Seats and bulkheads installation.

This week I installed the seats and the bulkheads.

First I joined the seats with brass brad nails and glue. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to clamp the side supports at the proper location, glue, drill pilot holes, and  nail the brads all the time keeping the work pieces stable and at right angles. I eventually succeeded. Then I created a thickened epoxy filet on the inside seams for strength. After curing, I dry fitted the seats to the hull to get a proper fit. After much sanding, carving, and filing I managed to make them fit snugly to the curves of the hull. There are no straight cuts on a boat.

I glued and screwed cleats into the hull to support the aft seat and installed the aft bulkhead.

I glued the top of the aft seat in with thickened epoxy. All interior surfaces were coated with a layer of epoxy. All seams covered with a fillet. This process was repeated for the forward and middle benches. Finally I installed the forward bulkhead.

Installing sheer clamps

After the sheer clamps cured, I installed them onto the boat. I made my first inside compound miter cut. It took me a few tries to get  it correct but in the end it worked out well. The bow end also required a compound bevel. I then used thickened epoxy to glue the sheer clamps to the hull and used every clamp I owned (then a few more that I didn't) to clamp it all down.

Scarfs, skeg, jig, sheer clamps and rub rails.

Scarfs, skeg, jig, sheer clamps and rub rails... Boat building has a lingo all its own.

My cypress arrived today. First thing I did was to make a jig to cut an 8:1 scarf joint. This joint is used to create a single long piece of wood from smaller ones. If done properly the joint will be stronger than the wood itself.

I cut the scarfs for the sheer clamps and the rub rails. With a quick touch of the sander these two pieces are prepared to be glued into 1 long piece.

I then glued them  together with thickened epoxy. They have to cure overnight so I started working on the benches.

Here I am rounding a bench edge with a block plane. Followed by  more sanding of course.

Skeg attached. Pictured before shaping and sanding. It cleaned up well. (not pictured)

Small Parts.

I made the skeg by cutting one end straight and tracing the other end against the rocker of the boat then cut to size.

I made  the mast step and mast partner doubler, and cut holes in the bulkheads for inspection plates.

I glued the rudder cheeks to the rudder spacer. Glued the trunk side to the trunk spacers and glued and screwed the mast step to runners.

Tiller and rudder head.

I made this boat dolly for $29. The wheels will be re-purposed for another project when the boat is finished. This thing worked great. I stored the boat in my garage and I would "wheel it out" to my driveway to make cuts and sand. This made moving the boat around very easy. I was using a furniture dolly but after adding the skeg I needed something that would straddle the skeg and still support the boat.
















Note: To better organize this blogs layout, items on this page were not necessarily made on the same day. I would typically work on a large piece of the boat and when I had extra time and energy I would make a small part. These are all grouped here. The rest of the blog is in true chronological order.

Fixing the glassing operation. More lessons learned.

This morning I cut off most of the excess fiberglass cloth. Then upon examining yesterday's work, I noticed several issues.

First where the 2 pieces of cloth overlapped there were very noticeable bumps. Also I think I used way to much epoxy. In some areas you can see pooled epoxy bumps(like drips). In 2 small areas the tape came away from the wood (like an air bubble under the glass).

So I figured I better fix these issues now instead of putting a second coat on. I decided to sand all the bumps down with an orbital sander. This took a long time. Epoxy, it turns out, is difficult to sand. I then cut out 2 small pieces of cloth and patched where the air bubbles were.

After all was smoothed again I added the second layer of epoxy. Much thinner this time. For this layer I was suppose to use a foam roller. Between the roller and mixing larger pots of epoxy, things went much faster and smoother this time.

Lessons learned:

• Less epoxy to wet the cloth.
• Trim up cloth neatly before using epoxy.
• Take your time and get out any bubbles or ripples in cloth.

Overall I don't believe these are structural issues. I'm also hoping that more sanding and more thin layers of epoxy will cure all this. I will see. Maybe I should read a book on this.


One Day later...

Well the epoxy fixes seam to be a success. Hull is looking much smoother. So I sanded everything down again and rolled the third and final layer epoxy onto the wood. Hull is looking good.

Next mission is lumber. For the last few weeks I've been looking for the correct wood for the internal elements of the boat. This is not so easy to find. Home Depot and Lowes does not have what I need. Time is getting critical. I only have a few steps left to do before I need this lumber. Frustrating.

Glassing the hull

Work began to fiber-glass the hull. I first laid out fiber glass cloth over the entire boat. I then applied epoxy over the glass (wetting the glass) with a plastic squeegee. This was surprisingly difficult. First I underestimated the amount of epoxy needed. I was mixing it in too small doses. I spent more time mixing than applying. Second this can be very messy work. Tough to get the sides without dripping. I still need to add at least 2 more coats of epoxy over the next few days.

Fairing the hull

Today I "faired" or sculpted the boat. First I cut the cable ties as close to the hull as possible. Then I sanded where epoxy leaked though the seams and I rounded all edges with an orbital sander. Finally I sanded the remnants of the cable ties and any other area that needed attention.

Then I added epoxy thickened with wood flour to fill in the holes and panel gaps. Then sanded again.