Thread: Doing my block

First of all ... I think that is a beaut photo!

MIK

Second .... Now you have prototyped the hanger and becket in easily fabricated aluminium you have a chance to use the patterns to do the metalwork in Stainless Steel or (gasp) Bronze strapping.

Um ... actually that para above sounds terribly unsympathetic!!! But glad you found out now rather than out on the water!

Best wishes
Michael

Thanks for the pic- what a good project, and you wouldn't have had it without a bit of weather. There's one more part of your rigging that you will know from the inside out.

Originally Posted by Boatmik

First of all ... I think that is a beaut photo!

MIK

hehehe, I wasn't thinking about that when I took it and posted... in the light of a new day and calmer temperament, yeah - it aint half bad is it? Thanks Looking at the contrast between the jarrah and the cutting board - I reckon I might go that colour green for the upholstery when I get to that stage of the rebuild. Might even go the checkers look too.

Rob? Too right mate. I'm enjoying fixing and making stuff for the boat almost as much as I enjoy sailing her.

Darce, don't you think this kind of home engineering is particularly important these days? - so many folks just buy things and throw them away and never have the fun of nutting out a problem, working with a few materials and having the satisfaction of creating something. It's one of the reasons boats are so attractive to a certain type of person, there are all these little sub-assemblies and design/material issues to get your teeth into...everything else has become technologically impregnable to most of us, and there comes a point when buying more stuff just has no more attraction. I went through a period about 14 years ago, having a ball, making little planes for my violin making- cast and sometimes fabricated out of bronze and brass.HSS blades. Couldn't buy any that I liked. I've used them most days since and there aren't many things that give me more pleasure.
Rob

all but three of these are home made.

I couldn't agree more. I've had my yacht now for two months. In that time I've learned; how to lay a mooring (three train wheels chained with 2" galv to a tractor wheel damper with 1" galv chain to the float),
made a D5 tender with ply and epoxy - learned lots about epoxy too- and welded up a trailer for it - including home made rubber rollers,
how to make ye olde rope fenders,
how to eye splice multicore line,
how to tie multi-pass turks heads (the tiller looked a tad plain)
and I've almost got a handle on making wooden blocks - once I find the damn strapping
hmmmm, casting bronze... yummy

That'll be my next project, been reading up on it last couple of days. Just gotta figure out how to sneak the gear past the missus. There's heaps I'd like to make in bronze... cleats, fairleads, sheaves and maybe even a ventilation cowl for the foredeck. Then there's always the construction of the furnace and all that new stuff to learn

So many things to make... I love this stuff

I am getting ready to make some small blocks for my new boat.
The first one is the real challenge I think??

I only need five and have a lot of old teak to use.

I am going to turn the sheaves from oak I think?

It is just a twelve footer with sixty feet of sail.

This is the style I am doing:

Originally Posted by Papa

I am getting ready to make some small blocks for my new boat.
The first one is the real challenge I think??

I only need five and have a lot of old teak to use.

I am going to turn the sheaves from oak I think?

It is just a twelve footer with sixty feet of sail.

This is the style I am doing:

I've been thinking about the sheave problem as well, the modern white ones just don't look right do they? Didn't they use Lignum Vitae (the heartwood of your "Guaiacum officinale") for sheaves in the old days? It's very hard and naturaly greasy and unfortunately not available Down Under.

You may want to shape your blocks in a football shape, the rope binding will be working mostly on the corners and not applying maximum holding pressure to the axle. With rope stropped blocks it's not necessary to work in two pieces either. I'd turn the block round in a lathe then mortice the slot for the sheave, route for the rope, drill the pin and voila!

It's way more fun than buying them isn't it?

I wonder how "Tallow wood' would go (can't remember the bot. name). It's an 'outback' timber- I'm sure someone will know where to get some. It is very tough, but also greasy

Tallow wood's not an outback timber. It's a common East Coast timber, particularly in NSW and Southern Qld - I just laid a deck out of it (deck for house - Brownie point accumulation exercise). Botanical name is eucalyptus microcorys. Tallow wood is strong and greasy. When it dries out through sun exposure, it develops lots of surface cracks and gets a bit splintery - the splinters are bad news! I don't think it would be stable enough for sheaves even though it's very durable. It's got a really uneven grain that would tend to distort the edges and sides of the sheaves eventually, I think, as it aged.

For the sheaves, why don't you use tufnol? It looks good (i.e., old) and it's really strong. Tufnol is compressed material (cotton or similar) and phenolic resin. Tufnol's the brown stuff they used to make circuit boards for valve radios from. You can still get it in sheets (thick and thin) and rods, as it's still used quite a lot. `Specialized' in Newcastle stock it but they don't call it tufnol (I just keep saying tufnol/phenolic/really hard brown stuff etc. until they take me out the back and I show them where it is!). It turns nicely and is generally easy enough to work with (except it turns your shed into a toxic waste dump if you don't extract the dust)



Rick

The title here made me think of a story from the history of the 18 foot skiffs.

They used to prefer "Block and Tackle" rum which they carried on the boats in stone demijohns.

The saying was
"one nip and you would do your block"
"two nips and you could tackle anything"

MIK

(have a read of Bruce Stannard's "The Blue Water Bushmen" if you ever see it ... great stories and greater photos)

My first completed block

I got a little sidetracked by learning a little about galvanic etching so as to produce the brass shaft retainers personalised to suit "Genie".

I decided to incorporate a swivel mount over the fixed plate as this is to be used on the mainsheet.

As soon as I perfect wooden cam cleats, I'll be using stainless side plates to mount them as well. Modern design with that classic look

Galvanic Etching!!!!!

Crazy!

Fantastic!

Well done ... wonderful