Sunday, December 11, 2016

Starting The Deck

I found it fairly easy to disconnect the forms from their stands and flip the boat over. I hung it up from the ceiling by ropes, as with the Cape Ann, but happily, it wasn't as enormously heavy, without the internal beam. I found some plywood brackets from last years' build to hold it-it seems that my roof rack brackets won't be needed.
After checking the alignment of the forms with a board, I had to make several adjustments to the forms, with the belt sander. I knew that the bow & stern forms would stick out (I think they're about 5% "too big ") but I also had to cut down some of the end forms, and put a shim on one, to achieve a fair, flat stern deck. I remember doing this two years ago, when I also used bow & stern forms from the copy shop. 
Now I have to decide what to actually do with the deck.
This is actually my second start on the deck. I originally ran two strips of basswood lengthwise, about two inches from the sheer, but it promised an array of difficult "whiskey plank" -type fits, and a few of the strips were fit badly, so I pulled it off and started over. 
I also miscalculated the number of strips needed, and had to start a new batch. I'm also now recalling a little of alignment difficulty around forms 11-12. Its taking no fewer than 5 skinny strips to make the transition from vertical to horizontal on the deck.
By way of superstition, two things seem to always have to happen on a good build. First, I get hurt. I managed to cut my thumb on the table saw a few weeks ago, requiring stitches. Second is a False Start. When I can look at some of my work, in this case, the first deck strips, and reject it, I think I'm on the right track.
This time, I'm doing a "Plain Jane" deck, with no contrasting stripes. I think I have a plan for an inlay.