Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 17, 2016 at 1:09pm

Oh cool. Thanks Tungsten. Thats the seats I have in the jon boat and want to use. I`m hoping I can find some brown ones, I put green in the jon boat, its all green.

Rick, Ive got other boat seats, the thick 4"cushions + the swivels and they are very thick and have higher backs, they are nice but I`m gonna use the low backs. If Steve used those they would be really high. I just looked at the jon boat outside thinking about digging for a seat for the mock up, under this tarp is the jon, I think I`ll wait a little bit :)

Ive got plenty of other things I can do for now. Just glued up all the bench doors, working on the frames. Need to cut them to length, I`ll notch the frt ones, hold off on the rears for now.

Permalink Reply by Mike Baker on January 17, 2016 at 5:41pm

Mike,

You might want to wait on doing the notches until you figure out your final seat height. If you lower those rails they will be a different width.

Mike

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 18, 2016 at 4:26pm

Ya Mike, funny you mentioned that, as I was looking at it earlier last night and thinking the same thing. Ive got enough space I can come in 1/2" with the pipes, more in the frt, but thats all in the rear without going to some flanges on the frames. I wasnt able to find anything that looked ok for flanges to buy, I guess some could be fabricated with some welding skills, like a tig and aluminum, which I dont have so wood blocks on both ends will have to work.

I`m gonna wait like you suggest on the height and notches, work on other stuff. I blew it on my bench seat doors, shouldnt have started with thicker stock but got carried away with that new planer (its kinda fun,lol) and now that the door panels are cleaned up they are less than 3/4". They will be pretty with some varnish on them. So now I`ll order some 1 1/4" piano hinge and I`ll be ok.

Also kinda blew it on my drink holder idea too, cause now I want the plastic inserts, so my compartment set up is a little wrong. I`ll figure something out, the fish wont see it ;)

Tonights another winter storm ,just got done blowing snow again and I`m beat so no work in the garage. (except I forgot to plane down 2-1"x3" pcs of oak, guess I wasnt thinking good, so I`m going out to do that) Tomorrow I`ll get the woodstove going and get back at the benches, dado out the compartment dividers for bottoms, figure out how to lower a couple areas in the centers of the benches, and maybe start digging to get into that jon boat to yank a seat out.

So looking it over, its not really what I wanted, but it should work fine for a slow water Mich fishing boat and has been a great learning experience (to hopefully not get my feet wet!!) I know one thing, it would not be near where it is if it wasnt for all the knowledge, help and tips from everyone on here. Cant begin give enough thanks :)

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Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on January 19, 2016 at 7:23am

Mike,

After you are ready to mount he seat support rails, (when the supports need only to be mounted to the frames), mount one side to the frames then with a spacer at each end of the pipes  Use a pair of 2 x 4's with notches to locate the width of the pipes.  This will maintain alignment of the opposite side.  You want then as parallel as you can get them.  You might want to block them up vertical too to maintain the same height on each side.

I just measured with a tape measure to make the spacing and am off just a bit and have a hard time sometimes to even move the seats fore and aft.  Which seems to happen every time I use the boat.....

Dorf

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 24, 2016 at 12:07am

Great advice Phil, I`ll do just that. I`m planning on getting into that jon boat tomorrow to get a seat out and do some planning.

So I wanted to do a tiny inlay in my knee brace board.....ended up scrapping it when my pattern broke. I wasnt real happy with that board anyway as I had spliced 1/4" on each end cause it ended up a little short, but I was gonna live with it. So had to go get more white oak and try it again. It didnt turn out super great, ended up having to hand sand the inlay pc to fit the hole but I`ll live with it. Had to make a little filler with some walnut dust.

I have no idea why that pic posted up side down. Didnt have much time today for the boat, worked most of he day on my new to me old chevy blazer. It needs a bunch of work but I need the winter and tow vehicle. I did get a little epoxy on a few parts tonight so they would dry over night. Not real happy with the grain on the mahogany I got and used but again oh well. It is what it is.

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Permalink Reply by David Witton on January 24, 2016 at 5:26am

Mike

I like that inlay - tell us more about how you cut the mortise - by hand, router template, etc. 

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 24, 2016 at 9:19am

Sure David, here ya go!! Inlay stuff is easy and fun, I used to do flowers and designs in Corian countertops when I was young (couple yrs ago)

First the tool talk. Best thing I ever did was going with the Porter Cable router stuff. Took the standard 1.5 H.P. router, took the 2 knob base off and bolted it under the PC router table and bought the "D" handle base with the trigger on it for normal use.The motor turns out of the base so it screws out of the base and right into the router table, slick.

