The Shop - Dimensions

Two miles. The other day I had a woman tell me, under oath, she could see a certain intersection from two miles away. “Two miles?” I asked. “Yes, two miles”, she said. “We are talking about two miles, as in 5,280 feet per mile miles, right?”

“Yes,” she said furrowing her brow. “If your son were playing in that intersection, and you were two miles away, would you be comfortable telling someone whether they could drive through that intersection at 60 m.p.h.?” “Absolutely.”

Eighteen feet by eighteen feet. Just the other day, I told someone my shop was 18’ x 18’. “How big is it?” “18’ x 18’,” I said. I should have been asking myself if I were talking about 18 feet, as in those twelve inches per foot feet. I realize now I thought my shop was 18’ x 18’ because I made an 18’ beam and cut it to length on site. But, after a little tape work last night, I realize the workable distance from the back to the front of the shop is 17’1”.

That does not sound like a significant difference. But, say you needed to get across a river full of alligators (and you were not lucky enough to know someone that drew a MDWFP permit), and there was a vine hanging near the bank. You decide to swing on that vine across the river. So, you leap and start your swing, but you let go at 17’1” – a sharp variation from your original plan would quickly overwhelm you.

Or, say you were going to build a canoe in your shop. If you had a 16’ strongback in an 18’ space, it would give you a foot of clearance on each end. Not perfect, but not impossible, and a good starting point. Shave 11” off of that and you almost cut your already limited workable end space in half.

So, this is where I am at - I have to build a configurable 16’ strongback. At this point, I reckon I will make the legs out of either angle or channel iron, with a plywood torsion box on top. I can then run a cable and turnbuckle between the legs and cinch everything down taut. At that point, I can attach the legs to large, lockable casters. Or, I can lay down 3’ of track at the legs and allow the strongback to move forward on mounted trucks. I am sure there are a number of options. I just do not want to be like the (hopefully apocryphal) man that stuffed all the wood and tools and various ephemera into his basement one winter, and in the final preparation for the maiden voyage had to remove part of a wall to free his glossy new canoe.

The Hardwood

I bought a copy of Canoecraft by Ted Moores. I made it about 1/2 way through it last night. No real big decisions have been made yet. I am hoping to have an overall plan no later than the beginning of next week.

I did make a few decisions though. I am going to use black walnut and/or cherry for the thwarts, gunwales and deck. Said wood is currently air drying and hopefully not checking too bad. The 4/4 cherry and walnut should be plenty dry by early summer '09, which would likely be the earliest it would be needed.

Black walnut cut with the Woodmizer in Copiah County last spring.



This is some of the lumber from the Copiah County sawing. I would like to be able to use a full crotch out of one of the walnut boards for one of the decks.


This is the chief lumber grader and stacking supervisor.


This is the hardwood from the Copiah sawing.

The Shop

Here is what I started out with. It was an 18’ x 18’ two-car-bar with a slight list.

The first order of business was to make the shop sturdy enough to get some doors up. (I drew up plans and fabricated everything off-site. Big John and BNW were integral in getting the doors made, and Big John came up and we did a power lift on the doors one Saturday). This was achieved by planting two (2) treated 6x6s at the corners. Then I ran a laminated beam across the front. The rail and trucks came from Grainger. As for the doors, the rail and stiles are treated pine and the panels are Cypress. The panels have a nice little chamfer a la BNW and my nephew.

The Blog

First, let me make clear that I never thought I would have a blog. Up until this point, the way I have viewed it is this: if someone wanted to know my thoughts on a matter, they would ask me. That does not happen on a regular basis.

But, since being smartly routed by a re-frozen mesophilic bacteria during Phase II of the Cheddar Project, I realize it can be awkward for one to ask the seemingly innocuous question “how’s the project coming?” - and then be forced to listen to a dissertation on any number of technical thunderclaps I failed to anticipate in the initial planning phase of whatever my prevailing interest may be.

So, right now, Cypress Canoe will serve as an open door to my shop. If anyone wants to know what I am up to on the project front, they can have a look. Also, I am looking to build a strip canoe out of cypress. Although not much of a deterrent in real life, the eventuality that anyone in the world may happen by my "shop" and see that I have made no progress on *insert project here* may keep me somewhat honest.

In addition, BG got a Blog and he gets to go on great trips – post hoc ergo propter hoc.