I removed the boom in anticipation of the rig refit planned for January. It fit well on top of car for the trip home to SB. I'll be removing all the hardware, straightening a mild bend, and repainting the boom.
I also made some progress on the new compression posts for thee main bulkhead. Every Triton I've ever seen in person or in photos has had these posts running vertically across the main bulkhead, but Nevermind lacks them. They are mostly for adding buckling resistance to the main bulkhead despite being called compression posts. I'm hoping they'll also look good. I'm making each beam out of three laminated layers of 1/2" exterior Baltic birch ply. This ply has a nice clear face veneer and thin plies of alternating light and dark wood, which should look great when varnished. I built a special jig for the circular saw to rip the 5' by 2" lengths of ply (12 in all).
Some of the basic strips after cutting.
A closer look at the MDF jig I made for long rip cuts in ply. It's like a minature and upside-down table saw. The clamps hold down the adjustable 'fence'. The one problem with jigs like this is that they are very prone to kickback because the fence runs along the edge outside of the cut and the cut gets compressed against the blade. I used light pressure and great care at the end of the cut and had no drama. Note that this circular saw is one of the left-blade Porter Cables, so everything is a mirror image of the normal blade-right sidewinders.
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