Take a Bow

It's now time to join the fore edges of the hull panel.  A word of caution-  I tried to bend the bow pieces while dry (the wood was dry too) and while trying to be clever I clamped a C-clamp on the edge to use as a lever to bend the wood.  It was also easier to grip than the wood itself.  The edges became closer as I bent them and were just about touching when I heard a crack!  One of the sides got a small crack as I torqued it too much.  As it turns out, the crack was not critical but I cringed to think what I would have faced if I cracked the hull significanrtly.  So be gentle!  And that's why I then chose to wet the wood.

The manual suggests wetting the wood that needs to bend but doesn't mention how.  I just draped the wood in towels and poured hot water over them several times for 10-12 minutes.

 This is a closer look.  You can see the water dripping into the crease and keelson.  Luckily, my driveways is a slight incline, so the water dripped onto the driveway and out to the street.  If you use this technique, plan ahead with what to do with the dripping water.

 

The picture on the left (below) shows my first attempt after soaking the wood.  The edges got close but not there yet.  This is a job where another set of hands would have been very helpful.  I soaked the wood again and then tightened the wires and it pulled together nicely (picture on right).  The edges don't look like they're together but in fact the back corner edges are touching and the forward edges are not, as designed. I was pleased that the edges lined up nicely and the port edge was at the same height as the starboard edge.



This shows wet wood after towels.  It was over 75 degrees that day so it dried fast.



Below and right are pictures of the hull finally starting to look like a boat

You can see floor 4 in place in this picture but it has not been attached yet














I followed the advice of a few before me and put the cradle on wheels.  I had a furniture dolly
so I removed the wheels and attached them to the cradle.

 What a difference when moving the project.  I would recommend it to all.  I had mentioned that my driveway is on an incline and last week I moved the hull out on the driveway and it started moving on its own, downhill!  I was able to wrangle it with a little muscle but my boat almost took its first journey without me.

Okay- next is finishing the floors and bulkheads.  I hope to attach the sides this weekend.

Revenge of the Keelson

Well, I've been scratching my head for the past few days about a construction problem.  I've layed the hull pieces and stitched them to the keelson.  I spoke, in the last entry, of my crooked tip on the keelson.  It seems to have straightened itself a bit during the stitching process.  So all is proceeding well.  I cut Floor 4 and laid it in its position and found that it was too tall.  That is, it did not fit snugly under that chin at the curved corner of the trunk.  It sat about 1/4" too tall.  And the tab at the bottom sat precariously on the floor.
That was 3 days ago and I kept walking by it, while doing other tasks, and wondering where I could have measured wrong.  I have been so careful transferring the plans to the wood.  I was busy with other tasks so I didn't need to allot much thought to that problem.  But as I draw closer to its installation I have begun to ponder how to remedy this problem. Do I need to trim the top edge?  Cut a bit off the tab at the bottom?

Then the light bulb came on.  The little tab at the bottom center of Floor 4 is supposed to fit in the opening between the trunk and the keelson.  Here I thought that space was either bad measuring on my part or (bite my tongue) designed as so.  During keelson installation there is no mention that the square opening cut in the keelson, to slip over the trunk, is cut longer than the trunk for a reason.  When installed correctly the opening will be snugged up to the aft end of the trunk leaving a gap of about 6 mm(I should have been suspicious) at the for end of the trunk.  Just enough space into which that tab on Floor 4 can fit.  Duh!!!

I had left, only by pure luck, a gap of about 4 mm.  So I decided to shave a bit of the tab so it would fit in the gap mortise and tenon-like.

 I used my Japanese Pull Saw to trim the tab and momentarily felt like a fine craftsman until I cut my finger.

 It's a bit difficult to see but the tab slid nicely into the slot and the top edge fit snugly under the chin of wood on the curved corner of the trunk.

It felt good to solve a problem which 3 days ago was just a big question mark.

