Of course, I was eager to check on the mast this morning. I took off the clamps and had a look. I think it's going to be ok.
It's finally done! The mast is glued up!! Now all we have to do is wait and see how it turns out.
I've been nervous all day today, as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I knew tonight I would be gluing up the mast and I knew a lot was riding on it. I've spent a lot of hours on this thing and I just hope it turns out ok.
It was a messy ordeal. I gooped her up good. A lot of squeeze out.
In the morning I'm going to take off the hose clamps and put my belt sander to it before the epoxy cures beyond easy sanding. I might try to get that bench plane going before the sander; or maybe that power planer - yea, that might be the trick.
I'm guessing I'll have a few gaps that will need filling. My first birdsmouth mast did. I never had trouble with it but then again, I didn't push it hard. Don't plan to push this one hard either but it's 70% longer than the first.
Fingers crossed.
Made final prep tonight for the glue up. Made the last plug which will go in the top of the mast and made some minor adjustments on the mast molds. I had used the chalk line (chalk long gone) earlier. It came to me in the night hours to put the line down the middle of the mast in 2 quadrants. Stretching the line along the top, it was fairly straight side to side because I had done that. When I put it down the side of the mast, it looked a little low in the middle, so I raised a couple molds. It will have to do.
I also added some OSB to the strong back to make it more usable as a work table. I'll actually use it to coat the staves on 3 sides with epoxy and then to slather thickened epoxy on them just before assembly. Hopefully Monday night.
It's unbelievable how long everything takes. Doubting seriously that I can do this build in 500 hours. (I just passed the 50 hour mark.)
I spent another 1 and 1/2 hours on the mast today; this time making the mast partner and end plugs. I had already glued up two pieces of 2x4 and made the first cut last night (which turned out to be difficult - maybe my saw blade is dull).
I made 2 or 3 cuts today with the table saw (which was actually double that because to cut through 3" I had to cut from top and bottom). Then I moved to the bandsaw to make the rest of the cuts. Since the mast is not completely symmetrical, the plugs will not be. (getting tired of hearing it ain't gonna be perfect?). After a long while I got it to where I think it will work. I'll be gooping it up bigtime when I glue up the mast. Of course, this may affect the size/shape of the mast step. Will cross that bridge when I get to it.
Cutting the deep "V's" was the easiest part. This will allow the mast to have a "soft spot" as it bends with the wind.
Well, didn't get the mast glued up. Got home late from church and went out to dinner. Then I came home and cut the backyard.
I did get in 2 hours on the mast. I decided it was worth the effort to dry-fit the mast again with the molds and do my best to align everything. With the variation in my staves (don't ask me how they come out differently cause I don't know) my diameters are not going to be exact, so Clint's method of alignment is probably not going to work. I used a string and then just "eye-balled" it. I'll look at it again with fresh eyes before I take it down to glue-up.
It ain't gonna be perfect. Keep saying that but it's true and I have to live with it. Question is can I be satisfied? You want a straight stick! We'll see.
Hopefully get her done is a few days.
Hopefully I'll get the mast glued up tonight. I cut out four more molds this morning and started work on the mast partner plug, which means I cut a 2x4 into 2 lengths 31" long, ripped the "dado", and glued the 2 pieces together. That glue will set up today and this evening I'll shape the plug.
This is big. A lot of work has gone into this mast. Keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out decent.
Went to the shop this morning. Just had to try and get that mast dry-fitted.
I needed a mold and a plug. Last night I glued 2 small pieces of 2x4 together with Elmer's Wood Glue so that I'd have something to cut a plug with. Just did a rough cut.
Then I changed the blade on the bandsaw to a 1/8" blade. Pretty simple. I cut a rough cut mold. Then I went to putting it together. I used zip ties to hold it together and then tried the hose clamps to see which sizes fit best.
It's not perfect (did we know this? Perfect is not in my woodworking vocabulary), but I think it will be fine. Looks like it will be a little out of round but planing and sanding will take care of most of that. I just want to be careful not to take too much off.
I'm still working on the mast! I thought tonight I might get it glued up. Didn't happen.
This morning I spent an hour and a half chiseling out two of the staves that were left with a ridge in the birdsmouth after cutting. Tonight Robin and I finished cutting the birdsmouths; we missed one cut the last session and I had to cut the one for the new stave. Then we cut the taper in them, so they are ready to go.
I started to make a temporary mold so that I could dry-fit the staves but my bandsaw 1/2" blade will not cut a tight enough radius. I'll either need a coping saw or will need to put a narrower blade on the bandsaw. Then I'll need to make plugs for the mast. I will probably make a couple temporary plugs so that I can get a good measurement on a permanent one. I know that the dimensions in the plans will need adjusting, not because they are not right, but because my milling "skills" leave a lot to be desired!
It is tricky putting the staves together. That's why the need for molds and plugs.
