Thursday Thought

Anyone who says they like portaging is either a liar or crazy.

- Bill Mason

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned...

I have a confession to make. 

Something I never thought that I would do. 

Ever.

Never, never, ever.

To be honest, I still feel a little bit dirty about it,  but I knew what I was doing and the consequences of my actions.  I think that the priest at the Church of the Holey Wooden Boat would make me say about 9 Hail Mary Celeste's and tell me to repent my sins.  Maybe a few extra. 

Still, over the weekend, I half expected this:

 

What prompted my sin?  Well, it's all because of sandals and a raincoat.  Herein likes the story.  

On Saturday, DW decided that we should take DS and DD over to a local outdoor goods store to get some sandals for the three of them and a new raincoat for DD so she could pass along her old one to DS in preparation for a paddling trip we will be taking later in the month.  When we arrived, somehow we wound up gravitating over to the boat display.  Some of the boats were 50% off and were really quite good prices.  If you bought a boat, there was also a discount on the accessories.  DW spent a remarkably long period of time looking the boats over.  We then went and purchased the requisite sandals and jacket.  

Fast forward to Sunday.

I'm getting ready to run out and do some errands with DS for a tree-house that we are planning to build.  DW and DD had already headed out for a class the DD takes on Sunday afternoons.  Coincidentally, the outdoor goods store is on the way to the class and unbeknownst to me, DW & DD decided that a pair of water shoes was in order and made a stop at the store.  Shortly thereafter, my cell phone rings.  It's DD.  Mind you, DD doesn't have a cell phone, so she's calling from her mother's phone.  The exchange went something like this:

"Daddy, we're at the store and they only have two of the (sale priced) boats that Mommy likes left."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, Daddy, you'd better hurry up and get over here before they're gone."

*CLICK*

So, being the nice guy that I am, I went over to the outdoor goods store and picked up the boat of SWMBO's wishes - along with a paddle for her, some Yakgrips and a new pair of Hullraisers for my roof rack.

What was the boat of SWMBO's wishes?  A Tupperware(tm) bathtub:

 

 

It's an Old Town Vapor 12XT.  It's wide, stable and nearly indestructible.   Last summer, she borrowed a very similar small plastic kayak from friends we were visiting and liked it.  Not as much as the Charlotte lapstrake canoe that she'd been paddling earlier that day, but she liked it.

So.  "Why? Why? Why? " I can hear you ask - "Canoez - you're a boat-builder.  Why does your wife have a plastic boat?"  Well, I haven't gotten around to building DW a boat and I guess it boils down to keeping the women in my life happy. Both  DW and DD both like to paddle the Charlotte,  but for some reason aren't particularly comfortable with my Wee Lassie.  They're not really that different dimensionally, but they claim that the lapstrake boat is more stable.  

Both of them wanted to paddle the Charlotte for the upcoming canoe trip, while DS and I will be paddling a tandem canoe.  Being that we only have one Charlotte at the time-being and it's not likely that I'll be building one in the next few weeks, I had a dilemma.  DW decided that I should solve that with the new Tupperyak.

Perhaps I should sprinkle a little Holey Water on the new boat? 

So, if you see me out flagellating myself with throw bag lines or beating myself over the head with a paddle, just remember that I'm atoning for my sins...

One.Last.Sheet.

 

The picture above is from the kitchen at work.  Our office manager is the person who tends to be saddled with changing rolls of paper towels.  She was out of the office for a few days before Thanksgiving and on the day after she left, we arrived at the state that is viewed above.  One last sheet.  I decided to do a little experiment and see what happened - so, I did nothing.  It became like a game, played with chess-like precision and cunning.  I watched as people came into the kitchen with their own paper towels from somewhere else.  I watched people shake their hands and dirty dishes off into the sink when they would normally just grab for a paper towel.  It was truly an amazing exercise in psychology, really.  It took several days before anyone bothered to replace the roll - and that was me the day before Thanksgiving.

The image below was taken at home and is actually the more threatening situation.  It is (was) a roll of toilet paper.  Literally one sheet was left on the roll - if that.  I'm not sure you could have even dislodged the sheet from the cardboard tube in the middle.  Ironically, there is a container in the bathroom next to this toilet which stores spare rolls of toilet paper, so it isn't a big deal to replace the roll, but generally, nobody could be bothered to change the roll.  For the longest time, I wondered if anyone in the house actually knew how to remove the little spring-loaded axle from the center of the toilet roll to replace it.  A really, really long time.   This happens at work as well - a lot - and I often comment that I feel really comfortable at work - it feels just like home.

