(Entry 6) Day one of actual work - Strip cutting

Today was a long day of work, and also quite productive I'm starting to see some real progress.  First off, if you read my earlier post you'll notice I managed to build the strong back today.  What I also managed to get done today, I should say start today, is cutting the strips of wood for the canoe to their rough dimensions.  To the left is my strip cutting-jig.  Initially I was going to borrow a friends table saw to cut the strips, but the idea of trying to support 16 feet of lumber on each side of the table saw was intimidating, so I built a jig for the handheld circular saw instead.  It worked out amazing, quick, easy, and very accurate cuts.  

I will still have to borrow a table saw to cut the rough sized strips down to usable width (they are all proper thickness at 3/8").  Some will be 3/8" X 3/8", others will be 3/8" X 1", etc... Now that the strips weigh about one pound each and they're extremely flexible, I'm sure they'll be much easier to handle on a table saw, or at least that's the theory.  I managed to cut about 4 strips too many, which will obviously come in handy if mistakes are made.  I do have enough uncut stock from the original 2X10 to cut more, but I'm hoping there are enough, and then some.  I'm also now convinced the shop is terrible for photography with my little point and shoot camera, so I do apologize once again, and will try to rig something up that will illuminate the scene more for the next series of photo's.

If you look closely, you might be able to make out a pile of saw dust on the floor.  Apparently when you cut this much lumber you manage to make a ton of saw dust, the pile by the saw is about 6" tall.  After having cut all of this lumber, I have one very important tip...Wear a DUST MASK!  I've always been a touch stupid when it comes to NOT using safety equipment for work.  My excuse for not wearing a mask is that my glasses tend to fog up and I can no longer see, I wish there was a solution for this, but I have yet to find one.  If life goes my way, I hope to borrow a table saw for tomorrow and get the rest of the cutting done on the strips.  I also hope to get the station molds copied from the plans and transferred to the plywood for cutting, and finally for attaching to the strong back.

I guess first thing I'll be doing tomorrow morning is clean up my mess, again!  If only I could learn to work cleaner, the jobs I do would probably take a lot less time.  Have a good one, we'll see you the next time!  

I should mention that this lumber was not used for anything other than the floor boards and stem pieces in the canoe.  It turned out that I selected a piece of construction grade lumber (trying to be cheap) that had some knots that compromised the strength of the lumber.  Instead I ordered a piece of Poplar as a cheap, semi-straight grained, knot-free alternative.  I also think it is important to note that Poplar is NOT a very good choice of lumber for boat building, it's heavy, ugly, and has no natural resistance to rot (not that spruce, pine or duglas fur have much either).  If sealed properly and stored inside out of the elements, it shouldn't matter what type of wood you use for the construction of this particular boat.  If I were to do it all over again I would select a piece of White-Pine (CLEAR, no knots) to use.