Spar stock continued

Last Sunday our grandchildren went back home.  It were 9 very nice days with them but during that period I did not work on the Peapod. Also the weather was not very good at around freezing point to do some gluing.

At last I ripped the white pine into the necessary a bit oversized strips to glue the mast, boom and yard.

Just before I wanted to glue the yard from two pieces I noticed it was a bit shortish. Luckily I remeasured before I put on any glue and compared it to the drawings. In the end it was 40 cm short.  After some more checking I concluded that I made a translation error from Imperial to Metric.  Maybe next time I should buy an Imperial tape ruler and not translate measurements anymore...

Luckily I stiil had the piece I cut from the yard to make it the wrong length.  With two butt joints I think I have safely solved the issue.

After gluing the yard I trimmed the sides on the table saw.  Next I made a 38 mm cirkel with a compass.  On the table saw with the blade at 45 degr. I cut all sides to this cirkel what resulted in a 8 sided yard.  Next step will be a plane and some elbow grease to get it near round.

The boom is also glued from two pieces to get the thickness. As the boow will remain square I only need to cut the boom to the right size and round of the edges on the rouiter table.

The first two pieces of the mast are glued today. The temperature of around 5 degr C together with the electric heater and using the low temp harder made that possible.

I did not glue all three layers in one go as this is a slippery operation and I have better control with only two layers.  As always: You cannot have enough clamps.

A short update on the off topic motor hatch. I used the router to make a grove in the short sides of the teak.

After that I started filling the groves with blackened epoxy. This again is a somewhat messy operation. As I have to sand at least 1 mm from the teak to make it flush it should not be a problem.



I did miscalculate the amount of epoxy needed so I ran out of supply after half the groves done. An order for extra supplies is sent out right away. With a bit of luck I can continue on Saturday.  Temperature permitting of course.  Spring is not there yet!