Necessity is the father of invention

Not the typical way you see that quote, but since I'm on my own this week I found it to be true. Between pool, school, parks and the grocery store there wasn't much time for boat building. At nap time I felt like I needed a nap too! Today I was determined to get something done so I set out to cut some of the pieces I still need. I am still waiting for someone to donate a table saw to my cause so I went with my trusty saw guide method. Check it out from a few months ago when I started with these pieces. I have the wood for the chines, sheers and battens so I thought. "Why not." I started with the 16 footer; I was cutting off a 2 in. chine from it. The setup is the long leg, the cut was quick. One chine down. But now there was not enough board to clamp the guide to. So I needed a new plan. Out came the idea that my Dad told me about from when he built his boat. A table saw, in it's most basic form is just a saw, held upside down, on a table. I have a saw, a piece of 1/2 in. oak plywood and two saw horses. Mix it with some leftover bolts and drywall screws and you get:

So now I have a table saw. (But if anyone wants to donate one, feel free.) It is a little rickety and the fence is not the best design, but I thought it would get the job done. I added two small pieces of 1/2 in. plywood to the saw horse for supporting those really big pieces. Most (good table saws use cast iron; the weight makes the table wobble less so you get better cuts. And check out these other features!

That's what the wood working community calls a "zero clearance throat plate." To make the hole for the blade I put the saw on the wood and lowered it through. There is quite literally zero extra clearance around the blade. This keeps the small bits from being sucked into the gap. I don't really need this feature but it is was the only way I knew how to get the blade through the table. Also note the recessed fasteners. The table is 1/2 in. thick and the head on these bolts was about 3/16 in. This doesn't leave a lot to support the saw, but it doesn't have to last forever.

You can see the bolts I used here to hold the saw in place. The saw only had two holes the right size originally so I had to add some more to make sure it didn't jump off and chase me. Also note the romex wire twisted around the trigger. This makes the power cord you see in the first picture the on/off switch. So far, so good. Now to put it to the test. My first fence extended past the edges of the table itself. I set up an "out feed table" to catch the board as I cut it. Here goes nothing.

Check out these beautiful cuts! I had no idea that wood had residual stress in it. I have actually read about air vs. kiln drying wood and how each effects the wood.. But I couldn't believe how much the wood moved when I cut it! As I was cutting, the cut end would look like it was peeling away from the main piece. If your fence is set up right this is not a problem. But mine was set up with the piece pinched between the blade and the fence. Every 5 inches the blade would bind up because of the curve that was coming out. The warp was so bad I had to drop the wood straight down on top of the blade. I left a few spots uncut so the warp wouldn't come out and bite me. Then I cut through these pieces and out came these pieces. The pieces I need all ended up with the same curve, so that is a plus. These are going to be the battens so I hope that they work out.

This one wasn't so lucky. There was a crack in the wood that I wanted to work around so I cut this small piece out of the middle. If you look (not so) closely you can see that it roves around all over the place. I think that this crack should have been a sign that a monster was lurking in this piece. Knowledge doesn't always come cheap. I still have to finish the chines so I hope they don't have that much twist in them too.

P.S. I tried the one chine I had cut in the notches I made. Bad news is the notch is too big for the wood (or the wood is not big enough.) Good news is this is not the first time I messed something up so I am already coming up with a fix. I'll probably just add some filler. The project moves on.

Frames glued and other progress

Never was so little work drug out so long. -Stephen Dyer, c.2009

Seriously, when I look at how long it takes to get even small tasks done on this boat it is really frustrating. But the key to finishing any project is perseverance, so I keep on pushing ahead. I finally finished (for real this time) gluing all the frame pieces. Frame 5 is at the front of the boat and attaches to the stem. If you look close you can see the shim I used to jam the stem to one side of the slot in the frame. The frames were glued to the backing first so a tight fit was not achieved. Hopefully what I have read about epoxy's gap filling ability is true.

Here is the deck beam that connects the upper edges of frame 5. This supports the deck in the forward area of the boat. It goes together with screws and a 1/4" carriage bolt, so it should be good forever.

I also fitted the frame 3 pieces to the sides of the centerboard trunk. These went on too easy, so I am sure there must be something wrong with them. They even came out square the first time. Something seems fishy...

