Ye Shoppe
06 February 2017 | St. Marys, GA
Capn Andy/mild winter
Work continued on the hatch coamings, building up the outer perimeter with hardwood, faired with epoxy compound, painted, and the hatch bedded in Bed-It butyl tape. This is the recommended product for bedding hatches and other fittings that bolt or screw onto the hull.
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In the woodshop, carpenter Ron began an upgrade. The debris of years and years of wood shavings, sawdust, and bits of offcut wood was slowly getting cleaned up. I helped pick up the pieces and Ron identified rare and expensive wood to save. My eagerness to contribute was due to needing a space to build the outrigger canoe later this month. I needed space to store plywood that was dry, also a place to leave glued up assemblies that was dry. Epoxy in the winter temperatures takes longer to set up, 2 or 3 days instead of just 1.
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I ordered the Bed-It tape and began looking for a replacement for my shop vac, which was losing its vacuum, and my dremel-like rotary tool, which had gone missing. It will turn up when its replacement arrives.
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I had been buying tools from Harbor Freight, they only charge $6.99 per shipment, so I searched their web site. The boat next door had one of their rotary tools and it was starting to fail after exactly 3 uses, two by the owner and one my me. I decided to search for alternatives. The small shop vac from Harbor Freight was $35, but the same unit (probably) was available from ACE hardware, free ship to store, for about $20 plus tax. I searched for rotary tool reviews online and found the Black and Decker tool was rated at #1 or #2, available from Target at $27, free shipping. I saved about 1/3 the cost.
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Surprise, surprise, the little shop vac at ACE was ready just 2 hours after I ordered it online, so I went out and picked it up. Then a little while later, Target canceled my order for the Black and Decker rotary tool. I reordered it for pickup at their Yulee, GA, store, about 20 miles away.
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The little Craftsman 2.5 gallon shop vac was put to work cleaning up the wood shop. This was not just ordinary dirt and sawdust, this was impacted dirt and sawdust from over a decade of use. People just don't pick up after themselves. The vacuum was packed full of sawdust and small bits of wood about three times and dumped out each time and put back to work. The only bad point is that the hose and attachments don't include a straight rigid section, so you have to stoop a bit to hold the vacuum fitting to the floor. I think we can come up with a solution for this problem, either a stick attached to the fitting or find a straight section that fits.
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The Black and Decker rotary tool looks very solid, but I haven't had a chance to use it yet.
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The woodshop was now ready for some woodwork. I picked up 2 cedar 2X4's from the lumber store and ripped them into 3/4" square stock, then used the scarfing jig to put 10:1 bevels on the ends. I planned on making 2 13 foot gunwale stringers for the outrigger canoe's outrigger float (ama), making 2 19 foot chine stringers (logs) for the main hull, and 2 19 foot gunwale stringers for the main hull. The butt ends of the stringers were left square and all the interior joints were 10:1 scarfs. Any bad spots in the square stock were cut out with the same 10:1 bevel. The 2X4's produced about 8 pieces of square stock each and a thin 8 foot batten.
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The pieces were glued up in two sessions, the first would put together 8 and 5 foot sections to make the ama gunwale stringers, as well as two 8 foot sections to produce the start of the longer main hull stringers and chine logs. The second section will add 3 foot sections to the main hulls stringers to bring them out to 19 feet. Actually all the stringers will be longer than required and cut back to the required length.
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The photo is of the woodshop.