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Thread: Building a skiff

  1. #221
    Site Supporter Maple Syrup Actual's Avatar
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    Not much of an update - after last weekend's insanity, I took a couple of days off, and then had to devote a lot of time to household stuff as my wife did last year's taxes for us. And then the weekend was really nice again, so back to family enjoyment time:



    That park is just amazing. There's so much stuff for kids to do, and the whole thing is set right on the ocean so you can go down and walk on the beach...really one of the best parks I've ever seen in my life.

    About all I got done on the boat was a quick grind of the interior glass so it'll be ready for framing etc:



    And then it was laying out the stringers. I forgot that originally I'd had the idea of putting in a ballast tank so I drew the stringers further outboard than normal. But then I decided against the ballast so the stringers can be relocated to a more conventional spot which will make some other stuff easier...but now the curve I drew on the stringers I cut a few months back is wrong, so I'm just templating them straight off the hull. Oh, I also spent a ton of time making sure the hull was actually true. For some reason I got super paranoid about this - I think it was putting in the stringers and not being happy with the fit, and then I just went on a rampage of tuning the cradle and jacking it up here and there and blocking this and that and anyway, that took about five hours before I was satisfied.

    Anyway now it's absolutely definitely true and fair and so I'm patterning the stringers straight off the hull.

    Using, of course, a deck of cards, as pioneered by Jeff in Vermont.



    The dimensional lumber is just some spacing stuff to keep everything upright and in place while I get the stringers dialed in. I am hoping to get the egg crating pretty far along over the next seven days. Then I guess it'll be cleats, bulkheads and hatches for a solid month, probably two. Somewhere in there I'll template the sole and get it temporarily placed while I make some decisions about a strange piece of hardware I don't think anyone will be expecting to see.

    This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff

  2. #222
    I Demand Pie Lex Luthier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maple Syrup Actual View Post
    Somewhere in there I'll template the sole and get it temporarily placed while I make some decisions about a strange piece of hardware I don't think anyone will be expecting to see.

    Are you going to build a mount for a mortar? They're useful for pirate operations when you need to reduce a fixed fortification.

    Heh.

    I'm not familiar with the deck-of-cards technique. How does it work?
    "If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john

    "Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne

  3. #223
    Site Supporter Maple Syrup Actual's Avatar
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    Well...I'll definitely need some kind of armament, but I haven't decided quite what yet.

    Here's the deck of cards in action...



    I saw a guy on a boatbuilding forum do it for a complex shape, using a hot glue gun and a piece of pine. It ate the deck of cards but you can probably get a deck of cards for a buck at the dollar store, and I bet I can do all the templating I need on this whole project with a single deck. I thought it was pretty clever. They're modular, easy to handle, and rigid enough for this to work. Not rocket science or anything but just a good simple trick.
    This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff

  4. #224
    I Demand Pie Lex Luthier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maple Syrup Actual View Post
    Well...I'll definitely need some kind of armament, but I haven't decided quite what yet.

    Here's the deck of cards in action...



    I saw a guy on a boatbuilding forum do it for a complex shape, using a hot glue gun and a piece of pine. It ate the deck of cards but you can probably get a deck of cards for a buck at the dollar store, and I bet I can do all the templating I need on this whole project with a single deck. I thought it was pretty clever. They're modular, easy to handle, and rigid enough for this to work. Not rocket science or anything but just a good simple trick.
    That's brilliant. And extra points for the Brian Froud Joker.

    Here's how they used to do it. The heavy cross beams are probably not as needful with a modern rocket-propelled mortar shell.

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    "If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john

    "Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne

  5. #225
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lex Luthier View Post
    That's brilliant. And extra points for the Brian Froud Joker.

    Here's how they used to do it. The heavy cross beams are probably not as needful with a modern rocket-propelled mortar shell.

    Name:  Bomb3.jpg
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    You can still buy those in the US.




    ETA: my guess was a Canadian bacon slicer with mast-hole as a second guess.
    im strong, i can run faster than train

  6. #226
    Site Supporter Maple Syrup Actual's Avatar
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    Well, now I feel dumb that I didn't know who Brian Froud was, or who drew the art on that card.

    They came with a bottle of wine my wife bought and when I said I needed a deck of cards she had those in a drawer. That card was just on top when I took them out of the box.

    Yes, I am a philistine.

    I do like the mortar idea...those were technically legal here until really recently.

    But no, my piece of hardware is simple, but confusing. Once I get close to needing it, I'll post a pic.
    This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff

  7. #227
    I Demand Pie Lex Luthier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maple Syrup Actual View Post
    Well, now I feel dumb that I didn't know who Brian Froud was, or who drew the art on that card.

    They came with a bottle of wine my wife bought and when I said I needed a deck of cards she had those in a drawer. That card was just on top when I took them out of the box.

    Yes, I am a philistine.

    I do like the mortar idea...those were technically legal here until really recently.

    But no, my piece of hardware is simple, but confusing. Once I get close to needing it, I'll post a pic.
    Your household needs a copy of the book "Master Snickup's Cloak". Truly.

    I look forward to seeing what you have in mind for hardware.
    "If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john

    "Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne

  8. #228
    Site Supporter Maple Syrup Actual's Avatar
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    One reasonably priced copy on Amazon this morning...ordered
    This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff

  9. #229
    Site Supporter Maple Syrup Actual's Avatar
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    Okay, sorry about the lack of updates – let me get everyone caught up to where I’m at.

