Building ORCA - Episode 12: The Transom

now we're here in the drawing room and we're drawing the lines drawns to Ora from the movie Jaws right here on the drawing board now you know it's uh it's something that I've learned to do many years ago and we're doing it again right here this is fun really so I've got the transom drawn and we're going to transfer the lines of the transom onto the laof floor and uh we're going to draw the transom full size you know on the drawing board right here it's a half an inch to the foot and out there it's going to be 1 in to an inch or 1 foot to a foot so then we're able to use that drawing to actually build the framework of the transom but before we can do any drawing we have to paint this La floor now we're using total boat wet Edge top side paint and the reason why is well we like each other and it's nice and shiny I can erase pencil lines off of it without disrupting the paint you know I like that it makes a nice floor for drawing on it might not be the easiest thing to transfer the pencil line from the pencil onto the paint but that's okay with me I don't need a real bold bright line to look at the the the light of the better you know you can erase a pencil line off of it very easily that's the idea you know this is going to work out for us really good we're going to get it on there there's the last line of our grid for the body plan of the boat that we building Orca the thing is about this we're going to have the molds when we build it about 6 feet apart so it's very very forgiving as far as the size of the molds and that kind of stuff so that's basically determined on the drawing board and uh we're just blowing up the body plan here then the next one up is 4 fo 5 and2 this one is 5 ft 9 in so we're going to transfer those onto the water lines these are the water lines right here that's the load water line one up two up so we're just on those lines getting the measurement transferring it onto the board on the floor so and then uh you know I'm going to take a baton and run a baton around those nails and try to draw a nice neat line around those Nails it requires that you put a few Nails on the other side of the Baton here and there and train it up against there because not every baton bends exactly the same over its length or anything else so you know basically you're relying on your vision here you know to see what it looks like when you get it on there and try to get it through as many dimensions as you can you know that you've taken from your drawing board so check it out there's our first look at the bottom of the transom on [Music] Orca this is quite something right here it's developing the lines full size onto the board this is just about the same as it is making all the molds all the molds are going to be made on the same L floor right here in halves one half the other half and then assembled together so I don't need a full width floor and I don't need a full length FLW floor or anything else you know I'm really cheating here is what I'm doing now that we have our shape established we're going to get out some Lumber to make the frame work now we got some really nice quarted White Oak right here and we're going to run it through the ships saww here and resaw it down a little bit this cut is 9 in deep so you have to have a blade that cuts really really nicely and the saw has got to be tuned up absolutely perfectly and on the other hand it has to be kind of you know so that you can steer it at the same time if you have too long of a fence and the lumber is a little curved it's going to fall away from the fence you're going to struggle you know so you have to know what what you've got first is the lumber straight is it curved what is it what type of fence you're going to use you know do you need help doing it you know all these kinds of things you know and believe me this s right here is capable of most anything that you can put in the door you know Hy on one end and myself on the other will'll have this done in no time yeah well we're going to blast it through the planer anyhow even though it did come out really nice it wouldn't have to but what the heck the planer is right here beside it that's how way I got everything set up so you don't have to run around it all I'm just going to stuff it right through here Perfect all right well we already cut the two pieces at the bottom of the transom right here they they're sitting right there and uh you know those were just a direct transfer from the floor onto the piece this one here we've we've got a piece over here that we're not sure if I can make both of these pieces out of it so I'm going to take a pattern with a piece of a cardboard and you can see where I've put the nails on this line right here that line right there is the shape of the transom framework itself I've transferred the measurements for that off of my drawing onto the lower floor and then uh I put a little bat in and Drew that line now I'm going to use this nail method right here to transfer that line on to my pattern I've put the heads of the nails on the line and tapped them right in place like that so that they don't move around very much and uh I can put something right on top of it and press it down on there and I get the impression of the heads into the cardboard I'm just going to pick the cardboard up put it on top of the nail heads I've actually got some nails at the Joint right here where the this piece joins to this piece so that's just like an extension of it right there so I can cut the thing off like that when I when I cut the whole thing out so I'm going to press down on it just like that and I can feel feel the heads of the nails poke right into the cardboard awesome just like that you can hear it you can feel it just pop it like pops right in there just like that just as nice as can be all the way around just like that now up this joint where I put these nail heads right here like that now let's see it's hard to even move it around you see because it's kind of trying to move all those nails at the same time that thing is a stable position just like that this is it doesn't wiggle or wander around whatsoever so that's going to be a pretty accurate transfer let's just pick it up and see what it looks like on the other side look at that right there ain't that nice all the way around and this is the line right here that that makes the joint between the two so let's just take these