Katona

Rebuilding a narrowboat.

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Nick

Nick

Back on a boat

Hello! Moar varnish this week, and buoy was it boring. Also hard to see given it’s clear, but that is the bedroom done. Some new work lights helped, for day-round daylight inside: Then, lighting. Or at least the wire-y parts… I forgot fuses for the LED strips, so everything

By Nick 20 Oct 2024

Auroric tile rolling

G’day, from the UK. Happy Sunday! Not much boat time this week, but on Thursday I started working on some tile samples: These by hand, but I’ll get a pasta-maker type thing (a “slab roller”) for the rest, and I’ll spend a few weeks experimenting with clays,

By Nick 13 Oct 2024

Surfin’ U.S.A.

Sat on the balcony of my room, listening to Shania with the boys (my brother and cousin), nothing but blue sky and ocean waves; this week I’m in North Carolina, U.S.A, for a wedding. I would have said hungover, but thanks to magical chemistry it’s only

By Nick 6 Oct 2024

The bell then beating one

Hello! Flooding season is upon us. This is 4 feet above normal, and I’m staying on the other side of the Avon, which I can no longer reach by foot along the river path. In fact I’m staying by the church, and on Tuesday evening I went along

By Nick 29 Sep 2024

Nerd-sniped by a potter

Hello! It’s been a while since I started the engine, and on Tuesday I felt like giving it a little razzmatazzle for good juju. I went to crank it and sure enough, the starter hardly engaged. Sometimes it did but sounded painful, like a bodybuilder trying to force out

By Nick 22 Sep 2024

Bigger, faster, weaker

Hello! Happy warm weather again. This week, more bedroom trim. I’ve now done most of it, but it’s like playing pick-up sticks and I can only do a few pieces each time while the glue dries: For the lighting coves I was planning to also glue them, but

By Nick 15 Sep 2024

New Scotia and a new home

Sunday already?! Golly, after the flurry of woodwork last weekend, it was another of those “have fun programming” weeks. Buuut on Thursday my new mattress arrived; 4 inches of Reflex Superior™ foam with a 2 inch memory foam layer on top, super king. It’s a rectangle I need to

By Nick 8 Sep 2024

Dimming with fancy LEDs and bending on hard mode

Hello, and happy September! Also, happy 52nd blog post; a year of updates, with a winter hiatus. In those terms we’re definitely past halfway — I don’t think I’ll get to 100 posts before finishing. Then again, I’m terrible at predicting timescales so ignore me. On Monday

By Nick 1 Sep 2024

The origins of symmetry

In carpenting a curved boat bedroom (aka the “forward cabin”), you quickly hit the question of symmetry. Namely, to where do you reference the measurements? It turns out the portholes aren’t in the same place, nor are the steel supports, and it doesn’t help that the boat isn’

By Nick 25 Aug 2024

So close, no matter how far

Troubled by my one-track mind, I had a blast programming this week yet lacked the luster to carpent. But then came Saturday and that all changed, in flow and I wouldn’t stop; I couldn’t find the hours to keep cutting wood. The portholes-on-pine look so damn good, and

By Nick 18 Aug 2024

Not just a dentist

Away this weekend, I had a few evenings to continue the bedroom panelling: The curves are challenging with 12mm-thick wood, but on Friday my dentist had a bright idea, from his experience curving MDF: using a circular saw, cut shallow slits along the wood’s rear to weaken it. More

By Nick 11 Aug 2024

The fit-out begins

Hello, and happy August! This week started the carpentry, and sawdust everywhere — in my hair, where I sleep, on the chair, where I eat. I finished the bedroom ceiling, and a top wall: I knew it already, but now I feel it in my fingers: it’s a lot of

By Nick 4 Aug 2024
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Katona

Rebuilding a narrowboat.