Technique Articles - Page 2 of 4 - Small Boats Magazine

June 2019

Maintaining Trailer Bearings

Greasing the wheel before it squeaks

Trailer bearings have a difficult job to do. The weight of the trailer, the boat, and everything in it bears on handful of steel rollers and races that have to endure dunkings at the ramp and high speeds on the road. We take a look at bearing care and replacement.

My equipment includes three glass flower vases I bought at Goodwill for 69 cents apiece. A thin stick and some small spring clamps hold the tangs out of the acid. Drain cleaner provides sulfuric acid to etch the files and a saturated baking-soda solution neutralizes the acid. The third vase has a fresh-water rinse. The file card (lower left) cleans file teeth and shop-made tools of copper, brass, and steel remove the debris the file card leaves behind.

May 2019

Sharpening Files

Putting acid to work

A file is like any other boatbuilder’s cutting tool: its edges get dull with use and eventually need to be sharpened. Chemistry has a solution for putting the bite back in a file’s countless tiny teeth: pitting acid against iron.

The Angler's Loop (both horizontal) and the Zeppelin Bend (vertical) will hold in bungee cord without coming undone or jamming.

April 2019

Knots and Toggles for Bungee Cord

The Zeppelin Bend and the Angler's Loop

Bungee cord is useful stuff but it doesn’t take kindly to the most commonly used knots. We take a look a couple of very old knots that do work, one anglers tied when fishing line was made of gut and the other used for mooring Zeppelins.

March 2019

Fender Washers

Beyond the reach of clamps

You can never have too many clamps, but there are some jobs that clamps simply can’t do. Screws and fender washers put the pressure on those places where clamps can’t reach.

February 2019

Fillet Brazing for Custom Boat Hardware

DIY custom fittings

Mark Kaufman wanted deck fittings that were a good match for the runabout he’d built to plans published in 1938. There were no suitable fittings he could buy and casting them was not in the cards. He shows us how he made his own with brass, bronze, and brazing alloy.

The larger screen is much easier to read than the screen of a handheld GPS. The box makes the unit self contained and portable.

January 2019

Boxing a Bigger GPS

A bit bigger, a lot better

A handheld GPS is a valuable tool for the small-boat cruiser, but its small screen can be hard to read. Ben Fuller took a larger GPS that’s meant to be built into a console, combined it with a waterproof box and battery, and made a system that’s nearly as portable as a handheld and much more practical.

A common ball-peen hammer may have a head that is too heavy; it may buckle the rivet's shaft within the wood pieces it's joining and be tiring for the user. Tom DeVries made riveting hammers to do a tedious job more effetively.

December 2018

Shop-Made Riveting Hammers

The right tool for the job

If sanding is the most tedious boatbuilding task, peening rivets has to be a close second. A hammer made for the job is easier on the wrist and less prone to buckling the rivets.

November 2018

Padook

Paddle + Boat hook

Two things come in handy when you’re shoving off or docking: a paddle and a boat hook. A

Homemade blocks met our goals for light weight, affordability, and a classic look. The two blocks at the left share a single axle, creating a double block.

October 2018

DIY Bronze Blocks

Bronze cheeks and ball-bearing sheaves

If you take pride in making your own boat or would like reduce the expense of outfitting it for sailing, you can make your own traditional-looking bronze blocks with ball-bearing sheaves. You probably already have all the tools you’ll need.

A pair of sawhorses make contact with the handles and the leathers, leaving the rest of the oars free for varnishing.

September 2018

5 Handy Tips

Ingenuity at work

We take a look at a handful of useful tips: detailing clay for imperfect paint and varnish jobs, cinch straps made of rope, saw horses for varnishing oars, farrier’s rasps for woodworking, and a slotted deck for raising a mast.

The authors restore old Sunfish, and Kent is a pilot, so a combination insignia is in the works.

August 2018

Insignia Sailcloth

Adhesive adornment

You might not need a number and a logo on your mainsail to set your boat apart from others, but you can add a distinctive decorative touch with adhesive-backed sailcloth. It’s easy to apply and needs no sewing.

The tops of the extensions, squared off inside of the diagonal side panels, serve as steps for climbing aboard over the stern. The bright finished squares of decking are hatch covers.

July 2018

Transom Extensions

Adding buoyancy and planing surface

Most small outboard skiffs carry a lot of weight in the stern—skipper, outboard, and fuel tank—and suffer the consequences. Homemade transom extensions add both buoyancy and planing surface that can improve trim and performance over a wide range of speeds.

June 2018

Trailer Tires

Age before wear

It’s easy to take trailer tires for granted—they don’t log many miles and don’t usually show much wear—but they deserve more attention than a glance to see if they appear to have enough air in them.

