I read where someone created their birdsmouth mast in 5 or so hours...well this is Day 3 and still not finished, but steady progress nonetheless.
Rather than fiddling around with taper jigs for the tablesaw, I took advantage of the clement weather and fired up my Quansheng Foreplane and tapered the staves by hand. In fact it was quite a fast operation and I felt a lot safer in the process, still smarting from yesterday's episode on the table saw....Once again Brian came along to lend a hand...very welcome when managing 23ft staves..
The staves have all being tapered according to the dimensions which I worked out (see earlier posts) and I made up two plugs in birdsmouth design for the bottom of the mast and where the shrouds and forestay are fastened to the mast. I feathered the ends of the plugs to ensure no hard spots exist. I'm hopeful that the extra effort will result in a sturdy light mast.
Tonight I glued up the birdsmouth plugs which was quite straightforward, although I was surprised at how much epoxy was used in the process. Tomorrow, I plan to clean off the plugs and plane them down to size to fit the inside of the mast. Hopefully by tomorrow evening I will have mast finally glued up, and then Day 5 will plane down and bring the mast diameter to its final dimensions.....so much for 5 hours!
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