Acorn to Arabella - Journey of a Wooden Boat - Episode 88: Setting our First Homemade Rivets!

We made our own 1/4 inch square copper rivets to hang Arabella's planks and we are now to the point where we actually get to use them! This is such an exciting time for us as we have planned and worked so hard to make these. We finally get to see the fruits of our labor in their final place. We initially were looking at buying rivets for the task but couldn't find anything that was a quite the right size (according to information from Dave Gerr's The Elements of Boat Strength). We searched all over the place, even overseas but could find anything to our satisfaction, not to mention it was going to come with a steep price tag. So, we decided to make our own out of copper bar stock and with a 32 ton press with a die. It worked perfectly and now we have the beefy rivets we were looking for! It took a little bit of practice to get them just right and figure out what the heads needed to look like and we are still improving, but overall, they look great and we are very happy with the final product. We also finally got the rest of the prop shaft assembly installed. The Delrin liner got two flats cut into it for grip and was pressed into the bored stern post. Everything fit like a charm. Now, we can focus on getting more planks on Arabella and figuring out our trip to Costa Rica to help SAILCARGO in February or 2020. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign up for our email newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hn3Qyv Acorn to Arabella is a boat building project taking place in Granby, Massachusetts. Steve and Alix started as amateur boat builders building their own 38' wooden boat in their backyard: designer William Atkin's Ingrid with a Stormy Petrel's gaff rig. These videos follow the journey from tree felling, to lumber milling, to lofting, to the lead keel pour and beyond—sharing details of the woodworking, carpentry, metal smithing, tool building, and tool maintenance that wooden boats command. This ultimate DIY project will continue well past launch, when they will travel and learn to cruise aboard the boat that they've built. Just kidding about all that, this channel is about a Siberian Laika named Akiva. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acorn to Arabella wishlist: http://www.acorntoarabella.com/acorn-to-arabella-wishlist Jamestown Distributors Referral: If you are going to shop at Jamestown Distributors, please consider using our Total Boat referral code: http://totalboat.refr.cc/steveandalixa?t=tg FOLLOW US: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acorntoarabella Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acorntoarabella/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acorntoarabella Website: http://www.acorntoarabella.com