Finished?

Mr. Robinson, you are a GOD.

After another successful day with the chainsaw and Mr. Robinson, the canoe is looking better than ever. We have decided to change directions, and the stern is officially the bow. This drastic change is due to some natural shaping of the log and some quick decisions with the chainsaw. It is just easier to push a smaller, sharper end through the water than a fatter, flatter end.

The inside is looking crisp and finished, despite the patches of dry-rot we have hit on the starboard side. As to the dry-rot (because it appears it has yet to be announced to our dear fans): there appears to be a stretch of dry-rot running along the grain the entire length of the log. In order to prevent any surprises, Matt and I took an electric drill to it in order to gauge the depth, but the results came out inconclusive: we couldn't really tell how deep it was. Again in order to prevent etc. etc. we have decided to not dig out the middle any more. Essentially this means that the "dug out" section is a mere 3 inches short of where wee wanted it to be. No real worries there.

So... all that's left to do: paint it, move it, name it, and float it.... oh...wait... we don't have a name... CONTEST TIME!!

If you have a name you think would be fitting of our loyal log, leave it in a comment, along with a brief explanation of why you think so. If Matt and I decide it is up to snuff, you may be the lucky one to name our project! Let's hear the best of 'em folks!

PICTURES!!!

for the first time in weeks, we're able to upload pictures!

Oh No! Where'd the log go? Unknown to us, construction was planned for the space between Webster and Dunbar. Supposedly, they are removing the tunnel between the dorms, and building a new staircase on the side of Dunbar. Work will be continuing all summer long, which will be a pain in the ass, but Dunbar needs to fit fire code, so it's a necessary evil. Unfortunately, we were not informed of this prior to starting our project so we had to move the log from its original position...

Shaping

So on Tuesday, Mr. Robinson came by with his chainsaw and helped us shape the ends. I would diagram this as Matt has so skilfully done down below... but I don't know how...sorry! Essentially, to put it in Mr. Robinson's words, the bow "looks like a giant sharpened pencil." Soon (hopefully tomorrow) will be the shaping of the stern so that we can be on time for our Wednesday unveiling. Hope to see you all there!!

hollowing out the inside

as said before, we are just killing the inside of the Beast. the best method we've found is a combined arms approach.

space is getting a little tight so Beowulf is of limited use now, but Mer Mer and the adze, newly christened as Shane, have been a great combination. both are small enough to swing inside the boat itself, as opposed to Beowulf who is way too big to be effective. the basic technique we are using is a two-step process.

first we go through with Beowulf or Mer Mer and chop down along the grain to loosen the wood up. we'll also crosshatch it occasionally if there is a particularly hard section like a knot. then we'll switch to using Shane and chop along the length of the Beast, taking out all the wood that was loosened by the two axes.

this method is extremely effective for removing wood from the bottom and middle of the boat. once we get that wood out, then we can chop in from the sides and even them out, keeping them flush and parallel with the gunnels.

it's hard to imagine because there aren't any pictures (damn internet), but if you can, when the wood in the middle is taken out, there is essentially a four or five inch wide channel running down the middle of the boat. the channel has straight sides and a flat bottom from Shane. the rest of the inside, then slopes down from the gunnels to the bottom, where it meets the channel cut by Shane. where the sides and the channel meet there is a sharp corner, perfect for chopping.

from end on, the shape then looks something like this:

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after chopping out the corner, the cross section looks something like:

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as the channel gets wider and wider, the angle of the corner decreases, making it more difficult to chop it out with Shane. at this point, Beowulf becomes the most effective tool again. we can chop straight down the side of the hull, going with the grain and the wood just shears off. we can then come through with Mer Mer or Shane and chop out all the loosened wood and flatten out the sides, bringing them in line with the bottom. the cross section after this step looks like this:

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we then just repeat this process several times to get the whole hull looking like this:

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wow that was a long post. we've been doing a lot of work and haven't been able to keep up with posting for a while. like i said, photos are coming, the internet is just acting up. hopefully, by the end of the weekend we'll be completely done with the inside and ready to move onto to the outside. mr. robinson has again graciously offered the use of his chainsaw should we need it, so stay tuned for that. the trouble with the outside is that there's a lot of wood to be taken off, but there's no easy way to stay consistent without a saw, but that's a discussion for another post.

take it easy.

"If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed."

-Christopher Johnson McCandless

almost there

after a week and a half of work on the inside, we are almost there. we need to take the bottom down another few inches, and widen it slightly, and then we're done and ready to move to the outside.

in other news, the internet is still screwy and i can't upload any more photos. i'll try again this weekend, but no promises.

also, our final presentation time has been finalized. we will be having a grand launching at 5:15 on Wednesday, June 2nd by the crew barge on the Exeter River. the barge is just behind the track if you don't know, and everyone is invited to help us christen the boat and float it on the river for the first time.

killing it

we laid out where we want to chop out in the middle, then spray painted the gunnels so we won't accidentally chop through them.

using the freshly sharpened adze and Beowulf, we've just been killing the inside. today i worked for about an hour and a half, and took out a section of the inside about two feet long to a depth of about eight inches with the adze, then took Beowulf to it and knocked out about another foot to foot and a half of length down to the same depth.

it seems weird that the inside is (so far) taking less time than the outside. you'd think it was the other way around. my guess is that it's because of what we need to take out. on the outside we were trying to bring it down to a specific line, and so we had to be fairly precise. on the inside though, we're just taking out as much wood as we can right now, and once we get down to almost done we'll be more precise, so right now we're just swinging away and taking out huge chunks of wood really fast.

with wednesday afternoon and principals day coming up we should be able to get a ton of work done on the inside, and hopefully finish up the inside by next week, then start shaping the hull.