USS Idaho (BB-42) (1945) IRCWCC

Hmmm. . In a brawl you have to favor Poldark but in a formal duel with sabers or epes?
Albert has probably been taking lessons with the European masters for his entire life.

 

Sorry, epee.

 

Poldark wins. He'd turn it into a Melee. One of the greatest lessons my old commander (an Alaska Fighting Champion--an MMA thing up north) taught me was that novices are far more dangerous than somebody who has trained extensively, because they won't pull their punches out of habit like an expert will, and will accidentally do far more harm than intended.

 

AND................ I'm crashed. I just lost a week's worth of work, and like a Hundred bucks in prints.

I was laying out the build board, and got to about 90% done, when I started noticing that the hull was a little long.
So I grabbed my T square, and it taps out at 48 inches. the Idaho is supposed to be 52 inches long, so I should only have about four more inches of overhang. there were at least twelve.
I measured the widest point on the contour chart, which is supposed to be 8.83 inches per IRCWCC AND my own calculations. Ten Inches wide.

I went back to the original 1:144 plans by Profile Morskie (ie: they printed these things off in Poland and shipped them to me. THIS IS NOT A PRINTING ERROR ON MY PART)
and triple-checked that the plans I had printed off from the print shop were the right scale. The Profile Morskie Plans and my personal plans were both the exact same size.
it says "1:144" on the plans. big bold letters. I had brought the Morskie printed plans with me to the print shop to verify the size was right on the plans that I had printed off, because I assumed that those drafters in Poland weren't complete nincompoops.

By my calculations, the Profile Morskie plans--plans which were shipped to me from poland BY THE GUY WHO DREW THEM--are 13.25% larger than they're supposed to be.

Glad I didn't cut any wood yet.

Lesson learned. Never Trust A Sketchy Polish Guy. Or a Fart.

Good practice. *Good Practice*

 

UPDATE:

Profile Morskie was super apologetic when I told them what happened. they went back and realized that the first two sheets of the plans were sized 1:126, while the third was 1:144

So they're sending me a new paper copy (not Holding my breath) and sent me the PDF plans for the Idaho AND the Mississippi.

I am going to print off the new sheets this Wednesday. Pray they did it right this time.

 

If you download the actual adobe acrobat reader you can use the built in measuring tool to double check the .pdf plans before you print them.

 

here we go.......

 

NOPE. Morskie Locked the PDF so the Acrobat measure tool will not work.

 

Ooof! I guess to try and prevent copying or something? Makes little sense. Good luck man, hope this next set works out.

 

yeah me too. Thanks for the tip though. I'll at least have acrobat for next time.

 

I think it's to prevent someone from removing the "plans specially prepared for <insert name>" text that he adds across the plans. This has two purposes: to prevent theft and to allow the purchaser to get the plans printed out @ a local Kinkos, drafting store, etc, as most won't print it out for you w/o permission from the plan's supplier. Kinkos does this to avoid copyright infringement...

 

yeah that's what I figured the reason was. I just wish that measuring things on the pdf wasn't part of that. Meh, already have that angle covered though, the printer and I will double check the measurements on wednesday when I pick them up

 

Fair amount of progress since I got the correct sized plans yesterday. The Build Board is done, with all of the ribs etc lined up. I cut out the fore and aft keel portions with significant amount of reserve material on the interior around the hard areas. I'm going to fit each rather tightly to the hard area ribs with a scroll saw when the time comes next week-ish.
Right now, I'm prepping the rib contours I had printed on a light table using the masters I made. Yeah, little slow but it's all I have what with the whole "not being paid" thing and all. Plus it allows me to triple check each rib as I slowly work on it over the light table. The Pics all suck from my phone, so I'll switch to my camera as soon as the battery is charged.





Hey @Kevin P. ,

Using what you said in the Andrea Doria thread, this is what I've dialed in:



Center to center, the pumps are about 4 inches apart. that's as far as I can go though with the contours being what they are. I'm gonna leave it loose until I have all of the ribs cut out, then base the final width of the keels in that spot off of what is feasible with regard to the rib width. those two keel parts are going to be cut to narrow the central channel back down around the Gearboxes. Unless somebody thinks I should leave it wide so that the water will drop down to the left and right of the motors (which would also give me the freedom to maneuver the mounts in future)

I'll probably finish tracing out the first two ribs tonight. Tomorrow will be more rib work. Hope to cut wood by the end of tomorrow.
Saturday's a blow out, as I have more ice fishing to do. Sunday will get about 50/50 if the girlfriend comes over for that night's episode of Victoria.

 

Got all of the rib stencils cut out, and about to glue them to the boards for cutting. I had to test my pasting method, but it came out perfectly.

And yes, my living room is often filled with lumber. behind the shot, I have a pile of birch curing for next year's woodworking projects (spoons, butter knives, etc.)



Next step will be to start fitting the ribs to the keels, and getting the subdeck cut out.
Found some work to pay the bills that starts Tuesday. so I'll have about two weeks of work before getting back to the boat full time again. Unless the Government reactivates. Which would be nice because I'm starting to eat weird stuff, like pancakes made with bisquik and 7 Up.

But I did find powdered peanut butter in my earthquake survival kit, so I have that going for me.

 

Started getting the ribs fitted to the keel last night, and progress has been good. Not the 3 week 6-unit Battleship rate of somebody who has done it way more than a few times, but still good.

I've managed to fit seven ribs and the forward hard area so far. the hard area, if you'll note, separates from the bow keel contour. This will not be the case once I start work on filling in the hard area. stay tuned and watch how I address it--I think it's going to be a pretty cool solution.

all of the joints are undercut and finished with a file. I've found it to produce some rather snug and fantastic joints.





Once I get all of the ribs fitted, I'll start figuring out where I'll put the wiring runs and cut out the interior of the ribs.
Then I'll:
1: cut the deck and subdeck
2: Fit the subdeck
3: start work on the hard area
4: use 1/8" ply to make the stringers.
5: Fit the stringers.

 

stringers better out of solid wood, if possible. Looking good.

 

I'm glad to see a well executed wooden build coming along. Keep us posted!

 

Oh yeah, totally. the plan for the casemate stringers and the armor belt is 1/8 ply. the Below the waterline stringer will hopefully be the same.
The stringers on my Texas build didn't stand up too well, so I'm hoping to never have to use those little 1/8 basswood sticks again.

 

Find some 1/4 x 1/8 maple for the stringers. Works quite nicely.

 

OOOOOOHHHHHH? it does now? interesting. I do like Maple.

Oh and sure enough, I found some for a half decent price. and it comes in several widths too. Thanks for the tip!

https://www.rockler.com/maple-by-the-piece-1-8-thickness

(in case anybody cares, link^)