Planking takes time - a good bit of it too. Today is a pretty day with colder weather coming Saturday, so I took the morning to cut out another plank, first of the #3 planks. You'd think I'd be getting a little faster at this, but it took me 3 hours 45 minutes to spile and cut the plank.
Where does the time go? Setting up the spiling batten, plotting points, had to plane the stem a bit, uncovering the planking table, bringing the ply from the garage to the back, transferring points to the ply, measuring for the batten, tacking the batten down, etc. Today it took a bit of extra time to set up the cutting batten for the second cut. The reason? Using the 3.5" Porter Cable saw requires that I cut on the outside curve of the batten. The batten has to be placed 2.25" off the line to allow for the width of the base of the saw. There's not enough ply for that so I had to "add" to the one side with 2x's and scrap ply. That, along with everything else, takes time.
I was a little concerned about the plywood as well. This is the first plank cut from a piece that has already had a plank cut out of it, the garboards. When I cut them, I was not too careful about where the plank started in relation to the end of the plywood. Turns out I had plenty of room for the second plank (sigh).
I did goof on the second cut. The saw wants to go in a straight line but you are following a gentle curve along the batten. I let the saw wander just a little bit. Had to back it up. Oops! I think a little epoxy will fill it. LOL.
I did make an adjustment to the cutting batten also. Someone said that a fair line beats any measurements. After tacking down the batten on the first cut, it just didn't look quite fair; so I adjusted it. After cutting out the plank and a quick trial fit, it looks ok. Pic to follow.
Again, the plank is not perfect. I'll look at it a little more before actually gluing it down, but I think it will be fine.
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