This is not good.....

Even with my lamination, my chine is too far inboard. It's not a great picture, but that grey thing is a straight edge running from the stem to the sheer strake. I have and bevelled the stem and started bevelling the sheer strake. The straight edge is sitting on part of the sheer that will be faired away. But not much. Even when I finish fairing the sheer, the chine will still sit inboard of the straight edge.

I think my lamination was too sharply tapered. I will either add another lamination, or more likely plane it back and add a single less tapered one. I suspect I'll build it up with ply tacking into place first to see exactly how much I need to build up.

Bevels R Us

 

I really should have taken a picture, but this should give you the general idea.

An aluminium strip is bolted to the side of the planer (there's a hole for bolting on a parallel guide).

The strip is edge down.

You alternately plane the chine and the keel, with the edge resting on the other. Take off a bit at a time and voila.

Dave

Good, and not so good

Fairing is going well now that I have moved up to using a power plane. I have bolted a strip of aluminium to the side - it's edge facing downwards. It rests on the keel while I plan the chine and vise versa.

The results are ok. I'll tidy up with a Stanley #4 Bailey.

If only it were all that good.

I was a little premature in my self congratulation over the nice joint between the chine and the stem. I still contend that the joint it very nice, it's just in the wrong place.

Now that I've started fairing, I can see that it's joined to the stem too far back.






My first thought was to trim the stem back to the chine, but on reflection that would change the entire profile of the stem, and I am not sure it would change it in a good way.

I see 2 oak battens about 3/8" thick at one end, tapering to nothing, laminated in place from the stem to about the first frame.

Wish me luck.

Fair Enough

It was a good weekend. We brought the little un's to see a new foal, and to see a Japanese Garden. Stepping stones are a wonderous thing when you are 2½.

I even got to work on the boat. The last sheer strake is now glued and screwed. Incidently you can strip bronze headded screws with a Yankee Screwdriver. You just have to try hard enough. Luckily the screw is exactly where it needs to be. 8-)

I spent a lot of time Sharpening and Honing and Polishing various chisels and planes, so I started fairing the chine log with my Stanley #4 and a truely razor sharp Hock blade. 

There were a few reasons for starting with hand tools.

• You get a feel for the job without messing it up in one fell swoop.
• Shavings are less annoying than saw dust when there's clothes drying on the line
• The sound of a sharp blade shaving oak is quite pleasant, a power planer is hardly musical.
• It's interesting to try it.

One piece of advice, never arm wrestle with a carpenter who uses hand tools.

I suspect that I will move on to power tools for the bulk of the work, as I suspect that it would take many weekends of collecting shavings to make a dent in the work that must be done.

Photos will follow soon.

In the Dark

It was a lovely day for backyard boat building yesterday, not cold, not raining, not even windy. But I was in work. So I get home, have dinner, entertain the little uns until it's bedtime, and then it's Dark.

But I really wanted to take out the deck screws and replace them with bronze ones on the sheer strake. 

So out with the cheapo site light. 500 watts of halogen illumination, and we are golden.

I have decided that I like my Stanley Yankee for bronze screws. It's slower than a power driver, until you factor in the sheer grief of stripping the screw heads, or just plain sheering off the top of the screw. The Yankee just does not do this.

Next job, this weekend hopefully, is the other sheer.

It snowed. It's march fer feck's sake...

I had great plans for Sunday.

Then it snowed*. It's march fer feck's sake...

What else can I say, except it would be nice to be building indoors.

*Ok, Mostly it just rained, but it did snow for a little bit.