Steve's Boat Blog

Last entry

2011-08-10T21:25:00.002-04:00

Now to wrap up a few loose ends. The boat and all the parts I had left went to a local JROTC unit. I have worked and sailed with their leader a few times so I knew it would be in good hands. They have the facilities and time to finish it up. Hopefully they will have as good a time working on the boat as I did.

It was sad to have to give up on my project, but I realize that it served its purpose. It kept me busy and gave me something to work on. I learned a lot about wood working also. If I build another one, I will go for smaller and/or quicker construction time. I think I could build the Glen-L 15 in about 1/3 the time if I had to do it again. The experience makes the second one MUCH easier. Also, I would spend much less time staring at the wood and more time working. I found out that the slow and methodical, with the ability to correct on the fly, is a necessary skill in boat building.

I wish that I had taken a picture as she rolled around the corner on a flatbed.

Boat paint

2011-03-14T21:31:00.004-04:00

I finally got my boat painted. Really I had to get something done since I have to move to Hawaii. It also turns out that it will cost me more to take my boat with me than to build a new one. So the boat must go. Anyone want to come pick it up?

Roll and tip

2010-11-15T20:02:00.002-05:00

So in all of my painting research I must have come across the phrase "roll and tip" about a thousand times. I really blew it off and didn't think twice about it. Until I was rolling my third coat of epoxy over the hull and I kept getting all these bubbles in the finish. I thought that it was supposed to get more smooth as I rolled more coats on! So I grabbed a little 1" wide brush and started drawing the tip across the surface of the epoxy. Viola! No more air bubbles. Why didn't I try this earlier? And why did I use this little 1" brush? Anyway, it worked awesome and I am relieved that I figured this method out before my paint looked funny. The epoxy is thick enough now, but I think I will put one more coat on after sanding this one smooth. I also read that for maximum time savings you can roll on the second coat of epoxy after the first is tacky, but not set yet. Coats 3 and 4 are dry and hard now so I get to clean and sand one more time for the final coat. I am now taking input for paint colors...

2nd Coat

2010-10-27T22:10:00.004-04:00

The wind has been blowing 10-15 knots for the last four days. I wish this thing were done and I could be sailing now. Anyway, I put another coat of epoxy on tonight. When I laid out the bottom and side fiberglass cloth pieces I didn't overlap the chines. So I added some 4in wide pieces along the chines and an extra layer along the bow. It takes a long time to wet out the strips, so you have to work fast so the epoxy doesn't set on you. I used a short nap paint roller for the first time. It worked OK, but seemed like it made a lot of air bubbles in the epoxy. Since I'll need a few more coats of epoxy to fill out and even up all the edges, I will have to experiment with keeping the bubbles out. I also added some strips along the centerboard trunk opening. I have one more piece of cloth to laminate on the bow. This should make beaching the boat, and any accidental docking mishaps, survivable.

I have also been thinking about finishing options. I was thinking today about how a home build boat should look like a homebuilt boat. That is to say, I will probably be somewhat lazy and not make all the rough parts perfectly smooth. I want it to look good, but if it looks like a fiberglass molded boat that came out of a factory, then I might as well have saved my time.

Sailing Passage

2010-10-02T14:34:00.002-04:00

Not necessarily progress on my boat, but I have signed up for an offshore passage from Annapolis, MD to Charleston, SC. The guys that set up the trip taught my US Navy Sailing instructor course earlier this year. The boat is a 42' Catalina named "Toujours L'audace" which means "The Always Daring" if Google Translate is to be trusted. The passage should take about a week. I am taking a train up to MD and I leave next Saturday. Words cannot describe how excited I am to go back to sea!

Glassed

2010-09-23T22:05:00.002-04:00

All the fiberglass cloth is down with one coat of epoxy. It really does wet out perfectly clear. You can still feel the weave of the fabric though. If I had to do it again I would have cut each side and the bottom piece bigger so they could overlap at the chines. If I can't cut enough strips out of the leftovers then I will have to get some tape (4in wide roll of fiberglass cloth) to do the chines and maybe the bow section. I used a 3in wide squeegee to smooth the epoxy into the cloth. The sides and transom were tough due to the angle they are at. Lots of drips. I guess I'll be sanding the floor after I flip the boat. I poured the epoxy right out of the mixing cup onto the sides, then tried to spread it before it ran off onto the floor. A wider squeegee might have helped. It takes a long time to get all the epoxy out of the cup since you have to work in small pours to minimize drips. A low flat pan might have kept the epoxy cooler, but I never got burned and the sense of urgency definitely helps keep you going. The bottom was easier but took a LOT of epoxy. I mixed three 16oz batches, although I did waste about 3oz. Better to have too much than not enough. The most frustrating part is getting the cloth to conform to edges. It really does not like the bow profile. The cut a slit in the cloth at the centerboard trunk, but the tabs that were left over were only about 1/2in on each side. That part did not want to stick. I ended up sloping some of the more gelled epoxy on it and hoping that it will stay. I will probably have to tape that area too. The good part is that I have plenty of epoxy for fill coats. I read that a 1/4in nap rolled works well, so my next hunt is for one of those.

Update 1

2010-09-07T21:23:00.003-04:00

The weather has been hot and the boat has been collecting dust. I have been filling all the screw holes and smoothing out the scarfed areas . I used a lot of fairing compound which makes the epoxy slurry MUCH easier to sand smooth. The hull is a few more sheets of sandpaper from being ready for the fiberglass cloth.

Hull Complete

2010-07-07T23:20:00.004-04:00

The hull is complete!! (ly made of wood now...) I spent the long weekend gluing and screwing and planing down the excess bits on the boat. It was worth it. I sanded it all up tonight so I can start filling holes and evening out all the rough (read: messed up) parts this week and weekend. I suppose I should think about some paint now...

Sanding epoxy makes a RIDICULOUS amount of dust. Which is really fine. And I have to dig out from under my eyelids when I take a shower. So maybe I need some goggles and a mask. And some plastic sheeting to protect everything else from looking like Cairo after a sandstorm. (ed note: I have no idea what Cairo looks like after a sandstorm.)

Planking fit-up tutorial

2010-07-01T22:02:00.001-04:00

I know that most of you will probably never build a boat, but this is for posterity, so I thought I would share some thoughts on how I fit the planking sections together on the bottom of my boat.

A long time ago (or about three weeks,) in a place far far away (well, my garage isn't that far) I glued the starboard (right half of the bottom planking down. Before I glued, I tried to fit it along a line I drew that was exactly in the middle of the keel. In a perfect world that would also be where the peak of the faired keel is. Since my world is perfect, and I took an excessive amount of time getting it right, (look at the length of time between blog posts people...) my first piece fit exactly right. Now the trick is to get the second side to meet the first with nary a gap. Look it up if you don't know what it means. Because of the bend that you put in the plywood you have to start with the second piece overlapping the first slightly, then trim it back to fight tightly. I did the rough shaping for the second side even before the first side was glued. With the aft and forward edges overlapping the centerline of the keel by about 3/8", the mid section was close enough. Most of the mid section is in the centerboard area and will be routed out anyway. I put some screws in the piece at this point to hold it in place. Then I bent it into position as best I could and drew a line around all the parts that would be trimmed off.

It is pretty easy to drag a pencil along the chine underneath the planking, but up front where there isn't much clearance i had to wiggle under the boat and draw from in there. The front section (forward of the most forward frame, has to butt up against the side planking. I scribed the top edge of the chine onto the planking, then used a scrap to mark back 1 1/2". (1" is half the chine size plus 1/2" for good measure.) Then I pulled the planking off and cut out the rough shape.

