Sorry about that. I've been having an eventful (and expensive) time: my much-loved Metabo random orbit sander (bought second-hand in Cape Town in 1999) started fading. I had it repaired less than a year ago and the man in Downtown Tools, said that, in truth, this would become a regular event as one part after another failed. So I went to buy a new one, but they are all 'palm' sanders these days. What's wrong with that, you might ask? Well, I had borrowed one for a short while and found that after half an hour, my hand started cramping. Like most tools, particularly machine tools, they are made for a man's hand, and my very small (child-size) woman's hand simply couldn't manage it. So instead of going for best value for money, I had to locate a machine with a handle. In the end there were two to choose from: a green Bosch (which I've had bad experiences with) or a Tool Shed Trade quality. (Tool Shed is a Kiwi franchise that have tools manufactured in China to their specs and are fantastic value for money.) As the latter was half the price with three times the warranty (and an extra $10% reduction 'cos I'm a regular customer), it was a no brainer. So I probably ended up with best value for money
and a handle. But the 550 watt motor makes it a bit of a heavy weight.
Three days later the thicknesser started making horrid noises. I had asked it to plane too much soligna - an Ozzie gum, which is incredibly hard. So that went to Downtown Tools who are 'snowed under' and won't be able to look at it for ages. Thus the rest of the wood had to go along to the Norsand woodworking shop for planing.
Two days ago, the recently-sharpened blade on my borrowed bandsaw snapped whilst shaping same soligna. It's a big machine on loan from Karl (thanks, Karl - it's a wonderful piece of kit) and with three wheels, so needs very long blades, which no-one had in stock. I guess I'll have to go back to planing the scarphs again, until the ordered blades arrive.
The soligna (Queensland Blue Gum) is for the deadwood, which is going nicely - between breakages. It's heavy as, but that's all right below the water line. The keel itself was sand-blasted yesterday - a nice, warm, sunny day - and I slathered WEST epoxy over it within minutes of the job being finished. It's now ready for SibLim to be lowered on to it and glued in place. Just a matter of knocking over the deadwood!