Blocks

[Graham Knight]

Anyone know any good websites showing wooden block making?

[SparkG]

Here's a couple:

http://www.chebacco.com/articles/017/3/article.htm

http://www.eclectica.ca/boatbuilding/blocks.php

[almeyer]

I used this one when I made the blocks for my little boat:

Duckworks magazine article (http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/articles/woodenblocks/index.htm)

[Jay Greer]

"The Marlinspike Sailor" by Hervey Garrett Smith
John de Graff, Inc.
Clinton Corners. N.Y.
has an excellent chapter devoted to stropped wooden block making. The rest of the book is also a jewel of information for doing nautical fancy work.
JG

[Jay Greer]

"The Marlinspike Sailor" by Hervey Garrett Smith
John de Graff, Inc.
Clinton Corners. N.Y.
has an excellent chapter devoted to stropped wooden block making. The rest of the book is also a jewel of information for doing nautical fancy work.
JG

[Thorne]

Oooh -- the Duckworks article is the bee's knees, block-making-wise, at least! Great link - thanks, Al.

[Graham Knight]

Yes a couple of good links there, thanx chaps. I only need a couple of blocks and thought it'd be good to make my own, seeing as I'm making everything else.

[Dave Hadfield]

I've made quite a few. One thing I've learned is that the drilling must be accurate -- at 90 degrees. (You need a drill press.)

I found it easiest to carve the block out of one piece of wood -- not laminate. I use the drill press to drill out most of the mortise.

I make the sheaves out of jotoba wood, turned on a lathe. Then I heat linseed oil to boiling on a wood stove, and drop them in for an hour or 2. The oil gets cooked into the sheave. Later, in use, the oil tends to work it's way out the end grain and seems (to me at least) to self lubricate the sheave on its pin.

I also make the thimbles, out of 3/4" copper pipe unions. I use the 3-hammer method, and a torch.

[almeyer]

You'll enjoy making them, rope-stropped blocks are not difficult to make and look very classy on a traditional-styled boat. I deviated a little from the Duckworks article, in that I didn't have any plastic around to make the sheaves. I wanted a sheave that was 1/2" thick, and had some ash handy. To prevent splitting, I epoxied two layers of 1/4" thick ash together, with the grain of each piece at 90 degrees to the other. Then rough cut out and turn. Here's a pic of the finished product:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid158/p18d10f8045b9aa9e373ce16f988ac484/f512fd43.jpg

The late Norm Messinger also has an ImageStation site on making blocks which is really good. Never got a chance to meet the man, but just from his postings on the Forum, you could tell he was a fine gentleman.
Norm's blocks (http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=4291864171)

Hope this helps.
Al

[Graham Knight]

That photo sequence is very useful, thanx.

I wasn't sure whether to laminate or make them from a solid block, I can use the mortiser if I make them from solid, but laminating may still be easier.
I was thinking I'd use Iroko for the blocks as I have loads of offcuts that need using up. I'm not sure what I'll make the sheaves from, although I can buy them from the local chandlers so may just do that and make the rest.

[Thorne]

One thing I don't understand is why the use of artificial (nylon, plastic, etc) sheaves when bronze ones are so readily available?

Sure seems that when you go to so much work to produce a lovely wooden block, you'd want to go the extra bit to use bronze sheaves -- but with so many blocks being made with space-age sheaves, there has gotta be a good reason!

;- )

[ 11-29-2005, 08:24 AM: Message edited by: Thorne ]

[Graham Knight]

Good point, I may have to see if I can find a supplier of bronze sheaves, or turn some myself.

[TimothyB]

Originally posted by Thorne:
One thing I don't understand is why the use of artificial (nylon, plastic, etc) sheaves when bronze ones are so readily available?

Sure seems that when you go to so much work to produce a lovely wooden block, you'd want to go the extra bit to use bronze sheaves -- but with so many blocks being made with space-age sheaves, there has gotta be a good reason!

;- )Sure. Bronze she be expensive and lots of folks who make their own blocks are doing it at least partially for the cheapness of it. :)

[almeyer]

What Timothy said. Plastic sheaves are readily available, or if you want to make your own sheaves, plastic is cheaper and easier to work than bronze. I made my sheaves from wood for the same reason - I had the wood available from scraps, so all it cost me was the time to make them. They're nosier and have a little more friction than the modern ready-made sheaves, but they work fine on my small boat. In the end, it's your boat. Decide what's important to you, and go for it.
Al

[gert]

I used lignum vite for sheaves, cut with a hole saw on the drill press and the groove cut with a coarse round file, again with the sheave on a bolt mounted in the drill press chuck. Brass pins, some of them squeek but they'r easy to make.
Ditto Almeyer; great article

[ 11-29-2005, 10:23 AM: Message edited by: gert ]

[Dave Hadfield]

Bronze sheaves sure aren't common around here. I've never seen one for sale by itself.

I used the Jotoba because it's hard as nails and doesn't want to split. In fact it seems about as hard to cut as aluminum.

I cut the sheaves on a bandsaw and then turn them on a lathe, though the wood is so hard it's difficult to get the chuck teeth to grip.

I have yet to have one fail under load, and I use them in my main sheet (46ft ketch).

[Frank E. Price]

Golden Dove used to make beautiful wood blocks with bronze sheaves and bronze roller bearings with bronze pins (Pacific NW). He also sold the bronze parts separately. But he hasn't been in the block business for quite a few years as far as I can tell and I have not located another source for the bronze innards. Anybody got any ideas short of having a batch turned out by a machinist?

Frank

[capt jake]

I recently bought some Harken (I think they were) sheaves with ball bearings. Only about $6 each.

I have also made the sheaves of UHMW. They work fine, but not as smooth as the bearing type.

[Graham Knight]

I think I may make my own sheaves, I can't find any locally short of buying a complete block to cannibalize, easy enough to turn them from a suitably hard wood and install a couple of sealed roller bearings.
I already made a couple of Iroko blocks from solid and soaked them overnight in Deks Olje, they look really nice. I'd like to find some round thimbles but again I don't think I'll get them locally, may try making those too from copper pipe.

[DerekW]

Sheaves (http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/sheaves/index.htm) and Round thimbles (http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/misc/thimbles/index.htm) from those nice folk at Duckworks.

cheers
Derek

[Graham Knight]

I can get them mail order from UK suppliers, cheaper than having them shipped from the US, but I was hoping to find a local stockist where I could buy them.

[Dave Hadfield]

Really, I doubt that you need bearings. Perhaps if it was a halyard block at a masthead, but otherwise, a bronze pin in a wooden sheave is very little friction (as long as the holes are drilled accurately at 90degrees).

As I said before, if you boil the wooden sheave in linseed oil, I think it tends to self-lubricate.

It might be to your advantage to make a few with simple pins, and then see how they work before getting elaborate about roller bearings.

[Graham Knight]

You're probably right about the bearings Dave, I just need to find a really hard bit of wood to make the sheave, I think the hardest I have is some English Walnut which might do.

[Dave Hadfield]

I don't think of walnut as a very hard wood. Do you have ironwood there -- hop-hornbeam? That would do. Or locust. Even elm might work since it has a twisted grain and won't split easily.

You don't need much, obviously. If you can get a small bit of jotoba (Brazilian Cherry) from a specialty woods place, I can say from experience that it works well. Hard to turn on a lathe though. There's a trick to it.

[wyndham]

Walnut is not going to last. the weather and the UV are going to turn it into brittle dust very quickly.

