The Great Tall Ship Build: "San Salvadore"

[Brian Kent]

My church's "Hope Fine Woodworking Association" took a field trip today to the construction site of the Galleon "San Salvadore". The construction manager, Bruce Heyman, gave us a lot of time and friendly teaching.

Here is the website for accurate info:
http://www.sdmaritime.org/san-salvador-build/

So here are some photos of this amazing ship:

[Brian Kent]

And some more. The "ribs" are made of Southern Live Oak. The Keel is Purple Heart and Angelica.

[Brian Kent]

And a wee bit of a ship building band saw. About 36" wheels. Several feet of machine are in the pit. 24 ft long blade.

For spacial reference, the room is a freeway underpass.

The 10 hp motor moves the blade (slowly, with lots of torque) while a 3 hp motor changes the angle of the whole bandsaw. The blade stays level. That way with large flitches they can have several men feeding the wood, several receiving it on the other side, and one whose only job is to slowly change the angle of the saw during the cut. That way you can have a complex curve where it begins with a cut at 9° and ends at 12.5°.

[Brian Kent]

The first surface is flattened using a gigantic router sled and a regular 3 hp router.

The they surface plane using a planer from the late 19th century - originally leather belt driven and updated with an electric motor in 1930.

The last photo is the series of templates stored under the overpass.

I can't begin to remember the info that was given by Bruce Heyman. He did recommend that we go to his sawyer's website, which has a special section on the San Salvador lumber cutting:
http://crosssawmill.com/cross_sawmill_special_projects_San_Salvador.htm

If you go to San Diego, this is $5 well spent!

[Dale Coons]

very cool!

[james mcgrew]

I wanna watch this !!