There is steady, albeit slow, progress in the workshop. Blog entries about cutting and dimensioning wood aren’t all that exciting. Yet, that’s most of the work in getting the boat built. Recent activity included dimensioning a very fine 13 foot long piece of Sitka spruce to 3/4 inch thickness, ripping of a couple of rubrail / gunwale strips at that thickness, dimensioning the remainder to 5/8 inch thickness and ripping strips for clamps and carlins, and then setting aside the remainder for carlin support knees. Lots of plane shavings on the shop floor!
That brings me to the clamps. No not the kind that pinch things together. This kind of clamp is a structural member in a boat. It is part of the boat’s framework, located at the top of the hull.The clamps for this boat are 5/8 inch by 1/2 inch and are fastened to the mid-frame, the bulkheads, and the stems.
Before attaching the clamps, the bulkhead edges were beveled so that the clamps, and later the planks, will wrap smoothly around the bulkheads. Then, the ends of the clamps are cut to land neatly on the stems. This step, done four times, takes careful measuring with the bevel gauge and some judicious estimation of how much material to remove. For once, I was satisfied to cut a bit long and then repeat the cut as needed to sneak up on the best fit. Fastening is epoxy and silicon bronze screws.
Yesterday, the workshop temperature was near 60, warm enough for epoxy. Today, the first day of Spring, brought snow, freezing temps and a cooler shop. So, permanent attachment will wait for warmer weather.
Next, a lot of thickness dimensioning of all those resawed boards for planking. That’s lots of planing, plane shavings, and very few blog entries.
As always, click on the image for a larger view.
