Progress At Last.

The weather forecasters, clearly embarrassed by my last post, have conjured up a fantastic bank holiday weekend.

Genuine, original Blue Skies.

So I got to do a little work on the boat.

The last of the side panels is now in place, glued, screwed, and mostly trimmed.

The battens are now laid in place, and clamped. I did this partly to see how it looked, and partly to see if the battens I cut months ago were actually long enough.

The one on the far left is of course, too short, and had a knot the size of a plum about 1/3 of the way from the front. 

I see a bit of cutting and scarfing to make up a new batten. I have no more planks long enough to cut a new batten from a single piece.

Balcotan PU does a wonderful job of gluing oak, provided you have a perfect joint and lots of pressure.   

Irish Sky Gray

If you look at the Microsoft colour tables for application developement it has colours like WhiteSmoke, and Wheat and Alice Blue. Charming names. 

But for Gray, they have DarkGray, LightGray, or DarkSlateGray not quite so imaginative.

Had they travelled to Ireland they could have had:

• IrishDrabGray
  
• IrishDrizzleGray
• IrishDownpourGray
• IrishIt'sBeenRainingForDaysGray
  

Or my personal favourite

• IrishWhere'sTheFeckinSunGray?

Needless to say, progress on the boat has been slow.

I have however gotten very good as tying down the boat cover to avoid pools of water collecting in it. Practice makes perfect.

A scarf in place

The weather forecast for the weekend was a very mixed bag, but as happens about seven times a week, the forecasters were just plain wrong.

It was beautiful today, so we did some family things involving water slides and screaming, and then I added one of the forward side panels.

It was scarfed in place on the frame.



Some deep jaw clamps, and a deck screw provided pressure along the scarf.



And this is what it looks like from the inside. The plastic is the remains of a ziploc bag over a block which crosses the glue line, there's a deck screw applying pressure. It's tough and epoxy will not stick to it. 

You may notice above a small piece of plywood clamped to the frame. This L shaped plywood and another make up a rest for the panel so that I can locate it properly with one pair of hands. 

Sarah is not yet old enough to draft in as an apprentice boat builder.

Broken drill bits.

Fuller Stepped Drill bits rock. You get to drill your counter sink, clearance hole and pilot hole all in one go. Nice. However, if you mistreat them, like for example, trying to bend them around corners because there's something in the way of the drill, they will snap off at the step and leave the part of the bit in the wood.

This is now a problem, as traditional methods for extracting broken screws don't work well on the hard metal in drill bits.

This combined clearance hole and countersink proves just the thing for removing broken drill bits. 

The broken bit was #8, so I got one of these counter sink/clearance hole drills in #10, took out the drill bit, put the outside part in a brace  and cored out around the broken bit enough to get a needle nose pliars in.

I'd strongly suggest a brace instead of a power drill. High speed metal spinning in the vicinity of stuck hardened metal seems like a really bad plan. 

Pics

Here you can see the newly glued, screwed and trimmed panel in place.




And a closeup of the tapered ply, ready to be joined to the forward panel.




The front panel will simply be fitted to the scarf and trimmed to fit the chines and sheer, so the exact positioning of the aft panel is not critical.

I coated the edges with epoxy as my tarp cover is far from ideal, and I wanted to avoid soaking the end grain if waterlogged tarp ended up lying against it.

Some planking in place

I made quite a bit of progress over the weekend. I have the two aft side panels glued and screwed in place.

A simple piece of folded wire allows you to mark the position for the screw.


There is a screw every 3 inches on the chine and the sheer clamp, the aft panels are 8 foot long, and theres another 4 or 5 screws on the transom.
The works out about 70 3/4" bronze screws.

Fuller stepped drill bits all the way. They drill the pilot hole, the shank hole and the countersink all in one go. Use care, they are fragile at the step, and if you drop or abuse them they will likely snap.

I started out with a Yankee, but moved onto my Mikata 14.4 NiMh Drill/Driver for the second panel. Set at 5 on the clutch, it sank the screws just below the surface every time. That's part of what you pay for with a good tool. Consistancy.

I have trimmed one side back to the chine and transom, the other side is awaiting my attention. Trimming to the sheer clamps will wait until it's all flipped over.

The ends of both panels have scarfs cut into them, the forward panels have matching scarfs. The forward panels are trimmed after they are put in place, so lining things up is easy.

I'll need a few temporary blocks on the back of the scarf and a few temporary screws to put it together, thickened epoxy will do the rest.

Pictures will follow soon.

Or Scarfing....

Thanks to Jim Ledger from the Wooden Boat Forum for pointing out:

What about the plywood end grain in the butt? 

What about the flat spot in the panel where the thickness is doubled?
What about drainage on the bottom of the boat?

