M/V She:Kon

You have to admire

2012-01-30T07:35:00.001-05:00

this mans dedication to his project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN4kmlAxvGU

Canadian Coast Guard turns 50 today

2012-01-26T14:57:00.000-05:00

The organization that I've worked for for the last 31 years celebrates it's 50th Anniversary today.

http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/eng/CCG/50th_Anniversary

I designed the logo!

TW28 Launching

2012-01-18T10:34:00.002-05:00

I only know him as "Fabio" on the Bateau.com web forums. He's been building his own TW28 for the better part of a year. It looks like late last night they launched it.

Hopefully we'll get some better photos of her afloat today.

Well done and well deserved Fabio. Cheers!

Well it's another year

2012-01-03T11:15:00.000-05:00

I guess I better say somethin'! Happy New Year everybody. I wish you all the best hope you all prosper in 2012.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster ride. About 10 days before Xmas I get "The Letter" on Black Monday. Gov't cuts are starting to be rolled out across the country and my position has been offically eliminated. After 31+ yrs in the Coast Guard my future here is very limited. What it all means right now is not much will change right away. That's ok I understand how fast gov't works. I've sort of known this has been coming for awhile.

After thinking hard about this I'm really pushing for an early retirement (package) that won't see me penalized because of my age. They (Gov't) did it back in the 90's with something called an Early Retirement Initiative (ERI). If I can get the same benefits as they did back then I'll volunteer to go early.

I really don't think this is a bummer and would welcome the opportunity to retire early. More time for boat building but I'd have to be more careful with the $$$.

We had a pretty good wind storm come through night before last so I am looking to anchor the shed a little better. I got two of those screw in anchors farmers use for fences and a 20,000 lb ratchet strap. Once the ground thaws a bit I can get the anchors in. I've had this reoccuring nightmare of the shed being blown away in a storm and the other night it was a dream of the shed deflating like a weather baloon that's been shot down! :-) Have to quit eating jalapeno's before bedtime!

Later........

What's on your Xmas boatbuilding wish list?

2011-12-10T09:04:00.000-05:00

Hmmmm?

15 gallons of epoxy
10 yds of multi-axial carbon fiber
Gridcooler (Keel Cooler)

After that, not much else. We've got pretty much everything we need to laminate the hull and flip it over. Once that's done there's a few other big ticket items we'll have to plan for, fridge, windows etc.

C'mon Spring! :-)

Can you believe

2011-11-19T13:50:00.001-05:00

the wonderful fall weather? Sheez I've pissed away a few weeks of prime boat building time. Kickin' myself for that. Today I couldn't let the good weather slip by anymore and got back out to the shed. Temps inside were a nice 50+ degs F. Not too bad. If you keep moving, which I did, it's comfortable to work.

What I decided to do today was install the bow thruster tube. First challenge was to draw a straight line down the exact middle of a tube. A quick visit to Google brought me to this trick.

Pretty slick eh?

Second task was inside the boat locating the ideal spot for the tube. Instructions say it should be at least 100 mm (4") below the waterline. Ideally it should be 150 mm (it's a 150mm tube). The instructions also say it, the tube, should be no less than 100 mm from the bottom of the boat. The tube also has to be longer than 50 cm from side to side on the shortest (bottom) side. That presents me with a bit of a space issue.

Using my laser level and measuring from Frame A I located the water line and then drew out the parallel lines for 100 mm, 150 mm and 100 mm from the bottom. I had to compromise and move the tub up 25mm (1 in) so that it would end up the minimum 100 mmm from the waterline. I drew a base line and drilled two parallel holes to set my initial spot.

To draw the hole, which on an curved and inclined surface like the upside down hull of a boat you need to make up a device that'll follow the circumferance of a circle and also move along the contours. It looks something like this.

With this tool I could easily draw out the hole for the tube. The first position I chose the hole was pretty elongated due to the slope and curve of the hull.

I moved the centering hole 3" forward of my original position and drew another hole for the tube. This was much better. A quick run around the holes with the Jig Saw and they were ready for the tube initial fitting.

Using the template for the thruster housing I cut the holes with the tube on the bench. Much easier this way.

Another couple if fittings and I was ready to trim the ends. I marked the outside of the tub where it'd be cut off then put it back in the vice.

You have to use a High Speed Steel jig saw blade on this stuff. It wore the teeth right off of a plain wood blade in about 3' of cut! :-)

Last fitting for today. I'll probably glue it into place tomorrow if the weather permits.

Carry on.

That's pretty much it!

2011-10-28T10:18:00.001-04:00

Had to bring the epoxy inside last night so it didn't freeze. Guess that's pretty much it except for some sanding till spring. :-(

Not much to show

2011-10-23T13:09:00.000-04:00

this week. Been lazier than ole' Bootsy Boy lately. Must be the change in seasons. Body is telling me it's soon time to hibernate. Tucked the car and boat away in barns for the winter. :-(

This weekend I did manage to get the bulwarks tacked into place to see what they look like.

Ran into a small problem with the flare of the bow being a little more than planned. The side panels are off the forms about 5/8" causing the bulwarks to leave a fair size gap. I pulled the side panels back in a bit to reduce the gap.

I'll glue these on next week weather permitting.

Today I got the keel lined up and shimmed and glued down. It's now part of the hull. Not much to show for 4 hrs work but there was a lot of futzin' around to get it all lined up.

Still making baby steps

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

so slowly things are coming together. Keel sides going up.

Dealing with a few alignment issues between the keel and the hull. No biggie, I'll just spend some more quality time with my belt sander! :-)

Finally got to spend some real quality time

2011-10-09T16:05:00.000-04:00

with Mr. Belt Sander. ;-) Five hours yesterday and a couple more this morning. Rounded off all the chines so the glass tape will make a nice easy transition from the bottom to the side panels. Dirty work though. I got sanding dust in places you don't wanna know about! :-)

Once that lil' dirty job was out of the way I started taping the seams. Sheez almost five hours to go around the boat twice (two layers).

I'm gonna be sore tomorrow! Up and down the ladders a million times today. I suppose it's good for me all that exercise. Now to go pig out on turkey!

Happy Thanks Giving everybody! Be well and happy and enjoy your family while you can.

We won't be having....

2011-10-05T11:25:00.002-04:00

that lil' problem again, will we?

All stitched up and nowhere to go!

2011-10-02T17:49:00.000-04:00

I hope! :-)

Lori & I glued the pieces back together today. A bit more care will be in order from now on. I don't want to have to do this again. Once this round of glue sets I'll sand in between the stitches and blocks and add a layer of tape to make sure it doesn't come apart.

Live and learn. Carry on.......

Sproing! Ah Sh*t!

2011-10-01T11:26:00.000-04:00

There's some jobs that I've enjoyed so much I decided, well, the boat decided, I had better do again!

It went off like a shotgun! KaBoom! Scared the crap outta me. I was just getting ready to fill the last few holes before I sanded down the seams for taping. Ah Shit!

You can see where it was the glue that mostly broke and it only pulled away from the plywood in a few places. I guess that's good, the glue is doing it's job.

So from there it was back to the belt sander, grinder, jig saw and drill to get ready to strap & stitch the panels back together. Guess I'll be leaving some stitches in right to the taping to ensure this doesn't happen again. Sucks too 'cause it's getting colder and takes the epoxy forever to kick off.

Back to the drawing board. Standby....

Patty Cake Patty Cake

2011-09-29T19:27:00.000-04:00

Ooops! That's not cake mix there is it Darlin'? ;-)

I always say many hands make light work and teamwork is the best work. Ayup, that's what I always say so I let Lori do the epoxy glue mixin' and fillin' in the seams and kerfs on the boat tonight while I supervised. Hey! Somebody had to supervise, Boots wasn't around, the slacker!

She did good! Look at the concentration on her face! :-)

More gluing and filling tomorrow then Saturday we might tape the seams between the bottom and side panels. Standby....

It's been slow....

2011-09-25T10:58:00.000-04:00

but I'm getting back into the boat building frame of mind. Lori and I have started to glue the bottom & side panels together. Yesterday's episode involved mixing up a big batch of epoxy & pecan flour for the glue. We mixed waaaaaaaaaaay too much! ;-) The remnants make for some funky epoxy art! ;-) (about $10 worth of materials *sigh*)

We couldn't get it on the boat quick enough before it kicked off. I could feel it getting really hot in my hand. Next time it'll be smaller batches. We learn as we go.

Today we hung the transom.

This afternoon will involve more glue to get these panels all locked into place. Standby....

If it won't budge get a BIGGER HAMMER!

2011-09-19T19:15:00.000-04:00

Strapped
Screwed
Blocked
Beaten
Pried
Bent
Tugged and.......

Whipped into submission!

My pry bar is still in there somewhere with a chisel too! :-)

'Round and 'round we go again

2011-09-17T17:39:00.000-04:00

and again.

One of the toughest parts of assembling one of these boats, other than falling on your head is bending the bottom panels around the forms at the bow.

There's a lot of tension built up in those panels when you ratchet them into shape. I've run into a little problem with aligning the panels correctly but have gotten some tips form other TW28 builders to try tomorrow. You can see it better here where one bottom panel overlaps the other.

That took 3 attempts to get to that point. I'll try again tomorrow. Other than that the only other thing I accomplished was putting a door on the front of the shed where there's been only a tarp for the last 5 months. Doh!

A few pics from ON HIGH!

Looking fwd.

Looking aft.

Chillin' time! :-)

Dump ducks and

2011-09-15T19:09:00.000-04:00

some light duties in the boat shed tonight.

