Down to the Skinny

 Bungie Chords to the rescue, again.

 

(to start of project)

Wow. The last two strips on each side are incredibly difficult. If I’d known how difficult, I surely would have taken another tack.

There’s still a lot of curve in this section, in the direction the strips don’t want to bend. But the strips are short so you can’t get any leverage. Pushing them into place takes both hands, and they still spring out of the slot and pop you in the face. Plus, each strip has to be cut exactly to size, with bevels and long tapers on both ends, which means prying them into place multiple times as you shave and refine the shape. I haven’t broken a single strip until this point, and I broke four on Saturday – one for each strip that went on successfully.

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Piece Work

PlaneEdge_5815

PlaneEdge_5815

Keels planed to a clean edge

 

(to start of project)

Began piecing in the last sections of the hulls. Considered a couple of quicker ways to do this part – ways that allow you to fill in the strips first and trim them all at once – but each of those only give you once chance to get it right. Doing each piece individually takes more time, but if you mess up you just toss that piece aside and grab another.

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Playing Hookie

Things that make you say “ahhhh.” 

 

(to start of project)

Last weekend we got 8 inches of snow, with temps in the single digits.

This weekend we got sunny, breezy, and 80 degrees.

We went from snow boots to sandals in three days.

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Keel Planks

Shaping the Keel Plank

 

(to start of project)

Gluing up Ash strips for the keels worked really well. Left off the last two strips so the whole blank would fit through the planer, which evened everything out, then planed the remaining strips to the same thickness and glued them on.

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Making Time

Outside looking in. Where’s Spring? 

 

(to start of project)

Between doing taxes, borrowing a planer (Thanks G!), snow storms, birthdays, and working late at a real job, a little still gets done on the boats: more sanding and scraping, and some work on the keels.

Most people use a high quality mahogany plywood for this part, and there’s much to recommend that. It’s pretty wood, and easy to use, though you’d still have to scarf two sheets together, and laminate two 1/4” sheets, to get the full length and thickness necessary. In my case, it’s the only place where mahogany would be used, so I think it might seem a bit out of place – if possible, I’m trying to use only woods that would have been available locally.

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New Favorite Old Tool

First pass at smoothing 

 

(to start of project)

I’ve begun to dislike power tools. Must be an age thing.

The bows are closed up. The only thing left is the troublesome “football” section. There are several ways to finish off the transition from the hull to the keel, and I’m still undecided on which way to go. To give myself time to think it over, I figured I’d start smoothing the parts of the hulls already done. It’s contemplative work.

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Rogues Gallery

 “Mug Trio” from The Smoking Gun

 

(to start of project)

It’s possible some of the information below is full of half-truths, exaggerations, or outright lies; it’s difficult to say. If no current photo exists, a reasonable approximation is used herewith.

This is a partial list, in no particular order, of ‘seedie people and places. I’ll try to update it from time to time.  Some of these folks have useful or interesting links associated with them. Some links are not to people, just useful links. Some are just interesting people.

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