– What did you do?
This week my group was able to do more work on cutting ribs and forming the centerboard for the Duck boat. The first half of the ribs were already cut the week prior, so my partner and I want ahead and cut the next half of the ribs of the boat. Using a large bandsaw, we would feed the wood planks through the saw and rotate the band saw to cut the wood at appropriate angles along the side of the wood. Then we would cut off any extra parts of the plank to properly shape the wood. Finally, we would sand the ribs in the oscillating spindle sander to make the cuts finer.
– What did you accomplish/contribute?
We were able to cute ribs 6-10 as well as some of the base ribs and the transom. Once these pieces were all cut with the appropriate angles along the edges. We could finish sanding the edges down to the guiding lines to finish off these parts. Now that these parts are finished. They can be connected to the finished keel which will start to build the skeleton of the inside of the boat.
– What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
During the cutting process the main challenge was learning to get used to turning the band saw to make its angles correspond to the angles written on the guiding line. One team member would have to work the wheel to turn the platform of the bandsaw while reading the laser projected onto the wall with angles written along it vertically. The other team member guiding the wood through would have to tell the other teammate what angle to move the laser to as they would push the wood through the blade.
– What did you learn?
I learned how to cut wooden ribs and communicate with a teammate to cut angles into the side of the ribs on a bandsaw. I could practice telling my partner what fractions of an angle to move the laser to and then get a smooth siding of the ribs with continuous change in the angles along the edges. I also learned how to use a spindle sander to make flat edged of wood finer and shave them down to the guiding lines as precisely as possible.
