garage space for pocketship

[Dan_keller]

Hi all,

Can anyone give me some details as to how much garage space would be needed to build pocketship? Thanks. Dan

[Bflat]

Mine's about 75% done and I've built it in a detached, unheated one car garage. Heated would be nice, but I've managed to save smaller items to work on in my basement over the winters (centerboard, rudder, spars, instrument panel etc). I've found the small space to work just fine. It does slow the work down, though. For instance, when it came time to join and glass the larger panels I had to do them one at a time. A larger space would have allowed me to get them all done at once. Turning the boat over would have been easier in a larger space, but was certainly do-able in the space I have. I should mention that I have a complete woodworking shop in my basement. That means I don't have a table saw, band saw, planer and etc. taking up space in my garage. That may be something to consider although with a little ingenuity a surprisingly small space works pretty well.

[Dan_keller]

Thanks Bflat,

My biggest concern is to build it and then not be able to get it out...I know the trailer will cause it to rise a bunch...

[Bflat]

I doubt I'll be able to get mine on the trailer while it's in the garage (certainly not with the tabernacle on). That's not much of a problem, though since it will be rather simple to just lift it and carry it outside and set it on the trailer. That's how most builders have done it. There are even some photos of the prototype being loaded onto its trailer that way. The boat is just not that heavy until you get the inside ballast in and that can be put in after the boat is on the trailer.

[ddemasie]

I built mine inside a 2 car garage - with Pocketship on one side. I placed it about 4 feet from the back wall - and about 3 feet from the side wall. The bow fit into the garage comfortably (maybe 2 feet of clearance) - though I I did not have any room to add the Bowsprit without opening the garage door. I could walk all the way around the boat with the garage door closed.

I keep all my small/hand tools in 2 different rolling storage units that I fit in the space behind Pocketship when I was not building. I was also very 'intentionally organized' and was willing to do a short cleanup and reorganization after each building session - that allowed me to park one car in the other bay almost every night (Pocketship on the right, car on the left so I was not bumping it with the driver side door every time I got in or out of the car). The exception was when I was building or curing large parts (spars, mast, etc) and needed to leave them out for a long period of time. I think throughout my build I had to leave my car outside maybe 10-15 nights total.

I also used a electric leaf blower after each session to blow the epoxy dust, sawdust, etc out of the garage. It only took about 90 seconds for a quick dust-off but it was well worth it to keep that stuff from accumulating inside the garage.

One more comment on sharing the building space with a car - I kept the car outside (parked on the street) whenever I was sanding, building or painting. And I washed the car frequently - with all the sanding of hardened epoxy, the whole space gets covered in epoxy dust even if you take care to try to clean it up every time like I did. I wanted to keep the epoxy dust off of the car finish as much as I could.

The only large tool I used was a 10 inch bandsaw - that found a corner in the garage for storage when not in use.

Most of the plywood, or not yet used milled lumber was stored along the garage walls, or inside my townhouse in a storage room.

When I embarked on building sessions, I would move my car out, roll the tools to where I could easily access them, and set up 2 B&D Workmates as my working areas. I would usually use some scrap plywood to fashion quick working tables that were temporary, but very stable for doing the bench projects. I had a full car garage space as my work area.

During the winter, most of the stuff just stayed in the garage, though I always brought the epoxy resin and hardener inside as soon as the garage temp fell below a constant 60 degrees.

In retrospect, I would suggest reinforcing the base of the building cradle, and putting casters on the bottom of the cradle to allow you to move Pocketship around a little inside the garage in the cradle - I wish I had done that.

[ddemasie]

To manage the fiberglass cloth, I hung some closet organizer hardware on the back garage wall for a small shelf, and convenient fiberglass storage/cutting station

[riverron]

How did everyone store the plywood / timber when you were building? Any concerns with leaning the plywood up against something or do you need to store it flat?
Same question for the timber?

thanks
Ron

[mark48]

Hi Ron,

I was advised by CLC to store the plywood flat if possible, removing the portions piecemeal as needed in the building process (although they also said I could store them stacked on edge if need be. When the kit was delivered, I organized the various panels in the sequence I would likely access them and stored them flat on the shipping pallet in our basement. That allowed me to work over this past winter on small parts and anything else I could extract from a conventional basement walk-out door. Now I'm stitching those hull parts in a one-bay garage while I wait for consistently warm weather to start filleting.

I was also advised to delay putting casters on the cradle and moving the hull until after the hull panels were filleted (not just "tack-welded") to minimize the potential of hull distortion.

Hope this helps. Now I "gotta get back to work."
Mark

[riverron]

Thanks Mark.

I should be able store them flat since I am building in a 2 car garage and I like the idea of staging them as you need them.
That is also a great point on the casters! I am just waiting for the kit to ship. Looks like it will be a few weeks! I can't wait to get to work like you!