Today is the first day of spring and we got three or four inches of wet snow--a nice day for boatbuilding. I reread the manual and realized that I didn't glue the supports for the thwarts on dory before I put on the three coats of epoxy. In order to do that step, I needed to cut out the thwarts. Since I had already glued the boards for the thwarts together, I thought it would be easy to cut out the slots and shape them. This seemed like a good job for the band saw I inherited from Dad. Unfortunately, I never learned how to adjust the saw. I spent quite a bit of time with the manual trying to fix the blade guides, and I went through the tool box in the garage looking for a thickness gauge and allen wrenches. I never did find the gauge, but I did find a thin metal ruler that seemed about right. When I started using it, I had trouble with the curves and cutting along the line. I abandoned the band saw and used the miter saw to cut the ends off. To cut the slot I drilled a hole at the end of the slot and then used a router with a 3/8" bit. The wood was soft enough that I could cut the whole thickness of the board in one pass. To round off the end of the slot I used my old saber saw. Finally, I used a router to round off all the edges. By the time I was done, I had used every tool in the shop. I decided I really need to figure out that band saw. Since I spent most of the day on just the thwarts, never did get the blocks shaped or epoxied in place.
 |
| I have the basic shape of the thwarts done, but I still need to put a chamfer on the bottom edges and then sand them. |
No comments:
Post a Comment