Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 01.pdf/147

  never so. After the stain has set, give the decks three coats of varnish, rubbing each coat down with the very finest steel wool: the last rubbing should leave the decks smooth, but not shiny.

Take a piece of wood, $3/32$ in. thick and about 3 in. wide, and cut it to length, so that it will fit snugly between the after end of the foc's'le and the forward edge of the quarterdeck, just back of the rabbets. Hold the strip down on the deck, projecting over the edge of the hull, as in Fig. 21, and run a pencil around the hull as indicated, to mark the shape of the deck edge on the strip. Cut this edge to the pencil line, and then, with the dividers set to $1/4$ in., run another mark along the strip inside the curved edge. Cut to this line, and you have a waterway strip. $1/4$ in. wide, which is glued to the deck, as indicated in Fig. 20, the outer edge of the strip being even with the back of the rabbets at each end, and an even distance from the edge of the hull all along. A few pins will assist the glue in holding. Fit a similar strip on the other side.

Make some $1/8$-in. square strips of wood, and from them cut the timber heads, shown in Fig. 22, in the circle. The peg portion is $3/8$ in. long, and the square part 1 in. long. Here we digress a little. Amidships the sides of our model are approximately vertical and the bulwarks correspond. From amidships aft, the upper part of the hull leans inward or "tumbles home" as the nautical term has it. and the bulwarks tumble home in the same degree. From amidships forward the upper part of the hull curves outward, or "flares," and the flare becomes more pronounced the further forward we go, and, as the timber heads represent the upper part of the ribs in a real ship, they consequently follow the tumbling or flaring lines of the hull. (See Fig. 23.) So, in drilling the holes for the timber heads through the waterways, the flare or tumble home must be taken into account, and the holes drilled to correspond. When marking off for drilling, make the holes come so that the outer edges of the timber heads will be exactly on the outer edges of the waterways. Only four timber heads with the pegs are needed on each side: the remainder may be dummies, glued on later. There are 23 timber heads on each side, hence the pegged ones must be spaced so that, when the others are glued on, the spaces between all will be equal. Make the pegged heads the second and fifth ones from the foc's'le; one about amidships and the second one from the quarterdeck. Drill the holes and glue the heads in place, on each side.

Now cut a strip of wood a stout $1/16$ in. thick, long enough to reach from the outer end of the foe's'le rabbet to the outer end of the quarterdeck rabbet, and about 2 in. wide. Shape one edge very carefully until it fits the deck perfectly from rabbet to rabbet. This strip will form the bul- 