This is the shape after cutting. Notice the notch along the chine side. This is where the planking pieces switch from butt joint (two edges together) to a lap joint (one on top of the other.) The side planking already has that transition worked into it. At this point I am using drywall screws on scrap 2" squares of plywood to hold the piece in place temporarily. It's important to get your locating holes right because if they are not repeatable, your fitting will be wasted energy. At this point I reintroduce the first side and work on getting the fit just right.

I worked from the aft end of the center section that fit towards the transom to start. Have I mentioned my hand plane? It is the best arm workout (read: muscle destruction) tool I have found. I used jugs of epoxy resin to hold the pieces down so it was easy to see where more work was needed. You have to take the locating screws out where you are working so make sure some others are installed or your piece will slide off the boat.

Getting closer...

And there it is, a perfect fit. On that 4 foot section. Repeat forward of the centerboard trunk and you are really getting somewhere! I fit the pieces together all the way up to the transition from keel to stem piece. Then I glued the first bottom planking piece down. I installed the battens for the port (left) side while the right side bottom was drying. After it dried (not long in SC) I cleaned up any epoxy that would have prevented a tight fit and rechecked all my previously fit parts.

Now for the chine butt joint and the centerline butt to lap transition. It turns out that 1/2" is quite a lot when you have to use a hand plane to remove it. As everyone says (through gritted teeth with their arm in an ice bath,) "I am learning to love the simple functionality of a well sharpened hand plane." That is a bunch of malarkey! Nobody enjoys that pain. And my hand plane must have a special bronze magnet in it because it shaves silicon bronze screws every time I use it. I have learned how to sharpen it more quickly though. Anyway, again you work from the back forward to get the planking to fit right. I had to use the pull saw and the rasp in the transition area because the plane can't get all the way in there. Then I worked about 8-12" as a time. Since there is more pressure at the beginning of your plane stroke the first 4" of material comes off faster than the remaining length. This pulls the whole section into alignment slowly but surely. One gotcha is that the upper edge (along the keel and stem) must be securely fastened or the butt joint will take the wrong line. This happens because the wood bends differently depending on where it is constrained at. For the upper edge I picked a point right at the end of the keel to transition from butt to lap joint. I started by rasping away the first bottom piece at the angle planed into the stem. This makes the first bottom piece an extension of the stem/ planking mating area. Then you have to cut in the angle along the edge of the bottom planking going back toward the centerboard. Again I used a rasp in the area right up close to the transition point. The angle is steep due to the angle on the bottom planking in that are.

This is the final dry fit. Everything is ready fit gluing. At some point in here you will have to wiggle underneath the boat again and check that the frames and battens are hitting the bottom nice and flat. In order to drill the pilot holes for the screws along the battens I marked the batten locations from underneath the boat also. Then I flipped the piece and drilled inside to outside, flipped again and drilled countersunk pilot holes through the planking into the battens. I really shortened the pilot bit depth because I felt that I had a lot of non grabbing screws on the other side and I haven't sen any wood splitting yet. When the screws don't grab they don't go in all the way. Then they get in the way for fairing the hull. So there it is, planking fit up in a nutshell.

Starboard half bottom planking on

2010-06-16T19:02:00.004-04:00

Finally I feel like I made some progress. I have been spending the (relatively) cooler nights prepping the bottom planking for install. That includes fitting the two sides together and aligning them at the center of the keel, and pre-drilling 200 plus holes for screws.I know it's not nice to complain but it has been 90F+ with matching humidity for the last few days. A thunderstorm rolled through at about 4:30 in the afternoon yesterday and dropped the temp to 80F so it was a race to get the epoxy on. I coated the bottom planking first with an encapsulating coat on the inside. Then I waited about two hours (epoxy still tacky in the thick spots, but not cured in the thin) and mixed up the epoxy for gluing the planking to the frames. I cut out some notches along the outboard (uphill) side of the frames for drainage. I made sure these got a coating of epoxy to keep water from finding the wood.

The long leg is setting all the screws. I was happy that my cordless screwdriver had the juice to make it through all the screws without the second battery. I always try to make sure they are both ready when I start. The plans don't call for any fillets of epoxy on the inside of the frames but I will probably do them when I flip the hull anyway. Speaking of flipping the hull, this is the first notice that "Y'all" are invited. When a date is set i will let you know...

Battens

2010-05-27T21:12:00.003-04:00

I finally installed the bottom battens, at least on one side. I faired the frames so the planking would sit flat, then notched them for the battens. I only needed two shims on the frames to get the battens to the right level. I used the tried and true handsaw and chisel method to make the notches in the frames.

I used a clamp on the front end of the outside batten to make it closer to the curve of the bottom planking. I glued and screwed them in the afternoon so tomorrow I should be ready to get the bottom planking on. It has already been fitted and just needs some holes drilled before I glue it on. The plywood you see on the left of the picture is the bottom planking for the right hand side. Of course, it is 80F+ in Charleston so I may just spend tomorrow at the pool...

Second side glued and a trailer

2010-05-16T22:33:00.005-04:00

I bought a trailer for my as yet unfinished boat. It also has a boat attached to it, so now I have one and a half (maybe 9/16ths) boats. By the price was right and the trailer looks perfect for when my boat is done. The boat is an unknown vintage Butterfly. The boat way complete except for three missing battens for the sail and drain plug. The previous owner said he used tape to plug the hole. So far the list of repairs includes refinishing the wood bits, loosening up the kick up rudder parts and adding a drain plug and access hatch.

I looked up the trailer by itself and they are still being made, which is a bonus for parts. The Butterfly has a two part mast so it can fit on the boat during trailering. I will have to add an extension to the jack stand to hold the mast for my boat.

Speaking of my boat, I glued the other side planking in place. The side was coated with epoxy last week when I glued up the other side. I had to rough up the epoxy along the gluing area so the epoxy would stick.

This is the latest photo. Both sides are glued and trimmed to size. Some of the screws were in the way so I had to cut through them. I guess my pre-drilling was a little off. Next up is some fairing and install of the bottom battens. In the back of the picture you can see my wood refinishing station. I hope that the boat that floats doesn't distract me from the one that doesn't.

First side installed

2010-05-09T22:34:00.002-04:00

I finished gluing the first side planking onto the frame! after a few nights working until midnight I had everything fitted and drilled and ready to glue. I had it on good advice that I should coat the insides of the planking before attaching it to the boat. This saves all those knuckle busting tight spots after it's all together. I mixed WAY too much epoxy, and ended up coating both side pieces and still having left overs to pour out. I know better how much to mix now.

I hope the second side will go faster now that I have an idea of what it's supposed to look like.

More Scarfing

2010-04-26T20:58:00.004-04:00

After my last scarfs I didn't want to do any more. But having made successful ones gives you a certain confidence to make more. So I set out to add some width to my side planking pieces with a lengthwise scarf. Ironically, the reason I ripped the plywood into smaller widths was to avoid having to make a 4ft wide scarf joint that lined up well enough to be strong. So this one is about 5ft long and was actually less time consuming to make. I used the power planer for the rough shape. I bough the thing for my first scarfing adventure, but I was too afraid of ruining the expensive plywood to use it for much of the actual shaping. You really have to trust that it's only shaving off 1/32nd of an inch at a time as it grinds the edge into fine shavings. The trade-off is that the power planer is much faster than a random orbital sander and a pack of 60-grit sandpaper. I used the sander to touch up and remove any step edges left over, but this was much shorter than making the whole scarf. That extra makes the side planking fit just right. Well, close anyway, and probably much better after some hours of fitting. I also dug out the pieces I cut for bottom battens and cut them to size. Here is the latest look.

Sheers done

2010-03-30T20:39:00.004-04:00

The final sheer piece is clamped in place and drying. I could have saved myself about 3 months of working on these &^%@ sheers if I hadn't broken one. Next time I'll know better. Hopefully this will be strong enough to get the job done.

I have been working on some fairing (the new "F" word,) since it has been too cold to epoxy anything. Most of the aft frames and keel are close to faired.Once the clamps come off the sheer I can get the side panels into place and check my fairing. I also made and fitted the seat cleats for the transom while I was at it. Positioning them correctly was a feat in itself. I slid under the frame with my saw guide (a really long straight edge.) After checking that the seat supports at the frames were level, I held the saw guide up along the seat supports to see where the level line lands on the transom. Then I used a level to draw the line the cleat lines up to.

I used the extra epoxy to fill in some screw holes.

I was considering buying a small sailboat to mess around on until this one is finished, but that might reduce my motivation somewhat.

Bending wood

2010-03-09T19:30:00.004-05:00

Since breaking my important chine member (see previous posts,) I have come up with a much better method of bending and shaping wood. See illustrated guide below.

First you must gather all the necessary equipment. I am bending a thin piece of wood so I have the wood, clamps, old towels, a strap for tension and boiling water. And you must include a cute child for the process to work correctly. Fortunately we have all the required ingredients in ample supply in my garage.

While the water is getting hot, set up the bending rig. I measured the length of the piece I needed and the depth of the bend. I bent the piece past the intended bend since I think some of the bend will come out when I release the tension.

The work piece gets a clamp on each end. I used some scrap pieces between the clamp and the work piece to avoid nasty marks. Then I wrap some old towel around the work piece and put the strap around the clamps. Since both clamps are aligned on one side of the work piece the strap tension will put a bend in the work piece.

And this is the end result. I left the towels on for 24 hours and plan on leaving the pieces in tension for at least two days. When it comes to gluing, clamps and screws will hold these pieces to the chine pieces that are already sprung around the frames. This pre-bending will make the fit-up and prep work easier. Since the weather is warming up, but not quite broken, a few days of prep work will serve to get me back in the boat building mind set before I make anything permanent. I will be out of town this weekend so hopefully Charleston's 70F+ weather is here to stay.

Progress update

2010-03-04T21:33:00.003-05:00

Here is the latest picture of where I am on the boat. You can see the chines and sheers are in place, almost. Some areas on the sheers need their second layer. Much of the keel and chines are faired. Once I get the sheers up to full thickness I will do the final frame fairing.

Back in the saddle

2010-03-03T20:12:00.002-05:00

Between last weekend and this week it is finally warm enough to move back outside for a few hours each day. For me that means that the long, harsh winter is almost over (why do we care if a rodent sees a shadow anyway?) Most of you will disagree with the "harsh" characterization of my winter here in Charleston, but it really did pain me to have to see my unfinished boat each day without working on it. I am finally ready to get some use out of the new plane my parents sent me for Christmas. It's a good thing I have them our my warchest of tools would be much slower in growing.

From everything I have read online all planes are shipped from the manufacturer with a less than a perfect setup. This may be why I took so long to fall in love with my first plane. A plane really is a "hand" tool and need to be babied if you want it to work very well. From my research, the first thing you should do with a new plane is take it all apart, clean the packaging grease off (it's there to prevent rust) and sharpen the blade. I was under the impression that some machine in the factory would take care of the blade sharpening for me in one pass of some supper sharpener the might last a fraction of a second. This is either beyond the capabilities of our modern factories, deemed an unnecessary freebie for the customer by some tea-totaler or just an oversight. Whatever the reason, my blade came looking like it had been shaped by a dying CNC machine. I never really paid attention to "tool marks" on plane blades or chisels until about this weekend. Now they are the enemy. Nothing takes care of your enemies like Samurai!

The traditional way to sharpen a blade involves a sharpening stone of some sort and water stones seem to be a good choice for the woodworker. In my research I came across an applicable quote by Abraham Lincoln. "If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend six hours sharpening my ax." Since the man was known for never telling a lie, I believe him.

To sharpen the blade you start with the back. Lay the flat side of the blade on the 800 grit side of the stone with some water and scrape away. Both sides of the stone feel smooth to the touch but they cut the metal blade easily. After about two minutes the tool marks are gone and the back of the blade is a dull gray color. Then you fit the plane blade in the contraption at the top of the picture. It's essentially a jig that holds the blade at the right angle for sharpening while rolling on the wheel at the bottom. Simple trig gives the blade protrusion for different angles. Since the thing is made in China, the ones printed on the side are in millimeters, which no one can translate to 16ths of an inch on the fly with any accuracy (at least not in my garage.) Anyway, five minutes on the cutting angle turned it into a dull wood shaving machine. This raises a curl of metal, called a "burr," on the flat back side of the blade. So you flip the blade and give it one or two passes to get rid of the burr. Then we switch to the 8000 side. I didn't remove the blade from the jig because I am pretty sure there is no way you could match the protrusion close enough to grind the same exact angle twice. I didn't really believe that my blade would have a mirror finish like so many how-to's claimed it should. But there I was staring back at me! A few more passes and I called it good enough for boat work.

I also sharpened the blade on my other plane since I had never really done that before. I didn't know what I was missing out on. I was so excited about my newly sharp tools that I set to work on the chine to stem interface. A lot of stem had to come off to make the joint look fair. Of course plywood and epoxy will cover this eventually so my beautiful plane work will be covered for the sake of "watertight integrity." I'll still know that it looks REALLY good under the skin.

Beating the cold

2009-11-07T20:57:00.003-05:00

I had to find a way to keep up progress even thought the weather is getting cold. It's still nice during the day, but the nights are cold. I have to put the epoxy in the sun to warm it up so it mixes well. The wood pieces can be harder to get up to temperature. I got some tarps and a space heater to build a heated area for the parts I am working on. I have a digital thermometer to keep an eye on temperature.

As long as it stays above 70F I think the epoxy will dry just fine. I finished the scarf joints on my redo with this method. On my new scarf joints I also used some finish nails to hold the joints together. I shot the brads through some thin pieces of plywood. The plywood spreads the pressure to keep the whole joint smashed evenly. It also makes the brads much easier to remove. So all of my scarfs are done now. Since I broke one of my sheers I decided to take some pro builder advice. I band sawed my sheers into thinner strips so they will bend easier. Then after I sawed them in half I realized that they might break just as easy now that they are thin. While I was pondering my next move I decided that maybe it was time to try some of the bending methods suggested by other boat builders. Since I still had not fastened the front end of the chines to the stem, I figured they would work as test pieces. I wrapped the chines in a beach towel and doused them with boiling water. I pulled the straps tight to bring the ends together at the stem. No problem at all!

I wish I would have tried out this advice before I broke my sheer! I put bend and twist in the chine in about 45 minutes.

Now I wish I hadn't sliced the sheers. If I build another one I'll know better. The weather was great this weekend so I wish I had more pieces ready to glue. At least I have my tarp/heater method.

