Tag: Wooden Boat

 

 

Got the final coat on both creatures last night after dinner, so that’s done, and the house can finally start airing out. The fumes are rather heady, to say the least.

Within a few hours, the fresh paint was firm enough to remove all that attractive blue tape. I was anxious to do that, curious to see how the natural wood accents would interact with the colors. Very nice, i think. Should be even better once rails, stems and transoms have been cleaned up and varnished – at the moment they’re dusty and only have a seal coat of epoxy.
Continue reading “Painting: Final Coat”

 

A large image, shows detail before the fairing and painting. Pretty rough.

melonseed skiff, mellonseed skiff, melon seed, mellon seed

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.

Continue reading “Keel Planks”

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.

Continue reading “Making Time”

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.

Continue reading “New Favorite Old Tool”

 “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.

Continue reading “Rogues Gallery”

Weekend’s work – half hulls 

 

(to start of project)

I am the Bungie King. With wooden fingers.

Bungie chords in different lengths, and with lots of places to hook to, seem to apply the right amount of flexible pressure, over large areas, to pull the strips together snug. Since I plan to finish the insides bright, random staple holes would be unsightly, otherwise you could just use more staples. Also, the bungies ease the strips most of the way flat without breaking them. Bungies with large plastic hooks don’t mar the wood. The wooden fingers, with a spring clamp applied, hold the strips flat against the form. Fast and easy to apply. Problem solved.

Continue reading “Slow Stripping”