Stopped at Subway for meatball sub tonight. Decided to sit down by the water and enjoy it and who shows up? A Dump Duck! Lori will tell you I have no likening of these foul birds.

So along with the cat paw prints on the hood of the Jeep I now have webbed dump duck prints too! *sigh*

One of the fella's on the boat building bulletin boards suggested I use two barrels and a plank to help prevent the lil' accident I had last week. For some reason I don't see how using two buckets is gonna help! ;-)

You know what I always say? "Safety First!" Ayup, that's what I always say! ;-) I'm thinkin' this will help me keep to that! It's nice and light and just the right size for working under the hull. I'm sure Lori will approve!

One of the butt joints on the side panels broke when I bent it around the forward forms so tonight I ground the fiberglass off of it and reglassed and glued it.

Once this is set up I'll get back to stitching panels together. I hope to get the transom and the bow bent into shape and stitched this weekend if my wrist cooperates.

That's it for now. Tomorrow is the last car club meet of the year so there won't be any boat building stuff posted till Saturday. Standby.

Hurricane Irene and the Stimson Bow Roof Shed

2011-09-13T10:33:00.001-04:00

If there was ever any doubt how well designed the Stimson Bow Shed is this video should put those fears to rest!

From: Far Reach Voyages

I tried

2011-09-12T18:36:00.001-04:00

but it's not good. A few more days to heal up methinks. :-(

My own signature line says

2011-09-08T19:15:00.000-04:00

"It's not a boat you've built till you've sworn at it, sweated over it, bled on it and cried beside it!" I made that up and use it on most of the boat building forms I post to.

Well tonight I added a bit more blood to the project.

I don't think it's broken. Just scraped up and swollen. Hurts like hell. Also banged my head and bit my tongue! Doh!

Safety Notice: Five Gallon Plastic Pails are no substitute for a step ladder!

I was working in the "Belly of the Beast" about to drill a couple of holes for more plastic ties when I stepped on the pail and "Wooosh" away it went out from under me! What a Doofus!

Guess I'll take it easy for a day or so! Standby.....

The first part of Stitch & Glue

2011-09-05T16:56:00.001-04:00

is the stitching! In this case it's not thread we're using it's heavy duty plastic wire ties.

Once I got around the entire hull stitching the panels together and getting them all lined up correctly I'll begin the second part of the procedure, the gluing. It'll be while before I get to that part though. Some of these panels have to be bent quite radically to get them into their final shape especially around the bow section.

Someone on the builders forum suggested using round spacers on the inside of the stitches to help align the panels. It works!

That's it for now. Back to work tomorrow! Boy, five weeks just flew by! :-(

There's two sides to every story

2011-09-04T18:11:00.000-04:00

just as there are two sides to every boat! :-)

With some help from Timmy and my Brother and Lori we wrestled the second side panel up into place. It had to be dragged out of the shed, flipped then brought back in and lifted into place. It took me a couple hours doing it on the other side by myself and only 5 mins with helpers! Doh! Anywho, it's up now. I'll spend some time tomorrow getting all the panels lined up for stitching. It's back to work on Tuesday (*Sigh*) so things will likely slow down a bit in the boat building arena.

This morning when I was clearing obstacles in the shed prior to moving the panels a storm decided to whip through Iroquois. I thought a freight train was roaring though the shed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UEOK0xkqKk

It doesn't show it too well on the video but the shed moves around a lot in a wind.

Yesterday was a ....

2011-09-03T16:15:00.001-04:00

day of days. Our friends Peter & Nathalie launched their Bolger Windemere that they've been working on for 7+ years.

The final fit-out will take place while the boat is in the water in its new berth. There's still plenty of lil' details that'll make this boat truly special.

A heartfelt Congratulations Peter & Nat from Rick, Lori and the gooch squad (Shadow, Squirt, Boots, Momma & Baby).

And being inspired by all the wonderful things happening to other builders I decided it was time to get back into the shed today. I slept late but did manage to get some stuff done.

The next big task is hanging the side panels on the strongback. I was trying to get them up off the ground and they kept falling back, they're long and floppy and go where they wanna go! So I said frack this and hooked one to the winch and hoisted the bugger up and onto the strongback.

Getting these lined up and ready to be stitched is a bit of a chore. I've got some help coming tomorrow to hang the second panel which is on the far side and has to be taken outside, flipped then moved back inside and onto the forms. It'll be tight but I think 4 of us can do it.

I kinda felt like Jonah inside the whale when I took this shot.

That's it for today. It's almost 100 degs F in the shed today.

Things are happenin'

2011-09-01T11:45:00.001-04:00

all over the place!

My friend Peter is launching the boat he built tomorrow! I'm more than willing to give up a days work in the shed to attend this special event.

I'm so excited I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight! :-)

On my side of the boat building universe I've joined the two halves of the boats bottom!

After this sets up I'll move onto the keel sides and bottom. Likely Saturday.

Nobody told me you had to wear armor to build a boat! I've been banging and bruising my shins for weeks now on the strongback and step ladders. Finally smartened up and got myself a set of shin pads. Cute huh?

If they save some skin they're worth it. :-)

Slick as ...........

2011-08-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

The second set of bottom panels went up slick as ...... Maybe I'm just getting the hang of it.

Alignment on the stern was perfect. Bow needs a little adjustment which will have to wait till this afternoon.

This girl is starting to show her true size. :-)

The glue and tape job on the bottom panels I did yesterday didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I see using quite a bit of epoxy filler in this area. :-( I'll try to do a better job on the other side. It's a little more difficult working up in the air, maybe I should have stitched them together when I had the long table. Oh well, hind sight is always 20/20 eh?

More later.....

Ok, the party's over now it's time.....

2011-08-29T13:21:00.000-04:00

to get back to work!

Seeing as we didn't actually lay the keel on Saturday, today was the day the first bottom panel went up.

It's actually two pieces because I knew it'd be too big for one person to handle. As it was it was a bit of a struggle to get it up and keep it from sliding off.

Being two parts I had to line them up as best I could then tape and glue them together. Robert came over and gave me the idea to use some C-clamps and ratchet clamps to pull the sheets together. He's a smart ole' fella.

There's not going to be much I can do till this part sets up then it's onto the other side which will be a bit trickier to get glued & taped.

That's 'bout it. Time for a power nap! :-)

It was very nice to share....

2011-08-28T10:35:00.002-04:00

special moments with special friends! Words can't express how grateful we are to everyone that came to celebrate with us.

A good friend, Ray Martin, stopped in to celebrate with us yesterday. Ray is one of the most talented chef's I've ever had the pleasure of working with. He "tossed" this lil' edible arrangement together for us.

Anybody for leftovers? *hehehe*

Keel Laying Day

2011-08-27T06:00:00.002-04:00

Throwing a party with some friends. Pics to follow. Standby.....

Oh Boy!

2011-08-20T12:51:00.000-04:00

Just a half day in the shed.....

2011-08-19T12:48:00.000-04:00

My buddy Andrew will be here tomorrow to help me hang the rest of the forms. This morning I got the transom form up. It was too heavy for just one person to wrestle into position so I used my winch. It put a lot of stress on the vertical's so I have to re-plumb them tomorrow.

I also built myself a small bridge over the back end of the strongback. This will be the main thoroughfare to get around the boat. It also gets me at working height for the transom. There's a step on the far side.

More tomorrow... Carry on.

A lil' slow getting started

2011-08-18T18:11:00.000-04:00

but I ended up spending 7 hrs in the shed today. After checking my levels and diagonals on the strongback numerous times I got to setting up the verticals that'll support the forms.

Not being very patient I just had to throw Frame E up to see how it looked!

All that nice open space I created when I cleaned up the shed is now gone! It's going to be tight but I'll have 2' on the south side and 3' on the workbench side as well as 1 1/2' at the bow and 2' at the transom to get around the boat. It would be nice to have more but this will have to do.

All of the forms line up on the baseline (B/L) which are already carved into the forms by the CnC machine. The tricky part is getting the baseline marked on all the verticals. I've got a number of options for doing this, liquid level, spirit level or laser level. I bought this small laser level just for this purpose and decided to use it. I set it up on the centerline at the B/L level. The tripod is too short and it'd just be in the way anyways.

I'll double check with a liquid level but I'm sure this will work fine.

I had a few more "WTF have I gotten Myself into moments today" especially when I was lining up this shot!

Maybe it's the tight space but this is going to be a pretty big boat.

Hope to get the remainder of the forms up on Saturday when my helper buddy is available. Standby....

I really wish I knew

2011-08-17T14:25:00.000-04:00

what I was doing. I told ya I make most of this up as I go along. This strongback thing isn't any different. It's supposed to be simple ladder frame to hold the uprights that will hold the forms in position. Ok, well there's a picture in the instructions and plenty online but it still baffles me a bit. It's a good thing I don't build houses for a living!

I figured I had better start out plumb with my first post.

Pretty simple. Ok, all 10 of these are at different heights and have to be leveled individually, that's one of the downsides to working directly on the ground. There are times I wish I had poored a concrete pad to work on.

The next step was getting the second post square and plumb at the same time in relation to the first post.

My poor lil' laser level doesn't have 'nuff laserin' power to be visible in the daylight so I'll go out tonight after it gets dark and see how I did with just the long spirit level.

This is as far as I got before the temp climbed to over 34 degs C (about 94 F) and I had to bug out for the afternoon.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get this thing finished and can start setting up the forms. I did make a few mistakes but I blame them on the supervisor falling down on the job today.