Bad scarf

2009-10-29T22:06:00.003-04:00

This is what a bad scarf looks like. That lip is about 1/8" tall and the gap extends 1 1/4" into the scarf. My first scarfs had a small gap, but this was unacceptable. I am unwilling to put myself into a dry boat that has only 2/3 of a 1/4" plywood bottom scarf. Too much potential for wetness. Actually, I considered just packing the gap with epoxy and forgetting about it. The outside gets another coat of epoxy and fiberglass and the inside gets at least one more coat of epoxy. But the still, small voice inside said that I should do it the Right Way. So I measured the length of plywood that I would need and lucky for me I could still make one more scarfing attempt! I cut out the bad scarf and am in the process of re-sanding the angle so I can try again. I am not sure what I screwed up last time. It seams like there are two possibilities, the alignment and the squeeze. The alignment means getting the two angles matched up correctly. If they were too on top of each other it would cause the lifting of the tips. But the rest of the face would match up and there wouldn't be a void, provided there was sufficient pressure. The squeeze refers to the pressure applied to the joint during glue time. I think you can compensate for some mis-alignment with enough pressure to smash it all together. The problem lies in too much squeeze, which would push all the glue out, making all my hard work for naught. Since the lifted tip runs the whole length (almost) of the scarf, I assume that pressure was approximately even but maybe just not enough. It's worth mentioning that my sanded angles were not perfect, but not that bad either. Like I mentioned in my last post, I didn't use two mixes of epoxy. I have learned that epoxy covers all mistakes, and in this case the extra might have filled in the gap I left. Since my angles are much closer to perfect this time, I will have to load up the epoxy, crank down the clamps and triple check the alignment. A dry fit might be in order too.

All good times must come to an end

2009-10-18T20:31:00.003-04:00

I never thought I would be waiting on the weather so I could work on my boat. The Charleston summer was long, hot and humid as always. Plenty of building time that I squandered doing who knows what. But since it has gotten much colder and I am pretty sure epoxy doesn't like the cold, I wait for better weather. I suppose at some point I will just get a space heater so I can make the garage warm when I need to glue something. Today while I waited I moved on to the sheer notches. The first thing I learned is that I should have at least cut the base notches while the frames were upright. Upside down, while laying on the cold concrete, when you can't move to see both sides of the wood to check your line is not an easy cut. I did manage to get all the notches cut in one afternoon. And they were close to what they needed to be.

Since my chines needed no steam to make their bends I figured that the sheers wouldn't need it either. NOT a good guess. I just wanted to see how it would look (I am sure I am not the only one who has done this,) and, SNAP! The sheer snapped right at frame 5. It didn't break completely through, it just split the outside where the wood was being stretched. No creaking, no cracking, just SNAP.I don't know how I can fix this one. This piece is perfect for the sheer (well, before I broke it,) So I would love to salvage it. I could scarf on another piece since the break is toward the end. I thought about packing the break with epoxy (lots of surface area in there) and flipping the sheer around. The break would be on the compressive side and I would be sure to steam the sheer before I tried to bend it again. I will actually steam the sheer anyway before I try to bend anything again. I guess I got lucky with the chines, but I am not going to rely on that anymore. To add insult to a bad work day I found one of my chine glue joints with a crack in it.

I don't know why it cracked, it just did. Maybe it was too cold to dry right. Maybe it was mixed wrong (nah.) Whatever the case, since the crack is only on one side of the joint, I don't think I need to worry too much. I will probably just sand it down and re-filet the joint to make it look nice. So, all in all, a productive weekend. I love when work makes you've done makes you think about how to fix it.

Gluing Chines

2009-10-12T23:48:00.003-04:00

I decide that if I ever want to get this boat done I had better start really working on it. No nights off for Monday Night Football! This was reaffirmed when I was mixing epoxy tonight and something just didn't feel right. It was 65F in Charleston, SC, a sure sign that fall is coming quick. Epoxy has a different consistency when it is too cold; it really liked our 80F+ summer days. I was mixing epoxy for the chines. After many hours fitting, clamping, marking, un-clamping, chiseling, rasping, fitting and clamping again (and again) I decided that enough was enough. I drilled the pilot holes (not without incident) and set to mixing the epoxy. I made up some shims so the chines sat in their notches perfectly. These got coated first and set in place. Then each of the notches and the chines got a dousing with epoxy. I wanted to make sure there was plenty to go around. Then I sunk the 2" bronze screws and removed the clamps. I fit and cut the chines from the front so the length and angles would be correct. Now that I am actually gluing them up I am starting at the back.

Looks better without the clamps. I glued the chines from the transom all the way to the front of the centerboard trunk. Since the front parts of these get really tweaked on, I will wait a few days before I do that part. In the mean time I still have my wide bottom plywood panels to get scarfed and the sheer (upright to deck joint) notches cut out. Knowing what I do know about fitting the chines, the sheers should be easier...

So you are probably wondering what this is. The picture actually doesn't do the MASSIVE hole in the chine justice. In fitting the chines I actually dry fit and screwed them in so I could make shims. Turns out that 2" #10 screws don't want to come out so easy. This one (of 4) was finally stripped so bad that there was no saving it. I drilled out the head, but still it held. I tried to drill out the shaft and broke two drill bits, and still it held. I switched to drilling out the wood around the shaft, broke another drill bit, and still it held. I used a screw driver as a chisel, mangled and enlarged the hole until I was sure that I was endangering the integrity of chine, but still it held! Finally, after about 30 minutes of work I loosened the screws dead grip on the wood enough to pry the chine away from the frame. Then I still had to get the screw out of the frame! I really need some vice grips. Since I am now confident that this particular piece of mahogany is pretty much indestructible, I drilled a new hole right next to the gaping wound and filled the gouge in with epoxy. Due to the close proximity, I also filled in the screw head. I actually thought to myself that that simple action may not have been wise, "just in case" I needed to unscrew this particular screw. I should have known that my much under developed boat building senses were picking up a problem. I didn't fill any other screw heads. As I was wiping up the excess epoxy and making each joint look good, I felt a small protrusion behind the mangled chine/ frame joint. The shim that was supposed to be underneath the chine had somehow slipped behind it. So now not only was the space underneath the chine all epoxy, but the shim was trashing my hard work to make the back side of the chine fit the frame snugly! Double whammy! Lucky for me I was way ahead of that slippery shim. I had packed that joint (all of them actually...) so full of epoxy that I am sure it won't make much difference. And while the excessive use of epoxy may have contributed to the shifty shim's quick escape, I think I still won this round.

Scarfing

2009-10-12T23:21:00.003-04:00

I began the sanding process for my scarfed panels about two weeks ago. I have one set for the sides that is 19" wide and one set for the bottom which is 29" wide. The 19" ones were shaped first so I decided to put my scarf jig to the test. The jig can be seen it a previous post, but it consists of a 4' x 4' piece of 3/4" plywood, a 6' piece of STRAIGHT el cheapo pine and a 2 x 4. To get even pressure on the joint I planed down the ends of the 2 x 4 to enhance the boards natural camber. I used two bolts to hold it all together while the epoxy dried. Since the exposed part of the plywood is essentially all end-grain (likes to soak up epoxy) I mixed two successive batches. The plywood didn't soak up as much as I thought it should, so next time I'll just mix up one slightly larger batch. Epoxy will chemically bold to itself if it is not cured yet, so pre-coating with one batch, then using another to actually stick the pieces together produces a very strong bond. You get about 45 minutes from what I have read. Since My plywood didn't look like it was going to soak up any more epoxy I only waited about 10 minutes between batches. After clamping it all together I had to stay out of the garage for a day so I wouldn't be tempted to release it early.
The finished panel is 15'9" since the two 8' panels overlap 3". That is a pretty long panel to move. Since the epoxy won't be at it's ultimate strength for about 5 days (maybe longer, it's getting cooler here) I was worried about moving them. Even with the widest grip I could manage I still had visions of plywood snapping. The scarf joints actually look pretty good. There are some spots where glue didn't squeeze out, but when I tested them with my finger they are hard about 1/4" under the edge. I will fill these with epoxy before I put the panel on the boat (and put that side toward the inside.)

