DavidB773

Welcome, Moab!

I’m a firm believer in pegging parts because it’s useful for positioning and for added strength. Now how about this, a control line through the hull will bring the channel board (with ratlines secured) to the hull and hold it there. Then your positioning tool can be used to guide the part home. A single control line should handle it. I think that a longer peg, even made of wire, would allow for easier placement because it would create more slack with the ratlines.

Hello, Spanky. I see you’re considering pegging the channels to the hull with the ratlines already secured. That idea would save a lot of individual line adjustments inside the bottle. So the careful adjusting would need to be done on the outside. I’m interested to see how you proceed. Looking good! David

Hilarious! I like your project, Onni. It's a very lively craft and stands out. I appreciate that you've shared how the challenges were met. Thank you! David

Bruce, your mentions of my attempt with the Dimond are very kind and appreciated but very much undeserved! The little ship is in a lab bottle from a school that I found at an antique shop. The pinch bottle you've chosen adds to the old school feel of your build. I see that CA glue is something you're not afraid to employ. For me, I could never gather the nerve to touch anything inside the bottle with CA because whatever I'd use to apply it would become part of the scenery! Best regards, David.

I like this ship. It has great character. Oh, how true that is! Maybe a little detail to mention to observers of our accomplishments.

Cool ship there, James! Thanks for sharing it with us! David

For the single SIB I’ve completed, I drew the American flag on both sides of a single piece of paper then folded it in half. Used red and blue ink. Folded, the size is about 2 mm x 3 mm. I’m pretending that there are 38 stars in the field on this 1881 flag.

Hello, all. Here's a link to the video of the placement of the foremast on the W.H. Dimond using this tool. https://youtu.be/eT_Nua9Fi3Q David

While working on the Dimond project, a threading loop on the port side bow was inadvertently yanked out. The loop was connected to a thread that exited at the base of the bow along with all the other threads. It was to be used for controlling a bowsprit brace from outside of the bottle. Here are two pics showing it beforehand. I didn’t want to lose an adjustment point that loop provided so I decided to place looped wire there for attaching the brace to. These photos show how I carried the wire to the bow and placed it in the hole. This depiction was after the initial repair was made. Here’s the stiff paper holder with the carrying wire being taped to it along with the wire peg and thread. The wire peg is in place on the holder and held there by tensioning the thread that will be used as the brace. This causes the wire peg to pivot forward and it is then carried to the bow and placed in the hole.

Fine models, Spanky. The "Sovereign" looks like she's all there. The paddle wheel metalwork on the "Santa Clara" is quite detailed. Looks like she could have been a working model.

I appreciate that, Arup! The bottle is not glued to the stand. Those square pads are a cured adhesive (E6000) cut to shape then glued to the stand. They grip the glass to keep it secure.

Thank you, Arup! Thank you, Mr. S., taking a look at what I'm doing here. I'm quite honored to read your opinion of what I've accomplished. I have a cork for the bottle but it needs to be sized to fit. However, I'm not going to let that get in the way of posting this!

She's almost complete. And no more lines coming out of the bottle!

In my case, bad things happen at any pace! One thing I'm facing is being able to create enough tension on the bowsprit forestays to move the foremast slightly forward for the purpose of tightening the foremast yard braces. The foremast would need to move only 1 or 2 mm for that. This is where the bobstays will do their part. Here, the control lines are being separated for the big cut. After this was done, the bowsprit was kept as shown while I was fitting the sea. That involved a lot of insertion and removal of the pair of sea halves and it was a lot quicker this way. All done.

Welcome aboard, James! That's a fine craft you have there. Well proportioned. That bottle is definitely full! David

What's different about this step is that the lines are static and the spar is slowly pushed "through" them. So far I haven't found an errant touch of dried adhesive along the path.

