Loose Ends and Boat Parts

Today we finished up loose ends on our beginning projects and watched a slide show on the Gundelow Skiff that we will be building. It is a traditional work boat of West Irish inland rivers. Think pickup truck of the water. More of a small toyota than a F-150. We saw some really low rent boats that were held together with drywall screws and roofing tar. Glad to see "Get'r'dun" boat building is alive and well in the old country.

Apparently we are going to have a whole lecture on various goos that go into boat building. For now, all we have to know is that there is "glue" and then there is "schmooey". Glue holds stuff together, and Schmooey "waterproofs" it. Or at least keeps some of the water out. Ever noticed that most small boats carry a small bucket? With a name like "schmooey" keeping my boat dry, I'll carry 2 buckets.

This is what you get for being Teacher's Pet. Chad is lofting our new boat. Sucker! I was so glad to stand outside at the sharpening station and flatten the bed of my old ratty Stanley planes today. It was 50 degrees and sunny, and so terrific not to be crawling around with colored pencils in my mouth and stepping on finish nails barefoot.

 This is a bright finished half model (Chad's) of the boat the whole class just finished lofting. It is carved with chisels, planes, and spokeshaves. If you don't gouge the crap out of it, you can finish it bright with varnish, or shellac.

This is what it looks like when you DO gouge the crap out of it. I was forced to resort to Bondo. It took me back to the days of the 280ZX fender i sculpted on my first car in high school. Except i couldn't figure out why it wouldn't dry. Must be cold, I thought. OR, you can actually add the hardener to the bondo. Dumbass. I painted mine white, with flat black bottom paint, and a red bootstripe. (By the way, I have know idea why more adolescents don't sniff Bondo.)

This is a shot of our transom laminated up from 3 pieces of something heavy, dense, and tropical. I'm not sure what woods were chosen, and why, but I'm sure it has something to do with availability (what the school has on hand), strength, and rot resistance. They don' skimp because of cost. "Boat Wood" is truly unbelievably expensive. I ran four 60+ dollar boards through a band saw today to rip them down to size for the bottom boards of the boat. Scary. Do the math. That's over $240 bucks for the BOTTOM of the boat. My pal screwed one up, so now it will have to be used for side planking. We needed 3/4" minimum, and he spaced out and the band saw wandered, leaving 5/8" for part of the board. We will have to mill that one down and get 1/2" for the sides.

The boat parts are being made on the fly while the lofting is still happening...yikes. This is a template made from doorskin that will be laid over the transom, traced, and mirrored. The large chunk of laminated tropical goodness will then be cut, (with a continuous rolling bevel) on the band saw. A bevel is when you angle the side of the board. A continuous bevel is when the whole edge of the board is beveled. A continuous, rolling bevel is when the angle constantly changes. Yeah. One person shoves the chunk through the saw, and the other slowly tilts the bed of the band saw to change the bevel. 

A continuous rolling Doofus is when you trash one out of four boards you cut running a flat board through a band saw to try to rip it down to 3/4". (To be fair, the one i actually cut myself was perfect. I only held the dumb end on the one we screwed up.)

Tomorrow we will lay out the stem and stern post out of a huge piece of black locust. Should be fun running that dude through the bandsaw. We will not attempt this before coffee, and we will try very, very hard not to cut any continuously rolling Doofuses.