Boiling wood and the obvious culinary metaphor

Now that the boat is flipped over, things are moving pretty fast.

The first order of business is to get some frames into the boat. This step requires the ever popular steam bending process. But wait! Our gurus have decided our steam boxes don't get hot enough (although a perfect steam box would be 212 degrees, in reality they are around 180). So they acquired a cement trough big enough to boil the frames. No question, the surrounding environment will be 212. Here is Brian doing the sous chef thing over the boiler. He is in charge of timing. Just like pasta... if the frames are in there too long, they get too limp, but if you don't go long enough, they can break. You want them al dente, which for frames this thick, is about an hour.


Once a frame is pulled out of the boiler, things happen fast. There are 2 of us in the boat which step on the frame, trying to line it up where we want it (we marked lines up and down the boat where the frames should go... every 9"). This gets about 80 or 90% of the bend. Then we clamp the frame at the sheer (top) and as we continue to step on the frame, we hammer the top of it to force it into submission.

Not only do we have to bend the frame to the curve of the boat, there is also some severe twist in the front and the back. We never broke a frame due to the bend, it was always on the twist. But the boiler worked great... out of 70 frames, we only broke four, two of which we were able to still use (for a shorter frame). Good thing, since we only had 2 extra frames when all was said and done.

But we aren't done yet! To hold the frames in place, you rivet through each plank. Since we were doing a frame every 5 minutes or so, we couldn't actually do the riveting. We just put the nails in and left them poking out. This made for a medieval torture device for the 2 suckers in the boat, especially at the ends of the boat where things get narrow. Look closely and you can see all the nails in this picture.

But once everything was riveted (nearly 1000 rivets... took the 4 of us about a day) and the molds all taken out, you get some fabulous picture taking opportunities. Oh, and the boiling turned the skin of the oak frames black (actually, a little purplish). We think that it is just a reaction between the iron and the wood being boiled in it. What a cool contrast though.


The orange stuff is red lead... keeps the bugs out.

We also made floor timbers. These guys are custom fit at each set of frames. They will be bolted into the keel and riveted to the frames. If they look tricky to fit... they are even trickier than you think. Not only do they take the shape of the cross section of the boat, they are over an inch thick, so you have to take into account that the cross section of the boat changes over the course of the thickness of the floor timber. In other words, bevel them, especially in the fore and aft sections.


On a personal note... the kayak is getting a few fresh coats of varnish. That will teach me to use cheap varnish on a boat. Unfortunately, the shop is really, really dusty. Even with my little tent, I still get lots of dust into the drying varnish. I didn't realize until now how good I had it in my basement. Oh well, it's a boat, not a piece of furniture.

Roll er' over

Finally, no more planking. Here she is, with a little mood lighting.


At the apprenticeshop, a completed planking is a good excuse for a party. The planking party was fabulous. We lit up the shop with christmas lights and the glow was something to behold. There are traditions as well, such as beer pong on the lofting boards, Maker's Mark, and something called a wave test (after the Maker's Mark, you roll across the boat as a wave would. Not sure if this is a valid test for the boat. . . I have a suspicion that it is to get the builders a little dizzy, and since we built a 28 foot boat, we got real dizzy).


We tried, but we couldn't keep partying forever. Lots more to do! We prepared the Oak stock for the frames. We pickle these in the ocean in preparation for steaming. Turns out that the steam isn't what allows you to bend the frames, it is the heating of the water already in the wood. Dry wood will not bend well, as the steam only penetrates 1/16" deep. There has been a rash of frame stock being lost to Neptune recently. Here are our attempts to keep the frames close at hand until we need them.

After a week, they are still floating right next to our dock.

Well, this post is called roll er' over, but we can't do that quite yet. We've had to caulk the rabbet with cotton, fill in all the holes from the rivets with filler, sand her down, and mark the waterline. The waterline marking is pretty low tech. You level off the waterline mark (which we got from the plans and is marked on the stem and stern) away from the boat and tie 2 strings between these level sticks located for and aft. Then one person sights along the 2 strings and tells the other person standing next to the boat with a pencil whether to move up or down.


OK, Now we can roll her. The boat, with all the molds inside, weighs in the neighborhood of 1000 lbs. Since there are a bunch of apprentices hanging around, it really is not a lot of weight. The problem is rolling her in a controlled fashion so that the plank edges don't get squished. So we build some wheels for the boat. The lofting came in handy again. I pulled it out and then marked down my constraints. First, the boat should turn and be level on the waterline when finished, high enough off the ground so the back of the boat doesn't hit. Second, the widest point of the boat, with the wheel and the mold, does not exceed 10 feet, so we don't hit the ceiling. Finally, the inside diameter of the wheel has to be wide enough so that the center of the boat doesn't hit the ground when rolling. With the lofting I was able to play around with circles of different diameters, centered at different places. When I had what I needed, making the circles was easy. It was just like making a mold (see prior post). Here is the result.