As a followup, the above line was replaced. I've been working aft to stern making adjustments and cleaning the inside of the bottle. All of the threading with the bowsprit is done outside of the bottle and it's ready to go in. In the bottle, my initial threading plan for the bowsprit called for single line threading. It would have been complicated (but not impossible) to coax thread through the holes and would have involved delicate trimming. However, after putting the bowsprit in the support, I pictured a different scenario that will be much easier to accomplish. I broke the threads up in sections and now the trimming points will be easier to access. Start of the threading: Overall view.

I appreciate the conversation, Mike. Look at the photo from 4.1.17 of single line channel to see how small (or big!) a peg can be. Following are photos of a line I'm replacing because I can't get the kink out of it. It was a tight loop that was in the mast for quite a while then pulled through. Moistening it had no effect. We see the line, then one end cut followed by a glued extension to it to prep for the last cut. (Could have glued first before the first cut.) This will carry the new line to the masts. This new line is CA coated thread. Trial run. More later.

Thank you for your gracious comments, Mr. S. and Landlubber. Mike, further up on this page there are some photos that show all of the lines that I ran underneath the hollowed out hull. On my project, the shroud lines and back stays are attached to the masts then are threaded through holes in the channels then take an immediate bend to go through holes in the hull. They all then exit at the bow where they will be cut and all of this is below the waterline. This method would work with a split hull or not. Here are my thoughts about your plan for securing the lines at the channels first then trimming them at the mast. Masts can be relatively sturdy or maybe not. How much side force can they take especially unintentional movement? Adhesives can make cutting difficult and especially on a delicate mast. How’s about attaching the lines at the mast and also to the channel before putting them in? When it all goes in, bring the channel to the hull. All of the line trimming would have been done outside of the bottle. Maybe the channel can be pegged to be set in a hole in the hull. You may have any adjustments in line tension so careful laying out would be in order. (BTW, the channels on my project are all pegged. I believe in pegging everything possible for strength and it paid off.) Let us know what you think, Mike.

You yanked the whole ship out? All I did was two lines! Newcomers to the SIB hobby reading these posts... please don't be discouraged in any way to putting a ship in a bottle. Many SIB'ers have been doing this for twenty years and in twenty more, they'll have it down pat. I thought I could concentrate enough to put tools in and bring them out of a bottle without snagging anything. Trimmed up a pair of lines super-close to a tie down point that had a touch of adhesive added. Good enough. I commanded myself to not touch those lines until applying the securing adhesive in the next step. Surely I could do that. I could only picture the effort needed to place them back if they were disturbed. Sure enough, snagged the yard, out they came. What have I learned? For me, re-training in disciple is necessary. It doesn't work by rushing the tool to the work point and after that, your done. The tool must be guided in, used, and guided out. Every single time. Did I recover? Couple more sessions and I should advance to the next stage. This should be an interesting thread.

Twice, during a session last week, my thoughts were that I'm not going to build another one again. Contrary to that, having the experience as you mention Mr. S., any future builds should go smoother and with better results. And that is encouragement enough to continue to be creative and enjoy doing something that's rewarding and not everyone attempts. I have some observations in regard to this project and I'm thinking about mentioning them in another thread, for the sake of discussion. That would be coming from someone who has only built one (almost!) SIB. Here's how I put the flag on the line. The first two photos are of the fifth attempt which failed because it wasn't fully seated on the thread as like in the photo in the previous post. (I did trim it after the pic was taken.) Then I figured it out. I didn't account for the thickness of the thread! Yep, thread diameters count. The paper needed to go around the thread and the sharp fold wouldn't allow the thread to seat fully. How much blue tape to hold the flag but to permit releasing? It's a guess. "Flag installation apparatus": with foam to put pressure on the surface of the flag because the thread will hinder the clamping toward the end. This flag has the fold to accommodate the thread thickness. The final result. It's not seated 100% but I'll live with this one.

Progression of trimming the excess of two yard braces. Third photo is of right after the cut. Last photo.... ready for the bowsprit. About the flag, that's the fourth one and I'm still not happy with it. I couldn't get it fully seated on the thread before the glue set.

Everyone, here's a photo of how it stands right now. A side mention... I've not seen a thread on this site on horror stories for this type of endeavor. If one ever starts...