    I laminated the stringers; always impressive how a couple of thin bits of 1/4" ply stiffen right up when stuck together. Here they are in their approximate planned locations.



    I also bought a seat...65 or thereabouts litre/quart rotomold from Costco. I have a couple of rotomolds from different companies already but the big fancy one lives at my island place and the other is a little portable one. I can really appreciate a good cooler and have built a couple but they've all been pretty unweildy. This is more portable. It'll be good for the boat. I sat on it and made vroom vroom noises for a bit, but then got back to work.



    Transom is starting to shine up a bit...



    And last but not least I got unexpected mail. This is not totally unusual for me: sometimes weird stuff just shows up. My address got accidentally circulated with the magazine at one point so all kinds of weird promotional stuff showed up, and also the occasional threat which was funny: if you hate guns to the point that you’re sending me threats, I’m pretty confident you’re not going to like the outcome of trying to carry out a threat. Anyway since then I moved but stuff gets forwarded still once in a while. So when random stuff shows up I’m not shocked. But it’s not usually THIS random.



    It was this magazine, and a note saying "hope this was a good week - M." A HIGHLY suspicious package from a locally notorious individual: Totem Polar.

    Ironically I had just been joking around with a former business partner about setting up a business in the Seychelles doing sportfishing charters as a cover for anti-piracy work in the gulf of Aden but now I feel conflicted. Just based on what I gathered from the magazine today, pirates seem like a lot of fun. So maybe that business is off the table, at least until I get a couple more issues.

    Then we got into Mother’s Day and a stretch of beach weather which put things on the back burner and I slowed down again.
    Since the arrival of Pirates magazine, which is pretty surreal and I can't quite tell if it's supposed to be serious or not, I've managed to chip away at a few tasks, and at least my distractions have been very pleasant. Here's the family at one of our local beaches - my kid was extremely serious about this small piece of waterlogged bark. Way off in the back there you can see my wife in this new bikini she's currently obsessed with that looks like an oily marble, if you recall those. Kind of a metallic colour-shift fabric. Anyway life is good but boatbuilding is probably a little slower than usual.



    Got the fillets in on the stringers...



    Glassed them down...as usual, probably overkill for the loads this low-speed machine is going to see but what the heck, I have plenty of tape. 2x 12oz, staggered. The stringers are 3" tall so I didn't go crazy on the stagger - more than half the tape is on the hull already. Anyway, they're not going anywhere.



    I don't know if anyone will find this funny but more likely on this forum than anywhere else...this is what happens when you go from tac'd out gunfight bro to suburban boatbuilder dad. Your high-speed deadbird faceshooting gear gets repurposed for kneeling on rough fiberglass surfaces.



    Oh, then I took a couple of days off to play with this. You know how I was saying I just never know what will show up in the mail? Well, here's another totally unexpected arrival:



    Dynaco PAT-5 preamp and Stereo 410 power amp. I had never heard of this, but by some weird coincidence I had a couple of 200w, 8 ohm speakers lying around doing nothing. The 410 requires exactly this, so I wired it all up. Holy cow, what smooth sound! I put a bluetooth receiver on it so my wife could connect her phone and just put on music whenever. It's got crushing, huge sound...I made her take the kid into the back yard so I could test it out and it's lethal. Totally awesome. I know nothing about vintage amps at all but I do have a friend who collects that stuff so I sent him pics and asked a couple of questions. He couldn't believe somebody just gave it to me and was furious. I'm very fortunate in how my friend selection process has panned out, I'll certainly say that.

    Here's more humour: this is what happens when you ask your barbie doll wife to grab cheap playing cards from the dollar store if she's in the area so you can do more templating.

    "But look, bunnies and hearts!"

    "Well, I guess there's no specific disadvantage to that."



    Here's something I should have thought of months ago: I'm always making improvised lists of the day's tasks on scraps of cardboard and stuff. Why didn't I do this earlier? I just staplegunned about 50 sheets of paper to the garage wall. Instant no-losing-it tear off pad. I can't believe I didn't do this ages ago.



    Here I'm just trying to sort out the forward bulkhead and splashwell. The splashwell I left tall to give it some crown.



    There's the splashwell bulkhead laid out. I wasn't thinking when I laid out the V - I measured to the wrong spot and now have to "infill" an inch or so at the bottom, but no big deal. Just late in the day measuring and cutting without a sanity check first. Anyway annoying but not much of an issue.



    Derp - that's too much V as should have been obvious.



    Yesterday I glassed in all the transverse frames, although for some reason I only took a picture of these three. But everything that’s ahead of the splashwell bulkhead is glassed down now.



    Finally…this was probably the actual highlight of boatbuilding for me this week. Erin brought out drinks to restock the cooler on a sunny Sunday afternoon in a new dress she recently bought that has neck-snapping effect, at least on me and this one driver in the Save-on-Foods parking lot who actually bumped into the car in front of him as he double-took on her, which frankly is pretty good for a mom in her 40s pushing a stroller. She tried it on that morning as asked, “is this too much?”
    Uh, nope, that’s about perfect.
    This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff

  10. #230
    I Demand Pie Lex Luthier's Avatar
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    Well, I think I'm all caught up!


    I'm really looking forward to seeing how your fitting-out goes. How extensive will the decking be, and will there be no actual structural seating?

    And did the Froud book arrive yet?
    "If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john

    "Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne

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