I’m fortunate to have the week between Christmas and New Year’s off work, and that affords me the opportunity to spend some quality time out in the garage, working on various projects.

I knocked together a little cart for a new drill press using leftover wood from the workbench project. I was also able to build in some extra storage, which is always welcome in the workshop.

My other big project was to plane down the Sitka spruce I picked up in early November. I’d been looking for a rain-free window of time because, given the length of my longest board (about 17 feet!), I needed position the planer outside of the garage. When it started sprinkling, we improvised by putting up the patio umbrella to keep the machine (borrowed from my neighbor!) dry.

The whole process made plenty of sawdust, and produced lots of really nice looking boards. Given when I paid for them, they better be nice!

So, thinking ahead to next steps, here’s what I need to do to complete the mast:

Joint the edges. I’ll need at least one edge of each board jointed so we can run them through the bandsaw to rip them to width. There’s no way the longer boards are fitting into the portion of the tool library shop with the jointer, so I’m going to joint by hand. I did it before with the boards for the boom and gaff, so it shouldn’t be a problem, although I do need to figure out how best to hold down the long board, since there’s no way it’ll fit in the workbench leg vise.

Rip to width. The mast is made up of four layers. It’s hollow through most of the length, but I want the bottom and top of the mast to be solid for strength. Long story short, I need a bunch of sticks. The layout looks something like this:

(Yeah, I know that’s pretty much unreadable. But, you get the idea.)

Build a scarfing jig. I’m going to need to scarf boards together. (See the next step.) To do that, I’ll need a jig that helps ensure that I get just the right angle. Traditionally, spars are scarfed at a 12:1 ratio – that is 12 inches of length for every one inch of rise. The jig isn’t any more complicated than two triangular pieces of wood that a bench plane (or a router) can ride on.

Scarf the wood. Using the aforementioned jig, cut the scarf joints. Then glue ’em up. That’ll get me a bunch of 18-ish foot long boards.

Glue up the mast. I suspect this is one of those “easier said than done” things, since I’ll want to keep it level, and ensure that the inside of the mast remains hollow. I’m considering gluing up one layer at a time to keep things under control.

Round it off. The rest of the process is the same as with the other spars. Taper it. Go from four sides to 8, then 16. Then round it. Sand it smooth. Apply finish. Etc. Since I’ve done this drill a couple of times already, I’m not too worried about this part.