That's it for now. Time to cool down a bit.

Today was a good day

2011-08-16T14:24:00.000-04:00

even though it was "clean up the shed" day. ;-)

The first task was to trim and stow the panels that you say yesterday. After that it was time to disassemble the long table! Wohoo!!

After a quick trip to the lumber store I've got everything (I think) to assemble the strongback frame. I have to re-read the instructions for this again just to make sure. It's going to be tricky to get it leveled on the ground but I think I know how to do it.

These are the puzzle pieces for the strongback.

Once the strongback is assembled it'll actually start looking like a boat. :-)

The last two

2011-08-15T11:12:00.002-04:00

panels that I have to glass will be ready tomorrow morning and then the long table can come apart.

These are the fwd cabin top and foredeck. Doing these now upside down on the long table will avoid having to do them later and working overhead.

Glass laid out. I used up some more of the 33 oz stuff along the center of each. This is where there'll be cutouts for windlass and hatch etc. It'll be plenty strong (fingers crossed).

All glassed and epoxied. It went a lot better this time. Temps in the shed were 20 degs C. which gives plenty of working time to mix and roll out single handed.

I put some exaggerated curve into the panels to help them fit when they go on the forms. They'll spring back likely flat but some of the stress will be out of them when they go on.

Just like the disassembly of the "Tower of Pain & Suffering" I'm really looking forward to taking the long table apart. I've been looking forward to setting up the strongback and forms so I'll at least have something that looks like a boat.

Standby.....

With a lil' help from some friends....

2011-08-13T19:06:00.003-04:00

we got that big honkin' roof panel out of the shed and stowed on the outside of the shed under a tarp! Wow am I glad to get it out of there. Two more smaller panels to glass the underside and the long table can come apart! *big silly grin* 'cause that means it's STRONGBACK assembly time! Oh how I've been waiting for this part. Now things will start to come together and it'll actually start to take the shape of a boat hull! *big silly grin*

Sorry, no pics, was a lil' preoccupied at the time.

Lori made me win this on an e-Bay auction for her....

Now she'll have to figure out where to put it.

Back at it in the shed.....

2011-08-10T12:03:00.000-04:00

Lori & I glassed up the underside of the main cabin roof. Decided to do this when we have gravity working for us instead of when it's on the boat and having to work over our heads. This job took twice as long and used up double the epoxy I estimated. ;-( It is almost exactly 15 sq yds of fabric. I figured we used about 5 gallons of epoxy. It kinda puts in perspective what we'll be up against when we go to fiberglass the hull.

One of the other things I have to do this week is climb up on the shed and fix some holes and splits in the plastic. Apparently the Dr. Shrink tape is only good for a year.

All the stretching and shrinking from the heating and cooling makes the tape let go. Wind blown dirt, pollen and the crap from Canada Starch gets caught by the tape and it's useless after that. Oh well, I love shaky ladders! *sigh*

I've gone and done it again....

2011-08-06T07:41:00.001-04:00

for what? The third year in a row? Poor ole' Mummy got scroodled out of her summer holiday! ;-( I's sorry dear. But on the brighter side we did get in a helluva road trip! 2300 kms (1430 miles) and 11 States in 4 1/2 days.

The idea popped into my noodle a few days before we were to start our holidays. Originally we were going to just hang out on the ole' boat, cruise up and down the river etc. and then I spotted a very nice, brand new propane stove on e-Bay. It was listed by the same fella we got our Yanmar diesel engine off of three years ago in Rhode Island. So the groundwork was laid for a road trip! Borrowing Grandpa's trailer off we went on yet another grand adventure.

First stop was Portsmouth RI to pick up the stove. Using a different GPS this time we ended up taking a totally different route. Oh boy were our internal compass's messed up! Normally we orient ourselves here with the St. Lawrence River which is south. Around Portsmouth your surrounded by water so when we thought we were driving north we were actually going south! Doh! Anyhow mission objective #1 was accomplished.

The next day we stopped off at Mystic Seaport in Mystic Connecticut. This place is a wonderland for ole' wooden boat types of all ages.

This was our second time here but the last time we were here in the fall and a lot of the exhibits were closed. Not this time. Wow! We wandered for hours.

The restoration of the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship.

I wish my boat shed was this well organized! ;-)

There's more pics from our trip here....

http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff166/KnottyBuoyz/2011/

From Mystic it was onto Newark Delaware to pick up the fuel and water tanks. This took us across Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. I have to say the New Jersey Turnpike was one of the most pleasant and well behaved drives we've had on the trip so far.

We loaded up the tanks in Grandpa's trailer and stopped for a bit to eat before heading to Washington DC where we'll camp out for the night.

After stopping for lunch at a KFC (the beans and mac & cheese sides were nice) we spotted this ole' timer all alone in a parking lot across the street. Just had to do a lil' Jeep Spottin' for my friends on the Jeep Facebook page.

The next day was to be spent (partially) at the National Air & Space Museum in Chantilly VA. Wow again. What a place of wonder.

Autobot or Decepticon? ;-)

They call her "Enterprise"

I was actually moved when I saw this one......

The rest of the pics from the NASM are here....

http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff166/KnottyBuoyz/2011/NASM/?start=all

The NASM is definitely a must see if you're in the area. Put aside at least 3-4 hours to go through it all.

After the NASM we skeedaddled up the highway to Hershey PA home of the famous Hershey Chocolate World. Oh my, what a zoo. We had visions of a small factory outlet like Hershey had in the old Smith's Falls plant but noooooooooo it was a full fledged theme park. We felt like the Griswolds on their trip to Wally World! We got in, got some treats and got the hell out!

The next day it was a 600 km (350 mi) trip home. Stopping only for rest breaks and to pick up a few items at the UPS Store in Oggyburg we were home by 1:30 PM.

It was a whirlwind trip but fun all the same. Mystic and NASM definitely made it worth while and what we saved on shipping the stove and tanks pretty much paid for the trip (fuel & food). Now the fun is over and it's time to get back working on the boat..... Standby.

More of the same

2011-07-25T08:03:00.000-04:00

fender kickers looking for a free boat ride. *sigh* Oh well, can't dwell on that. We'll likely use the ole' boat this summer.

Yesterday we took a trip to Watertown NY to check out Harbor Freight Tools. I've heard a lot of guys rave about this place, which is much like our own Princess Auto, reasonably priced tools & accessories (albeit a lesser quality too). But for a one-off boat build I'm not investing $1k in an orbital sander I'll use once. So back to Harbor Freight Tools, nice store, crowded. Quality is the same as Princess. Prices are decent for the quality you get. Will I go back? Maybe, there's one thing I need that they carry but that's about it.

The highlight of the trip, other than the Jack Daniel's Burger at TGI Friday's was this.....

The Real Sarge! ;-)

Now that's a real Jeep. The rest, including ours, are just imitations!

As to boat building, well just watching the US dollar and trying to decide when to buy the next batch of epoxy. Likely 15 gallons this time. We burned through the last six gallon kit I got in under two weeks. I don't want to buy too much and have it sitting around all winter.

Waiting is the worst part

2011-07-23T11:47:00.001-04:00

Almost noon and no call from Ray and Carlos. Oh well, not like they're the first fender kickers to never call back.

Puttered around in the shed this morning before it heated up. I sanded all the taped seams and wiped them down in prep for the fiberglassing that'll eventually happen.

Before I got too far the Project Manager stepped in to have a look. By the look on his puss I gather he wasn't too amused.

I guess I'll just have to step up my game a notch or two meet his usual high standards. Meanwhile the CEO was lounging on the front veranda getting a belly scratchy.

I think you can see now why we call that belly "The Golden Fleece!" ;-) What a life eh?

So back to the boat shed.

This is the underside of the main cabin roof. It's not a cosmetic part so I didn't take much care in prepping the plywood or the glass. The outer sections are 1708 biaxial fiberglass and the center strip is some of the 33 oz Vectorply I have. I needed to get it used up somewhere so I thought a nice strong strip down the center of the roof would be ok. It adds some weight up top but not that much. We don't have 'nuff epoxy on hand to do this piece (about 2 gallons) and almost 15 sq/yds so we're waiting for Ray and Carlos to drop a wad of cash in our mitts soon.

If they don't call soon we're goin' for a boat ride and cool off! Stay tuned.....

Hotter 'n

2011-07-23T06:56:00.000-04:00

It's so hot the dairy cows are only giving evaporated milk! ;-)

It's so hot I saw a funeral procession in the Dairy Queen drive through! ;-)

It's so hot I saw two fire hydrants fighting over a dog! ;-)

It's so hot my ice cream cone melted before anybody had a chance to mug me for it! ;-)

So I'm guessin' you're seein' a theme here eh? Yeah it's been hot. Well over 100 on the Queensway coming home on Thursday. Friday wasn't as bad but still warm. We haven't made much progress because of the heat but one job I wanted to get done was splice the main cabin roof panels together. We accomplished that Wednesday when it was only 95 degs in the shed.

I first had to goop the seams to fill some fairly large cracks. This meant mixing up some pecan flour and epoxy. Had to work extremely quickly to get it done before it kicked off in the cup. Just managed to get it on. Next was taping the joint and we (Lori - Professional Epoxy Mixologist) did it in about 5 mins. What a rush but it worked.

On a brighter note Ray and Carlos were here last night looking over the old boat to buy it. I hope they show up today with some cash in hand. That'll help expedite this lil' building project. Standby.....