The wheels are attached to the mold and the keel. They also have padded "spokes" which will support the boat without crushing the plank edges as things move over. There is also a little bit of sideways support to keep the wheels from racking one way or another. Well, enough theory, time to test it out (if you want a bigger view, click on the video which will take you to You Tube where you can make it full screen).

The last "still planking" post

OK, we are really almost done this time. 3 planks to go. We've even scheduled our planking party for 5-7pm, March 6. You're invited. Rather than wait for that momentous occasion for a blog update, I figured I'd post about some other goings on in the shop.

But first, the obligatory progress shots....

Riveting is getting interesting. The tight squeeze for the inside guy can make one a little moody. To rivet one plank, you're down there for about 3 hours. This is the end of one such run.
I just realized going back through some of the pictures I've posted that most were taken after Friday clean up. Here is a more realistic picture of our shop, except usually those sawhorses would have something on them.

Upstairs there are 3 boats getting started. Two new apprentices, instead of building a susan skiff (of which we have 4 for sale already) are building a 1/2 Peapod. Apparently it is for taking to trade shows and the like. Not sure if it will row very well.


As for boats that will float, we build those too. The first is a Lawley tender. The porcupine look is caused by all the zip ties they used when steaming in the oak frames. They are a lot easier (and cheaper) than about 200 clamps.


But for sheer sexiness, you can't really beat this boat. This is a Abeking and Rassmusen tender. Check out the stern on this one.


Of course, sexiness has its problems. That curvy back end caused both garboards (that is, the bottom plank that meets the keel) to crack in the back, despite steaming.

I should mention both of these boats are for sale. They are being built on speculation. Hopefully come spring someone with a big boat they need to row out to will be looking to replace that old
plastic dingy (Jimbo, Muzzy?).

It is fun to go up and look at these tiny little boats. I think we could fit 5 or 6 of these boats into our hull.

In other news, our woodturning class started. This past week I turned a mallet. I'm sure woodturning is fun, but right now, it is actually kind of a chore. After 9 hours in the shop, I have to drive 40 minutes for a 3 hours class, and I don't get home until 10:00. Maybe someday I'll be glad I learned.

On a more fun side project note, I'm building a 1/2 hull model. I've been scrounging the library for "my boat." There are limitless designs out there, and I've always been drawn to the turn of the century ocean racers. The ones with the long overhangs, curvy transoms and spoon bows. Of course, those boats were all 100 feet long. Well, around 1930, Phillip Rhodes designed a few boats that look like these classic racers, but in a more managable size. This one is designed at 24 feet.



Could this dream become a reality someday? We'll see.

Stay tuned. Hopefully next post I'll figure out how to do video and we'll get a home movie of the boat flip.

Still Planking, Part 2

The days are getting longer, the shop is getting warmer, and the boat is getting heavier. Only a few more planks to go.



It is getting pretty cozy underneath the boat. Jamie recently went out and bought us some Christmas lights to hang up inside. The mood lighting is nice. I'll have to get a late night picture for the next post. We also have a new team member, Dylan, so there are 4 of us now.

The planking is getting a little more aesthetically tricky. Now that we are getting to the very end, we are running out of room for the plank edges to run. We are constrained by where the last plank was placed and where we know the final plank must go. We want a nice fair curve that results in a plank that starts wide in the middle and ends up skinny at the ends. It shouldn't go from wide to skinny, then back to wide again, which is known as fishtailing. We are running a delicate balance in the front end of the boat between having a fishtail or having a sheer line (that final plank line) that is too flat (i.e. not fair... i.e. ugly). This is the kind of stuff you don't learn from a book or a two week boatbuilding course. You have to build the whole thing. Now I know to pay a lot more attention in the lining off phase (you can read more about that on a prior post... we took our best shot, but we didn't know the implications... now we do).

Now a little shout out for my IBM compatriots (** geek alert **)... this planking stuff has all sorts of opportunity for lean manufacturing. I'm constantly doing tact time calculations on the process and finding tombstones. There were 3 of us working on a process that takes 1 person about 1 week/plank. We should be able to do 3 planks/week then right? Our average for the last month and a half has been 2, an output that would have any mfg manager breathing down my neck (our managers are pretty lenient here.... probably has something to do with our pay scale) Now that we have an extra person, our potential goes up to 4 planks/week, but this potential is mitigated by the reality that we can only work on 2 planks at a time on the boat (one on each side). But there is plenty of work that one can do on a plank before you get to the boat (see Planking! post from last Dec.) It is the classic case of 4 rowers going at a steady pace being able to go faster than 4 at different paces. We'll see how it turns out. I wonder if the IMEC conference would accept a paper on this.

