The Magic of Power Tools and Epoxy

Allows you to turn simple planks of wood like this:

into useful things like this leeboard:

Actually if the truth is to be told, those top boards are for the rudder. I forgot to take a photo of the before when making the leeboard. This is as much because I was in a rush to get the laminating done before heading off to Helens’ place, as it was because of my apprehension towards this part of the project. Also it doesn’t show well in the photo but I used two strips of cedar wood to make the board lighter, and quite handsome.

I originally saw making the leeboard and rudder as a difficult job but I quickly discovered that power tools like belt sanders and jigsaws do a great job of breaking the project down into more manageable chunks. So Sunday was spent creating lots of sawdust.

Monday (go Labour weekend!) I attacked the problem of how getting the right shape on the top of the iako mounting blocks. Because the ends of the iako dip down the tops can’t be flat. But first off Nico and I made a trip to Bunnings to get some 28mm dowel and tomato plants for the vegetable garden (well truth be told Nico just went for the slide). Back at home and the tomatoes planted, how do we solve the problem of the mounting blocks? Out with the trusted belt sander again, clamp it on its side to the bench and like magic we have a bench sander.

Completed blocks:

Then it was time to glue them to the ama. I used epoxy glue, followed by fillet along the edges of an epoxy and sawdust mix then the front and back glassed with a piece of 300gm fibreglass cloth:

Other jobs completed were gluing the planks together for the rudder & boom jaws and sanding down the boom. Out of interest I laid out the sail and boom to measure the curvature of the boom against the foot of the sail, a perfect fit! I have to hand it to Gary, because the when you set up the jig for laminating the boom, there is a certain amount of spring-back from that needs to be taken into consideration and his measurements were perfect!

So at the end of week thirty seven we are soooooo close. All that remains to be done is to shape the rudder, make the boom jaw, attach the fittings like blocks & cleats and to get painting!

Stay tuned for water trials…..

Slow Weekend but Pretty Pictures

Once again other priorities interrupt my plans for the weekend. First off I organise a BBQ for Saturday afternoon, thinking I’ll have the morning free to work on the canoe. Think again, turns out I did work on a boat, just not mine. Viking’s decks needed scrubbing after moss started growing over winter.

Nico joined me and while I originally had him below with Thomas and a puzzle, he quickly came above deck to help me splash water around. I should have figured that would keep him occupied and happy. Fortunately the weather helped as well. One thing I did get done for the canoe, was to buy Nico a lifejacket with the all important pictures of Nemo and Dory on the front.

Sunday I was at a bit of a loss on what to do next. I had hoped to get the blocks that will be used to connect the ama to the iako glued on, but I realised that I didn’t have a clue on where to place them. So I un-wrapped the canoe and laid it out on the deck:

Much to my surprise Nico couldn’t wait to get in, which was a great relief to me since the last time I tried he wouldn’t have a bar of it. Goes to show what a difference even a couple of m0nths can make.

I mounted a string along the centre-line of the hull to measure the correct distance between the hull and the ama. What I did discover was that my iakos’ are quite long and I can trim some off the ends. The plans call for a distance of 1.4m between the centre of the hull and the centre of the ama, which is a lot less than what you see in the pictures.

Once I’d measured the correct distance and marked off the all the placements I still wasn’t any wiser on how high the blocks needed to be. So after much dithering I got to thinking on how I could build the frame to make the boom on. That developed into making out the points and then building it. So that after Nico and Eloise were put to bed I laminated the boom on the frame.

So at the end of week thirty six, I’m not yet finished with the ama, but I do have the beginnings of a boom.

10/10/10

Must be a lucky day, we spent it at Ambury park open day. Things went superbly. We followed some boys out of the car park, who were super excited and Nico picked up their mood and was un-stoppable from there on in. We spent close to 5 hours there eating, bouncing on castles and petting Lamas.

Back to the canoe, Saturday I glassed the other side of the ama, and Sunday after we got back from the park I sanded back some of the epoxy runs.

So at the end of week thirty five the base ama is ready to have the iako attachment points made and glued on.

Spring is Here!

What a beautiful weather we had! Not even a bout of gastric flu could spoil it (thanks to a dose of imodium).

After two weeks of inactivity I’ve pulled finger and moved a little forward. During the week I called Martin and got the wood I needed for the boom (white cedar), rudder and tiller (ash). Which I collected on Thursday. My planned big push for the weekend was to get both sides of the ama glassed.

Saturday morning Nico and I laid out, then measured the fibreglass for cutting. Together we cut the sheet in half and rolled them up, Nico was a great help!

Then it was time to don the pink gloves and get dirty with epoxy again. This is similar to how surfboards are made and it got me thinking that I could use the spare foam I have to make a kicking board for Nico and later Eloise. glassing it may be a bit extreme but it will last!

Sunday morning with the epoxy dry enough to cut I trimmed off the excess cloth and quickly realised that I had been a bit optimistic in my thinking; the other side will have to wait till next weekend.

End of week thirty four (week thirty three was washed away) and one side of the ama has been glassed. Next week I will fair the edge of the fibreglass then glass over the other side. No photo of the progress to date; we went to Helen’s house at Muriwai beach Sunday afternoon and it was dark by the time we got home. However Nico likes his blackboard: