Daniel Family Blog

Two of my three children did their High School physics at Sunny Hills and had to build a boat as their “after the AP test is over” project. The boat is built using 1/4″ x 1/4″ pine, butcher paper, glue, and paint. The total weight cannot exceed 4lbs 4oz (although I never saw them actually weigh a boat).

Rebecca and her partner made great calculations, but fell a little short on building the boat itself. It imploded inwards in dramatic fashion about halfway across the pool.

I tried to give Rebecca and her partner tips about how to join the wood and how wood behaves, but it wasn’t enough in the end. When it came to building Cameron’s boat, I wanted to help them do something dramatically different that would not only get their boat across the water, but set it apart from other boats that would be christened that day.

The boys said that they got extra points for curves in the boat. 1/4″ pine will bent a little, but it snaps if the bend is too dramatic. I had the boys do some research on bending wood and we decided to try steam bending. This would allow us to get some dramatic curves without the wood breaking.

We rummaged around in my shop and found some 4″ drainage pipe, a hose and some dust gates for the ends. We cut a hole in the drainage pipe for the hose and put the other end over a tea kettle to drive steam into the pipe. To keep the wood in the center of the pipe, we drilled holes in the pipe and ran dowels through the center of the pipe. It all becomes clear when you look at the photos.

To hold the wood in place while it dried after steaming, we built a form on a sheet of plywood by pounding nails a regular intervals along the curves we wanted to form. We had one form for the bow to stern shape and another form for the port to starboard shape. The plan was to use these shapes to create a strong frame for the boat and then steam and bend the rest of the wood and join it to the frame in place.

One of the keys to steam bending the wood was to elevate the end of the pipe furthest from the steam hose. This allowed the rising steam to reach the far end. Our first experiment bending wood was in a much shorter chamber and we found it took only a few minutes to soften the wood enough for it to bend pretty dramatically. However, in the 10′ long pipe, it took around 40 minutes before the wood was pliable enough for the dramatic U shaped curves of our boat.

The whole process was pretty tedious, but after breaking a few pieces and we finally got some of them soft enough to fit into the forms.

We left them to dry for 24 hours and then took them out of the nail forms. This was pretty disappointing as the wood snapped back quite a bit. In all of my years woodworking, I’ve never done any steam bending. From what I’d read, I expected some snap back, just not to the degree we saw. It turns out that steam bending is fine to get the wood into the shape you want, but it requires that the wood be glued into a larger piece that holds it in that shape. It just doesn’t work for creating the initial shape of the boat.

We were a little depressed, but it was time for plan B. This time it HAD to work because we were out of time. Whatever we did had to float and stay together.

I had limited experience with bent wood lamination, but knew that it was the strongest and most versatile way to achieve curves in wood. The problem is that you need material that is thin enough to bend without steaming and then you need to laminate each curved piece and let it dry. To try it, we cut a few pieces that were 1/4″ x 1/12″ (around 0.08″) and a foot or so long and glued three of them together in one of the curves in our nail form.

The result was dramatic and wonderful. Now only did the wood hold it’s shape, but it was obviously MUCH stronger than the steam bent wood. Steaming wood tends to weaken the cell walls of the wood, reducing the strength. Lamination, on the other hand, makes the wood stronger. Wood tends to fail along natural weak spots in material. The shear strength is determined by the weakest point. By laminating three strips together, each strip supports the adjacent one. It is very unlikely that the weakest point in one strip is adjacent to the weakest point in another strip. That’s why skateboard decks, skis, snowboards, and other wooden pieces that require high strength are all laminated from thin strips.

The hard part is making the strips. We needed a bazillion strips that were 1/4″ x 1/12″ and eight to ten feet long. Cutting them on the table saw loses too much material to the kerf. You’d end up with 1/8″ of sawdust for every 1/12″ strip. Cutting them on the bandsaw is better, but since my bandsaw does straight lines pretty badly, it required that we cut them to around 1/6″ and then plane or sand them down the final size.

This was my job as I wanted the boys to keep their fingers. I have more experience with the power tools and have already enjoyed my fingers for 50 years. It was a long boring afternoon milling the strips. My recommendation for anyone contemplating using the lamination technique is to find a lumber yard that will mill them for you.

