Mortises and More Mortises

In the last few weeks I’ve shaped and sanded my gunwales, plus drilled a boat load of square holes.  Forty four blind mortises and twenty two standard mortises, at three holes per mortise it was a lot of drilling. 

Drilling all those mortises really wasn’t has hard as you would think.  Thankfully the book I am using lays out the steps and with a little patients, which I normally lack, I had some rather nice holes.  Laying out the mortises, I think, is the most critical step.  On the blind mortises, mortises that are ¾“ deep and you can’t see through, I laid out how long the mortises should be but not the width.  I relied on my drill press to center the holes.  The problem with this is I’m not using a mortising machine, the drill press I have is a device that turns a hand drill into a drill press.  As you can see in the photos it looks older than dirt, because it is.  It was given to me by my dad and I remember him using it with his hand drill when I was pretty young, so the thing is 35 to 40 years old.  Making an alignment jig helps but if you have all four sides laid out it would be much easier to make sure your overlapping hole used to create the final product are all in line.  I also bought a new chisel and kept it extremely sharp.  I would suggest if you are doing this project and you aren’t very good at sharpening you find someone to teach you.  A really sharp chisel makes creating the square corners an easy job.

Once the rib mortises were done it was time to shape the top of the gunwales.  The forward and aft ends get a shallow curve that extends 70” down the top.  I laid these out with a batten, also know as a tent pole, then cut and planed up to the line.  In the book I have Chris Cunningham shows’ using a block attached to the side of the plane to make sure everything is kept at a 90 degree angle.  The plane I have is pretty small and I could not clamp a block to the side so I just took it slow and checked my work often with a square and had no problems.  Once the gunwales are shaped it was time to drill the deck beam mortises which are at a 73 degree angle a very intimidating task.

Laying out the mortises for the deck beam was pretty easy with a jig I created.  As you can see in the photo that I made a square hole that was 3/8 x 1 1/2, I then drew a line 1 ¼” from the opposite side.  Since my mortise was going to be 1 1/4 “ long I could simply align the line on the jig with the line laid out for my deck beam mortise and draw the other three sides of the mortise.  This along with a jig to hold my gunwale at a 73 degree angle made drilling the holes for the mortises much less intimidating.  Cleaning out and squaring up the mortises was done pretty quickly with a four in hand wood rasp and a square cabinet maker’s file.  Good luck finding a square file if you don’t have access to one.  I was going to buy one and I checked Rockler, Woodcraft, and Lee Valley with no luck.  A quick call to my Dad and he dug through his mountain of old woodworking tools and found two of them.  I don’t think the square file is essential but does make squaring up the corners a breeze.  If you are thinking about starting your own boat I would start looking through garage and estate sales to find one or maybe you can find a better source than I could.

The final steps to the gunwales are beveling the top edge, which I screwed up, and beveling the tips.  I didn’t reread the book and beveled the wrong edge on gunwale.  I don’t think this is going to be a problem I will just have some weird angles to cut on my arched deck beam that align with the bottom of the mortise not the top like the straight ones.

Now that the gunwales are done it is time for the deck beams.  Today it is raining and cold so that means it is a perfect time to go dig through the stacks of lumber at Menards.  No one else is stupid enough to be out there.  Since I will need to rip and plane the boards outside I will have to wait until the rain stops to get everything ready.  With Christmas fast approaching the deck beams may have to wait until after the holidays.

Clik Elite Pro Express review

About 6 months ago I switched from an over the shoulder camera bag to a backpack style for my portrait and general photography.  I chose the Clik Elite Pro Express for its size and versatility and so far I’ve been pretty impressed.  While I don’t think Clik Elite designed this bag as a backcountry camera bag it is well suited for photography where you don’t have to carry non camera gear.

 

A while back I read an article by a famous photographer where he wrote as he got older he had to switch from an over the shoulder style camera bag to a backpack style do to back problems.  I’m pretty sure that age is 40 when you need to make the switch.  At 41 my camera bag was getting heavy and hurt my back to carry around, so I decided to make the switch to a backpack style.  I decided to try a Clik Elite Pro Express.  It seemed to have the right amount of space for what I need and I could find a last year’s model (2010) for a reasonable price at B & H photo.  I also really like Clik Elite.  I think they respond well to customer feed back and their products are innovative and well built.  With the purchase of this bag I have now officially sold all of my Lowe Pro bags and now own nothing but Clik Elite.

What I do like about this bag is the layout.  The lid flips open while the bag is laying on it’s back and makes an excellent work surface.  The small details like a lip that flips up so round things like lenses don’t roll off the open lid is great.  It does have a padded laptop compartment which is nice even though I don’t carry a laptop.  I do put my files and waivers in there so I have eliminated the attaché bag that I carried along with my camera bag.  I use Nikon’s Creative LightingSystem so I have multiple flashes and I’m adding more.  This bag carries them easily along with my spare body and a couple of lenses.  The exterior compartments easily fits all the extras that go along with shooting in the digital age.  The top compartment flips open when the bag is on its back just like the main compartment which makes finding things in the middle of a shoot go faster.  The waist belt and shoulder straps pack away so the bag is carry on compliant.  I pack the waist belt away when I am only carrying my equipment a short distance.  As with all Clik Elite bags the construction is bomb proof with nice heavy zippers.  The shoulder straps are comfortable but not overly thick to get in the way when you are trying to lay the bag on its back to get to your gear.  The interior is customizable to grow as you get more stuff, which we all like to do.

