Tea Count: 0
Injuries: 0
Stickiness Factor: 5/10
Time spent: 1 hour
I just can't bring myself to count this as day seven yet. Just one hour after work and before tea tonight I got the second bulkhead framework glued together ready for sanding and routing at the weekend. You'll have noticed the new "Stickiness Factor" register above I hope. I thought it only appropriate to record this as it's fast becoming one of the major factors and difficulties of the build. That epoxy has to be the stickiest stuff known to man. Once it gets on your fingers, you're stuffed. It gets on everything you ttouccch annd itt taakess hhourss tooo geett ittt offf...LOLLL. For those who are still concerned about my pliers by the way, I'm afraid they are doomed never to pli again.
So, first the bad news. Bulkhead number one, which as you remember I screwed into place last time out, has now developed a warp. Unfortunately that does not mean that my canoe will capable of near light speed (pause while the non trekkies google warp speed). Instead it means that the bulkhead has twisted in shape slightly vastly increasing the likelihood of said canoe taking on water and sinking like a rock. Whilst the warp is only slight, and I suspected this might happen once the epoxy had cured properly, it does reduce dramatically the chances of the two bulkheads meeting sufficiently to be water tight. I'm clinging on to the slim hope that once the joining bolts are in place I can screw them together tightly enough to bring the bulkheads into line! Watch this space.
So now for the good news. With ever increasing likelihood of a sinking to watch I have decided on a launch date of March 17th for those interested enough to come along. I can hear a bunch of people complaining already as I had mentioned the 18th. Sorry folks it has to be the 17th. This is one day before my 45th birthday and sounds like a totally suitable day on which to drown. The reason for change folks is...drum roll please Pete...PARTY!!!!
So fingers crossed it'll be ready for the big launch and I'm already looking forward to a weekend of sanding...
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Day 6 and a quarter – Routers not routers
Tea Count: 3
Injuries: 0
Time Spent: 2 hours yesterday, 5 today
The quarter was actually yesterday (Saturday) but as I only worked on her for a couple of hours and all I did was to build the second bulkhead it really didn't seem worth posting any updates, plus time was in very short supply yesterday. Posting any images of my progress would have been much like Reading's match with Hull yesterday...pointless! I might as well have used the images from the first bulkhead.
So as I said, time was short yesterday as I had driving duties to get four cadets up to Benson to go flying. With the weather against us we were late getting back and by time I had refuelled with toasted cheese and tuna melts, it was gone three before I got started. With dinner planned for eight fifteen with Sarah and Graham and the inevitable two hour “I've got nothing to wear” débâcles from Z, there was little time left for boat building. Worse still, I then found out that the restaurant we were actually going to was three miles further away than the one I thought we were going to. This of course meant leaving five and half minutes earlier than anticipated. Will this boat ever get finished?
Today however, you will be mightily relieved to hear was a different story. Sure, it was a late start, to follow the late night and a Sunday morning lay in was well needed, but I still managed to get in a good five hours. Bulkhead number one is now complete and screwed, (but not glued) into place! Bulkhead number two has all it's framework cut and is ready to be glued up when I can next face mixing epoxy resin. Since my last episode of epoxy mixing went badly wrong I'm eager to avoid the whole matter of epoxy mixing. Whilst mixing said epoxy I dropped my stirrer into the mix. The sensible thing to do would of course be to simply carry on a with a new mixer, after all I do have a bag full of them. But no, seemingly without any conscious thought process I went straight for the pliers to retrieve the mixing stick. It worked well, the stick was recovered, but now the pliers were proper sticky and the stick was now on the workbench together with a bunch of resin. Reaching for a cloth I instinctively new this wasn't going to end well but I couldn't stop myself. Sure enough within a few seconds I had managed smear the sticky stuff over most of the bench, all of my hands and now I had a very sticky cloth to boot and the recovered stick was now in the bin. Pointless exercise. I gave up!
I spent a little time this morning prizing the pliers off the bench but I doubt I'll ever get them unstuck enough to use them for their originally designed purpose. I'll keep them though as they do make a good emergency hammer.
My other achievement today was to use my faithful router (that's rowter not rooter for all the techno heads out there) to round off the bulkhead frame and cut the slots in the frame. This process was not without some foul language due to a router (that's rowter) bit breaking mid way though a pass, hence one rather wiggly slot. I have decided that this now adds character to the build and will remain forever wiggly. Zeen was mightily impressed with my progress today even ventured out into the cold to examine the bulkhead in place. She delicately ran her hand across the wood and exclaimed “oooh smooth” whilst smiling in my direction, scary huh! I smiled back hiding my concern slash fear and asked her to take some pictures!
