Setting up stem and keel

Yesterday I continued with cleaning, marking and bevelling both stems.
First of course I did cut the plugs flush and removed the rest of the epoxy stains. Marking is a precise proces. Especially the flip side where you have to copy from the other side. In the end the result was not too bad.

Next step was to put a stem in the bench vise and start cutting with the block plane. A nice and satisfying job.  Of course after planing remarking various lines is necessary. 





Afterwards I did rip a long board on the table saw to get the keel.  Arch specifies 3/4''(= 19 mm) and my western red cedar board is 20 mm. I did not bother with that 1 mm difference. It is within my own accuracy.  Handling a 4+ meter long board on my own was a bit tricky to keep the board fixed against the straight edge of the tablesaw. 


This job was done al fresco as you cannot rip a 4 meter board in a 4.75 meter shed.


I put afterwards the blade of the table saw to a 11 degree angle to cut a preliminary bevel. It was a bit experimenting to get the cut ending near the middle of the keel. As you can see I stayed a bit on the safe side.





Finally I put both stems and the keel on the strongback and screwed them together. I also put screws through the cleats on the molds into the keel for a good fixed positioning.  These last screws are of course temporarily.






Next step is to rip the stringers, seat risers and sheerstrakes.  These longitudinals are specified with a thickness of 5/8'' (= 16 mm) so I will have to plane the stock to that dimension.  No cutting corners here.  As my portable planer is somewhere else I cannot continue before Monday next. I will use part of the time in between to clean out the mess in my shed.  Although the Maine Peapod is a small boat, it takes up a lot of space in a small shed.....