I'm currently glassing the inside surface of the sides to prepare to install them to the hull panels.  It's not easy finding room in my small garage for these two 15' panels.  I have to do a mild limbo to move in certain areas of the ngarage.  Progress is a bit slow because it's been staying well below 60 F. in the evenings so I can only use epoxy on the weekends when it's a bit warmer.  I should clarify that it is not warmer here on weekends.  On weekends I can work when the sun is out and > 60 degrees.
I've yet to pull the bow edge of the hull together yet.  That may take a little more problem solving. If I need to wet the last 24" inches as suggested in the manual I'm not sure how something like that is accomplished.

From Cradle to Wave

O.K.- the title is a groaner but I needed something that worked with cradle.  I built the cradle out of cheap wood due to its short life.  I had my 19 yr. old son help me hoist the keel into place, but the square slots on the cradle were a bit tight and the keel did not fit.  We lifted it out, I widened the openings and it then fit fairly well.  I decided to check its plumbness (if that's a word).  With a level I determined that the center trunk was tilting slightly starboard.  I was using the cement garage floor as my horizontal.  After measuring from all angles and directions I determined that the keelson was not exactly perpendicular to the keel and trunk.  Very close but not exact.  But worse was the way it was seated in the slot for the keel.  This allowed too much play and threw the vertical slightly more off plumb.  My solution was to drive a flat wedge (a left over scarf joint!) between the keel and the cradle slot to tilt it back to almost plumb.

So far so good but when I placed the hull pieces in the cradle for a trial fit it was less than satisfactory. 3 of 4 cradle arms were too narrow to accept the hull.  Do they all need to be recut?  Yikes!

Here are some trial fits.  I did a few stitches aft on the port side to steady the boards and then I need to do a series of measurements from different surfaces to determine the symmetry of port and starboard.  I believe I was very careful transferring the plans of the cradle arms.  It doesn't yet make sense why some fit and some did not.

Stay tuned for my decision of how to best move forward.  I am assuming at this point that it's a good idea to

have symmetrical hull halves.

Holidays and Boatbuilding

Well, it's been a while since my last entry.   The holidays and moving kids (and all their stuff) to college has consumed a lot of time in the past month.  Boatbuilding continued, albeit more sporadic, but blogging just didn't take priority. 

I've made some progress since last blog and had to repair a few mistakes.  Still a long ways to go.

Here is my first dumb mistake.  Yes, that's the tip of the keelson lying askew. After thinking I was being so careful every time I moved around that exposed tip and instead I broke off the tip. I was moving the whole keel and kaboodle, one morning, into the driveway to make room for scarfing those long pieces.  During the move it hit the front of my car ( I was intently focused on the stern so it would clear obstacles), I heard a crack and knew exactly what I did.  Bonehead!!

As a resolution, and when the sobbing ceased, I had to manufacture a new tip.  So I scarfed the remaining end of the keelson and fashioned a new tip.  It was a bit tricky clamping it up (since it is not laying on the ground) but it cured and held tight.  After unclamping I noticed the tip bends slightly port so I don't yet know if this will significantly affect the bow alignment.  I may have to refabricate a new one yet.

Next chore was to join the pieces soon to become the hull bottom and sides.  My scarfing is getting better with practice.  Below are 4 panels I did simultaneously.  Multiple panels actually make the job easier and more accurate.  I used a traditonal block plane for most of the wood removal, followed by a palm block plane to do some finishing and then a quick once over with the sander.

Below they are ready for gluing.  The tape was an idea I stole to help with cleanup afterwards.  It helped some.

This is after gluing.  After peeling off the tape most of the goop shown along the joint goes with it.  It saved some sanding as a result.  Frankly, I've found that a heat gun and a putty knife worked very nicely. The epoxy just blows away as you heat and peel it and minimal sanding is required.



With the tape off



Laid out the hull and cut 2 pieces at once (carefully) to assure symmetry.

The circular saw did a nice job following the gentle curves of the hull

After cutting close to the lines I finished the edges with the block plane and some orbital sanding and got them to almost perfect.  I'm being so careful with the cutting as I envision a boat that won't steer left or can fit more people on the port side than starboard.  So I really am taking my time (very out of character for me but one reason I chose to take on this project). 

Next I'll show construction of the cradle and hull assembly. 

The simple centerboard

Yea, so I began the centerboard and it's raised a few challenges. It sounded rather simple in the manual.

I cut the two mates

Routed the rabbet

Ready to glue

Clamping was a little more involved due to the center of the boards needing compression as well as the edges

Next was the lead pour.  It is very important to get this whole thing level so the lead cools level.  It saves a lot of clean-up later.  The concrete blocks help steady the leveling but it also turned out to be a good perch for my lead pot to rest while I poured.

Here is the almost finished product.  Leads in and a light sanding to clean it up.

But the real challenges have now begun.  Cutting this dado down the edge of the board proved challenging.  It was difficult to steady in the table saw and the lead weight always seemed to pull it in the wrong direction

If you look closely at the top of the cut the right edge is precariously thin and some waste remains in the canal.  A rersult of poor control when feeding the wood especially on a curved surface.  I have no previous experience cutting curved edges on the table saw to fall back upon.

This part of the canal was a bit more centered

I think if I was to do this again I would cut the canal before adding the lead.  It seems it would be a lot easier to handle in the tablesaw.




 Jury rigged a set up to hold the board while I filled the canal with epoxy.

 My first try the epoxy was too liquid and it wanted to move to one end or the other (a problem on a curved edge).

 But I learned to thicken it up more (yes, it says this in the manual) to a peanut butter consistency and it was much easier to apply.  Like spreading it on bread.  And very forgiving to poorly cut edge dados.  The epoxy,  once in the slot, covers a lot of errors.  Great stuff. It took two fills to get the final surface flush with the wood edges.  I'm curious how it will take to a grinder?

Now to clean up the edges before tackling the tapered edges. 

 

 Next, work those edges and cover the piece with glass and epoxy.

Before the Centerboard

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend.  The kids were all here and we had a nice family day.  As it turns out I was also able to sneak away from time to time to work on the boat.

Well, I may have been premature thinking I was ready to do the centerboard.  I didn't anticipate some issues finishing the keel.  In particular, getting the cap to fit flush on the lead and readjusting the pitch of the noseblock.

Here's the keel with the lead in but not capped.  I found that my pouring was not as exact as I hoped. That 1/2" gap on top of the lead was not 1/2 " in places.  Some less than 1/4".  So I actually took a chisel and mallet and chipped away some of the lead.  I know this was probably time not well spent, but I wanted the cap to have enough thickness.  I did end up grinding the top of the wooden cap as well to bring it flush with sides

The cap is epoxied and clamped.

And weighted. And waited.

Next stop -The Keelson

I avoided the scarfing issue for as long as I could.  So I read and reread several articles and did a practice run on some scrap plywood first.   

I stacked 3 boards here

 I used a block plane mostly and a little bit of the jack plane.  No sanding necessary.

It worked!

Then I did it on the actual pieces and it came out well enough- not perfectly straight but acceptable. I had also stacked 3 boards but this shows just one of them.

I then glued up the future keelson

Here is the picture of the joint after curing, but before sanding.  It was flat, smooth and strong.  (Pat myself on the back).

Next laid out the keelson on the scarfed wood.

I cut out the keelson but when I dry fitted it I discovered a problem.

The nose peice had too sharp an upward flow at the nose causing the keelson to swoop upwards towards the bow.  I was afraid this might wrongly influence the hull pieces.

Needs some shaping work to flatten that swoop.

There, that's better (below).

The aft cap was screwed down (temporarily)

The front end of the keelson was clamped or braced with these vertical pieces (as suggested in the manual)

This is the finished keel.  Needs a light sanding.  I've also found that a heat gun is a great way to clean up a gooey joint.

A few areas need trimming but the joints are solid.

Now... on to the centerboard.