My reproduction of the stands used by the Eton Boathouse oar maker turned out to be remarkable quick and effective once I gleaned all of the important details from the newsreel.

April 2018

Eton Oar Stands

Quick work without clamps

A 1950s newsreel offered a glimpse of English craftsmen making racing shells and oars in the Eton Boathouse on the River Thames. The system they used to hold the oars while working on them did away with clamps and was fast and efficient.

This is one of a pair of oars that I built and equipped with copper tips in 1985. That winter they survived a 2,400-mile, 2-1/2 month row from Pittsburgh to Cedar Key, Florida. They've been in use on and off since then.

March 2018

Copper Guards

Traditional protection for oars

Oar blades, ideally, should only come in contact with water, but they often do battle with rocks, sand, and barnacles in our comings and goings to and from landings. Copper tips will take the abuse and not show their age as easily as paint and varnish will.

Angle grinders are designed for working metal; equipped with flap sanders and blades designed for wood they have plenty of power to do quick work.

February 2018

Power Carving

Working wood with an angle grinder

Angle grinders are standard tools for working metal, but they can be equipped with special wheels designed for working wood, and spinning at over 10,000 rpm, they can move wood very quickly.

A half hitch in the tail end, pulled up tight against the last wrap, keeps the fender from getting looser with use and age.

January 2018

Doughnut Fenders

Distinctive and easy to make

The basic principle of most rope fenders is to create a core and then wrap it prettily. The core of the doughnut fender is a coil and the wrap is a type of loop hitching. Using a darker line for the core has the pleasing effect of contrasting with a lighter-colored line on the outside.

The sliding seat rig, spanning a thwart in the author's dory, has shorter tracks than those used in racing shells, but is well suited to using the same oars and locks that are used for fixed-seat rowing. Note the foot brace secured to the floorboards under the aft thwart.

December 2017

Sliding-Seat Conversion

A longer stroke without outriggers

Sliding seats are commonly associated with outriggers and long oars, but Ben Fuller found he could rig some of his boats with a sliding seat and add power to his rowing without changing oars or gunwale-mounted oarlocks.

A simple downdraft table can put the space between the rip-fence rails to good use.

November 2017

A Downdraft Table

Taking care of dust without taking up space

Along with boatbuilding comes a lot of sanding, and with sanding comes a lot of dust. A do-it-yourself downdraft table built into a table saw can help clear the air without adding to the clutter of machinery.

A locker door is in the works in the foreground, with excess epoxy seeping through the holes in the perforated release film and darkening the bleeder fabric. The suction cup fitting at the end of the hose to the vacuum pump is at the back to the left and the pressure gauge is to the right.

October 2017

Vacuum-Bagging

Working under pressure

Vacuum bagging puts the weight of the atmosphere to work to press broad panels together for gluing and sqeeze irregular shapes to make strong, lightweight composite pieces that would be difficult to achieve in wood.

October 2017

Mud Pattens

Firmer footing on soft ground

If there are mud flats lining your cruising grounds, a pair of mud pattens will allow you to walk around without sinking in over your boot tops. They’re easy to make and require just a few bits of wood, a handful of screws, and some rope.

These peanut butter-chocolate rolls were baked using a pot-in-pot method. Three rocks in the larger put elevate the smaller pot to keep boiling water under the smaller pot. Not shown is the pot lid. The rolls aren't browned, but they're fully cooked.

September 2017

Back-Country Baking

Let them eat cake

Fresh baked goods are a treat no matter where you find them, but especially appreciated at camp. We take a look at three ways to bake breads, rolls, and cookies with campfires and camp stoves.

The bungee doesn't need to be removed to use the tiller. Just push it or pull it and it will hold the new rudder angle.

September 2017

A Simple Tiller Tender

Hands-off sailing

It’s cheap, simple, and utterly reliable. It doesn’t need adjustment and there’s nothing to engage or disengage; you can steer the boat normally with the system in place, and whenever you need to let go of the tiller, it stays exactly where you positioned it.

The author's red mizzen staysail was designed and made for WAXWING, his François Vivier-designed, lug-yawl rigged Ilur.

August 2017

Mizzen Staysails Add Power

Lovely, Useful Things for Light Wind Sailing

A mizzen staysail is a beautiful, effective, and easily managed addition to a yawl or ketch rig’s quiver. It isn’t meant to be deployed in close quarters or when short tacking, but on a long reach in light air, it is a lovely, useful thing.

The Vintage Cherry dye transformed the very light mahogany—a cut-off is shown here— into a rich dark color that enhances the grain.

July 2017

Water-based Wood Dye

Rich Color to Dye For

The outboard runabout, WORK OF ART, often stops people in their tracks when they see the deck with its beautiful, natural-looking wood color with sparkling grain highlights. No one has guessed that the wood under the varnish has been dyed.