Dave R1

Jim, the software is called SketchUp. It's an architectural sketching program and although not intended to be considered a CAD program, I find it extremely useful for doing drawings I can work from in the shop. Here's my model of the Weekender. It isn't complete yet but it looks like a boat. I drew it from the plans plotting offsets just like you would on the real wood.

Thanks guys. I should have taken the time to draw in the scarfs or I should have be more clear about my intentions. Scrafing was really what I had in mind for those joints. I was really just asking about the staggering part. Charlie, I hadn't thought about reversing the pieces to get the scarfs reversed. That seems like a great idea. I would just glue up halves as you mentioned so I could install plugs at strategic points as well as add wiring for masthead lights. OK, now I just have to find some clear lumber long enough. What if I had 4 or 5 scarfs in each stave? :roll:

I'm thinking about building a new mast for Julie K using the birdsmouth method. Due to availability issues or lack there of, I think I'm going to have to splice pieces to get the desired length. So my question is this, would you set the splices as I have drawn them or would you stagger them by swapping some of the pairs? Note: I drew the spar so the staves are scaled correctly in section but I used a 1:12 scale for the length so that the splice is easier to see. The splices are drawn at 2 inch intervals but I would use a 24 inch interval when cutting the actual wood.

Good job Adla. It looks just fine to me. I see you'll be having temps in the 70s later this week. Should be perfect for sailing. You'd better get out there and do it.

P Doug, do you have Quicktime on your computer?

Charlie, you need to have Quicktime on your puter. Adla, you, too can sharpen your chisels to razor sharp.

Adla, here is a link to a site that has a few video demonstrations that show how to use a chisel. http://www.pem.org/luxury/furniture.html Keep your digits away from the business end and always clamp down the work.

Sweet!

Adla, I wouldn't doubt that you could sell your magic wands. Of course you'd be able to charge if you made some that were really magic. I bet you could get some shop to sell them for you if you made a bunch of them and took them in. I did that a number of years ago with letter openers I had designed.

Nice work there Adla. Turn a few more of them and open up a store to sell them. I'm sure you would have a corner on the market.

Might not be the way you'd want to do it Phil but what if you reported the boat destroyed and a month later went in to register your "new" sail boat with a 12'LWL?

I don't think I'd go with maple. Mahogany would be good and to start with for her, boxwood, basswood or yellow poplar would be good choices. Red cedar might also be a nice would for her to start with. Since the trailboard or name board will get varnished or painted, I wouldn't be too concerned at this point about rot resistance. I think I'd avoid woods with hardness variations between early and late wood (pine, redwood, etc.) and hardwoods like maple or cherry.

Congratulations! I bet there is a grandpa who is really proud.

The primary color on my boat's hull was supposed to be a green-gray based on Kirby's color by the name. I think it came out more of what Kirby calls green tint. I wasn't that picky as long as it wasn't eggplant or fuscia or something like that.

That is an interesting idea. I had pine 1x4s raised up off the bottom about an inch. They were my quick version of a cockpit grate. I took them out this past summer because they made it difficult to clean and sop up water. I'd like to do something different but have yet to decide what. Might be a teak grate. I wonder if that plastic will get slippery when wet.

If you are considering the Porter Cable router at $219, you might as well look at the DeWalt DW625 3HP router which Amazon shows at $229. I have one of those and one of the DW621s. I like both of them very much and they've both been trouble free. I have an Eliminator Chuck on both them so bit changes are done with a ball-end t-handle wrench. The DW625 will give you the capability to swing a large diameter bit (e.g. panel raiser) if you need to. I also have a Plunge Bar on my 625. It makes it possible to plunge the router with one hand while setting cutter depth with the other. It also makes for a nice plunge action because you squeeze to plunge rather than pushing down on the work.

http://trendtimes.com/hydrofoam.html I found the above link. The inventor's site seems to pretty uninformative. It also appears that the video clip has been removed from other sites that had it. I saw that video a month or so back. Pretty neat machine. You can see it fly here, though. It's down a little bit on the page.

I assume you meant Dave. Here's another view of the drawing. It shows the 21 1/2" from the tip of the stem aft to the beginning of the notch. Again, I strayed from the plans in that I left the center layer of the stem head intact at the aft end. Then I added in the pieces shown in gray to give me surfaces on which to mount the bitts. See if you can determine how long that middle layer was originally. That might help you identify your problem.

By the way, I did the drawing of the keel from the plans for the Weekender. The 21 1/2"" is correct from the tip of the stem aft to where the recess for the deck begins. One other thing, although this won't affect your current problem, remember that the angle of the bulkhead is measure from the forward face of the mast box. You should make a spacer equal to the fore and aft dimension of the finished mast box to put between the bulkhead and your angle measuring device. It seems like a small detail but it does create a different mast angle if you don't.

I think there are a number of confusing dimensions in the plans. Station 13 of the bottom panel is the common one. How do your dimensions compare to the drawing I posted?

Ray has a good point, too. It's going to be one or the other of those, I think. Here's a quickie drawing showing the two dimensions. Note, the gray area is removed in the plans, I left it on mine to give me a place to attach the bitts.

Can you clarify your statement about the notch in the stem for the bottom panel? As I read it, your notch starts at 2 1/2" from the front? (You wrote 21 1/2" but it isn't that would have cut off the entire stem.) The notch should be 2 1/2" deep. That is, measure dfrom the aft edge of the stem forward on a line extended along the top of the deadwood. If you really did make the notch as deep as it seems like you said, that would give you the problem you illustrated in the photo. Would you post a picture of the front end of the bottom panel and the keel?

Looks like you made a good job of that. I guess you'll have to make another one now to go with it.

Try Photobucket.com

I did as Barry suggests. I used a piece of cedar 4x4 for the tabernacle. The mast is an old round one that was given to me. I took off the corners of the 4x4 near the hinge point so there's a nice transition from square to round.