Closing Entry

I haven't journaled in a while. Things have been crazy with last week being Senior week, the beginning of my summer job, school finishing up, and I'll admit, the gorgeous warm weather we've been having. This will be my last entry for WISE class, though I may continue to blog every now and then on the process of the boat. Yes, I do intend to finish the boat, though at the rate I'm going it may take me several years. As for the wiring problem, I'm still not sure. I've loved the WISE experience, I've learned a lot about boat building, about my family, and about myself. I hope that when I look back on the spring of my senior year, I'll remember it as the semester where I tried to build a canoe, because it's been quite an adventure, and I've loved it.

Fixed one problem, caused another

Lying in bed last night I realized my wiring problem. I had been attaching the bow end of the side planks to the stern end of the bottom plank. This was such a silly mistake-that should've been the first thing to have checked. So today I took the wires out, and flipped everything around. I had attached one wire on one side, and got one all the way thorugh the other side. It was looking good..boat-like....until the wood split and the wire tore through the side. I'm not sure what to do about this.

A Beautiful Day to Stitch

Alright. So during the past week I re-glued the broken joint..and it's looking super strong. I also bought fiberglass tape which I will use to reinforce the joints once I've stitched them. This cost $7. Today I set out to stitch the boat together. 

 This is the drill that I used to put over 60 holes in the side planks. I'll put that many more in the bottom plank while wiring. I like this drill because it is not electric. It's soundless.

Here is a video of stitching the side planks together to form the bow (as requested my Mr. Huerich):

 All was well and good, until I began to wire the sides and the wire from the bow tore through. This is fixable, but not ideal.

 I can now officially say I've put my own blood into the boat: (Sorry if that's gross)

Wiring is really hard, I learned. It's difficult to manage keeping the wood in position while trying to thread a piece of wire through the plank of wood, then bend it so that it fits through the other hole but still slides through and lines up. When one loop works, the other ones don't. As I shifted the wood here and there and attempted to balance it, the loops at the front continued to tear through. I had gotten the jigsaw out temporarily to lean the wood against, and but then while wiggling things around, it crashed onto the floor. The blade is not looking so good:

The blade is replaceable, and the bottom piece can turn back, but I spent a long time trying to look for the replacement blade, and detach the old one. Finally, I set it down for the day. 

I had meant to do all my wiring and zip through it, but things kept going wrong. Hopefully it'll work better tomorrow, once I think it through a bit. 

Luke's Presentation

Luke's presentation (the sample) was amazing. I was so impressed...blown away. There is no way that I could get up in front of that many people and still be as focused and natural and just plain cool as Luke. The presentation was so full of his personality. It was his. I loved seeing how interested he was in his project and I loved that his project was something he can keep doing forever if he wants to. He handled questions extremely well, and handled feedback extremely well too. I give him so much credit for doing that in front of everyone. It was so brave.
In addition to being very inspiring, it was also terrifying. I have butterflies already for my own presentation, which isn't for 3 weeks. I'm beginning to panic. Half an hour is just so long for everyone to be focused on what I am saying. If answering a question in class at school makes me panic, I'm trying to figure out how I'll keep calm through the presentation.

Cutting Wire

Cutting wire got me thinking. As I sat on the floor of my garage in the 90 degree heat, with sawdust sticking everywhere, I couldn't help but notice a few things.
The first was that I had gotten to use my wire cutters...which doesn't sound like anything. But these were in fact my first tool ever, and the only tool that have ever belonged solely to me. My dad got them for me when I was in 8th grade, for dressmaking, in fact. The dress has been dismantled (thankfully), but I remember so clearly picking them out. In a way, that dress was one of my first experiences with building, so I'll give it at least a little credit in starting this whole project.  The wire cutters have lived on my bookshelf between books and art supplies ever since, so it was fun getting to pull them out and use them again.

The second thing I noticed is that I have an amazing knack for doing things in an unbelievably inefficient way. The plans gave a seemingly quick and easy way of cutting, where you wrap the wire around cardboard and make one clean cut...so simple. What I realized is that I'm not strong enough to bend the wire around a 3 inch piece of cardboard over a hundred times, as skinny as the wire is. So instead I sat and cut 80 six inch pieces of wire individually. As I measured and chopped away, I couldn't help but think there was an easier way to do this. Now that I sit down, afterwards, I can think of a million ways I could've done that differently, if I'd only thought of them before.

My problem is that I do this a lot...not just in my project but in other parts of my life. Applying to college was the most agonizing experience, because I drew it out forever and didn't think through my decisions fully. I make communicating with other people extremely difficult, and then spend a lot of time worrying about trying to fix problems I've caused because I could not say what I originally meant to.  I find I always end up doing things the "hard way", and I'm not so sure why.

But if I saw how cutting wire on the garage floor is tangible to real life, then maybe today's inefficiency was not a complete waste.

Not so good

Yesterday I got my dad to help me bend the side around the bottom...just to see if they matched before beginning the "stitching".  They matched quite well...until the side snapped right along the scarph joint. SNAPPED! This is...not so good.
Luckily they did snap along a seam, so fixing was not too much of an issue. I glued it back together with epoxy today...but the question now is whether it will snap again, and whether the other side will snap.
I have a theory that if you begin attaching the side to the bottom at the joint and work outward, it might not break. But this just an idea.
This also means II could not begin wiring yesterday as I had planned. It also meant I cannot wire today, because I must now wait for the glue to set.

Stitch and Glue

Both the sides and bottom have been epoxied, and cut to their exact shapes. It's starting to look like a boat! The next thing I needed to begin stitching the boat together was wire. The kind was quite particular..so I went to several places trying to find it. I eventually found it at Home Depot, and luckily, it was only 6 dollars.

So, the boat I'm building is known as a "stitch and glue", meaning that you stitch the bottom and sides together with wire, then glue with epoxy and fiberglass tape.