All that drama and

2011-07-18T19:46:00.000-04:00

worry for nuttin'! Pulled the clamps and ratchet straps off the transom tonight and walla! It only sprung back about 3/4" on each side.

I guess that's good 'nuff for the girls I go with! ;-)

Lori, Robert (my good neighbor) and I move the roof panels in and laid them on the long table. The next task is to join the two halves and glass the underside. Then it'll have to be put back outside. All 16' 4" x 8' of it! *shudder*

The whole time we were well supervised by the Project Manager (aka Lazy Lard Butt Ring Tail Tabby Cat!).

Hotter 'n hell so I'm on my last drop of Cap'n Morgan's Private Stock Daniel got me for Father's day. *sob* It normally takes me a couple years to kill a bottle but this is smooooooooooooth stuff! ;-)

It was so hot today my blood test this morning showed high concentrations of Cap'n Morgan's and Coke on ice instead of blood sugar! ;-)

That's it for now.

Starting to get really

2011-07-17T08:56:00.001-04:00

philosophical now!

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." - Archimedes, Greek Mathematician, 287 - 212 BC

"Give me enough clamps and ratchet straps which to place on it, and I shall stop the world from moving." - Rick Laporte, Amateur Boat Builder, 1960 -

One of the more interesting challenges to this project is laminating two sheets of 1/2" marine plywood together to form the curved transom. That's the reason for the funky transom mold I showed you earlier.

I tried a few different approaches to getting one sheet to conform to the mold. There's a tremendous amount of energy stored up in a sheet of plywood when you try to torture it into a shape it doesn't want to go into! I found that out when I tried to release the ratchet straps after the first trial! Yikes!

Anyhow, I quickly realized (in my dream last night, yeah exciting I know) that I need more grip to wrangle this part into shape. Adding some cleats in the right places are the ticket.

This gave me the advantage I was looking for. Places to put plenty of clamps.

As you can see the plywood now follows the mold pretty well. A few minor adjustments and it'll be perfect.

That's it for now. Off to clean up the old boat. Got a prospective buyer coming to look at it today. ;-)

Update: Bugger never showed up. Figures. Plenty of fender kickers but everybody wants a nice shiny Sea Ray to impress their friends at the Yacht Club. Yeah, right, like you're gonna do that for 8500 bucks.

Anyhow. After much consternation (not constipation) I weighed my options and selected the brute force method to whip the transom panels into shape.

We'll see how we did tomorrow when I pop the clamps and straps off of it.

Do you ever find

2011-07-16T10:06:00.000-04:00

yourself sitting in your workshop or boat or whatever just admiring your handiwork? I do that occasionally. I think it's just a guy thing. A couple hundred thousand years of evolution has programmed us to get an extreme sense of satisfaction from building things with our own two hands. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist." - St. Francis of Assis (1181-1226)

Anyhow, 'nuff of that naval gazin' stuff. This morning I got back to assembling the forms that'll go on the strongback. Three more done this morning, A, B & C. Only D and the duplicate F to do and they're done then I can seriously start thinking about setting up the strongback. I do have to decide if we're going to glass the cabin roof while the long table is set up. The only other thing that's standing in my way after that decision is made is to laminate the two transom panels.

Frame A gluing up.

Same goes for frame D.

Picked up one of two rolls of fiberglass (1708 38" at bargain price) that'll be used to cover the bottom and side panels. I'm still looking for some double bias 10 oz. 0/90 in 50" width.

That's 'bout it for now. It's hotter 'n hell outside so I think a boat ride is in order. Have a good weekend.

Just a brief update

2011-07-14T18:44:00.002-04:00

More strongback forms being assembled. E & F on the table gluing up and G & H standing up behind all ready to go.

Still a lot to do yet.

I just couldn't leave it alone

2011-07-13T07:51:00.001-04:00

for any length of time. There's a few things that were bugging me and I just have to figure them out or it'll drive me nuts. The first is the transom mold. As far as I can tell this is the first TW28 assembled from a first generation CnC kit. There's a few bugs in the kit and the transom mold is one I think.

Frame I supplied, which is defines the shape of the hull, is cut like most of the others as an outline of the hull shape. This doesn't leave anything in the center to attach the other mold parts to it.

It would have been much easier if Frame I had been supplied as a whole piece (or two) so that the mold braces could be easily attached. I know there's plus's and minus's to doing it that way, such as gaining access to the inside when stitching the hull together etc. Anyhow, you just do what you can and move on. If I stopped and dwelled on every lil' hiccup I'd never get anything done.

This is what the assembled strongback will look like.

You can see where the transom mold goes. One down and 8 more to assemble.

Feeling a little

2011-07-09T13:10:00.003-04:00

burned out from all this boat building stuff so we decided to take a lil' break from it. Been getting anxious for a boat ride too so we pulled out the ole' boat (the one we can't seem to give away) and get her rigged for a dunking. This will be her first time in the water in over two years.

This could be fun or a disaster. Don't change that channel! :-)

Update: Got our boat ride in! :D

We had a lil' fire on this boat year before last and that kinda set me back a bit on boating. That and we did a quite a few things with the car club last year. I was a little apprehensive about taking her out but had to do it sooner or later. Boat worked perfectly.

The one thing I'm going to miss going from this to a Trawler is the speed! :?

I apologize for the crappy pics but the Admiral was definitely enjoying herself. ;-)

The CCGS Griffon docked in Prescott Ontario. I worked on her in the fall of '78 as a deckhand then went to College for Marine Engineering. I returned to the Griffon in the fall of 1980 as a Steward and stayed on her till 1985. During my time on her I went from Steward to Storekeeper to Supply Officer.

I think we're going to take a bit more of a break from the boat building, save some money (hopefully) and do a little more boating this summer. Will probably be back to the boat mid August or so.

Thinking ahead

2011-07-03T12:30:00.000-04:00

is probably one of the most enjoyable parts of building your own boat. There's a million decisions to be made and each one can affect a half dozen others. I'm lucky in that I've been able to follow a few ongoing boat builds like this as well as a few finished models.

This morning I popped the troublesome frame off the long table and tucked it away. The next big task is the cabin sides. They curved so I had to lay out with some blocks so the panel would follow that curve.

It took a good while, 30 mins or so to goop up the glass and get the peel ply on. It had started to kick off when I got all the way around so it was scramble time to get the peelply on and smoothed out.

It's a good thing Boots showed up this morning to oversee operations. He immediately pointed out a mistake in my layout of the cabin side sliding door.

I had the top of the door level with the tops of the other two windows. The top of the window in the door should have been level with the tops of the other windows. Nice catch Boots! You've earned your kibble this week! ;-)

Off to see INXS tonight at Riverfest. Hope it's a good show. It's gonna be a late night for these old birds. ;-)

Just suck it up

2011-07-02T13:14:00.001-04:00

and forge ahead. This mornings session in the Big Blue Boat Shed went a little better. I made sure the epoxy & hardener reservoirs were filled and used a mixing nozzle to help speed things along.

I've read some reviews of these rollers and they sounded too good to be true so I just had to find out for myself.

They're Bestt Liebco Tru-Pro Frieze and I got them online. I'd have to say they lived up to their claims and made a significant improvement in getting the fiberglass wetted out quickly and efficiently. Conservatively I'd say I used 1/3 less epoxy than the other side of this panel. Same size and weight of fiberglass. That's nothing to sneer at! ;-) The little nubbies work well at distributing the epoxy efficiently. It was easy to pick up little puddles and move them around where needed. Definitely worth the investment.

So far the panels looks damn near perfect.

We'll see how well we did tomorrow when I take the peel ply off. Standby....

Some times you win

2011-07-01T13:45:00.001-04:00

and others you loose.

The last two panels we fiberglassed turned out pretty good!

This was the same heavy fiberglass that caused us problems before. We socked the epoxy to it, which it drank up like a sponge, and all seems find.

Sometimes having the best of tools doesn't guarantee a perfect job.

The Admiral and I were glassing some more panels last night. The aft main bulkhead between the pilot house and the cockpit. It's an exposed part and I wanted it to come out nice. We followed the routine we've done for the others. Her dispensing the epoxy and me spreading it out. Using the Sticky Stuff dispenser this is pretty easy especially when you use one of the static mixing tubes. Just pump and go.

Well last night the hardener reservoir (on the left) ran out. Lori didn't catch it and likely the last batch she pumped out was only resin (reservoir on the right) with no hardener. The hardener reservoir is opaque so there's no way to know how much is in it unless you look every once in awhile or the resin reservoir gets down low. They'd theoretically only be at the same level if you put exactly the 2:1 ratio into them in the first place.

So this morning when I went out to have a look there were horrendous bumps all over and as soon as I ran my hand over the peelply I knew we were in trouble. Sticky uncured epoxy resin everywhere. :cry:

So I did a google search and found a few things to try to salvage this part without having to strip it down (I'd likely cut two new pieces and start over from scratch). Right now I've tried brushing on some hardener and working it in with the bubble buster and left it to bake.

If that works out I'll likely be able to salvage the part. The upper section above the windows and door have to come off. They were epoxied last and have no hardener in them at all.

So I've added a little reminder to anybody who uses Mr. Sticky Stuff to check constantly the levels in the tanks before pumping.

On a brighter note some more shiny stuff arrived today.

I'm going to go fondle the new shiny stuff. Maybe that'll make me feel better!

Got some

2011-06-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

supplies in (epoxy mostly) so it was back to boat building this morning.

Frames A and B glassed.

Frame A (shield shape) will face into the anchor locker. The reverse side will get a lighter fabric because it'll face into the v-berth.

