Stambaugh Sailing Skiff Build in Virginia Mountains

[UCanoe_2]

The lower (future port side) half of the mast is held in the jig with wedges and blocks, protected from epoxy with plastic bags.

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All set up and ready to glue.

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It's warm in the garage this evening, so I applied cold packs to the epoxy containers.

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Sorry, there are no action shots of the epoxy application. Here, the glue up is completed. There are 24 clamps in the photo.

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[UCanoe_2]

(Excluding clamps hanging on wall!)

[UCanoe_2]

Uh-oh. There are several spots where there are gaps in the epoxy joints between the mast halves. I think these are places where there were Quick Grip clamps, which are quick but not strong. These places needed clamps with more beef to compensate for bowing in the wood.

Some of the gaps will accept an .008" feeler gauge,

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... and there are places where the entire blade will go into the crack. Not good.

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The gaps are less than 1/16" wide -- not big enough to be sure of filling them reliably with epoxy. So the first step is exploratory surgery with the circular saw.

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We'll work out some solutions tomorrow; stay tuned.

[UCanoe_2]

Exploratory surgery with the circular saw. I have to find the bottom of the gap, and enlarge it enough to accept epoxy.

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Cutting a groove with the router.

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[UCanoe_2]

Fitting a spline.

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A spline glued in place and planed flush with the mast surface. This is the prettiest one. Others rely more heavily on those "gap filling properties of epoxy."

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The mast blank planed square until I ran out of patience. Forward side of mast shown; aft side, underneath, is already good and square.

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[Osborne Russell]

Like putting garlic cloves in a roast!

[UCanoe_2]

...but not as tasty, Osborne, and hard to chew.

I'm apprehensive about this fix. I have visions of the mast splintering into toothpicks at the first strong gust. Of course it won't.

A really sanitary way to fix the glue voids would have been to rip the halves down the middle and glue them back together. That would have been faster than fooling with the splines. The blank would have lost some thickness, which would require gluing on another piece.

My original thought was that the end of the mast toward the double doors would be the top. Being a right handed person, and working with the mast toward my right, that would be the conventional view.

However, the defects are in the 2/3 of the mast closer to the doors. It makes sense to have any questionable spots in the thicker part of the mast. So, we are re-orienting and the end toward the camera in #145 will now be the top.

[UCanoe_2]

I haven't posted in quite a while, but I have not been idle. My eight-siding gauge sort of worked. The pencil version was abandoned because the points kept breaking. Mark III used the points of screws to scribe. That was not entirely satisfactory, because the screws got caught in the grain of the wood and deflected the gauge. But, I got the mast laid out and planed.

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You can probably tell I like old tools. This plane is not a collectible item, but a good old user, Craftsman made by Sargent ca. 1940s, junk shop find.

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I added V blocks to the spar jig for the rounding process.

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Eight siding with the power plane.

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[UCanoe_2]

More planing. This time the tool is my dad's 1950s Sears Dunlap smooth plane, again made by Sargent. Dunlap was the Sears economy line, but nevertheless the iron on this plane takes and holds a nice sharp edge.

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Mast is shaped, and now we are testing the bending characteristics. For this unstayed mast, the sailmaker needs to know how much it will bend to shape the luff to the correct curve. The photo barely shows the pink string that establishes a straight line. The bucket really is not touching the ground, and it's loaded with 37 lbs of lead and bricks.

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Now that the mast's curve is known, the sailmaker can complete the sail. Stuart Hopkins at Dabbler really did an awesome job.

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[UCanoe_2]

Laying out and cutting the tenon at the heel of the mast.....

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...and using a V-block as a jig to drill the bee hole.

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[UCanoe_2]

Time for varnish at last! I'm using Total Boat Halcyon from Jamestown Distributors. It's a water-based polyurethane that allows recoating after an hour drying time. Instead of a can, it comes in a neat plastic bottle that can be resealed to exclude air from the leftover varnish.

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[UCanoe_2]

On to the sprit, smaller and simpler than the mast. Ripping the stock to size on the bandsaw.

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Eight siding in progress.