A Bit of This, A Bit of That

I haven't blogged in a while, so I have a bit to catch up on.
First, I have a presentation day. This will be June 12 at 3:30. At our last meeting, Mr. Huerich and I decided to have the presentation at my house, so that everyone can see where I've been working. We checked with Ms. Lord and this works.
I also finished re-gluing the scarph joints so that they are stronger, and coated all the panels with epoxy, which I then let dry. Drying takes 10-15 hours, so I've discovered that there is a bit of patience involved in this project, which is something I've never really had a lot of. I then drew the lines for the bottom of the boat, and cut around them with the jigsaw. The boat has a bottom!
Now to attach the sides...

A Great Article, Thanks Patrick!

http://theithacan.org/24315

Two Days Contrasted

I am not a morning person. It takes a good bit of coffee and an hour or two to get me really ready for the day (and happy to be out of bed.) However  the rest of the John family are early-risers, up with the sun, almost. So when I found myself unwillingly awake before 9 am on a Saturday, and in the garage shortly after, I was, well, slightly grumpy. (I had wanted to work on the boat this weekend, but was not more specific, so I guess I deserved this for being vague.) I also had somewhere to be in an hour and a half, so I was under pressure of time. Suddenly, I just felt like I was being told what I should do, when. and how.

I compare this with today, where I decided, early afternoon, to head out to the garage willingly, and do some epoxying. (Another story altogether.) Because it was not painfully early, and because I was working because I chose to, I was so happy to be out there doing it. I worked for almost two hours, and got a lot done.

Happiness Revisited

1. When do you feel most happy?
I think I am happiest when I am not thinking about the future-when I have no plans-when I'm just going where the day takes me, "tossing a feather to the wind" as it's said.

2. Read/respond to article.
I quite enjoyed the article, I found it extremely interesting. There was a quote "Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person." I liked this a lot; happiness is not something that simply happens to you. It's a change in attitude, a willingness to be open to what comes your way. "It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly."
Happy experiences are "not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur." This made me think of running races while on the cross country team. The experience is incredibly painful, but when you look back on it, you feel accomplished, and, happy.

3. Where are you on the flow chart?
I think I am within the flow channel. I think there is a good balance of learning skills, and overcoming challenges. I am never over-anxious, and I'm certainly never bored. I'm so happy to be doing my project.

4. How has this changed/remained the same throughout the course of your project?
I think my non-boredom has increased greatly recently when I started doing more hands-on work. Before, there may have been a bit too much research going on.

5. How can you achieve flow?
I think flow can be achieved by not rushing but moving at a fair pace, balancing being patient and taking risks, and simply by continuing.

Comfort Zones

Identify a place in your project process where you held on to your comfort zone, and sacrificed learning and experience because of it.

Epoxy is dangerous, and I knew that, and was rather nervous to use it. So I put off using it for a while, and wasted some time.  When I finally did decide to do it, I was so relieved, and it went so well.  It sort of taught me not to hold back because I'm nervous.

Scarph Joints are done!

The first joined board is on the floor...you can see the joint where the wood has a darker stripe. The second and third are setting. Because I did the second and third at the same time, I saved a day of waiting for the glue to dry. Tomorrow...drawing lines on the panels!

"Need Motivation? Declare Deadlines"

We were given an article in class today on deadlines. I am a procrastinator, so deadlines are probably a great thing for me to create for myself. Unfortunately, I always procrastinate on setting the deadlines as well. I think I do fear the disapproval of others when I do not meet deadlines, and I often convince myself that the pressure of doing things last minute means I am more efficient and productive. These are probably just excuses, and setting deadlines would definitely be a good thing for me to try doing.
I wish the article had gone into more depth on what motivates people, but like the other said, he had a deadline to meet, and pushed his article off.

Epoxying my first joint

So, I went for it! I epoxied my first scarph joint this afternoon, all by myself. I bundled up in goggles, a face mask, bandanna  and rubber gloves up to my elbows, and went to work. It was easy! Because Teg had walked my through the steps, the whole thing went very quickly and easily. No rashes or lung damage, as far as I can tell. As Teg said, if you can smell it, you're already in too far. Well, I still haven't a clue what epoxy smells like. It'll have set fully by the time I get up in the morning, and we'll see how it turned out!

The Survival of the Bark Canoe

I'm a few chapters into John McPhee's account of Henri Vaillancourt's endeavor to save the lost art of birch bark canoe building.  At the time of the book's publication (1975), Vaillancourt was one of four in the world who specialized was considered an expert in birch bark canoe building. He dedicated his whole life to it, made almost no money off of it, and did work near perfection with only a handful of tools. He claims he could build a canoe with only a crooked knife. He never measured anything, yet his worked was extremely precise and accurate, and was always amazingly symmetrical. He could give you the measurements of exactly how long the pieces should be, using only his eyes.
Though I'm only a little of the way into John McPhee's wonderful tale, I'm already so impressed by this man's dedication. He's less a builder than an artist. He dedicated his lfe to preserving such an obscure craft. You read it and think, Why? Why does he spend all his time doing this? But at the same time, you can see exactly why he does what he does, and you feel a crazy urge to find your own obscure lost art and dedicate your own life to it, just like him.

It isn't that scary, after all

I emailed Teg, the boat builder, asking if he has any advice on how to use epoxy. He called me back within an hour, and we talked for 25 minutes. He was so helpful. He uses epoxy all the time, and went over everything I'd need to know, while I frantically scrambled to write it all down. He always eased my fears about the fumes and the danger it can cause. He told me that a respirator is not necessary, but maybe a carbon filter mask would be a good idea. Because he filled me in on the exact process, from mixing, measuring, glueing, clamping, etc, I feel a lot more confident that this is something I can do by myself. The big thing is that the weather has to be right. A slight breeze, and somewhere between 60 and 80 degrees. Fingers crossed that happens soon!

