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  1. #16
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Seats

    On to the seats. I looked at the plans then went and did something similar. I had to make sure the seats wouldn't strain under my weight but also have space for inspection ports. The rear seat is the most modified with a planned inspection port below the tiller. There'll be at least another up front somewhere.

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    I regret not cutting these bulkhead holes out sooner but they turned out surprisingly well. Holesaw was 86mm to radius corners and the long cuts were done with a jigsaw then all sanded to the line, and sometimes beyond. The last shot shows scraps of wood assisting clamps in retaining sidearms whilst the glue sets.
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    I wanted to put some kind of coving or finish on the seat edges to hide the ply end grain and came across some not quite half round tas oak moulding which looks great and finishes the seats off nicely.
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  3. #17
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    104

    Default

    Lookin good Canoath. The moulding on the seats does look quite good. Doing the strip across the cb box in one piece ties it all together. I didn't think of that when I was thinking about putting moulding on.

    The epoxy does a good job of hiding tear outs and other imperfections, especially after you coat it all with glossy varnish. The only trick is to find a way to make the epoxy end up where you want it, rather than oozing away somewhere else before it hardens. With the mast, if your worried about the glue on the staves, I was thinking maybe you could do a few extra wraps of fibreglass around it to reinforce it - add an extra one at head height, and another between there and the tip. Sounds like it might have an effect. Also, I don't think you need to coat the inside of the mast - as long as it's 100% coated on the outside and every hole you drill in it is 100% leak proof it should be right.

  4. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    Thanks Poit. I probably would not have bothered with moulding if it wasn't for tear our on the front and rear seat edges. My cuts were fine with a jigsaw cutting from the underside but final planing caused some splintering on the topsides of the ply and that got me thinking about how to protect the ends and perhaps distract the eye, but they've turned out really nice. Using tape or scoring the line with a knife would've helped but I just forgot all those kind of common sense tips on the day. Luckily the centre seat's grain runs sideways so no tearout there. My only regret now was not having a big enough piece of ply to have the centre seat extend in the middle to cap off the centre case, like what a few others have done. The top of the centre case just looks a bit bare.


    As for the mast, still not sure what I'll do. I agree it should be ok if fully encapsulated but I may still coat the inside, just in case, I dunno. If it gets too difficult then I'll abandon the idea. A little while ago I read differing opinions on whether to use glass on the outside of the mast at all. The plans call for it at ends and contact areas, I was going to wrap the whole thing in at least one layer of glass, then I came across a compelling vid I think, and maybe some threads, that had me change to a different way of thinking by just using epoxy and varnish due to ease of maintenance. I forget the arguments but I'll have to revisit them again soon.

  5. #19
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Gunwales and knees

    More of a "hey check out my clamp collection" shot. The first lamination isn't as tall as it should be. Off hand I think it's supposed to be 33mm on the outside after bevelling and mine's a bit shorter. I started with smaller stock then guessed a bevel on the table saw and I think mine are 31 or so. I also raised the ends as suggested in the plans to make them shorter again at the bow and stern. You can't see the size of the first lamination in these pics but if you look at the third photo I've marked on the outer lamination how much has to be removed to make the underside level with the first. I like the taller look but I'll have to wait to see what it looks like when the outer lamination is planed back and bevelled.

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    I made 60 x 19mm x 70mm inwale spacers by setting up a jig as below in the drill press. The timber is Tas Oak and being hard did not cut fast even with two new coarse grit cylinders. Because it smoked occasionaly the rounded ends were mostly blackened. In the third photo below I used a half round file to further round the ends of each corner on each spacer. The fourth pic shows placement of a spacer over a modified side arm.
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    My aim was to cover all side arms, get locations right for oar locks and lastly to span the panel joins in the middle. I could not achieve all those and maintain spacer spacing, so I settled for the first two and left the top of the panel butt join alone. The oar locks will be 300mm aft of the thwart.
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    I'm really happy with these knees. I thought this would be beyond me but it's the first time I've felt like I've done a bit of special joinery during the build. I basically held a large off cut of 45mm x 250mm Vic Ash structural beam over the corners, traced underneath and cut rough patterns. I bevelled with a table saw, planed and sanded. Measured and cut holes for the inwales then added some curves for decoration and following some more sanding during the test fit they looked awsome. I've glued the knees in now and will wait a day or two before attaching the inwale

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  6. #20
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    Getting closer. Though there's a lot of extras I've neglected that I probably should've acquired or built by now. I've yet to make the rudder and rudder box and tiller, though the centre board is partly shaped. There's no boom, yard, sail, rigging, oars, oar locks, bow eye and no trailer. With encapsulation encroaching I've yet to decide on paint and may not have enough epoxy to complete everything. Funds are low post holidays so I need to prioritise what will at least see the boat being rowed and fished in prior to sailing later in the year.

