Tempus Fugit

Another summer seems to have vanished like a sugar cube in a cup of hot coffee.   I suppose I got to paddle quite a bit and visit with friends and do interesting things, but it still seems altogether too short.  When I was a kid, it always seemed that summer went on forever.  I wish it still did.

However, this brings the start of wonderful things.   Like sign-up for a new year's class of boat-building.  After exhibition last June, I had a list nearly three pages long of people who were interested in the boat-building class.  I put together an email regarding class registration. (which was yesterday...) and about the class itself and sent it to the people on the list.

I figure that we usually get maybe 5% of the people who were interested at exhibition to actually show up for registration - if I'm lucky.  When I was driving to registration, I could see that all the side streets around the school were almost completely full of parked cars.  As I turned down the street the school is on, there were students waiting in a line that stretched down the sidewalk from the building to the street and down the sidewalk along the street.  It was only 9:00 AM - registration doesn't start until 10:00 AM, but is first-come, first-served in order to be fair to everyone, so people come early.  Sometimes really early - with a chair, a book, a cup of coffee, snacks, determination and apparently - a strong constitution.  It felt a bit like an Apple iPhone launch.

The lines for woodworking and boat-building as well as a few other classes run from the side of the building and ran all the way to the parking lot and back to the dumpster.  As I took my paperwork into the building and prepared to bring the skin-on-frame canoe downstairs as my "calling card", I was approached by a woman who was clearly distressed.

"Are you the boat building instructor?"

"Yes."

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"That this class is for returning students only."

"WHAT?"

"That's what the sign says."

"No - that's not true.  It's open registration.  I don't have returning students."

I went and checked the sign with the class listings that showed students where to wait to register.  The sign clearly had an asterisk and a notation beneath the class name that said, "Returning Students Only".  I grabbed a marker and crossed that line out in a big hurry, let me tell you.  It was a clerical error from using an old class list.  I have no idea how many students saw that sign and went home without finding out if this was true.  I was beginning to sweat that the class wouldn't run because people left after seeing the sign.

Because of the way that the school runs, there are minimum enrollments - 8 people is the minimum for my class to run.  It's also sort of the maximum class size, too - I only have room to build and store 8 boats.  If each person decides to build their own boat (like last year's class...) I have the minimum number of people and the maximum number of boats - a precarious balancing act.  Fortunately for me, ten students registered and are planning to build 8 boats.  Two couples have decided to build a boat together and the other 6 students will build their own boats.

So, if anyone DID see the sign and go home, I apologize.  While I'm not responsible for the error, I still worry that people missed an opportunity.  If you did, please comment on this post or otherwise get back to me - I'd like to know.

Bits and Pieces

No images at the moment - apologies. Pictures to follow!

Foam Box Beam Construction

I put together the foam box beam. Construction involved assembly of the deck to one of the sides to keep the deck flush with the top of one luan side panel and the bottom blocks to the same luan panel. I then spread a layer of the foam adhesive using a notched spreader, bonding the foam to the luan and to itself, placing the foam between the top and the bottom blocks. The notched spreader made for a consistent thickness of adhesive. I had allowed 1/16" for each adhesive layer. Unfortunately, the thickness of the adhesive seemed to be greater than allowed for and the sides bulged.

I also glued the patches to the outer layer of the luan at the center join. After curing, I supported the 16' beam at the ends 2" above the floor. I then stood in the middle of the beam. My roughly 160 pound weight deflected the beam about 3/4". Not bad, really.

Still, I wasn't happy about the bulge and the time to deal with the adhesive.


Foam-less Box Beam Construction

I then tried a similar construction. A piece of 1/2" thick plywood for the deck, 8" wide. Two 6" wide 1/4" thick luan side panels. To join the top and sides, I used 8" long blocks of 2x6" dimensional lumber. While I only made an 8' section, I was pleased with the results. Simply supported at the ends, my 160 pounds in the middle deflected it 1/4". I think it was good, easier to assemble, cheaper and lighter.

Ranger Plans

Plans came in. (*WHEW!*) Master patterns will be prepared from the drawings this weekend. Looking good. I'm hoping to shorten the overall height of the patterns to make the forms less awkward to move. We'll see how I do.

Sign-Up

Tonight was the sign-up for the school where I teach. I have to say that I've never seen a crowd like we had tonight. Let me paint the picture for you. The school offers a variety of classes for a variety of interests. My canoe building class is only one of many. Sign-up runs from 6-7:30 PM in the evening and I figured I was arriving fairly early showing up at 5:00 PM. I dodged through cars parked on both sides of the street and managed to find a parking spot nowhere near the building. People were waiting in two lines - one stretched all the way across the parking lot, the other stretched from the front of the building, down to the street and along the street past the next two houses. I was gobsmacked, to be honest.

Even more surprising for me - according to one of the school's trustees, two of the students who came to take my class had been waiting in line since 1:00 PM and another was waiting since 3:00 PM. Also, my class rarely fills up at sign-up. This time I was full in the first 15 minutes. Amazing. I look forward to another great and interesting year with some new challenges.

A Little Bit Over the Top...

I've been teaching a canoe building class for the past few years. Several of my students fit into the "over-achiever" slot in a big way. This particular student, who was in the first class I taught fits this mold.

The accent strip on the side of his canoe was built twice.

He started out with Poplar and Redwood to make this beautifully patterned strip. It was stunning with little alternating checkerboards and strips that ran the length of the boat. His attention to detail was superb - all the pieces were even face-grain so they would be the same color. After untold hours building the strips, he passed them through the planer to "clean off some glue." This ruined the strips - shredded them, really. He got angry (REALLY angry) and stormed out of class. After he left the room, a blue haze still hung in the room from his choice of words.

The next week, he arrived with a brand new strip. When I asked how he did this at home, I found out that he and his wife had gone out to Home Depot on the day after he destroyed his first set of strips to get more wood, a table saw and a thickness planer and had remade the strips over the following week. Don't get me wrong - I think the work is stunning, but they must have cost $500/each after figuring in the tools - this for two strips that are 1/4" thick, 1-1/2" wide and 12' long.

He even took his boat home to work on - in his living room. I don't know what his wife thought, but the dog seems to be enjoying it. After seeing this, I don't think I ever want to hear someone say that they don't have the space to build a canoe!

I do think the contrasting design on the side is cool. The design has been incorporated into the side of the paddle and the stems. Pretty wild. Here's a picture of the finished product which was dubbed The Blue Streak for his language the day he destroyed the first strips!