Once we had the strips, we started to glue together the strips that formed the ribs of the boat. There were four long ones for the prow to stern and nine short ones for the starboard to port (side to side) dimension.

When the ribs were completed and dry (we left each rib in the form for around an hour before removing the clamps), we joined the long ribs to the short ones. Ideally, we would have notched the ribs to make a stronger joint, but the boys didn’t have either the skill or the time. Instead we simply glued the ribs together, one on top of the other and then ran a thin stip over it to make it stronger (see the picture).

Once the ribs were glued together, the rest of the board was built in place without forms. We laminated three strips along the top of the boat and planned to do something similar for the rest of the sides, front and back. However, Cameron came up with the idea of using a single thin strip and weaving it back and forth through the ribs like a basket. This enabled us to put the strips closer together without going over the weight limit.

Occasionally, one of the strips would break. It was a simple matter to repair it by gluing another short strip over the break.

Once the wood frame was complete, it was time to paper the outside. This was probably the least fun part of the project. If you are good at wrapping presents, you’ll probably be good at papering the boat. Unfortunately, this does not include the boys or me. We should have gotten some help from Margie, Cam’s mom. In the end, we got it done, but it was a pain and took much longer than we anticipated. The only advise I can offer is that small pieces of paper glued together seemed to work better than huge pieces.

We made sure that there were at least two layers of paper in the area that would be below the waterline.

Like most boat projects, we didn’t start painting until late on the night before the boat was due. To get the glue on the paper and the paint to dry faster, we kept a fan with a heater behind it blowing on the boat. The boys put three coats of paint on the boat allowing about an hour between coats for it to dry.

I believe it was Cameron that picked the pink paint. Blech! It’s pretty ugly. They nicknamed the boat the “Flying Pig” to commemorate the color.

We weighed the boat a number of times at different intervals to ensure we did not go over the weight. In the beginning, you weigh the strips and paper and guess how much the glue and paint will add. When the frame is partially complete you weight it and then, when it’s complete, you weigh the frame and paper together. We were always well within the weight. I think the final boat weighted around 3 1/2 pounds so we could have added a significant amount of material if we’d needed it.

My main concern for the boat now was the depth. I had encouraged to boys to make the draft more shallow leaving more material for strength and less for the boat’s size. We compromised at around 16″ deep, but I was still concerned that it was too deep for the pilot to paddle with their hands.

Mrs. Zimmerman, Kyles English teacher had agreed to pilot the boat (more points for a teacher than one of the boys as pilot) and she is not a tall lady. When I saw her for the first time, I despaired. I had a vision of her sitting in the boat unable to reach the water with her arms.

As it turned out she was an experienced pilot. She brought a towel for the bottom of the boat so that she could kneel and long sleeves to protect her arms. She could only paddle on one side of the boat at a time, but she was able to reach the water. The asymmetrical paddling made it harder to go fast and navigate a straight line (she did a full 360 at the end of the pool), but she made it across the pool without event.

The boats that made it were, for the most part, copies of one of the boats in the physics class that had succeeded in previous years. The boats that didn’t make it were generally just badly made. The boy’s boat was far and away the strongest. I think we could have carried twice the weight without incident.

If we had to build the boat again, we’d change the shape a bit, but the building technique was pretty sound. Their boat got full points in all categories and it’s destined for the ceiling of fame in the physics lab.

Nice job boys!

If you are just starting to read our about adventures in Ireland, this is best read from the first post (5/10) to the last (5/16). Or you can read it in reverse. It’s up to you.

Click on any of the pictures to see the entire gallery.

On our last day in Ireland, we took it pretty easy. Bruce, Alan’s brother, took us out to lunch with his family and we were treated to a tour of his garden.

He is a student of horticulture and takes his gardening seriously. I constantly wished that I could share the highlights of the trip with Margie, but never more than when we were looking at this beautiful Irish garden. While I appreciated the beauty, she would have loved to hear about the technical details that went into it’s making.

You can’t capture it with a single picture. Click on the one and see the many if you are interested.

The next day was a travel day. It was raining and the trams didn’t run early enough so we ended up taking a cab to the airport.

We had a great Irish breakfast at Kenny’s then were off to drive around county Mayo.

We stopped and did the Foxford Mill Tour and bought a few things. I picked up a scarf and set of knives for Margie.

That afternoon we had lunch in Newport and then slogged back to Dublin.

The morning after our sailing adventure, we were loath to get up and still more loath to leave the wonderful hospitality of Dave and El. We had a wonderful breakfast followed in too short a time to digest, another wonderful lunch. In between, we packed our gear and El found a little work for us to do in her garden.

Eventually, we were off to Castlebar for our next event. On the way we saw Killery Harbor with mussell farms and some fancy fly fishing lodges along the way. It’s really beautiful country.

When we arrived, we had a pint at Magno’s to check out that night’s show and get a recommendation for a place to stay. Throughout the trip, Alan, the true Irishman drank Guinness, Cal, drank Bulmers (cider) and I drank Smithwicks, the best of the Irish ales. These three drinks are almost ubiquitous in Irish pubs although I found that in Dublin, some of the pubs have dumped Smithwicks for Carlsburg. This is somewhat sacrilegious to me but some of the city Irish prefer the lighter pilsner to the sturdy ale.

We checked in at Kenny’s guesthouse that afternoon and then had some great pizza and wine. There was a large party of young Irish women with their mothers at the table next to us and we enjoyed watching them.

That night we saw Freddie White, a really fine Irish songwriter and singer, perform in a very small venue. The show was opened by young woman who sang and played guitar. She was quite good despite a few mistakes. I remember in particular her black patterned stockings with a run in them.

Freddie White came on and did a great show. We sat just a few feet from him and were able to see him play guitar. Like Eric Clapton, he makes the almost impossible look easy. It was a great contrast to watch him perform after the young woman before him. She was good, but he was on a higher plane.

After the show, I got an autographed CD and chatted with him a bit. He has a daughter in Korea teaching English and a son in Boston. I am now one of his fans.

We spent this day on Nick’s great sailboat. Nick bought the boat a few years ago from a Danish man who built the boat himself and then passed away so that Nick could buy it for a song. The outside is nice and the inside is stunning. The woodwork and attention to detail is really amazing.

Nick was a little nervous about taking us out and at first we thought that the adventure might be canceled. The boat needs at least two experienced sailors and Cal and I certainly didn’t qualify. It turned out that Alan had sufficient experience and he convinced Nick that he could operate the wheel while Nick handled the sails.

Our first step was launching Dave’s (Alan’s Dad) boat. It had been out of the water for the season so we trailered it down to the launch and with a little effort got it into the water. Then it was an inflatable dingy to Dave’s boat which shuttled us to Nick’s sailboat at anchor a half mile away.

We started with tea and cookies in the cabin which I found very civilized and appropriate. Dave then decamped for home and we were off. The seas where fairly calm, but the wind was steady and strong coming from the land. We ran before the wind out of Clifden Bay at a pretty good clip. When we reached the open sea, we turned toward a lighthouse that until recently was manned and then back toward Clifden Bay.

The return into the bay was great fun for the sailors and pretty cold for us landlubbers. We were sailing upwind and had to tack a bazillion times with the wind in our face. It was a far cry from running with the wind behind us in terms of comfort. Nick is a purest and we sailed until we anchored, never turning on the motor except to set the anchor.

We sailed for six hours and traveled around 18 miles. By the time we arrived we were all pretty cold and ready for the bottle of Jameson we opened when Dave returned to pick us up. This day was a highlight of the trip and something that I’ll always remember.

That night Cal and I took Nick, Suzanne, Dave, Eleanor, and Alan to dinner at Mitchell’s Restaurant in Clifden. They have great seafood there. After dinner, we moved the party to a local pub and listened to some music there and had a few pints to polish off a very nice evening.