    As soon as the glue had dried for the inwales and knees I took stugoats outside to test fit the mast. Man it looks good. Though it was a struggle to move the boat, my son up front and me at the back. No idea what she weighs at the moment but it was a heavy awkward lift. Transom handles would help a lot, or another two people. The inside still needs sanding and prep for epoxy and the inwales and gunwales still need planing and shaping.

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    The mast had not been coated during the outdoor shoot and there was a lot of freeplay in the partner and step. I'm not too fussed. The mast has had two coats of epoxy followed by a heavy sand then three more coats. I did end up shoving epoxy inside the mast, just one coat before gluing in the bungs and I've yet to add fibreglass or any varnish. To bulk up rub points and make up the gaps I plan on using glass plus leather or rope/cord. If too much play exists after that I'll make an integral wooden clamp for the step to make sure the mast's movement is curbed. I've got a few ideas but will wait and see what's needed.
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    Back in the shed the skiff was turned and without protecting gunwales against the sawhorses. Argh, poor planning! So a few dents there to sand back and padding in place now. I used some select 19x110mm Tas Oak planks to make up the skids and also added a third forward one connected to the stem.
    The planks were 3 metres, a bit short to create the 3240mm lengths called for so I scarfed extra for the side skids. It's the first time I've scarfed timber successfully. I've only tried once before on my canoe and used the wrong tools and ratio. The ratio below was 8:1.
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    The final length of the side skids is 3330mm or 10'11" and about 23mm high with tapered ends and rounded corners. For placement I kept to the recommended measurement from the centreline and the bottom of the transom and the extra length forward allowed a nice bit of overlap between the forward taper of the side skids and the rear taper of the centre skid.
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    Centre skid shaped into the bow. Still a bit of tidying up there to be done.
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    A before and after shot of the underside of the gunwales at the bow. It's very pointy and exposed now. I want to keep it but may put some decorative support underneath.
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    Right now I'm tossing over whether to glass the bottom or not. I bought enough glass to cover the whole exterior hull but now am heavily siding towards the argument of no glass, or rather chines and bow only. Oh well, plenty of sanding to be done and time to think.

  7. #21
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Cost, coating the hull and oars

    Rough costing so far on the main ingredients:

    • Vic Ash $684
    • Pacific Maple (meranti) $42
    • Tas Oak $112
    • Cheap Ply $400
    • FG 20M 195GSM $167
    • FG TAPE 50MM 155GSM $70
    • Epoxy 12 L 306
    • Pumps $13
    • Powder $30

    Sub total $1824 which is conservative. I went through my reciepts and that's all I could find but I'm sure I made another purchase of vic ash along the way of another $100 or so. There's also no mention of consumables like turps, methylated spirits, acetone, sanding discs, brushes, rollers, gloves, screws and so on.... I'm using a lot of stuff I had on hand including at least 100 pairs of gloves (2 boxes). The biggest saving is the money I paid for cheap plywood. I couldn't get better stuff in the larger size needed ie 2440 x 1220 v's 2400 x 1200mm.

    Below are pictures showing a partly coated hull. After we brought the boat back inside the shed we flipped it and I pondered whether to tape chines or glass the bottom. I ended up rolling the glass over the bottom panel, cut slits for the skids and shaped the glass to overlap the edges by 40mm plus. The glass wet out nicely with three coats wet on wet on the bottom panel but only two on the sides before I ran out of epoxy. I'm putting in an order for a 6Litre epoxy kit which should see me through.

