The Good- The router jig worked beautifully.
The Bad- The vibration of the router caused the router base to creep significantly, and thus the cuts toward the end of the process were much, much deeper than they were supposed to be.
The Ugly- I feel a bit embarrassed that I never considered that the base of the router would slip- I made the wrong assumption that once the bit was secured and stable, all the mechanical parts would stay put.
Moral of the story- check your router base and collet (and the bit) for the right depth early and often!
I've decided to give one of the half chewed blanks an afterlife as one of these:
Goals for this week:
Cut out next centerboard.
Reread the router manual.
Loft three more pieces.
Cut out the patterns for the pieces that I've already lofted.
Don't feel bad. I ruined several pieces too with my routers. Some because the bit slipped in the collet and some because the base slipped. There is an awful lot of vibration when machining wood like this. Sometimes they slip even when you swear you tightened them plenty tight. I finally got into the habit of tightening the crap out of both the bit and base every time I'd use the router. No worries though. If nothing ever went wrong, boat building it wouldn't be interesting, fun or challenging.
ReplyDeleteHi Julie, pity the router woes, you could try taking several smaller cuts instead of one at full depth. More work ,but less vibration and less chance of a whoops.. Keep cheery..
ReplyDeleteIf it's not too huge of a section, you might use the deeper holes for where you could put your lead weight, or build it up with fiberglass in that section.
ReplyDeleteThree comments! Holy crap, this is a new record for me! :) Thanks for your responses!
ReplyDeleteJoel, I take comfort in knowing that someone who has crafted such an exceptional boat has had some issues with routers as well. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement!
Denis, good call on the shallower cuts. That would probably make a huge difference in my success- I'll give it a shot and let you know how it works.
dwpandq, I think I've ruined it, but that's a great thought on the glass and the lead weight. I'll take another look and see if I can make something work. It may just end up being some sort of token of my first real screw up on this project. :)
Julie, lots of comments are the price you'll have to pay for hanging out with us grey bearded, beer drinking, wooden boat building sailor types. haha!
ReplyDelete