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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Michigan USA
    Posts
    6

    Default Eureka Build in Michigan

    Hi all,

    A quick intro - I admire wooden boats, I like to canoe, I live in a U.S. state surrounded by and full of navigable water, and I'm foolhardy enough to try something I don't possess the skills to do. After months of looking at boat plans and a few days of reading the epic BitingMidge thread, I ordered the plans and 2.5 sheets of Okoume to get a start during the Independence Day holiday. $300 including delivery.

    The floor of my workspace is too rough to lay the ply on, so instead of marking out both sheets and fairing across them on the floor , I marked one sheet on sawhorses and faired the lines on it, hoping that fairing the lines on just one sheet won't introduce a strange curve at the join.

    Through my mistaken use of overly fat panel nails, and evidently some imprecise measuring, I've introduced one to two mm variances between what my panels measure and what the plans say they should measure, and the pointy end of the bottom panel turned out five mm short of where it should be. I'm naively trusting that I can strong-arm the panels together during stitching despite the variances.

    Being lazy and impatient to get cutting, I'm thinking of cutting the panels from the one marked sheet, using those to trace on the second sheet (skipping the marking out on that sheet), and after cutting those, clamping all like panels together (four each for side and bilge, two for the bottom) using the properly marked sheets on the outside of the panel sandwich for reference during final planing with an orbital sander.

    Pardon that sentence, but am I headed for trouble with that approach? I've one day of holiday left, and would like to have the hull panels ready for butting by days end.

    Thanks, and thanks to all the contributors to this forum!

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    104

    Default

    I'd be wary about using an orbital sander to final-finish the edges of ply sheets - the times I've tried it I've ended up with rounded edges. A cheap block plane would do a better job, and a flat block of wood wrapped in sand paper would do a better job of achieving square edges.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Michigan USA
    Posts
    6

    Default

    I think I've made a mistake in cutting out the panels. I was zipping along through the work, leaving a wide margin and got three panels cut in no time. Then I remembered the emphatic instructions to take your time, not to rush, be careful...it struck me I must be doing something wrong to get through the task so quickly, and I think I've cut too wide, 4 - 5 mm wide. I grabbed a piece of coarse sandpaper and tried sanding down to the pencil line, and that is going to take forever.

    Good thing I stopped after three panels.

    Any ideas on how to sand those three panels? I could get the router back to the cut panels and try to get closer to the pencil line. I'm thinking of taking the orbital sander to the edges and chancing the rounding, or buying a belt sander to see how much damage I can cause with that.

    Or buying a plane, but that seems like it would be as slow as the sandpaper until I get those wide margins trimmed down.

    Thanks for the help!!

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    104

    Default

    Block plane all the way. Much faster than hand sanding, much more precise than an orbital sander, and much less likely to mess the job up than a belt sander. A block plane will be cheaper than a belt sander, and will take much less time to master. And since you want a perfect result straight away, I'd say it's your only safe choice. Youtube will be your friend as far as tuning the plane to cut nicely goes. I've used belt sanders quite a lot, and when it comes to accurately shaping 1/4" ply, give me a block plane any day.

    Or, you could see how the orbital sander goes removing bulk material, and then tidy it up with hand sanding.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Newport, Sydney
    Posts
    655

    Default

    Listen to Poit, he's got it right

  7. #6
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Michigan USA
    Posts
    6

    Default

    Holy smokes, the block plane is my friend! I'll admit I was dubious, but I took your advice and bought a 7" plane last night and watched some YouTube. My plane wasn't as well made as those in the videos, but I adjusted the blade and shaped the three miscreant panels in an hour. I couldn't believe how fast it removed the excess material.

    It did take a little practice to get the rhythm, and the blade does catch some, but I'm using it straight out of the box save adjusting for parallel and depth. Given the results, I'm very inclined to tune the blade and sole now.

    Now I'm pretty confident I can get the remaining panels cut and shaped this weekend. Then off to my next mistake!

    Thanks again.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Newport, Sydney
    Posts
    655

    Default

    Hi Richard. Glad it went well.
    Now the most important thing you can do is learn to sharpen the block plane well.
    then it will be your best friend.

    Best regards.

    Pete.

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