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Drilling the forward end of the sprit to create a notch for the snotter*. It's easier and more accurate to drill holes while there are still square, flat surfaces, rather than waiting until the spar is round.

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* A nautical term created by middle school boys.

[UCanoe_2]

Rounding and tapering the sprit continues.

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Laying out and cutting the tenon that fits the sail's clew. Oops, it came out a little off center, but will still be functional.

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Roughing out the snotter notch with a coping saw.

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Trial fit with an old rope. I'm surprised how freely it runs, and how little friction.

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[UCanoe_2]

Tapering and rounding end of sprit.

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Experimented with the strip sander for sanding the sprit. The "inside out sanding belt" trick did not work so well for me on the mast. This was easier and gave a better result, but it was still hard to get an even finish. I still had to use the random orbital sander and the palm sander.

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Varnishing.

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Completed mast and sprit stowed on the big shelf. Blocks screwed to shelf prevent them from rolling off.

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[UCanoe_2]

Today I made some revisions on the transom. I had drilled holes to mount the gudgeons from the inside surface of the transom. Oops, due to offset holes the gudgeons did not fit when I tried to install them on the outside of the transom. So, I drilled the holes right way round and made a template to ensure the hardware will be installed properly.

Attachment 71637

Then I drilled the holes oversize and filled them with epoxy. Template will ensure that new holes for mounting hardware with #10 machine screws will go in exactly the right places.

Attachment 71638

[UCanoe_2]

I digressed for a while to work on my FIL's old Williams & Hussey molder/planer. It is mounted on a nicely made workbench, but oriented the wrong way for my shop space. So I turned the machine 90 degrees on the bench. This required remounting the motor, and rewiring it to change the direction of rotation. I added some homemade guards to keep my fingers out of the drive belt.

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[UCanoe_2]

Now it's time to work on the stem. I had subcontracted dressing some of the rough cut lumber to students at the vocational center where I worked. Unfortunately, their measuring skills need improvement. One piece of Andiroba (carapa) came back as two pieces glued together with Titebond, with serious checking. This was not something I wanted in the stem of my boat.

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I found another nice piece of lumber, believed to be sapele, which was not quite wide enough. I epoxied it to an offcut from another good piece of Andiroba.

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Then I used the patterns taken from the lofting to lay out the shape.

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As drawn, the lower end of the inner stem did not seem to have enough beef. I added wood at the foot, and created a small ledge for the forward deck to rest on.

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[UCanoe_2]

Shaping the inner stem with a Stanley #20 compass plane. For me, this tool has had a pretty steep learning curve.

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I used the inner stem to mark the aft side of the outer stem, and cut it to match. Then I clamped them together, and used the horizontal boring setup on the ShopSmith to drill for screws and a bow eye. The white string is attached to a screw on the centerline of the ShopSmith headstock, and helps align the drill with the layout markings.

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Gravity is my friend, keeping all parts in place on the table. I don't have to change the machine setup to drill pilot holes and counterbores.

Here are the mostly finished inner and outer stem pieces fastened together. The galvanized bolt is a temporary substitute for a bronze bow eye.

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[UCanoe_2]

Just as I was setting up to drill for screws holding the inner and outer stems together, life interfered with boatbuilding.

My wife came in from a walk to the mailbox, and announced that there was a dead deer next to our driveway, just across the property line in our neighbor's field. We walked out to investigate.

It turned out the deer was not dead, but badly injured. As we approached, he crawled through a hole in the fence and across the driveway onto our property. He had been hit by a car. The left hip was dislocated, and the left hind leg was useless. The right hind leg had been amputated, with bone sticking out. The deer was dragging himself along with his front legs and the stump of the right hind leg.

Clearly these were not survivable injuries, and it was euthanasia time. We won't let a quantity of good venison go to waste. Here is the deer ready for butchering.

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Our freezer is already full with meat from another deer, so we have borrowed a friend's pressure canner to preserve the new batch.

Sorry if this dead deer talk offends anyone, but it is a fact of life out here in the country. If you eat meat, you have to come to terms with the killing your diet requires. You either kill the animal yourself, or you hire a hit man.

