First Sawdust

I spent the evening with a scrap of teak I had lying around from a repair job on my El Toro.  The plans call for a few simple deadeyes - basically a pulley shape - for the forestay and side stays.  I cut a small square of the teak with my lovely new pull saw and trimmed it to an octagonal shape.  I then drilled the center, drove a screw through it, and clamped the screw in my electric drill.

This produces a portable lathe, a trick I learned from my boss at the bike shop long ago.  I used my home's built-in grinding surface (the concrete step at the back door) to grind the octagon into a circle, and then used the edge of the step (and later a chunk of sandstone, nature's long-lasting 150-grit sandpaper) to groove the outer edge to accept the 1/4" line that will go through it.

An Amateur Deadeye

It all worked beautifully, or it would have if I owned a drill press.  The center hole really has to be at a perfect right angle to the surface of the pulley; if it isn't, the wobble introduced by the deviation leaves the circle with flat spots and causes the groove in the rim to meander around.  I really tried to hit it square, but I wasn't very close.  With that one flaw, the product of tonight's efforts may end up being useless.

I have enough of this teak to try a few more times; tonight was really just a trial.  I also have a friend with a drill press.  I think I'll stop by some time with a few squares to center-drill, and then I can try again with better hope of success.  I'm not too upset by tonight's result - teak sawdust has a lovely smell that I had forgotten about until this evening.  And it was fun to finally be making sawdust for the new boat, even if it was only practice.