few nails that got stuck in there out of there we're going to cut that out using this cardboard for a pattern you have to cut it as close as you possibly can because it's very very hard to trim afterwards so you want to get it as close as you can the first shot there you go so now here's our cardboard pattern right here we've obviously cut the other side of it nice and straight like that with a straight edge and uh I'm going to put it in position right up against the nail heads just like that slam it right up against that tight and uh I don't have every single nail head in position but that's okay and up against the fit up against the bottom piece right here this is the bottom framework piece right there I've got two of those already cut out and in positions then it's going to have like a knee that's going to be put right in inside here and probably a cap piece and all kinds of different things so this is the way we need to have it like that we need a piece that size we need two of those out of that piece right over there all right so here's my cardboard pattern and I'm hoping to get two pieces out of this one piece right here I think it's going to end up being right down in that corner like that because all the material down in this corner was really nice and tight grain and no checks or anything in it so that's pretty nice like that this material right up in here this is pretty good too so basically what I'm going to do is just slide this underneath there and uh just slide that under there like that okay so now I'm going to pick this up and I'm going to end for end it and put this end down here or like this and I can slide it up as far as that and still have two pieces out of that same piece so that's exactly the way I'm going to do it just like that I'm going to take and actually use this straight edge that I've got on there right now I'm going to use it to make a mark right down through there okay that's good the reason why I'm cutting this in half like this is that it just makes it easier to manage each piece easier to manage with the band saw it's plain to see how powerful the saw really is it just sails right through it like it's nothing here's the piece that we're going to use for the framework right here and uh came out pretty nice actually it's nice and flat quite flat much flatter than I thought it was going to be especially after I cut most of it off here so it's going to be the pattern's going to sit on there just about like that and I'm going to cut all of this right off all of that's going to get cut right off this is a nice quality number so once I cut this this will look really really nice now just going to trace my cardboard pattern onto the piece that I'm going to use for the transum framework tracing the pattern onto the material here you have to be kind of careful because cutting the pattern out with the razin knife you the pattern comes out a little bit bumpy so you know you just have to be kind of nice and you know and careful and make sure that the pencil line looks good before you take the pattern off you know this is cutting with material on both sides of the blade and then as I get going around the corner it's going to be cutting with May material just on one side and it have to be a little bit more careful about it like going up in here now I can get this blade to go around quite a bit of this curve but it's not going to make the whole thing it just binds right up it's it's too broad so I have to back up and either create a little bit wider slot behind me for the blade for the heel of the blade or I have to just nibble the piece right off you know nibbling it right off is the easiest way you know you can cut a little ways and all of a sudden it starts to bind up then you nibble that piece right off you know it makes it so that I can approach it at a different angle with the blade and uh you know Follow The Line a little bit further and then I can trim it a little tiny bit at the same time it's kind of like using a grinder and a saw and everything all at the same time all right now that I've got this piece cut out we're just going to slop it down on here and slide it right into position here like this right up against the nail heads us without even looking at it and there it is right in position just like that it doesn't fit too bad but I know that'll be little tight against a few of them right up in here so I took those out of the way and uh you know no matter how I ever cut this no matter what kind of pattern I ever used or direct transfer no matter what after I cut it that close to the line it's going to need a little tiny bit of a tuneup the next thing you have to do is be very careful tuning it up because if you take too much of it off in any one spot especially at the bottom then you have to slide it down and uh then it doesn't fit here it gets too tight well if you if you make this too loose then you have to slide it down to make that tight and then it doesn't fit anywhere so you have to be very very careful actually fitting it from there but it's not very difficult to do and uh you know this this one's going to work out really nice you want that to fit nice and tight right there you want the corner to fit nice and tight right around the nail heads just like that so it's the right shape so there you have it the first pieces of the trans of orca right there now I've had uh the bottom pieces made for a little bit and I've just accomplished these side pieces right here and these are kind of like the stern posts I I would call them and uh you know that's half of the transom right there I think it looks sweet as can be you know it's going to be twice that size about this high and uh you know it's going to have a nice hard wood piece going across right across the transom when it's planked it's part of the trans framework itself the the transom plankin is actually part of the transom framework and it's going to have some verticals in it and uh it's going to be made in two pieces so when I go to set it up I just bring it over to the boat and set the two pieces up against each other and clamp them together and that'll be the transom framework right there for

Channel: Tips from a Shipwright

Views: 56,100

Keywords: woodworking, tools, educational, marine, wood, shipwright, artisan, craftsman, boat builder, sailboat, skiff

Id: 9QwxxeK69dY

Length: 13min 41sec (821 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2024