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    The centreboard has been glued up for a while but below I've assembled the rudder, oars and out of shot are the laminations of the boom and yard. The next series of shots show progress on the oars. I got the free plans for oars from mik's site but was inspired by a youtube video showing COLLARS in the UK shape an oar. So I'm kinda wingin' it on one and copying each move to the other one. Forgot to add that since I'm running low on epoxy I've used cross linking PVA glue (Selleys exterior) to glue up oars, rudder and boom/yard laminations.

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  8. #22
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Eustis, FL, USA
    Posts
    2,270

    Default

    How much does that mast weigh?

  9. #23
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    Hi PAR, mast weighs 9.8kg/21.6lbs with 4 coats of epoxy including a heavy sand prior to final coat. No varnish yet and I decided not to glass. There'll be leather wrap at the partner and I may still glass the bottom for the step. I may put leather too where the yard and boom will rub. The mast has a diameter of 80mm at the bottom moving up to 84mm at about 4', then tapers away to 60mm diameter at the top.

    Not much else to report apart from the 6L of epoxy arrived the other day and I'm currently fairing the hull, prepping for paint. I'm at that point of hating sanding. The oars are coming along really well with the shafts being rounded and the blades being shaped, but a lot more to be done before I post more pics on those.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  10. #24
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Painting the hull 1

    I've done a lot of reading over the past few years relating to paint systems, most of which I've forgotten. I've far less experience with painting, a lot of which I've forgotten too, but boy this has cemented a lot of that theory and practice into some skill hopefully that will be retained for next paint project. For biggish full resprays I've only done a car once, canoe and now this GIS, but it's by far my best work and whilst it's far from perfect, it's good enough and for any issues at the end or along the way I knew what mistakes I did.

    We've all heard prep dicatates the finish and in this first shot you can clearly see a few divots in the sanded epoxy. I had four or five thin coats on with a sanding in between 3 and 4. I can't remember what I typed before but it was thick enough without going overboard and a lot was removed during fairing. At this point I could've filled these little divots but decided to press on. The next two shots show the boat after one, two or three coats, then I treated those coats as a filler/sanding coat and put another three coats on, all by roll and tip.

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    I had problems with roll and tipping. I just couldn't get the enamel I was using to spread out. I thinned with penetrol on three occasions, tried some good brushes I have plus foam disposables and I was left with results shown below.

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    Roll n tip sux! (Read I can't do it) Time to change it up and spray. I love spraying, so I can't understand why I've been pushing the roll n tip method for a while! After ditching a cheap suction fed gun for a quality Star gravity fed unit around 2009ish I got good results on a track car so it was time to go back to what I once thought I knew.

    For starters the rust guard enamel on the left is what I used on the Eureka, via roll n tip. It worked alright. The amazing thing was that after two years stored outside in the sun white is pretty much flawless whereas the blue went chalky. In fact, prior to christmas the blue was sanded and repainted. I thought this white paint for the hull would do, that is until I realised I couldn't get the finish I wanted. So I went to the same engineering place I bought my gun from years ago and bought the PPG 220 Styralux on the right below, which when thinned a bit sprayed beautifully. All my experience of setting the gun was already out the window and I had to relearn it quickly whilst I practised flow and speed rates and pattern on the inside of the shed doors before committing to the hull.

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    I put down 4 or 5 coats, I forget exactly. I tried a few things, percentage of thinners, feed rate and so on. Paint ran only once on a chine but for the most part I got to see immediate results of how changes affected the look.
    In the end the orange peel in most places was pronounced but it looked pretty good though I didn't take any photos then.
    The two pics below show after 800 wet sanding on the left then on the right 1200 wet sanding plus 1st cut compounding.
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    Last edited by Canoath; 12th March 2016 at 03:34 PM. Reason: Trying to get pics to work

  11. #25
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Painting the hull 2

    I had always planned on adding blue to the hull, the same as I used on my Eureka but in the end I saw orange during a supply run to the engineering place and bought a can. I can't think of any orange GISs out there.
    WP_20160312_09_02_00_Pro.jpg


    I've done a lot of sanding and buffing to get the white to the point it was so I didn't want to cover it all up. I decided to go with some go fast, GT striping all done with differing widths of tape, and a ruler to mark out transtions and changes to be copied on to the other side.

