the latest from the boat shop
My project for the past week or so has been to make the mast for the Matinicus Island Peapod. Steve and Chris went out and bought a couple of spruce 2x4s and epoxied them together before the project got handed over to me. The mast was supposed to be two inches in diameter at either end, tapering up to three inches in the middle. So the first step was to put the taper in.
I mostly used this block plane because it's pretty wide and doesn't give me blisters.
The next step was to octagonalize the mast. I drew an octagon at each end of the mast, but because of the tapers, it would have been difficult to accurately draw the lines to plane to. So I used a spar gauge, which is a really simple and clever little tool.
Next I went from eight sides to 16 and then to 32.
And then I switched over to using sandpaper. The mast is feeling pretty smooth now, but there are still a few ridges that I'll need to work out on Monday.
On Valentine's Day, several of us went to see the ice harvest at the Thompson Ice House in South Bristol. There were lots of people walking and skating around on the pond as a large rectangular hole in the ice slowly got larger.
Everyone was welcome to take a turn sawing away at the blocks of ice. It was 15" thick this year.
After they're cut, the blocks of ice are maneuvered into a narrow channel that leads up to the ramp.
the blocks are moved up the ramp and down the other side into the ice house, where they're pushed into place. The ice house will be filled to the ceiling, and it will last (unrefrigerated!) until Labor Day.
The peapod is the boat that most of us are working on currently, and it's coming along slowly but surely. There's a lot of painstaking carving-away of wood to make sure that everything fits tightly, and then there are occasional moments of excitement, like when the ribs get steamed into place. The ribs are made of oak, and they're about a half inch thick. In order to curve them into the boat, they first have to be steamed for 30 minutes. Here's Kenneth pulling them out of the steam box:
The ribs cool off quickly once they're out of the box, so everyone has to be on hand to help bend and clamp.
The garboard (the first plank next to the keel) is a little more complicated to steam. We had to scarph together two planks to get one long enough for the boat, and the epoxy joint can't be steamed. So we steam one end of the plank, clamp it into place, and then pour boiling water on the other end and let it soak before bending it into place.
Each plank has a rabbet cut into it so that at the stem ends of the boat, two adjacent planks will be flush.
I mostly used this block plane because it's pretty wide and doesn't give me blisters.
The next step was to octagonalize the mast. I drew an octagon at each end of the mast, but because of the tapers, it would have been difficult to accurately draw the lines to plane to. So I used a spar gauge, which is a really simple and clever little tool.
Next I went from eight sides to 16 and then to 32.
And then I switched over to using sandpaper. The mast is feeling pretty smooth now, but there are still a few ridges that I'll need to work out on Monday.
On Valentine's Day, several of us went to see the ice harvest at the Thompson Ice House in South Bristol. There were lots of people walking and skating around on the pond as a large rectangular hole in the ice slowly got larger.
Everyone was welcome to take a turn sawing away at the blocks of ice. It was 15" thick this year.
After they're cut, the blocks of ice are maneuvered into a narrow channel that leads up to the ramp.
the blocks are moved up the ramp and down the other side into the ice house, where they're pushed into place. The ice house will be filled to the ceiling, and it will last (unrefrigerated!) until Labor Day.
The peapod is the boat that most of us are working on currently, and it's coming along slowly but surely. There's a lot of painstaking carving-away of wood to make sure that everything fits tightly, and then there are occasional moments of excitement, like when the ribs get steamed into place. The ribs are made of oak, and they're about a half inch thick. In order to curve them into the boat, they first have to be steamed for 30 minutes. Here's Kenneth pulling them out of the steam box:
The ribs cool off quickly once they're out of the box, so everyone has to be on hand to help bend and clamp.
The garboard (the first plank next to the keel) is a little more complicated to steam. We had to scarph together two planks to get one long enough for the boat, and the epoxy joint can't be steamed. So we steam one end of the plank, clamp it into place, and then pour boiling water on the other end and let it soak before bending it into place.
Each plank has a rabbet cut into it so that at the stem ends of the boat, two adjacent planks will be flush.
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