Customer Built Decking May - 2021

 

Below is one of out 16ft x 7ft "River Severn" Shepherd Huts next to purpose built decking that the customer installed. 

The Shepherds hut has a double opening door, 4 opening windows, beds at each end and a wood burning stove. Lights and USB- Double Sockets are all on 230v mains. 

The main Paint colour is Cuprinol Garden Shades Willow

We think they did made a great area around the Shepherds Hut. 

The strip planked boat continues (A steam launch design)

 February's update:

more pieces of Sapele were added to the sides of the boat to build up what will become the finished gunwale. 

Things have a habit of being put inside the boat when there is 'nowhere else' for them,

Then the decks are fitted with a piece of marine plywood which will form part of the finished deck. 

Strips of cedar will be added to this to make this stronger and add to the finished shape of the boat.

A relatively empty boat which has been sanded and painted inside, 
(a light grey)

A further boat update. (A steam launch design)

 January

All of the ribs were fitted end of November and into December. Then the ribs were cut back to accommodate added strengthening pieces (the inwales) and then the outwales were added too. These and the top piece that is yet to be fitted make up the gunwales. 

Then the decks start to take shape and we are fast approaching the stage where we really need to pick what will power it.

Another strip plank Boat update. (A Steam Launch design)

The boat was turned over sometime between July and November. A lot of things were done and few photos were taken,

before being trimmed to the final shape.

Epoxy and fiberglass matting was used on the inside after a lot of sanding. the edges were trimmed to get the right shape where required and then strips of Sapele were made. 

Then we have November:

Ribs of Sapele being fitted.

The ribs are left to rest before being glued and fixed in.

The other side will done the same way before the next stage of fitting out. Eventually we have to decide what will power the launch as this changes how the later stage of the fit out goes.

The strip planked boat update. (A Steam Launch design)

After several sanding and filling sessions to get the shape of the boat right it was time to undercoat the boat. which lead to some more sanding and filling and undercoat before the boat was ready for painting. 

Sky blue was the colour of choice.

A roller made for a cleaner finish. 

The next major stage will be to turn the boat over and tidy up the edges by trimming the fibreglass cloth and then begins fitting out. 

Mini Boat - tenth post.

The floors and other pieces are now in. 

Still playing with the idea of being able to sail this boat.

Much of the woodwork has now had several coats. 

 Oar locks and rowing seat are next.

The original plan that this is now loosely based on can be found here:

http://flo-mo.weebly.com/one-sheet-boats.html

More trellis projects

We have done two further trellis projects in the last couple of weeks, 

The first is shown just below, and included toppers and curved ends to show where the gate was and to break up the shape of the walls. 

The second was was more of the same style we installed in a previous post, for the back garden of that same house which is in the pictures below.

The Cedar Lid in place

Yesterday we were able to place the Cedar lid in its final resting place.

Now that it is surrounded by grass the cedar colours are really showing up well.

The hills in the distance are Earl's Hill and Pontesford Hill which are marked upon the lid itself.

We currently have an idea to make another of these as a garden table. 

The customer is in the middle of re turfing and building up the ground around where the tank is as it has settled a bit, however we think it looks good already.

Update on the Cedar Lid

  Just a quick update on the cedar lid,

The Osmo Oil arrived a couple of days ago and I have just applied the second coat to the lid.

It has brought out all the colours in the cedar which is great and I cannot wait to see how it looks surrounded by grass in the customers garden.

Now I just need to wait at least 12 hours before its dry and then arrange to deliver and have it installed it in a safe, social distancing way.

Cedar Trellis

Our neighbour needed cedar trellis to keep kids and dogs from falling off of the wall.

So we obliged with the above.

All that is needed now is for the posts to be cut flush and a top rail to be added.

Thankfully jobs like this are easily done while maintaining social distancing and lets the neighbour have one less worry. 

The Cedar Lid

This is a cedar disc carved with the names of a few hills and the profile of a few of them. It is around 3 feet in diameter and would make a great garden table top. However that is not what it will be used for.

This cedar disc has a section of foam beneath it to help insulate (soundproof) a new septic tank that is in a customers garden. The lid will be near the ground, helping to cover the noises that occasionally come form the tank, while also acting as a pleasant talking point as opposed to the plastic lid that it will be covering.

The cedar is layered and held together by epoxy, and will be finished in Osmo oil once we receive delivery of it. Another delay due to the current situation, however for now it will sit and wait. Much like everything else seems to.

We're not sure when we can go and fit the finished lid, as the delayed delivery makes planning difficult. We're pretty sure that we're okay to deliver it in person and put it down as we do not require any contact with the customer to fit it. They, like many people, aren't in a hurry for it though. It is just one of those things.

Thinking about Boats again

A long while ago, before we were building shepherds huts, Dave built a few small wooden sailing and rowing boats. These boats were built mainly for the fun of it. However they were mostly quite good little boats and in the main quite successful and satisfying builds.

Late in 2019 Dave got the boat building bug again and started a strip planked boat, the frames for which were done on the CNC machine while the rest of the planks would be hand machined. This boat is slowly coming together.

This strip planked boat is from a set of purchased plans that we've had for a while.
The frames were cut out on the CNC machine, the cedar strips were then processed on site.

Which brings us to this year, and we've got an idea to offer plywood boat kits for sale. The great thing about plywood boats is that they look like boats faster than strip planking. The hard part is marking out the plywood and cutting all the parts just right so that the stitch and glue construction works.

Our idea is to take the hard part away from the build.

We supply all the plywood parts already cut out using our CNC machine and a set of instructions.

The customer can then have all the fun and satisfaction of building their boat, without the worse bit.

A good project for kids and parents to do together?

That's the plan. We are working on a couple of prototypes at the moment and as soon as we are happy with the concept we'll get them out there.

The prototypes are being put together in the new shed, a new project suits a new shed, which keeps them out of our way while we work on other things.

Pieces being cut out

The pieces for this test build

Gluing and taping the first pieces together

Starting to look a bit boat shaped.

Plans for this mini one sheet boat are from:
http://flo-mo.weebly.com/one-sheet-boats.html