Wednesday 18 July 2012

Surfacer Thicknesser Planer - 1, Finger - 0


Today I am writing this with my middle finger on my right hand recovering after being crushed between the out feed rollers on the thicknesser planer and the bit of oak I was planing for the new corner post I am making for Zephon.

The trouble started when the feed rollers stuck. I tutted to myself and went to the end of the planer and gave the lump of oak a pull at which point the rollers started working pushing the oak lump over my finger and sandwiching it between the out feed rollers. I managed to free my hand and anxiously looked at the gaping wound on my finger which was quickly swamped by lots of crimson blood, I have to confess that I briefly felt a bit faint.  Blood dripped as I  swore with the realisation that I needed to go to hospital.

My mate Kim took me first to the Dartmouth Minor Injury Unit where the nurse there said I had to go to Torbay Hospital for an x-ray as my finger had been crushed. At Torbay Hospital after a long wait, nearly three hours, I was seen, given an x-ray (happily no broken bones) the wound was cleaned then sutured and bandaged and I was sent home. Thanks to the nursing staff and Kim.

The moral of this tale is always, always respect machinery and think before acting. As my mate Tom says "think: fingers and toes."

In my last post I talked about my partner Rae who has been ill with woody thyroiditis. Happily Rae is getting well and it is great to see her getting back to her normal self.

Moving the tent into position over Zephon
Tom's boat (Waif) is now back on the water and he has kindly donated his boat tent to me. So, two weeks ago, Zephon was craned to her new and much more protected position. The tent was then walked into place and secured.

These new working conditions are great and are making work much easier, the weather is still foul, in fact its raining as I am writing this post. Since last writing I have completed scraping the paint in the cockpit area and bilge where the engine is mounted. There have been no nasty surprises all the planking in this area is good. There is just a bit of refastening to be done to a couple of frames and the corner post on the port side needs to be replaced. Water has ingressed through the deck and has rotted the post out. When I discovered this rot  I was a bit anxious that there might also be rot to adjacent timbers but happily its just the post that is rotten.  Yesterday I removed the rotten post and began to make the new one when I injured my finger. So until my finger heals a bit work has stopped.

The boat under the blue cover is another Harrison Butler Zyclon,


Zephon in her new temporary home.


The paint has been stripped the planking and frames rubbed down and a thinned coat of pink metalic primer applied.


The rotten corner post uncovered whilst scraping paint.

A closer view.

The rotten corner post removed. 



Close-up view of the rot caused by water ingress.