After You

Didn't take pictures but I got a bit of work done on the boat last night. Placed the initial bulkhead supports in between the cabin and cockpit. Cut, framed, and built a cover for the forward deck hatch. Came up with a (hopefully) simple, clean, useful solution for the table/bunk support in the cabin. Measured and planned front window framing, decided on a non-removable window and rounded ends. I can square them up later if I decide that's too much hassle but I really like the look.

As with any boat project, this will no doubt take longer than I suspected. I'm still hoping to be able to make it to the mess-about in June, but I'm prepared for it to be an incomplete build if I do. By incomplete I mean not necessarily having all the accessories/shiny bits. Some things are required, like a sound hull. :)

And I'm still trying to decide at which point I stop messing around and flip it to begin the glassing and epoxy process on the hull.

Latest Craftiness

A collection of pictures of my latest craftiness. Most of these are from the last two months. Some are a bit older and I'm finally able to document them. And yes, the lighting is a bit moody, but it looked really good at the time. Next time going for better, brighter light.

Visual Confusion

So I built a Telestereoscope once, and it kinda worked, but has always been a disappointment to me.

I've since read about pseudoscopes, and have decided I want to build one of those, as well. Funny thing about pseudoscopes is that they were invented by Charles Wheatstone, a concertina pioneer. Odd, how things come full circle sometimes.

Anyway, I pulled out the old Telestereoscope to goof around with it and somehow managed to calibrate it perfectly for a few minutes. WOW! I had an inkling of how cool it could be, but really managed to get it working quite well. I'm still going to rebuild it with an enclosed and easily adjustable system, but the one I started with can really do the job! It enhanced depth perception and makes the normal, everyday 3d world seem more.. 3d? Very cool indeed.

So the next step is to come up with a standard box for these optical jigs and start building!

Daddy's little girl

Lily is working on her first scrollsaw project - heavily supervised, of course. She came to me one day saying she wanted to scroll something. Nothing in particular. Just something. A girl after my own heart.

Scrollsaw portrait - Rodin's "The Thinker"

Kleenex crossbow

From one of my new woodworking books, this is the first of many fun little gizmos and gadgets I will be making. And it fires quite well!

Painted lady

Got a coat of primer on the Tweedle Dum, got the oars to the point of needing a little more glass and they'll be all caught up.

Lily even helped with the painting!

Tweedle Dum

Tonight I finished the last of the epoxy and fiberglass on the boat*. Tomorrow I'll start the final sanding and then painting. Got some paint at Home Depot. Pretty sure I've shored up, epoxied, and glassed more than I need to on "it's just a rowboat" and I am really confident the Tweedle Dee will take about a third of the time to do now that I know what I'm doing.

Jill and the kids are visiting relatives tonight, so I enjoyed some late boat work and the rain. I've done my obsessive reading about boats and boat building, and when I'm not working on it I'm thinking about working on it, or the next one, or the next next one. But when I'm in the garage working on it time stands still and the only thing I'm thinking about it wood, water, epoxy, and sandpaper. It's nice to have a meditation like that.

* The oars still need some epoxy and glassing, but since I'm clamping one of them with every clamp I've got right now, it'll take a few more days to finish up the second one.

.. progress ..

It's always a good thing to make some progress.

• Finished filleting the inside seams
• Taped inside seams
• Began work on supports, finished mid-ship support and fore-side supports
• Rough cut all support pieces
• Removed braces, boat didn't snap in half or anything traumatic, yay!

Got some more hardware, clamps, drill bits, etc. That was exciting, as always. :) And I'm not counting it on the boat total. In fact, I'm not counting the prices or hours of the boat. I've learned that it's all about the process, all about the craft, and all about the journey.

I'm also so much more embedded in the idea of a chugger. Oh, and did I mention the Tweedle-Dee won't likely nest in the 'Dum? Those added supports and all. But that's ok. The intention of the two was that "there is another one somewhere", just like in the movie.

New Mantra: "It's just a rowboat" - replaced "that's for the shop, it's not included in the cost of the boat"

FLIPPED!

Sanded the rest of the bottom and flipped* her. Got another gunwale on and the inner and outer gunwales on the transom. Also got a whole side of the inner seam filleted and glassed. I know already that I'll have to go back over it and do the epoxy thing on the stitchpoints a bit, but otherwise it looks good. Used a little different tape as well as a new mantra ("It's only a rowboat") and the fiberglassing job looks better already.

