Spring Outfiiting - Day Thirty-Seven

Today started with the making of the Evans Spar Gauge (ESG). This tool was necessary to take the boom from four sides to eight. I call it the ESG because the guides on the end and the markers in the center are all Evans pencils! The way the tool works is...you place the guides on either side of the piece and set the markers on the top face and, making sure to keep the guides exactly on the sides, draw the guide along the length of the piece. The pencils on the top face mark the lines for our next cuts.

Which Brian does here with a circular saw.

Then we used the monster plane to shape the sides a little more.

And we ended up with our octagon.

Then, using the smaller power plane, I planed the points off each of the corners to go from 8 sides to 16......

....and another pass on each of those corners to go from 16 sides to 32!

After some final shaping with the small plane, the sanding began as well as the chiseling of the shoulder for the forward-most iron.

I wasn't the only one that made a tool today. Check out that awesome spar sander...hand crafted by Brian! He took a piece of foam and cut an 4" radius so the sandpaper on the inside fit around our (roughly) 8" boom. We're also using sandpaper on a long board in a spiral motion around the boom to knock of any high spots. We have started with 60-grit and have lots of sanding to do.

Jackie spent the day varnishing...the yawl boat and a ladder. And John spent the day painting and varnishing deck boxes, hatches, and such in the varnish room. Next, they get involved in sanding the new jib boom!