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    And what was left after the masking was removed. I was really happy. A few minor imperfections in geomtery and wobbly lines and bleed through but still pretty happy. The orange worked better than I hoped.
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    Lastly, once the orange cured I wet sanded the orange to cut down the edges somewhat, then used a cutting compound then a cut n polish to finish with what I have now. Time to work on the inside. At this point I think I'd rather paint it too instead of arguing with a varnish.

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    Last edited by Canoath; 12th March 2016 at 03:59 PM. Reason: fixed pic links

  12. #26
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    104

    Default

    I like your paint job - very original. I was actually thinking of using orange for the entire hull for a while there (burnt orange preferably, but I saw some "emergency orange" for sale at the boat shop that originally got me thinking about it). Probably best that I went for "safe white" instead. That said, I'm one for keeping things simple, but even I think the plain white hull needs something to jazz it up.

    I think blue is a troublesome colour for the paintmakers - hard to make it durable. I've seen plenty of faded blue Colourbond roofs.

    And I think roll and tip sux too!

  13. #27
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Coating the interior

    Quote Originally Posted by Poit View Post
    . I've seen plenty of faded blue Colourbond roofs.
    Man that's so true, so many faded blue ones around here..

    The past week or so saw the goat flipped in prep for encapsulating the interior which I managed myself by rolling it on saw horses cushioned by towels. When I say roll, the goat was pushed on it's side then a bit more to that precarious balance point on the gunwales which was difficult to manage alone. Then there was a bit of repositioning on the saw horses, one end at a time, readying for the final lowering to right way up. Amazingly no damage to paint or gunwales and it was much easier than when I flipped previously with a helper. Back then we took the whole weight of the boat to turn it over. Once flipped I put the stern on a padded milk crate and the bow end on a padded 4by2 supported between jack stands making the goat much lower to the ground and easier to access all areas without getting in.

    I started sanding the interior whilst it was still upside down which was a real struggle on the arms. Some minor clean up work continued once righted including planing and sanding the inwale and spacers. The gunwales were already profiled.

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    The first coat of epoxy went on by liberally pouring out the mix and spreading, mostly with a 4" stainless blade and occasionally a shortened 4" brush. The other brush is a "good" brush used on the second coat to tip and try and get a smooth finish. I was hesitant to spoil it but it washed out in metho and is good to use again.
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    The second coat went on before the first cured. I can't remember how many hours. The two week heat wave finally finished and it was much cooler here during encapsulating so curing was slower. The first coat was dry to a light touch but still soft and finger prints left behind easily. The thing about this plywood is that despite the factory sand and my follow up 60, 120 and 240grit sanding there remains significant troughs in the grain which had to be filled. I used too much on the floors but they filled nicely and the epoxy flattened thanks to gravity. Trying to fill the sides left a lot of runs and again, I used too much. However, it was obvious that despite this I'd probably only need two coats rather than three, but these are two thick coats. With previous advice and a little experience it seems obvious to me now that there's a lot of wastage, as most will be sanded away but I will have a flat surface. Regarding epoxy waste, I've used nearly 18L so far, and there's not enough epoxy for the rudder, centreboard and spars so I'm going to have buy more. The plans call for 12L which just illustrates how uneconomical I've been. After the first coat I should've been treating the epoxy like varnish, ie much thinner coats, rather than like a pour on gloss.
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    Here's some issues after the second coat;
    -starved edges on the inwale, thick runs and starved areas on vertical areas and a few areas where epoxy kept flowing into tiny seemingly invisible holes. There was only about 5 but all sanded back and filled now.
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    Now the rear of the transom is where I got it right. Kind of a eureka moment here. It's a vertical surface, fine sanded substrate and two thinner coats of epoxy done a few weeks ago, but still thick enough and lots of uneveness where gravity let curing epoxy sag out ofthe grain causing troughs. I sanded from 60 to finally 320g then applied a very thin layer of epoxy by applying hard pressure with a sponge brush. Mik calls for something simlar on his website I think where a foam roller is held so it can't roll, then dragged across the surface. The foam roller effectively becomes a foam brush. I worked the foam brush in slow full lengths, side to side, then up and down then finished off with full length tipping strokes side to side again. What's left is a very thin but flat third coat of epoxy that hasn't run or sagged. A fine sand of this and it will be perfect for varnish. That's a whole other story. I'm a bit hit and miss with varnish so I'm not looking forward to it.
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    Before I tackle the interior sanding I had to get my gunwales right. Again, used a lot of epoxy but after a lot of sanding, knocking down the lumps and runs, there's still plenty thickness except for the top edge of the inwales which went back to wood as I reshaped to a larger radius which should look better plus coat with epoxy more uniformly.
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    Despite the finish I got on the transom I hate the foam brushes. The ones I get fall apart and breakdown too easily in epoxy, but there's no other choice locally. I was creating a mess with a 1" bristle brush and then had another thought - just use my hands. Gloved hands of course, dipping fingers into the epoxy cup, wiped on haphazardly then pushed hard along the gunwale to spread an even film. Man I couldn't believe how well this worked. Check the results. The only issue is the top inwale edge which is getting a number of thin coats to build it up more over the next few days. I wouldn't do this gloved hand thing on larger areas, I'd stick with the 4" knife which works the best IMO, particularly for first coats but in the future I'd like to try a rubber squeegee for subsequent layers.
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  14. #28
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    Slow progress. I don't mind sanding bare wood but sanding epoxy is just horrible. I'm trying to leave expletives out here. I went through loads of random orbital pads and detail sander pads, alternating between 60 and 80 grits and finishing off with a full sweep of 180 or 220. Unfortunately the cockpit floor got some 40grit treatment which left ugly swirl marks. Most of it was cleaned up but not all. I'll be adding sand or non slip to these areas so the floors don't have to be perfect. Over all I ended up with a good matt surface I was ok with but would've been a lot better had I been less careless with epoxy during encapsulating.