Mentor Meeting

Today I met with Mr. Heurich, and we talked a lot about the epoxy. We're both nervous about using it-even more so after reading about experienced boat builders coughing up blood because of lung irritation. We agreed that this is something I should probably do with someone else. My dad and I could do it at the end of next week-which is kind of far away. There are many other things that I could do in the meantime, however.
I also emailed Teg, the man I interviewed in the beginning who has built boats, asking if he haas any recommendations on how to best use epoxy.
My Heurich and I also looked into renting a respirator. We called a couple of places around town, the words "hepatitis" and "turbuculosis" were tossed around, and we discovered that no one rents them out. Home Depot sells them for $27. In addition, we thought that wearing a tyvek suit would be a good idea. These cost about $5.

Two Requirements-that I'd use my hands, and that I'd get messy

We had class today, because it's Monday, and we started talking about how we'll schedule our final presentations. The end is really soon! Suddenly there is not an infinite amount of time to work on the project, which is both exciting and stressful. 

After school, I came home and went to work in the garage. It was sunny, and peacefully quiet (until I plugged in the power tools), and I was happy to be there. I finished cutting the second scarph joint, and am almost finished with the third. I was thinking today about my original proposal. When I began to think up my  project, there were two requirements-that I'd use my hands, and that I'd get messy. (Well, when I think of the things I like to do-sewing, painting, building castles out of silverware at the dinner table-they all make use of my hands.  I like to make messes and experiment and see what emerges) Finally, I'm doing both of those things. I'm pulling splinters out of my hands and feeling the smoothness of the wood. I'm using tools and moving things around. I'm shaking out the sawdust from my clothes. There is a layer of grime every time I finish for the day. It's great. 

After thinking about that, I found my first blog entry again, the entry that introduces the reader to the project. Ms. Lord always tells us to pull this out every once and a while, but I really haven't. I was happy with what I saw. I still have the same fears, and I still know that I'll make mistakes. (In fact, I already have.) But I love the attitude-there's a lot of optimism in here, and re-reading was a good reminder to not get too worked up too often. 

I've been told it will be hard to do-that it takes time, care, patience, and skill. 

I have many fears: that I won't finish in time, that my hand will slip and I'll slice the boat in half, that I will put my boat in the lake and it will leak through all the seams and I'll have to swim ashore. The list goes on and on. But I then remember that this is indeed an experiment. I know I'll make mistakes, and I look forward to those. I want to jump right in and see what happens. By June I hope to have learned something. Maybe it will be how to build a boat the wrong way, or maybe how to tell a good canoe joke. We'll have to wait and see.

Epoxies and Hardeners Are Quite Frightening

I went to look for epoxy over the weekend with my dad, at the Sailing Center. Not only must you buy the epoxy (99$ a gallon), but you must buy hardener (45$) and pumps (13$). It comes with massive amounts of writing on how to use it, and how dangerous it can be. This is a lot of money to spend, and there were a lot of different things to consider. I wanted to just take the manual home, read it, think, and then make some choices. I've never been good at making decisions, and they sort of stress me out. But, no one really listened to me. Suddenly I found myself leaving. epoxy in hand. I wasn't even sure epoxy was the best way to go. But now I have it, which means I can keep moving forward, which is great. I'm very grateful that I have it now-I'm just a little nervous.

Why am I afraid to use epoxy?
It came with a 30 page user's manual.
It is a skin irritant, which can cause a rash similar to poison ivy.
It irritates the eyes, and especially the lungs. A respirator or a mask is required for its use.
Large quantities (over 8 fluid ounces) can melt plastic containers, then burn you.
And epoxy's hardener can spontaneously combust if it comes into contact with sawdust. (!)
All of these hazards apply until the epoxy has cured fully, which can take a couple of hours.
Disposal is extremely particular (to avoid explosions, melted plastic, and the risk of accidental contact later), the temperature you can use it in is extremely particular (70 degrees is perfect)
What happens if you spill this stuff? (There are spill clean-up directions, but still)
There is a very short amount of time where the epoxy and its hardener are in "open time" or a liquid phase, which means you have to use it very fast.

Here are the precautions I'll need to take before using:
Wear skin cream (which acts as protection over the skin)
Cover as much skin as possible.
Rubber gloves
Eye protection (and I'm worried the goggles I have now are not going to be quite enough)
Ventilation-which the best I can do is have the door and windows of the garage open and have a fan/several fans going.
Wear a respirator (A friend recommended a place to get one, the auto body repair shop on the old route 13)
And I'll add my own: having lots of soap and water near by.

Scarph Joints 101

Scarph Joints. First off, what is it? A scarph joint in a way of joining two peices of wood so they are flat. The two peices slope in at their edges when they come together. This makes a stronger joint than a butt joint, where the two peices come together squarely.

This would be one half of the joint, with the other lying on top of it. (This was a practice piece.)

So how do you do it?  What I found out is that the joint should be in an 8:1 ratio. So because my wood is 1/4 inch thick, the joint would use two inches of wood on either side. So two inches out from the edge of the wood, you use a planer to create a slope. I had originally been using a hand planer, but I traded that for an electric one for the sake of efficiency.

The planer is the tool in the picture, and it shaves the wood at an angle, very slightly. I kept making cuts that seemed huge, but in fact they were 1/32nd of an inch. The 2x4 behind the planer was there to make sure I did not cut behind the 2" line. 

Then I sanded the joint down, both with this orbital sander, and with sand paper. I almost feel like I'm cheating by using the sander. Hand sanding really makes me feel like I'm doing the building. 

I finished the first piece, and did the second. I lined them up to see how they fit together, and they were uneven and not angled enough. They came together roughly. So I clamped them to the table again, this time side-by-side, and sanded/planed them at the same time. The lines of the layers of the plywood make eyeballing how far you've cut very easy. Now, they come together almost perfectly. 

 Here the two peices are side by side: 

 And here they are held together: 

The next step is to glue them with epoxy, then clamp them and wait for them to dry. And what is epoxy exactly? It's extremely waterproof glue. It can be used for a variety of purposes, as the man who sold it explained, but for boat building, it's the best there is. In addition to the epoxy, I also now own a users manual and a copy of Epoxy Works magazine, both of which were recommended I read before use. 

Going to Pieces (Literally!)

It's wood cutting day! Finally! 

 Cutting the wood! I used the jigsaw while my dad held the ruler.

