Month: April 2015

This tool is a true “old friend”.  It has stayed the course for two guideboats and some light weight canoes.  It has never given me a moment’s trouble.  It is my Ryobi 3/8″ portable electric drill.

If you follow the progress of portable electric tools, you know that there is a horsepower race going on. The first tools operated on 12 volt batteries.  Then battery power steadily climbed to where tools with 20 volt batteries are now available.  This has lead to a plethora of portable tools including saws and drivers.

My drill is a thing of the past.  It operates on a 12 volt battery which gives it a great advantage over the newer tools.  It is light.  It weighs only 2 pounds.  When building a guideboat you need to be quite precise in locating fasteners.  It certainly helps to have a drill that is light and easy to position.

Like any old friend it shows the wear and tear of being ready for most anything.  On it there are scrapes and scratches and smears of bedding compound.  One of the original batteries passed away but I was able to find a replacement for a reasonable price.   So I am counting on it for many more years of faithful service.

There are some clean-up details before I can varnish the inside of the hull and truly head for home with this boat.  The rib ends were purposely extended up from the sheer plank and now must be trimmed off to make them flush with that final plank.  I thought I would use a flush cut saw for that task.  The one I have used in the past was a bit flimsy and not suitable for the more demanding work that this require.  I checked out the Japan Woodworker catalog and found a single blade saw (part no. 155648) that should do the trick.

When it arrived I knew right away that it was authentic.

It turned out to be a great buy.  It has just the right stiffness for cutting off the rib ends and cuts on the pull stroke which is nice.  So here it is in action.

As you can see I decided to get a bit fancy and cut the ribs on a slight downward slope.  This turned out to not be such a hot idea.  On several of the ribs I cut into the brass screw fastening the plank to the rib.  Oops!  Well, it reminds me of the fossilized flies I have seen embedded in amber.  I guess it will be a topic of conversation, as they say.

The final duty in “Odds and Ends” was to plug the holes left when the bottom board was fastened to the builder’s jig beam.  This, of course, is a must do.  Otherwise, launching day would become “foundering day”.

I used a 3/16″ dowel and tapped it into the hole.  It fit tightly enough so that no glue was required.

Now on to the tedium of varnishing the inside of the hull.