Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Welcome to PocketShip.net! This bulletin board is for builders of the Chesapeake Light Craft-John C. Harris "PocketShip" design, a 15-foot micro cruiser sailboat built from a kit or plans.

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Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby Jarod on Tue Sep 26, 2017 3:48 pm

So I took the plunge, and purchased the kit. Looks like the plywood will be dropped off tomorrow! I have read every blog or whatever about building the pocketship. The biggest wood working project I have ever completed was a shitty box that wasn't square back in high school. I have no tools but and I have drive and the want to get this thing done, and done right. Plus I bet a very large bottle of rum that I will complete within 2 years. I just wish that they would ship out the instructions faster instead of waiting for the wood to be cut, or maybe email them once your credit card is charged. Ultimately I want to follow in "John in CC" and sail the Texas 200. I'm currently researching tools, so far I'm sure of the following:

1 - Clamps (the more you have the better) - Purchased 18 bar clamps so far should I get more? Some pictures have like 20+ in them.
2 - Gloves / Goggles (Safety first!)
3 - Solo cups / Popsickle Sticks - Anything I should lookout for when buying cups or regular red party cups ok?
4 - Paint Brushes - For spreading the epoxy out, should avoid the super cheap stuff, I assume they will be one use.
5 - Random Orbital Sander - Recommendation of brand/size? Grits?
6 - Wax paper
7 - Japanese Saw
8 - Blue painters tape
9 - Razor Knife
10 - Denatured Alcohol - Prepwork - Fillet of fun

But do you need like a table saw or Drill press? Could i get away with finding a friend with these types of items when the time comes? I'm talking just the Hull currently none of the rigging.

So wish me luck as this maybe a bit of madness.

Image

-Jarod
Jarod
 
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby riverron on Tue Sep 26, 2017 8:13 pm

Congratulations and welcome to the forum.

1) Get as many clamps as you can. Home Depot has them for 99 cents. You will us them. If you can some of the Irwin clamps, they work well for a 3rd hand.
2) gloves are a definite and a respirator mask to wear when dealing with epoxy.
3) the red cups work great, I use them all the time. I use 10" paint sticks you can get cheap at Jamestown Distributors.
4) I use the chip brushes that CLC sells and throw away after use.
5) I have a Dewalt and it has worked for me. A good shop vac attached to it helps with the dust. I have 80, 120 and 220 grit. Not cheap, but I use a lot, is the roll of sandpaper that CLC sells in multiple grit. I cut off small pieces.
6) I bought a roll of plastic to use instead of wax paper and it helps to protect the work tables.
7) Japanese saw is great. I use all the time.
8) tape, knife and alcohol I use as well. I also use the shop rags in the box. Throw away outside for safety.

I have a drill press, but I don't recall using it much up till now.
I have a table saw and used it on the nose block and some of the cleat angles, so maybe if you know someone that has one you can get by.

I did buy a new 10" bandsaw and use it all the time. I would buy that over the table saw. Once I start on the spars, I will probably use the table saw more.

Other items are a cordless drill and measuring tools.
You will need a small hand plane as well.

You will have a great time with building. I am over half done, but I am taking my time. There is a lot of great knowledge on here, so post whenever you have questions.

I like Captain Ron! Funny movie :lol:
riverron
 
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby mark48 on Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:41 am

Hi Jarod and welcome,

Tongue depressors work especially well for mixing sticks. Boxes of many hundreds can be bought from medical-supply places (or probably obtained for cost from your local primary care practitioner or "PCP").

Attaching a vacuum device to your random orbital sander will lessen the chance you need to see said PCP for respiratory issues down the line.

Spring clamps are especially helpful - maybe more so than bar clamps although both are very useful. See also CLC's tip about using slit lengths of PVC pipe as clamps.

I agree with Riverron that a large roll of plastic will find many uses.

Keep us all posted and have a blast.

