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RonGinger

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  1. I cannot resist adding my piece to the story of Blue Dolphin. I grew up and started sailing in Detroit. One of my closest friends was Joe Pica. Joe wanted a big schooner and made several trips to the east to look at boats. Early in 1972 he asked me to go to Boothbay ME and look at Blue Dolphin. I visited on a gloomy, rainy day and found the inside of the boat as wet as outside. She had massive deck leaks, and we eventually discovered considerable rot. Joe bought the boat anyway. I made a few trips to Boothbay to work on the engine and electrical system. Joe had always worked with Sea Scout troops and in July of 1972 a bus load of scouts from Rochester MI arrived and sailed the boat home, around Nova Scotia and the St. Lawrence river. Joe docked the boat in Sarnia ON, Canada and began working to restore her. I could probably write a book on Joes trials and tribulations of the rebuild. Sadly she sank at the dock a couple times. During this period a Canadian folk singer, Stan Rogers, visited and wrote the song Man With Blue Dolphin. Eventually Joe was forced out of the dock in Sarnia and towed the boat to Detroit into a canal off the river. He resumed working there, and the boat finally made its last sinking where it remains on the bottom. This photo was in 2005, when I was last in Detroit it was completely underwater.
  2. I can only repeat what so many others have said, your work and tools are outstanding. On one hand it is a great inspiration, but on the other it is depressing to see how much better your work is than anything I could ever come close to doing. Please tell me how you make the mortise cuts in the sides of the deck beams. The cuts look so perfect with nice sharp corners and edges. Also the hook scarf joints are so sharp. Thank you for posting this work I know how much work it is to do the photos and posting.
  3. A good source for small nuts and bolts is http://www.americanmodeleng.com/index.html You need to look for 'small pattern' nuts. You are getting standard nut sizes which are out of scale for the bolt size. The small pattern will look better. A less expensive place is https://www.microfasteners.com/ but there stuff is not always to a good scale form, but is often cheaper. In one photo it looks like you have a metal lathe. You can buy hex stock and a tap and make you own nuts.
  4. I found this log this evening and have read the entire post, much better than watching election returns. The model is great and I very much enjoyed reading about it. I learned several techniques I want to try. I suggest the dory is not a life boat, but rather part of the fishing gear. It can be used to come alongside the net and help its hauling out. I don't know any class of fishing boats that carry lifeboats, beyond inflatable liferafts.
  5. Looks great Jon, I look forward to seeing it up close and personal. Do you dare bring it to a guild meeting? I suspect it will not travel well.
  6. Jon you have said bulkhead several times, when I think you are talking about the bulwarks. Bulkheads are inside the vessel and perpendicular to its length. Sorry I dont mean to be picky, but it seems confusing. ron
  7. Thank you. I searched the web and found pepetools.com. They make a whole line of nice tools, and apparently have just done some realignment of the business and have moved all operations back to the US. The 4inch shear is about $450. Looks like it's available through Amazon. It would not be a hard tool to make, but I already have more projects on my list than I will ever complete.
  8. Amazing work. can you say a bit more about that metal shear? Is it a commercial product or a shop made device.
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