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Boat windows - where to start; this was the main hurdle I had to overcome. I knew this was going to be a challenge for me, and it ultimately was. When I went to visit Marc D. in Kansas; he told me to pick projects that were a challenge for me. This was his no.6 piece of advice for buddy woodworkers in his interview after the 2006 summer contest.

Debbie recently posted "quit/ don't quit"; my mind set on this project was "start/don't start".

Randy and Penny, my in-laws, work on old wood boats in his spare time. He is fond of Chris Craft boats and has fixed two early 1960's era cabin cruisers. His latest project is a 1958 Thompson boat; this boat had no windshield or side windows. Randy asked if I would make them for him. Randy supplied the mahogany for this project, no extra lumber for mistakes. So began the turmoil for me; I had built him a set of side windows for another boat so I had my patterns for these. I put the windshield off for about two months while we worked on a fixing up a house our oldest son was moving into.

I like to have a good idea how something goes together before I start. I am a terrible procrastinator. Some aspects of the Windshield are there is not a square corner in it. It is not even a true trapezoid. The center post is 17-1/4" inside and the outside post is 16-1/4". Top is 36" and bottom is 35-3/4". Corner angles starting in lower left and working clockwise; 95 deg., 87 deg, 91 deg and 85 deg. The center and outside post have 12 deg bevels. The bottom has an arc that is 3/8" high in the center, the bottom also has a 35 deg bevel cut along the arc.

Last week the windshield and boat were on their voyage to Florida for ride in an annual river ride my in-laws entered in. I will have to wait until they come back to see the finished boat, they installed the windshield and a few other components the night before they left.

Gallery

Comments

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Looks to me like it came together rather well. Quite a few different angles!!!!!!
 

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well done!!
yah.. go for challenges.. and then START and DON'T QUIT.
:)
we're learnin
 

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Joel Looks great. I understand the delay tactics. I've probably done a lot of that in my earlier life (ok later life also).

The unknown and not wanting to fail, make us not want to start.

Did you try making them out of pine to some other prototype material, to get your angles down pat?
 

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Karson - yes, I used 3/4" plywood and drove these over for dry fit. Wrote down a few alterations and commenced the final ones. Plywood was used as we get a fair amount from the dumpster at work. 3/4 AC, Oak and Cherry. Drop off pieces from the CNC router works great for a lot of small projects.
 

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It looks great, nice design !!
 

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Beautiful job, Joel. I also tend to drag my feet at the beginning usually where I've not boldly gone before. Where to start? What to do first? I don't want to make mistakes… do I have enough of everything? Have I done enough study on the project at hand? Is there something I'm forgetting… o.k. they want it in three weeks.
 

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You've done a great job on this, Joel. I've always felt that the most difficult woodworking would be fitting out the trim in a boat. Nothing is square, so it takes real artistry.

Hope we get to see this installed.
 

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Ok now that I have a way of posting addition photos and the father-in-law is back from Florida (long time now)

Here are the Windshields mount on the boat.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Father-in-law has a friend that wants a removable windshield outfitted on a 55' boat, so he can haul it on the interstate. we'll see if we get that project.
 

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Boats and woodworking. A classic marriage. Great work!
 

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Looks great Joel.
 

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Notice on the bulletin board at the university I attended back in (year deleted for security reasons):

"The seminar on procrastination has been postponed, again."

Just love wooden boats of any size.
 
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