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catsittingstillYou may recall that I drafted the plans for the stations for the Wee Lassie II earlier this week.
Wednesday I spent a bunch of time with the plans, a tape measure, and a notebook, trying to figure out the best layout of the stations on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood. Then I went and bought said plywood, plus an extra scrap for the piece I couldn't otherwise fit.
Yesterday and this morning I used carbon paper and a tracing wheel to trace the patterns onto the plywood. This afternoon and this evening I tried cutting some pieces out.
I have a jigsaw, but it's not very accurate and doesn't make a completely vertical cut. I have a bandsaw, but it's kind of small and wimpy. I tried chopping a piece out roughly with the jigsaw and then more accurately with the bandsaw, but wasn't completely happy with the results. The bandsaw doesn't cut very fast, and I wasn't getting a smooth cut, perhaps because I don't know how to use it.
But. The ShopSmith comes with a sanding wheel. I pulled out the (at least ten years old, never touched) sandpaper discs for it, glued one disc on (it doesn't stick everywhere, but so far it's staying on) and set up for sanding. It works fine. I can cut out stations with the jigsaw, leaving about a sixteenth of an inch extra all around, and then sand down to the line with the sanding wheel. The table is plenty big enough to support the pieces of plywood. The only difficulty is that I can only do convex curves, not concave ones. However that's still the lion's share of the sanding. The last time I did this it took me about a week to cut out and file and sand all the stations. This time I did the first six--this afternoon.
Seven to go. At this rate I could have the form set up and faired by the end of this week.
I think I need to go get hull wood tomorrow, because the lumberyard that has it (specialty stuff) is closed Sunday and Monday, and I don't want to be held up waiting. I also need to get on the phone and call Martin the magic shop teacher about cutting strips, because I could very well be ready to roll by Monday.
(originally posted Friday night but LJ was having problems; reposted Sat morning)
(reposted again Sat evening, making sure "crosspost to LJ box is checked)
(and again with "don't show on reading pages" selected for date)
Wednesday I spent a bunch of time with the plans, a tape measure, and a notebook, trying to figure out the best layout of the stations on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood. Then I went and bought said plywood, plus an extra scrap for the piece I couldn't otherwise fit.
Yesterday and this morning I used carbon paper and a tracing wheel to trace the patterns onto the plywood. This afternoon and this evening I tried cutting some pieces out.
I have a jigsaw, but it's not very accurate and doesn't make a completely vertical cut. I have a bandsaw, but it's kind of small and wimpy. I tried chopping a piece out roughly with the jigsaw and then more accurately with the bandsaw, but wasn't completely happy with the results. The bandsaw doesn't cut very fast, and I wasn't getting a smooth cut, perhaps because I don't know how to use it.
But. The ShopSmith comes with a sanding wheel. I pulled out the (at least ten years old, never touched) sandpaper discs for it, glued one disc on (it doesn't stick everywhere, but so far it's staying on) and set up for sanding. It works fine. I can cut out stations with the jigsaw, leaving about a sixteenth of an inch extra all around, and then sand down to the line with the sanding wheel. The table is plenty big enough to support the pieces of plywood. The only difficulty is that I can only do convex curves, not concave ones. However that's still the lion's share of the sanding. The last time I did this it took me about a week to cut out and file and sand all the stations. This time I did the first six--this afternoon.
Seven to go. At this rate I could have the form set up and faired by the end of this week.
I think I need to go get hull wood tomorrow, because the lumberyard that has it (specialty stuff) is closed Sunday and Monday, and I don't want to be held up waiting. I also need to get on the phone and call Martin the magic shop teacher about cutting strips, because I could very well be ready to roll by Monday.
(originally posted Friday night but LJ was having problems; reposted Sat morning)
(reposted again Sat evening, making sure "crosspost to LJ box is checked)
(and again with "don't show on reading pages" selected for date)
