Life is good when hard work is performed and commitment is given. It’s a sluggish build when the only time you have for the project is in the afternoon between 2-3hrs of studying in the morning and a few more hours of studying in the evening. I guess it works out in a good way. My neighbors would be pissed if they woke up to the sounds of a circular saw/band saw in the morning, or after coming up from a long days work in the evening. Thankfully my dogs are used to the sounds now too, no more barking when I start up the power tools. Instead they just look at me, eyes full of question, almost if inside they’re thinking “what the heck is he doing? he’s crazy.” Well, it seems like I am. The first friends I told that I was building a boat, laughed it off. The other day I told a few more friends and they were impressed. It’s a long road and this is the first time I’ve felt really fulfilled with a project. To be honest a lot of projects prior to this I haven’t felt fulfilled and gave them up. This one I know I’m going to complete no matter how long it takes. It feels really good to use my hands to build something and to be constantly busy doing something fun and interesting makes the time go by faster. Oh well, now for the update…

I completed Frame 2 today. Again, I used carbon paper to trace the outline of the full-size half frame member pattern onto the mahog. I then measured the lengths of all the sides and compared it to the pattern, and then measured and checked again. Oh yeah, I measured and compared a third time. It’s repetitive but it’s extremely important that the length of the sides of the outline on the mahog match the sides of the pattern. It would suck to cut out a frame member only to realize that you traced it wrong and the lines don’t match up or are uneven. You’d have to scrap that member and start again. So, TRIPLE CHECK and compare!!!! After everything matches up you can cut the frame member out. I used the bandsaw and cut all the frame members for the second frame and gave about 1/8-1/16″ extra space from the outline. If you cut too far into the outline you can possibly ruin your frame or have to refill in the areas you’ve accidentally cut out. It’s a lot easier to take out pieces of wood when cutting than it is to replace pieces into wood from accidental cuts. After making the cut, I proceeded to sand the edges of each frame member smooth using a power belt sander and level it against the line on the wood, about 1/8-1/16″ sanded off. I then compared each frame member to the pattern by placing them on it and seeing if I cut it out correctly. After confirming a good cut for both side members or both bottom members, I then aligned the two members and clamped them. In order to get identical frame members, I sand off any excess after they are clamped together. This ensures that each frame member is identical or extremely close to it. After sanding both members even, I compare again to the pattern by placing the member on the pattern and comparing to see if they match up, which they do. I do this same thing for Frame 1 as I hadn’t done it the other day. Altogether it took approx 5-6hrs to trace, measure, cut, sand, level and prep each frame. I’m done with two frames and at this pace I should have all the frames done within the next 3-4 days, provided I have the material to keep going. I may have to go buy some more mahog in the next few days, which may slow me down a little.