Today we drove to Alan’s parent’s place outside Clifden Bay in the West of Ireland. On the way I bought my first Irish hat. I asked Alan’s mother what they called this quintessential Irish headgear and she informed me it was called a ‘cap’. Somehow, I was disappointed that it didn’t have a more exotic, perhaps hard to pronounce, Irish name.

Dave and Eleanor, Alan’s parents, have a beautiful little home with large bay windows that faces the rugged coast. These windows entitle the views to some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen.

On our first night, the fixed us the first of a number of feasts. Each meal was complete with Irish Brown Bread.

Nick and Suzanne joined us for dinner. Nick is a neighbor of the Johnson’s and Suzanne is a friend. Both were great company.

This is a recipe for Irish brown bread dictated to us by El Johnson. I love brown bread, and El’s was really exceptional. I’m not sure her secret is below, but with a little practice you might get really close.

(M)easure= 3/4 pint

1m pinhead oatmeal
1m rolled oats
3m coarse brown flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 heaping teaspoons baking soda
Optional: pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts
1 quart buttermilk (room temp)

Pre-heat oven to 400f. 2 small bread pans (1 lb. Pans) oiled lightly. Mix dry ingredients with hand in mixing bowl or pan. Add buttermilk to desired texture mixing with large spoon. Spoon into pans. Bake at 400f for 45 min. then check for texture and remove when outside done.

We started the day with an early lunch at Bewley’s, a cool cafe on Grafton Street. It was originally owned by ancestor’s of Alan’s (his Grandmother used to work there). The new owners have done a great job with the place and we heartily endorse the food.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon on a bus tour of Dublin that culminated with a tour of Kilmanhiam Jail. A number of movies have been filmed in the jail including “In the Name of the Father”. It’s rich in history for it’s role in the imprisonments of the potato famine and finally for the part it played in the execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising which ultimately lead to Irish independence.

That evening was the main event for the trip, the Eric Clapton concert. I’ve always been an Eric Clapton fan and on the way over I read his autobiography. He spent a little too much time apologizing for himself in the book (he had a lot to apologize for), but it was interesting none-the-less.

The concert itself was awesome. The seats were good and Eric put on a really quality show. It’s one thing to hear him play guitar and quite another to see it live. The beauty for me is to see how easy he makes it look. He is a master of his craft.

Dinner on the 10th was spent at Alan’s brother Gavin’s place. While Cal and I sat in the local pub, Alan, Gavin and his wife Naomi fixed a chicken feast for us. It was wonderful. Perhaps someday we’ll be able to reciprocate.

It’s been eight years since I visited Ireland and a lot has changed in that time. They’ve had a dramatic economic boom that is only recently faltered. Dublin is now reputed to be the most expensive city in Europe. There are cranes everywhere. A pint of Smithwicks is now US$5.00 (or more) instead of $2.50. Pretty much everything has doubled in price.

This trip was originally organized by my Brother-Cousin Cal Closson and our good Irish Brother-Friend Alan Johnson. Alan got a passel of tickets for the Eric Clapton concert in Dublin for his family and for Cal and had one to spare. How could I resist? I tagged along.

Cal and I arrived in Dublin in the morning of May 10th and began our adventure. We traveled by bus to Donnybrook where Alan picked us up and drove us to his parents apartment. Alan is Irish, but he lives with his lovely wife in Lyon where he is working on becoming Dr. Johnson, PhD. His parents keep an apartment in Dublin and have a house on the coast in the west of Ireland.

After dropping our stuff in the apartment, we took a stroll in Dublin Harbor. It was a glorious day, something that is not taken lightly in Ireland.

In the afternoon, we went to see Dalkey Castle (the Goat Castle). They have a great tour where the guides dress and act in character, alternately entertaining and harassing the tourists.

There are many great adventures that a man can sample in his life. You can climb Mount Everest, kayak the class 5 rapids of the Futaleufu in Patagonia, bow hunt grizzly bears in Siberia, or free climb the face of Half Dome.

Or you can spend three days skiiing in Mammoth with four sixteen and seventeen year-old-boys.

Wednesday, April 8th was Cameron’s birthday so I took him and three of his long-time friends to Mammoth. I tried to convince Margie to go, but she has always had more sense than I do. She got us a great condo near the Canyon Lodge and said that she would pray for me.

