Presto! It's a Boat!

 This is a time-lapse video.  The file size is large, 577 Mb, so blogger can't upload it directly, but I've managed to get it uploaded to YouTube.

 

This video shows the 'Stitching' part of the "Stitch-and-Glue" method of boat building.  Although this shows all the stitching, the pieces will require lots of alignment adjustments and tightening of the stitches, perhaps even some nails, before the hull is ready for the gluing process.

 

Toledo Wooden Boat Show

 Went to a boat show Saturday in Toledo Oregon. Not a huge festival, but a great small town atmosphere. Free parking, no admission charge. 

Toledo Wooden Boat Show

 A couple of steam powered fantail launches.

 I got a short 10-15 minute cruise on this one.

 This ol' gal was thrilled with her new toy, an cordless air horn. Super loud.

She was the owner of this micro tugboat (maybe 9 feet long).  Driven with a 4-1/2 horse outboard, custom rigged for remote steering.  Her son had the slightly larger mini tugboat behind it.

 There were a couple of antique sail boats which I think were locally owned. I sniggered at the sign which included the phrase "maintained by..."

 

There were 8 or 9 other boats at the dock and a dozen or so kayaks, canoes, and boats up in the parking lot area where they had a fair number of stalls (organizations and sellers of art and other things).

The kid's arts and crafts table where any kid could make their own boat. I loved that there were lots of cannons and such made from cartridges! A good ol' small town thing.

 Lunch was Fish and Chips from one of the food trucks. It was nice to know I was getting the real thing from a local supplier because their list included about six different types of cod and a couple of other fish. Ling Cod, Pacific Cod, Black Cod, and others I've already forgotten. I tried the Black Cod, very nice and good fries.

Here's the 'pirate boat' that they shoot at with potato gun "cannons".

 They also do a cardboard boat race, where contestants build using strictly cardboard and are limited to regular glues and standard paint. No epoxy, no water-proof coatings, limited places where tape can be used.  I didn't know when the race would take place and so left shortly before it happened.  It's sponsored by the big local industry in town, a Georgia-Pacific paper mill.

Preparing for the build out.

 With all the major pieces prepped, I've leaned them off to the side. Then the remaining plywood was stored on a frame at the end of the shed, emptying the table.

 The frames were brought up out of the basement workshop and placed in order against that plywood.

 The next step is to modify the table frame into a cradle to hold the hull as it gets built. More on that when it happens.

Stitches

 The build of this Redwing will utilize the 'Stitch and Glue' method of hull construction.  The traditional 'glue and screw' method involves constructing frames and then attaching each board, or piece of plywood, to the frames a single piece at a time.  With the stitch-and-glue method the bottom and sides of the hull are first created as large, complete pieces and put together into a hull in a single step. I'm within a couple of weeks of this dramatic step, when the pieces of plywood suddenly become a boat.

Here's some pictures of my stitch testing.  This test let me check the drill bit size and the hole spacing (about 1 inch from the joint). Even when the tie-wrap is tightened fully, the joint can still be moved (with considerable pushing) a good 1/4 inch in any direction. The tie-wraps are rated 50 lbs, so I plan on spacing them out quite a bit. Four ties on the frame-bottom joints, two on the frame-side joints, and s three on the bottom-side joint in-between each frame.

 

I've pre-drilled all the stitching holes with one exception. On the side to bottom joint I've drilled the sides, but not the bottom. With the bottom's curve it was too difficult to determine where to drill the corresponding holes, so I'll wait until the stitch assembly to do those.

 While the panels are still flat on a table, I sanded the epoxy in preparation of the next gluing.

Boat Storage progress

 Took a break from boat building to work on the garden shed / boat storage area.

As you recall from a previous post, this work included some concrete additions.

 This week saw the completion of the second concrete addition. This was the filling in the corner of the lawn area on the right side in the picture above.

I poured it in three phases, forming up the middle section first and sloping it slightly to run the rain towards the lawn area. Then pouring the top section sloping up to the existing sidewalk going to the porch door, then finally the lower section with the curved edge for the new corner of the lawn.

 To make it easier to run bikes or carts from the lawn onto the concrete, I filled the corner with new soil slanting up to the concrete's edge. It's been barely over a week and the new grass seed it sprouting well.

 This took a total of twenty 60-lbs bags of concrete. I mixed two bags at a time in a tub with a hoe. Since retirement I've found time to lift my dumbells again and even a few weeks of that helped me survive lifting and carrying the 60-lbs bags. No injuries were reported. When the lumber store asked me whether I wanted the 60-lbs or 80-lbs bags, I quickly said "60's, I'm too old for 80 pounders."

 

Inwales

 The last of the preliminary epoxy coatings have been completed on the plywood panels. After some sanding they're ready for the stitch-and-glue hull assembly.

The final detail to do was to notch the top corners of the frames to allow for the inwales. I haven't done this because I had no idea how big to cut them.  The plans call for a one inch by two inch piece of lumber, but anyone familiar with stock sold in any lumber store knows there's no such thing as a one inch by two inch.  What they call a two-by-four actually measures out as 1-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches, and a one-by-two which should be 3/4 inch by 1-1/2 inches truly measures out as something different.

I've now purchased the wood for the inwales and the actual measurement is 0.70 inches by 1.50 inches.  That's roughly 11/16ths of an inch not 3/4 and far from a true one inch. Though this is a far smaller piece of wood than a full 1" by 2" piece, it's function is not highly critical. It may help form the curve of the sides and sheer-line, but I think it's main function is merely a board to screw the sides, decking, and rubrails into.

 I bought two 16-foot lengths and one 8-foot length.  When scarfed together will give me the two 20 foot inwales to go at the top edge of each side. The wood is straight grain fir. It was a little spendy, but there will be a limited number of such boards on this build.