I'm hoping things can move on a pace now that the bulkheads are all but complete and next week end should see me taping the inside fillets of at least one half of the boat.
Dinner last night, by the way was awesome. Great food, great company good catch up albeit that for most of the evening we were the only four in the restaurant and in keeping with the boat theme we sat overlooking the Thames!
Injuries: 0
Time Spent: 2 hours yesterday, 5 today
The quarter was actually yesterday (Saturday) but as I only worked on her for a couple of hours and all I did was to build the second bulkhead it really didn't seem worth posting any updates, plus time was in very short supply yesterday. Posting any images of my progress would have been much like Reading's match with Hull yesterday...pointless! I might as well have used the images from the first bulkhead.
So as I said, time was short yesterday as I had driving duties to get four cadets up to Benson to go flying. With the weather against us we were late getting back and by time I had refuelled with toasted cheese and tuna melts, it was gone three before I got started. With dinner planned for eight fifteen with Sarah and Graham and the inevitable two hour “I've got nothing to wear” débâcles from Z, there was little time left for boat building. Worse still, I then found out that the restaurant we were actually going to was three miles further away than the one I thought we were going to. This of course meant leaving five and half minutes earlier than anticipated. Will this boat ever get finished?
Today however, you will be mightily relieved to hear was a different story. Sure, it was a late start, to follow the late night and a Sunday morning lay in was well needed, but I still managed to get in a good five hours. Bulkhead number one is now complete and screwed, (but not glued) into place! Bulkhead number two has all it's framework cut and is ready to be glued up when I can next face mixing epoxy resin. Since my last episode of epoxy mixing went badly wrong I'm eager to avoid the whole matter of epoxy mixing. Whilst mixing said epoxy I dropped my stirrer into the mix. The sensible thing to do would of course be to simply carry on a with a new mixer, after all I do have a bag full of them. But no, seemingly without any conscious thought process I went straight for the pliers to retrieve the mixing stick. It worked well, the stick was recovered, but now the pliers were proper sticky and the stick was now on the workbench together with a bunch of resin. Reaching for a cloth I instinctively new this wasn't going to end well but I couldn't stop myself. Sure enough within a few seconds I had managed smear the sticky stuff over most of the bench, all of my hands and now I had a very sticky cloth to boot and the recovered stick was now in the bin. Pointless exercise. I gave up!
I spent a little time this morning prizing the pliers off the bench but I doubt I'll ever get them unstuck enough to use them for their originally designed purpose. I'll keep them though as they do make a good emergency hammer.
My other achievement today was to use my faithful router (that's rowter not rooter for all the techno heads out there) to round off the bulkhead frame and cut the slots in the frame. This process was not without some foul language due to a router (that's rowter) bit breaking mid way though a pass, hence one rather wiggly slot. I have decided that this now adds character to the build and will remain forever wiggly. Zeen was mightily impressed with my progress today even ventured out into the cold to examine the bulkhead in place. She delicately ran her hand across the wood and exclaimed “oooh smooth” whilst smiling in my direction, scary huh! I smiled back hiding my concern slash fear and asked her to take some pictures!
I'm hoping things can move on a pace now that the bulkheads are all but complete and next week end should see me taping the inside fillets of at least one half of the boat.
Dinner last night, by the way was awesome. Great food, great company good catch up albeit that for most of the evening we were the only four in the restaurant and in keeping with the boat theme we sat overlooking the Thames!
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Day 5 The Princess lives...
Day 5
Tea Count 1
Injuries 0 (very surprising given the power tools involved)
Time Spent 4 Hours
Well well well, after an enforced break of nearly two weeks I'm back on boat building duties. A particularly nasty bout of man flu lasted much longer than necessary and meant that sanding and sawing wood was not possible or advisable. Thanks go out to all my Facebook friends who were overwhelmingly sympathetic and the kindness of their MUP comments has not gone unnoticed!
So, more wood arrived last week, or more to the point I collected more wood from the timber merchants. American Ash was my chosen breed for the centre bullhead supports and who'd of thought you could measure wood in so many ways.
ME: "How long's that bit mate?"
WOOD YARD CHAPPY: "3 metres pal." We've only know each other a minute and a half and it's like we're blood brothers already!
ME: "And how wide?"
