Forgot password

Pondering Seablossom's rig

  • 17 Jan 2012 04:55
    Quote
    Reply # 800706 on 800601
    Anonymous member
    Jeff McFadden wrote:
    Ah, but there is one, the marvelous Fein Multimaster.  Now that their patents are running out they have competition, but mine is the original Fein.
    It is a truly marvelous tool, but it is also in keeping with the Break Out Another Thousand rule.  Three recessed blades, high speed steel for cutting wood, fiberglass, or thin metal flush to a perpendicular surface:  $205.00 US.  Plus shipping, of course.  Another flush blade for other types of crowded spaces is a paltry $45.00 US for a 3-pack.  If you push too hard against this fiberglass and epoxy you can burn a blade - either type - up in five or ten minutes, but if you treat them nice they will last an hour or so.

    Jeff, the Fein is as you say a truly marvellous tool I also have an original. Use the Bosch blades when you can. They fit and are considerably cheaper.
  • 17 Jan 2012 03:17
    Quote
    Reply # 800601 on 726309
    Deleted user
    Resurrecting a long dormant thread here...
    I finally got this obnoxious obstacle cut out of Seablossom's forepeak.  It was, as previously mentioned, a sloping rectangular chute about 8" x 12" which ran from the underside of the foredeck about a foot back from the bow, back at about a 45 deg. angle to land on the cabin sole over the foreward end of the keel.  Along this journey it occupied a great deal of otherwise usable space including the space the
    mast will have to pass through on its journey from partners to step.
    This chute was made from 1/2" plywood covered with fiberglass cloth in thicknesses varying from 1/8 to 1/4 inch.  In order to get it out of the way I had to be able to cut flush with the underside of the deck and also cut flush with the inside of the hull, preferably without cutting any slices through the hull.
    As may be immediately obvious, very few saws enable one to cut perpendicular to, and flush with, a flat or flattish surface. 
    Ah, but there is one, the marvelous Fein Multimaster.  Now that their patents are running out they have competition, but mine is the original Fein.
    It is a truly marvelous tool, but it is also in keeping with the Break Out Another Thousand rule.  Three recessed blades, high speed steel for cutting wood, fiberglass, or thin metal flush to a perpendicular surface:  $205.00 US.  Plus shipping, of course.  Another flush blade for other types of crowded spaces is a paltry $45.00 US for a 3-pack.  If you push too hard against this fiberglass and epoxy you can burn a blade - either type - up in five or ten minutes, but if you treat them nice they will last an hour or so.
    But it's out.  Gone.  In about 15 pieces.  No way I could get it out all in one chunk.  I expect to continue to itch for a few more days.
    Next step will be to level up the boat (and the trailer) for-and-aft and sideways so that when I cut the hole in the deck for the partners I can drop a plumb bob down through the center of it and center the mast step under it.
  • 17 Nov 2011 18:57
    Quote
    Reply # 752835 on 752279
    Deleted user
    Paul Thompson wrote:Hi Jeff,

    I have just uploaded your sail drawings. I still need to write some notes but I am sure that you'd like to study the drawings and start planning so I did not delay with the upload. Both PDF's and DXF's are provided. I highly recommend that you get yourself a copy of Qcad (if you use Linux you can download a GPL version) so that you can read the DXF files. You get more detail and if you need a measurement that I have not given, you can get it from the drawing. Do study the drawings and do come back if there are things you do not understand or measurements that do not make sense or are missing.

    I am writing up a sheet of notes for you and will upload in a few days time. Enjoy the drawings so long.

    Thanks. I saw them up there.
    I do have a linux box but it's a netbook. I have an older HP laptop with a 17" screen; I think I'll turn it into a Linux box so I can get the gpl qcad and have a decent sized screen to look at it on.
    I really appreciate all you're doing for me.
    Jeff
  • 17 Nov 2011 08:18
    Quote
    Reply # 752279 on 726309
    Anonymous member
    Hi Jeff,

    I have just uploaded your sail drawings. I still need to write some notes but I am sure that you'd like to study the drawings and start planning so I did not delay with the upload. Both PDF's and DXF's are provided. I highly recommend that you get yourself a copy of Qcad (if you use Linux you can download a GPL version) so that you can read the DXF files. You get more detail and if you need a measurement that I have not given, you can get it from the drawing. Do study the drawings and do come back if there are things you do not understand or measurements that do not make sense or are missing.

    I am writing up a sheet of notes for you and will upload in a few days time. Enjoy the drawings so long.
  • 07 Nov 2011 20:31
    Quote
    Reply # 744488 on 726309
    Deleted user
    We refer to these as "metric hands." I'm trying to avoid base 9 math.
  • 07 Nov 2011 18:55
    Quote
    Reply # 744428 on 743582
    Anonymous member
    Jeff McFadden wrote:
    Paul Thompson wrote:Jeff, have you got or can you get a metric tape measure? Needs to be able to handle up to 8 meters. Reason I'm asking, is it is simply easier to use millimeters as a unit of measure rather than decimal inches. For example, when I give you a diagonal mesurement (which you'd want to be reasonably accurate) in inches I must give you 217.69 whereas in millimeters I can give you 5914 and not worry about the .5 millimeter that would make it exact.

    Let me know what you would prefer, metric measures or decimal inches.

    Got a metric tape already. (Hint: I've got ten fingers.)
    So I'd rather have metric measurements.
    You still got 10 fingers? Well so have I but it's not for lack of trying......