Cutting the birdsmouths was a real trip. Mind you, they are 17' long. I needed 4 sets of hands. Robin and I provided 2 sets and I had to rig the others. Note stool, boxes, pails, etc!
Though things are moving slowly, I have confidence that my mast will turn out satisfactorily.
I spent 5 hours yesterday and 2 hours this morning (yes - 7 hours!) on the mast staves. Now mind you, they were already cut. My plan was to cut the birdsmouth notch in them and coat the inside face of each stave with epoxy. That would get them ready for glue-up.
The first thing I did was mark the taper. After cutting the birdsmouths, I will be ready to run them through the band saw to get them tapered for glue-up.
Time to haul them up to the front where my table saw is.
Well, a 17' stave is flimsy and running them through a saw to do a cut that requires some precision is no easy task for one man. I asked my wife to help, but she was unable until the afternoon. Eager as I was, I didn't wait. I rigged boxes, stools, pails, etc to act as 2 extra sets of hands and set about cutting my first birdsmouth.
I totally mutilated the first stave! TOTALLY!!!! Ruined!
Decided I needed to wait until she could help.
In the afternoon when she was available, we went at it again. All went pretty well. I got all seven of the remaining staves cut. One was "iffy" and looked more like a "modified" birdsmouth, but the other 6 looked pretty good. I'll make them work.
I don't know how I manage to do it, but being as precise as I can be, I still wind up with variations in my cuts. All in all, when I'm finished, I don't think the average person will know any difference.
But that still left the 8th stave. I had a nice piece of the DF left over that I bought from the bowling alley guy. This was the 12' piece. One third of the piece looked pretty close to clear. Certainly I can get 2 strips out of it and make another stave.
I went about ripping it. This time with my skill saw. I clamped a 12'x1"x4" board to the DF to act as a fence and went about it. First strip was a disaster. That saw was working awfully hard. Binding etc! Why won't that saw cut straight?! The second was not much better but I cut it a little extra thick so that I could trim it on the band saw. The cut was still very tough. I decided to do another without the fence. I marked a line and cut it freehand. The cut went much better.
Took my two good strips down to the workshop and ran them through the band saw to fine tune the widths.
One was totally clear up to 11'. The other had one small knot in it. I measured and, of course, only needed 17'. I had 24' with the two strips. So I was able to cut one foot off the first strip and the second strip at about the 7' mark and avoid the knot altogether.
Then I made the cuts for the scarf. When I went to dry fit the two pieces, one was a full 16th of an inch wider than the other. How does that happen??????
Fortunately, that was enough for me to run it through the band saw again. Now the dry fit is better though still not perfect. It will work though. Epoxy is a boat builder's best friend!
Ran out of time. I will glue the scarf tonight and be ready to cut the birdsmouth in it probably tomorrow.
Whew! Hours and hours!! But it's still progress.
I've put in a little over 20 hours this week on the boat project. Even though I was on vacation, I didn't start until Monday afternoon. Wednesday I had interruptions and had to preach at church. Thursday Robin came home early and I spent most of the day with her. And now Friday I'm knocking off early to spend the evening with her. Saturday - Monday we'll spend together and even take a short overnight trip.
But I have gotten a visible start! Today I finished the strongback!! Quite the little project. Obviously a lot more work than would have been involved with a kit, but this is the route I've chosen. Here is the finished project.
I ripped a 2x4 to give it more strength and rigidity and used short blocks to join the corners. Both ends are cut at an angle. I used the carpenters square to get the angle and a parallel ruler to transfer a line for a guide so that I'd get a good cut.
I continued work on the mast staves today. I wanted to sand the scarfs before the epoxy got too hard. Sanded up pretty well. They weren't as neat as I had hoped but I guess they'll have to do. The thickened epoxy was a little coarse with that fine saw dust in it. Guess it's not "wood flour" like you can buy. The wooden pins I inserted into the staves worked out nice. For some reason though, one of the them was a bit crooked? Not sure why. I feel like it's flexible enough that it will still work fine.
I still need to cut the birdsmouth in each stave and glue up the hollow mast. Lots of work left to do on the main mast. (And then there are the other spars)
I also bolted the rails of the strongback together. I tried to cut them as straight as I could and assemble them the same. One turned out a bit off so I redid it. Good ol' Kidd way: why do it once when you can do it twice. I also had to go back to Lowes and buy more bolts. When I was figuring the length needed, I forgot that there would be two thicknesses of the OSB. Oh, well.....
The rest of my time today went to cleaning up and unloading the bundle of plywood I picked up Monday. It arrived from Tarpon Springs, FL. I purchased it from Bedard Yachts. BF was very helpful in securing a good shipping quote for me. Delivery to the terminal saved me a good bit of money and it was very convenient, right behind Costco.
With another day off, I got in about 6 hours of work today not counting cleaning shop and shopping.
The big accomplishment of the day was getting the staves glued up. I managed to do all 8 staves with only 9 scarfs. Without getting a 17' piece of lumber, I was going to have to do 8 anyway. Only one extra.