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    My next most feared job in the build would have to be varnishing. My first coat went on alright, all by brush. I have quality synthetic bristled brushes meant for oils but may buy and try natural bristles next, if I can find them. The gunwales is where I thought I'd ruin it but they're turning out ok. A lot of dust was entrapped in this coat but I'm planning on doing a few coats with most effort going into the final.

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    2nd coat and probably onwards is where I start stuffing things up. There's areas that are too thick and hadn't dried and subsequently rippled. It's not too bad but noticeable and mainly on the floor. I know too that a rag I started to use as a tack cloth was contaminated with turps and caused a couple of eruptions, shown in the fourth photo below. I've scraped those areas and some others around chine logs that were too thick and will never cure. I'm going to leave the goat sit for a week to let the varnish harden so I can come at it again after a light sand and have another go at applying light coats, maybe revisiting roll n tip and buy some bristle brushes to try out. I think I know what I'm doing wrong but I'm not catching the mistakes at the right time.
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    There's two particular videos I like that show pros varnishing. One is Louis Sauzedde showing roll and tip, the other from Nick Schade using foam brushes. In both they're working on the final varnish coat, after several other coats have dried and been finely sanded and the surfaces tacked spotless. I really need a lot of practice to get anywhere close to these guys, but it's still good to look back at these to see what can be done.




    FWIW the varnish I'm using is Feast and Watson's Spar Marine Varnish . The only other product available locally was a polyurethane, Bondall Monocel Gold Clear Timber Finish

    And lastly, just mucking around in MS Word to get a look at what the transom art might look like. I've been hooked lately watching videos of signwriters in action, handlettering and decorating hot rods and canal boats. Great, another pursuit I got to have a go at before I die. Perhaps a vinyl decal will be the way to go.

    stugoats.jpg

  15. #29
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Oars

    Progress has been slow but has been continuous since the last post. Stugoats is ready for the water or has been for a couple of weeks, for rowing at least. Final varnish is on the boat and cured, plus oars and oarlocks completed. Foils have been glassed overnight, but still no rudder hardware nor rigging. The yard and boom still need shaping and finishing though the mast is complete.


    But back to the oars. They were shaped with a mix of planes, spokeshave and sanders, though I wasn't entirely happy with the final scoop of the blade. I wanted it a bit deeper and a protective strip of hardwood at the tip.

    WP_20160221_16_52_01_Pro.jpgWP_20160221_17_13_15_Pro.jpgWP_20160221_17_13_24_Pro.jpgWP_20160228_14_42_21_Pro.jpg


    So I added some tassie oak and brought out a 5"grinder and sanding disc to shape. Worked really well but of course, care needs to be taken not to hog off too much. Blades were finished by hand sanding.

