god bless you please mr. robinson

And here's to you, Mr. Robinson

Gar and Matt love you more than you will know

God bless you please Mr. Robinson,

Heaven holds a place for those with chainsaws (unless they're from the texas chainsaw massacre)

not to hard to figure out what we did today. mr. robinson took some time out of his day to give us a huge hand in the canoe. he brought his chainsaw over and we notched the whole length of the top in about ten minutes, then we took Beowulf to it, and leveled it off in another twenty.

the plan now is to finish the bottom this weekend. by finish we mean the way we want it to be on our final canoe. right now, it is leveled, but it isn't smooth. so over the next three days, we'll use the chisel and Merritt to smooth what will end up being the bottom. we may also break out my orbital sander to get it down to a sleek, smooth surface that will allow us to destroy the concrete dinghy in the race at the end of the year. once we are done with that, all of webster and wentworth will be recruited to help flip the log over (they don't know it yet) so we can start carving out the inside.

we also got it put up on two railroad ties, so we don't need to worry about the top (which is actually on the bottom right now) getting wet and punky again. we already dealt with that once when leveling it. another really nice thing about having it up on blocks is that we now have a flat surface on the bottom to hold onto when we flip it.

the second half

the log is now leveled and flipped, so we can start carving the outside of the hull. we were hoping to get some help from mr. robinson and his chain saw, but with the huge number of DC cases this week, he won't be getting much sleep, so we're going to have to go to town with beowulf and get it leveled by hand.

the lesson learned from this is: don't do stupid shit. like have go to a summer house for a party and get caught by the cops. it doesn't just screw yourself over. it also affects the entire community. right now, the chainsaw is completely irrelevant. the fact that we're worried about our project pales in comparison to stuff that everyone else is going through right now.

proper axe usage

Gar demonstrates proper use of the axe. We are chopping notches in the log down to the line that we are leveling it off to. In this video, Gar chops out the wood between the notches. This is the most effective way to remove wood that we've found. We got a big two-man saw from Mr. Robinson, but it is about a hundred years old, and about as dull as a butter knife, so unfortunately we will not be able to use it. Despite this, the fact that we actually used a lumberjack saw and five pound axe to carve a dugout canoe is badass. It is believed that we are the only two students on campus that are qualified to wear flannel.

axe vs chisel

The first two pictures are from after we brought out the big axe and really started going to work.  The work done on the log in the first two is the result of about an hour of work.  The second two pictures are the result of three days of work.  It's not hard to figure out which method is more efficient and effective.

names

with the project fully underway, i thought it was time to start giving some personality to our tools and log.

the log, as it has always been is The Beast

we need a name for the canoe.  suggestions are welcome.  i'm getting a female vibe from the log, but maybe that's just because i was listening to "your body is a wonderland" by john mayer while working on it today.  anyway, we need a name.  Rosalita maybe?

for the big axe, Beowulf

little axe: Merritt

circular saw: Chief Justice John Marshall ('The Chief')

chisel: Captain Call

hammer: Gus

it's interesting what you find important at midnight when you should be doing bio homework.

now that i have time

so now that i don't need to run off to frisbee practice, i can actually describe just how freaking awesome the big axe is.

at the beginning of the day, we had removed about six inches of wood down to the five inch depth, with another foot at varying depths.  we had also scored the top of the log with horizontal saw cuts to make taking wood out easier.  all that was the result of a week of work with a chisel, hammer, and hand hatchet.

now, after under an hour of work, we still have six inches down to the five inch depth, but the entire top of the log is taken down about an inch.  that is the raw power of a big axe and saw.  tomorrow i'll take a bunch of pictures of the log, and maybe make a video of the process.

it's been so long since i've swung a big axe that i forgot just how satisfying it is.  with mr dicarlo we brought the edge to knife sharpness.  combine that with five pounds of weight, and you get one incredibly effective tool.  the axe cuts through the wood like it was butter.  an overused comparison, but it's appropriate.

i'm late, but this is too awesome to miss

broke out the big axe today for the first time.  5 pounds of wood destroying magic.  the thing cuts through like butter.  i swung it for about twenty minutes, and took out as much wood as four days of chiseling would do.

now we really are canoe team BADASS.

and i'm really late for frisbee practice now.  but the canoe is back on track.

the weather

Another rainy day here in the Northeast, so no work now. We are certainly coming along on the cross cutting and slowly hacking away. Mr. Dicarlo's bigger, stronger, more badass axe will certainly help!

