Mast fracture issues

Well i managed to do it again got these in the wrong order. The mast has a small fracture that looked really big under the split glass. Just above the hole that connects the mast to the deck/ mast step. The official repair included sanding all glass off mixing epoxy and wood flower to mustard consistency, then forcing that into the fracture. Finally took enough glass material to make two raps of glass rather than just one. I also took the adventure of laying plastic food rap down on scrap ply wood taped it down, then wet out the glass, a thin layer of epoxy on mast then grabbed two corners of glass letting it hit just one side of mast, then used the weight of the glass to make sure it raped tight. The final product was much stronger but the glass job is more apparent to the eye than just one layer. I am having problems with my entire mast having small fractures where the scarf joints are. I am going to do a rebuild of mast this winter and have some ideas to make it stronger.

Here is what it looked like before sanding.

All kind of good stuff here

I always get these things posted back wards some how here we go. Little details help in identifying star board and port side line work. West marine had two different collors of locking units when I went to make my lines I chose to run two different collors to make sure the lines get put on the correct side. Silver is star board dark is port side. This also helps yet know it will get wore out. Started with a bow line not at top and tied half knots for a grand total of six inches of length then ran that same line back up (with out cutting it) raping a single cord between the half knots keeping them all tight finally finished off with a bow line knot. This is only done on the aft lines to help protect from damage to the boom when it rides against down wind.

Jib foot fold 5/16'' x 24' line in half then back through.

The tie in at the bow.

Here she is all lined up and ready to go think spring and water is still cold. I had a grand total of four good runs on this rig because of my lack of experience and weight I have a real hard time keeping all that sail up.

Note the bend in the mast!!!

Trial run line to jib is to small but the pull out for the roller is all good.

Star board side tied in ready to go.

Second shot of star board side ready to go.

Port side in good detail ready to go.

Second shot of Port side ready to go.

A great shot of detail of tie up start with bow line on shackel make 6 or so raps the then half knot each rap working from the bottom to the top. Turn out nice expect to do regular replacement of lines.

NEW UPDATES! TAKE DOWN HAUL NOTES NOW!

This ended up being the best solution to a down haul need and it works extremely well. It is a 16inch line of 5/32 line folded in half then sliped it over the boom. Set my sail on floor right above boom sliped folded line over boom measured out the need to go around boom made a secure knot and the rest is history. The pics tell the rest.

Here the folded line goes through the clew and then knot is brought back up through the loop.

Knot is through the loop.

The finish

To complete the tie off is a simple loose half knot.

So much to share, so much sailing to do

Many ups and downs these days. So much going on just no time to post, and lot of pics and new stuff comming. I have ha the standard rig (jib and main) up and going for a while now. My first time out by my self it really took me for a ride and ended up fracturing the mast. Lesson from that was that the first glass job I did was not strong enough and that I drilled the pin hole wrong it should of been through the popular staves not the cedar staves. It was the cedar stave on the sail track that fractrured just to much down pressure. Easy fix sand old fiberglass off put down new the second was much better than first try. The first time I did my typical glass install wet out work with epoxy lay glass down then fill any dry areas. The second time i switched to laying out glass on clear plastic food rap taped down to scrap ply wood carefully rolled out epoxy with squeegee wetting glass out then light coat of epoxy on mast the the glass hit one side using the glass weight as its own raping power and did two raps. This truned out to be a beautiful job that holds out to be much stronger. Much more to come!!

No pics for now. The water is clear of ice now a days. I had my first paddle on March 16th a total of 106 days with out was a long stretch this year. I currently have a jewelry box, a ceder paddle for the kayak, the shroud lines to finish setting, and the long center board to make as projects on the board. This last weekend I got a cabinet order to quote. So things are starting to pick up in time for lots of good weather to go with. Not much for pics for now more to come as I get a chance.

The center unit of this unit was built and put after the two units on the side were all ready in place. The original design was a small breakfast bar to pull a stool up to. Toughest part of the job was color match of the ten year old units on the sides. As you can see here came close on color but just a tick off customer was happy with it so I decided it was ok. Part of the challenge of his install was the two side units were out of plumb with some tlc I was able to bring them back and was able to get new unit to fit nice and tight to the old on each side.

Build pics follow here. The special request on this unit was a need for heavy duty drawers both upper and lower. Bottoms of the big drawers made from half inch birch and sides were out of three quarter popular all of which worked well.

The sides of the top drawers made of three quarter also used a three eighths quarter round on top to dress all that material off to make it look good.

Doors made looking real good.

All framing on this unit was built to over come weight you will note all the extra framing through the next couple of pics.

Drawers are made and ready to go.

Sides of the big drawers the customer second special request is that they did not want metal lower drawer slides. All wood work good with some tlc, patience and finished off with bee's wax.

Drawer sides dado's and other details.

Drawer sides and such.

Good detail of framing on the top side this unit final fit was perfect and the framing will hold about anything you put in it.

Framing and such much care was put in to the entire project.

Heritage Rocking Horse project

So when my sister found that she was pregnant with her first child she requested a rocking horse. I found this design by "You Build it" then carried it a bit further by doing a heritage rocking horse. My family has always been a farming in some way, yet my generation is the last generation farmers so it is due time to make record of all that rich farming history. So I sat down with both sets of grandparents and began to get history of farming was able to reach all the way back to the 1850's such a interesting project and I consider my self rich to be involved in such a opportunity. Next couple of pics are not in perfect order but you will get the idea. The main body of the horse is out of ash, saddle is walnut, and the cross is out of olive. Ash was a good choice because of price, yet very hard to work with. The walnut and olive cross was my idea worked really good. First is down the main of the horse the flash of the camera bleached out the main it is the same color as the dark brown in the walnut. This pic give a better idea of main color. This was very pain staking process. First the lay out of over 300 holes then drill then lastly 12 hours to set each individual strand of leather lace. The plan calls for yarn I feared that it would become nasty to fast.

This pic of the tail I combined a tan color of leather lace a 1/3 tan to 2/3 dark brown turned out be be nice.

Here is a close up of the saddle basically I riped a solid piece of walnut down center the used table saw to rabbit the cross dimensions cut cross then set it and it turned out just perfect then set the center line of the board and traced the seat pattern so that the cross ended perfectly on center of the seat.

The only disappointment in this project was the handle on the head of the horse. Ash and a dull 7/8 drill bit did not produce a good result. The final result was all sin was covered by the main.

Look close and you can see the 300+ holes for the main.

The legs screwed to rocker frame loosely ready for the body.

MMM... Look at those beautiful legs. Plus the seven degree wedges ready to go. Hind sight tells me that I should of just screwed everthing with no glue. I glued the wedges to the leggs while they were still in the "ruff" just off the scroll saw. Glued the wedges to the legs then sanded them as one unit. The back legs I waited to sand the hind quarters area till I had the leggs on the boddy to sand that area as all one unit. I did a lot of sanding on all the glue areas and yet when I went to set finish down it showed off some glue residue left some how.

Dry fit had to establish weather the legs needed to be screwed to the body then set on the rocker frame or the legs set on rocker frame then set the body. As you see in the above pic I decided to to legs on rocker then set the body. Turned out good doing this way.

The first time I have ever done such work not to bad if I say so my self.

Rocker frame ready for horse!

Lots of work here I do not have a band saw done everything on scroll saw and ended up with lots of hard sanding.

Here is the lumber some how the 1 1/2 X 10''X10' for the body did not get in the pick. Total was $80 for materials so that was good the labor was unreal.

Body is cut out.

I did cheat a little on the rockers just glued the tops of the rockers and as long as your are careful to come close to match grain you never know it was two different sections.