9th April 2012
St Lucia getaway
Have been away in the Caribbean for some rest and relaxation. Actually a gift to my wife from herboss for 35years service. All bosses should be like that. Great time and wonderful peopl but it is always nice to be back home, and so back to the dinghy now that the weather is improved.
My wife keeps asking " Does it look like a boat yet?" My answer is "Only if you know what the parts of a boat look like." I hadn't realized how much time it takes to make all the different parts at the beginning - stations, thwarts, stems (inner and outer), stern pieces and I'm still only halfway to getting all the various pieces glued, laminated and cut. And then there are the pieces (molds) that have to be made so that the 'pieces' can be shaped.
My studio is gradually getting more cluttered than it was. Just the tools take up a lot of space but then something else I didn't think about and reckon on was how much waste wood there is from building a boat. I hate to see that but there is no alternative as what to do with the scraps from a round shape cut from a square. Kindling anyone?
Monday, April 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Art Background
My art training continues to be useful.
I was trained as a commercial artist and all my life many skills that I had learned in that training have proved over and over to be useful in so many different ways.
Today's job in the studio was to transfer various shapes from the plans onto plywood ready for cutting. I could have cut out the shapes and drawn around them on the plywood. I could have used a sharp point, like a compass, push pin or nail to mark various points through the plan onto the plywood. None of these appealed to me so after some thinking (there is lots of this in boat building I think!), I remembered how we learned to transfer designs from one surface to another. Essentially it was a method of creating ones own carbon paper. Simple and it works.
Step 1 Using a soft pencil - 2B will do - scribble on the back of the plans where the lines you want trace are-
Step 2 Turn the plans over onto the plywood and using a hard pencil trace over the lines on the plans transferring the graphite from the pencil scribbles onto the plywood.
The lines on the plywood should be quite visible as long as enough graphite was scribbled onto the back of the plans.
I was trained as a commercial artist and all my life many skills that I had learned in that training have proved over and over to be useful in so many different ways.
Today's job in the studio was to transfer various shapes from the plans onto plywood ready for cutting. I could have cut out the shapes and drawn around them on the plywood. I could have used a sharp point, like a compass, push pin or nail to mark various points through the plan onto the plywood. None of these appealed to me so after some thinking (there is lots of this in boat building I think!), I remembered how we learned to transfer designs from one surface to another. Essentially it was a method of creating ones own carbon paper. Simple and it works.
Step 1 Using a soft pencil - 2B will do - scribble on the back of the plans where the lines you want trace are-
Step 2 Turn the plans over onto the plywood and using a hard pencil trace over the lines on the plans transferring the graphite from the pencil scribbles onto the plywood.
The lines on the plywood should be quite visible as long as enough graphite was scribbled onto the back of the plans.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday 30th Jan 2012
Not blogged for a while as the studio has been too cold for working in (or 'in which to work').
Have been reading a bit though after having bought a couple of books. There is enough info in the both to keep the mind working for the next 20 years. I hadn't realized (ignorance really) that I would be treated to such a huge new vocabulary when I began this project. Who knows what 'spiling' is for instance. As I said enough to keep one going for ages.
The books are - How to build glued lapstrake wooden boats by John Brooks
Clinker Plywood Boatbuilding Manual by Iain Oughtred
Was in the studio today to cut out pices of 1/8" plywood for laminating for the stem and centre frame. As these don't have to be deadly accurate I used the hand circualar saw. Good job too. Cut them for the centre frame at 1 1/8" rady to plane to a finish of 7/8"
Not blogged for a while as the studio has been too cold for working in (or 'in which to work').
Have been reading a bit though after having bought a couple of books. There is enough info in the both to keep the mind working for the next 20 years. I hadn't realized (ignorance really) that I would be treated to such a huge new vocabulary when I began this project. Who knows what 'spiling' is for instance. As I said enough to keep one going for ages.
The books are - How to build glued lapstrake wooden boats by John Brooks
Clinker Plywood Boatbuilding Manual by Iain Oughtred
Was in the studio today to cut out pices of 1/8" plywood for laminating for the stem and centre frame. As these don't have to be deadly accurate I used the hand circualar saw. Good job too. Cut them for the centre frame at 1 1/8" rady to plane to a finish of 7/8"
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