Staves Cut

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"?

After pairing up two pieces each to make my 16'9" mast

My band saw with the double fence

Here's another "extra hand" set up. You might also notice lying on the work bench are the cutoffs. I believe I may have just accidentally cut out my stem pieces! We'll see. 

Here are the staves cut to size and ready for scarfing. 

At some point I've got to do some housekeeping! LOL