I'm still here

It's been a little while, but I have been working.

As I write this, the clock reads 97:12:30:57...... 56.....55.... you get the idea.  The deadline approaches and I still don't have a boat.  But, I do have materials and some drawings and some tools.  Most importantly, I have a month with no races to eat up my time.

Here are some of the preliminary drawings (some of you think I haven't been working at all).  I am not going to explain them or anything, so don't get excited.

That may not seem like much, but contained within a few lines are all the dimensions of what I am making.  Some of the lines are just place holders, but most of them have meaning.  It's a sort of step in my process.

So, let's say you're building something, or going to, but it's got a bunch of parts and you don't know what they are or where they are going.  Remember this is not a kit you bought online.  This isn't IKEA.  This is a thing that you can see in your head and it may not exist just yet.  So, how do you go about it?

I start with a drawing.  Sketches and so on.  But it will eventually find it's way into a fairly accurate drawing.  I am using Graphite at the moment, but I used to do it by hand.  Sometimes I draw with paper and a knife.  Doesn't really matter.  What you are after are the parts, so you have to start making something.

The process is that you start with your given.  In this case, I knew the drive shaft size and I could guess at a diameter for the whole thing.  I put those down.  Then I started building parts.  As I went, relationships between parts emerged.  Dimensions had to be decided.  The more I did, the less there were to figure out.  And so, tomorrow night, I will be done with this drawing, and I will separate all the parts out.  Then print, and I have a blueprint.   I may have made a mistake in the theory, but the math will hold up and everything will fit.

I'm off to the house now, but I will post images of what I build.