I missed a weekend, what with Christmas shopping (what little we did of that IRL instead of online) and church and train gardening with Joe, and then I missed the next weekend with Christmas itself, until I was able to dedicate some hours on the day after Christmas to work on the boat.
And that work was making the two sides symmetrical.
I was thinking that I could maybe get away with the two sides being very much not the same as long as the stem and frame and transom were all in proper alignment, but I wasn’t sure. So I proceeded to, as I call it, symmetricize the sides.
I was dreading the scraping or sanding or using a surform or however I was going to make the sides the same, until I had the brainstorm of using a flush-trim router bit. Then it wasn’t such a dreadful thing to … dread, I guess.
It turned out to be harder to rout than I imagined it would be, but it was still way easier than filing the sides to shape. I only had bottom-bearing router bits, though, when I was imagining a top-bearing bit. It was hard to see what was going on with the bottom bearing instead of a top, but maybe the base plate would’ve hidden the cutting even with a top bearing. In any case, I did end up chunking an extra groove or two in places where I didn’t want them, but for the most part the sides are really, really close to being identical. Which is awesome.
Next up is drilling matching holes for the screws to hold the stem and transoms (temporary assembly and final part) and frame. Then turning these flat parts sideways to attach to those parts and each other and finally start looking like an actual boat.
Lesson 1: Secure the router bit!
I spent some time re-familiarizing myself with the router and its operation, most specifically with the direction that the bit spins and therefore which direction to move the router. (I still remember how dramatically a small work piece shot across the room at the router class I took at Woodcraft when the instructor purposely rode the piece the wrong direction on a router table.) But, rather unfortunately, I did that with the bit only hand-tightened in the collet, forgetting later to tighten it with the wrenches before starting my first cut. The bit slipped down until the bearing was no longer matching the bottom work piece and proceeded to groove both pieces until I realized what was happening.
Stupid stupid stupid. And also dangerous. I’m lucky it only marred the work and didn’t injure or kill me.