The pieces! (In an extra clean garage-I might never get over that)

Next steps: Scarph Joints and resin!

4/15 Wise Class

Today in class Ms. Lord told us that she didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up. A lot of the class seemed a little confused by what she meant, because after all, she is a grown-up. But for some reason, this made a lot of sense to me. I think sometimes were sent the message that you should play, learn, experiment, ask questions and make mistakes when you're young, and then move on to more serious things. For some reason, kids believe adults already know all the answers. I'm not an adult, so perhaps I'm quite off, but I would think that there is always chance to change, grow, try out new things. Isn't there always the question of whether what you do every day is right or wrong? Isn't there always the mystery of what you'll be doing next and how you'll end up there? I found Ms. Lord's statement refreshing, especially as our class leaves the high school in June and heads off for new places.

The Weekend

This weekend was quite busy in terms of WISE projects.

Here is the workspace, completely clean:

This is a planer, used to slope edges. I used this to practice making a scarph joint, the type of joint I will need to connect my pieces together. I think I need to find a more efficient way to do this. 

This is the part of the wood I practiced on. See the slope?

Then my dad showed my how to use this jigsaw-which is probably the coolest tool I've used so far. 

I practiced cutting some curved and straight edges. 

Also this weekend, I went looking for resin. Agway referred me to Ithaca Plastics, which was closed, as was the Sailing Center, but they'll be open this week. 

Back to Reality

Break has ended, and I am back, ready to keep plugging away at my project. I am meeting with Mr. Heurich today, 4th period. While I was away, my uncle recommended a book to me, called The Survival of The Bark Canoe, by John McPhee.  He was really excited about it, and said he had loved reading it, so I will hopefully be able to find a copy from around town somewhere.

Task Force Journal Review Response

I want to say a big thank you to Ms. Maddren for reviewing my journal-she did a lovely job! Everything was so positive and encouraging, and her response was incredibly in-depth. You could tell she took a long time reading and answering thoughtfully...thank you Ms. Maddren!

Here was her advice:
Add details: define more words, pretend reader has no idea how to build a canoe
Fix the $ sidebar..it is indeed lacking currently. Her advice was to do an entry about it, rather than try to keep track of it on a separate page.
Continue to add to the bibliography, and keep it as up-to-date as possible.

Sounds

It's probably a strange sight to see a high school girl sitting in her driveway in the middle of the city trying to build a boat. However, as a pedestrian, it's probably made even stranger to hear her talking to herself about wood and lines and where she left the cup of coffee she brought outside with her.  It seems that when I'm working on the canoe, I have a running conversation going with no one in particular. I comment on the weather, talk to the sun, and tell the wood how much I love the wavy lines in it. Sometimes I sing, which is frightening, and I hope no one has had to hear that, for their sake. Though I'm muttering my thoughts out loud, I also like to listen. I like to guess which animal is causing the leaves behind the garage to stir, and hear the crinkling of the wind in the trees. I like to eavesdrop on the conversations of people passing by, and guess how fast the cars driving by are going. Mostly, I just like being outside, even though that still means bundling up in a couple of sweaters.

Breaks are tough when it comes to WISE projects

I haven't posted in a while. It's April break, and I have just returned home from Vermont, where I was not able to work on my project. In a day or so I'll be heading to Baltimore, which means I'm not left with too many mornings to spend getting messy in the driveway. I didn't really realize how much of this break I would be away for. However, during my visit to Vermont, my uncle, who does a ton of woodworking, carpentry, and building, gave me a lot of useful advice. We talked about how to use jigsaws, which kind of blade, how to bevel (or sort of slope) the edges of a piece of wood, and several other things. This was all very helpful. (Thank you uncle Joe!)

I spent this morning attempting to draw the lines for the bottom plank of wood. I used the chalk line (thank you Mr. Heurich for telling me how that works), found it to be very cool and fun to use.  But, there is a problem that I cannot seem to figure out for the life of me. The cutting guide in the plans tell me that if I draw the center line diagonally across the 4x8, I should have a line that is 12' 4''. No matter how I measure it is only ever 9 ft. I've done the triangle math, measured, and measured again, and I'm still really not sure how this one is supposed to work. Perhaps it is cut as two different pieces, but this is said no where in the plans, and it worries me to have a seam across the bottom of the boat. Perhaps a little more puzzling will help me figure it out.

Sunshine! And wood!

I got my wood today! Two sheets of 1/4 inch marine grade plywood. They're gorgeous. Getting them in my truck was a project, because I have two gigantic sandbags in the back that weigh about 90 pounds each, a little more than my mother and I usually are lifting. Luckily, the man who sold me the wood was extremely helpful in lifting those and loading the wood. So here it is!

I think the patterns in the wood are so beautiful:

So I laid one sheet on the driveway, and began to draw the first set of lines. It was so sunny and lovely, I could sit in just a tee-shirt. These were just the simple, straight across lines 1' apart.

 I attempted to use the chalkline, or the mouse as I like to call it, to draw the last line, but the only thing that ended up covered in chalk was me. So I used pencil.

DRILLZZ N' SKILLZZ

Every time we've ever taken a family a family trip to Home Depot, Lowe's, or any other store that sells tools, my father threatens to buy a cordless drill. For years, we have not been able to pass the display without stopping for a look, but he has never actually done it. Well, finally he has a really great reason: his lovely daughter (eh em, yours truly) is building a canoe. So, now we have one! And it's really fun!! I like to drill!
We drilled some holes and put screws in and then took the screws out and practiced making the holes straight and I'm really excited. I'm getting to be a pretty good driller, not to brag.

Gleaning from the Past

Finally, the Gleaning from the Past entry. The idea was that we would read a journal, narrative, and research commentary of someone who had completed WISE previously. This entry is a little late, but I still remember the journal I read quite well. I read the journal of a girl who graduated in 2004, and her project was building a dollhouse. I saw some similarities between the two of us. She too did not have much experience with woodworking, she was working closely with her father, and she had trouble keeping readers up-to-date with what she was doing. I know that I don't necessarily put everything in my journal, but after reading hers, I see that details are very important. I also saw that she got quite frustrated quite often with her dad because they often disagreed on the best way to go about things. Things usually went his way. I kept wishing she would have been more assertive. Not that I plan on any disagreements, but I know I struggle to be assertive as well. I think that reading a journal was a great thing for us to do-It's a reminder to try not to be to boring when we journal, and a reminder to explain vocab words and ideas as if the reader has no idea what your project is.