WYC: "six inches"
ME: "eh? you just said it was 3m long..."
WYC: "Well it is...and six inches wide!"
ME: "Err... ok" Now my head was spinning. Working in imperial and metric at the same time was going to challenge my estimating skills to their limit. I stared vacantly at the equivalent of my fag packet design sketch but nothing came to mind.
ME: "OK now I need to fathom out what depth I need." Now I thought it was quite clever to throw in yet another unit of measurement but no, not even a flicker of recognition of my intellectual quip! Never mind! I paid for my wood and left!
Once home all I had to do was turn my 3 metre by 6 inches by 0.0820 fathom plank of America Ash into several metres of 50mmx25mm to support my bulkheads. This meant power tool time. Table saw and cross cut saw to the ready. Now, a previous encounter with the table saw had left my garage with blood splattered ceiling and the disappearance of the end of my finger. I was keen to avoid a repeat performance and considered putting some plastic on the ceiling in anticipation, but that would surely be tempting fate. It'll be fine!
I was however going to be more responsible with regard to dust. Having given up smoking several years ago I now place greater value on my lungs and so am more particular about what goes into them. I donned my funky new breathing apparatus and safety goggles (my eyes are important too!) and looking just a little bit scary I got started.
Squaring up rough cut wood is not an easy task but with lots of careful measurements and setting of guides, I soon had a large collection firewood... and some nice square bulkhead supports. Now for the tricky bit. Each end of these supports needed to be cut at a different angle to follow the line of the bulkhead. Not easy but I was up to the task and carefully cut each piece to match the previous.
Voila, almost perfect and within ten minutes I had all the pieces glued up with epoxy and stuck onto the bulkhead. I say "all"... my cutting list got very confusing. True to form based on a lifetime of mismeasuring and bad estimating, I was three pieces short. No matter, that will give something to do next time. So the first bulkhead is sticky, soon to be set solid, next time I'll be gluing up the second and hopefully making it match the first.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading! Still only two followers:-(
Tea Count 1
Injuries 0 (very surprising given the power tools involved)
Time Spent 4 Hours
Well well well, after an enforced break of nearly two weeks I'm back on boat building duties. A particularly nasty bout of man flu lasted much longer than necessary and meant that sanding and sawing wood was not possible or advisable. Thanks go out to all my Facebook friends who were overwhelmingly sympathetic and the kindness of their MUP comments has not gone unnoticed!
So, more wood arrived last week, or more to the point I collected more wood from the timber merchants. American Ash was my chosen breed for the centre bullhead supports and who'd of thought you could measure wood in so many ways.
ME: "How long's that bit mate?"
WOOD YARD CHAPPY: "3 metres pal." We've only know each other a minute and a half and it's like we're blood brothers already!
ME: "And how wide?"
WYC: "six inches"
ME: "eh? you just said it was 3m long..."
WYC: "Well it is...and six inches wide!"
ME: "Err... ok" Now my head was spinning. Working in imperial and metric at the same time was going to challenge my estimating skills to their limit. I stared vacantly at the equivalent of my fag packet design sketch but nothing came to mind.
ME: "OK now I need to fathom out what depth I need." Now I thought it was quite clever to throw in yet another unit of measurement but no, not even a flicker of recognition of my intellectual quip! Never mind! I paid for my wood and left!
Once home all I had to do was turn my 3 metre by 6 inches by 0.0820 fathom plank of America Ash into several metres of 50mmx25mm to support my bulkheads. This meant power tool time. Table saw and cross cut saw to the ready. Now, a previous encounter with the table saw had left my garage with blood splattered ceiling and the disappearance of the end of my finger. I was keen to avoid a repeat performance and considered putting some plastic on the ceiling in anticipation, but that would surely be tempting fate. It'll be fine!
Squaring up rough cut wood is not an easy task but with lots of careful measurements and setting of guides, I soon had a large collection firewood... and some nice square bulkhead supports. Now for the tricky bit. Each end of these supports needed to be cut at a different angle to follow the line of the bulkhead. Not easy but I was up to the task and carefully cut each piece to match the previous.
Voila, almost perfect and within ten minutes I had all the pieces glued up with epoxy and stuck onto the bulkhead. I say "all"... my cutting list got very confusing. True to form based on a lifetime of mismeasuring and bad estimating, I was three pieces short. No matter, that will give something to do next time. So the first bulkhead is sticky, soon to be set solid, next time I'll be gluing up the second and hopefully making it match the first.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading! Still only two followers:-(
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