Well gee Brad, what's that there in the picture to my left? Well O' faithful reader, you see that is the "stem", there is another one exactly like it on the other end of the boat. If you take a look at the next picture you'll see that the boat looks kind of weird, well that's because I'm building it upside down (true story). Anyway, enough of the "next picture" business for now, lets finish with this one. That C-clamp is just holding on a brace that just so happens to be holding the stem piece in the right position (funny thing, I really think it's the right position, but I really have no idea). I finished applying a good coat of thickened epoxy (epoxy with sawdust mixed in) to hold the keel (the strip of wood shown in the picture here, and below that runs the length of the boat) to the stem, and the stem to the keel, and the keel to the...shhh, enough!
Those plywood critters are the station molds I've mentioned in previous posts. They are the magic behind the entire operation, they work extremely hard holding the boat in shape. They were very difficult to setup, especially with the set of instructions that were attached to the plans. Who would have guessed that for a 17 or so paged instruction booklet, important steps like "setting up the molds" would have been discussed in length. I know I would have guessed that, but apparently the author of the instructions booklet decided to write about things like glue selection, and how-to's on epoxy mixing, and what type of wine goes best with chicken. Hmmmpff! What am I going to do now? Well, as you can see, I'm going to do it my way. Forget the manual, forget what everyone else says, I'm going for it on my own terms. After all, she is my damn boat and if I want to sink, I should be able to decide that for myself. To the bottom, rock bottom, here we sink, together my friend!
That there to your left ladies and gentleman is a picture of the keel, in long view. Just follow that straight ish' board to the back of my shop, look up and slightly right, you'll see a nest of mold. Yummy in my lungy.
As you may have noticed the little notches on the station molds (not the same mold as in the back of my shop), that is the location of the other boards, stringers or some such bogus name. On the very bottom of the molds you'll see a larger notch, that will be the gunnel or gunwale, I'm really not sure if there is a difference or not. Either or, it will eventually be the top sides of the canoe when she is finished.
The game plan for tomorrow is, fill in all of those station mold notches so she actually starts to look like a boat. Well, that's the plan, who really knows what type of funny business will actually happen. Check back later for the fire report, cheers folks!
A special thanks must be sent to Greg and Jenn Porter of "Dream Home Cabinetry" (www.dhcg.ca), located right here in the heart of Palmerston, Ontario for cutting my lumber to spec, and on such short notice. Without them, I might have lost a couple of fingers trying to rush the lumber cutting process myself, again... Thanks guys!
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