Small Craft Building: Week 3

This week is a short week, only two working days due to the labor's day (Monday).

Tuesday
1.Finished the scarfed transom and glued two piece together

Me scarfing the transom parts

Jade spreading glue on scarfing surface of transom

Gluing the transom

2.Started to bevel the frame

Two methods for measuring the bevel degree: first, use the sliding bevel; second, use a wood block （Vaughn showed us this method, and we found that this method is more convenient and easy to use)

Video: Using sliding bevel to measure frame bevel

3.Fixed one of those two laminated midship section
We found that our laminated midship section is not thick enough. We need some add-ons at corners. We use the cut offs of the laminated section, and shape them according to the shape of corners, then glue them together. Finished on midship today and will continue to fix another one tomorrow. Anyway, at least we can work on half of the boat tomorrow while waiting for gluing another one.

4. We decided to move our blog from typepad to blogger. And we will use Google platform (including blogger, Google docs and Buzz) for our teaching and studying communication.

Wednesday
Yesterday was really an intense day. Because several technique and skill problems had been discussed and solved by consulting with Chris and other team (thanks for Chris, Greg and James for their help and explanation on several issues), our task is to finish these components, including midship section, beveled frame, angled transom and the stem.

In the morning, the blade of band saw broke when I was cutting the stem. Then Sebastien, I and Tian replaced the blade with a new one (of course with help from Chris, the tutor as we were not sure how tight should the blade be).

In the afternoon, we assigned different task to every member of the team in order to accelerate our work.

I beveled the frame (lover topside), and next week I will finish the upper topside as well. Jade, Sebastien and I also used band saw to cut the bottom. And Sebastien and I beveled the edge of the bottom and make it exactly the size.

Lower topside beveled

Sebastien worked on the midship section. He planed the component to the exact shape according to the frame. However, he beveled one corner of the midship section off. Well, this is not a problem. We found a off cut of our laminated midship, and glued it to the corner to make it up. But we have to wait until next week to finish this part.

Sebastien shaping the midship section

Jade processed the stem, and draw the bevel lines according to the stem detail in the plan. It is really amazing that everything in the plan can be transfered to the actually processing stages. Take the stem as an example, you can transfer 2D drawing information to the real stem.

Marked stem ready for bevel

Kenny and Tian worked together to set up the frame to hold the angled transom.

Extra:
1. Chris talking about side planking:

2. Chris showing us how to sand the scarfed bottom: