A grumble and other things.
Just recently over on the jwbuilders yahoo group, there was some discussion about temporary shelters in which to build a boat. There were some good suggestions, and some that don’t apply here in NZ, but one of the things that came up was a reference to the very cheap kitset garages and carports available from several distributors of same.
I’m back home on board my ship again after a couple of days at my Ex’s house. In exchange for another consideration I had volunteered to assemble a kitset garage that she’d bought.
Its one of “these”.
https://www.tradetested.co.nz/browse/garden-sheds/garages-workshops/workshop-garage-3-45m-x-6-02m-x-2-3m-dark-green.html
I’d hoped to use the completed space to get a couple of projects done, ones that are not easy when out in the weather here in New Zealands winter but that hasn’t worked out well.
In the little time that I’ve been able to put into it, I’ve put the foundations in, got three walls assembled and stood up, have a little of the roof on and have decided that it was not going to work the way I wanted.
It’s a nightmare of a thing to build, its so lightly framed that getting it straight and true is very difficult, the whole thing is in my humble opinion so light and flimsy that its not a good deal at all.
In fact upon asking around I’ve come across several other people including two who build this sort of thing for a living who are of the same opinion, so if you’re looking for a shed, I’d suggest that look very hard before you make your choice.
So I’ve bought a heap of cheap 45 x 70 framing lumber, drawn plans and today made up five roof trusses. Harder work physically than I’ve done for a while, but they are done.
In a week or so I’ll be back and will pre cut all of the studs and plates for the walls, and if the weather (dead of winter here in the South) co operates will have the old structure down and stripped, the idea being to put the wooden frames up and clad them with the tin from the kit.
She’ll have a decent garage in which to put her little car, and I’ll have the use of my old shop again for 12 months.
The shop here where I am living is nowhere big enough for all the machinery I have in the old shop and I’ve nowhere else to put it. I’m ok with that for the most part but gosh I miss that big bandsaw.
And the buzzer (jointer). And the big Drill press. And the thickness planer, and the dust extraction system, and and and – Oh well, I think that its time to get the kayak out and go for a paddle.
Design wise, John Owens of JOWoodworks www.jowoodworks.comis working up a prototype for a kitset version of SEI, and today I am going over the plans and the hull of my own boat to get the “as built” measurements into the plans.
I’d tried on the drawing to pinch the hull slightly midships to reduce the length of oar required to row her easily, but the planks would not easily take that shape.
Another demonstration of the old engineering saying that goes “in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is!”.
So I’ve a little work to do.
John Owens is hoping to have that boat at Sail Oklahoma and the Port Aransas PlyWooden Boat show, see you there.
About subject matter on this blog.
It was originally started as a place for me to chat with my friends and some of those who are building from my plans, and its been going for quite a while now. Readership is fairly high, around 5 or 6000 page views a month and its been useful to be able to refer people to posts where I’ve already written on a particular subject.
On reading through the statistics, I note that the posts that attract the most readership, are those on somewhat technical matters.
Some on boats, some on machinery or tools, and some on design. Understandable, so I’ll be working on that in future, more tool tests and I have a couple of interesting ones coming up, as well as more design work.
I’m still trying to put up a post each Friday, but don’t bet on it, sometimes life gets in the way.
See you next week.
J
