grendel

jigsaws are known for producing an angled cut - just when you dont want them, the coping saw, worked, but oh so slowly, so, the jigsaw was used - carefully, after that the hogs were planed back to the lines, using the tiny plane shown (which works beautifully for such a small thing). helper once more in evidence.

well this mornings visit to the boot fair, saw me coming away with 2 coping saw frames, a quick trip to B&Q furnished some blades, so now I am ready to trim the keel /hog. meanwhile this afternoon has seen the table saw in action, stripping some 2.5mm x12mm, some 5mm x 5mm and some 5mm x 2.5mm strip, 1 cladding plank and 1 50x12 strip cut down so far.

ok steam bender, I made 2 from the bits I got. caps fo the ends of the 1 1/2" tube reducers for the end the steam plugs into, the flexible pipe put onto the steamer and fed into the tube, I might need a vent at the far (loading) end as it gets hotter at the start end, but it did bend this section.

Heres a better one from the 20th July

here is most of it - from the trip down from Stalham on the 19th July

Well I got around to seeing the film, the film in itself is not too bad - indeed a few of the people in the cinema seemed to quite enjoy it. there were enough references in the film to things in the book to justify the 'based upon the work by Arthur Ransome'. The russian spy sub plot was a bit of a take on Arthur Ransomes life, and if you ignored the discrepancies with the boats the sailing part was captivating. the one bit I found disappointing was the overuse of zippers in the childrens clothes, they were at one point all wearing jackets with zippers, not too period as zippers were expensive and none too reliable in those days. Well I just googled it and apparently I am wrong :- 1930s: Zippers are now common in children's clothing. In the late 30s, campaigns for women's designer gowns featured the "infamous zipper" . Most zippers from this age and earlier are hidden behind a fold or "flap" of fabric to conceal the vulgar style. The mistakes were that the zippers were not hidden by flaps (and they looked very much like modern ones do). This film may get all the die hard Arthur Ransome fans up in arms, but other than that its a good family film to take the kids to, some good humour moments too.

Well this morning shopping trip included a chance buy at lidls, you may remember my buying a new blade for my table saw - well this morning lidls had table saws at £99 - I didnt get one as I already have one, but this meant they had blades at £3.99, and fine tooth ones in the right size for my saw, so some spares were purchased, then next door to B&Q for the parts to make my steam bending kit.

many thanks for the offer Tim, my wood store is in my attic. I will have a look round my stock, as I am sure I have a perfect piece of oak for this, I used to get some nice pieces as offcuts from a sawmill when buying firewood by the bundle, some were 12" planks 1" thick, just the offcuts from the ends of a longer plank, but they made excellent Hnefatafl boards. I still have some of that oak, plus I have an oak drawer front from a plan chest somewhere. If I do find myself short I will get in touch.

of course I am plagued with assistance.

hedgehog racing?

a quick trip to the attic and some of my store of timber revealed. the pine cladding was bought at least 15 years back, because it was cheap, and stored until I needed it - well it will come in handy stripped down to smaller sizes, for ribs and planks. it has literally been waiting for a project like this. I have yet to find the solid bit of timber to create the prow, I do have oak somewhere, and some stuff that came from groynes when they replaced the breakwaters locally - we got some offcuts, then the local sawmill ruined 2 blades cutting them down to useable sizes for us. 4no 8 foot offcuts was about as much as my van could carry, it took 2 of us my size to move each one, they were about 10" x5" as I recall

tell me about it east west would help a lot. anyway, today is no 4 for the bending, I have just realised I have an extra day this weekend

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30-160mm-SDS-Plus-Carbide-Drill-Bit-Set-Kit-Hole-Saw-Shaft-Fo-Wall-Masonry-Stone-/141314768159 might do at a pinch and here is how to use it - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Diamond-Core-Drill-Bits-Hole-Cutter-Drilling-Tool-For-Brick-Block-Concrete-Kits-/251664709689

diamond hole saw - something like this - https://www.amazon.com/inch-concrete-diamond-hole-saw/dp/B00ENA3X84

its just struck me why they dont dredge that area any more - perhaps the dredger doesnt fit under the bridge?

and another days steaming done and drying, only 1 more to do this shape, though I might steam a couple of spares in case I break one.

looking online the trickiest I should encounter may be the transom at the stern at about 10mm square, this may need about 15 minutes of steam to achieve a bend.

I am using the steam cleaner shown in the picture at the moment, it will have some 2" waste pipe attached later.

no - there will be no timelapse, I have still to cut the hogs off the timber I did the routing on, that will require a steady hand with the jigsaw, though a bandsaw would be better or a coping saw by hand (the powered fretsaw wont cope with nearly an inch thickness). the next couple of days will be steaming another couple of 1/4" strips now I have the form set up, then it may be time to cut out the hog and plan the cuts in the frames where that and the strips will sit, this weekend is already quite busy, as I have booked to see the new Swallows and Amazons film locally Saturday afternoon, but time will be found to get my timber store in the attic down and handy for working.

Griff,That is why I am posting pictures at every stage, so everyone can get involved and watch the progress - even if it comes to 4 days of the same thing I will be trying to document every stage of the process, wait until we steam the ribs - every one will be slightly different

some sort of vegetable?

second one steamed and drying.

32 Degrees outside, warmer in the office (old converted industrial unit top floor, minimal insulation in ceiling) we have the windows open and the fans are stirring the hot (32 deg + ) air around, downstairs they have no windows so they have air con, lovely and cool. not too easy to move all the computers down there though. they ar looking at getting air con for our floor (will probably be midwinter before they get it installed. in the winter we are luckier, we have the central heating (downstairs just has aircon). always assuming the calor gas for the heater does not run out.

its uncomfortably hot in our office, we have 2 floors, the top floor has windows, the bottom air conditioning, I am on the top floor, the windows are wide open and the fans are stirring the hot air around the office.

Vaughan, I thought that the 'beware the sting in the tail' motto was derived from the fact that the original MTB's had rear facing torpedo tubes that dropped the torpedos behind the boat, where they then ran under the boat, thus the sting in the tail?