It took me an hour to make the jig. Then the cutting went pretty easily after I was careful to make sure all of my pieces would make a 17' stave. I also noted if either side of the stave should be inside the mast or out. A few had a "better" side so I marked those.
Here is one scarf joint. I made them about 10:1.
After they were all cut, I had to do some housekeeping. I had let the "shop" go since starting. Here's a bit of the mess with before and after pics.
I checked the fit on each scarf and then I clamped the joint and drilled a 1/8" inch hole on both sided of the clamp. I had bought a piece of 1/8" dowel and I cut it into 18 3/4" inch pieces to use as pins to lock the joint and keep it from slipping. Not sure what others use but I didn't want a problem and that seemed like a workable solution. I'll have little pairs of dots where the scarfs are, but I doubt it will be noticeable except on close inspection. I carefully lined them up on the bench as each one was checked and drilled. After that I glued them up. I brushed on a quick coat of straight epoxy on each member and them brushed on thickened epoxy where I used the finest sawdust from the Douglas Fir that I had from all the cutting. I strained it through a kitchen wire mesh strainer. I had done that with my other builds.
After supper I started on the strongback. Didn't get very far because I needed some things to assemble it. Here is a picture of the OSB board with a straight plank clamped on for a guide. I got four 8" wide lengths cut and two 7 and 3/4" lengths cut for joiners. The strongback will be nearly 16' feet long.
I am taking a week off while Robin is in Indianapolis. I can't work 7 days on the build but I should be able to get in 4, maybe 5 days. I'll have to go and get Robin Saturday and return probably Sunday afternoon.
Got a good jump today. After my doctor's appointment to get stitches out of my two wounds from skin cancer surgery (and getting another two spots attended to: one burned and the other frozen), I went over to the YRC terminal, which is over near Costco, and picked up my 9 sheets of plywood. Now I have just about everything I'll need to build this boat.
I got back to the house around 4:30 and decided it was time to start on the main mast. (I'll get back to the oars soon). I bought a new saw blade for my table saw, a 60T blade for fine finishes. I figured that would be good to cut the birdsmouth notches in the staves. I installed it and set about cutting the staves.
I had to do a little rigging to handle those 2x10 boards I picked up last week. It turned out they were just a bit twisted and I had trouble with the saw binding some. Hope it didn't ruin the new blade. Maybe should have left my old blade in until I was ready to cut the birdsmouths. I cut the 14' and 10' boards into strips about an inch wide. The saw was vibrating so much that it knocked the fence out of adjustment and some of the staves came out too wide. No harm though since I was planning on a final cut on the band saw anyway.
To my surprise, I think I'm going to be able to get my 8 staves with having to put only one scarf in each one. One may need two. A couple of them will have a very few small knots but I think they'll be negligible. After pairing up the pieces I went downstairs and did the fine cutting. I trimmed them down to 3/4" inch wide and 1 and 3/8" thick. A couple of them "wandered" away from the fence and will be a little small, but they'll have to do. The staves are going to need tapering anyway, so maybe that will work out ok. I wound up putting a "double fence" up. Someone commented that was dangerous, but I fail to see the problem. It helped keep the staves against the main fence and thus the proper size. The proper solution is a featherboard.
I plan to scarf them in the morning.
Here are a few pics of tonight's labors.
After cutting the two boards. Can you see my step stool which acted as my "extra hands"?
For the last several days I've been trying to prepare for my upcoming week of vacation during which time I plan to get a jump start on the boat. I have accumulated almost everything I need for the build except the "small stuff". Tomorrow or Monday I should be picking up my plywood from the freight company.
I've also been trying to calculate the lumber I'll need for the spars. I had resigned myself to using box store lumber, either a combination of "select" or "premium" pine and "whitewood" or "common board", or one or the other. The first two are clear. The second two are not. I was leaning toward the second group due to the cost factor.
Well, yesterday I received a reply to an inquiry I had made a couple weeks ago on Market Place regarding some douglas fir. To make the long story short, I drove to just above Rockwood, TN today (about 180 miles round trip) and bought 36' of 2x10 which had been part of a bowling alley. Cost: $54. It's old wood which is pretty tight grained. The catch is that it has knots in it.
Of course, douglas fir or sitka spruce are the preferred wood for spars, neither of which are readily available around these parts and certainly not at that price. But in buying it, I have just created a lot of extra work for myself. I'll want to splice out the knots so that means a lot of scarffing! I'll have to devise a system for making good scarffs in my staves and laminates.
I believe I can do it. My key concern will be slippage during glue-up. I've come up with the idea of using small wooden dowels to lock the two pieces together. I'm excited to try it.
The longest pieces available were only 16' so I was going to have to do some scarffing anyway. This will just mean more. I bought a 2x10x14" footer which looked a bit better than any of the 16's he had. I guess we'll see how it all turns out.