In other news, I met Nicole out in the White Mountains for some snowshoeing. We climbed Mt. Madison on a beautiful Feb. day. The views were fabulous, although the wind was a little rough. Nicole didn't like her crampons very much.

Still Planking

Here are the progress shots . . .


The 2 planks clamped on are now riveted, so that is 11 planks down, 15 to go. I'm currently working on #13, the mid-way plank! We are pushing hard to get 5 planks on every other week. At this rate we should be done planking by the end of February.

Another milestone just reached : we are now planked to the waterline everywhere on the boat, meaning she really is a boat now! It will float (I hope).

In other shop news, 3 other boats almost completed.

The Peapod . . .


The Herreshof 12 1/2 . . .


And the Brave Little Mouse . . .

As you can well imagine, the shop is a beautiful place to be right now. The big boats are coming along and the small boats are getting their final paint jobs and varnish. The joy of seeing these boats completed is somewhat tempered by the lack of new commissions. We are starting 2 new boats (2 different types of yacht tenders) this month on speculation. Hopefully we'll get some good new projects for the summer.

Outside of the shop . . . it's shrimp season! I can stop on the side of the road and pick up a pound of the sweetest little shrimp I've ever tasted for $1.25. I'm a little bummed the guy took Sunday off, I was really looking forward to ceviche tonight.

Interlude - Mexico

Happy New Year! Nicole and I just got back from a couple weeks in Mexico. Our friends Rachel and Noam also came down, as well as a bunch of folks from Nicole's family. Her parents and sister/brother-in-law now own this place in Zihuatanejo...

With this view........


It was pretty much heaven. A vacation from my vacation, as it were. We spent several mornings learning how to surf. This was the first day.... by the 3rd day we were in waves as big as ourselves. It was great, but after about 3 hours of breathing salt water, Corona starts to look awfully good, even for a beer snob like myself.


We also did a lot of cooking, and shopping in the markets. The seafood and fish was particularly good, but all the veggies were fresh and wonderful.

It was Christmas, so pinatas were everywhere.....
We did a cooking class one day. The cooking part wasn't all that great (we made soup), but the trip to the market was wonderful. She described how to handle all the weird stuff in the market. Here is a dish I made up for our last night in Mexico.... Grilled Octopus and Cactus over a Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa.


We also got a little sailing, hiking and snorkeling in. We hiked a new volcano. This is unique in the world.... a volcano, whose birth was witnessed in modern times. In 1942, this land was completely flat. A farmer was tilling his fields when the ground started to bubble. He called his friends over to try and fill the holes with dirt. It didn't work. 9 days later, the volcano was formed (about 1000 feet of vertical above the plain) and a town was destroyed in the lava flow. The remains of the church are still there. The church was brand new and almost finished. They were working on the 2nd tower when the volcano erupted.

This is the 2nd floor of the church... the lava flow is about 1 story high.


Back to work tomorrow!

Planking!

Well if it was a canoe, we'd be about done planking by now. But it's not, so we'll be planking for another couple of months. Not sure if I mentioned this last time, but there will be 26 planks on the boat when it is all done... 13 per side. This is a lapstrake boat, meaning the planks will overlap 1" to give it a very traditional look.


Putting on a plank takes about a week. Theoretically, our team of 3 should be putting on 3 planks a week, but theory and reality don't always meet. Here are the steps....

1) Choose a few boards from the pile
2) Resaw (the thick ones) or plane down to 3/4"
3) Drill out knots and bung
4) Create Spiling Planks / pick up points on the boat
5) Layout and scarph 3 or 4 boards together
6) Plane the entire thing down to the final 5/8" thickness
7) Transfer Spiling marks, batten off, cut top (bottom of boat) edge to line, bottom edge roughly
8) Steam the ends of the plank to get the twist in
9) Fit the top edge and ends
10) Mark the bottom edge
11) Batten off and cut bottom edge
12) Cut gains (1/2 laps at the end of the planks where the overlap tapers to nothing)
13) Sand
14) Rivet
15) Create bevel to accept next plank

We've got a couple months, so I'll post pictures of these steps (and to make it fun, I won't be doing it in order) along with a progress picture.

Anyhow... we've almost got 6 planks on. The 6th just needs to be riveted. Here is the port side. The bottom "plank" is for spiling. It is a temporary, skinny plank we put on the boat. The plank above it is marked where the next plank needs to land, and the molds below it are also marked (remember lining off?). To pick up these points, we use a compass set at a fixed radius and create arcs on the spliling plank. Now it is a simple trick of geometry to find out where those arcs were originated from when we put this spiling splank on the new plank.


Here is the spiling plank laid out on a set of new boards. Using the information on the spiling plank we'll align the new boards in such a way that when we scarph (glue) them together, we'll get a long cedar board with the appropriate bend which will allow us to get the correct pattern out.


Enough of boats for now. Off to Mexico!