More chine work...

2009-10-04T21:08:00.005-04:00

I worked on fitting the chines better this weekend. To add on to my last post, I needed a way to fix my wavy chine. After some thought, advice from those who have gone before me and looking at how the other side fits, I decided that the best way to fix the problem was to add some material to the frame. That way the bottom of the hull will be supported and everything will have a nice "boatly" shape. Boat building, like life, is all about the recovery. I think that the problem actually stems from not getting the angles exact enough when I made the frames. Since that was a long time ago, I'm going to let that one go.

The chines match well across the hull. There is about a 1/8" difference left and right. Both chines make a nice curve and hit the frames at all the right spots. I am working out where the chines will intersect with the stem.They are very well matched at the stem so I won;t have to adjust them too much.

I am also setting up to cut the chines for gluing to the stem. The angle is tricky and compound so the best way to cut it is to pull the chine tight to the stem and use the stem as a guide. I just have to find a way to keep the chines tight while I start the cut. This picture was taken with a little bit of elbow grease and a lot of twist put on the chine. The trick is to hold it there while I cut it. Anyone have a hand to lend?
Once again my boat work timeline is more optimistic than life really allows for.

Chine fitting

2009-10-02T20:09:00.004-04:00

I started fitting the stbd chine I quickly found my first chine problem. Either the angle that I glued frame 1 at is wrong or something else doesn't line up right. I cut the notch in frame 1 first. Of course when I made the frames with plywood gussets six months ago I was not as careful as I could have been. I had to cut right through a nail. This was not starting well. Since the nails are made with rings shanks, ribs around the nail shaft, they don't want to come out easily. A hammer, screwdriver, sliced thumb, chisel and two sets of pliers later the nail was finally out. The chine looked great fitted between the transom and frame 1. But when I cut the notch in frame 2, (working forward,) the chine didn't fit into frame 2 so well. I continued cutting the rest of the notches thinking that once I bent the chine into place it might be tweaked into the notch better.

That was not the case. The chine rides high in the frame 2 and 3 notches. If I clamp it down tight to frame 3's notch then it fits from frame 3 forward just fine. But it still rides just less than 1/2" high at frame 2. If I clamp the chine into the frame 2 notch then it has a nice wave shape, not the "flowing curves" that the plans call for. So I have to think this recover through. Frame 1's notch is holding the chine too high as it comes off the transom. If I cut the notch deeper into frame 1 then I will have to take off a lot (1/2" maybe?) of frame 1 material to make the top of the chine match the frame. I could let the chine ride high since there is plenty of chine material and fill in the 1/2" gap at frame 2. Either way I want the curve to be nice and smooth and I think both will accomplish that. I wish I knew which was the offending piece. I (briefly) thought about remaking frame 1. Since it is already EPOXIED to the keel, that thought passed quickly. Not impossible, but thats the first word that comes to mind.

I still have some cleanup work to do on the notches. On my frame 1 notch I was super careful to mark the angle of the chine as it was clamped around the outside of the frame before I cut the notch. The notch was off anyway so I decided that the others would start with a rough cut and then I would fine tune the notch once the chine was closer to it's final resting place. A few more hours of work and it might be ready for some epoxy. Maybe even this weekend...

Keel glued in place!

2009-09-27T19:23:00.006-04:00

I took the plunge and glued down the keel. I have spent about a week (ok, maybe only 7 hours or so) fitting it along the frames and centerboard trunk. I cut the centerboard slot with my jig saw. The jig saw (or maybe it was me) didn't make the straightest cut so I also had to spent some time with the rasp. I checked the alignment once again and clamped the keel in place. The plans call for 28 screws and two 7" bolts to hold it all in place. I pre-drilled all the holes, being sure to recess the screws deep enough to allow for planing the keel to a point. Then I roughed all the glue spots up with some sandpaper and set to gluing. I put the clamps on for good measure, but they are mostly show after all the screws.

I had a little gap where the keel attached to the stem so I made a shim piece on the sander to fill the gap. Gap + shim + lots of epoxy = (look deep into the epoxy)The gluing was a little hectic with this piece. I knew it was going to take a good amount of epoxy but the pieces were not very big. It's time consuming to spread the epoxy on the thin sides around the centerboard hole. I kept checking the clock and time kept marching on. I put the transom end in first and the keel to stem bolts didn't fit into their holes. So I had to un-clamp the transom and knock it into place a little better. The I bolted the keel and stem together. I worked back toward the transom with screws. I finally learned to slather the epoxy on thick so it will fill all the nooks and crannies. Epoxy squeezed out all along the keel so I must have used enough. With the keel in place it is starting to look like a boat. I can move on to fitting the chines and sheers now. I am also starting on my scarf joints. I ripped two 4x8 sheets of 1/4" plywood to make the sides and bottom pieces. I set them up stepped back 3" each and sanded down to a smooth angle. Now I have to glue them up. I got a straight piece of wood for a guide and fastened it to some base material. Now I have to figure out how to put some pressure on the joint as it dries. Then it's just a matter of epoxy.So a little more work and then the pieces will need about a week to fully cure before I try bending them too much. I am hoping that they will cure while I fit the sheers and chines. That's the plan anyway.

Let's talk about a mast

2009-09-15T21:12:00.004-04:00

About two months ago I was looking for an outboard, a trailer and a mast on craigslist. I found a mast which is a definite start. The ad was for a Hobie 14 mast. A little research found the lenght of a Hobie 14 mast to be 22'3". That's close enough for my purposes to the 22' spec on the plans. $200 got me a mast, 10' aluminium boom (exactly lenght the plans call for,) an old sail, the standing rigging, some jib tracks, jib block/cam cleat combos and a swivel cam cleat for the main sheet. Not a bad haul I thought.
Since the mast is made for an all aluminium framed Hobie I will have to adapt it to my purposes. I sketched out the shape on a block of wood that I will mount to the keel. I have to sand it down to shape it. This is the base piece that mounts to the Hobie frame (my keel.) The hole in the back is for a connecting piece that is used to step the mast. Once upright and stayed, the pin can be removed and the mast is free to rotate. This rotating action increases the performance of the Hobie sail. I don't think that my boat will tap the high performance aspect
This is a little graphic of the process. My Picassa skills are unrivaled even by professionals. The sticker reminds you that aluminium will indeed conduct electricity if you happen to hit a high voltage power line.

I am still searching for a trialer and an outboard. You never know when the wind may die.

Keel work

2009-09-15T16:55:00.005-04:00

I finally got the piece of wood I needed for the keel. Mahogany is not getting any cheaper. I still don't have a table saw so I used my trusty saw guide. The rip process generates a colossal amount of sawdust, (reference earlier post) so I cut the piece outside. South Carolina's weather is perfect for boat building right now. Not too hot, lots of sunshine.

I left the frames un-notched as I aligned them on the building form, so I had to notch the frames to accept the keel. The notches were layed out in pencil first.

