Building the Oneida's Sweep Ports

Building the Oneida's Sweep Ports

With the wales in place, the sweep ports will we marked and cut in the bulwarks. Exact size of the port is marked using the first bulwark plank. This plank is a little wider than the other planks by standing the plank on end against the top of the wale mark the width.

Find center of the square and drill a hole.

Using a burr grind out the square until you touch the pencil lines.

Using a scalpel square out the corners. You are looking very close to the model so the square looks rough. At normal view the edges look clean and sharp.

When the planking is glued to bulwark the ends and lower edge of the planks form the sides of the sweep ports. This gives the port a sharp clean look. Looking at the picture this close you can see the wider first plank which defines the size of the port. If you were to use all the same size planks a notch would have to be cut in the next plank up. On the left the plank ends were cut and sanded to the edge of the gun port side. At the top of the bulwarks the top timbers will be trimmed even with the last plank.