[Graham Knight]

I have to visit a specialist timber yard in the next couple of weeks to buy some material for making oars, while I'm there I'll pick up a chunk of Lignum Vitae or something similar, unless I find some bronze sheaves beforehand.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Originally posted by Graham Knight:
I have to visit a specialist timber yard in the next couple of weeks to buy some material for making oars, while I'm there I'll pick up a chunk of Lignum Vitae or something similar, unless I find some bronze sheaves beforehand.Have you got a good yard for clear straight grained softwood? its usually hell to find in Britain.
And I thought that Lignum Vitae was gone forever after C.I.T.E.S.

[Graham Knight]

Have you got a good yard for clear straight grained softwood? its usually hell to find in Britain I use Moss & Co. (http://www.mosstimber.co.uk/) when I need anything a bit special, I get all my Douglas-fir from them, and usually get a good deal on it as I tend to take the small section stuff that no-one else wants!
They also stock very good quality Cedars and South American Mahogany, and they usually have small quantities of Lignum Vitae and other exotic timbers.
Click on "Contact Us" and you can download their catalogue and price list from there. I think they do delivery but there's nothing quite like visiting them if you can make it to London, you could easily spend a day just looking round the yard, and probably spend a small fortune too!
Her Majesty gets her timber from them so you know it has to be good, I've never seen her there though so I assume she "has a man" who selects it for her.

[gert]

a friend of mine used 1/2" phonelic
or what about that white stuff they make cutting boards from?

[boatlover]

One wood not mentioned before that ought to make a good sheave is Osage Orange. The wood is very hard, and the grain is twisty so splitting is unlikely. My grandfather had a maul/mallet with the head made of Osage Orange. No bands araound the heads and didn't split.

Turns very well.

Regards,

Ed R

[Frank E. Price]

Black locust is probably good for blocks, but you have to scrounge for it. And there's always lignum vitae. I bought a piece of something called guayacan from Flounder Bay awhile before they went out of business thinking I would make some ropestropped blocks with it, but that's not happening yet. The guayacan was described at FB as much like lignum vitae, but from S. America. It is very dense and has the same waxy feel as lignum vitae.

Frank

[wyndham]

Soemone mentioned hop hornbeam. I've never heard of it being used on a boat but it was the preffered wood in New England for wheel hubs for wagon wheels. It is very hard, close grained and not unpretty to boot. It works well when it's green and when it's seasoned. Treated with CPES and a nice few coats of varnish it should make dandy blocks.

[capt jake]

or what about that white stuff they make cutting boards from? That material is HMW (high molecular weight) which is a little on the 'soft' side for this application. phenolic would be very durable, though I imagine it would also be a little hard to work. UHMW (ultra high molecular weight) is denser and more durable than HMW, though it may be hard for some folks to locate. It also has inherant self lubricating qualities. I have a supplier down the street who stocks it. I also have several sheets of it that came from a local mill. They use it on the green chain and replace it every couple of months.

[ 12-12-2005, 10:56 AM: Message edited by: capt jake ]

[PeterSibley]

There's a plastic called Delrin thats pretty good for sheaves, self lubricating and available as round.2",3",4" at least.Used a lot for bearings.Very easy to turn.Ask any plastics supplier.

[Benchdog]

bump

[Ken Hutchins]

Delrin is NOT uv resistant, some of the fancy block makers clain they use a 'special' uv resistant Delrin, just more BS advertising stuff. They want their blocks to fail in 5 to 10 years along with the rest of the F&%$$#%%$^ boats the blocks are used on. Planned obsolence buy a new boat you suckers.
By contrast I have some blocks from the original TALLY HO - 1883, ash shells with bronze sheaves.
For long life use bronze, lignum vitie, or if you want modern high tech use nylon which is available with moulded in lubricant - grade 602? which has the low friction of teflon.

[RodB]

These blocks made by Bob Albers, the builder building "Susan are taken from "The Marlinspike Sailor" and/or "The Art of the Sailor".

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m13/RodBrink/Alberssmallblockglueup-72-1.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m13/RodBrink/Albersblockdouble-singleandsidep-1.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m13/RodBrink/Albersbestblockdramatic-72.jpg

RB