We have altered the strategy a little, making more, shallower cuts in the top of the log, thus making the leveling process a little faster. We'll see how that goes.

Also! Got a drawknife and a set of saw horses from Keith, the Exeter Boatman for the crew team which will both come in very handy when shaping the hull.

More to come soon

day one

day one of work is in the books.  we worked for about two hours leveling the top and bottom of the log.  this is going to be the longest part of the project.  we're using a circular saw and cross-cut saw to notch the top, then chopping out the wood in between with the hatchet and chisel.  once we get the notches in, chopping the wood out is easy, but the notches are a pain in the ass to make.  we'll be able to work faster now though because we know exactly what we need to do.

on a side note, it would be really nice if we had a chain saw.  if we were able to use one, we'd be done with levelling the top and bottom, and could have moved onto shaping the outside of the hull.  but the school wouldn't let us.

pictures will be coming tomorrow.

we will also be having a bonfire at the end of term with all the wood we have chopped out of the log.  judging from the amount today, it's going to be a pretty big fire.

Bearboat Pro

just found one of the coolest computer programs i've seen.  it's called Bearboat Pro, and it's a computer drafting program for boat hulls.  it's mostly focused on kayak hulls, so i'm not sure how much use it will be to us, but if i can figure out how to work it, it might be exactly what we need.

in other news, i skimmed a forum on concrete canoes, and they're pretty cool, and the people who make them are brilliant engineers, but it is still concrete, and concrete does not float as well as wood.  not to get too cocky too early, but i think that hill ryan and the engineering club's concrete canoe is going down (figuratively and literally) in the race at the end of the term.

Mock-up sketches

preliminary scale sketches are done.  right now, final length will be 8'9'', beam will be 2', depth will be 1'9''.  the beam and depth are comparable to a normal canoe, but the length is significantly shorter.

just for the sake of comparison, behind webster is not only our log (shortly to be canoe), but i also have my old grumman aluminum canoe.  i measured it today and it is 14' long, 3' wide, and 14'' deep.  some of the features of our canoe will be based off the old grumman.  the biggest question we have now is, "should we put a keel on it?"

the advantage of a keel is that it can make a flat-bottomed boat, like ours (preliminary design at least) have some of the properties of a boat with more curve to its hull.  the downside is that keels are relatively fragile compared to the rest of the hull, and it would be a huge pain to put on on our canoe.  as we finalize our design we'll make a decision about a keel.

my scanner doesn't work, but once i find one that does, i'll post our preliminary sketches.  hopefully we'll be able to start shaping the hull this weekend.

also in the forecast is a lesson on tool care, notably sharpening with mr. dicarlo.  all our tools have an edge, but are far from a finely honed edge that would be remotely useful in carving wood.

First pictures

the log in place.  pictures are both end on, and broadside.  it's hard to tell from the pictures, but the bottom of the log is going to be the actual bottom of the canoe.  it's been sitting for so long that the bark has already come off...i'm not sure if this is good or bad.  i guess we'll find out once we start carving it.

Falling into place

Gar and I went down to the hardware store this weekend and got the tools we need.  From Ace Hardware in Exeter: chisels, a rubber hammer, and a chopping axe.  From Woodcraft in Portsmouth: a rounded Pfiel adze (handmade in Switzerland).  Total cost: $147.97.  Pretty good for the scale of the project.  We're trying to get some money from the library to offset our own costs.  Dunno how that's going to go yet.

Facilities also moved the log today.  Neither of us were expecting that.  It's currently sitting on the grass behind Webster.  Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to talk to them, and they moved up the wrong log.  It's the log we originally intended to use, so it's not the end of the world, but if possible, we're going to try and get a slightly longer log, so we can make a canoe that is that much bigger.  I lost the memory card to my camera so no picture yet, but it's coming.