Out of the Rut

7 Things I want to accomplish in the next week:
Finish cleaning the garage
Finally do  my "Gleaning from the past" entry
Pick up wood (IT"S HERE!)
Draw lines on the wood where to cut
Journal about my mentor meeting (which I should schedule...)
Play with tools
Journal about drills

4 ways my project has changed thus far:
Strip canoe to a pirogue
No more steaming
Used plans instead of my own plan
I am a little behind on my timeline

5 things I enjoy doing in relation to my project:
Journaling-the writing can be fun!
Getting messy with sawdust and garage-grime
Talking to other people in the class about my project and theirs
Interacting with people I come across-for example the man who made the plans
Reading canoe books

5 things I've learned about myself in working on my project:
It's really hard to spend time in the garage when it's cold out
I still hate to make decisions.
It's hard to talk about what has gone a little wrong.
I don't like talking about budgets.
It's hard to journal about what I'm doing without becoming the "Diary of a Cat"

17 Years of HBIs

Cleaning The Garage

The garage is a source of contention in my household. This is a place you will never, ever be able to park your car. It seems that somehow everything that is ever brought home ends up spending at least a little of its life in the garage. Things were put on a shelf "temporarily" ten or fifteen years ago, and no one really knows when they will find a "permanent" home. So cleaning the garage is no small job. This is where I plan on doing my building, so though it is a feat, the cleaning had to be done. And because yesterday was the first beautiful, sunny day in a long time, it seemed as good a time as ever to venture into its depths. My dad and I began. I  My dad has a lot of HBI's (or hair-brained ideas) and each box of old split screws and bins filled with mysterious liquids somehow related to painting or varnishing represents one of these. Each thing brings out the story of an old project, and the question of whether it will ever be finished. Mostly, it just makes a mess. We put an hour in yesterday sorting through the chaos, and I'm impressed with how far we got. There's now room enough to twirl around through the middle, as long as you don't get too carried away.

Before:

After:

The Two Row Wampum Renewal Project

I attended a lecture yesterday during Economics class, and it was on the "Two Row Wampum Renewal Project", which was a treaty between the Haudenosaunee, who at one point occupied most all of New York State, and the Europeans. The two row wampum looks like this: 
The white represents the river of life, with one purple stripe representing the indigenous people in their canoes, while the other represents the Europeans in their ships. The wampum is meant to symbolize that the two groups are equal and can live in proximity and have economic relationships peacefully. The renewal project has begun because for the first time the U.N. will be talking about rights for indigenous peoples, so this group will be canoeing from Albany to New York City to arrive at the U.N. just in time for the conference. I thought this talk applied quite interestingly to my macro research, and I look forward to reading the brochure I recieved again more thoroughly.

Making Sawdust

I started practicing some scarph joints today, until it started to snow into the garage and I froze. I guess this is spring in Ithaca.  I'll post some pictures tomorrow, they're looking kind of cool!

Monday

Just a few thoughts from class today:

We talked a bit about blogging and journaling- what the appropriate amount to do is, what we should be journaling about, etc.  I was impressed by Maria's post on her blog on how she was disappointed in her classmates for not blogging as often as we all should, and I'm glad Ms. Lord shared it with the class. I know I may be slacking a little in my own journaling, and so I will be trying a bit harder to keep up with that.

We also talked about the "Gleaning From the Past" assignment that was due today. We were each given a copy of the journal, narrative, and research commentary of a past WISE project and were asked to evaluate it. I read a project from 2004 on building a dollhouse. Today, Ms. Lord asked us to list:
2-3 gems of the project
The love this girl put into her project, what she learned about her relationship with her father
2-3 oops could've gone better
I wish she'd been more assertive. She was doing this project with the help of her father, and whenever they disagreed, everything always ended up his way. You could tell this was not okay with her, but she never did anything to change it, and you could tell she desperately wanted to be in control of her own project.
2-3 things you're going to borrow
I should borrow her lack of procrastination, and her excitement for her project.

Just a crazy idea...

An Email That Made My Night

So what I did not write about it my last post was that the plans actually call for 3/8th inch plywood. This is non-existent. I emailed the man who created the plans, but then left it up to chance that he'd actually answer. So my dad and I decided that 1/2 inch would work the same. But just now, I checked my email, and I had a response. It's pretty interesting, and there's so much helpful information. I think it means a quick change in my order(Danby Hardwoods is probably getting pretty sick of me!) I also put in bold a line that I particularly liked: 

Hello Julia:

Thank you very much for finding a glitch in the plans. Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth when I first made these plans I apparently had a slip of the memory. The 3/8" plywood bottom was supposed to be optional for extra strength, 1/4" was supposed to the the standard version. My wife and I went through several rounds of proof reading and we brought in a friend of mine who is an experienced professional boat builder. None of us caught the oversight. Over the years that this design has been on the market virtually all of the buyers have been first time boat builders. They have all not questioned my call for 3/8" plywood bottom planks and apparently none of them are psychic and couln't read my mind to divine my true intentions. So there a re a whole fleet of Zydeco 14s out there that are a little bit heavier than they need to be. Fortunately, the Zydeco 14 is an inherently light canoe. This a pretty embarrassing mistake. However, I guess that if our mistakes in life are of the non-lethal kind, we should count ourselves as being lucky.

Just to be clear, 1/4" plywood is the standard thickness for the bottom planks and side planks in these canoes. I have had a couple of Zydeco Pirogues over the years. A few times they got some pretty hard knocks in whitewater and elsewhere. They were undamaged. There are hundreds of these Zydecos out in the world from the Yukon Territory to Germany. I have never received a report of structural failure of any kind.

