Even Noah had to start somewhere

Firstly the materials for the Building Jig have arrived - on time.

Talking to the driver of the delivery wagon is something I always like to do because they are usually ignored and simply told where to dump the load. It just feels right to me although I'm not a very social person by nature.

I knew Andrew because he is the usual driver who delivers my materials from my local timber supplier. He offloaded the materials and kindly offered to help get the stuff to the garage boathouse.

  "What are you building this time?" he asked.

  "A boat."

  "This is strange material for boat building."

  "Not really, Andrew, this is for the building jig - not the boat itself. I'll need specialist materials, like Marine Plywood for that."

    "We do Marine Plywood, I delivered some the other day."

    "There's different grades and I need BS1088, and I have to go to  a specialist in Bristol (3 hours away) for that".

I had to go to my supplier for jig-saw blades and as an afterthought I said, "Andrew said you have Marine Ply?"

   "Yes we do."

   "I'm after BS1088, do you have that grade?"

   "I have no idea, let's look on the computer and look ... yes look BS1088 ... do you want a quote?"

  

For a sheet 8' x 4' x .75" he quoted me £42

for  a sheet 8' x 4' x .5" he quoted me £  35

My total order with tax would cost me £300.

Now when I tell you that Bristol wanted £1350 for the same order you can see I saved myself £1000 (US$ 1600) just from speaking to the driver ... there'a a moral there I guess.

Before I could start work on the boat I had to build a storage area for our Christmas Decorations (Trimmings) which, because of their volume, have to live in the 'er boathouse. We are BIG on Christmas

click on link CHRISTMAS.

This afternoon I made a start on the jig (here's a reminder of what it will look like)

I have taken the two long lengths on the base and marked them out accurately ready for cutting.

 

Notice my two tool boxes that I had in the first year of my apprenticeship. The bigger one I was given and the smaller one I had to make - I was 15 years old. Here's a close up of them.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to really get things moving along.