.

Cheers,
Stephen.

I haven’t had much time lately and currently it looks like I won’t have much time in the near future for hobby work, now mainly due to the Admiral being quite ill, although I did make some progress before the current situation arose. Add to that I have just recently had a bilateral hernia operation.

As mentioned in the last post I was intending to make a jig for producing custom mouldings and work on making some solid carbide micro carving tools. Well I have made the moulding jig but haven’t made any micro carving tools yet, part of the reason for slow progress is I rebuilt my little tool-post grinder this took awhile.

I know I indicated I would be working on the Bulwarks and I did get the parts I have made out and had a look at them then decided it would be best to put that on hold until I had done a few other jobs that included fitting the bilge and circulating pump out-flows, making and fitting the circulating pump intake and smoothing off the brass pins on the brass rubbing strakes.

Neither the bilge and circulating pump out-flows or the circulating pump intake are marked on the plans so for these I rely on the Tree to Sea book page 125 for a description on where they are fitted also sketches of what they might look like were invaluable.

The circulating pump intake was a fitting that I nearly decided to not make as no one will likely see it, but the challenge of trying to make one got to me.

I started with a 2D cad drawing to play around with the hole spacing then machined up a brass blank and used an engraving tool as a centre drill, as the smallest centre drill I have is far too big for the .4mm holes.

The holes were spaced out on the mill. Then drilled .4mm by hand, with the aid of an Optivisor. Next some shape was put into the end on the lathe using a form tool and parted off. A suitable sized hole was made in the appropriate strake.

The circulating pump and bilge out-flow had already been made so all that was needed to do is cut a piece out of the centre rubbing strake and drill a couple of holes, unfortunately after cutting the brass strake it proved very difficult to remove and I subsequently damaged the plank.

With the benefit of hindsight what I should have done at this point is cut out the damaged piece and replace it (which I did eventually) this would have been the best approach, instead I went ahead and drilled the 2 holes, then made the repair only to find out the making the holes very cleanly was very hard, should have realised this.

Thanks for the having a look, more to come.

Again I welcome constructive comments.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Andy,
Thanks, you are quite right without the mill I couldn't have done the holes considering how close together they are.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Graham,
Thanks, I am glad you liked the comment...

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your wishes.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks John,

I am sure we will be okay in the long run.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks cdnfurball,
You know there is always room for improvement, I am very happy if you find my work motivational.
Thank you for your wishes.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Thanks Trev, 👍

Cheers,
Stephen.