What is the greatest challenge of traveling with four man-boys? Is it rickets or skurvy from poor diet? Collision on the mountain? Collateral damage from a wrestling match on the couch? No, it is the risk of madness. Can a man on the doorstep of his 50th birthday endure three days of rap music, sexual innuendo, and Insult Love?

It was amazing to see how consistently the boys expressed their affection by hurling epithets at each other. No flaw, real or imagined, was neglected. Insult Love is a hard concept to explain to a woman. A young man expresses love by saying “You are an idiot”. A young woman will say “You hair looks nice” while a young man will say “That hat looks gay.”

Gay is the most common insult for a seventeen year-old. It is the age where homophobia peaks. At my age, with a wife and three children, I can watch Pride and Prejudice seven times and attend book club for the last three Super Bowl Sundays and not be concerned or care that my sexuality might be questioned, but a young man is obsessed with establishing his heterosexuality.

By seventeen, boys are beginning to get more sophisticated about how they dish out and receive the gay insults. At thirteen Cameron would say “Your shirt is gay” and Kyle would reply “No it’s not. You are.” At seventeen, Eric would say “Kyle and Andy were spooning on the couch last night” and Andy would reply “You are just jealous.” Young men learn that insults are best reflected by embracing them. It is a skill that continues into manhood.

I set a PR on the drive back, getting from Mammoth to Fullerton 4.5 hours without a stop. I only broke 80MPH once and that was going downhill. I told the boys (my homies) that their conversation and the music was my motivation so it was a shared victory.

I’ve known these boys for many years and I’d travel with them again. It was a great trip (and just the right length).

As a promise to my Frisbee brothers I tried as many beers as possible during my trip. Some of them required multiple tries so I had to consume two or three pints every day to keep up. Here is the as list of the beers I tried on my trip.

Amsterdam

During our six-hour layover in Amsterdam so we walked the town and I had a couple of beers. I hoped that I’d like Heineken better there, but it was exactly the same with its strong, bitter aftertaste and not much else going for it. The Amstel was better, but unremarkable.

Czech Republic

Czech’s are serious about beer and consume more of it per capita than any country in Europe. They pretty much invented the modern Pilsner beer that we drink today. Most Czech bars and restaurants have only one or two taps. If you want something else, you get it in a bottle. In general, you order what they have on tap which is usually one of the beers below, prominently featured outside the establishment. They were all good and generally pretty cheap (less than $3 for a pint).

Pilsner Urquel – Nice lager, but the finish is a little bitter. It is ubiquitous in Prague and elsewhere in Czech Republic. Also found in Hungary. Brewed in the city of Pils (Pilsner), this beer gives it name to a whole category.

Budweiser Budvar – Very nice lager with a creamy head. This is not the Bud you get at home. After a long fight with Anheiser Busch, the Czech company agreed to sell their beer only in a very limited number of countries (which includes South Africa).

Staropromen Lager – This is only sold in Prague and is probably my favorite beer of the trip (Budweiser Budvar would be a close second). It is a nice lager that I found just a little sweet. It has a nice bite, but does not leave a bitter aftertaste like Urquel. You have to look a little harder to find it, but it’s worth it.

Staropromem Dark – This is a nice dark beer with lots of taste. I like rich ales, but generally shy away from the dark beers. However, I liked this one. It was not overly bitter nor was it so rich that I couldn’t finish it. It’s worth a try.

Uflecku Microbrew – Rebecca’s friend Natalie is studying here in Prague and she met us for dinner one night. On her recommendation, we went to a cool beer hall (complete with accordion and tuba band) restaurant and this was the only beer on the menu. It is rich and dark and I liked, but didn’t love it. Dark beer officianados would probably find it wonderful.

Hungary

I can’t speak for all of the Hungary, but Budapest does not have the beer tradition that you find in the Czech Republic evidenced by the fact that many restaurants and pubs feature Pilsner Urquel or Budweiser Budvar. I did try a few of the local brews and a few German beers.