 

I must admit, however, that recently I've been finding an even more curious situation in the kitchen and bathrooms at home.  Since the bilge-rats (gerbils) arrived, we discovered that they love to play with the toilet and paper towel rolls.  They run trough them and chew them to bits, being the viscous beasties that they are.  Household members have taken to giving these toilet rolls to the gerbils, and now you don't see the last sheet, you just find the bare naked axle or paper towel stand.

If at first you don't succeed...

I'm trying to decide if the appropriate term to use here is "determined",  "stubborn" or just plain crazy.  As you may recall if you are a regular reader here, we've been working on some skin-on-frame kayaks.  They're based on a Tom Yost design, but we've altered some of the design to suit our needs.  One of the things I don't care for about Tom's boats is the use of stacked plywood laminations to create cockpit rims.     The solution that I came up with was a laminated hardwood rim and hatch cover arrangement.  Oh yeah, and I also wanted them to have a little swallow-tail detail like on a Shaker box lid.  (As and engineer, I can attest to the fact that "anal-retentive" IS spelled with a hyphen...)

The learning curve started last fall and was steep.  First, I used plywood forms which were much too narrow to support the wide (1-1/4") strips that I was laminating - they warped across the width of the strip.  Second, I used strips that were too thin - about 1/8".  They required many layers and didn't laminate nicely.  Third, I learned that I couldn't just soak the strips of cherry and mahogany that I was bending in hot water and expect them to take the curve - I had to steam them.  (Major Detour - time to create a steam generator and steam box set-up...)  Fourth - clamp the pieces you are laminating OFF the forms you used after steaming if dimensions are not critical - you will get fewer gaps between the strips.  As I've noted - a lot to learn here.    While it seems crazy to go to this much work, it isn't we were always trying new methods.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Albert Einstein

The first few laminations that I made for the cockpit and hatch cover were OK.  I probably could have filled the gaps  that were in a few spots with dookie shmutz and moved on.  However, I am a bit of a perfectionist.  (If you can't tell from the scrap pile at the top.

So, last weekend, I did another steaming session with some new cherry.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Below is the cockpit rim - three layers of 1/4" thick by 1-1/4" wide cherry.  There are three pieces in the rim and they're scarfed together at the ends of the strips.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  When the glue sets (probably by tomorrow night)  I will clean them up, steam and form  the narrower rim strips to hold a spray skirt in place.  Once this cools and dries, I'll glue it up, clean and varnish.  (Note the LAREpile of clamps on the floor - this had a clamp every 3-4" around the rim keeping it in place as it set!)

While you can't see the nice wood (it's covered with tape) - the inner rim for the hatch cover came out rather nicely.  The tape is holding a thick piece of scrap that is bent around to act as a spacer so that when I bend the hatch cover's outer rim, it will be spaced so that it will fit over the inner rim without interference.  The thicker laminations really show a good result on this part - it is nowhere near as wavy as my first pieces were and it, like the cockpit rim, are a good deal stronger than my previous attempts.

I'm certainly hoping that my patience and what I've learned here have paid off.  From what I'm seeing, I think it has.

Tech Tip Tuesday

In my line of work, one often comes upon some unusual engineering wildlife. I think you'd better check out the post quickly as I'm not sure how long the link to the first image will be working:

Alumabeaver

The Alumabeaver (Castor Aluminus) is a diurnal mammal; the third largest rodent in the world. The Alumabeaver is characterized by its large flat tail, webbed paws, soft silver fur and tungsten carbide teeth.

Their habitat includes highly industrialized areas and they are particularly fond of machining and manufacturing facilities where their largest food source is to be found. While seldom seen in the wild, these elusive creatures are often known to be in the presence of bad machinists and mechanical design engineers. Their presence can be noted by their tell-tale tooth marks found in aluminum along with chips and shavings. These tooth marks are often mistaken for those of the Bronze Muskrat (Ondatra Zibethicus Brundusinium) and strongly resemble very irregular marks made by end-mills, drill bits and files, but with unusual chatter and inconsistent lay marks. Their presence may also be given away by wet tracks of Tap Magic on floors in the region where shavings used to construct their lodges are found.

Alumabeaver Tracks

They tend to be solitary animals and their lodges (constructed mainly of shavings, cardboard and small diameter billets that have been gnawed off) are often found adjacent to work benches and built against the side of milling machines. They are not as industrious as their woodland cousins and often do not come out of their lodges unless bad manufacturing or shoddy design is to be found. Their diet consists typically of 6061-T6 and 7075 alloy billets but when food is scarce, they are known to consume 2024 angle.

