W V D

Not much getting done this week. The W. V. D has hit us..

Number one..

Still a lot to do before it is a hull half, but the first half is planked. Planking is way esier to do than anticipated. The work with strip planking is obviously setting up for it. Stripping is just zen.

Planking the first hull half

It was our first planking session in earnest but with a respectable result in our opinion. Next hull will be even better!
Tapering the strips to a tight fit was a bit slow, so another of Bjørn Thomassons techniques will be tried there. Using a thin bladed japanese saw to saw the strips to shape. Then sand some if needed. Just need to track down such a saw in our little town..
We had some trouble shaping the bottom of the bow area, but the next one will be better. Then we will taper the bottom strip well before it is put in place. doing so with the rest of the bottom strips as well should make this heavily curved section easier to plank.
Using a plane to make tight fit between planks in the bottom was surprisingly fast and easy.

Frode also put some time into doing an experimental bulkhead. We are not sure tought.. Opinions anyone? There will also be some strips going across like an X over the bulkhead.

A well spent evening.

We got the wide strips for the hull sides ripped, set up the bow and secured no less than four strips. That is real progress!




We are becoming experts at ripping strips with the skilsaw. Fast and easy. Next time we will have to do some hard decisions and start beveling the edges of the strips going into the bottom section.

We will have to re-check bulkhead 300 with Phill. Is it supposed to go in at position 300 and is the bow supposed to be hollow?

With the current setup the bow will be hollow, and I have a hard time trying to imagine Phill designing it like that.. Hopefully we will know before wednesday, when we begin stripping in earnest.

Back on track!

There has been much debate and even indications of controversy over wether to rip strips on a table saw or with a handheld saw. I have been pretty confident that we wanted to use a handheld, while all professional woodworkers and people at the lumberyards have insisted on table saws. Now we finally know..






Last night we ripped three 8 inch planks into strips. We did not count them, but in the end we had rather many strips. Using the handheld saw, we had some ruined strips last time we tried, but this time we found the trick. Using the right techniques ripping strips was straight forward and an easy feat. The key was to focus on the guide and watch it so it did not work out from the plank.




Then it was just a question of pushing the saw forward. In the end, we controlled the saw 80% with the hand on the guide and 20% actually on the saw. If we pushed too hard, we got too much friction and made it harder for ourself. Bjørn Thomasson in Sweden was right all the time. A table saw is not neccesary.

Another key element for us was having a helper to catch the strip when cut off the plank.


These planks were quite wide and thing, for the bottom with lots of curve. One problem with wide planks is the natural sideways curve they will have. You will have to decide how to use the handheld saw when cutting the strips, to make the cut straight.
Next time we will rip some 2inch planks for the sides.






Using the NBC mask for protection was great. No dust in the nose, throat, lungs or eyes. Definately reccomended but perhaps not worth being drafted for

Ripping..

We are finally ripping some wood. We had just two hours due to family comittments, but got to do an extension to the table for ripping and rip some strips. Using a circle saw demands a certain technique so we did produce some unusable strips in addition to the well shaped ones. We will only get better.. And you bet we are careful about where we put our fingers while using the saw!



As you can see from the pictures, some of us dont like dust and at least try to take care of their hearing. While others prefer "no-cost" duskmasks and the higher volume range on their stereos. ;-)
Yes, the mask Rolf is wearing is standard military issue. It supposedly protects against chemical, biological and nuclear warfare so epoxy dust, vapours and wood dust should be no match. Thanks to the norwegian national guard for sponsoring at least some useful gear.