| Bolero
Project |
Thursday, April 24, 2008 Today was all about stock preparation. With some of the more material-intensive parts of the project coming right up, it was time to start milling the various bits and pieces so that I'd be ready for installation. First, though, I glued up the last cabin beam, and then I washed and sanded yesterday's fairing compound up in the cockpit, and cleaned up afterwards. The soon-to-be-coming projects include the cockpit seating areas (mahogany), the cockpit sole grate (teak), the toerail (teak), the aft deck hatch (mahogany), interior trim and details (cherry), exterior trim and details (mahogany) and the hull ceiling in the cabin (Spanish cedar). I removed what I thought would be an ample number of mahogany and cherry boards for the tasks ahead and set them aside on the bench for the preparatory steps ahead. I didn't yet have the Spanish cedar in stock, though I'd found a source yesterday and it was awaiting my pick-up. I'd ordered all my stock pre-planed, but to maximize potential I had them plane it just smooth, or to about 7/8" for typical 4/4 stock. This is a huge labor-saver for me. However, with this approach the boards sometimes end up of inconsistent thickness, and some of the boards still contained rough patches on one face. So it was clear that I'd have to do some planing. First, though I had to straighten one edge of each board; all had rough edges. Using a circular saw and a straightedge, I removed one rough (and often curved) edge from each of the boards; I didn't make a count of the boards offhand, but there were plenty. With one clean edge ready for the table saw fence and further milling steps, it was time to address the boards' thickness and smoothness. At a minimum, I needed to plan the partially rough sides smooth and get all the boards to consistent thickness; eventually (as anticipated), I planed all the mahogany and cherry boards down to just a shade over 3/4" in thickness and smooth on both sides. |
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At this point, I decided it made sense to just go today and pick up the Spanish cedar. The shop was a mess from all the planing and milling, and I knew I'd need to plane out the cedar as well. And there wasn't going to be any time that was particularly more convenient or otherwise better to go, so off I went on the 3-hour round trip to pick up the 49 board feet of cedar. When I returned to the shop, I planed the rough boards smooth and to consistent thickness; fortunately, I was able to maintain nearly 15/16" thickness in the boards, which was important since I planned to resaw them into thin strips for the ceiling, and a thicker board meant that I could probably get three thicknesses of strips out of each board, reducing waste. The photos below show the Spanish cedar first in its rough form, then after planing. It's a nice-looking wood that one doesn't see used very often, other than as humidor linings. Almost mahogany-like in texture, it contained interesting grain patterns, color variations from board to board, and sappy areas, particularly in rough form. |
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I'd hoped to get a start on milling the various pieces today, but it didn't come to pass. So tomorrow would likely be another day dedicated largely (or entirely) to milling bits of stock in the woodshop. |
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