Plans barter

Oak Smoke

I think Ive finally reached critical mass.


That was a pretty cool feeling. Particularly for someone whos tool collection a few short months ago was meager, presuming I could even find them. Thank you Roger, for turning me onto the idea that old tools could be found for less than new tools, and to the Galoots on the Old Tools forum, for getting me the rest of the way there. If youre at all interested in hand tools, particularly the good old tools, its worth subscribing. A great bunch of guys.

Well, on this Day 17, my mission was to mount Cabin Boys transom, using the micro invention described yesterday, and to tie the whole backbone together, as much as possible.

I started by bolting the keelson to the stem. To do that, I had to drill a long 1/4" hole through the keelson and the stem, and then chisel out a landing area on the stem for the washer and nut.

For some reason, I still find it difficult to drill or cut real wood... i.e., the wood that will end up in the actual boat. There is something so final about drilling a hole, or -- worse -- making a saw cut. How can you ever know if you are doing it correctly? What if you make a mistake???

Thats the beauty of having a deadline. I hesitated, as usual, and then thought, "Well, if its wrong, its wrong", and pulled the trigger.


Of course, I didnt make a mistake, and did a fabulous job of chiseling out a nice flat spot for the nut, if I do say so myself.

One funny thing... every time I drill into White Oak, it smokes. I have a variable speed drill and try to take it easy, but it smokes every time. This time, I got so concerned about the health of my drill bit, that I had a cup of water close at hand, and dipped the drill bit into the water frequently, too cool it down.

I was worried about the drill bit getting too hot and losing its "temper". Obviously, Ive been reading too many old tool books.

Can any one tell me if its possible for a drill bit to loose its temper? I felt a bit silly bathing it every few seconds, so if I can avoid this procedure in the future, that would be a good thing.

If you know the answer to this question, please leave a comment below or drop me a line at john (at) unlikelyboatbuilder (dot) com.

So here is the stem and keelson bolted loosely together. Before the final assembly, Ill put some bedding compound in the joint, to make it water tight.


Next, it was time to trim the keelson to size, so I could mount the transom in the stern. The cut below had to be in the right place (the length taken right off the lofting board), and at the right angle so it would cozy up to the inside face of the transom. Again, this angle comes right off the lofting board.

I felt a bit odd making this cut by eye... Im sure the Boat Building Industrial Complex has a special tool for this, but I have no idea what it is. My Japanese pull saw -- assisted by my eye -- made a nice clean job of it. Im continually impressed by how easy it is to make a straight cut with one of these tools. Its definitely going in my desert island took kit.


With the tail end of the keelson out of the way, it was time to mount the transom, using the dual clothespin technique.

In a nutshell, there are two clothespin clamps bolted to the ladder frame. These are beyond Station S, which is at the inside side of the final 2x4 cross member.

There are also two beams that are clamped to the outside of the transom. I had to move them from the inside (yesterdays picture), to the outside, to make the top of the transom line up with Station S.

The key point here is that everything is adjustable. I can move the transom right or left, by losening the beam clamps. I can move the transom up or down, or forward or back, or change the angle, by loseing the clothespin clamps.

In other words, with a bit of patience, its possible to get the transom into exactly the right position, and then to clamp it tight. It does the same thing a fixed jig would do, without the precise lofting and patterning it would take to get a fixed jig right.

Still, if I had more time, Id probably take the time to build the jig. It would probably be a tad more precise.


Heres a close up of all the moving parts. The clothespins are screwed to the frame, everything else is just clamped. Thats what makes it adjustable.


This little invention does prove one thing, though: you can never have too many clamps!

Well, that was it for Day 17.  Tomorrow I will be lining off the hull!

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