2193Hrs – Beaming
A chilly (2 degrees above freezing) start to the day today and wet with it, I’m glad I got the paint on yesterday. My work session today centred around the crossbeams. I removed the temporary screws form the aft beam timbers I glued yesterday and then got my mate Malcolm to give me a lift onto some trestles alongside the forward beam. Bloody heavy already and as you’ll see there is still a goodly bit of timber to add!
Once on the trestles I spent a bit of time planing up the tops and bottoms of both beams ready to receive the 25mm planks when they arrive next week. The photo below shows the beam construction so far and where the additional 4 layers of 25mm will go.
Once that was done it was out with the plans and onto the longest of the three main beams, the centre one. I layed out the oversized ply sections on the build floor, marked in the height points and then using a bendy piece of timber as a guide drew in a fair curve, cut the ply accordingly, laid the pieces back on the build floor and used them as templates to mark out the second layer and then cut them as well. Once that was done I glued the butt joints on the first layer screwing them down to the build floor datum line to ensure everything was flat and dead square. Tomorrow I’ll remove those screws and glue on the second layer.
I spent the final hour applying a bit of filler to the most obvious imperfections in the hulls, actually they’re nowhere as bad as I thought they were so I reckon I could crack that job in a day, we’ll see.
Oh and I ordered a galley sink and drainer last night!
That’s not how I was imagining it’d go together, so the drawing at the end was helpful.
Do you ever think about the work you’re doing and how critical certain jobs are, and what the consequences would be if the part failed? Not to be morbid, but that’s some pretty serious work you’re doing!