INFORMATION FROM CLYDE BLOG 2: (BLOG 1 FILLED)

[bob mitchell]

CONTENTS:

Frame Sawing and a LIttle History

How Cabin Was Built

FAME SAWING AND A LITTLE HISTORY

Dorchester Shipyard, which started out as four or five shipyards in the 19th century, each owned by one of a bunch of brothers who operated on the principle of sibling rivalry, finally united into Stowman Bros. Shipyard, and, during my days there, was sold outside the family and became Dorchester Ship. This little history lesson is to indicate the probable age of the power tools available to us while building Newporters. We had a band saw, two in fact, with about 48" wheels, that pivoted on the lower wheel, and tables about 42" square that remained level as the bevels were cranked in, It had a crank on the side with a man on it at all times who kept his eyes on the saw's bevel readout with the job to crank in the degrees the sawyer shouted out. That's two men. On a plank for an oysterboat it took three or four others to handle the plank at the sawyer's commands. It was fun handling those 2.5" to 3.5" X up to 18" wide X up to 24' long pieces as we got out planks for those boats. Luckily, for the Newporter, we didn't often use those saws, if at all.

The saw used to cut out the frame pieces for the Newporters was much smaller. The wheels were 2 to 2.5 feet diameter and the table tilted for the bevels. We attached a long straight handle on the back edge of the table, sticking out to the “down” side. Also attached was an arm, to the opposite side, with a pointer (arrow) which followed (also attached to the saw) a bevel readout gauge, laminated from 2 or 3 thin layers, about 3 inches wide, and long enough for the job, in an arch with a radius just a little bigger than the arch swung by the arrow on the arm. It was a two man job.

The shape of the frame pieces was scribed on a piece of oak using a pattern, which was flipped over to scribe the piece for the other side of the boat. We temporarily nailed another similarly shaped pattern, half the width or so of the frame pattern, painted white, and with the bevels painted on with red, so that as the sawyer sawed out the frame piece the “beveler” maintained the angle as called for by the “bevel board.” I have a small table band saw that would do the job, though what we had was a floor model. Old timey Delta, I think. The table, of course, had a locking device with which any amount of tension could be applied so that if the “beveler” let go it would stay where left, but could be overpowered with the long handle to change the bevel. With someone doing the beveling the sawyer had little problem in keeping the blade where it belongs. The trick is to keep the piece moving through each cut at a constant rate without stopping. This helps the beveler maintain a smooth rate of change from bevel to bevel. This in turn aids those who fair the frames so the planking will lay flat against the frames and take the fair shape that allows for an easy ride. As one old boy, a Scotsman by blood whose mother’s name was “Clyde,” used to say: “It takes one hand to wash the other.” He had some other sayings that you won’t see here.

Remember that the bevels are cut “under” on one side (leave the line with the sawblade cutting under the line) and the opposite side of that frame piece was cut out “standing” (so that the two surfaces cut are “parallel”). Therefore both cuts start at the same end of the frame piece since the table when from 90 to 45 degrees in only one direction. The upper face of the oak while sawing is the surface on which the outline is drawn and is the surface that is “put on station” when the frames are set up on the backbone. (This is stuff you learn when you study “lofting” so if you don’t understand this look for it in most all books on boat building.) The “frame stations” on a Newporter are 11 ¾” apart and the boat is designed so that if you stand between (I think) frames 20 and 21 and look toward either end, you will be looking at the frame surface that is on station. Therefore, every piece of frame you see from that point is cut “under” on the planking side of the frame.

The frames are assembled on the “framing table” which is made of 3/16^th” steel plate and on I-beam and pipe under pinnings. It has a “well” in which the deck beam is placed, every frame is (already) scribed into the steel, and the pieces are lined up with the those lines and clamped in place and the whole is glued, nailed and bolted as needed to produce a completed frame. All very simple in a production shop but a little more difficult when working alone. I recommend that before you take anything completely apart for replacement that you take measurements, draw up patterns, take pictures, and anything else so that you will have what you need to rebuild you Dream Boat. Go ahead and do it; it is not impossible.

 

HOW CABIN WAS BUILT

 

The whole house was built on a mold (actually three).  The sides, being two layers, with a curve in the forward half, were laminated on a mold to get the shape laminated in.  Both house tops were laminated on a single mold (one at a time) to set the crown.  No special mold was used to laminate the windshield or the front of the house; both being flat, could be assembled on a bench.  The third mold was where the whole was assembled.  The sides were placed in position (one on each side, but you know that) and the front piece was put in place (between the sides, I think).  The main cabin top was next, followed by the windshield and finally the doghouse top.  The after bulkhead was put in after the house was installed on the hull. 

 

An interesting note about Ack fits in right here.  Before Ack came to Dorchester the house was moved from the Quonset hut lean-to (remember the Quonset?)  The hut itself was where the scarphing was done and the masts, chines, and apron were assembled.  Then the yard, in its old fashion way (it was then maybe 150 years old) and sent in about 15 to 20 men to pick the house up and walk it into the building shed.  No one thought about that, it was the way things like that were always done.  Ack arrived and saw that process and almost rolled over in laughter.  He drew up something the steel workers could understand and put them to work.  The rest of the houses were taken to the building shed by three or four men on a cart.  Ack was since called “The Man Who Brought Wheels to Dorchester.”