Jill's dad is coming to town this weekend and I'm rushing to get as much done as possible in an effort to get her painted before he can see my shoddy glassing and sanding job. :) Actually I want to get the grunt work done so I can work on some of the detail stuff and show off with the scrollsaw.

I should get to work on those oars, too.

* When building a larger boat the transition from working on the hull (upside down boat) to working on the righted portion seems to be a big deal. And rightfully so. Often it's been a long, long time and a lot of hard work to finish the bottom of the boat. It's also one of those times when you have to call all your friends and get them to help you turn it over. So when you finally get it flipped not only have you worked really hard, but it's time for the fun building stuff to start.

It's a glass, glass, glass

Tweedle Dum

Day two of the build and I'm ready for fiberglassing.  Spent too much money at West Marine but I got the West System for glass and epoxy.  Mantra of my shopping at West and Home Depot was "this is for the workshop, not the boat" so my cost is still low. :)

Went with zipties instead of screws and I really like it so far.  Looks even better than the model!  Tubbier, but "smarter" somehow.

Just call me Jethro Gibbs.  :)

The Tweedle-Dum

Tonight I went to Menards -- and then Home Depot -- and picked up the first materials for my boat. It's a variant on the stitch and glue style of a simple dinghy. A portuguese dinghy, actually.

Backing up..

I couple years ago I stumbled across a web site of a guy from Finland. He makes boats. For fun. He makes charts, analyzes displacement, spends hours and days and weeks thinking about boats. Little boats. And he has all sorts of plans for them online. One of them struck me as particularly beautiful. The portuguese dinghy. So I decided I needed to make one. (Soon after someone got featured on Instructables.com for building the very same boats -- although I'm not grooving on his paint job)

Side note..

Another idea I had revolves around walking across Lake Calhoun or Harriet. In the winter, of course. But every year I keep forgetting or postponing and never get around to doing it. (We did cross Bear Lake this year though, which was cool!)

But to convey myself across a lake in a boat of my own making? How cool is that? It both fulfills the "cross a whole lake" and involves buying things, noodling with tools, and dealing with dead trees. Perfect fit.

Ok, so for years (literally) co-workers and family and friends alike all got sick of hearing "this summer I'm going to build my boat" or "this winter would be a good time to do it and this time I totally will!" I asked for quarter inch marine-grade plywood for Christmas and my birthday. I hit Hannu's site so many times I'm probably a quarter of his traffic. For the longest time I held out for the $80 a sheet marine grade plywood, but talking to a friend on the TNR and reading up a bit more I decided screwing up a $15 sheet of plywood is better than screwing up an $80 sheet. Cost for two sheets and some screws and more titebond-3 and fiberglass fabric? $60. Woot!

Happily, tonight I'm on my way.

I'm naming it the "Tweedle-Dum" and the next one (oh yeah!) is the same style, shorter dimensions -- it's on the same plan as the 'dum, and it'll be the "Tweedle-Dee." Bonus points if you know where I got those names. No, it's not from Alice in Wonderland.

And then I'd love to build an Escargot. Or a teardrop camper for our trailer. Or maybe a little house for Lake George. Oh the places I'll go.. Or dream about. After I propel myself across a lake I want to sleep in a structure of my own making. Yeah, I'm odd.

Moon Necklace Holder

Jill wanted something to hang her necklaces on.  She thought maybe a chunk of wood with hooks on it.  I saw the whole of the moon.. 

Woodworking

Grandpa was wonderfully generous on Easter and as a result, there is an awesome, super fantastic scroll saw in my workshop! It's far more flexible and configurable than my previous scroll saw, allowing for some more complicated projects.  So I've been going a little crazy with it.. This is all stuff I've done in the last week:

I started with a quick couple of minutes whipping up this rocking chair for Lily's Barbie.

My nephew is having his first communion next week, so I made him a nice "Victorian Style Cross":

And for the niece and nephews, some puzzle boxes, one for each. Displayed in various stages of assembly:

I got a new book on Composite, 3d scroll patterns. This is a cut of a flower:

And a penguin, another composite:

A little bunnny! (more composites):

The latest progress on my wooden chain:

A drill/dremel bit holder:

And finally, a rack for all of my paints - sick of keeping them in a box and not being able to tell which bottle is which: