Sorting Out FreeB-14

[Lombard]

I have been restricted in buying any books or magazines subscriptions since October, as by order of the Boss. AKA... The Wife!

Further instructions included making note of any books or publications that strike my interest on a list beside the grocery list that is magnetically attached to the refrigerator. The result being that instead of getting Jeff's book, I now await for Christmas, in the hope

that a book sized package will await me under the tree. I have only added two things to said list, Fuselage Frame Boats, and Sail Makers Apprentice by Emiliano Marino, so I have a better than average chance of the kids or my spouse coming through for me.

In the meantime, as an academic exercise, I have downloaded FreeB-14, and have been trying to sort out the off sets, and drawing templates. Having no real reference without the book I am just guessing at this point. This brings to mind a couple questions, that some of you with experience might be able to help me with.

Will the book make it clear where to draw notches for the stringers?

In photos of the work seen on this forum and Jeff's Blog the frames appear to have concavity between stringers, is this for a certain purpose?

Here is photo of what I've drawn so far, do I appear to headed in the right direction?

Thanks in advance,

Dave Lombard

[P Doug (WA)]

Okay, I'll give a go at it. Keep in mind, I am working on by first kayak so, well there is not much experience here. The boat I am making is from Jeff,s book. I drew my frames from the offsets in the book. The stringers/keel for the boat I'm build I'm building are 1" X 5/8" and the gunwhales are 1 1/2" X 5/8". I drew the notches based on those measurements. You and make two little templates those sizes and use them as patterns to draw around. The notches go at the plotted points. I learned a lot just visiting Jeff's site and going through the pictures, articles and videos. Also look closely at pictures posted on this forum. I been relying heavily on input from Jeff and Woodman, also. The book is a great help also. Some times I order things and have them delivered to my brother's house... if you get my drift!!

The purpose for the "concavity" between the stringers/gunwhales is so the material well not rub against the frames. The concave needs to be approximately 1/2" deep. It is most important in the portion that well be moving through the water.

[SBknox]

Does this help? I can e-mail you a much higher resolution photo if you'd like.

Steve

[Lombard]

@ Doug and Steve, thanks guys that is very helpful.

I had a message from Amazon in my inbox about Kindle books. Didn't know at all what the heck that meant, however upon investigation, found that I had Kindle books available. Don't have a Kindle and only have a vague notion of what it is, so had to go to Amazon's help section to find out. Well it looks like the genie is out of the bag as to what awaits me under that ole Christmas Tree. I am not letting the family know that I know. ;-)

Anyway downloaded for Kindle for PC. Easy as pie by the way. Once that was done, and the sync button hit, in no time at all I had several Kindle books available. Turns out Kindle is nicely formatted and easy to read on my laptop. Ended up reading Jeff's book Fuselage Frame Boats from cover to cover, (so to speak), last night. Well written and easy to follow instructions, that should easily guide a rank novice through the process of building one of these lightweight boats. The book coupled with the information on Jeff's web site answered most of my remaining questions, however me being me, I still ended up with questions.

The FreeB-14 still interests me, I like the notion of initial stability, plus ease of entry and exit with the larger coaming. I am 5'11" 200lbs, and at fifty, not nearly as nimble as in the past. My questions involve the placement of the brackets, and the depth of the A dimension on this particular boat? The off sets do not reveal this, so does this mean the boat has no rocker? Could it be as simple as making an A dimension baseline, and adding or subtracting the different elevations of the Z axis?

Now on to Treasure Island.

[Kudzu]

Thanks for the compliment on the book. It was a LOT of work and glad to see it so well received (and selling!). I am seriously considering another one.

As I say in the download for the FreeB's, I will not offer support on building those since I give the offsets away. But your right in your assumption that is has no rocker in it.

As for E-books, when I started to convert mine to 'E' format I had to educate myself on them. I download different software to test my book. I download Adiko (spelling?) for my Android Phone and once I got the book finished I started looking at E-books in more depth.

I have been surprised at all the free books available. I like science fiction and there is a lot written in the 50's and 60's that I really enjoy. For the first time since my childhood I am once again an avid reader. I love having the app on the phone because I can read while waiting on the wife, an appointment, or whatever. I have read more books (other than technical stuff) in the last two months than I have read in many years!

[P Doug (WA)]

I have been surprised at all the free books available. I like science fiction and there is a lot written in the 50's and 60's that I really enjoy. For the first time since my childhood I am once again an avid reader. I love having the app on the phone because I can read while waiting on the wife, an appointment, or whatever. I have read more books (other than technical stuff) in the last two months than I have read in many years!

Okay, now I see why there have been no recent updates on the Shad build! That's okay, my excuse it I've been picking up all the leaves that cover my property, that blew in from my neighbors trees!

[Lombard]

Yeah I was just looking Jeff, something like 2.5 million titles in the public domain available just at Amazon. Something for everyone.

P Doug, those leaves are black gold for my garden, once I put them through the composting process.

[Kudzu]

Okay, now I see why there have been no recent updates on the Shad build!

I have been busy building kits for clients. I am caught up now. Spent the day on it today and will have something latter tonight or tomorrow. Skin is on, but still working on the coaming so I can't finish it. Should have done it before I started on the boat.

[Lombard]

Found some half inch marine fir at a cabinet shop. I was looking to find a local source for Baltic Birch. The man had the fir sheet left over from a project he had done. He charged me twenty dollars for the 4 x 8 sheet. Less than what he said he paid, just to get it out of his shop. It seems sound except for a small flaw where a corner got crunched. Got my frames partly laid out, but still need to obtain my stock for the stringers. I'll wait until that is milled, and use actual pieces for the keel and stringers to finish laying out the frames.

In the mean time started a paddle out of some pine, no idea what kind. It is heavy with moisture. My hope is it will lose a bunch of water weight once it is shaped to final dimensions. Paddle is roughed out, but still have a good bit of material to remove.

[Lombard]

Worked on the paddle again yesterday. Got it much closer to the final shape. Just a matter of slowly removing a little mass throughout. Hoping it will lose a pound of water weight, which will help lighten it some. It weighs five pounds currently.

Rain, rain, and more rain here today. Think I will finish Sea Wolf on kindle this afternoon. It was good to read Treasure Island again.

[Lombard]

I spent hours going through a large stack of WRC at my local lumber yard. Selected the best that was to be had out of the available stock, and will need to do a bunch of scarf joints to eliminate knots. This leads me to the question, does anyone have suggestions or links to building a scarf jig for a table saw?

Carved out another paddle from a clean and very fine grained, fully quarter sawn piece of WRC this morning. Much, much lighter than the pond dried pine on the left. I will do a storm paddle with the WRC at some point as well. Got some strips cut as well.

[Kudzu]

There is a photo in my book of my scarf jig is there not? I made a big mistake and listened to some people I should not have on how to build a jig. The little cut vibrated over behind the blade it LAUNCHED it at me hitting my thumb. Never found the piece that hit or the nail and skin it took with it. My thumb looked like.... well lets just say it was mangled pretty good.

To keep this short I have to have a quick method to cut scarfs because I do a fair amount of them. Bandsaw would be safer but it was not accurate enough. It's just hard to beat a table saw. So I set out to design the safest jig I could and after a few changes I am well please with mine. It makes you stand out of the line of fire. The cut off falls on the table and would be hard to picked up by the blade. It's accurate too.

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/11/howto/scarfjig/index.htm

[Lombard]

Yeah Jeff, it is at position 288 in the kindle version of the book. Looks like a straight forward project.

[Kudzu]

Be sure and put something for handles on the jig if you build one. That is an important part! I had tried my hand at making a set for a long board sander and had never used them so I confiscated them for this project. You could use something else obviously but you want a place for both you hands. It makes you stand to the side of the blade. If you a lefty mirror the whole thing.

BTW, been meaning to say your paddles look good. I have the itch to build another one.

[Lombard]

This is what I've come up with so far Jeff. Still need to fashion a knob for the front. I am thinking, that another block mounted parallel to the kerf, and a 1inch in 12 inch wedge will positively secure the stock. It slides well enough using the double miter slots, however a little turtle wax will smooth it up nicely. Following your advise, the sled allows me to be completely out of the way of any kick backs.

[Kudzu]

That is the kind of jig that got me hurt. So I don't like this. Where you messed up is you do not want a sled. You DO NOT want anything to the right side of the blade. Your cut-off will stay on the sled and can end up behind the blade and be thrown at you.

Look at what I have, you want to the cut off to fall on the table and the sled to be right against the saw blade. That way there is little chance of the cut off being picked up by the blade.

[Lombard]

See what you mean. I will build one like yours in the near future. As it is this one puts me all the way to the left side of the saw, out of the line of fire, and will have to suffice for now. It is either push clamps or fabric. I am on a budget for this project, and choose fabric. Due caution will be observed when using this jig though. Thank you for your input.

[Kudzu]

Obviously it is your choice. but maybe I should show you the photos of thumb taken in the ER.

I would rather wait on the boat a while than risk my safety just to get on the water a little quicker. It's not worth it.

[Lombard]

I do respect your input. If you understood the hazardous nature of what I do for a living, you would know just how careful I will be. Dealing with dangerous situations and hazardous equipment has been my lot for nearly thirty years now. Like fire I won't fear it, however will respect it and use all due caution.

[Lombard]

Holy smoke Jeff, that was fast. My wife just called me, and said my package came to the house already. That is awesome, it seems like I just barely clicked confirm payment, and it was at the door. I have had time to think about how much experience I have scarfing joints. None! It is not at all like the Z splices I use to join bow wood in the handle on my band saw, so I looked around and found a good price on on the toggle clamps, and will adopt the one I built to be like the one in your Duckworks tutorial.

Thank you for your prompt service.