Trailer Building Photos

Lots of sparks, and the smell of hot metal


Pieces of steel pipe are cut into short sections. Note how the sparks swirl.

Dumbledore uses the arc welder to fuse pieces of steel together to make the keel pan. That's even more fun than a hot-melt glue gun! Move over, Martha Stewart.

Tadpole tries his hand at arc welding. It's not as easy as Dumbledore makes it look.

Hardware still life: the artistic shot from Day 1. This is just how things happened to end up on the keel pan -- the tools just laid down, with the drill debris right in there, and the arc-welding cable in the background. It just looked cool.

Dumbledore uses the acetylene torch to work on the forward bunk support. The acetylene torch is actually a subtle tool, which can be sharp to melt or cut metal, or gentler to soften it so that it will bend to shape.

All surfaces of the trailer that come into contact with the boat's hull are covered in carpet.

Artistic shot from Day 2: These little pale-pink flowers were carried into the workshop on the wind. When Tadpole picked one up, I was struck by the contrast between his sooty hands and the delicate blossom.