Well, I am working at this, but it is slow. Today and yesterday (nights), I have been working on the foils. Last night I planed all of the second rudder prior to glue up and got most of the keel planks planed before my planer started making some "odd noises". It was already past 9, so I went ahead and called it a night.
Today, I took the planer apart, looked at everything, put it back together and well, it seems to be working just fine now. What gives?! Anyway, I got everything planed for glue up, as well as, putting some old blades on the machine and running the first rudder (glued up already) through to clean it up. That came out real nice, but it puts a load on the planer (and the electrical system). I tripped the breaker twice before I turned the vacuum system off while I was running it. Made a mess, but it is done.
Tomorrow night I plan on gluing up the other rudder section and cutting some biscuit joints in the rudder to get it all to line up when I glue it on Saturday. I should have some pictures of that this weekend. Sorry I don't have any pics tonight, but to be honest, the only picture I had that was any different than the others, was the pile of shavings coming out of the planer.
OK, now I need to talk about something that I thought would be cool, yet turned out to be a pain in the ass. I bought the plans some time ago and on Tuesday night, I figured I would start the lofting process. To put it into a nutshell...LOFTING SUCKS! I will be purchasing the full size plans here shortly. I got through about 2 sections and decided I had enough of that. For a couple of hundred dollars, I think that might be some of the best money I will have ever spent...right up there with the lasik surgery I had 11 years ago!
One last thing. If there is anyone that actually reads this thing, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for where to get fiberglass materials other than West Marine and Jamestown? I have found a dealer called Progressive Epoxy Polymers (website: http://www.epoxyproducts.com/help.html) that seems to be pretty straight forward and a hell of a lot cheaper than just about everyone else. Also, does anyone care to share information regarding epoxy versus polyester (fiberglass) resin?
later,
m...
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The first step is always the hardest...
Hello all. Seems that I have actually gotten my keister in gear and have begun this journey. As I said in my last post, I had to start by cleaning out the garage.
That is done, not great, but it will work for now. I didn't really want to get to detialed with it as I was cranking up the saws, planer, and jointer today. That stuff makes enough sawdust for a...well, I don't have a good description for that. Let's just say it makes a metric butt-load of sawdust and I didn't want a bunch of hard work (cleaning up the garage) go for naught by adding to the pile. You can see the before and after pictures (I hope) so even though it probably doesn't look all that great, trust me it took my all of Saturday.
Anyway, I picked up the white oak on Friday afternoon at Clark's here in Houston. Anyone in this area working on their build, should consider those guys for your wood supplies. I have worked with them for the past 3 or so years building kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Rough cut is my favorite, but they do have a selection.
Ok on to the game plan. Obviously since I bought some white oak, I have decided to start by making the foils first. Figure I get the pain in the butt stuff going first, plus it consumes less of my garage for now. So I started with about 38 board feet (about $150) and began slicing and dicing this morning. My plan was to go with 2 rudders, but it seems that I miscalculated the usable portions of the oak that I got. Due to the fact that I am currently planning on building the boat in the longer cockpit option, I had to increase the overall length of the rudder to 75.25" and then add about 5" more for the run-out on the planer (has a tendency to create some problems on the ends when milling). Also on the rudder, it is 54 plus my run-out 5" putting it close to 60". When it was all said and done, I now have 6 pieces of oak that is about 48" long (2-2" thick pieces and 4-1" pieces) that are too short for the second rudder. I am thinking about cutting them down and essentiall splice them into a rudder using the epoxy to bind it all together. Anyone have any input on that I would certainly appreciate it. Either way, I will have at least one rudder that is made from full length pieces.
Once I got everything cut to length and spliced, I cranked up the jointer and trued up the edges and then ran the pieces for the rudder through the planer (not enough time today for the keel, maybe tomorrow). Once I got all of that together, I broke out the epoxy and glued it all together. I'm not real good at this epoxy thing just yet, but this is my first attempt at it, so I have room to improve. Either way, check out the pictures and see what you think.
A couple of quick things before I call it a day on this post. I must apologize for my lengthy posts as I know I can run on for a while. Maybe I shouldn't have learned to type in high school! And secondly, I guess it helps if you understand a little HTML programming with this blogging site. Seems I had to cut and paste the pictures code into this for some reason to get it where the pics weren't all jumbled up. Oh well.
later,
m...