This is the heavy 33 oz/yd Vectorply that caused us difficulty before. This time I really soaked the ply first and gave it some time to setup a bit. Then we hit it with lots of epoxy and let it soak in. It takes a lot longer to thoroughly wet out this heavy stuff. Patience is definitely required when working with this stuff.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow when the peel ply comes off.

Hopefully we learned something

2011-06-21T07:43:00.000-04:00

with this last project. What we have here is a failure.

Cause is likely not 'nuff epoxy and/or the plywood sucked up more than I thought it would and left the glass dry. Not exactly sure what we'll do with it, scrape it off or what. We had to move on and will deal with that later.

Flipping the whole panel was a bit of a chore but we got it done. It's almost exactly 10' wide by 10' high at this point.

This time we used a much lighter fiberglass (1708). I precoated the plywood with epoxy and let it sit for a good 10-15 mins. Then we saturated the heck out of it. Laying on the peel ply allowed us to see any dry spots and there weren't many. Squeegeeing the peel ply from the center outwards we had some epoxy dripping off the edges which is good so I'm told.

Here you can see the fiberglassed panel with the peelply over top. Not a bubble in sight.

I apologize for the crappy picture but my iPhone couldn't get in any closer.

It was fairly warm in the shed and this part kicked off and hardened really quick. In the photo above you can see the peelply pulled back exposing the freshly fiberglassed panel. Flawless! ;-)

We're out of epoxy right now so just waiting for supplies to arrive before we jump back in and finish some other frames. Standby....

Bigger parts need lotsa sticky stuff

2011-06-16T08:26:00.001-04:00

One of the things about building your own boat is you learn things, fast. For instance, epoxy and fiberglassing. So far the largest piece I've done is probably a seam that's 6" wide by 4' long. No big deal, you're mixing up maybe 3 oz of epoxy to do that seam.

We got to a point last night were we decided to glass the lower part of Frame E. This is the main bulkhead between the engine room and the fwd cabin. We only need to do the lower section for water integrity and structure. It'll be pretty much hidden so we tried some of the really heavy fiberglass I have for the hull. It's a good chance to practice.

This lesson for us was about the ever increasing size, volume and cost if you screw up rules of epoxy and fiberglass. Although not HUGE it's still a couple of square yards.

I had to cut the glass from two different supplies. One on a roll I just bought recently and one that was folded in a box I bought a couple years ago. The folded stuff just wouldn't lay down. The newer stuff laid right down and wetted out very easily.

I used the peelply/release film and squeegee technique on this part. It'll save some sanding later on.

Up close both sections appear to be fully wetted out. We used about 1.75 litres of epoxy all together. It was very warm in the shed +30 degs C so we worked in small batches. After measuring and mixing (the Admiral did that part) we poured it into a paint roller pan to increase the area and keep it from kicking off to quickly. The plywood was coated first then the glass laid on top. Once that was thoroughly wetted out with a roller we placed the peelply over top of that and squeegee'd it out. Last step was the release film (in this case I used vacuum bagging plastic but will switch to cheaper plastic from now on). All the bubbles were squeegee'd out and this is the result.

We used our "Sticky Stuff" dispenser last night with the static mixing nozzel and it worked perfectly! ;-) Although not ideally suited to large batches of epoxy it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the whole process. Just push the handle and it comes out correctly measured and fully mixed!

We'll find out how well we did tonight. Standby...

Tardiness is next to

2011-06-14T08:28:00.000-04:00

being pretty lazy I guess. Haven't had much of a chance to get around to updating this blog so here goes.

It was a pretty productive weekend in the ole' boat shed. I managed to get laid up and glued three of the four large bulkheads.

Here you can see Freame C and F. Frame C goes between the v-berth and the head. Frame F goes directly behind the helm seats. Way in the back is Frame E which forms the main bulkhead between the fwd section and the main cabin directly under the wind screens.

Another view of Frame C getting glued up.

A lil' package arrived on Saturday. Lots of shiny stuff. I like shiny stuff! ;-)

Once I got done fondling the shiny stuff I turned my attention to something else that's been bugging me. Mr. Yanmar makes a pretty fugly control panel. I designed and had cut my own electrical panel last year and I'd like to do the same for the engine control panel.

So I sat down with the ole' drawing tools (from college over 30 yrs ago) and went old school. I then transferred the dimensions into the CAD program supplied by FrontPanelExpress.com

I used FP Express last year to design the electrical panel.

The engine control panel will be a little trickier. The gauges are deep (11mm) so a spacer has to be cut as well as a backing plate to hold the gauges in. They're normally kept in place by a bezel on the front. Most modern gauges mount from the back. We'll see how pricey this lil' project gets.

Tomorrow night we try fiberglassing a fairly large section of Frame E with the Vectorply. The Admiral is mixing the sticky stuff. That aught to be fun! ;-)

Beaver crap and flying rocks

2011-06-09T19:18:00.004-04:00

The Beaver sh!t yesterday (Gov't PayDay) so there was no boat buildin' goin' on. Instead I had to drag the Admiral, through a horrendous storm, to get to a coffee sale at Giant Tiger store. Got my windshield smashed in the process! Well it wasn't that bad, a big stone chip is more like it! ;-(

Tonight I glued up my first bulkhead.

That's it. I know it's not exciting as some posts. It'll get better, I promise. Same thing tomorrow then I'll be able to do a few of the smaller frames.

I guess you could say

2011-06-06T18:53:00.003-04:00

I've reached 'nuther milestone. All the long panels are glued and taped. That was a lot of grunt work lemme tell ya! Working in a tight space like that isn't all that pleasurable. It's going to get a lot tighter too!

Keel bottom taped & glued.

Once the long panels were out of the way I could start sorting out the bulkheads. Ahhhhh yet 'nuther puzzle to be solved! *sigh*

There's lots lil' pieces and only one is missing. I checked the nested drawing and it's not there so I'm assuming it didn't get cut. No biggie. I'll get to spend some time with my trusty ole' jig saw!

And my favorite. This is the bulkhead immediately behind the steering position.

I have a bit of a dilemma though. Do I assemble all the bulkheads before assembling the strongback or do I do them after? If I do them now they'll be in the way and I foresee having to move them a half dozen times or so. If I wait till later I won't have the long table and will likely have to work on the driveway again! *sigh*

Standby, gotta figure this one out.......

Had to take a little break

2011-06-03T11:30:00.003-04:00

from the boatbuilding stuff and get caught up on some other chores. Three hours later all nice and shiney! ;-)

Glued up the keel bottom this morning. The keel sides will present a difficult problem with the hull extension so I'm thinking they'll be glued and taped once the strongback is assembled.

Busy last few days

2011-06-01T07:37:00.004-04:00

in the ole' boat shed. It's been warm too! You can tell when the shed gets that "starved pony" look!

The heat shrink plastic sags pretty good when it gets warm but I don't think it'll be a problem. It tightens right back up when the temps drop.

I had to flip one of the 32' side panels. I made myself a trapeze thingy to help spread the load and keep the panel as straight as possible during the flip. It worked OK, just have to fiddle with it a bit to find the CoG.

One of the jobs I knew I had to get out of the way before disassembling the long table was trimming the fiberglass that'll go on the sides of the boat. These side panels will be vertical once they're on the strongback and it'd be a bear to trim them like that.

This is really heavy stuff. Triaxial Vectorply at 32 oz/sq yd. Each side will take about 10 sq yds to cover it.

Last night was spent shifting parts around to make room for the long panels to stand up alongside the shed. It's getting tight in there. I wish I had more room. It would save handling these materials over and over again. I'll tough it out I guess! ;-)

The ventilation system is working well.

Slow and steady will

2011-05-29T07:18:00.003-04:00

win this race. Not being actually as smart as I thought I was I tried to glue and tape both sides of some panel seams at once. The result was a massive failure.

Voids in the splices are unacceptable. They'll eventually lead to a failure of the panel or worse. So I got to spend some quality time with my power planer, grinder and belt sander to get rid of this mess. Oh, and it wasn't just one joint I had to fix it was FOUR! *sigh* Anyhow after some grinding and sanding and lots of scratching I managed to get them fixed up.

These are the panels that'll eventually make up the sides of the boat, the sides most people will notice first so I have to make them as near perfect as I can get.

It's been getting a lil' warm in the shed, low 90's F yesterday and I knew I'd have to do something about ventilation so it was off to Lowe's for some fans. This lil' box fan ($15) pulls enough air out of the shed to lower the temp inside close to what it is outside. At $15 a pop I can afford to burn up a few of them for this project. A proper ventilator would have ten times that cost.

And......... if it gets too warm this lil' puppy will blow a hurricane though the shed! ;-)

That's about it for now. I have a few more splices to do then there's some fiberglass that needs to be cut to match the bottom and side panels. That's gonna be fun! NOT!

Feel free to carry on doing whatever it was you were doing! ;-)

I knew I was

2011-05-24T07:31:00.003-04:00

going t run into this lil' issue eventually.

The side panels I'm working on are 32' 3" long and the shed is only 32'! Doh! But I knew I'd run into this issue eventually.

So I've had a plan to open up the barn doors and frame in a smaller door and canopy. This will give me the extra room I need to work on the longer panels and still be able to get around the boat once it's being assembled.

I know it's not pretty but it works. I'm also going to have to address the ventilation system soon. It was 90 degs F in the shed on Saturday! On the boat building site I'm just gluing and taping seams on the side panels. Should have them wrapped up by next weekend. That's about it for now.

