Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Xmas Holidays are too short

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*

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Boxing Day Blues

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.....

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Not much to report

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....

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Welcome aboard

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

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Mid day update;

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.....

Friday, November 12, 2010

Sometimes a little inspiration is all you need

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....

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Fall is the saddest season

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...

Thursday, October 21, 2010

I think this stuff.....

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....

Saturday, October 16, 2010

After almost a full month.....

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....

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Progress can be slow at times

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!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

I think I'm slowing down

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....

Sunday, October 3, 2010

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

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.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

And on the 15th day the rains let up

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...

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I'd say it was a good days work

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....

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Now I know how Noah felt

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!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Rain rain go away!

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....

Monday, September 6, 2010

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

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....

Saturday, August 28, 2010

That's a failure

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....

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Forging ahead with Plan "C"

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....

Friday, August 20, 2010

Scrap Plan "B" go to Plan "C"

You can mix 100 batches of perfect epoxy but mess up just one batch and you're name is mud! I don't know what I did but I might have the pumps mixed up on my new epoxy because it wouldn't harden. It's that or the rain and working outside with epoxy don't mix. Anyhow, the search continued for some 20' strapping to make the bows and no luck anywhere so I bit the bullet and decided to try some glue and screws. There's this stuff called "Liquid Nails" which is amazing. I spliced a 4' section onto a 16' section with a 7" filler block to give me the length I needed. I made myself a handy jig to hold the material while I was gluing and screwing it! (Get your minds out of the gutter!)



The very first one I made seemed to work fine till I put it on the blocks to bend it and it immediately broke in the middle. Back to the drawing board. Attempt #2 went better. I wet the wood before I bent it which seemed to help a lot.



So after sweatin' it out in the heat I managed to put together my first "BOW"!



So the equation looks something like this.....

1 bow + 1 bow = 1 arch
9 arches = 1 shed