Here are a few thoughts on marine plywood. Fir marine plywood seems to have suffered a decline in quality in the past few years. Be careful if you buy some, inspect it closely. Everyone is all enthusiastic about Occume plywood these day. It is pretty, is well made and is reasonably priced. I hate it. It has virtually no rot resistance and is quite weak. It has about one half of the sheer strength of fir plywood to resist puncture by rocks and logs. I have repaired a driftboat made from Occume that was only a year old and had extensive dry rot in the plywood. I repaired another Occume driftboat that had it's bottom plank completely ruptured by a minor hit from a rock. If you absolutely have to use Occume, it MUST be fiberglassed on BOTH of the plywood. Sapele plywood is top of the line. It is always my first preference, if you can stand the weight and cost. Sapele is an African Mahogany. Meranti Plywood is pretty good. Hydrotek is one brand name that I like. Look for the old British grading code BS1088. There are some east asian plywoods. I am suspicious, they seem to be similar to Occume.

Thanks again for spotting my mental slip.

WOOD

I got a call back from Danby Hardwood, and they can indeed order wood for me! They told me they could have the wood in a week, or maybe a little bit more. I ordered a sheet of 1/4 inch and a sheet of 1/2 inch. They also have a bit of the hardwood I will need, but I haven't exactly begun to think about that yet. This means a real canoe will be built soon!

Meeting with my Mentor

I met with Mr. Heurich again today, 4th period. This week has been a little strange, so I haven't stuck to my schedule as much as I should have. Therefore, I'm a little behind. We talked about how to keep up with the timeline, and what I should be doing while I wait for supplies. It was a good meeting.

Marine grade plywood is much harder to find than one might think.

My mom, brother, and I drove out to Danby Hardwood today to talk to the guy we'd contacted over the phone, and who'd said to bring my plans and he could look at them and try to help figure a few things out. We got out there, and the guy who was there was not the man we'd talked to, but a different guy, so we explained who we were and what we were looking for. He was not exactly the friendliest person in the world, and I think he was looking forward to heading out soon, so I don't think he was exactly happy to see us. In fact, he was a bit chilly. He didn't have any of the information on marine plywood that I had come looking for, but he said he'd call with it tomorrow. Essentially, the trip was sort of a disappointment.

however, I heard from a faily friend that there's a lumberyard in Syracuse that sells the plywood, and I wouldn't have to order it, I could just go get it. So I'm now searching through all 41 Google Search results for lumberyards in Syracuse to find the right one.

Practicing

Two questions from class today: What are you doing well? What can you do to improve your practicing?

I think a lot of my project has been "practicing" rather than "playing" if we're using the guitar metaphor, because this project is all so new to me. I think I'm doing a good job researching and figuring out little problems and puzzles, but I know I need to start being a little more courageous. I think I'm a little timid about "playing new songs," or really beginning the canoe building. To improve, I should be journaling more often about my research and project process, and I really need to just dive in and start working with wood and getting a little messy.

Questions

I met with my mentor, Mr. Heurich, again today. We talked about a lot of things, one of which was time. I can see that if I'd like to do each step carefully and well, I may not finish the boat in time for the end of the class. I realized that is okay with me. I'd love to finish by then, and have a completed project, but I'd rather not rush through the important things. I think I'll learn more by not rushing, and be happier with the end result.
We decided that while I wait for wood to come, which should be late March, which is a little later than I wanted but at this point is my only option, I should practice the woodworking skills I will need, particularly the types of joints I will need to make, on scrap pieces of wood.
Today I also made a list of questions I'd like to answer before beginning the boat:
How necessary is it to use fiberglass cloth?
Do I need to use oil finish?
Do I need to use epoxy filler of does sawdust work the same way?
What does "unmanilla" mean?
Is chine tape the same as fiberglass tape?
What are the pros and cons of copper wire vs. steel baling wire?
What are the pros and cons of stainless steel vs. bronze screws?

Lists and more Lists

So I've spent a bit of time looking for the recommended reading books in the Cornell library catalogue. Apparently they have none of them. So I will keep looking.

I also made a list of things I will need that the supplies list did not include, but were listed in the instructions. Among these is a propane torch, which I thought was sort of a big thing to leave out, but what are you going to do? The other things are acetone, squeegee, notched plastic spreader, cardboard, and a sharp plane.

 I also found some diagrams that will be helpful in identifying parts of the boat.

Good Things Come in Threes

So this is indeed my 3rd post within the last four hours...but blogging should happen when ideas are fresh in your mind right?

So I have begun dissecting the "Instructions" packet. I must say, it is quite thin.

The first segment is "Recommended Reading." I have found one of the books online in a pdf format.... http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/HowTo-Publications/GougeonBook%20061205.pdf
And I do indeed have a copy already of Wooden Boat Magazine, but the rest are cannot be found too easily. None of them are at the Public Library, and none at the school either. I might have to venture up the hill a little to Cornell's libraries and see what I can find.

The next section is "Tools and Materials."  I'm making lists.

Minimum Required Tools

Have:                                
pencil
eraser
handsaw
tape measure
carpenter's framing square
try square
hammer
screw driver
pliers and wire cutters
old scissors
2-3 saw horses
clamps (and more clamps)
safety goggles
sanding block

Will look for in garage/figure out what I should be looking for:
chalk line
1/4 dia round rasp
plastic autobody filler spreaders
#8 combination drill bit
electric drill motor
jigsaw

Optional useful tools:

I have no idea what any of these really are. So under the What is this? column is:
band saw
table saw/chop saw
3/8" cordless variable speed reversible electric drill (I think there's something like this in the garage?)
orbital palm sander
2000 rpm electric palm sander
router
jointer
planner


Supplies

Have:
sandpaper
masking tape
bristle brushes
foam brushes
waxed paper
paper towels
cloth rags
plastic sandwich bags
stirring sticks
16 oz plastic tubs

Shouldn't be too hard to find:
acid brushes
rubber gloves

There is advice on plywood, lumber (white ash is recommended?), fasteners (stainless steel sounds like the way to go?), epoxy, and finishes. Though the instructions say that epoxy is better than polyester resin, I am going to use resin anyway, because it is less corrosive for people to work with, far cheaper, and I'm still not sure the difference is as pronounced as many people say it is.