This boatbuilding stuff might

2011-05-18T18:27:00.002-04:00

actually be healthy! I got a real work out tonight. Laying out the side panels I came up one panel short! Where the hell is it? The hunt is on. I find it mislabeled miscreant tucked in behind all the long bottom panels I just stacked up! *sigh* I tried to hold back all the panels with one hand while at the same time reaching in behind with the other to grab the piece I needed. Needless to say that didn't work. All 4 bottom panels have to weight at least 300 lbs. which by the way hurts like hell when you drop them on your shin! Doh!

Long story short, after a lot of huffin' and puffin' and gruntin' and groanin' I managed to liberate the AWOL panel and get both sides lined up on the table.

I'm going to get ultra lucky on these panels. The apex of the curve where I need to splice in the extension is exactly on an existing seam. It's about time something started to go my way! ;-) You can't beat a good set of plans though! I'm sure these will be totally worn out by the time I'm done.

I've had 'nuff for one night. Shower then puttin' my feet up. Guinness Time! ;-)

Saturday morning in the boat shed

2011-05-14T12:08:00.003-04:00

From previous posts you can see the kerfs that were cut in the panels by the CnC machine. These are there to help when bending the plywood over the frames that form the bow. When I taped these the fiberglass and epoxy have to be cut away after the epoxy kicks off and is at the "green" stage.

A sharp chisel makes quick work of it! Cuts through the fiberglass just like a knife going through butter! If you wait till the epoxy is fully hardened it be a much tougher and messier job probably requiring a grinder. I don't much like grinding fiberglass! ;-(

One half of the bottom panels is now finished, well sort of. I decided to leave them in two parts and will join them up on the strongback. They're just too big to handle otherwise. This mornings session in the boat shed was 4 hours. Once I got the first bottom panel tucked away I laid out the second.

Also during this session in the boat shed I broke out a new toy, hmmmm? errrr? TOOL!, Yeah, new TOOL!

Canadian Tire had these on sale ($69.99) and as hard as I tried I just couldn't force myself to walk by the tool section without picking one up! ;-) I'm sure it'll come in handy down the road. I'll use it when joining the side panels. They have to be nice and smooth which will make "Fairing" the panels much easier (I hope)!

And lastly the first half of the second bottom panel getting it's first seams taped and glued.

Tomorrow I can flip this section and tape the seams on the other side. That's about it for now then.

Watching epoxy cure

2011-05-08T09:39:00.006-04:00

is like watching paint dry, only worse! I guess you just have to keep plugging away while the epoxy cures. It usually takes 24 hrs till you can unclamp a part and move onto the next. These next few parts will take awhile!

This is one half of the bottom panels. As drawn by the architect they're just a tad under 29' long. We'll be adding 39" to these for the hull extension we've planned. The slits in the panels are called "Kerfs". They're there to help the panel bend when it's ready to form the bow of the boat.

These panels are so big I have to do them in halves then join them up. It's going to get tight once they're both assembled. I'll have two similar side panels to do after these.

The first half of the first bottom panel got glued up today.

I got bit by a runaway tape measure. Sliced my finger to the bone. Add to that a giant sliver in the pad of my left thumb and Schmeezus that hurts! Paper towel and hockey tape make a good temp bandage. Hockey tape is almost as good as duct tape in an emergency! ;-)

Last week the stringers got glued together. Not very exciting I know. That's about it for this week.

Making a lil' headway now

2011-05-01T12:10:00.002-04:00

Moved the two sides of the cabin top outside.

They'll stay here till next summer I'm guessing. They'll be wrapped up neatly in the tarp to keep them dry and safe.

Moved onto the bulwarks. These are pretty simple joins so I did both sides at once. First time I've done that. We'll see how they turn out.

When the bulwarks are done I'll start on the bottom and side panels. That'll take a bit of forethought to juggling the parts once they're assembled.

That's it for now. Shower then off to the Flea Market to see what treasures I can find. ;-)

Well Blow Me Down....

2011-04-29T07:31:00.001-04:00

or blow me away!

We're pretty lucky we don't get much really bad weather in this part of the world. My heart goes out to those down south recovering from the weather that's befallen them this week. We felt the tail end of the storms that caused so much devastation in the States. Anyhow it was blowing 60-70 MPH here yesterday and that's highly unusual for us. The plans I bought for the bow shed said 70 mph was the max for the design. I built it to plans and doubled the size of the stakes that went into the ground. Now I think that was a good idea. When I got home last night the shed was still standing but taking a pretty good beating from the 40+ MPH winds. It moved quite a bit and had blown the bottom of one of the big doors in. I backed the doors up with a 2x8 and tied the shed to my boat and my garden shed. If it takes flight now I'll have to go to Oz to get my lawnmower! ;-)

BZ to Stimson Marine for a great shed design.

Boat building is a lot like

2011-04-26T08:11:00.004-04:00

watching paint dry. Well more like watching epoxy cure to be exact. Who said this boat building thing was fun? I spent most of the Easter long weekend (4 days) waiting for epoxy to cure. I even stepped up the process by putting a tent over the splices and warming them with a small heater.

Here's one half of the main cabin roof getting flipped. I used my electric winch which worked perfectly. Essential when working alone I'd say.

I apologize for the crappiness of the photo.

The second half is underway and will be flipped tonight so I can glass the joints on the backside.

That's about it for now. I know, boring stuff. Sorry.

I wish Mother Nature

2011-04-23T11:53:00.005-04:00

would get the seasons figured out! Sheez! Doesn't she know that epoxy just doesn't cure at 0 Deg C? C'mon now!

It's been slow this week. I managed to get a few panels put together and another taken apart and put back together (long story, don't ask).

This is one half of the main cabin roof. The two lighter panels are the cabin extension and the cockpit extension. Overall it's 16' 5" long! It'll have to be done in two halves.

Here I'm gluing up 5 splices at once. I'm learning as I go.

This is the forward cabin roof I did early in the week. Had to cut it in two and add in the piece I forgot! Doh! I hate grinding fiberglass! *scratch scratch* The nasty sh*t gets in places I forgot I had! ;-)

About to commit my first act of

2011-04-10T12:54:00.003-04:00

EPOXY! Ohhhhhhh that wonderful sticky stuff that makes such a great mess! ;-)

Panels for cabin side prepped and lined up ready for the sticky stuff. I used the power planer to relieve the joints so the cloth would lay down in instead of standing proud of the surface. Hopefully this will eliminate some sanding. This type of joint has a name but I can't remember what it is.

I was a little nervous getting started but as soon as I got to it the butterflies went away. It was about 70 degs F in the boat shed so I had about 30 mins working time with the epoxy which was plenty. I used the dispenser gadget without the static mixer. I'll save those for larger jobs. It worked extremely well.

All clamped down. We'll find out tomorrow after work how successful I am.

As soon as I was finished the project foreman showed up to inspect my work. Just what I need, kitty hair in my epoxy!

'Round and 'round we go

2011-04-09T19:38:00.006-04:00

It was one of those days running around fetchin' stuff, gettin' rid of junk and ponderin'!

First was a trip to the UPS store to pick up 300 lbs of fiberglass!

Luckily the nice fella's who sold it to me were good 'nuff to split it into 4 equal lengths of 12.5 yds each. This stuff is heavy, 33oz sq/yd Vectorply Triaxial fabric. This plus a layer of 10 oz plain weave will cover the bottom of the boat. It cuts my cost virtually in half. If it works ok I'll buy 'nuther 50 yds for the inside.

The next trip was to visit a fellow boat builder who had 4 sheets of 1/4" marine ply to trade. He got a good deal, 4 sheets of 1/2' for the 4 of the 1/4". It was a good deal for me too. I got what I needed to do the mods on the boat. We got to chatting about boat stuff and before I knew it an hour had flown by! I guess that's to be expected when two boat builder guys get together. Anyhow, thanks Burton.

Getting the plywood home and unloaded it was time to load up the trailer with the scraps from the kit parts plus the junk wood that's been kicking around the shed. I've tripped over the stuff a dozen times so it had to go. The mahogany and MDF scraps weren't on the pile 2 mins and a picker was there looking it over! ;-) Told him there'd be more later on if he wants to check with me later.

When I got that done I started pondering. I have to duplicate Frame E so I laid it out on the table to see what it looks like. This is the widest frame at almost 10'

Laid out like that this boat is going to be huge! There won't be a whole lotta room to move around in the shed once it's on the strongback. That worries me a bit but I'll have to live with it.

Next I looked at the cabin side and how I'm going to handle the extension. It would have been nice to get the panels without the windows cut. It would have been easier to splice in the 39" extension. Anyhow, the windows are cut so I'll deal with it later. I get the feeling Mr. Planer, Mr. Grinder and Mr. Belt Sander are going to be my best friends on this project.

That's about it for today's boat building activities folks. I'm knackered, pooped, scroodled and pretty much toast! Carry on......

Today in the boat shed

2011-04-03T12:30:00.002-04:00

I cut out the remaining CnC parts.

The last piece.

It's going to take some organizing to find room to work. There's parts stacked up everywhere! *sigh* Maybe I'll get to play with some sticky stuff next weekend.

And so it has begun

2011-04-02T15:12:00.002-04:00

12:00 Eastern time April 2, 2011 the first pieces being cut out.

Thanks to my helper Andrew. ;-)

Update: The shed's getting a little crowded. There's parts everywhere and I'm nowhere near the bottom of the plywood stack!

I'm pooped!

Doodle Doodle Do!

