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

Monday, August 16, 2010

Plan "B" continued....

The first 8 big sticks are done. I broke one taking it off the stack! Doh! No biggie. Good thing it broke now. I'll just chop it up for other stuff.

I managed to layup 12 this time. That should get the job done quicker.



This is the backside showing the blocks I used to keep everything lined up. It actually worked better this time.




If all goes according to plan I'll only have to do this two more times. That'll give me enough for the shed plus a few spares. I fully expect to break a few bending them into shape.

I was well supervised during this mornings work detail!




More to come. Standby.....

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Plan "B"

Went back to check on my wood order again this morning. It's going to take another month just to get the 20' logs in so I cancelled the order. Plan "B" now goes into affect. I have to splice a 4' section of 1x3 onto a 16' piece of 1x3 as per my previous little experiment. I'll need to do this at least 38 times! :-( Oh well I have no other choice.

I setup a jig so I can glue 8 pieces together at once.



It'll take at least a day for the glue to fully set then I'll have to fiberglass the splices which will take another day. If the weather holds out I'll be able to get all 38 pieces glued and glassed in a couple of weeks. *sigh*

It seems this bow shed thing is becoming as much of a major project as building the boat will be! Standby......

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Very little progress......

I went to check on my wood order and it's not ready yet. Likely another two weeks! *sigh* I can't really blame those Amish fella's they're pretty busy. They've got a thriving business building garden sheds etc. Very nice work. I'll see if I can grab a few pictures next time I'm over.

Anyhow with no materials I decided to setup the blocks to make the bows for the shed. When it's up it'll stand about 17' at the peak.

Here's "half a bow". Sorry it's not much to report but it's all I got for the moment.



Standby.... I am!