Continuing on....12 July 2007 #9 of 11

Another delicate thing I had to do, was to use a small laminate router (see all these tools I had to buy) to make the two horizontal edges of the two planks fit together tight. I couldn’t take a picture, because I couldn’t route and hold a camera at the same time. I will try to explain it.

The top edge of the last plank I just put on is made straight on the table saw and then I use a hand plane to make it perfectly straight before it is installed.. The next plank up is clamped to the hull with about a 1/4 inch gap between. Then a small laminate router is guided along the top of the bottom plank, and it cuts the bottom of the top plank exactly like the one below. So when the plank is lowered, it is a perfect fit. These technics all come from that wonderful book by Don Danenberg named "How To Restore Your Wooden Runabout."

The transom planks are next. Here is my jig for bending the planks. All three at the same time.

Look at that grain. It shows the book page affect.

The next step is the deck planking. The center darker plank is the king plank, and in the next ones out you can see the book-page grains. Even the rear deck had pieces of these same planks back there. Once again, a judge will look for that.

It is 1 Aug 2007. I took my wife to the hospital the next day, she was there for a week, and I didn’t resume work until mid October. I lost her on 17 Sep 2007. (Reread FunnyFarmers 17 Sepember post) She had been ill for several months before 7 Nov 2006, vote day, when she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I only tell you this, because my loss and my wondering mind caused a mistake when I returned to work.

8 Oct 2007

After everything settled down a bit, I went back to the shop. But it was too soon. My mind was elsewhere, and I made a big blunder that was hard to repair.

In the previous chapter, I had dry-fitted the deck planks. I took them off and preceded to rubber them in place. But when I put the king plank in place, I got the screw by the deck opening in the wrong hole, and it was off to the port side by about a quarter of an inch. I did not find this out until I glued the last outer most plank in place, and I would not have been able to remove the king plank. It had been too long. You can see that the inside curve did not line up with the ceiling board underneath. I am so thankful I did all of the port side first.

I then went home and didn’t return for two more weeks. My journal shows I went to visit my grand kids again and another short trip.

On the 25th of October, I made a thin tapered sliver of wood to fill the gap.

You may have noticed grooves in the deck planks. These are called a kerf. Later, these would be painted white for a striped look. I had to fill a kerf on the king plank, and have a kerf on the sliver. It was quit delicate, but I got it done.

After the deck was stained and varnished, I’ll challenge you to find the flaw.

Now both decks are finished and the covering planks are rubbered in to place.



The next step is cutting all the bung plugs to fill the screw holes. When a hole is drilled, it is counter sunk deep enough to put a wooden plug on top to hide the screw. Here is the process.
I have a special cutter that cuts a plug with the outside diameter a tiny bit larger than the inside diameter of the hole. It is tapered on the end for an easy start.

I then saw them out in a long line.

Then I dip the end plug in glue (not rubber), place it into the hole and tap it with a hammer. It breaks that one off the string of plugs and sets it into the hole.

You can see the little plugs sticking out, there is about 2500 on the sides and deck. I did not put plugs in the bottom.

Then I cut each one off just above the plank and sanded them smooth. After the wood is stained and varnished, they can hardly be seen.

The unique thing about this operation is, I saved the end of each plank, 4PF, etc. and labeled them and cut the bungs for that plank, put them in a sack for later and then put those bungs in that plank. This kept the colors matched pretty close. I spent 1 week cutting and inserting bungs.

The end of 2007 has come. I work/played for 515 hours during 39 weeks. When I first started the restoration process, I figured I would be through in July of 2007. When that came and went, then it was July 2008. It was taking more time than I thought. So my goal became, get it in the water so I can take pictures so I can enter it in boat shows during 2009. That means September/October 2008. Entries need to be in by May of 2009.

Tomorrow I will start the sanding and staining process.