Alumabeaver Skeleton

While their lustrous silver pelt and tungsten carbide teeth are both very desirable commodities, they are difficult to trap and attempts to do so near their lodges often result in severe cuts to those who try to capture them.

They're Baaaaaaccck!

We seem to have a seasonal problem with out local rodent population. The problem is that they like our house in all seasons.

A lot.

We've been hearing the pitter-patter of little feet above our heads when we're in bed for quite some time. Eventually, we heard them between the first and second floor making their ways between the joists. Mind you, these spaces are all but inaccessible, so it is nearly impossible to get at whatever is making the pitter-patter to trap them.

When we returned from our vacation, we discovered that our vermin (not the bilge rats) had moved into our basement to help themselves to the food that we have in our basement pantry space.

The major downside? - They've been eating our food.

The major upside? - They're in a space where I can trap them.

So yesterday, I put out some humane traps. Before 3 PM I had caught three of these little guys - juvenile White-Footed Mice:


(Note the sunflower seed for scale - they weren't much bigger than a quarter.)

When I catch mice, I get papa-rat-zi. DS and DD go running for their cameras so that they can gush ("Oh, it's SO cute. Daddy, can we keep it?") and proceed to try to take as many pictures as possible before I take it out of the house. ("But Daddy, I didn't get to say 'goodbye'!") Our rodents get sentenced to "transportation" - I either take them for a long ride and drop them in a wooded area or as I've been doing, take them for a really long walk to the wooded area behind our house. I've made the mistake in the past of not taking them far enough and finding them back in the house. (The same mouse came back. How can I tell? Here's a hint - he was called 'Stubby'.)

We also have voles outside of our house living in the gardens and under the splash-blocks. They are small brown animals that are very mouse-like with relatively small eyes. They have furry ears and remind me vaguely of Teddy bears. Unfortunately, they have been making grooves in the grass as escape tunnels from beneath the splash-blocks. Even worse, they girdled one of our ornamental trees in the front yard, killing it.

We had some help the other day from one of the neighbor's dogs who flushed one of the voles out from beneath our air conditioning compressor I managed to catch it in my hands and put it in the jar I had just used to take the third mouse out back. Here he is in confinement.







We knew about the voles as we have been working on a program of sheer terror for the voles - we go and lift the splash blocks on a daily basis - at least twice a day. When we started, I might see nearly a dozen and a half voles. Now I might see one or two - the rest have moved house.

Before I went to bed last night I checked the traps - the little guy on the left was in the trap. As the next-door neighbor children asked to see any mice we might catch, I put him in the jar for the evening. (Besides - I wasn't going walking in the woods in the dark at about 10 PM!) When DW went to the basement the next morning, the mouse on the right was in another trap. That's 5 mice in less than 24 hours! The mouse on the right was round at the middle - we figure she must have been expecting. Better out of the house than in!


Here's "mom" looking a bit nervous about what might happen next...


I was amazed when I released "mom" - she took off for the water that was nearby in the woods and proceeded to go for a swim! She swam strongly and confidently across this length of water before hauling herself out and wandering into the brush.

Do you have to be crazy to be a boat-builder?

Well, no, not really.

However, there are times when it certainly doesn't hurt.

Take for example last Saturday morning's class. We'd been having a bit of bad weather over the past few days. It included rain, snow, sleet, slush and just about any other form of heavy, wet precipitation you can think of. The weather was so bad that on Friday night, I was considering canceling Saturday's class . I have two students that travel a fair amount of distance to come to the class and I was concerned that they might not be able to make it to class safely in the snow. One of the students comes from a long, long distance.

He drives a distance of about 230 miles - one way. Every weekend.

I called this student on Friday night when it was snowing heavily to ask if he felt comfortable driving down or not. His response to me was the following : "I'm going to be away on vacation in California for the next two weeks and will miss class. I'm not going to miss this class."

When I awoke on Saturday morning I went downstairs to look at the weather. This is what greeted me:


By the time I got my driveway and sidewalk cleared, it had stopped snowing. I was hoping that the lawn service guys who plow and snow-blow at the school had been there to clear up the parking lot and sidewalks.

Yessss...

Well, almost - there was still a bit of shoveling to do on the ramp to the barn where we store the boats so that nobody would slip on the snow. Amazingly, all of the students came for class - bad weather or not! As we usually do, we moved the boats into the shop.



I would have to say that after looking at the pictures I took on Saturday, it looks like it certainly doesn't hurt to be a little bit crazy to build your own boat!

Wordless Wednesday

Preparations for Christmas have begun...

