Wondering Where I am?

Yes, its been a while since I've posted... and it will probably be a while yet before I have time to do any more work on the boat.  Real Life has intruded, and I've got a few other projects (via "honey-do" list) that jumped the line:

• Back yard patio
• Reset back yard drainage line
• Painting two rooms & outside railing
• Garage shelving (this will actually benefit the boat project)
• Garden shed (more junk out of the garage!)

I've set up a separate blog to talk about that stuff.  If you're interested, check it out there.

I am hoping that I can get back to working on the boat in June...  I'll be lucky to finish it before it gets cold again.

Sawed Some Wood

No, I did not take a nap.  Set up the table saw with a 1" offset and ripped three strips off of my mahogany.  Looks good.

Honeydo First

Friday afternoon I went over to Capitol City Lumber to pick up my mahogany.  Three eight foot boards of 3/4" thick lumber six inches wide... $120.  Brought it home and brought it into the garage... and there it sits, two days later.  The honey-do list caught up with me.

I did take a few minutes yesterday to cut the mast sections.  Angle slices at the ends of the 1x2 Aspen at about a 5:1 taper.  I could mix up some epoxy and glue them together today, but I rethought it, and decided that I should wait and catch it when I have a bigger batch of epoxy mixed to glue up my frames... hopefully next week.

Today... maybe I'll be able to cut the mahogany frame sections.  Most of it is 1" wide strips, with some 2" or 2-1/2" elements.  The stuff that isn't 1" I'll just trace off of the template.  That's assuming I can finish up the honey-do's...

Epoxy In

Received my package of epoxy.  Ready to go this weekend on the mast.

Finished Frame Cutouts

Yes, I did.  Used up the remaining section of 1/2" ply too.  I know that Frame 3 and the Seat Sections (4) were originally intended to be cut out of 1/4" ply, but what the hey. 

I'm set up for next week's work too.  I expect to get my epoxy in the mail sometime in the next few days...  so next week will see me working on the mast.  I came up with a rig on the table saw to allow me to cut narrow angles on the mast lumber.  Two quick cuts will let me splice the 8' and 6' sections.  I should have the entire mast blank glued up by Sunday.

Nothing going on after that until the following week's pay check hits.

Getting Into Gear

Actually feel a sense of accomplishment tonight.  

That hoist that I've been fiddling with for the last few days finally came together.  I added the last pulley (for a total of 5), restrung it with rope, and up it went!  Slick as could be.  Only changes I made was to put a length of split hose along one end of the platform where it rubbed against the wall.  The thing doesn't want to come down once its up without encouragement, but I can live with that.  I still need to add a couple of cleats to coil the pull rope on when the hoist is in the up position, but that will have to wait until they come in the mail from Glen-L this week.  Here is a series of 6 shots showing the system in operation.

And as the guy on the infomercial says, "and that's not all!"  When I was at Lowes picking up the pulley (and some more rope!!), I decided to pick up some wood to make the mast and boom with.  The problem is that the specs call for a 13' 2"x2" Sitka Spruce mast as a blank.  Just about impossible to get out here.  So I started looking at what was available.  Yes, I could do better at Capital City Lumber, but I figured that the mast wasn't that critical.  So...

White pine....  uh uh.  The 1"x2" looked like crap, and I'd already decided that I'd splice the out of shorter lengths of 1"x2", with offset angle splices for maximum strength.  But not white pine.  

The red oak looked nice, but I know that its sucky for marine uses.  Yellow pine MIGHT work, but I didn't really like the boards they had in stock.  

Fortunately, I found one more species of lumber at Lowes...  Aspen.  Decent strength, and nice clean boards, even in the 1"x2" stock.  Picked up 2 8' boards, and 3 6' boards.  That should give me enough for both the mast and boom.

Now the plan for the mast....  First, I'm going to splice the 8' and 6' sections into two 13' pieces.  Then, the two sections are slapped together and clamped to make the mast blank.  There is additional shaping to give the mast a taper, but that is later...

Got my work lined up for this weekend, but I'm really looking forward to the day I can put in my next order for lumber and epoxy to really get started on this job.

Slow progress

Ok, so things aren't going as smooth as I'd hoped.  Still, its better than I'd feared...

I was looking at the plans for the 8-Ball framing, and see that the bow panel is shown as being cut from 1/4" ply in two sections.  This is to allow the section to be cut from scrap from the side planking.  I've decided to use some of the remaining 1/2" ply instead, which I've got plenty of, allowing me to cut it as one piece, and not have to assemble it.  I know that this means it won't be marine plywood (as the 1/4" would have been), but then again, neither was the stern section.  C'est la vie.  I'll make it work, and since the whole thing will be encapsulated and glassed, it shouldn't matter.

On the work platform hoist:  I've taken another stab at it, but thought it through some more and redesigned (again!!!).  Tomorrow, I need to get another pulley (just one more!), and re-rig the system so that there are four lines coming off of the platform hook (two pulleys attached to the hook), leading to two more pulleys and an anchor on the wall.  The loose end won't have any pulleys (other than leaders).  If I can ever get the thing finished, I'll snap some pictures of the hoist in action.  Of course, it won't be finished until the 3" nylon cleats I ordered get in.  Only need one for this project, but I figure I'll need some for the 8-Ball when its complete.