Then cut and chiseled to their final shape.

And of course I don't have a picture of the final product. My initial pencil was a little off from what I ended up needing. In order to make a nice curve I had to bevel some of the notches. I also smoothed them to make a nice flat surface to bond to. I really don't want to screw this one up.

This is the keel dry fit along the frames. I think I am going to need more clamps, in addition to the screws I will use, to hold the keel to the frames and centerboard trunk while the epoxy dries. It takes a fair amount of force to make a tight fit right now so I probably need some more fitting work. Witness this section at the stem.

I also need to cut out the hole for the centerboard. Since the bedlogs that run the length of the centerboard trunk are bowed out a bit the slit may have to be egg shaped. I thought about pulling the bedlogs together with a clamp while I glue and screw the keel, but I think that when the clamp comes off the bedlogs will try to split the keel at the front and back of the hole. This requires more though before I proceed.

Alignment continues

2009-09-07T21:46:00.004-04:00

I finished the transom blocking. The blocking might not stand up to severe abuse, but it only has to last until the keel solidifies the arangement. All the measurements stayed the same overnight so it works well enough.

I also layed out the stem and frame five. I had to make this good looking piece of blocking to hold the bow at the right height. I only wish I could make it a permanant piece. It really turned out good. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the stem.

Unfortunately the stem is a l-i-t-t-l-e twisted. It took me a little over two hours to figure this out. I don't know if the humidity did it but the stem is curved to the right. With a straight edge across it there is a 1/4" gap in the center. I tried to align frame 5 off of frame 4 and hope that the stem would be close enough. I found out that frame 4 is not quite perfectly square. But the transom through frame 3 are spaced perfect! So I spaced frame 5 off of frame 3. Now all I have to worry about is getting the stem square. I tweaked the stem and blocked it in place. If you look close you can see the block. I think it is a little closer than before, but I need a plum bob or some such item to make sure it is actually straight now. So the quest for the final alignment still continues. As for frame 4, it's only off a little bit, so I think that mistake will fade under the epoxy.

Keel. Chines. Sheers. Battens. Planking. Glass. Flip. Sail! So close.

Alignment

2009-09-06T22:57:00.007-04:00

I am pretty sure that this next part is the MOST critical. The old story goes like this. The frame alignments are off a little. So the planking doesn't go on right. Then water leaks in unbeknownest to the captain. Soon enough the fasteners rot, the epoxy comes unglued and the boat sinks. So, that's what I am up against. Needless to say, I don't want to rush it. So I started with the frame 2, 3, 4 and centerboard assembly. This part was easy; all I had to do was L bracket it in place. All the dimensions are set in epoxy already, so there's no going back now. There is about 1/8" to 1/4" difference in distance between the left and right sides of some of the frames. I will either have to live with it or put the frames at the right dimensions and hold them with the chines and sheers.

Frame 1 had to be notched into the building form so it would sit level. I measured the distance from frame 2 to locate frame 1. You can see the L bracket used to hold it down.
The transom was the next piece I set up. It has to be at an angle and it doesn't touch the rest of the frame. So I had to align a free floating piece with the rest of the frame in three dimensions. After several tries I came up with a workable method. I attached two 2x4 blocks cut at the transom angle on one side and vertical on the other. Then I used some 1x4's to adjust the vertical dimension while using a level and tape-measure to align the distance from frame 1. Left- right was taken care of by extending the sides of the building frame with a square and checking the distance from centerline.

On the far side of these pieces are the marks I used to set the vertical height. Basically it was a ruler drawn out on the 1x4 and an alignment mark on the 2x4 block. I still have to finish up by bracing it all in place. I will have to do some final chisel work on the chine, sheer and batten notches so the transom will have to be held in place pretty well.

I had to add these little pieces of floor timber back to frame 5 to allow it to sit on the building form correctly. I cut them off to allow the floor timber to attach to the frame without interfering with the gussets. I tried lining up frame 5, which also has the stem attached to it, but I think that the stem may not be exactly square. I can't get the frame 4-5 distance equal on both sides while keeping the stem aligned along the center of the boat. I hope it is because I haven't tried hard enough.

These last two give an overview of what the whole thing looks like so far. I cleaned up all the tools from between the frames. I need to lock down the transom and the frame 5/stem assembly and I will be bending chines. I have read that epoxy covers a multitude of mistakes. I hope it will cover mine. And be waterproof.

Timely advice saves fingers (maybe)

2009-09-02T17:55:00.007-04:00

Beyond being ingeniously executed, my table saw plans may have lacked a little bit of practicality. The table itself was a little undersized. And a little light. And TERRIFYING to use. And the battens are only 12 ft long. So I needed a better method to cut the 16 ft chine and sheer I had left to do. The method suggested by a commenter was exactly what I was doing before, but it made me rethink how I was doing it. I realized that I could cut off either side of the wood. That allowed me to set up the guide on the other side of the saw so I could finish the rip. Putting the workpiece on sawhorses also makes life easier. Why didn't I think of that earlier! Cutting these last pieces was much easier than this weekend's adventures.

This is my straight edge clamped to the work piece and some scrap support 2X6's. For this last cut the straight edge was actually off the work piece due to the warp of the wood. To keep it all together and hold it stable I put a drywall screw into the edge of the work piece. Drywall screws are the most versatile faster ever made. If I wasn't sure they would rust after about 5 min of water contact I would have used them for this project.

This is a detail of the straight edge setup. I measured the distance between the edge of the saw blade and the edge of the foot of the saw. I had to think about which side of the blade I should be measuring to for about 5 min to make sure I got it right. Then you add this offset to the width of the piece you need. Set the straight edge up with a few clamps and you are in business. I cut about 3 inches into the piece then checked to make sure my width was right.

This is my workspace right now. The next step is clean up. Then I will align the frames and start bending the chines and sheer into place. I didn't realize how much bend these pieces will have until now. Wait, I still don't have a keel! AHHHHHHH! So the next step would be to make the keel. And brace the frames and transom in place so I can bend the chines and sheers around them. I feel like I've been here before...

Necessity is the father of invention

2009-08-30T22:16:00.005-04:00

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

2009-08-21T23:11:00.005-04:00

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

2009-08-08T14:10:00.007-04:00

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.

Where was I?

2009-07-14T23:16:00.002-04:00

As this is my first entry in a month, some may wonder where I was. Lightning struck our house about a month ago. No fire, but all of our electronics were toasted. So, no blogging for a while. In addition I was sick that same week so I did not accomplish much boat work anyway. The lack of progress kills your motivation, which makes you want to work even less. This is how projects get dropped in their prime. Anyway, about two weeks ago my parents visited. My dad built a boat when he was younger, (his plans cost $2"back then") so he was excited to help with my project. The progress from those few days has fueled a new building kick. Now if only work would slow down so I have more free time! I will add some pictures when I get a chance, but here is the completed list so far. The CB trunk is square at both ends with frame 4 attached to the forward end. The stem/breasthook assembly is epoxied and shaped to the required angles. (Thanks to my dad for contributing a belt sander to the tool shed.) The transom bevel is cut. I need to attach frame 2 to the aft end of the CB trunk and make the frame 3 spacers (see previous frame 3 mistakes in blog) then I will be ready for the keel to link it all together. Progress!