2011-04-01T09:03:00.003-04:00

A couple of quiet days so I doodled what I'm hoping to achieve building this boat. My apologies to Mr. Yavuz the owner of the boat I PhotoChopped! This boat was built in Turkey in 2005 by a professional builder.

This is what the original looks like...

And here's my PhotoChop version showing the modifications we're planning.

This weekend will be occupied constructing saw horses and preparing the assembly table. Very soon after that I'll start stitching the long panels that form the hull together!

The Tower of Pain and Suffering

2011-03-29T20:43:00.002-04:00

has fallen.

This is all that remains of that wonderful piece of engineering.

That was the last major obstacle as well. The workshop floor is now open and I can begin assembly! ;-)

Standby..... This is gonna get messy! ;-)

Another week about to

2011-03-27T07:57:00.007-04:00

pass us by and not a whole lot to show for it. I was able to get the remainder of the vapor barrier up. It was just one of those little nagging jobs that I didn't finish last fall. It wasn't going to get done with the car in the shed so I at least had an excuse. ;-)

One of the things I did when I built the shed was embed 3 eye bolts in the ridge, on center and two just off center. These are sturdy 1/2" eye bolts. Now if the ridge can carry it the heaviest object I'll have to lift into the boat is the engine and transmission which the manual tells me is approx. 550 lbs.

From the center bolt I'll fix a 1000 Kg snatch block made specifically for 3/16th. wire rope. This will give me the piece of mind I'll need when there's 550 lbs of engine hanging over the boat. The other two are simple rope falls with 1/2 rope.

I apologize for the poor picture but the lifting force for the center cable will come from my little 2000 lb 12 volt winch. It's a tough lil' bugger and pulls like crazy!

I tested my rig with my own, not so unsubstantial 240 lbs (Don't tell Dr. Bhatt) plus a 34 lb battery. The ridge and bows deflected pretty good and I heard some creaking going on up there. Even with just moderate weight on the winch you can see the bows spreading out about 2/3ds of the way up. To counter this I added two cable stays across the shed. You can see them in the first picture. A second test with the stays in place and there's no deflection or creaking of the bows! If necessary I can spread the load out over two bows instead of point loading on the center bow. I hope it works.

My supervisor stopped in yesterday to put his "Paw of Approval" on my work.

That's 'bout it for now. Some shelving and a second work bench going in today. Photos to follow.

Update: Last work bench. This one for fiberglass & epoxy work hence the melamine panels. Hopefully it'll make it easier to clean up the messies that are bound to occur.

Thanks for looking in.

PS. One more small job to complete and I'll be able to tear the "Tower of Pain and Suffering" apart and turn it into an assembly table! ;-)

Now it's starting

2011-03-20T07:13:00.005-04:00

to look a little like an actual workshop!

This is my nearly instant $100 work bench. Not even $100 actually probably closer to $85. The bases are standard steel shelving units from Lowes that I got on sale for $58 and the top is 3 - 2 x 8's and a 2 x 4 for backing. A couple bucks in bolts & nuts to hold the miter saw and vice on an Walla! Instant work bench. Both bases are securely fastened to the bow shed bows and it's a pretty solid work surface.

Mr. Snuffleupagus (AKA Snuffy the sawdust collector) works well! I made some more sawdust and it all just magically disappeared!

Update: Managed to get a lil' more organizin' done. Now I'll never be able to find anything! *sigh*

T-Minus 2 Days and counting.

2011-03-18T08:35:00.005-04:00

It's Alive! Alive! Alive!

As soon as Mother Nature cooperates I'll be able to move then boat out of the way then the IROC out of the shed!

Standby. It won't be long now! ;-)

Addendum: The weather was great when I got home so I liberated the car from the shed! one tiny step further....

2011-03-18T08:35:00.000-04:00

T-Minus 2 Days and counting.

It's Alive! Alive! Alive!

As soon as Mother Nature cooperates I'll be able to move then boat out of the way then the IROC out of the shed!

Standby. It won't be long now! ;-)

T-minus 3 days

2011-03-17T08:23:00.002-04:00

and counting till the first day of spring!

The snow is quickly melting. +10C temps today so I don't expect to see any more white stuff on the ground when I get home. ;-) The only problem with that is the ground is soaked so much that it's backed up into the shed a bit. Nothing major just makes things turn to mud when you walk on it.

I did manage to get some of my Super Dooper Sawdust Sucker Upper assembled.

This will help keep the dust down during the sanding phase which is important for the painting phase! At least so I'm told.

So, if all goes well I should be able to move the boat and car by this weekend! Getting nervous though, over 7 yrs of planning and it's about to start! *shudder* All I can hear myself saying is "What the f*ck am I getting myself into?" and "Too late buddy boy, suck it up and get working!".

Standby.

Getting everything lined up....

2011-03-04T07:47:00.004-05:00

takes some effort. Once the snow clears I'll have to shift some toys (boat & car) around and get the shed setup as a workshop. I'm pretty sure I know how that's going to go together.

One of the things that's concerned me a bit was the amount of epoxy we'll have to mix by hand to laminate the entire hull of the boat. Originally I was considering infusing the hull but it's unlikely I'll get a good vacuum seal on the plywood, that and the lack of a decent flange pretty much eliminates that option. It might work and I still might try infusion on the inside of the hull. More on that later.

Anyhow, mixing epoxy. The Admiral is chief epoxy mixer on this project. We've done a few small experiments mixing the sticky stuff and have made a few messes. I've personally mixed one batch that failed when I was putting the bows for the shed together. So after doing a lot of research and asking some questions I've bought this unit....

Sticky Stuff Epoxy Dispenser....

This device will meter the correct proportions of resin and hardener. We're still left with the mixing issue. Doing some more research I found some mechanical mixers then discovered the static mixing nozzel! Going back to the manufacturer of the dispenser they have a number of options to add static mixing to the dispenser. We've settled on this addition which will (I hope) deliver correctly measured and thoroughly mixed epoxy without any guess work or cramped hands!

Total cost about $375 but I'm told this is a good investment and will likely pay for itself in reduced waste and errors.

Standby.....

Starting to get anxious now.....

2011-02-27T18:39:00.004-05:00

About 4 weeks till this white crap is gone. Getting a lil' antsy to get started. I've been under the weather since Wed and started felling almost human again today so I went out and tinkered a bit. It was -3C outside and +15 inside! :-)

Assembled the two "Air Only" ventilators I bought awhile back. Just something to done and out of the way till they're needed. Pretty simple assembly. No instructions required.

www.air-onlyventilators.com

Assembled some shelves I bought a few weeks ago. These'll form the bases of two workbenches.

I know it's not much but it's all I got for now!

Half Way! Six Weeks Till Spring

2011-02-06T18:41:00.003-05:00

Shed held up well with the 40+ CM's of snow we got this week! Sorry, nothing else of note to report. Standby....

Xmas Holidays are too short

2010-12-28T15:54:00.003-05:00

and it's back to the salt mine tomorrow! *sigh* Oh well, only 3 days then another long weekend!

I picked up a slightly used sawdust collector thingy at the Pawn Shop in Prescott. Full retail on one of these is $270. I got it for $150. This should help keep the dust down in the shed. It's not overly noisy so that should keep the natives happy too!

Anybody know how to tie a split Turk's Head knot? I had a few kicks at it today to fill in the gaps where the spokes meet the rim. No luck. All I have to show for it is a big blister on my right index finger!

I was reading an experts page today and he said it took him a week to figure it out. It'd take an ijjit like me six months to get the first loop looking right! *sigh*

Boxing Day Blues

2010-12-26T18:08:00.002-05:00

I hope everybody had a good Christmas! Santa spoiled me again this year! I got some gear for the boat shed, lights, laser level etc. and a lot of new clothes which I needed. Anyhow, I haven't had the opportunity to post anything of note lately so I thought I'd try my hand at "Flemishing (or Coxcombing) a ships wheel". I've never done this before and am making it up as I go along, with a little help from the Interweb.

The cord is 3/16" diamond braid cotton. I didn't count the wraps as I put them on just what felt good in my hand.

There'll be something called a "Turks Head Knot" on each spoke that'll cover up the gaps. I won't be able to make that one up and will have to go learn to tie it properly.

It'll take about 120 feet of cord to do the whole wheel. What you see here is about 40 feet and two hours work! ;-)

Standby.....

Not much to report

2010-12-12T08:01:00.001-05:00

Sorry to say I don't have any progress of worth to report other than I don't have to hang any Xmas lights on the shed. It glows in the dark in this nice cool blue color!

The only other thing of note is we received the mortgage discharge papers this week. It's all ours now and there'll be more $$$ in the boat building kitty!

Carry on....

Welcome aboard

2010-11-23T08:14:00.003-05:00

Hi Tom, welcome aboard. I've spent many an hour pouring over your blogsite.

http://scrumbleproject.wordpress.com/

Truly a massive undertaking! I paid special attention on how you did the cabin roof. I may find myself in a similar situation. Keep the pics coming.

Cheers.

Rick

Mid day update;

2010-11-20T12:19:00.004-05:00

Second set of lights went up after I got the Tyvek stapled on.

Took a lil' break for some hot chocolate and I got owned!

It's hard to get anything done when you've been owned! But I can't complain Bootsie Tootsie Boy is my bestest buddy in the whole world. I think he's looking forward to the boat building project as much as I am.

Welcome aboard Kev. Now if you want to see a very nice canal boat project follow Kev's blog: http://boatbuildblog.blogspot.com/

I'm pretty much out of things to do in the shed for now. It'll be snowing soon so it'll soon be time to hibernate.

Standby.....