Now for what I don’t like about this bag: first is the so called tripod retention, it is a simple bungee cord and pocket that one leg fits into.  The bungee flat out sucks, it isn’t strong enough to hold an aluminum tripod in place.  Mine flops around which if you’re walking over rough terrain to get to your shot is very annoying.  On the 2011 model they have added a tripod retention system to the outside center of the bag which should prove to be much better than the system on mine.  The bag could also stand to be a bit longer so it rides better on your back.  I have an average torso length and it just seems a couple of inches to short to ride right.  Also it doesn’t have a rain cover; I think this is essential for any camera bag.  You never know when you will be caught out in a sudden cloud burst and will need to protect your equipment.  I’ve even been chased to cover while shooting senior photos by a short rain shower and having a rain cover is just good piece of mind.  I understand that Clik Elite has made the 2011 model longer and added a rain cover.  They also now sell rain covers to fit their bags that were manufactured before they listened and made rain covers standard.  While none of my Clik Elite bags have rain covers I will be buying them this year, at $25 a pop I’m in no rush to get them.  The buckles on the shoulder straps and waist belt that are made to mate with their chest rigs don’t match.  Their buckle supplier changed the design so now you have to get a retro fit kit, free of charge from Clik Elite, if you have an older chest rig.  The top compartment zipper also sucks, the way it lays it is very difficult to get zipped.  There just isn’t enough tension to for it to zip closed easily.  I’m not sure what the fix is for it, it’s a great idea that just doesn’t work in practical application.  Last but not least is those damn metal zipper pulls.  I know it is a small detail but I hate them.  They lace these great cord zipper pulls through them so why not just get rid of the metal ones?  Wire cutters and re-lacing the cords zipper pulls fixed that problem.

Overall I think this is a great bag for what it is designed for, general photography.  If you’re looking for a backcountry camera bag this isn’t it, but good thing Clik Elite makes those too.  It is nice to see there bags evolve as comments come in from the average user not just the sponsored pros.  I believe if you buy this bag for general photography you won’t be disappointed.  Will this be the last bag I ever own?  I doubt it, but that for me and a shrink to work out.

A story of Gunwales

I am off to the races in building my skin on frame Greenland kayak.  In the past two weeks I have built 3 of my forms and cut my gunwales.

About two weeks ago my dad was over and helped me make my “story pole”.  I wish I had photos of that, seeing my dad who is in his 60’s and has one knee replaced crawling on a hardwood floor to mark the board was a sight.  Marking the balance board with your measurements is definitely a two person job.  It maybe takes 15min to lay out but you need another person to transfer the lines from your body to the board.  We also kept Chris Cunningham’s book close so we could check to make sure we had it right.  Once I had all the marks prescribed in the book on my board with pencil I cut the board down to make it more manageable.  My finished product is approximately 2” wide and 4’ long.  When I was all done cutting it down I went over the pencil makers with a permanent marker and wrote what each line was for, while marking the “no rib” zones in red.

Next I made 3 of the five forms.  In the book these aren’t made until later in the process but I had the ¾” plywood left over from making some cabinets so I went ahead and made them.  The end forms were a pain to make, you are dealing with a bunch 73 degree angles and I don’t like how Chris lays them out in his book.  In the book the dimension for the two sight holes are given from outside to outside.  I was once a draftsman and I’m accustomed to holes being center to center.  So I screwed up drawing the forms several times before getting them right.  Making and cutting the forms maybe took me 2 hours but most of time was in drawing the end forms that I had to do several times.

I had decided to use cedar for my gunwale, I like working with it as I’ve used it to make three Greenland paddles.  It is a nice soft wood that is rot resistant, but has lots of knots, which can bring its strength into question.  I purchased a 16’ cedar deck board from Menards for $17.  I went to Menard’s on a nice rainy day so no one else was out in the lumber yard while I picked through the stack of deck boards to find the straightest, knot free board I could find.  I did find one board that was almost knot free but it was about as crooked as a congressman so I settled on one with a few more knots but straight.

At home I planed the board down to 7/8” and ripped them to a width of 2 ½” and a length of 15’-8” (16” sorter than my overall length of 17’.  Once the gunwales were cut I laid out my ribs and deck beams.  This took me about an hour to lay out and is pretty straight forward if you follow Chris Cunningham’s directions.  The one thing I did do differently is use a framing square to mark the width of my mortises instead of a gauge as suggested in the book.  For me I could lay them out with the framing square in less time than it would take me to make the gauge.

My next step is to cut the blind mortises for the ribs, all 44 of them!  I will be doing that today so my next post should be when all mortises are done and maybe the deck beams in place.

L.L. Bean Kid's Adventure Sleeping Bag 20

A Sleeping bag is essential for any child who wants to go on overnight adventures, even if it is just camping out in the backyard.  The L.L. Bean Kid’s Adventure Sleeping Bag 20 is a great option that will last your child multiple years.  Even if you’re child is like my son and sleep in it EVERY night.

My parents have bought my two youngest children sleeping bags for Christmas.  My daughter received a Kelty bag a few years back and my son got his L.L. Bean one last year.  The Kelty bag is a nice bag and about $15 cheaper than the L.L. Bean model but is designed like a child’s bag that you can find anywhere.  The Kelty bag has a flat hood and flannel lining like any kids bag you would find at a super store just built with high quality materials unlike the ones from a super store.  On the other hand the L.L. Bean Kid’s Adventure Sleeping Bag 20 is built like an adult bag.  High quality nylon lining and shell, an actual fitted hood and a ¾ length zipper.

The sleeping bag over the past year has proved to handle the abuse that most bags would take in a life time.  My son has slept in it every night since he got it.  We have always washed it in a front loading washing machine (essential for any outdoor family) on delicate and it has handled the many cleanings well.  The sleeping bag does compress nicely for a synthetic fill bag and is manageable weight for a backpacking trip.

All in all I personally think this is a great bag for a child who’s family has an outdoor lifestyle.  L.L. Bean consistently makes solid products at a fair price and the Adventure Sleeping Bag 20 is no exception.