One of the joys of the past month has been the restoration of a personal favourite, a little 10 inch bandsaw made in South Australia. Dad had purchased it to build a boat in the 1960s and on the arrival of children (us), it was handed to my grandfather for safe keeping. Pop always referred to it with caution, obviously afraid we would switch it on.
New bearings, new tires, new motor ($100 off ebay) and it seems to work….the blade wanders slightly (check our the guides), and it runs a little fast, but it cuts and most importantly; the blade stays on the tires.
Well done Bote-Cote for your new product E-Glue. It is epoxy with fortifier already included. All you need to do is mix it 50:50 and apply. No more mixing and sprinkling in that fine power and masking up to avoid inhaling.
I am using it on the Sharpie to attach the cleats to the bulkheads. The cleats form the attachment surface that will allow the hull sides to join to the bulkheads as strongly as possible. The cleats effectively replace the epoxy fillets. It is nice using more solid timber on the build, particularly when it replaces thickened epoxy!
To clamp the cleats whilst the E-Glue cures, I am using screws with plywood washers, a very effective device that is cheap and you can have as many as you want!
Actually before I begin on this topic, I need to apologise for the innuendoes you will read in my posts, I was raised on a heavy diet of “Carry On Gang” and “Benny Hill”, more a gift of my father’s father than anyone else.
A butt join is a method of fastening two pieces of timber together by ‘butting’ them up against one another and then securing the union with an identically thicknessed piece that overlaps the joint significantly (see the photo). The main problems with butt joints are that they can induce flat spots when the timber is bent and can be ugly.
My personal preference is a ‘scarf’ join (see wikipedi link), this is where the two pieces are given mirrored, feathered bevels of a ratio greater than 9:1. Meaning the bevel or scarf is at least 9 times the thickness of the timber. Commonly 12:1 and 14:1 is used. The scarf join is very elegant and demonstrates considerable skill to get it to work. My success with scarf joining is about 1 in 4…..(look closely at my Whilly Boat).
I used to be very picky about my woodworking. I steadfastly refused to use power driven screws for many years….then I woke up and smelled the ozone.
Knowing my scarfing success rate…and that the butts can be hidden…and they are not supporting tight curves, I will embrace the butt.
One of the joys of the past month has been the restoration of a personal favourite, a little 10 inch bandsaw made in South Australia. Dad had purchased it to build a boat in the 1960s and on the arrival of children (us), it was handed to my grandfather for safe keeping. Pop always referred to it with caution, obviously afraid we would switch it on.
Paul's boat blog 