First, pour a beer. I may need two if you want something good. Better yet, you pour a beer! Now you can stomach this week's post.
So, as we build this boat, we realize that, in spite of good intentions, it will never be perfect. You start with the idea of the building the best looking boat, built with love and craftsmanship. You settle for "It'll look OK from a distance". The sheer size of the project necessitates the easing of standards or it will never be finished. The complexity of the process permits the incursion of minor imperfections at each step. Case in point, the beams. Despite sanding it to a good level, the beams are not perfect. The wood has chips. The epoxy coat has brush hairs you missed getting out before the epoxy set. The fillets developed bubbles and bulge at a couple spots. The oak coated with epoxy bubbled and you missed some until it was too late to brush out. Bugs land and die in the epoxy. Every imperfection becomes accentuated with the application of paint, when it's too late to do anything. The final assurance is that it was built strong and will carry you to far off places. So, for now, all I do is put one foot in front of the other................then trip over it! Oh, yeah, Ken, A-T-W, liked the video. Budge will put more out on his yewtewb chanel.
See the little craters top center of the photo? The oak outgasses when the epoxy is painted on. It could be caused by temperature as the oak heats up. I had brushed off the bubbles a couple times, but the 'poxy sets up and I may have missed one final brush-off.
Brush hair stuck in the epoxy and unnoticed until the paint was on.
imperfect fillets and a couple small bubbles.
The wood grain rising in spite of the fact that I sanded it well. Douglas fir is quirky sometimes.
The little birds with the beautiful song have a dogged determination to build their nest in the band saw. I have removed their nest remnants several times. They have perseverance! We will clamp something, walk away, and come back 10 minutes later and discover that a spider has slung a web across it. Spiders have perseverance. Us? We plod along......then trip.
The happy couple building their nest. There are two birds in the picture.
I finally had to throw a tarp over it until the birds lost their drive. They checked out several alternate locations around the shop, but did not like any of them.
Budge promptly proceeded to pounce upon the pod. Budge has come up with a pod top design. He described it to me in detail. It is entrenched deeply in his mind. I smile and nod..............................then quietly tiptoe away.
OK maybe I gotta explain what's happening. This is the pod, The mast beam sits just below the added pieces. The white painted part is below the beams (deck). The aft mast sits on the beam between the two upper sections on the mast beam. This is officially now known as the Budge Official Dog Unique Pod Mod. Those stalwart boat builders that wish to copy this design, must from henceforth call it the BODUPM !
He glued up the fronts and side supports. The steering wheel will be to the left of center. It's a nice wheel.
Of course he had to fillet the joints! A slight pause.................I need another beer. This blogificating is mighty thirsty work!
Budge glued on some cleats to support...........
The aft seat side supports. Now I gotta explain stuff again, That seat back there sits on beam 3 and extends aft over the beam. I'd explain further, but that first beer was 8.5% alcohol! Budge then needed a couple arm rests for the aft seat.
So I glued up a couple. That's, cut two strips, rabbet them, glue on the arm rests, rout the edges, sand them, shape and glue on some support pieces under the arms and sucked up about 3 hours time! Simple.
What did I do? Besides put four coats of paint. one a day, with a brush on the beam I did last week? Picked Ben up at the airport and not getting home until 2:15 AM on Thursday. Ben discovered 2 great truths: 1.) the airline gives out food vouchers on delayed flights and doesn't keep track of who got one thus distributing duplicates, and 2.) You can buy beer with them!
I glued up the swim ladder net supports. Do I really gotta explain stuff again?? This calls for another beer. I'm now on Alaskan White. The local grocery store was selling out discontinued stock for 2 bucks a six. The Belgian was $3 a bottle. But, I digress......beer does that, The swim ladder. If you remember, (I can't- It's the beer) we reinforced it last week and decided to use woven rope to fill the gap. I drilled a buncha holes, properly spaced and correctly aligned in some Doug fir and glued them into the ladder gap. The rope goes through the holes and makes a net.
Then I made four of these.
To reinforce The ends of the holey things. It would be better if I thought this all out in advance, but can't. Ben was back, but Thursday was spent on resupply (buying beer). Friday was rainy and Ben has a touch of the croup (the crawling crud). It takes a bit to get back into the swing of things. So. I'm done for now. my two loyal followers. I wish you godspeed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and plenty of beer!
The Music♪: The Be Good Tanyas, "The Littlest Birds"
The little birds have finally settled elsewhere...............I miss them........at least the roadrunners are still about.
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