{"id":743,"date":"2020-02-18T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bohls.org\/boat\/?p=743"},"modified":"2020-09-08T10:21:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T14:21:45","slug":"week-53-oars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bohls.org\/boat\/2020\/02\/18\/week-53-oars\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 53: Michalak Oars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dawn thinks I’m nuts, but I’m making my own set of oars. Specifically, I’m building what I call Michalak Oars. (Jim Michalak acknowledges that he based his design on Pete Culler’s oars, so Gavin Atkin calls them Culler-Michalak oars.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One factor is cost, where I’m splurging on 1 \u00d7 8 pine at $22 per board but even the cheapest oars on Amazon or at like Cabela’s are twice that, but furthermore my oars are hopefully going to be better <\/em>than those more expensive oars. As Atkin says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Culler-Michalak method produces a pair of oars at a fraction of the price you will be charged for a single badly balanced and clunky ready-made oar bought from a yacht chandler. So these real paragons among oars are cheap as well as right for the purpose.<\/p>Atkin, G. (2008). Ultrasimple boatbuilding: 17 plywood boats anyone can build<\/em>. Camden, Me.: International Marine\/McGraw-Hill.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So I’m definitely going with the great Jim Michalak on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Making use of 7-1\/2″ width versus 5-1\/2″<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am making one small change, though, in that I’m using 1 \u00d7 8 lumber instead of 1 \u00d7 6. I never could make the 1 \u00d7 6 size work for the parts in SketchUp. Atkin and Michalak both say it works, but I’m using 1 \u00d7 8 anyway, despite it being like $5 more per board. I’m spending $10 in insurance, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beautiful pine boards ready for making oars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The President’s Day holiday weekend was great, having the three days, where I bought the boards and got them home on Saturday, got all the parts marked on the boards on Sunday, and cut out all the parts on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Middle part of oar #1, handle and square upper loom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My local Home Depot only had 4 eight-foot 1 \u00d7 8 boards from which to choose my 2, so I got the straightest 2 of the bunch as best I could. I had to wait almost a half hour to even get into the aisle where the boards were stacked, as it was blocked off for … whatever. Maybe carting in more stock or something. I was over buying some rope while I was waiting, which itself took the longest time to get somebody to cut it with the hot knife for me. Sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Middle part of oar #1, lower loom and blade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But anyway I got the pine home and marked it up. It was quite a fun project, as it was in the relatively roomy (and warm) basement instead of the cramped (and nowadays cold) garage. Dawn was off seeing the Maryland gymnastics team meet Rutgers, so I even had Pandora blasting some tunes. (I don’t usually listen to music while working, at least not while I’m using any tool of any kind. But I figure I can hardly get that injured if I’m distracted while wielding a pencil.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Both oars marked and ready for cutting out<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I measured and re-measured and checked my measurements over and over, patiently erasing plenty of errant lines as I plotted out the parts. The worst was when I drew the lower part of the loom an extra 1\/8 inch, where I have no idea how I got that wrong, since it’s a plain 30″ length (although a taper from 2″ down to 1-1\/4″). But pencil mistakes are not nearly as upsetting as saw mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marking oar #2 went way, way faster than the #1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cutting out all the parts was rather much more challenging. First was that I used a jig saw, where Michalak uses, and recommends, a band saw. He laments that not everyone has a band saw, but he uses one anyway. But, yeah, I don’t have a band saw. Even if I did, though, I guess I’d only have like a 9″ or 10″ bench top band saw, which I’m not sure about maneuvering an eight-foot board around on one of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First board clamped and cutting begins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He also says that some folks use a table saw instead, which I do have one of those. But I don’t really see how that would work. Maybe by separating the parts first with a jig saw and then using the table saw to cut out the parts proper? But that’s a lot of long angled cuts, which I can only imagine needs some sort of taper jig on the table saw, since you couldn’t use an angled miter gauge. No thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oar #1 parts all cut out<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So the jig saw wasn’t great, but it was what I could use. The biggest problem was holding the work on my work bench while cutting. That involved a lot of clamping on the edge of the bench, making all or maybe even just part of a cut, and then un-clamping and moving and re-clamping the piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ready to cut oar #2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There was a lot of strategery involved. But it all got cut out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oar parts all cut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next steps are supposed to be gluing the 3-piece sandwiches together and then shaping the oars with plane and rasp and file. I’ve got some alternative ideas to help speed that along. Maybe. We’ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dawn thinks I’m nuts, but I’m making my own set of oars. Specifically, I’m building what I call Michalak Oars. (Jim Michalak acknowledges that he based his design on Pete Culler’s oars, so Gavin Atkin calls them Culler-Michalak oars.) One factor is cost, where I’m splurging on 1 \u00d7 8 pine at $22 per board … <\/p>\n

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