Thread: Goat Island Skiff - Tools (AND CLAMPS) required? Applies to all storerboats

Originally Posted by robhosailor

(honkongphoie is his boat shown in that photo?)

yes it is

thats my tender i only painted it that colour because the fishermen in the bay tend to use the closest dinghy to them (lazzy gits) so by painting mine pink and yellow, i thought that would prevent them useing it but it seems to have had the reverse effect and is in fact very popular

Call me a hypocrite if you like, I didn't say you wouldn't use them if you had them!

Here's my Eureka Canoe under construction.

When I built the GIS it was a different story though!

Cheers,

P

yep Midge, yep, they are the ones I use too!

I'm resurrecting an old thread here.

I'm split on whether or not to spend 45 bucks on a Japanese saw. What are people's thoughts here? Right now I'm in assembly stage of the BH's, and I don't foresee needing it, but maybe when I start pinning the boat together? Who uses one, and how essential are they?

C

I use a Japanese pull saw and find it handy for various light cuts. I could live without it but mine was only about $25. I couldn't live without my Bosch jig saw, however.

I also use a table saw and have managed to do without a skilsaw through 2 1/2 boat projects. I also use a belt sander, a block plane and an electric hand plane. Wood rasps and sanding blocks (and a whole bunch of clamps) round out my list of required or desired boatbuilding tools.

Oh, yeah, a router does a few things better and faster than anything else.

Hi Chris,

You probably have too much advice now but I have to get get you mine too

Most electric tools very helpfull to speed up things, but you basically need a drill, a jugsaw for curved cuts ( you could do most cuts with a good handsaw or a electric circular saw ) and any kind of electric sander is great for saving time finishing.

The rest is convenient. I use a very cheap router for rounding corners very quick. I use an electric plane occasionally to make thick pieces of wood thinner or any other job where you need to cut away bigger amounts of wood ( if you buy the right size of wood, you don't need it and the beltsander could do the job ) I do have a circular handsaw ( cutting plywood fast, but that could be done very well with a good handsaw ) and a table circular saw ( again, you don't need that if you buy the right sizes of wood, but it's great to pick the best parts out of wide planks )

I use a beltsander a lot, with very course belt ( grid 40-60 ) you can do amazing things in rounding, making things square and flat.......but you need to have a strong and experienced hand not to mess up things ( full speed with 40 belt it's a killing machine )
This eliminates using a handplane most times. If you use it with a fine belt ( grid 120 and higher ) it's also a very capable finishing sander on bare wood eliminating an orbital one ( it's too course to be used in between epoxy or paint jobs, better do that by hand or orbital sander ) Don't buy a huge and heavy one, also the smallest ones are powerfull machines for these kind of jobs and more easy to handle.

In general I buy the cheapest " wathever brand" electric machines, most of them work well for amateur wood jobs and if anything breaks down, dispose them and buy another one. In my Western European market most replacement parts ( saw blades, beltdrives a.s.o.) are more expensive than this whole machine. If you really want much better tools you need to go for professional ones and they easily cost you 5-10 x more. I did not buy my stuff for GIS, but had a collection already and sometimes pick a replacement if anything is in "sales". It could be that your market is completely different, but we have lots of cheap eastern-europe and asain made tools here.

Good luck building!
I have just started mine a while ago and it's fun if you take your time to do the "perfect job" .
Don't make it more complicated than it is, just cut pieces of wood and fix it together following MIK's excellent manual and use lots of your own common sense. If you are in doubt, Keep it Simple...that works.