Boatbuilding will resume after we finish canning all this venison!

[Breakaway]

Good job. The meat at the point of impact will be ruined, but still plenty there.

How did you kill it? Hammer blow?

Did you need to contact authorities?

Here in New York, in order to take a roadkill deer legally, one needs either a conservation officer or a state policeman to sign off on the appropriate form. And it must be a deer that you yourself has hit with the car.

Kevin

[leikec]

Forgive me if you already mentioned it, but what is the maximum diameter of the finished mast?

Really enjoying this thread!

Jeff C

[UCanoe_2]

Good job. The meat at the point of impact will be ruined, but still plenty there.

How did you kill it? Hammer blow?



Did you need to contact authorities?



Here in New York, in order to take a roadkill deer legally, one needs either a conservation officer or a state policeman to sign off on the appropriate form. And it must be a deer that you yourself has hit with the car.



Kevin

One shot from a .30-30.

I just checked it in online with the Dept. of Wildlife Resources harvest reporting system.

I bet that NY rule is often "observed in the breach" in rural areas. I know of no such rule in Virginia. It was a mortally wounded deer on my own property, and it is hunting season.

Some years back, a non-hunting neighbor came and asked for help with a deer on her property that had gotten tangled up in a fence. By the time I got there the deer was dead from a broken neck. The neighbor didn't want to eat an animal that she had seen die.

I didn't have time to butcher the deer, so my wife took it to a processor. He could not legally handle a deer that had not been checked in. He called the game warden, who decided it was road kill, and the processor tagged it as such.

We shared the meat with with a friend who is a carnivorous NRA member married to a vegan anti-hunter. I included a copy of the "road kill" tag, thinking the anti-hunting wife would feel better if she knew the deer had met an accidental death.

"ROAD KILL!" she exclaimed. "I'm gonna put this tag on the fridge, so Gary and the boys will know they are eating ROAD KILL!"

[UCanoe_2]

Forgive me if you already mentioned it, but what is the maximum diameter of the finished mast?

Really enjoying this thread!

Jeff C

Thanks, Jeff. The mast is a shade under 3", say 2-15/16".

[UCanoe_2]

So far we have canned 17 pints of venison, and probably are not yet halfway. A pint is roughly equal to a pound of meat, although as inefficient novice canners I don't think we are putting a pound in each jar. It sure will be nice to have a stash during this Covid winter, to minimize trips to the supermarket.

The glass top over the large burner on our electric range is broken and awaiting repair. Normally we would use that large burner for the pressure canner. Instead, we are using a Coleman propane stove run off a 20 lb propane tank.

It's too cold and windy to conduct the canning operation outside. I set up the stove indoors in our "mud room" instead, cracking the windows to allow ventilation. When the smoke alarm went off due to an elevated carbon monoxide level, I realized it was necessary to work with the windows wide open. Fortunately this room can be closed off from the rest of the house, so we are not losing too much heat.

[Breakaway]

^^^

Kevin

[UCanoe_2]

How did you kill it? Hammer blow?

Kevin

Kevin, just in case anybody is tempted to try killing a deer by hitting it with a hammer, I should add a safety warning:

DON'T TRY IT! A deer's hooves and antlers are weapons. Even an apparently dead deer can suddenly come back to life and inflict serious or fatal injuries. If you have to dispatch a deer, use a firearm or at least a bow, or call law enforcement.

After shooting this deer I watched it to make sure it was dead. I watched even after my wife, a retired nurse, said it was dead, for about 20 minutes.

Once I finally approached, I took a long stick and poked the deer's eye. It was unresponsive. Then I walked back to the house and got the tractor to move the deer. A strong young neighbor happened to come along to help load. It was close to an hour after shooting the deer before we tried to move it.

[ulav8r]

Canned venison is great in vegatable soup.

[UCanoe_2]

Thanks for the suggestion, ulav8r. Pretty good in stew and chili as well.

The canning marathon is finished, with a total of 33 pints. Figure one pint is about one pound. We also have a few good sized roasts and a few small roasts from this deer. A smaller deer from archery season was already in the freezer.