Also, here is the Order of Assembly: (time to brush up on my parts of the canoe vocab)

1. Cut out plywood planks
2. Precoat planks with epoxy
3. Sand planks
4. Assemble hull with wire loops
5. Install temporary cross spalls
6. Apply fillet to joints
7. Fiberglass inside joints
8. Turn hull upside down
9. Shape outside joints
10. Fiberglass outside joints
11. Turn hull rightside up
12. Install gunwale ends
13. Install decks
14. Install ribs
15. Remove spalls
16. Install inwales
17. Assemble seats
18. Install seats
19. Apply paint or varnish finish
20. Install stembands
21. Install rope seats

A little vocab here:
gunwale: the top edge of the side of the boat
inwale: the inside finished edge
fillet: the "glue" of "stitch and glue" method; done when two plywood edges meet
spall: a temporary wooden brace, goes horizontally
stembands: a hole for riggings

BIG THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

I didn't want to double post, but the mail came!!

PLANS PLANS PLANS PLANS PLANS

They are here! Finally.

They are crazy and complicated and I think I'll be spending quite a bit of time just sort of looking at them. 

I now have a real list of materials, a better idea of how far in over my head I am, and things to do!
My favorite sentence of the introduction is "First look at the plans to get familiar with the boat and your building process. Decide what building materials that you want to use. Then go ahead and build your boat."
This guy makes it sound so simple! 

Also, a shout-out to my brother for picking this up for me at the bookstore-Thanks Nick and Mom! This will be very useful.

Barnsong

Today in class we watched a documentary about a student who built a barn as his WISE project. The cool thing was that while he was building the barn, another student was creating the movie that followed him through his process, so it was really the story of two intertwined projects. I really enjoyed seeing it. I see now that a WISE project really can take any form you want, that it might take longer than you expect, and that you don't necessarily need to a finished product by the end-this student raised his barn in August of that year. I was amazed at how ambitious this project was. If this kid could go from the trees in his woods to a finished barn-then I give him a ton of credit. It's awesome! I makes me think that I can definitely build a canoe. The footage from the movie was beautiful-it captured all the details, like you were there in the woods cutting down trees too.
From these two projects, I see the amount of dedication and love that went into each. It makes me wonder how everyone's projects will turn out, as well as my own. I'm curious to see what happens.

Thursday

I met with my mentor today, Mr. Heurich. This was our third meeting, and I really like them. Mentor meetings always seem to renew my excitement for the project, and put new ideas in my head. We covered a lot of topics. We talked about epoxy vs. polyester resin, spent a while looking at really cool boats made of plastic bottles (the coolest thing I've ever seen!), and talked about building the "practice" out of cardboard as a scaled down version (so I don't end up with a 14 foot boat made of cardboard, because I don't know what I'd do with that.) I'm really just waiting for my plans to come, and then a million different things can start to happen. In the meantime, I can keep researching and gathering supplies.

Bad news: The Sailing Center told me they could only order wood at a minimum of $3000. That is A LOT more wood than I need. A lot! So I left a message for Danby Hardwood, who apparently sell 1/4th marine plywood, and have the number of someone else who might know where I could get some wood. There is also the lumberyard in Cortland, where I could always call or go to look. There are lots of options, I just need to find the right one. My last resort would be ordering the wood online, which would be alright, but I'd rather try to buy it more locally.

New Idea of The Week

I'm still waiting for the plans...which should be here by tomorrow or Friday. I am so impatient for them to get here! I'm so curious to see what they look like! I've been thinking and researching a lot about the wood to order, and narrowed it down to the Sailing Center, but we're having a little bit of a communication problem, so hopefully that will be resolved soon. My new idea of the week was, once I get the plans, to build the boat out of cardboard, as a practice sort of, like a muslin in sewing. If I do this, I will hopefully avoid making silly mistake later on in the project. It will also give me something productive to do while I wait for wood to come.

A Bit of This, a Bit of That

First thing: PLANS ARE IN THE MAIL! This is very, very exciting. I went with the plans I talked about in my last post. I am so excited. They'll be here hopefully by the middle of next week, so I'll be checking my mailbox every few minutes.

The cool thing about having plans is now I can begin collecting supplies. I went on a few adventures today. First, I went to 84 Discount Lumber out in Dryden. I was a little disconcerted by all the barbed wire surrounding the property, but they turned out to be quite helpful. They told me they'd have to order the wood I would need, and I should call Monday to find out about prices, but it could be in Ithaca in roughly a week. Finger Lakes Sailing Center could also order this wood for me, so I'm waiting to compare prices. Cayuga Lumber does not sell what I'm looking for, and were pretty reluctant to order it.

My mentor meeting on Thursday was very encouraging. I was feeling a little overwhelmed, but just talking through things made me a lot calmer. Reading my classmates' blogs has also been encouraging and motivating, as well as seeing comments on my own blog from them.

What do I do now?

Part of this WISE journal is about being honest, right? Well, we're less than two weeks into the class now, and I'm sort of wondering what I'm supposed to be doing. I have so many ideas and thoughts and books and videos to watch that I feel like I'm lost in a huge mess of canoe-related things. I have read some of my other classmates' blogs, and it seems like they are speeding ahead without difficulty, but I'm wondering if they're experiencing any of the same doubts. I know my project is ambitious; I knew this from the beginning. As I'd been told, it would take "time, care, patience, and skill," and I was ready to tackle the project anyways. But as I research types of wood and resins and screws, I see it will be expensive and there's quite a chance I might really mess this up. I don't want this to come across the wrong way, I am still 100% excited about doing this. I'm just wondering if a simpler canoe is a better option. Rather than a strip canoe, perhaps I should make something more like this:

This is called a pirogue. It has a flat bottom, and long pieces for the sides. I found the plans for this boat first in a book, and then online.http://www.applegateboatworks.com/zydeco.html
I'm not sure if this is how I want to go or not yet, however.

