The three bulkheads you see along the bottom of these unphotographable (thanks for the word, Sinatra) plans are the next step. I haven't got a good picture yet of the finished product, but here you see them being cut out.
I check a piece of plywood for squareness, cut it down to 83" (7 feet minus 1" for the sides) and carefully mark it up, measuring and remeasuring all dimensions. After its cut out, I attach the framing timber that bonds it to sides and decks and strengthens the big openings down low.
Between the work I've been doing on this building, building it as I am with rough lumber, and the work I'm doing on the boat, I have been doing a lot of joining of lumber with a hand plane. Now, I am no hand plane expert, but I am slowly getting better at this after straightening a thousand boards.
Notable is one change in technique for checking for straightness of a board. I used to always lay my aluminum flat bar on top of a board
then get my head down even with it and check for places where the board is not touching the bar.
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| Side View |
I call this the "checking for daylight" method. It works OK, but it is subject to back lighting and I have trouble seeing it well.
Lately, I've been relying more on what I call the "wiggle-waggle" method, where you stand and look down on the bar resting on the edge of the board and wiggle it.
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| Top View |
At the spots where it is touching the board, it will stay fixed and the parts that are not in contact with the wood will be free to wiggle. An added bonus is that you don't lose the spot you needed to take down when you go from squatting to standing.
Another fun trick is this plywood-whispering I just learned about that I mentioned earlier. Here is a piece that had a troublesome bend in it and I put the hump side against the stove and wetted the valley side.
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| Hey you, wipe that silly grin off your face! |
Ten minutes later...
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| That's better! |
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