Sometimes a little inspiration is all you need

2010-11-12T16:15:00.003-05:00

do get you out of the doldrums. I had a great day yesterday. Spent about 5 hours with a fellow boat builder discussing everything imaginable about boats and boat building. His name is Peter and he's building a 31' Bolger Estuary Cruiser. It's a shallow draft river boat with great lines. It's the same length as the boat we're building but a bit narrower and shallower.

Peter gave us all a glimpse of his boat during a recent building shed move. Until then he hadn't (nor had we) seen the "Whole Boat" at one time. Confined in the boat shed you just don't get the opportunity to see it all at once.

The Estuary Cruiser is a narrow boat with a shallow draft. It's designed to be powered by a single 50 HP outboard motor making it extremely versatile and economical. Top speed isn't fast, 6.5 knots, but sometimes you just have to slow down and enjoy life eh?

Peter is a fascinating guy. Different approach to building a boat than me but the goals are still the same. This is his fourth boat he's built and he's got some skills! I only hope I can do half as well. You can read all about Peter's boat here.... Just-fore-the-fun-of-it

Anyhow the visit gave me a lil' kick in the butt to get back to the shed and get some stuff done. The weather was beautiful today and I managed to get some of the smaller chores knocked off the list. (It's a long list!)

One of the things I noticed in Peter's boat shed was the shelves. Shelves are great, they get stuff off the ground so you don't trip over them all the time. This one will hold some of the lighter stuff that kicks around a boat shed.

I got around to unwrapping the big stack of wood that is our boat. I've got to figure out how to get it all organized and sort of out of the way for now.

The other lil' chore I got done was the first two of six fluorescent lights that'll go in the shed. They toss some good light. I'll check later tonight when it's dark. I'm hoping six will be enough.

That's about it till tomorrow. Standby....

Fall is the saddest season

2010-11-06T16:28:00.003-04:00

Everything has to be tucked away for the winter! *sigh*

I've never shrunk wrapped a boat before. Dunno if this is going to work or now but it's done.

Not much happening in the boat shed. Pretty much done with it till spring. I did tuck the Camaro in there for the winter so it's a little crowded.

I did get tired of the cold wet water dripping down my neck when opening the door of the shed so I fixed that too!

That's it. Not much else happening. Soon time to hibernate till spring! Standby...

I think this stuff.....

2010-10-21T17:51:00.002-04:00

was meant to go on the outside of a house? Oh well it'll work this way too. Got the first section of Tyvek up tonight. I was hoping it'd be more opaque. I guess a blue tinge will be the "ordre du jour" from now on!

I reinforced all the staples with good old fashioned hockey stick tape! :-)

Standby....

After almost a full month.....

2010-10-16T17:36:00.005-04:00

the outside is finished. Well pretty much. I still have a few gaps to fill in and a few small holes to patch. Otherwise it's all shrink wrapped and water tight! (I hope)

Tight as a drum!

Sorry don't know how to adjust the pic for the blue shift.

Now the real work begins to turn this space into a boat building shop! Going to go play with the IROC tomorrow one last day before it has to be put away for the winter. Standby....

Progress can be slow at times

2010-10-10T16:33:00.004-04:00

but we made some today!

Wait for it....

Wait for it....

Wait for it....

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! No! What happened there? Well the operative word in the first sentence was "some"! Sorry just ran outta steam to finish it up all today. Sorry!

Back to the boat shed.....

Heat sealing the seams is hard tedious work. It takes about an hour or so to do one side. You have to be careful or you melt through the two layers of plastic. Takes a bit of concentration but works well once you catch on.

Lori says I gots a nice butt!

Woke up this morning to find blood all over the kitchen floor. Figured the two boy cats were fighting or something only to find out later.....

Couldn't have been too smart a meece to sneak into a house with 5 cats! Doh! Way to go Baby!

I think I'm slowing down

2010-10-09T15:20:00.004-04:00

in my old age! *sigh* Things just don't seem to be going as easy as they should. Been pretty tired lately. Dunno why.

Had my buddy Andrew helping today. We got the barn doors hung and the plastic on the back of the shed up. We tried to hang a large piece on the side but the wind kicked up and tore out all the staples we had holding it in place.

You can see the piece we tried to hang on the right hand side in the back corner. It took off in a light breeze just like a sail!

Backside view of the barn doors. The one on the right is semi-permanently fixed in place. It has hinges but I screwed it to the door jamb to hold everything in place so they wouldn't flop around in the wind.

I put the blow torch to the door on the right today. Didn't use as much heat or linger waiting for the plastic to shrink. It worked perfectly.

We'll try again tomorrow to hang the rest of the plastic. Put some thought into it and instead of going from the back (east) working towards the front we'll start at the front and work back. Less likelihood the wind will work against us. Standby....

There's not too many things......

2010-10-03T13:53:00.003-04:00

that I'm afraid of on this planet but this is one of them!

This diabolical device is much like a flame thrower! The noise it makes is horrific! It got the job done though!

Here's one of the big barn doors I made and shrunk.

If you look close you can see where I burned a few holes in the plastic. There seems to be a delay in the time it takes the plastic to actually shrink and if you linger too long over one spot with the flame it just burns through. You can also see the thin spots that'll likely receive a patch.

Here's another example of a burn through which I repaired with the tape I bought with the shrink wrap plastic. This time I was too close to the plastic with the flame thrower.

Just another pic of the barn doors I made today.

And on the 15th day the rains let up

2010-10-02T17:09:00.003-04:00

It's been raining almost steady for the last two weeks. Finally this weekend the weather straightened itself out and we got back to work. It probably doesn't look it but we put in a full days work today. I had my buddy Andrew helping out (Paid labor, he's just a highschool kid but a good worker).

Framing up the shed doors etc.

Ready to be shrunk tight!

That'll come likely next Saturday. I can probably hang the plastic on the back end but will definitely need help draping the big sheets over the top of this monster!

Picked up a few small trinkets for the boat off of E-Bay this week. Just to keep my hand in the online auction game.

This little porthole will go in the door to the head.

These lil' jewels are called "Hawse Pipes". They'll go in the forward part of the hull and the mooring lines will pass through them to the cleats mounted inboard.

More to come, standby...

I'd say it was a good days work

2010-09-19T16:38:00.003-04:00

Made some progress today with a lil' help from some friends.

First section up! This thing is a monster! There's no way to conceive in your head how big this thing is going to be until you start to put it up!

Second section and another WTF have I gotten myself into now moment!

Last section and last bow!

Still a lot of work to do. It has to be trued up and all the horizontal & diagonal strapping put in. I have to frame in the ends and cover them with plastic first then the entire structure can be covered with the shrink wrap plastic. Next week likely! Standby....

Now I know how Noah felt

2010-09-18T13:09:00.003-04:00

The rains have finally let up and I got around to working on the bow shed again. There's no way one person can put one this big up by themselves so I have to rally some troops tomorrow to lift the first section up. It'll go up in three sections, 10', 12' and another 10' section. The center section will have three 1/2" eye bolts that hopefully will be strong enough to lift the engine into the boat. By all guestimates it should!

The hardest part was getting the ridge in place. It took a few extra hands and paws but we got it done. Next step is to use some old carpet scraps to make a flexible hinge on the opposite side bows. This allows you to life the ridge and walk the bows inwards lifting it into place. Sounds good in theory! It'll have to wait till tomorrow till a few more hands arrive. Kinda looks like a giant spider spreading its legs here!

Standby...... More to come!

Rain rain go away!

2010-09-17T09:59:00.002-04:00

It seems like it's been raining here for the past two weeks. Every time I try to work on the shed it rains. *sigh* So to console myself I decided to go shopping! Isn't that what everybody does? Our new boat now has a Wheel! :-)

Hopefully the weather will cooperate a bit this weekend so I can start assembly on the bow shed. Standby....

Hotter 'n hell to colder 'n hell in 24 hrs!

2010-09-06T08:22:00.003-04:00

Friday it's hotter 'n hell. I managed to get 5 bows made before it got too hot to work. Its supposed to be cooler on Saturday so I figured I can knock out the rest. Wrong. Saturday comes and it's colder 'n hell. I'm running around looking for a jacket and gloves! WTF?

Anyhow brief update:

Looking more like a messy construction site now eh?

I've still got 3 bows to make. I want to double up the center span because that's where I'll lift the engine into the boat. I can't believe how much work these things are, they're turning out to be a bigger production than building the boat!!!

The remaining three bows should be done today then I have to build a stage (scaffold) to be able to reach the peak. It's up there about 17 feet! Once that's done and I can rally up some help the next report should be of the actual assembly of this monster! Standby....

That's a failure

2010-08-28T13:49:00.004-04:00

First decent day to get some bows made. I managed to get 4 done before it got too hot. Besides I need a nappy!

This one broke in a weird spot. It was the inside strap that's under a bit more tension as the outside one. It broke about half way up. It went out with a bang too! Sort of startled me! These things are more work than they look. A lot of up and down on the knees which make it a little tough on the back. Good knee pads are essential!

Grand total so far is 7. 11 to go. I should get another 4 or 5 done tomorrow then I'm out of materials till pay day. Standby....

Forging ahead with Plan "C"

2010-08-25T18:44:00.003-04:00

Not a whole lot to report. Bad weather an 50th. b/day celebrations pretty much wiped out the weekend. I have managed to hobble together a couple more bows for the shed.

I've figured out a system to put them together pretty quick. Now all I need is time to do it. If all goes according to plan I'll have all 18 bows finished this weekend. Standby....