Funny thing about power tools...

[jeff pierce]

...as fast and easy as they allow you to do a job, its nothing compared to how fast and easy they allow you to ruin one.

Ah well, at least it was only the boat, not my hand :eek:

[JimD]

ok, Jeff, its only a matter of time before you cough up the details. What happened?
Jim

[jeff pierce]

Like I didn't know that was coming, eh?

I'm working on the deck of my runabout, which I built as mahogany planks with contrasting maple strips over a plywood subdeck. The planks are all laid and I was fairing it in a bit when I decided the job would go much easier with my new toy, a Bosch 3-1/4" planer. I forgot to keep the pressure on the rear shoe when the front one ran off the end of the deck at the transom. In a fraction of a second, so quickly I couldn't even comprehend what happened, I had a trench in the planks.

Ya live and learn.

[JimD]

Truly sorry to hear it, jeff. My favourite mistake is when I tell myself, ok, I can do this with a belt sander as long as I'm reeeaally careful not to catch an edge of the belt - famous last words. Think you can plane or sand out the gouge enough so it won't show (too badly)?

[jeff pierce]

Originally posted by JimD:
Think you can plane or sand out the gouge enough so it won't show (too badly)?Not a chance. Way too deep for that. I'll find a way to patch it. Some bits of wood carefully carved to fit, some epoxy mixed with "wood flour" saved from sanding the parent planks, some sanding and voila...er, just don't look too close.

Sounds like a good spot to place some sort of deck fitting.

[NormMessinger]

What we have here is an opportunity. Yesseree, an opportunity, folks. An opportunity for creative redesign. Why, shucks. I practice this great art myself, mostly on the wood turning lathe but on boats too. If ya gouge one side put another just like it on the other. It'll look like you planned it.

--N :( R M

[Bill Dodson]

It sounds like a great place for a new piece of deck hardware!

[JimD]

ya mean like an old chrome jaguar off an XKE? But seriously jeff, if you can't sand it out its not likely you can camoflage it with a patch. As suggested, creative designing or covering it with something that looks like it belongs there may be the best way to go, aside from just living with a gouge in your shiney deck

[Ross Faneuf]

Or take the reason I bought a new circular saw. It's because I flang the old one right out into the snow one day and left it there. Every now and then the blade guard would stick (did I drop it too many time?? Naaaaaaaaaah). I put it down on the deck after making a cut with the blade still spinning; guard stuck; big semi-circular trench in deck; cut through its own power cord, big scary flash; damn near chopped into my leg. All the saw's fault, of course.

[Mr. Know It All]

You guys are starting to sound like Tim Taylor on "Home Improvement". :D I had another friend at work who earned the nickname "Stubby". If your tools ain't workin right, fix them or git rid of them and please be careful.
Peace---> Kevin in Ohio

[NormMessinger]

I'm in awe, Ross, if you duplicated that on the other side. That would take a true artist.

--Norm

[Rich VanValkenburg]

I thought Norm would say something like 'little bites, grasshopper, little bites'. I like my planer and also respect it. I hate leaking blood, and I hate belt sanders. I have one just to remind me not to use it. A SHARP pro-prep scraper would do as good a job but slower. I like slow. I remember years ago when my tiny daughter sat in the back seat and could only see the tops of the other cars as we drove along. She said, 'Daddy, why are we going backwards?' I thought swmbo was going to bust a gut. :D

Rich

[Ross Faneuf]

Power tools are trenchant teachers, and a little abrupt, but much more effective than 'Home Improvement'. The real Tim Allens have mostly made direct trips to the emergency room with a few parts in a baggie.

I still have one of the old Porter Cable mini-power planes - the one-handed one. A great tool, but it's really clear why it hasn't been on the market in a long while. If you wrap your hand around it incautiously (unless you have smallish hands) your finger tips end up right in the cutter...

I'm cautious, careful, experienced and lucky, so I still have a matched set of fingers. I have too many friends and acquaintances who could answer to 'Stubby'; and too many who have carpal tunnel, or Rayes' syndrome, or various other overuse injuries. I'd be amazed if nearly everyone on this forum hasn't had a close one. And some of mine haven't even been my fault (like the faultily wired drill that gave me a real good buzz the first time I used it).

Fortunately, that trench in the deck is now under two layers of veneer and Dynel. I've had others where all of a sudden it seems like an elegant design idea to put a generous radius on the edge of something.

I saw a great documentary bit many years ago whose context I've forgotten. It showed one of those amazing guys who do pictorial engraving - in this case a master engraver of high-end firearms. Showed him engraving a pictorial scene freehand, and he was asked how he did it without making a mistake. He said he made lots of mistakes - he just knew how to hide them. Then he deliberatly put a random scratch in, and completly hid it with a bit of vine and leaves. Amazing.

[ 08-18-2002, 11:30 PM: Message edited by: Ross Faneuf ]

[jeff pierce]

Don't think I can hide it with a patch,eh? Well I'm game to try it anyway. Doesn't seem like I have much to lose.

It occurred to me that since the gouge is a uniform shape, exactly the inverse shape of the cutter head (imagine that), it might not be that hard to generate a good fit. Measure the cutter head diameter and cut a plug of mahogany 3-1/4" long using the closest size hole saw I can get. I can then slice off the appropriate chord off this cylinder and lay it in the gouge. I'd have to be careful about grain direction to get a good match.

'Spose if that doesn't work I could rout a groove athwartships across all the planks and inlay some ebony or something...or...rout out a rectangular area and inlay a piece with my initials carved in it as a 'signature'...the possibilities are endless :rolleyes:

[Andrew J. McGrorty]

might be time to learn marquetry or inlaying. how about a couple of blue marlins on each side? andy

[Garrett Lowell]

That's a great story about your daughter, Rich, and one which I need to incorporate into my own life. It seems I'm always in a hurry, and that's when things want to go wrong. Thanks for the reminder.

[JimD]

good luck with the patch, Jeff. Please let us know how it turns out. jim

[Scott Rosen]

I find that as time goes on I reach more often for my hand tools and I leave the power tools in their cases.

I also find, at least as to my boat, that I'm more concerned with doing the job to my satisfaction than doing it within a certain time frame. That explains why Patience's port toe rail has a new varnish finish smoother than crystal and richer than amber; while the starboard rail is mostly gray, dirty teak with patches of old peeling varnish in spots. I'll get to the starboard rail before Winter. Or maybe by Spring. But no matter how long it takes, it'll sure look good when it's done.

I suppose if you have to fix boats for a living, it's a different story.

[jeff pierce]

Well,
the patch is on and Jim was right, it isn't exactly invisible. Then again, it looks better than the gouge did. The gouge extended over two planks, but it was deeper in one than the other. I managed to sand it out of the shallower one. On the deeper one, I ended up chiseling out the end of the plank and putting in the patch, like so:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid29/p7b16fab7c89ca0a31d5e520b1b9cb0fc/fd5bd00a.jpg

[ 08-25-2002, 01:16 AM: Message edited by: jeff pierce ]