All the best,
Mark
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby Jarod on Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:01 pm

Thanks for all the replies, I'm doing a little online shopping and love the comments. But then I was thinking about copperwire, has anyone thought of using zip ties? I mean 25 feet of 18 gauge copper is 5 bucks but I can get 1000 8 inch zip ties that can hold 50 pounds each for like 12 bucks? I figure it would be just as easy to use that?
Jarod
 
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby riverron on Wed Sep 27, 2017 1:20 pm

I used some of the copper wire, but it kept breaking on me and in some places I had to pull pretty tight to get the pieces together. Especially on the lower panels. I wound up using some 17 gauge electric fence wire I had. I have seen where others have used wire ties, but have not tried that myself. All I can say is go for it!

Oh, I forgot to tell you to get the pdf version of the manual online. You can download immediately. I use it all the time on my IPAD and I like being able to zoom in on the pictures. I think it was well worth the $30.

Thanks
riverron
 
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby John in CC on Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:05 pm

Hey Jarod! Welcome to the Pocketship builders "club"! The guys on this forum are a great source of information. Let my know if I can help, my memory on some of this stuff is all ready starting to fade but I made notes in my building manual. The blogs are a great place to check along with this forum.

As far as the Texas 200, come on down when you are done! It would be great to have another Pocketship to sail with. My advice is to enjoy every step. The build and the dream are a blast. I felt a little letdown when I finished the boat because I loved the routine of working in the shop. Thankfully the sailing replaced the void very nicely. I'd love to build another boat but I can't really think of a better boat for my purposes than what I have. The Pocketship is really that good of a boat.


I see you are from H-Town. Hope you got through the storm all right.
John in CC
 
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby TassiePete on Fri Sep 29, 2017 2:57 am

Hi Jarod,

I am in the process of building a PS. I found the following tools most helpful ( in order of 'helpfulness' ) ...

a little David hand planer with replaceable blades (to remove the little tabs on the plywood and for a thousand other things).
a plunge router with bits for flush-trimming, rounding over and chamfering.
a circular saw ( I think, you call these things 'skil-saw' ).
a sharp fine toothed panel saw (I do a lot of cutting by hand rather than setting up the mitre-saw).
and more clamps, a lot more clamps, and the occasional beer at the end of the day.

Cheers,

Peter
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby Jarod on Tue Oct 03, 2017 3:59 pm

Thanks for all the excellent tools lists. So I got my epoxy and then the wood showed up with out a lift gate. 800 pounds is not getting off the truck by itself so slight delay in the start! But I did install new LED lights in the garage / boat shop and man it is SUPER bright now! I'm currently trying to imagine where everything is going to go during the build and waiting for the schedulers to call so I can get a liftgate to drop off the wood.

I cant wait for the Texas 200 and I hope it will built in time for next year, but if not the following for sure.
Jarod
 
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby ddemasie on Thu Oct 05, 2017 3:09 pm

The one purchase I did that I think saved me tons of time and aggravation - I used 2 cordless Ryobi drill/drivers. I kept a Philips driver bit in one, and used to the other exclusively for drill bits.

Well worth the extra money to minimize how many times I had to swap bits when predrilling pilot holes, then screwing in a temporary wallboard screw. Use one drill to drill the pilot hole, then grab the screwdriver one to screw in the screw.
Dennis DeMasie,
Aurora, IL
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Re: Greetings from Houston - New Pocketship building underway!

Postby Jarod on Sat Oct 07, 2017 5:09 pm

The two cheap pocket drills are a great idea. I have received the final shipment and I'm reading the manual and prepping for next weekend. Going to buy some furniture dollys and get the plywood stored horizontally on its shipping crate so I can roll them around.

Here is the epoxy command station! Waiting the gloves and stirstickes and cups to mix it it. I'm also on the lookout for a cheap broom or some sort of stick so I can put the glass roll on it and hang it off the side.

Image
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