Railing Struts

Joined
Mar 4, 2018
Messages
153
Points
113

Location
Charlotte North Carolina
Taking advantage of a week of vacation I have been cruising along on my Virginia 1819. I have found some mistakes in the instructions but this one is so obvious I can't believe it. First I run into a problem of not enough wood for the Companion. Then I find the labeling of the parts wrong in the photograph book. Now I am laying out for my struts and the book says one every 11 millimeters. That is a total of 44 for both sides. They say to cut 38. The longer set of struts are to be 11 millimeters apart also and to cut 20 but it will take 26. I came up short on material for this also. I am very strict on material from my days of furniture building. So I always measure at least twice, verify the material and cut. So far all my scrap you can hold very easily in the palm of one hand. I am sure this kit has been built many times. Why would they not correct these errors? I have recalculated the wood and will have to space out the stringers a bit to have enough. My first build is teaching me more than just how to build a ship but also how to deal with instruction errors. I am sure all you experienced builders have seen this time and again and have extra material to make up the deficit. For us beginners we have to stop and source more material or rethink how we can adjust. Where in the US can I get a bundle or random dimensional wood of different kinds? I finally found some mahogany to cut down for the companion roof but my shop equipment is not real good for such small pieces. Took a bit of work to get the 1 MM by 3 MM pieces I needed to finish. I seen on line that I can get a mini planer to help with this. May have to invest in one I guess.
 
Go to the Lumberyard and get mrswood email that happens to be Ev sanders Dave sanders wife who takes all orders and will give you tips also, right now they are having some HEALTH PROBLEMS WITH DAVES MOM, so it may be a little delay in answering you, he is an advertiser on SOS home page it will give you 2 emails use the one mrs wood,,,,, I THINK HER EMAIL is,,,,,,mrs22wood@aol.com I am sure that is the one, hope this helps. Don
 
You can go to many hobby sources such as micromark.com and they have a variety pack you can buy very reasonable - I suggest it highly. Look to see if you have a hobby lobby near you. They have hobby dimensional lumber down to like 1/32 x 1/32 by 24"
 
Ages of Sail has lumber that is scaled in millimeters so it works best on non-USA builds. It is cheaply priced and they mail it in tubes so that it will not get damaged during shipment.
 
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