Unskilled Labor

"skeleton" almost finished

The blocks and risers are screwed to the strongback (picture), and now I've clamped the stations in place (picture).

Again, great pains for perfect alignment-- but, no such luck. No matter how careful I am about placing these wood pieces, something always ends up not quite right -- like (for instance) the screw "walks" itself into a new position when I try to drill a piece down, and then the part-hole that was made is now the only place that screw will go, never mind how hard I try to hold or clamp the wood in place. Or, somehow the pre-drilled hole I made in one piece ends up misaligned with the space in another, so the pieces won't go together unless they're shifted off of where I wanted them. Trying to drill a new hole too close is always a bad idea, but I tried it anyway a couple times, and made a big mess of the bow-end riser (that poor, abused piece of wood is the same one I tried with the saw earlier).

After clamping all the stations in place, I ran a bow-stern line across the keel and the right sheer lines. First glance shows some millimeter-scale mis-matches from station to station, and I do not know enough to judge whether this is not such a big deal or a potential show-stopping problem.

I hope that the inevitable imperfection of the kayak skeleton doesn't cause major problems later.But I am trying to learn to relax and not expect myself to be perfect on this. I think the kayak will still turn out sea-worthy. :-)

The finished product for tonight: it's starting to actually look like a boat, even if the first piece of the boat hasn't even been laid yet. :-)