Went to Anderson Lake

I did it, went by myself and had a freakin' blast...the weather and water was great...used up all my gas and ran out 500 feet away from the dock.

Boating 101

This is my sister Ingrid and her husband Jeff at anderson lake. I've continued to work on the boat and am planning to go back to anderson lake tommorrow...possibly solo 'cus i like it so much and I can...... and then thursday back up to the Delta to get lost up there again (because I can)....hey, why not?

Gods work continues

...it's all God's work isn't it? In this case, work continues on the 1953 Correct Craft project boat as a old rotted covering board is pried up and out making way for the new decking.

Placing another coupla planks

Anderson lake

Good outing Sunday....Carol and Stanley pictured.

Gonna go to Anderson Lake

Going to Anderson Lake, which is a small lake in Morgan Hill, CA. I'll bring back pictures. What will go wrong this time?

In the meantime enjoy this panel with Sandy in a hypothetical paradise scene.

Placing the steam bent plank

putting in, glueing down and clamping in one of the bent pieces of wood. The funny thing is the wood bent too much, had to "unbend" it to follow the contour.....hopefully this wood bending won't bend out of control on me.

Feel the success

This time it worked. After making a proper jig and getting a head of steam I successfully bent two pieces of wood: Mahogany and redwood....Hurrah!

The good, the bad and the ugly

Another attempt at steam bending, no wonder I get frustrated. I did achieve limited success, the mahogany and redwood did bend...it actually bent more than enough for what I 'm doing with it but it didn't have that true, satisfying bending experience.
You can see the pictures, I don't have to explain it but one thing that needs be done in the future is a good solid jig to bend it to, so far my prep has been lacking.

It's never nuthin'...

It's never nuthin' when you have to deal with the bullshit I have to deal with on a daily basis putting up with these pain in the butt boats....and I got 2 of 'em. Gawd, enuff already. I'm trying to maintain balance in my little life and what do I do? Somehow I get into "boats." Give me a fletchin' break dude. ...aw i dunno, i get frustrated sometimes, gotta let it out, hopefully my life will turnaround sometime soon, untill then I guess i just have to put up with the crap that gets thrown my way although sometimes i feel like a bug with a pin stuck in it in some idiots insect collection.

We are the willing, possibly able.

We, the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful....We have done somuch for so long with so little we are now capable of doing anything....with nothing!

Briton Lake

Smooth as glass! This lake is was awesome....and we for the most part, had it all to ourselves.

On up to lake shasta

Takin' the boat up to lake Shasta for a few days, back Sept. 9th. The question is: "what part of the boat is going to break?"

A word about steam bending wood

I'm just a "babe in the woods" when it comes to steam bending wood. But it is fascinating, there's something about bending wood that really turns me on. For a more sane approach (not to mention logical and proffessional) click the wooden sailbat restoration link on the sidebar otherwise watch me mess up real good.

All Steamed up

Well, the pictures tell the tale, the wood did bend, and it bent in a compound curve. I'll take the clamps off tomorrow when everything is real cool man.

Carry water, bend wood

Not wasting any time getting back to the 1953 Correct-Craft project boat we now reveal what those empty paint cans and burner plate are for......drum roll please.......STEAM BENDING!

aw-right! If the pictures aren't that clear I'll explain it: steam flows through clear vinyl hose into the foil wrapped wood. After steaming for about an hour we'll put some clamps on it and see what happens. Gonna do it tommorrow, hope nothing blows up!

Clamping down on leaks

Here's the unit back in its functional place. After cinching down all the various hose clamps....most of them were a little bit loose....I hooked up the garden hose to the integrated system, turned on the engine, revved her up and, wouldn't you know, NO LEAKS! Taking the boat to lake Shasta this upcoming weekend, we'll see if everything holds., Knock on wood.

Worked out a solution...

After consulting with "experts", all of which reccomending using solder, which meant to me:

breaking the seal, that gorilla glue is tough stuff, have to do some heavy pounding or torqueing with a real possibility of bending the metal too much and then dealing with another, bigger problem as well as being back to square one.

Then sweating it together which means applying heat which may affect the other soldered or brazed sections (of which there are a lot...all that inside tubing for instance) which may lead to more complications and I don't think I have the courage to open up this pandoras box of problems.

Making a long story shorter, I had a rubber pipe coupler that I cut narrower and slapped it on that puppy, .........It withstood the garden hose water torture test!