Dustspeck the MouseBoat

Building Dustspeck

Dustspeck was built from the cheapest plywood I could find...  5 mm luaun ply from the Home Depot.  It cost about $12 per sheet.  I also had a few scrap pieces of 1/4" fir ply laying around that I used for the interior bulkheads.  I drew the dimensions on my plywood and then I cut out the parts with a circular saw.  If you set a circular saw to just barely cut through the ply, it will have no trouble following the shallow curves of the mouse.  A jig saw will also work but it is slower and harder to cut a very straight line.  In fact, I'm certain that a simple hand saw would work equally well.

Dustspeck was built using the "Stitch & Glue" method.  The hull parts are "stitched" together using bits of wire or plastic tie wraps and then "glued" together using powerful 2-part epoxy resins and fiberglass tape.    One advantage of the Stitch & Glue method is that you don't have to be very precise in your wood working since the glue fills in gaps.  Click here for a detailed tutorial about the Stitch & Glue method. Many MouseBoats have also been built from less expensive adhesives such as PL premium construction adhesive.  Fiberglass drywall tape can also be used in place of regular fiberglass tape.  These items are very inexpensive and available at your local hardware store.  A boat built from such materials might not be as pretty, strong or durable as one built with epoxy but it will suffice for a basic, fun project.

Here's my very first picture of Dustspeck. I had just finished cutting out the hull panels and I wanted to see how it fit together.  So I taped it together using masking tape.  The curves are so gentle that it went right togther.

See what happened next!