Canoe! Progress Resumes!
Oct. 3rd, 2010 05:50 pmToday I mostly finished leveling the gunwales, re-fitted the front deck (I decided the back one was close enough) drilled the holes for the screws to go into the front deck, and epoxied and screwed both decks in place.
Notes to self:
1) FIRST wedge boat out, or in, to design beam. THEN fit decks. This will save you a lot of time.
2) Shove a shop lamp under the deck. It makes it a lot easier to see where the high spots are.
2a) Low angle block plane Martin told me to buy--worth its weight in gold for this operation.
3) Drill the screw holes through the gunwales without the deck in place.
3a) Clamp a bit of scrap wood behind the gunwale to keep it from splintering where the drill bit exits.
3b) Watch the level on the drill; that thing actually works and will make it easier to get the screw hole at an angle where the screw will stay inside the deck for its full length.
4) Then clamp the deck in place and use the pre-drilled gunwale holes as guides to drill into the deck.
5) Tape, tape, tape! Dookie schmutz that doesn't hit the wood is dookie schmutz you don't have to wipe up or sand off. There is no prize for using the least masking tape.
Also Martin called me back (when he is on vacation, bless him) to let me know that a single wetting won't hurt the walnut gunwales, so I will be putting Constance in the water for seat-and-thwart position testing. I will run a strip of tape down the bow and stern with inch marks (and numbers) so my shore observer can tell me when my trim is right. I'll move the seat-box back and forth until the center of gravity is right, then move the back thwart and foot thwart to match. The foot thwart will be curved so tall people can put their feet toward the middle and short people can put their feet toward the sides and hopefully it will be good for a range of sizes, since it will be my guest boat.
But golly, the dark walnut gunwales sandwiching the light white pine hull look *really* sharp, especially with the light white pine decks in place. I'm giving serious thought to making my thwarts of ash rather than walnut, partly because I'm getting really tired of the knots and weird grain of the walnut, and ash is very straightforward that way, and partly because I like the look of the light-and-dark woodwork together.
Notes to self:
1) FIRST wedge boat out, or in, to design beam. THEN fit decks. This will save you a lot of time.
2) Shove a shop lamp under the deck. It makes it a lot easier to see where the high spots are.
2a) Low angle block plane Martin told me to buy--worth its weight in gold for this operation.
3) Drill the screw holes through the gunwales without the deck in place.
3a) Clamp a bit of scrap wood behind the gunwale to keep it from splintering where the drill bit exits.
3b) Watch the level on the drill; that thing actually works and will make it easier to get the screw hole at an angle where the screw will stay inside the deck for its full length.
4) Then clamp the deck in place and use the pre-drilled gunwale holes as guides to drill into the deck.
5) Tape, tape, tape! Dookie schmutz that doesn't hit the wood is dookie schmutz you don't have to wipe up or sand off. There is no prize for using the least masking tape.
Also Martin called me back (when he is on vacation, bless him) to let me know that a single wetting won't hurt the walnut gunwales, so I will be putting Constance in the water for seat-and-thwart position testing. I will run a strip of tape down the bow and stern with inch marks (and numbers) so my shore observer can tell me when my trim is right. I'll move the seat-box back and forth until the center of gravity is right, then move the back thwart and foot thwart to match. The foot thwart will be curved so tall people can put their feet toward the middle and short people can put their feet toward the sides and hopefully it will be good for a range of sizes, since it will be my guest boat.
But golly, the dark walnut gunwales sandwiching the light white pine hull look *really* sharp, especially with the light white pine decks in place. I'm giving serious thought to making my thwarts of ash rather than walnut, partly because I'm getting really tired of the knots and weird grain of the walnut, and ash is very straightforward that way, and partly because I like the look of the light-and-dark woodwork together.