I guesstimate we have about 60 pounds of venison. That's 60 pounds less meat to buy from the Covid-infested supermarkets.

[UCanoe_2]

Here's the canning operation in progress....

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....and some of the results.

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[UCanoe_2]

OK, let's get back to boatbuilding. Here is another view of the operation I was setting up when the deer came along. This photo gives a better idea of how I used a simple string to align the drilling.

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Drilling the pilot holes for 4 inch #14 screws to hold the stem halves together. This operation required the use of three different drill bits in a series of four steps. The quick release 1/4" hex chuck allows changing drills without disturbing alignment of the setup. After drilling a hole I slide the ShopSmith headstock aft, swap drills, and slide the headstock back in position for the next step.

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Here I am drilling to the absolute maximum depth with the #14 tapered drill from a W.L. Fuller set. I had to remove the countersink to obtain maximum drilling depth for 4 inch screws.

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The drill bits came out smoking for the first couple holes. After that, I lubricated the drills with graphite and everything ran much cooler. Unlike oil or wax, graphite will not interfere with epoxy adhesion.

The versatility of the ShopSmith also causes one of its shortcomings. The multiple adjustment points can create just a little wiggle room, which is cumulative. I noticed the table flexing when I drilled these deep holes. To counteract the flex, I wedged blocks of wood between the table and the way tubes.

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[jonesmatt1957]

I am jealous. They sure want a lot for the William and Hussey units now.

[UCanoe_2]

I am jealous. They sure want a lot for the William and Hussey units now.

Yes, the manufacturer is mighty proud of them, with justification. The thought of making elliptical molding with the special jig blows my mind, although I probably will never do it.

I read on the Old Woodworking Machinery forum that W&H recently sold out to Original Saw Co., which makes radial arm saws to the old cast iron DeWalt designs. Sounds like a good match.

[UCanoe_2]

The big #14 x 4" wood screws arrived yesterday, so I could do trial assembly of the stem.

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Then I glassed and assembled the centerboard case. There are only a few pictures, because I was busy mixing epoxy. Here the interior of the CB case is glassed.

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I built up a fillet of epoxy and Cab-o-Sil where the sides of the case join the headlogs. For the port side of the case, the glass on the side also covers this fillet. After joining the two halves of the case, I applied corresponding fillets on the starboard side and covered them with fiberglass tape. It was a messy job, involving poking around inside the CB case with a dowel and epoxy covered slippery (gloved) fingers. If you look inside the case the tape is not pretty, but it should be waterproof.

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The case glued up. Like I said, this was a messy operation. There will be cleanup on the agenda after the epoxy cures.

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[UCanoe_2]

After three tries, the glass tape inside the ends of the centerboard case is finally lying flat without bubbles underneath.

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While the epoxy was curing, I made a mockup of the centerboard pivot pin fitting into the case. I was inspired by oferraz's treatment with pipe fittings.

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I got some 1/2" red brass pipe nipples. Their ID is about 5/8". I thought that would be too loose for a 1/2" pin. So I am experimenting with a hole in the bedlog threaded for a pipe plug.

Oversized hole (1-1/4") drilled in bedlog and filled with epoxy.

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[UCanoe_2]

Now for the mockup, made from scrap, of the fitting for the CB pin in the bedlogs. I drilled a 3/4" counterbore 3/4" deep, then drilled a 1/2" hole the rest of the way through the bedlog. Then I tapped the counterbore for a brass 1/2" NPT pipe plug.

Here's the tapping setup with the ShopSmith. The workpiece was clamped in exactly the same position for drilling through hole, counterboring, and tapping. The ShopSmith is not powered in this photo, only holding everything in alignment and maintaining pressure for the tapping operation. An old dull countersink engages the lathe center hole at the top of the tap. I turned the tap with a wrench. The epoxy is soft, so starting the tap was not too difficult. As the tap went deeper, more torque was required.

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Here is a not very clear photo of the hole, with tapped counterbore and smaller hole for the CB pin. Looks like I neglected to get a picture of the pipe plug. The threads don't extend as far as I would like, and need to be cut further with a bottoming tap.

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