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.