Taking stock

2009-06-09T23:18:00.004-04:00

So I thought I might show off just where 50 board feet of mahogany, two sheets of 1/4", one sheet of 3/4" marine plywood and a metric ton of epoxy has gotten me. So feast your eyed on the best looking boat parts you've ever seen. Layed out. In a garage. In chronological order of their completion. for a boat that someone you know is building. (I bet I'm the only person you know building one of these...) A summary of learning experiences accompanies each piece.

Stem. This is the first part that I glued together and it shows. If you remember the infamous bubbling epoxy post you know I did this one in a hurry. I don't know how much epoxy is actually in there between the two layers. It only squeezed out in a few places. I hope it holds.

Transom. This is the very back end of the boat. This layout took me 4 hours. Then I realized I could use a miter saw to cut perfect angles instead of planing bad ones. The rest of the layout for the remaining frames takes about 45 minutes. I still have to cut an 18 degree bevel around the sides and bottom of the transom. Seriously, 18 degrees? My (awesome) Skil saw only has marks every 5 degrees. How am I going to find 18? This might take a while.

Centerboard trunk. Still not technically done due to the misalignment of frame 3 uprights. You know what, I don't want to talk about this anymore. Too painful. All I can say is measure, mark and measure again. Then repeat. And repeat again. Then erase all the stray marks so you use the right ones.

Frames. From right to left in the picture are frame 1 through frame 5. Frame 2 is the only one that has a full width bottom piece. The rest need to be joined in the middle with a piece of 3/4" plywood. The plywood is cut but I haven't got the courage to set the angles in epoxy yet. If you never try, you can't fail. You also can't build a boat.

Epoxy. Ah, the "good stuff." Epoxy fills all "mistakes" and will pretty much bond any two porous surfaces. The tensile strength is 9500 psi which means the wood will break apart before a good epoxy joint will. And it's waterproof. I don't think a better product has been invented.

I also have a box full of scraps and two curved pieces for the deck in the fwd end of the boat. Plus two boards waiting to be ripped down to size for various longitudinals on the boat.

So there's the rundown. I actually don't have anything really done-done. Just in a semi-presentable state that looks good in pictures. I'm glad I did this so I could get a list together of what I need to do. I sure hope it starts looking more like a boat when it all goes on the building form.

Rip

2009-06-09T22:51:00.004-04:00

Even when you pay a lot for good wood it still has a curve in it. Since I can't feed it through a table saw or a jointer to square it up I had to do it the old fashioned way. Actually I have no idea what the old fashioned way is but I bet it involved a lot of time with a dull hand tool and some cursing. I used a 100" saw guide and an 18 tooth rip blade on my circular saw. I have to mention that this Skil saw has been the best $5 my Mom ever spent on me (garage sale deal.) 18 teeth don't make a very neat cut, but if the blade had any more it would have taken hours to finish.

Anyway, once you know the offset between the blade and the edge of the saw's base all you do is line it up. I used a chalk line to figure out how much I would have to take off. On the 16' board I lost 1 1/4"! I should take that part back and get a refund. You can see the two triangle pieces that were cut off of each end in the picture below. In the middle the saw took off less than a blade's width (called a kerf) or about 1/16". Just enough to cut the rough off. The guide is only 100", which is not enough to cover the length of a 16' board. I have to stop and move the guide half way through the cut. I thought this would give me a lot of headaches but it turned out to be easier than I thought.

A rip cut also generates a colossal amount of sawdust. The pile I swept up must have been about $10 worth of wood. Now that these pieces are straight on one side I can use a table saw to rip the rest of the widths that I need. This piece will eventually be the chines and sheers that run the length of the boat. I also squared a 13' piece that will be the battens along the bottom of the hull.

Finished frames (well, not all of them)

2009-06-08T22:40:00.004-04:00

I finished frames 1 and 3. You can see below that 2 and 4 are half way there. This run of epoxy I worked faster, but mixed less than I should have. I still have to flip frame 4 and gusset the other side, and frame 2 needs more gussets also. I ran out of epoxy before I could get to the other end of frame 2. I was worried about not having enough glue on each of the mating surfaces, but epoxy oozed out all around the pieces when they were nails together. No split wood that I can see yet (knock on, ... wood.)

My 8 year old thinks that boat building is the most fun thing to happen this summer. She asked if we could go sailing the first day the boat was done. Of course I said yes. Then she asked "What if you finish it at midnight?" I was stumped. Since I usually work on the boat at night I probably will finish it at midnight.

These last frames are ready to be joined at the centerline. More work tomorrow hopefully. If I get all the frames completed by Thursday when I have to start teaching I will be in good shape. Boat work always takes me much longer than I think it should. Every time I think I'll just run down to the garage and glue up some pieces it takes me three hours start to finish. I guess thats the definition of a hobby.

Frames finally!

2009-06-08T16:22:00.003-04:00

I got half of the frames done today. I made up each side and glued and nailed one gusset to frames 1 through 3. With so many pieces to spread the epoxy on I was worried I hadn't mixed up enough. I should have been worried about how much working time I had. It was another 80F+ day here in South Carolina and epoxys hardens quick in the heat. After mixing it up and spreading it out I looked at the clock and realized it had been 15 minutes since I mixed the epoxy. The stuff is only supposed to have a 20-25 minute working time. I put two nails in each piece to keep them aligned to start out with. Then I came back and finished out each side with two more nails (four per side.)

The wax paper is supposed to keep the epoxy from going everywhere, but it didn't work that well. Maybe if I cover the whole garage next time it would work.

By the time I got finished and went back to scrape the extra epoxy off it didn't want to come off! Tonight I will flip them over and gusset the other side and make up frames 4 and 5. Joining the two halves will probably wait until tomorrow. After my last measuring mis-adventure I am feeling a little sheepish about missing any of the other dimensions.

Centerboad trunk done, with errors

2009-06-07T15:56:00.003-04:00

Sooo, it is done, but see if you can spot the error. I coated the fiberglass cloth with another layer of epoxy and glued and nailed the two halves together. My "measure thrice" obviously didn't work. The frustrating part is that I did measure 6 or more times, and there was a line for me to align the pieces to, and I drilled pilot holes for the screws. Unfortunately, they were all wrong!

I looked back over the plans, and I don't think that frame 3 being misaligned by 5/8th of an inch will make the boat sink. Frame 3 is the widest part of the boat, so I am not sure how a small difference will effect the hydrodynamics. I am hoping that the only long term effect will be the eyesore from having to look at the staggered uprights.

First fiberglass pieces

2009-06-07T13:25:00.004-04:00

I fiberglassed the inside of the centerboard trunk this early afternoon. The fiberglass is left a little large so it covers all the way to the edges. I mixed 12oz of epoxy which ended up being more than I needed. I am getting better at estimating how much epoxy I will use, but too much is better than not enough. The first coat is to wet out the fiberglass. The fiberglass cloth is placed down on the wood and the epoxy poured in the middle. Then I squeegee the epoxy outward to get rid of all the air bubbles. You can see a definite color difference when the fiberglass is completely wet out.

The extra fiberglass cloth gets trimmed off with a utility knife after the epoxy starts to set. I also cut the extra off of the mating area so the trunk sides would be in full contact with the spreader pieces. Anytime dad is working in the garage it brings a crowd. I don't think my two year old realizes how close she is to being permanently bonded to the garage floor.

This is the final product. The cloth needs at least one more coat to fill out the weave, then the two sides get bonded together.