Christmas preparations have been sneaking into our routine for the past few weeks. They always seem so overwhelming at the beginning, but I've learned to try to start them before Thanksgiving. Usual tasks include shopping for presents for friends and loved ones, some sort of decorations outside, a wreath for the door, a fresh balsam or spruce tree for decorating, meal planning and food shopping.

Things have been a bit unusual for me at work. We had a company holiday party at a local restaurant at lunch time (which was nice, but a bit different from what I'm used to...) and vendors have been sending in small gifts during the past week or so - typically food.

Which brings up the following dilemma - when faced with a chocolate reindeer does one start at the antlers like one does with a chocolate rabbit's ears at Easter?


Yup.


The children are also getting very excited about the pending visit from the big man in the red and white suit. The application below will need to be filled out and sent up to the North Pole in time for tomorrow evening. (Click to enlarge) Be sure to note the refreshment details section...

My Christmas request for Santa included a nicely restored E.H. Gerrish canoe in my stocking, but somehow, I don't think it will be fitting down the chimney this year. (Sorta tough to fit into a direct-vent gas fireplace - how DOES he do it?) Perhaps a nice well-balanced Cherry Grand Lake guide paddle, or some nice canoe-building tools will fit instead. I can only hope.

My DW is downstairs at the moment working on a glass of wine and preparing miniature mince pies which must remind her childhood Christmases. I'll be in the kitchen later tonight doing what prep work that I can for our Christmas luncheon. I hope your preparations are as easy and painless as possible this year.

One of each, Please!

I've got a goal. I guess you could say that it's one of those goals that makes you say you've bitten off more than you can chew.

I'd like to build small craft in all of the various construction methods used for wooden canoes, kayaks and small skiffs. It's a tall order, really.

I've done cedar-strip and fiberglass construction on both small and large canoes. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Have helped build a small fleet (yes, fleet) of Wee Lassie and Wee Lassie II canoes to Mac McCarthy's designs, a Redbird to Ted Moores design, a Wabnaki to Gil Gilpatrick's plans, and a sea kayak who's name I don't recall. I've literally helped cut miles of cedar, redwood and sassafrass strips.

A Wee Lassie (Not mine...)

I've done restorations on a number of cedar and canvas canoes, but have never built one from scratch. I've replaced ribs, planking, stems, seat frames, decks, thwarts and canvas on a variety of this type of canoe. I've worked on what we suspect is a Chestnut, a Grand Laker, an Old Town Otca and two BN Morris canoes. I suspect that the one of the reasons that I'm actually into building canoes the way I am is paying penance to the Canoe Gods - I once participated in the fiberglassing of a classic BN Morris canoe that was in quite excellent shape. It's sort of a sin and I figure all my suffering through other boats is the pay-back. I would like to build one from scratch - forms and all, but I think I'd like to go take a class with a pro before I approach the intricacies of shaping cant ribs, and goring planks.

A restored 1916 Otca

I'd also like to do skin-on-frame canoes and kayaks. Quite frankly, they look like a heck of a lot of fun and not all that demanding. People seem to be gun-shy about the durability of this kind of boat, but they seem to be quite robust, really. The really impressive part about these boats is how incredibly light they are and how incredibly beautiful they can be.

Two Skin on Frame Canoes
From the Berkshire Boat Building School

I built a lapstrake canoe with my father to Tom Hill's Charlotte design. It was an interesting process and once the strongback, forms and ribbands were in place, it was quite quick to build. My father did the beveling of the stems and he seemed to make quite a meal of the process for some reason. I also couldn't seem to convince him to thicken the epoxy we were using for the seams with Cab-O-Sil, which would have made things much easier. I'm going to build my own boat by myself to apply those lessons that I've learned. I think I'll wind up with a nicer boat. I want to try more boats in this style.

Tom Hill's Charlotte
Thomas J. Hill Boat Designs

I'd like to try a tack-and-tape or stitch-and-glue style boat - either a canoe or kayak. Mik Storer's Beth looks particularly interesting to me. It's a sailing canoe and it looks to be quite the hot-rod with a huge amount of sail for a small canoe. I'm also interested in this method because of the relative simplicity and low cost. Newfound Woodworks has a small Wee Lassie style canoe kit to be built by this method. I think some of the people who've been intimidated by my cedar strip class might be interested in trying this and it might be more affordable.

Mik Storer's Beth

Now just to let you know about the "bitten off more than you can chew part", there are more ways than this to build small boats. Plank on frame and cold-molded come immediately to mind, but certainly aren't the only other ways... Anybody think I'm crazy yet? I know I certainly think I am.