In the meantime, the router table and drum sander have found a home in the garage.
Since I can't be cleaning all the time, I decided to build a mock-up of the yard (sort of practice for the yard, boom and masts to be built for real…). The staves for the yard measure 10mm x 16mm (about 3/8" x 5/8") - so I figured a practice round was a good idea to see how these small pieces would work. I rough cut the staves to 15mm x 19mm and ran them through the drum sander to sneak up on the finished dimensions. What I learned is that I can cut them closer to the final dimensions and save some time on the sander. The staves were then notched on the router table. Gluing these small staves was actually easier than I expected it to be - but I'm still wondering about gluing such small cross-section pieces that will be 12' long.
The plug came home from the store as a 1" x 1" square dowel (hey, that's what they call them at the store…), which wasn't quite square, measuring 24mm x 25mm.
A few passes through the drum sander squared up the dowel at 23mm. Then, using a chamfer bit in the router table, I milled the square dowel to an octagonal plug.
The plug fits the hollow in the spar section with a small gap between the walls of the spar and the plug. Thickened epoxy will fill the gap.
Today's experiment showed me that the small cross-section of the yard staves is not a problem and work can begin on the yard.
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteAfter I made my mast, I discovered an article on Duckworks for an alternate way to cut the staves that uses less wood and requires less work to round the mast and it's just as easy to cut the staves. If you google "duckworks modified birdsmouth spars" it should come up first on the list. I did my mizzen using the alternate method. Having done them both ways, I like the alternate method better.
Thanks, Joel.
DeleteI have wondered about the waste of the original and the alternate reduces the waste. I'll use the alternate method for my spars and will experiment with it for some non-boat related woodworking, too.