    WP_20160302_15_30_07_Pro.jpgWP_20160302_15_29_56_Pro.jpgWP_20160302_15_53_52_Pro.jpg


    I rounded the shafts using a mix of tools but final shaping and sanding was done by hand using long lengths of 4" grit, similar to how a shoe polisher would buff a shine on a shoe's toe. The handles were cut using handsaw, spoke shave and belt sander, the hand sanded. They turned out pretty good. The shafts were epoxied then varnished and I can't find a finished pic. I do plan on painting the blades, partly white with orange stripe maybe.

    WP_20160223_09_10_53_Pro.jpgWP_20160417_15_43_48_Pro.jpgWP_20160417_14_08_35_Pro.jpgWP_20160417_14_43_10_Pro.jpg

  16. #30
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Oarlocks

    As much as I'd love the look of polished bronze oarlocks I didn't want to shell out for a good set. I saw scooterpontus use thole pins in his build which was the first time I'd heard of them. Ever since I've been looking for alternatives to metal oarlocks. Be it thole pins or wooden oarlocks, I've been eyeing off any example I can from searching images to pausing video playback during Vikings episodes any time Ragnar's on a mission, and watching Mutiny on the Bounty to look at it's tender/landing boat. Here's what I've come up with.

    The wood of choice is black wattle from a tree I felled two years ago near Dubbo. Beautiful wood but I can't work handtools well on this stuff without introducing chips and tearout. Yes my tools could probably be sharper but machining and sanding works best. My first pair of oarlocks ended up being too short lengthways and with only a couple solid blocks remaining large enough to make the locks out of, the pressure was on to get the second pair right.

    Here's the original concept with the pair of spare blocks nearby

    WP_20160510_18_05_58_Pro.jpgWP_20160511_10_54_20_Pro.jpg


    I made proper measurements this time and a plan to get the right dimensions on both pieces of blanks. I used a drill press, bandsaw, handfiles and linisher to work the shape.

    WP_20160516_16_24_51_Pro.jpgWP_20160516_16_43_54_Pro.jpgWP_20160516_17_35_52_Pro.jpgWP_20160517_12_36_40_Pro.jpg


    I used a sled on a table saw to router/dado the upper parts to size. I used a handsaw on the originals and muffed them up. For the second pic below is where I started to make errors by cutting too deep or following the wrong line. Each mistake was then copied to the other one and luckily they both came out looking the same. Before cutting these recesses the oarlocks were held onto the gunwales and the spacer holes scribed in underneath. The lugs or pins needed to shaped individually. You can imagine they're at different angles so a lot of trial fitting and further sanding to get them to slide in without too much resistance

    WP_20160517_10_31_06_Pro.jpgWP_20160517_15_16_56_Pro.jpgWP_20160517_16_17_10_Pro.jpgWP_20160517_16_17_46_Pro.jpgWP_20160517_16_17_55_Pro.jpgWP_20160517_16_18_23_Pro.jpg


    For weeks I've agonised over how to attach the oarlocks to the gunwales. The boat has been left completely fastener free so far, including the frame/gunwale joints, and I didn't want to use fasteners on these oarlocks and introduce holes in the gunwales/inwales. The oarlocks had to be secured but easily removed. By utilising the extra length of the pins I cut them, used bugle headed batten screws and created swivel tabs that lock under the spacers with firm pressure. They work great and whilst further improvements can be made to the shape and size of the tabs, if they work well on the water I'll probably leave them until one breaks. Even without them the oarlocks don't readily come out though they do move a little.

    WP_20160517_16_23_13_Pro.jpgWP_20160518_16_50_21_Pro.jpgWP_20160518_16_51_33_Pro.jpg


    Finally I used a couple of coats of thinned linseed oil liberally brushed on. Then I've put two coats of varnish over the top. It's not the way it's supposed to be done, I was just up for a bit of experimentation. I just assumed they're going to get knocked about and damaged and was happy to re-oil them every year. The varnish was just an afterthought really. These two photos show one oiled and both with one coat of varnish.

    WP_20160518_17_36_11_Pro.jpgWP_20160520_22_04_14_Pro.jpg

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