Timbering Again

On Wednesday (Aug. 25)we fired up the boiler and set 2 full sets of frames in the stern. Because the quarters back there are so tight we made these frames out of 4 pieces of 3" x 1"oak laminated together to end up with a frame 3" x 4 ¼". There is almost a 180 degree bend in these frames. We tried to prebend a lot of the wood and found that in doing so we were overbending the pieces and breaking quite a few of them. We got the first row of the third frame set as well. They look great.

Thursday A rainy day. We can’t run the boiler today so we took a little bit of a holiday. We made new boards for the next frames and then went to the Ex tonight to watch the ox pull.

Friday Today is the second day this week that we started the boiler. Warren got the fire started about 7:30 this morning. It is now 9:25 and the water is boiling and the wood is well on its way. In about an hour we will start to retrieve them from the scalding liquid and bend them into a permanent position in the stern of the vessel. You have to be really careful when you handle the pot- it’s really easy to scald yourself. We have a visitor already this morning as often happens when we’re working in the boat shop. People who know Warren or people who are just curious stop by and see what’s going on and see the progress of the vessel and just chat. As the day goes on 4 others visit us, Some people are put to work passing things or holding boards to be fastened so BEWARE. If you visit you could be part of the work crew!!! We worked at the ribs and finished 4 sets of ribs completely and put in the foundation pieces for the 5^th set. The fire pit works very well to boil the timbers and there is truly an added benefit to it. In the evening when the fire has died down and there are just coals we can pull up a seat and sit around with the kids and roast marshmallows.

Saturday We set the boiler to go and finished setting the frames for the 5^th set. Warren cut 2 more pockets on the starboard side of the vessel and we prepared enough timbers for 2 more sets of frames. After that we took the rest of the day off from the building project.

Sunday Today was our cleanup day. Warren cut the other 2 pockets (on the port side) and later today he built 2 ladders for getting to the upper walkways so that we all don’t have to climb around like rats. Mostly, though, we cleaned the boat shed- it was getting to be a mess and hard to walk through with all of the shavings and cut off pieces of wood all over the floor. Things look much better now and hopefully it will make things even better for the next week’s work.