Wooden Boat Building at Brooks School: Day 4 Optimist Pram Jigs Take Form

We began class by comparing a piece of oak wood and pine. The oak was more dense and a different color because it had been weathered. We also learned more about the grain of the wood. In the pine, the grain of the wood was visible. We learned that “ripping” is when you cut with the grain of the wood. After this quick lesson, we continued to work on the frame of the boat. The class is divided into 2 different groups, and we work together to construct the mold for the boat. With the frames, we started constructing and putting the frames together. We angled and cut the frames of the bow, stern, and middle piece and screwed them to the original frame. The molds are really coming together.
-Jackie

Ryan screwing in the Bow Jig

Mr. Grant makes a great clamp

Graham explains the plans to Tyler and Jory, who really get it.

Tyler styling with the jigsaw. Great job measuring twice and cutting once.

Theo is helping by watching. It's a public works project.

Today our goal was to finish the two jigs we have been working on. On one of the jigs, our center frame was out of line, so we tried to realign that. We found the problem was that the center line was not correctly measured, which was a large problem and we had to find a solution. Because of that, we realigned the entire center frame, so the centers of all three frames were in line with each other. A useful phrase we learned today was “measure twice, cut once.” Because of our center line mishap, it would have been helpful to know that phrase earlier, but a big part of this course is learning from mistakes. Now we know to always make sure measurements are 100% correct before we cut the wood. Slightly ahead, the other jig is coming along well also. The sides of each frame were cut down to the second nook, so the boat would not get caught once we build on the jigs. Once the center line was correct, we did the same on the other jig. After that, we bolted small pieces of wood onto the frames, so that when we put the 1x6’s and 1x2’s across the three frames, we can bolt them in easily. The jigs are on there way and will be finished within the next day or two. Once our course is finished, the jigs could be used for multiple times.

Abby and Ravi set the stern jig in place.

After going over the properties of different woods and talking about the grain of the wood, we continued to work on the frame of the boats. We attached the cut-out molds of the bow, middle, and stern to the frame once we had measured the pieces very carefully. We screwed the pieces to the frame after figuring out how to work the saw and the screwdriver. The hardest part was having to attach the bow at a 26 degree angle. Graham showed us how to assure that the piece was 26 degrees by measuring blocks of wood and leaning the bow on them as we screwed it in. Finally the four separate parts of the frame were connected, and we were ready to learn about our next step.

-Caroline