On the other side of the studio ...

DH's latest boat building project is a replica of the African Queen, totally inspired by this gift of a hand tooled miniature steam boiler.  (Hope I am using the right terminology.)  This miniature steam boiler was made/tooled by John, a friend in Iowa - a master craftsman in his own welding shop.


All those dimensions?  I'm not sure what they are for, but John and DH know.


Sometimes DH starts with a purchased kit ($200-$300 or more!) and sometimes it is "scratch-built" - started from NO written designs.  Many of the kits are made in other countries, and often descriptions and instructions are curious, ridiculous and waaaay wrong.  Even kits need many more parts, ideas, calculations, tools, etc.  Each boat takes about 300 hours - like our quilts.  He couldn't sell them for what is in them, like our quilts -- they are only labors of love.  This project is scratch-built, but sometimes he can find draftsman drawings.  One time he had to order the entire set of real drawings, full size, from the manufacturer of a real tugboat, the original REAL tugboat made for my sister, and he had to sign legal documents he would NOT make a real boat from the drawings.  Of course, everything had to be rescaled.  Not an easy project to have plans for a 56 ft. tugboat, rescaled to an 18 inch model.

Planks and decking are added one piece at a time.  He has his own wood "stash".  Most of his tools are small, simple hand tools, and only recently, he added a small bandsaw that stays in the garage.

DH owned boats in San Francisco Bay and he is "in" each of his boats, knowing where all parts belong, are needed, and how they should be situated.  Talk about an escape!  8-))

(BTW, we are in DRY western Nebraska, the worst of the U.S. drought area -- far from water.)

We both work in a small "studio" about 11'x 12'.  (I've said this before) - if we each roll our chairs back at the same time, we bump.  I get wood dust in my quilts, he gets threads in his boats - we got over it!