Steam Box Pictures!!!

Finally, Some steam box pictures!! 

Here is the tank, which would be filled with water. I need to make a hole just about where that yellow sticker is. But how to make a hole in a metal can?

The full contraption-The actual steam box-or the white piping sitting on top of the compost bin-is 4 foot 9 1/2 inches long. So, I'll be needing to extend this. 

 Below the red tank is the propane turkey fryer-the only part of this I'm pretty doubtful about.

This is looking inside the steam box. The picture is turned on its side...but you can see the bars that go across so that the wood can be heated evenly. Pretty neat!

This is where the steam box connects with the tank of water..

Another "looking inside" view. Kind of a cool picture. 

The ends are capped off very nicely...and are easily unscrewed in case it gets too hot and steamy inside the box. The "not for pressure" labels all over the PVC piping are a little disconcerting, but I trust Roger, the man who lent this to me. 

Is WISE an excuse to do weird things?

Lately I've found myself wandering around Ithaca High School while completely engrossed in "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Canoeing and Kayaking" and "Wooden Boat Magazine." My best friend has joked with me that these publications might be slightly embarrassing to be pulling out of my backpack every class period, and that maybe I should not share quotes with whoever I happen to be sitting next to. But I have decided I'm completely happy with being "that crazy girl building a canoe."

I have another book, "The Complete Guide to Boat Kits and Plans" which has a picture after picture of boats and the address of the person you can buy the plans from. I fell in love with the look of this one canoe. It's perfect. It's plywood. It's 11 ft long. Narrow. Classic canoe looking. The problem is, the book was published in 1996, so it's a little on the "vintage" side if you will. There is no email or phone number for the man who you would buy the plan from, just an address in England. So I sat down and hand wrote him a letter. It was pretty short-all it said was who I was, how I'd fallen in love with his boat design, and if/how I could purchase his plan. I gave him my email address. I'm not sure if that was a strange thing to do, and maybe it is a little far-fetched, but I'll mail it tomorrow, and I guess we'll see what happens.

Steam Boxes

The past few days I have been thinking a lot about steam boxes. This is because I had said that building a steam box would be the first step of my project. For anyone who doesn't know, a steam box is essentially a tube with a pipe connected to some sort of boiling pot of water. You then put a piece of wood inside, boil the water, and the steam encases the wood. The idea is that steaming makes the wood bendable, which is necessary to create the curved lines of a canoe.

So yesterday I went driving around, hoping the blizzard would not hit while I was still out, in search of a large pot and a hot plate. I went to The Reuse Center and Salvation Army, thinking that these things might be sold there, and also wanting to be at least a little green with this project. I did not find these things at either place, and returned home to rethink my plan.

This morning my dad and I were sitting in the kitchen table talking steam boxes and he brought up my mom's cousin's husband, Roger. (Did you follow that one?) Roger has his own workshop that he built behind his house and does a ton of woodworking. I called him, and after a bit of confusion on who I was and what I was asking because I had woken him up for a nap, told me that he actually built a steam box a few years back, but never used it for the project he had meant it more. It was just collecting sawdust. We decided I should come and look at it.

His workshop is gorgeous. It is covered in sawdust and has huge windows and he recently installed a furnace so it can be nice and toasty in the winter. He is currently making a dining room table, which he is absolutely meticulous about. He pulled out his steam box, which is probably 5 feet of PVC piping with holes in it, a tube connected to the middle of this, and an old propane tank that you'd fill with water. He also pulled down from somewhere up in the ceiling the bottom of his turkey fryer, which he would have used to heat the tank.

It's a beautiful contraption. It's ingenious. He had followed a pattern he found on line. He offered to lend it to me a thousand times, saying he wasn't using it. So I took him up on it.

There are some things I will still have to do to make it work. I'll need more PVC to screw onto each end to make it long enough for the strips of the canoe, which will be most likely around 12 or 13 feet. The propane tank needs a hole in the top to release pressure and also fill with water. The scary part of this is that is the tank runs out of water and is still on, there's quite a potential for it to explode. That's not exactly what I was going for, especially when propane from a turkey fryer is involved. I need to figure out how to put a hole in the top of that. I am also thinking that I want to go back to the hot plate idea, instead of the turkey fryer and propane. Will it work if I heat water in the tank simply using the hot plate?

The Beginning

Dear Reader-
Hello! For the next 16 weeks, I will be working on building a canoe. This will entail research, interviews, and of course, the actual building.  I'm quite excited. By the end, I hope to have a plywood strip canoe, which I can launch on Cayuga Lake. And my biggest hope: that it will float! You may wonder, why on earth is this girl trying to build a boat? Well, when I think of the things I like to do-sewing, painting, building castles out of silverware at the dinner table-they all make use of my hands.  I like to make messes and experiment and see what emerges. Though it seems strange, one of my favorite places, where I don’t get to spend nearly enough time, is in my garage with my dad. My father is a “project guy,” meaning that there is always something that needs doing, and some sort of “hair-brained idea” in the making. I love to pull up a tool box, catch up with my dad, and see what he is doing. Over the years, he has taught me how to use various tools, how to sand, how to drill, that sort of thing. But now I want to be the one in charge of the project. I want to build something. But what is something? Another place I love is Ithaca, particularly the summer on Cayuga Lake. So,I thought a canoe would let me enjoy these two places that I love.
The main goal by the end is a finished canoe. I've been told it will be hard to do-that it takes time, care, patience, and skill. I have many fears: that I won't finish in time, that my hand will slip and I'll slice the boat in half, that I will put my boat in the lake and it will leak through all the seams and I'll have to swim ashore. The list goes on and on. But I then remember that this is indeed an experiment. I know I'll make mistakes, and I look forward to those. I want to jump right in and see what happens. By June I hope to have learned something. Maybe it will be how to build a boat the wrong way, or maybe how to tell a good canoe joke. We'll have to wait and see.
Until next post-
Julia