Let's see your homemade crafts!

[hamjet]

I figured I needed a press but couldn't afford a good one and didn't want a cheap junk one so I made my own. same with the tire changer. I bought the one at tractor supply and cringed at the thought of owning it so I took some measurements before returning it and made my own. much happier now..Oh, made the dump bucket for my cub also...

[68_Shortbox]

Cape Codder, both the sail boat and the half hull model look awesome! Congratulations, that is very cool that your sail boat is on a magazine cover!

Hamjet, I like the fact that you made your own tools that are heavier duty and look just as good, if not better than what you would've bought. Not many people would do that anymore, and I think that is pretty cool of you!

[slomotion]

Cape Codder, did you ever do the "Snow Row" or the "Blackburn Challenge"? There was another rowing event but I've forgotten it's name. It's when all the shops brought their particular boat model, and everyone got to row everyone else's boat and determine what they liked/disliked about each one. It was kinda hard on the boats because some of the rowers were gorillas. Seems to me it was around Gloucester, but being 20 years ago when I participated I'm not sure. I do know it was cold and windy the times I managed to go.
Congrats on "Ash Breeze"! That's good company to be in!

[Cape Codder]

I did the Snow Row last year and probably again this year. Blackburn challenge is a bit much for a 62 yr old guy in a flat bottom skiff. We just did a row in up in Wellfleet and had a good turnout, I think we had 15 boats and a lot of rowers to try out different boats. We have one member of our local chapter that does 50 mile rows in a banks dory and he tried a few of the lighter performance boats but had to be carefull not to break them. He has been rowing dorys to the Vinyard and Nantucket from the Cape since 1968.



I do attend the John Gardner Workshop at Mystic where everyone tries out each others boat too. That is now part of the Wooden Boat Magazine show.

[slomotion]

Good looking dory! A trick to pull in a stiff breeze. A friend and I did Blackburn in '89 and '90, but only in the cruising class. It's been a while since I've participated in any organized rowing events, but still enjoy the occasional pull on a local river. If I had the boat closer to the river I'd go more often, but have gotten lazy and when I think of putting the boat on the trailer, rounding up the PFD, and all the gear, hauling to the ramp, launching, retrieving, etc. I get tired just thinking about it.
My casual rows now are only three or four miles, but I still enjoy it.
Do you use a straight ash oar exclusively, or do you use a spoon for long hauls?

[Cape Codder]

That is a nice looking boat, I bet it is sweet to row. I use a set of Culler designed spruce oars I made. I used spruce ledger board from the big orange box store. The are very flexible and light. My boat is kind of a compromise for sailing and rowing . it does both fair but niether great. I do like the flat bottom as I have bad knees and it is so steady to get in and out of,especially after rowing for a couple hrs. Most of our rowing is a 5 mile loop around grand island in Osterville ,but this last Sunday it was so nice I rowed out of Hyannis about 5 miles straight out into Nantucket sound watched the sunset and rowed back. The fast ferry went by and must have wondered what I was doing out there in Nov.

[DT1]

Originally Posted by DT1

Ok, I got it pretty well finished this weekend. It was harder than expected and more expensive, but what isn't these days. The unplanted pots on the mounds are my wife's and I guess she'll get around to putting them in some day.

Well, It's been about a year since I finished and my local water company now has a $1.00 per Sq. Ft incentive to remove grass. They will only pay for a Max of 1000 Sq Ft (I have another 1,700 Sq Ft to remove) but I figure it's more than I got for this side and better than nothing. Here are some Pictures of the project...

































It turns out in the fine print, the water company doesn't pay for the footage of grass removed after all. They only pay for the footage of plants replaced, so I'll probably only get around $100.00

[flashed]

That turned out great.

[Cape Codder]

I love the no grass landscaping. The older I get the less I want to mow. How do you keep weeds from growing through the stone?

[DT1]

Originally Posted by Cape Codder

I love the no grass landscaping. The older I get the less I want to mow. How do you keep weeds from growing through the stone?

Cape,
I don't worry too much about weeds growing through the stone. It's the weeds growing between the stone that concerns me. I applied soil sterilizer to the base. It's suppose to keep weeds out for at least a year. The grout between the stones is fine crushed gold stone (3/8" fines) with stabilizer added and compacted. Same with the other gold towards the front of the yard. The stuff is almost as hard as asphalt. That should keep the little buggers out for quite a while. If or when weeds appear, I'll probable hit them with more sterilizer.

