December 20, 2003
I took a trip to the Rona/Lansing store. Home
Depot was useless, their plywood was beyond horrible. I picked up a 4'x8'
Luan plywood sheet, a 2x4, two 2x6s and some brass screws, glue, a rip
fence. All total about $65, not too shabby. I got a lot of raised eyebrows
while securing the plywood to the roof... I'd like to say to the guy in
the shiny F250 "#%!&@!$# you, I got it home and didn't have to
buy a $40,000 truck"
Drove home in a headwind, I was not the
guy with the vertical plywood sheet on his roof, but I think the front
wheels left the ground a few times... |
Imagine a car covered in wood
here. Well, on top anyway... |
December 27, 2003 (3hrs)
Got the plywood laid out and drawing the
lines, I have about 2" of room on each side of the board to work. I
figure that as I cut off material I'll get more room right? Right. |
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After staring at the plywood, saw
in hand for 1/2 hour, I get over my first instance of 'cut fear' and make
some room on the floor. I have the sides of the hull in my new folding
workbench. (thanks Santa!) My new pullsaw (also from Santa) makes cutting
the angles for the bow/stern a breeze. |
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I cut one side and then clamped
them together to make sure that each side is exactly the same. After I cut
them I clamped them again and planed them fair. Planing has got to be the
coolest, all those curly wood shavings. |
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December 28, 2003 (2hrs)
Framing the stern completely wrong took a few
hours. I had to work really hard to leave big gaps in all the joints, and
you wouldn't believe how hard it was to get the bevels wrong! but, luckily
I did all of it backwards so I will just turn it around and it'll still
work. |
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December 29, 2003 (3hrs)
After reading and rereading the plans a
billion times (no lie, ask my wife) the only thing I couldn't figure out
was how to cut a long triangle out of a 2x4 to make the stem. Well, once
you get some curly wood shavings underfoot, these things just work
themselves out. I clamped the 2x4 on its end, and clamped a block to my
rip fence so I could cut that close. Voila! A triangle. Now, a long 3d
circle is called a cylinder, so is a long triangle called a trylinder? |
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This is the "Wow, it is
starting to look like a boat" part. My shiny (shiny?) new stem is
working just great. Did I mention that there is hardly any room in here?
Wow, it is starting to look like a boat! |
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Now that looks like a boat. Stern
and stem attached and bam! Boatshape. Right now it might make a good
playpen for a 6month old, or maybe a sandbox...
Note the 1x2 on the right, I kinda forgot to
mark where the midframe goes, so I marked the measurement on there and
scribed it before I bent the sides, tee hee. Just
a warning to anyone who thinks that getting polyurethane glue on their
hands is no big deal and if you wipe your hand on a rag it's clean... IT'S
NOT! I now have an extra layer of 'skin' that looks like dirt on my
hands... Grrrr... |
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I just can't get enough of that
stem. I cut it flush with the sides of the hull. Probably not supposed to
but who's gonna stop me? Or reattach it? |
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I missed an hour here, I was
running out of time and.. well.. I had PL Premium (glue) all over my hands
and sawdust and screws were sticking to my hands... I was the three
stooges only I was alone....
Anyway, this is the port side midframe piece,
I cut it all wrong about 4 times but in the end it worked. It's even
straight! |
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What would a port frame be without
a starboard frame? I donno. |
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Here is the sandbox, in all its
glory. The time to give up and make it a sandbox/planter/bookshelf is now,
but I'm outta time, don't have sand, don't have a garden and already have
a bookshelf. So I'll finish it another day. Maybe Saturday :-)
Speaking of sanding, maybe I need a new
sander... or any sander... |
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January 1, 2004 (Happy
New Boat Year!)
I made a lot of curly wood bits today,
having planed the bottom of the hull fair. I'll get a pic of that up
later, I forgot to take any pictures but it's not too late. I also put a
bevel on each of the chine logs with my trust circular saw. I'm really
beginning to like that thing ($10 at a garage sale).
Oh, and my hands are almost clean... it's been
a week... stupid polyurethane. Say that three times fast! "Stupid
polyurethane, stpuod pulyuretane, upid olyuretane..." |
Imagine
the edge of the bottom of the hull is nice and fair. |
Ok ok, I caved, I made
a page 2. I even called it page2....
GO TO PAGE2
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