Dovetails

Today we set up my new Keller dovetail jig. It's a freaking magic tool, set it up once and you never need to adjust it again. So simple to use and does perfect through dovetails.

We needed to use it on something so we decided to make the fore-hatch combing out of some spare Batu reeded decking we had lying around. This Batu probably comes from some pillaged Indonesian rain forest but seeing as it was scrap, and it's more noble to use it on a boat than a house, I don't feel too bad about it. It's really nice looking wood - I'm going to pretend it's teak.

We milled the reeding off in the thicknesser and cut four planks to size. We made a box and numbered the joins and then got to work with the jig. Things were going well and we were working out little shortcuts and techniques. Two lessons we learned were

1. Make sure the chuck is far enough away from the jig because steel nuts can rout aluminium, and
2. Make sure you slide the router off the jig and don't pull it up because when you hit aluminium at 6000 r.p.m. lots of exciting things happen.

Dad's polar fleece jumper saved his gut from some serious routing. The bit got tangled up in it and stopped dead. And when I say dead I mean totally forked. It bent the shaft. After a trip to the hardware store and $25 later we were back in business. The new bit was much better than the one we totalled so perhaps it was meant to be.

With the joints cut we partially fitted it together and smeared the surfaces with some epoxy and fibre filler. We tapped it in tight, wiped off the squeeze-out, squared it up, and left it to set.

Another good day's work. :)

Boat Destruction

Finally got the first day of boat work done in the new shed.

Left at 5:00 am on my faithful GS500 from Perth and passed a fatal accident at Mandurah (some kids drag racing and lost control - the girl in the back seat wasn't wearing a seat belt and was thrown through the window and died - what a waste). When I finally got to Busselton just before 8:00 I came upon a motorbike accident. A lady came out of Fairway Drv straight into the path of the guy on the bike - he didn't have a chance to stop. I found out later from my mate at the hospital that he broke his neck and was flown out to Perth by the RFDS.

It really freaks you out seeing a bike accident - especially ehen you're riding one yourself!

I was on the scene before the ambulance and police and so stopped to direct traffic. When the police turned up they asked me to keep directing traffic so I was there for an hour - the Busselton bypass was closed to eastbound traffic.

Anyway after all of that drama I finally made it to the folk's place.

Dad and I got stuck into cleaning up the shed and decided to take this bench dad had made for this guy out to his farm to give us more room. We got back and after having lunch went out and cut two honking great holes in the deck for the forehatch and the companion way sliding hatch.

And that was it for the day. More a day of boat destruction than construction.

Oh well.

Crook

My most excellent Mum, who with Dad had been looking after the kids on the school holidays, was crook last week. I went down south to pick the kids up a day early to give her a break and perhaps get a bit of work done on the boat. Sadly when I got there Dad was crook too! So the weekend was a write off boat wise but I had a mint time with the kids.

Oh well. There's always next weekend.

The Story So Far

Years ago (I forget exactly how many but less than 10) dad picked up a part finnished hull of a Robert's 24 off a guy who used to build wooden boats professionally in Busselton. He got it pretty cheaply, about $2500, which was less than the materials cost, let alone the time spent building it.
To this point via spurts of building and long periods of other things (breaking his neck surfing, moving house, grandchildren, travel, retirement etc.) dad has managed to complete the interior, deck, cockpit, and cabin.
Retirement has left mum and dad without a lot of spare cash to complete the boat and I find myself getting down south a lot more often - so pooling our resources we should be able to get the thing in the water within a year.
Cool.

Boat Moving

Just back from an epic weekend of boat moving. We (Dad and I) moved the hull from the Busselton industrial area to Dad's back shed.

After picking up the car trailer we went to the shed in the industrial area with a couple of engine hoists and lots of rope and straps. The trailer couldn't be backed into the shed so we had to push the trailer in by hand, lift the boat onto it, and move the trailer and boat outside by hand and jack. Not in any way an easy job.
With the boat hitched up we made a careful and furtive trip through the back streets of Busselton (trying to avoid any imperial entanglements) to Dad's house. We parked outside and went in for lunch. Three hours gone already. Dude.
Before we let ourselves collapse we got stuck into the move into the back shed.
Careful reversing.

Careful lifting.
Careful placement.
All done. 7 hours of huge effort. No injuries to us and only slight damage to the shed (look closely at the top beam of the roof truss - bummer). Not a bad day's work.
Hopefully we'll get more done now that the boat is only a few steps away from Dad's back door (it's still 240km away from me in Perth but I can psych Dad up over the phone).

Technologically Useful Human

Here's a way cool 10 question quiz. Try it. Seems I can bring everyone back into the 20th century if civilisation gets borked. :)

Wahooo! First Post!

Hello Humans. Here's my blog.