April 1. I have built all 4 clamps that will be epoxyed to the 4 corners of the two transoms. The transoms are built of 1″ clear cedar (very soft wood) so the hard wood clamps are necessary for fasting each end of the cedar planks. I had a few large pieces of spalded maple left over from a chest I built my wife Jody for this last Valentine’s day. I may have enough for the 4 knees as well. The stuff is harder than the hubs of hell and beautiful to boot.
You will notice in the photos that I used a batten to scribe the angle needed to cut the ends of the transoms to receive the planks. I use those angles to scribe the clamps, then I cut them with a fine pull saw. This is fine work so take your time. If any of you out there needs more help with scribing these complex angles email me and I would be happy to help.
Make sure each clamp is numbered to match the corner it was made for. If you forget to do this it not a big deal, it just saves time. Then mix up some wood flour epoxy to a honey consistency and go about fitting and clamping each one to its proper corner. While they dry over night we can start lofting out each 5/8″ cedar plank.