More Centerboard trunk work

2009-06-06T23:02:00.007-04:00

After sending the kids to bed it was time for some more work on the trunk. I am adding the uprights (pieces of wood) that attach to frame 3 to the middle of the centerboard trunk. I also have to attach the pieces that hold the two sides of the centerboard trunk apart. This allows room for the centerboard to swing up and down inside the trunk. The centerboard is up for trailering, shallow water and when using the motor and down when sailing. The centerboard keeps the boat from being pushed in the direction of the wind. Sometimes called a foil, the centerboard pushes on the water, which resists the push, and allows the vector components of the wind direction to push a sailboat forward. In simple terms. the centerboard allows the skipper to sail into or across the wind, instead of just following the wind's direction. Anyway, enough physics, back to building. I finished all the prep work while the kids were reveling in their after dinner joy, so all I had to do was glue and screw (and nail.)

Putting the pieces together was easy until I split one if the inside spreader pieces. There are 24 nails in that piece alone, so I should have known the wood would split. Luckily I found the split before the epoxy was totally hardened. I filled the gap with as much epoxy as I could jam in there. Here is the frame three upright. Frame three attaches to the back of this piece.

If you look closely as the lower right side of the picture you can see the hole for the centerboard pivot. Still to be completed is fiberglassing of the inside of the trunk.

Then I will nail the other side to the spreaders and the trunk will be complete!

Frame two is the second from last (aft) frame and attaches to the back (aft) end of the trunk. Frame three is in the middle of the trunk, I hope I lined it up right. Frame four attaches to the front (forward) end of the trunk. In all, the centerboard trunk spans 51 1/2 inches of the boat's 180 inch (15 feet) length. I have a feeling that finishing the trunk and attaching those frames will NOT make me 1/3 of the way done.

Looks like progress

2009-06-06T15:31:00.009-04:00

When you don't update your blog for a week it looks like you are getting nowhere! I actually wasn't moving very fast this week, but that's better than moving backward. This week I got a bunch of little things ready so I could put it all together in a glorious finale on the weekend. It's 3:30 on Saturday an I did get some work done this morning. Whenever I think I am ready to glue something together I am reminded that 99% of the work it preparation. The assembly part just holds it all together. I am putting the centerboard trunk together today. I started by drawing out where all the pieces would go, then gluing the centerboard trunk cleat (piece of wood) along the top edge and centerboard trunk bedlog (another piece of wood) along the bottom edge.

To make sure it doesn't move I nailed the pieces together with ring shank nails. I have finally succumbed to the "measure twice (or thrice), cut once" adage. I sliced the top piece a little thin and now I'll have to back and grind off the nails, oops.

There are plenty of nails to hold it all together.

Next I have to add the vertical frame three pieces and fiberglass the inside. The centerboard will live in this apparatus so it needs to be abrasion resistant and waterproof, sounds like a job for fiberglass. I have some other chores this weekend so I hope I will get at least the centerboard trunk done. If there is more time I will move on to the frames too.

Layout epiphany!

2009-05-31T23:11:00.003-04:00

After all the work to lay out the transom I was excited to get working on the same process for the other frames. After about an hour struggling with making frame 1 line up right I finally stepped back and asked myself how to make this go more smoothly. Then it hit me that most of the frames have at least one flat side, and I can use the miter saw (power!) to cut the angles I need. So after checking the angle five times with my rafter square, I put both frame pieces together and cut. The angle was perfect and matched exactly, no bevel to try and straighten out! I still need the plywood to make sure everything will stay aligned, but the angles are perfect now. This also saves a HUGE amount of time over shaping each piece by hand. I still have one frame left to cut out, but now that my layout time is down considerably, I think I can have all the frames made up this week. That's probably a little ambitious, but so is building a boat by hand.

Transom pieces together at last

2009-05-30T20:00:00.004-04:00

After about 3 hours of layout time I finally epoxied the transom frame to the transom. After cutting all the pieces out with a band saw I needed to plane the mating surfaces to the correct angles. This took much longer than I thought it would. Every time I took a couple of planer strokes the wood would end up with a small bevel. So I would take a few more strokes and the bevel would be on the other side! All the while my mahogany is laying in thin shavings on the floor! The transom is 3/4 inch plywood so the exact mating was not as critical as some other parts will be. After drawing out an outline of where each piece would go on the transom I measured and marked the notched for the battens, chines and sheer. These are the pieces that will run the length of the boat. Finally I glued and screwed it all into place. Eventually I have to cut the bottom and sides of the transom to a 20 degree angle, but I am still thinking of the best way to do that. One piece done, many more to go. I learned a lot about layout from this. The building literature recommends that you use a piece of plywood to trace out the patterns on to so everything will line up correctly when it gets epoxied. I think I will have to get some before I put the other frames together.

First Glued Parts!

2009-05-28T17:09:00.003-04:00

I have been working at a leisurely pace on the boat this week. I got all of my mahogany planed down to size and the first pieces cut out. The wood shop at work came through for me and I can use it every day until about 3:30. I also received the epoxy and screws that I ordered so it was time to put some pieces together! I pre-drilled all the screw holes, and drilled a few all the way into both pieces. The through holes are for alignment once the pieces have epoxy on them. I mixed up my first batch of epoxy and added the silica filler. I spread it on the pieces and them set the extra aside to start the assembly. The next thing I know the mix is snap, crackle, popping like Rice Krispies and wisps of smoke are coming out of the container! Epoxy resin and hardener produce an exo-thermal chemical reaction which speeds up the hardening process. Since I mixed mine in a small container the heat was contained and made the epoxy heat up very rapidly. From reading about other people who have had this experience I learned that the process is called "going off," as it "That epoxy just went off!" Now technically, I think that all epoxy that you mix up "goes off," but when you concentrate it in a small area it seems to be more spectacular. The epoxy I spread on the wood and the stuff on the edge of the mixing container was still easily workable 10 minutes later due to being spread out over a larger area. I mixed about 5 oz. this time which was probably twice what I needed. Next time I will do a smaller batch or spread it out more to slow down the reaction. Hopefully the pieces will stick well enough.

Time to cut

2009-05-20T23:06:00.005-04:00

I picked up 40 board feet of mahogany today. That is just a way of saying I brought home GOLD in WOOD form. This stuff is expensive! I also glued all the tracings down to a thin sheet of plywood and started cutting them out. When I am done I will use the plywood shapes to trace the real pieces on the mahogany. I found some 3/4" marine plywood locally but I think I will have to have the rest delivered from somewhere else. I thought Charleston was a boat buiding kind of place.

Plans

2009-05-20T22:52:00.007-04:00

The first part of this adventure is to decode a set of plans into pieces that made a boat. I studied these things for about two days before I really set off. There is also an awesome online community of Glen-L builders who are more than willing to share their experience and wisdom, so I read about a thousand posts on their forum too. Here my two year old is giving me advice on how to build a boat. She is at least as excited as I am any time something comes in the mail! After the kids went to be I spent two nights tracing the patterns out on tracing paper.

Lets build a boat!

2009-05-20T22:43:00.004-04:00

About three weeks ago I got the idea that I should build a boat. I think I needed a little more adventure in my life. Not that three kids and a job aren't enough, but thats not the right kind of adventure. So I researched plans for about a week and decide to build a Glen-L 15. It's a 15' sailboat made with wood frames and plywood planking. I have also decide that I need to sail it to Georgia. I live in Charleston, SC so it, won't be that far. So I had to up the ante a bit by specifing the southern end of Georgia. Anyway, we'll see how long it takes to build this thing before we can really get anywhere. So lets begin.

UPDATE: Wife says people need to be able to visualize what it will look like when it is done, so, here you are.