Spars. Yard Fittings. Mast Fittings.
Spars
Since masts, yards, and booms (Fig. 17b) must stand considerable strain,
they should be made of some wood that has longitudinal strength and that will not split
easily. Many model makers prefer lemonwood because of its strength and ability to take a
fine finish. It is, however, inclined to split easily and for this reason many experts use
birch exclusively. Birch also had the advantage of being easily obtained in dowels of a
large variety of sizes. Only the best, whitest, straight-grained dowels, of course, should
be used; a plane should slip easily and smoothly along all sides. If you have the right
kind of lathe, spars can be turned. However, they also can be planed and sand- papered to
shape without much difficulty. Use a fine- set plane and a true surface to lay them on
(Fig. 17a). Plane an entire mast or one end of a yard before cutting it from the long
stick so you will have something to hold. When planing small spars, hold the plane, face
up, between your knees and draw the spar with a diagonal cut over its face.
Yard Fittings
The various fittings that are required on the yards should be
placed before the spars are put in position. On models of approximately 1/8-in. scale, the
jackstays (see Fig. 20) can be made from No. 24 brass wire. It should be threaded through
eyebolts on the yard just abaft of the center line. The eyebolts can be made from 1/2-in.
pins bent to shape or, for a neater job, they can be fashioned by flattening the pinhead
and punching or drilling a hole through it. Although cord can be used for the footropes,
it will be limp and flimsy and difficult to keep in place. A good substitute that is
stiffer is No. 32 or smaller silk- covered magnet wire. Just bend the ends back for the
splices and wind on a little silk sizing to hold them. The yards need eyebolt or spider
bands at the ends for the braces and lifts. These can be made by twisting No. 24 wire to
shape and twisting the ends tightly under the yards, finally pushing them into the wood. A
neater band can be made by soldering small eyes to a section of thin brass tube. Both
types are shown in Fig. 20.
Lower yards and lower topmast yards require trusses on which they can swing vertically and horizontally. Trusses of various forms are found on real ships, but the type shown in Fig. 21 will serve for most models. The arm is No. 16 soft wire, hammered flat at the ends and slightly flattened at the middle, where it is drilled for a No. 20 escutcheon pin. This is put through and the center of the truss flattened and drilled vertically for another pin. Two bands with projecting ends are made to fit around the yard and the ends of the arm are soldered between these lugs. The fitting and soldering operations should be done on a dummy arm. Fin-ally, a band to go around the mast is made and a U-shaped piece to hold the pivot pin is soldered to it. A lower topsail yard truss is similar, but with the smallest possible distance between the mast and yard.
Mast Fittings
Most important of all fittings for the masts are the caps, tops,
and crosstrees. The caps (Fig. 26) can be cut from hardwood, but fiber board or celluloid
is more satisfactory. If the cap is inclined to split, file a groove and wind two turns of
thin wire tightly around it. Caps usually have various eyebolts in them. Drill through
into the mast for these, if necessary, to gain a more secure hold.
A top on a small, simplified model can be cut from one piece of fiber or celluloid as in Fig. 24, but is better, of course, built up with regular crosstrees and trestletrees as in Fig. 26. The trestletrees lie fore and aft and are bolted to the mast, while the crosstrees lie across the trestletrees and are half-lapped into them. A rim is built touching the ends of these and the middle is partly planked in. Note that tops lie horizontal, angles to the mast. Crosstrees (Fig. 25) are like tops, but without the rim or flooring. Holly or gum is good for making such parts. Almost every model requires a grating of some sort. These can be made by punching square holes in a sheet of fiber cut to the desired size (Fig. 23). The fiber should be placed on the open jaws of a vise and a large nail filed to a square point used as the punch.