Once I got frame 5 and the frame 3 pieces together it really is starting to look like it's going somewhere. The pieces aren't lined up yet but they do look like they are mostly symmetrical, a decent accomplishment.

It's time to start prepping for the keel, chines and sheer. My wife will be out of town for the next ten days so I need something to fill nap times while I watch the kids. Maybe I'll just put them to work too. I tried to match the bevel cut in the transom in my notch for the keel. I used a chisel for this job and I have to say that chisels are tough to use well. I really just freehanded this one and the results weren't the prettiest. The angle is a little excessive compared to the transome bevel. The notch is however the correct depth and I'll just fill in the rest with epoxy to make the keel fit right.

I figured there must be a better way to chisel out these notches, so I devised a little angle jig to help me out. I traced the angle from the tramsom to a piece of scrap 2x4 using a straight-edge. hten I cut the angle with my compound miter saw. Then I clamp the jig to the transom frame and square it up. Then I just let the back face of the chisel ride the face of the jig as I take off the material. I started out trying to set it up so I would nibble off small pieces at a time. The easiest way ended up being to freehand the begining, being careful not to gouge too deep or at too extreme an angle. Then finish up with the jig as your guide.
This one is a compound bevel at the corner where the chine will end. This illustrates how close to exact I can get with this jig. In reality I think that a person with better chiseling skills and more time/patience could get it really exact. The change in grain direction made it extremely difficult to cut this angle. One side went easy and the other was like trying to split rock. I am glad that there isn't much chiseling in my future.

Next up is to actually buy the wood for the keel. I have been lazy about this. I haven't cut into any of the other frames for keel, battens or chines yet because I want to have the actual pieces first. I think this will save me some rework if I cut the hole the right size the first time.

Back to work

Finally I got myself a netbook after my last computer was fried (see earlier posts.) Hopefully this will put me back on track with working and blogging. Since I left out a lot of pictures here is an update. The centerboard is mated to frame 2 (aft) and frame 4 (forward.) I scabbed the "thickness enhancers" onto the frame 3 supports to compensate for some "measurement irregularities." My progress seems slow because I have been trying to shape and smooth the pieces as much as possible before adding them to the slowly growing structure. I think this will save me some time when it comes to fairing. Fairing is making the lines of the boat nice and smooth. This happens right before the plywood skin goes on and compensates for any cutting/building excess. Since each individual piece is much easier to work with than the structure as a whole, the earlier in the process the better. I am sure that there will be plenty to fair later anyway. Anyway, here is a look as the progress.

This is the bevel that my Dad put on the transom. His skill with a circular saw is legendary (at least to me.) Thanks Dad. In addition he bought me my newest fearsome instrument of wood destruction, the tabletop belt/disc sander.

This machine is awesome for shaping pieces of all sizes. This little table is not quite as strong as I would like, but my Dad and I pivoted the centerboard trunk on it to square up the ends. The sandpaper is 60 grit so you have to be carefull not to take too much off. Much better fine control than a hand or power saw.

This is frame 2 attached to the aft end of the centerboard trunk. I have started putting a decorative filet along the joint to keep water put and make it look good. It also uses up some of the extra epoxy I usually make. I also bought a postal scale to weigh my epoxy. I have read (and the internet is a very reliable source,) that epoxy is best mixed by weight, not volume as I was doing before. Since I don't have any destructive testing equipment I can't really evaluate the best mixing method myself.

This is the centerboard trunk with frame 2 and 4 attached. I checked the square on these multiple times but the tips of the frames are still a few 1/8ths of an inch off. This will be corrected by pulling them into alignment before I screw the sheer and chines in. As you can see my workspace is filling up as the structure is slowly added on to.

These are the "thickness enhancers" scabbed onto the sides of the frame 3 uprights. I'll have to trim them to the same size as the original pieces once the atcual frames are attached. This weekend I am hoping to get frame 3 attached to these wings and the frame 5/stem/deck beam assembly all glued up. I need a table saw to rip the long pieces of mahogany down to the right sizes for the sheers, chines, battens and keel. If anyone has a tablesaw they want to donate to my project let me know. I don't think I can rely on my parents for any more tool handouts.