That is done, not great, but it will work for now. I didn't really want to get to detialed with it as I was cranking up the saws, planer, and jointer today. That stuff makes enough sawdust for a...well, I don't have a good description for that. Let's just say it makes a metric butt-load of sawdust and I didn't want a bunch of hard work (cleaning up the garage) go for naught by adding to the pile. You can see the before and after pictures (I hope) so even though it probably doesn't look all that great, trust me it took my all of Saturday.
Anyway, I picked up the white oak on Friday afternoon at Clark's here in Houston. Anyone in this area working on their build, should consider those guys for your wood supplies. I have worked with them for the past 3 or so years building kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Rough cut is my favorite, but they do have a selection.
Ok on to the game plan. Obviously since I bought some white oak, I have decided to start by making the foils first. Figure I get the pain in the butt stuff going first, plus it consumes less of my garage for now. So I started with about 38 board feet (about $150) and began slicing and dicing this morning. My plan was to go with 2 rudders, but it seems that I miscalculated the usable portions of the oak that I got. Due to the fact that I am currently planning on building the boat in the longer cockpit option, I had to increase the overall length of the rudder to 75.25" and then add about 5" more for the run-out on the planer (has a tendency to create some problems on the ends when milling). Also on the rudder, it is 54 plus my run-out 5" putting it close to 60". When it was all said and done, I now have 6 pieces of oak that is about 48" long (2-2" thick pieces and 4-1" pieces) that are too short for the second rudder. I am thinking about cutting them down and essentiall splice them into a rudder using the epoxy to bind it all together. Anyone have any input on that I would certainly appreciate it. Either way, I will have at least one rudder that is made from full length pieces.
Once I got everything cut to length and spliced, I cranked up the jointer and trued up the edges and then ran the pieces for the rudder through the planer (not enough time today for the keel, maybe tomorrow). Once I got all of that together, I broke out the epoxy and glued it all together. I'm not real good at this epoxy thing just yet, but this is my first attempt at it, so I have room to improve. Either way, check out the pictures and see what you think.
A couple of quick things before I call it a day on this post. I must apologize for my lengthy posts as I know I can run on for a while. Maybe I shouldn't have learned to type in high school! And secondly, I guess it helps if you understand a little HTML programming with this blogging site. Seems I had to cut and paste the pictures code into this for some reason to get it where the pics weren't all jumbled up. Oh well.
later,
m...
Friday, May 14, 2010
In the beginning...
Well, we all have to start somewhere and sometime. I guess that sometime is now and the somewhere is in my very cluttered garage. I have been trying to start this project for over a year and I have decided to just quit trying to re-invent the wheel (something I have been doing to this boat design for a while now). Thus I have my plans (Hull #152) and I am beginning this process. I don't know if I am going to go like lightening and get done as soon as possible or if this will drag out for 2 years. I have about a million reasons (work, school, remodeling my house, etc) to not start this project, but sometimes you just have to say, this is what I want and do it. I also know my personality. If I don't get this boat built in something of a quick turnaround, I will drag it out for a while. Only time will tell.
All right, so I'll give everyone a quick picture of who I am. I'm 44 years old, single, and employed as an electrical engineer, although my background is nuclear power (spent 6 years in the Navy, 4 on a submarine as a Reactor Operator and commonly referred to as a Navy Nuke). This is also the first boat I will have built. My experience working with glass is very, very limited, but I am a very accomplished woodworker (built my kitchen cabinets from scratch), so I'm hoping that I can combine the two of the skills and come out somewhere in the middle. I'm also working solo, so I don't know how many "action" pictures will make it here, but I will do my best. If anyone knows of any great ideas, either for the build or the blog, I'm certainly open to hearing them.
Later,
m...
All right, so I'll give everyone a quick picture of who I am. I'm 44 years old, single, and employed as an electrical engineer, although my background is nuclear power (spent 6 years in the Navy, 4 on a submarine as a Reactor Operator and commonly referred to as a Navy Nuke). This is also the first boat I will have built. My experience working with glass is very, very limited, but I am a very accomplished woodworker (built my kitchen cabinets from scratch), so I'm hoping that I can combine the two of the skills and come out somewhere in the middle. I'm also working solo, so I don't know how many "action" pictures will make it here, but I will do my best. If anyone knows of any great ideas, either for the build or the blog, I'm certainly open to hearing them.
Later,
m...
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