[68_Shortbox]

Is anyone out there? Its been a while since anybody has posted their crafts.

[Cape Codder]

When I saw the prompt for this thread I was thinking the same thing and was looking forward to some creativity. I have been busy with building row boats with middle school kids. We just finished a class last Wed and had a launch party.

[slomotion]

Cape Codder, is that a "Susan"?

[Cape Codder]

These are called Bevin's skiffs. It is a program designed to teach kids teamwork,building and tool skills and it is an applied math program. They need to learn how to use a tape measure and add and subtract fractions to build the boat. Mainly it teaches them why they need to learn math rather than think they are wasting their time in math class. Schools are so geared to get kids in college but there are some that just don't benefit from it so they need to learn that the trades are an option that will give them a decent wage job. I am not a teacher but an auto body guy that builds boats as a hobby. I found out about this program and assembled a team of volunteers to help me. We have built 12 of these boats with middle school and high school kids in the last 4 years,

[slomotion]

I agree with your program 100%! Not everyone is cut out to be the white collar "Suits" of Wall Street. I wish there had been a hands-on program like yours back in the dark ages when I was in school instead of having to learn math with no practical side in my bone-head opinion.

[Cape Codder]

It's kind of funny how I got involved. I am a volunteer at our local maritime museum, the director asked if I wanted to be a math teacher. I told her I took just enough math to graduate high school and that was over 40 years ago. She said you will do fine, I went to the training for three days at Mystic seaport with about 25 others that were all teachers. The trainer said I had it easy as I had already built boats and only needed to brush up on basic math, they had to figure out how to build a boat. The first guy that signed on to help had just retired as a middle school math teacher. Now there is two retired engineers,a teacher,a builder and myself. We have a lot of fun with these kids and feel like we can make a difference, especially with the kids with no dad at home a very common situation. One student that just finished last week lives close to me and I will be teaching him how to sail this summer.

[Ken O.]

Well it' not a real boat but it's a little faster than the ones shown previously. I am the president of our local model boat club. I recently got into the 1/6 scale Gas class. I built a wooden round nose old school hydro last year. It ran pretty good so I decided to make some molds from it. Then from the molds I can make Carbon fiber hulls. Here is hull #2 from the layup to running. It's pretty quick. I'm starting on the next one this week for a guy in Michigan.
Layup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akssDxWihhk

Resin infusion using a vacuum pump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQDXb8R9POE

1st day on the water. Whee!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r53T4tZN4P8

[slomotion]

Originally Posted by Ken O.

Well it' not a real boat but it's a little faster than the ones shown previously. I am the president of our local model boat club. I recently got into the 1/6 scale Gas class. I built a wooden round nose old school hydro last year. It ran pretty good so I decided to make some molds from it. Then from the molds I can make Carbon fiber hulls. Here is hull #2 from the layup to running. It's pretty quick. I'm starting on the next one this week for a guy in Michigan.
Layup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akssDxWihhk

Resin infusion using a vacuum pump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQDXb8R9POE

1st day on the water. Whee!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r53T4tZN4P8

Very cool! If I tried to operate one of those my boat would be cutting grass or in the trees!
I guess you could say we're in the same church, just a different pew.
I run a couple of slow scale boats around our pond pretty regularly. The advantage of slow is more time to react in a smaller pond, and I need all the time I can get!

Here's a couple of links:

https://youtu.be/guPdhAxaaEY

and

https://youtu.be/rBAckfga5Ac

[RockinKees]

A while back I got the honor to pinstripe my friends '46 Chevy Coupe.
I did the hood and trunk, the dash, the firewall and the gastank.
Some pics:

[RockinKees]

Some more pics of the '46:

[Cape Codder]

Looks great not overdone as some tend to do. I always wanted to do pin striping but seem to lack patience and artistic ability. Nice job. I met a guy at Hershey one year named Bob Keeny I believe They called him Bikini he did some nice work also.

[slomotion]

Very nice!
Was the engine in when you did the firewall?

[Advanced Design]

Kees, your art is spectacular! Really like the look...just right accent for your friends car.

[RockinKees]

Thanks Cape Codder and Slomotion!
Luckily they took the motor out for paint just before I started

[RockinKees]

Thanks Doug, I want to do my own truck.
Want to keep it very subtle, maybe you can help me with this one

Only now wintertime has come, have to wait a few months before I can put some paint on it....