After a week of really bad weather, the weekend turned out to be beautiful. So I loaded up the power tools from the shed and took them home so I could use the router. Cut the cross member to the wheel house frame and made a little ‘inverse’ curve jig to do so. I was really proud of the jig, I pondered for a while about it and then thougt,… Hell, I’ll just tack a of strip of thin plywood to it and route against it. Worked great and the cross member came out perfect.
Got the framed glue up, but had to make a few trips to West Marine to do so. First, I needed some mirco bubbles/fibers, and then the pump for my West System harder wasn’t working. Didn’t feel like guessing the mixture, so back up to West Marine I went. Amy was a big help setting up the gluing jig and it was the first time I had used a thickening agent. Probably could have thickened the epoxy some more, but it worked well enough and I guess that is what really matters. Amy also taped the inside edges of all the joints so that the epoxy would not ooze all over joint when I went to wipe the excess. Don’t know where that idea came from, but it sure made for a cleaner joint.
Didn’t know how I was going to cut the aft part of the wheel house frame so I called up Elliot and put his bandsaw to use. Been years since I had used one and had forgotten how often I (and Rob) used it on the last boat I built. Anyway, Elliot and I successfully cut the part and Elliot hand cut the joints with his pricy array of saws. I now have saw envy. Thanks Elliot.
Last week I had roughly cut the curves with the jig saw and this weekend, Amy and I went back and routed over them with the template. Made some of the best curves I’ve done yet. Then we worked on the forward frame and I cut the joints (pretty well even) with my 15 dollar Stanley saw. Elliot had a nice little skill saw jig that I’ll make to help me with my final forward frame cut, and then it may be onto glueing.
YachtSmiths called this week and said that the fireproofing paint was put on over the insulation. I’m very eager to see what it looks like. Probably going to head up to Halifax in March.
Went to Hops and started to cut the mahogony for the helm steering gearbox frames. Got the side frames cut and shaped nicely. Made a template for the curve of the cross pieces and got them cut down to the correct width. My best template so far. Made the rough curve cut with the jig saw and template on the front and middle members, but forgot my router so I had to stop a little early. Will need some advice and help to get the back end cross member cut, it has a curve at a 65 degree angle I am not sure how to cut.
Bought 14ft of mahogony for the helm station hatch/cover frame, but was not able to get it cut down, Amy and I had to put our ‘little’ boat in the water on Sunday after getting its bottom painted. But the goal for next week is to cut the frame pieces over at Hop’s.
Did go to Elliot’s to work on the binnacle. I had bought a doweling kit to put the cup/binnoc holder on the back of the binnacle, but Elliot had a biscuit cutter that was much better suited to the task. However, I marked for the biscuits on the wrong side of the binnacle and we therefore cut it on the front. My bad. I was so used to working from the front of the binnacle and was not thinking. However, I turned the top around and it was no big deal. Will need to get another little piece planed so I can finally put the rack together. It is taking so long because I just don’t have all the tools in one place. Errr. Elliot, need your planer again!