    Ok will go ahead with metric measurements. I am spending some time with David and Annie but will try give a bit of attention as well. Worse case, I finish the plan next week when back at home.
  • 07 Nov 2011 00:19
    Quote
    Reply # 743582 on 743221
    Deleted user
    Paul Thompson wrote:Jeff, have you got or can you get a metric tape measure? Needs to be able to handle up to 8 meters. Reason I'm asking, is it is simply easier to use millimeters as a unit of measure rather than decimal inches. For example, when I give you a diagonal mesurement (which you'd want to be reasonably accurate) in inches I must give you 217.69 whereas in millimeters I can give you 5914 and not worry about the .5 millimeter that would make it exact.

    Let me know what you would prefer, metric measures or decimal inches.

    Got a metric tape already. (Hint: I've got ten fingers.)
    So I'd rather have metric measurements.
  • 06 Nov 2011 05:59
    Quote
    Reply # 743221 on 726309
    Anonymous member
    Jeff, have you got or can you get a metric tape measure? Needs to be able to handle up to 8 meters. Reason I'm asking, is it is simply easier to use millimeters as a unit of measure rather than decimal inches. For example, when I give you a diagonal mesurement (which you'd want to be reasonably accurate) in inches I must give you 217.69 whereas in millimeters I can give you 5914 and not worry about the .5 millimeter that would make it exact.

    Let me know what you would prefer, metric measures or decimal inches.
  • 30 Oct 2011 00:24
    Quote
    Reply # 737178 on 736869
    Deleted user
    Annie Hill wrote:Do a bit of checking on your double-sided (basting) tape.  Some are more powerful than others and some are so sticky that they gum up your needles.

    The kind I have is from Sailrite, and sounds like it should work.  I need another bunch of rolls, though, because I bought it to make another tiny junk sail.

    Arne staples his sails together rather than taping them.  Anybody got any comments on that ?

    Try, if you can, to have a nice slippery surface under the sailcloth.  It might be worth setting the whole lot out on one of those so-often-mentioned polytarps.  Walking feet are great because they help push the fabric along.  They struggle if you have a rough surface for the material to move over.  Ergo, even without a walking foot, if the rest of the sail bundle can move easily, it will be much less effort to push things through.

    Excellent idea.  Since I haven't made my work table yet, I may buy some cheap paneling made to go inside bathrooms, that is white and slippery, as a work surface.

    I have a Brother machine and used it to make my sail cover, which is a patchwork of Top Gun bits that Paul scraped together for me.  The machine had no problems at all with this much heavier material and Odyssey would be a shoo-in.

    Good.

    Sailmaking is fun.  It's a nice clean job, done indoors with no dust, no smell and an accommodating little machine that only asks for a sharp needle and a frequently swept-out bobbin case.

    Swept out bobbin case?  Is that what I've been doing wrong all these years?

    And carrying right along in the same vein, Barry and Meps wrote:

    A little more detail on my experience with basting tape and Odyssey III:

    I used the stuff from Sailrite, #129 Seamstick 3/8" Basting Tape for Canvas.  I bought 8 rolls, for my 2.5 sails, and still have some left over.  Others might sew a sail without it, but I'm not gonna, at least until after I've sewn as many as Annie has to date :)

    That's the stuff I've got.  Sounds like I need to buy another 3 rolls and I'm good to go.

    I suspect that there is a cheaper place to get it than Sailrite, but I wasn't able to identify it and source it elsewhere, and didn't want to risk trying something cheaper and finding it didn't work as well. I had the same attitude about thread--I could have got it cheaper, but I wanted stuff that I     knew would behave well.  It didn't seem worth the risk.

    I did occasionally need to clean the gummy residue off the needle, a little rubbing alcohol on a rag worked great.

    I'll try to remember that.

    I found that it stuck better to the shiny side of Odyssey III, and also that the rougher side of Odyssey III was pulled better by the sewing machine, so putting things together shiny-to-shiny worked best.  Not all seams could be assembled that way, but if I had a choice, that is what I did.

    Annie, thank you for the reminder--yes I had a lot of fun lofting and sewing my sails!

    Barry

    Well, I'm getting readier and readier.  Pretty soon now.

  • 29 Oct 2011 16:18
    Quote
    Reply # 737020 on 726309
    Deleted user
    A little more detail on my experience with basting tape and Odyssey III:

    I used the stuff from Sailrite, #129 Seamstick 3/8" Basting Tape for Canvas.  I bought 8 rolls, for my 2.5 sails, and still have some left over.  Others might sew a sail without it, but I'm not gonna, at least until after I've sewn as many as Annie has to date :)

    I suspect that there is a cheaper place to get it than Sailrite, but I wasn't able to identify it and source it elsewhere, and didn't want to risk trying something cheaper and finding it didn't work as well. I had the same attitude about thread--I could have got it cheaper, but I wanted stuff that I knew would behave well.  It didn't seem worth the risk.

    I did occasionally need to clean the gummy residue off the needle, a little rubbing alcohol on a rag worked great.

    I found that it stuck better to the shiny side of Odyssey III, and also that the rougher side of Odyssey III was pulled better by the sewing machine, so putting things together shiny-to-shiny worked best.  Not all seams could be assembled that way, but if I had a choice, that is what I did.

    Annie, thank you for the reminder--yes I had a lot of fun lofting and sewing my sails!

    Barry
       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

                                                              Site contents © the Junk Rig Association and/or individual authors

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software