For doing inlays though I picked up the plunge base. The router has to lock into this base with a bolt. Then you use a inlay bushing in the base and a spiral cutter bit. You can get these bushings, often they are brass almost anywhere. Harbor Freight has them for around $10, not sure on the quality.

Now for the process and failures. I drew the fish on some 1/4" ply and cut it out with the jigsaw. 1st mistake, I tried to give it some texture instead of all smooth edges. 2nd mistake, I wanted the tight bend in the fish body making a very narrow part in the pattern.

Then I screwed it to another pc of 1/4" and into a sacrificial pc of wood under that to hold it all in place.

Ran the router without the collar ring on around it to make the template. That worked ok. I clamped to my knee brace board and cut it out using the collar ring, using a little pressure to keep the router up against the pattern, broke off the narrow part of the pattern trashing the knee board. Tried just rounding it out, not the look I wanted.

So now I made a new pattern with some 3/8" ply, and I made a few attempts (so it would be stronger!) then finally got a good one. Went and bought another white oak board and cut a new knee board. So this time before I scrap another knee board I decided to cut the walnut inlay pc first. To hold the inlay pc in place when you finish the continuous cut some 2 sided tape would work, I didnt have any and used a dab of hot melt glue (worked good) Almost got it cut out then snap, that little narrow part broke again scrapping the walnut inlay.

I almost gave up on the idea but I wanted that inlay. Tried cutting a pattern out of 1/4" plexiglas, it just melted and that failed. Had another idea, cut another pattern from the 3/8" ply, routered the hole in the knee board, came out ok. So this time I glued that narrow pattern spot onto the 1/4" walnut stock with some wood glue and let it dry over night. Did the hot melt glue to the sacrificial wood and clamped the pattern in place. Cut out the inlay and it was close, but it didnt fit into the cutout hole so I just hand sanded it till I got it to fit.

Had some tiny gaps here and there so when I epoxied it in place, I mixed some walnut sanding dust into the epoxy, smeared that around and it sanded out and looked pretty good. Finally after a few night battle finished cutting and fitting the knee brace board. Walk in the park :)

I had to laugh at myself and think back.."a little caulk and a little paint will make a carpenter what he aint"

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 25, 2016 at 5:26am

I guess I need a mock up oar lock block and some locks, then I can get this figured out. My 7` oars from the jon boat have the clamp on locks, so I just need to drill some holes. Hoping to make some progress on the seats this week and get back to the varnish

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on January 25, 2016 at 9:05am

That seat sure looks high! The key will be whether or not you can depress the oars to remove them from the water and not have the handles hit or interfere with your legs or knees. I often will travel down the river with the oar handles tucked under my knees if I am satisfied with my path and don't need an immediate correction or don't want the oars to drag in the water and possibly hit the bottom of the river.

Much easier now to fix the issue than later.

Rick

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 25, 2016 at 3:18pm

Right now the bench supports are not notched out, that will lower them 1 1/2"-2" maybe, and the pipes will go down 1"-2" into the pipe brackets yet, so I think that will be closer to what I`ll need. The way its sitting right now, the seat is at 16" from the floor boards, but sittin on the chair right now, its much too high. My sides are low, I`ll have to drop down quite a bit more, and raise the or lock blocks, but thats why I want to mock it all up. Even then, wont really know till its in the water.

Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 25, 2016 at 4:13pm

So 4" more drop will put it at 16" off the bottom of the boat. Should work. Does anyone know if Tatman Wood Boats in OR went out of business? Tried calling and emailing with no answer. They had a good price on oars and locks...

Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 29, 2016 at 7:00pm

The way it looks, I`ll have the seat too low once I notch the seat rails onto the pipes. Might have to raise it back up a little. Mocking it up with my 6` jon boat oars, in some temp oar lock blocks, temp pipe brackets and the low back seat from the jon boat. Ive got the patterns from the Tatman instruction manual for foot holes for the floor boards.

What it doesnt have is any suggestions how far apart to cut them in? Any ideas?

If I cut these holes in the floorboards, it will lower my knees (I`m 6` tall) and allow me to raise the seat. I might just clamp a couple ft board to the oars to get the feel of a 8` length oar and see if it might work in a imaginary water.

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