BobSmalser's Gallery - Wow!

[Frank Hagan]

Don't miss the pictures Bob Smalser uploaded today.  Great shop-built and traditional boat building tools ... geeze, I just drooled all over my keyboard!

Welcome Bob!  It may have been worth the trouble with Dutch Rub to have you here!

Frank, you will find BoB as a multi-facited?Sp person with talents and knowledge, few of us dare to compare with..

[Frank Hagan]

Forgot to include the link to his Gallery:

http://www.messing-about....mp;ppuser=326&thumb=1

[Dave Fleming]

With tongue firmly in cheek...
GeezeLouise, ya gonna give Bob a swelled haid if'n ya keep this up.
Soon he will be chargin' for the privilege of lookin' at his photos.


Bob surely does nice work both on his tools and with his tools.

Nice fella, or so says I.

SHHHSSHHHH............I hear something,.....I feel something......Frank, I seeeezzzzz somethings here. The big tanks are rolling in here.....   Howdy there, Mr. Fleming.  

[Dave Fleming]

Hi yez 'erster'!

Nice place here now that the Hepa Filter caught the last of the dust mites.

If ya folla?

I be fine, Mr.Dave. Nice place, and folks here. Frank holds his own and has done a bang up of a job, as a one man band here. Buidling is a little slow, or building is going really fast, depending on how you gauge it with the amounts of posts here. But is always good, building and folks. It seems we have the west coast group and the upside down bunch that want to post all night, and I gotta get up really early to check up on thems. But what is here is good fellows. Every now and then I get riddled with a volley or two, but I dodge and weave and keep on going on. Got to do the dishes for now. I have been online too much today. But today is a good day, IMHO for me, in particular. Tommorrow we will go back to the regular tasks at hand. Later.

[Johannah]

Hail to thee, Meister Fleming.  I like that image of the HEPA filter.  Using something like that on my email.  Hope you don't mind if I steal the terminology.

Hey, Frank.  It's a weird feeling to be listed as a boatswain in a world where Meisters Fleming and Smalser are Landlubbers.   Could we maybe redo the naming system?  That is just too ridiculous.

[High C]

Hi Bob!  Hi Erster!

[Frank Hagan]

Hail to thee, Meister Fleming.  I like that image of the HEPA filter.  Using something like that on my email.  Hope you don't mind if I steal the terminology.

Hey, Frank.  It's a weird feeling to be listed as a boatswain in a world where Meisters Fleming and Smalser are Landlubbers.   Could we maybe redo the naming system?  That is just too ridiculous.

I should probably look at that ... there are a few titles that are gender-specific, which won't work with our gender-integrated members!

[Barry Pyeatt]

I too love the Hepa Filter analogy.
Welcome addition with Bob Smalser's contrubution.  Enough to make a grown man sob with awe. There are builders and then there are craftsmen.  Many of the first and far too few of the latter.  Welcome to the forum.  I for one value the experience.
My thanks also to Frank for his diligence, dedication and hard work.  I love this place with its myrid of backgrounds and personalities.  Lets keep it clean and open to expression without the garbage that gets thrown so recklously about on the others.  This is a place where a person that is interested in building and finding solutions to the challenges of building a small boat can find good honest opinions without the name calling and putting down of another for expressing a thought or asking a question.  
I also have long thought that the only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked and results in a lot of rework or abandonment of a project for lack of a good direction.
Often it is just the "KISS" approach which is the best solution.  With the wealth of experience available to this group from all across the worldwide expanse of members there is little that cannot be handled with open and honest contributions.
Yes, there is a little fun bantering between established members and contributors, but I think all of the visitors recognize that it is just that, respectful bantering between friends.
Keep the Hepa Filter working.  

[Simon]

Was it Bob that built the 'Dion Work Punt'? I love that boat, and tried to track down the book that it came from, but am only able to get it for around $AU120, which seems a bit steep. Is it worth it?

Something about that punt ... so simple and yet appealingly lines, and has the look of something that could be thrown together very quickly and with a great deal of satisfation. Its utility is also part of the mystique I think, although I'd have no real  use for it ... not as such.

Perhaps Bob would care to comment?

[BobSmalser]

Well, Simon...the plans from Gardner's "Building Classic Small Craft Vol I" are copyrighted, but drop me an email and I'll be glad to attach a jpeg of my construction notes...you can use the "zoom" feature to blow up and print them off in sections so they'll be easily read.

It's just a simple and heavy work boat tho...we chose it because we use them to recover old-growth logs from stump-filled beaver ponds where conventional boats get high-centered.  This design is more buoyant in bow than stern so when hung up, you merely move to the rear thwart and rowlocks and row off.  Lives year-round in the water except for the odd week of ice, is equipped with a bilge pump for rain water and works better than anything I've used.

Fred Dion 12' Work Punt drawn by John Gardner and built exactly to the drawing.  7/8" old-growth WRC laid-up sides, bottom crossplanking and thwarts.  Generously fastened with #10, 12, 14 galvanized screws.  Old-growth DF framing, risers, rub strips, transom and knees...size of thwart knees reduced slightly to sit two loggers across one thwart.

Lumber was airdried and left unplaned and the project took about 180 manhours.

You'll need greenish wood for the 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 DF chines...that's a sharper bend than it appears up the bow....and once mounted to the sides and the sides finished it'll help to have a steambox wide and deep enuf for both entire sides because bending that stiff, thick fir a second time at right angles to the first bend without damaging the softer cedar is a bit of a challenge.













While I love the design for my purpose...one change that will be made the next time it comes out of the water is adding two more inches to the bottom of the skeg...it does not scull well with that flat bottom, and sculling is important in the tight quarters we work it in.

[thebob]

Wow Bob your tools are good enough for a calendar on their own.

To say I feel inadequate is an understatement.

Lovely punt, the appeal is the form fitting the function. It's a tool but somehow more than that.

Hope you enjoy it over here.