Chocolate powered woodworking
The four boards for decking need to fit snug to the coamings and slightly overlap the covering boards. They do. Well yes, there was one incident along the way where a tip was broken off during sanding and a new board had to be cut.
Did I mention that this stuff is really thin?
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Coamings are boards that extend above the deck and serve to keep water from splashing into the boat. Hey, we could have built a completely open canoe, no decks, no coamings. But, this was more fun. No, I won’t actually go camping where the deck and coaming would be helpful, but I might go paddling on cool days and not want to sit in a puddle of cold water.
My coamings are made of cherry, to provide a little visual contrast when finished bright. Right inside the point where they meet, a trim piece is added for stiffening. It’s a nice exercise in fitting angles.
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There are six parts to the deck. Along each side is a covering board, long and constant width, following the line of the sheer. On the ends, slightly overlapping the covering boards are deck pieces, 2 at each end. Everything meets neatly in the middle.
Here is where we depart from the drawings. Somewhere “back when” I created a curve for the sheer clamp that differs from the drawings enough to make the pattern for the covering boards a misfit.
Resolve this by laying a piece of paper over the boat and making a tracing by lightly using the side of a pencil’s lead. (The same as tracing grave stones.)
Measure once cut twice. After all the careful pattern making, I made at least one board too short. The penalty, go back to milling.
I’ve mentioned a couple of times that this stuff is really thin, especially when we get to these boards which are 3/16 in thick (1:1). Merrily sanding along with a sanding stick, it’s all to easy to catch the end of the piece. If you’re lucky it gives you a good scare by how it bows and quickly snaps back. If not lucky, … it’s back to the mill.
Eventually, the covering boards get completed.
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