Tremens Delirium – Very high alcohol content is its only positive attribute. Waiter recommended it, but I found it sour and nasty. I didn’t finish the glass.

Sailer White – This is a nice lager, very light and clean. It did a nice job of washing away the Tremens. There is a dark version as well.

Weinesgruner Pils Legende – It’s a nice German lager. Nothing special about it.

Bitberger – Very thin German lager. Not bad, but nothing to it.

We walked to the airport and checked in and then walked back to the hotel and had a leisurely breakfast. Now I sit on the plane with four hours of flight left before we return the California. It was a great trip and I look forward to returning to Prague very soon. Budapest was a great experience, but I have no drive to see it again in the near future. Jessie has been to Prague on her own and Rebecca spent the weekend there with us so only Cameron has missed it. Perhaps we’ll go again with him or maybe his grandparents will take him there.

Our flight departed from Budapest for Prague at 4:40am so on the advice of the hotel staff, we met our taxi at 2:45am. We went to bed around 11pm and I woke up around 1am and couldn’t sleep. We were up at 2:30a so it was a very short night.

As we suspected, we were much too early for the short flight from Budapest to Prague. There were only a few of us boarding the plane, so we thought we’d have the plane to ourselves, but it turned out it was already packed from another airport. The seats where the tiniest that I’ve every experienced; my knees turned to the side, jammed against the seat in front of me. The fat man in front of me kept stretching his seat backwards as he tried to get comfortable and the young man next to me fidgeted constantly. A crying baby was the only thing missing, but I was not to be disappointed. Two rows in front of us a baby began to wail as the plane began it’s decent. Had this flight lasted for 10 hours, it would have been hell. As it was very short, it was funny.

Margie and I found a Courtyard Marriot in the Czeck airport that let us check in early. We slept there from 7a to 10a and then head into town for our last day in Europe.

This was our Art Nouveau day in Prague. We started with the Mucha museum that is run by his grandson. Mucha was an incredibly influential graphics artist and painter. He lived through the Austrian-Hungarian empire, Czechoslovakian independence and finally died just after the Nazi’s invaded. His reputation was made doing posters in Paris for Sara Bernhardt, the famous actress.

We bought lots of goodies from the Mucha museum and then started walking Prague looking at other Art Nouveau buildings and shops. The most notable is the Municipal Hall which was largely designed by Mucha. There are three restaurants in the building, each of which is amazing in it’s own right.

The rest of the day was spent in last minute shopping, especially for wine and liquors for the book club. My arm was several inches longer at the end of the day from carrying the bags.

Dinner was at a restaurant picked at random. I tried the rabbit and was a bit disappointed. Margie was more than disappointed and plans scathing reviews when the moment presents itself. I had a very nice glass of wine that cost more than most of the bottles we’d seen on the trip. It was a large glass and worth it. We wrote down the name of the wine and tried to find it later without success. We did find a very nice wine bar and tried four or five wines and picked a nice Czech Cabernet to bring home.

We did a little research online regarding our return trip, looking at options that included a day trip from Budapest or stopping at one of the towns on the way back for the night. In the end, we decided to take a cheap flight back to Prague early (really really early) Wednesday morning. It turned out to work out pretty well.

After booking our return trip from Budapest, we took the Metro across the river to the parliament district in Pest. This is an amazing building, imposing and beautiful. The river view is the image you see on t-shirts of Budapest. We took pictures, walked around the area and visited the Museum of Ethnography there.
We returned to the hotel for a quick rest and then decided to explore the baths that are famous in Budapest. We talked along the river for several miles. It would be a great place to walk except that the area is under heavy construction.

We saw two of the baths and found them both to be really run down and decrepit on the outside. It’s possible they were nice on the inside, but we didn’t bother to find out. The third of the three baths we knew about. This bath is in the Geller Hotel, a beautiful building facing the river.

Outside the building, there was a rising full moon coming up across the Pest side of the river so we spent some time taking pictures of both the moon and the city and the hotel. Eventually, we went into the hotel, but the baths were closed that day.

Margie bought some ear-rings for Jessica’s birthday from a shop in the hotel. I think she tried on every pair in the case before making a decision.