Oarlocks

We purchased some great horned oarlocks from Duck Works.
duckworksbbs.com
They are beautiful bronze castings and at 17.45 bucks a pair, awesome.
The old oarlock sockets we found in Oriental, NC. are slightly oversized, too small for a 5/8 ths inch shaft oar lock, but a little loose for standard 1/2 inch.
The easiest solution was to pull out the hard stick silver solder and the torch.
This solder is about 10% silver and requires a fairly high heat.  It is not the stuff you find at the hardware store.  It can be found at professional plumber's supply.  HVAC guys use it as well.
I used the oxy/acetylene torch to get the bronze close to red hot then the silver flows onto it without any flux needed.
Once the shaft had what looked like enough material and cooled off,  we used the bench grinder and wire wheel to make the rough places plane.
Now the locks have a close tolerance and will make for more pleasant rowing.

Mississippi River Skiff update: OarLocks

The pinion of the oarlocks are set 12.5 inches past the edge of the rowing stations.
This is the distance we find best for the stroke geometry in this hull.  If they are set farther abaft you get less reach forward with the oar.  Farther forward and it is too tight.
There is a lot of variation of opinion on the best distance, this is our opinion and our boat.

This weekend we will be sanding the interior to prep for varnish and working on the oars.

Here is a picture of the oar blanks (and a Greenland paddle).  The Ash and cherry look good together.

MRS update: gunwales / seats

Yesterday we laminated the second layer of black oak to the gunwales.  Instead of epoxy, we used Titebond 3.  I am a big fan of 3.

It has a formulation that has more body to it when it is set.  It also has a dark brown color which disappears in joints.

After the the clamps were removed we went to work with the power planer to bring the gunwale into proper form.

It took about 15 minutes.  According to J Henry, you can't beat power tools.

Later we will dress the top with a sanding block and drill holes for the oar locks.

Tomorrow we will prepare to glass the interior's sides.  Before we start that we just had to see the boat with the seats in, so we cut walnut for the rowing stations.  They were set in and we had a short imaginary boat ride.

Before the seats are installed, both the leading and trailing edge of the rowing station seats will get a black oak trim piece.  The light color of the oak will look great framing the dark walnut.

Gunwale without exterior trim

After a little block sanding it will be ready for a round-over bit.

Walnut seat with oak trim piece

Mmmm, smells like Walnut ! and the MRS transom

Today I visited Lumber John to get some Ash for the missing oar as well as some Hickory for a non-boat job, and dang it all, he had a beautiful stack of fresh cut Walnut.

Walnut has a weird smell that might be a hallucinogen. Before I realized it, I had a pile of it in my truck.

Here is the transom after it is cut to size.  The sculling hole is marked and faintly visible.  It is a doweled glue up of inch thick cherry.  The sculling hole is offset to starboard to allow for a motor.  The transom is not curvy, but I think it looks nice.


Here is a boatload of hardwood that's too heavy for building boats, but it will make some nice trim pieces.

.

Mississippi River Skiff update:
The boat is formed.  The glass and one set of oar locks arrived.  The hull will have a laminate of 9 oz glass with Kevlar below the waterline.  The interior will have 6 oz glass all set in Raka epoxy.  http://www.raka.com/    The transom will be installed tonight.