Building the Oneida's Stern 2

Building the Oneida's Stern 2

Starting with a wide plank an arc was cut along the lower edge where the arched lower molding will fit. The plank was glued as one piece right over the gun ports. Photo two is an inside view of the first plank.

From a 1/4 thick piece of sheet stock a blank was cut a little longer than the width of the stern and about 1/2 wide. Along the edge the arc is marked out and cut. A spindle sander or a sanding drum on a Dremel can be used to sand the arc. The lower molding piece arcs in two directions making it vertically impossible to bend in both directions. Fabricating the molding by cutting the arches is the more practical way of making it. Starting with the upper edge sand the arch until you have a nice tight fit against the lower edge of the stern plank. Once you have a nice fit cut the lower edge of the arch until the molding is reduced in thickness to 1/8 inch. At this point you will have an arched molding piece 1/2 wide and 1/8 thick.

Looking at the stern from the bottom the arch of the lower molding can be seen. The lower molding sits against the lower part of the stern timbers and tight against the stern planking. This molding serves as the finished edge between the stern planking and the lower transom planking. Finishing the edge of the molding is left up to the builder. It can be left as a square edge or rounded to form a bull nose. On war ships of this period the molding was given a fancy molded edge.

The rest of the stern planking is glued to the stern timbers in one long piece. This was done so the planks will take a smooth bend. The planks also ran over the gun ports, they will be cut out later. I found by cutting short planks between the ports and on either side did not result in a continuous smooth bend of each short plank. The shorter planks were also more difficult to bend. On the prototype three wide planks were used for the stern. At the scale of the model the planks would have been 19 inches wide. Its possible planking that wide could have been used, but in actual practice narrower planking about 8 to 10 inches wide would have been used. Small pieces of wood are used to apply an even pressure from the clamps over the entire width of the planking. The small wood pieces also aids in keeping the planks even with each other.

Here is an inside view of the stern. You can see the seam where the planking meets the lower molding. The planks did conform nicely to the slight arc of the stern. At this point the planking is left longer than the stern.

To cut out the gun ports, holes were drilled to give a starting point for cutting the ports. There are several ways to remove the bulk of the wood, either use a Dremel with cutting burs or a fine scroll saw blade.

As the cutting gets close to the sides of the ports an exacto blade was used to make a clean sharp edge.

With the gun ports cut out, the excess wood trimmed from the sides, the stern is starting to take shape.