tmj

Haha Keith... no not nearly as tedious and mundane as those treenails. The frame construction sounds a lot worse than it really is. It's actually pretty easy. I do two sets of frames, after work each day. Maybe I'll bang out 6 or 8 sets Saturday and the rest Sunday. As for the treenail thing, the bottom of the bottom is complete. I still need to treenail the top (interior) of the bottom timbers. I'll do that as I inch along the bottom installing frames.

I modified my molding form and it works much better now. This is the process that I'm using to form the frames... I cut the 1/32" strips to an oversized length and loosely bundle them together with wire ties. I give them a 15-minute soak in really hot tap water while weighing the bundles down with a knife. I then remove the wire ties and lay the strips atop my form, centering them via eyeball. The strips are well oversized so there is room for error when centering. The fixture will hold two sets of frames at one time. No glue has been added to the strips. That comes later. I'm bending nothing but loose, wet wood. I then add the follower atop the strip bundles and center it up via eyeball. With everything centered, I start working the follower down by hand until I can't move it any further... then I use a vise grip to finish the job and compress the strips tightly between the two forms. I then bake the form and wood in the oven @ 210 degrees for a while, until mostly dry, then let everything come down to room temperature. When cool, this is what I have. I tape the bundles together and put them aside. I won't do anything else to them until I have all of the boat's mid-sections of 18 sets of frames bent. I'll then return these bent frames to the form and start gluing them up. I now have three sets of frames bent and two more sets in the oven. I'll be back after I get the remaining 13 sets of frames bent and ready for glue.

I added some CA and kept it clamped for a bit. There was about .060" of spring back on each side after un-molding. I'll make a new mold to account for this spring back and then bang out the rest of the frames for stations #13-#30.

First set of frames taking shape. There are nine ply's of 1/32" X 3/16" Basswood strips clamped in this mold. No glue, just a test run to see what I'll be up against in bending the wood. So far so good, but I need to modify my mold a little to make it 'less awkward' in loading it with wood strips after glue has been applied to those strips. Each one of these rough moldings will make two frames, one port and one starboard. The frames molded in 'this' fixture will cover stations #13 through #30. The inside geometry of the frames is the actual internal shape. The 'outside' geometry of the frames will be cut to actual shape on the bandsaw.

Back atcha, Keith... "Merry Christmas!"

Very nice, Glen!

Looking good, Keith... looking "REAL GOOD!"

Howdy Keith! Yep, all is well. I'm just taking a little break right now trying to learn the ropes of tissue culturing plants and also studying up for an upcoming FAA part 107 certification. I should be getting back to work soon after the holidays. Have you started on 'your' newest project yet?

Of course it will work! Endeavor to persevere. The more you try, the more you learn, the closer you get to perfection. An old Japanese proverb once said; "Fall seven times, stand up eight!"

Well done, Keith! Definitely something to be extremely proud of! Can't wait until 'Lula' arrives!

My frame molding fixture was finally cut out today. I just need to have two holes drilled and tapped and the fixture itself will be 95% completed. The only thing left will be to shear the .0035" thick stainless steel backing strap and silver solder a loop into the pulling end of that strap. I'm hoping to get that all done this weekend so I can give 'er a test drive and bend some wood. Sorry for the delays. Home and work priorities have gotten in the way of progress lately, but I'm about to be able to get back on track. Thanks for bearing with me...

This is nothing short of 'incredible'! "Very nice job!

"Looking good, Glen!"

Beautiful Keith!!! If you're having a hard time with 'finally' completing this fantastic build, and still find yourself looking for some other little touches that you could add to it... Hmm. Maybe 'further darkening' the walking path around and into the door showing a lot of foot traffic, dirty boots and abuse in that area as well as any 'other' areas that would get significantly more foot traffic than other areas. Just a thought. 🙂