Making a mast

Step 1 (not shown):  Rip some 2xWhatevers into 1.5"x1.5" square lengths

Step 2: Epoxy the staves together.  The weights are to keep everything pressed flat on the support blocks beneath it.  The support blocks are needed so you don't epoxy it to the floor or end up with grit denting the wood.

Step 2: gluing the first of the staves

The two halves

 Step 3: Epoxy the two halves together.

End on view to show how I oriented the grain.  The arrows were guides so I put it together properly

Step 4: Mark the taper on the mast and plane it.  I used an electric planer, which made short and accurate work of it.

Tapered ends

Step 5: Make a spar gauge.

Not pretty, but effective enough.

Step 6: Use the spar gauge to make the octagonal lines and plane it to an octagon.

octagon!

Step 7: Plane off the octagon corners, then sand it smooth.  I used a combination of a random-orbit sander and a sanding belt flipped inside out using my arms as the power source.

Step 8: Drill a hole and taper it for use as a dumb sheave for the main halyard.

Step 9: Drill out the large knots and fill with epoxy.

Step 10: make a base cap of epoxy to prevent it from wearing away.

Now I need to get a trailer so I can roll the boat outside and step the mast.