What about the ugly butt block showing on the interior?

And to kc8pql  for his comment:

Suck it up and do proper scarfs. You've worked to long and hard to chicken out now.

So I tried scarfing, or at least, I've cut the scarfs. 

I just stacked the 2'x8' sheets of ply with each 2½ inches back from the next, then I ran a power plane down the steps. I had a scraficial peice above and below as I've read that the top and bottom ones don't turn out so well.

Now I have to either

• Glue them and put them on the boat.  or
  
• Put them on the boat and Glue them

Handling 8 foot parts seems easier, but I am concerned about how well I can join the scarf when the ply is sitting on a curve.

I'm leaning towards gluing them in the kitchen/dining room (only dry place that's long enough) overnight on a friday and fitting them on a Saturday.

Wish me luck.

Butt Blocks

I have after much consideration decided to use butt blocks.

My reasoning is that I can do the but blocks in place so 

• I don't have to store the 16 foot scarfed panels
  
• I can manage 8 foot panels all by myself without calling in help.
• From other Builders work, butt blocks are indistinguishable from scarfs in the end product.

However, my smallest screws are 1/2 inch I suspect that they will just project through the two layers of 6mm ply. 

I think that judicious use of a file / dremel may resolve that little detail. 

"planking"

Can you really call it planking when you whack on great plywood panels ?

Regardless, the planking has started. Cutting a 4'x8' sheet of ply* into 2 2'x8' sheets is not trivial unless you happen to have a panel saw. 

To do it on a table saw, you really need extended rollers to allow you to control it. A typical circular saw is a little big and heavy for cutting 6mm ply.

So..... More Tools!!

I got an 18v trim saw. This one was a cheapo special, against my better judgement, but I reasoned that I'd only need to cut a few sheets, and I may never use it again. When will I learn ? The Battery won't hold a charge overnight, but freshly charged it's not bad. 

To avoid massive breakout on the ply, I make the first cut about 3mm deep, half way through the plywood. This means the blade is exiting the wood moving forward rather than up. The plywood is supported by the wood in front of it, no breakout. Then I follow the same cut with the blade just through the wood. This is easier that you might think. The saw is small and easy to control with one hand.

The result, at the cost of a little extra work, is a nice clean cut.

So I now have the first two panels clamped into place on the frame.  The fit looks really good. Of course these are the aft panels. It's the fit at the pointy end that's difficult.

(*2440mm X 1220mm doesn't metric make things easier?) 

A sense of Urgency

We are bringing forward the building of an extension onto our house.

Unfortunately, where the boat is now sitting is about where the new dining room window will be. 

So I need to get the boat to the stage where I can flip it.

I'm guessing that if I finish the ply skin and then glass the hull, I can flip it and move it. Later I'll need to flip it again to paint it, but I can live with that. 

I need to think about how I will support it when I flip back it for painting, or I suppose I could tilt it up at 60deg and paint one side, then go around the other side and do the same.

If I go to flip it back over for painting, should I wait to put on the deck until I've righted it ? Or will the deck give it better rigidity to avoid damage in the flipping ?

It's a Glen L 14, so the extra work in flipping it twice is not a show stopper.

Anything I should know before I embark on this course of action ?

ToDo List

• Cut & fit Plywood Skin
  
• 4 panels
  
• 2 of 2x16 foot, 2 of 3 x 16 foot - I have to scarf join 8 foot boards.
  
• Fit transition joints
• Glue & Screw into place
• Putty the screws.
• Fair Hull.
• Epoxy glass the Skin.
• Paint it.
• Flip it,
• Some internal framing 2 x 9' x 3 inches each side.
  
• Blocks for the coming (I want to round it at the front, even though the design is simply square.)
• Paint inside
  
• Seats + Varnish or Deck Oil
• floorboards + Varnish or Deck Oil
• Plywood deck
• Coamings
• Mast Step.
• Paint deck.
• Make up mast & boom, including sail track in mast & sheave for Mainsheet Halyard.
• Varnish mast & boom
• Fit mast hardware.
  
• Make up rigging.
• Make up centerboard, glass
• Make up rudder, glass, paint.
• Attach cleats, blocks, fairleads, rigging, sail tracks.
• Carve name plates.

I suspect I should be done by Saturday June 6th 2015 

;-)

Fair Enough....

The laminates worked just fine, it's more or less ready for the plywood skin to be attached.

I can see a few places where the thickened epoxy may go on a little thicker. But in general it looks good.

Given that it's a family dinghey with a hull speed of 5 knots, and I'm not likely to be out in weather where it might get up on a plane* I think it's fair enough.

*Has anyone ever got a Glen l 14/15 on a plane?

Detailed Bevelator Pictures

I cut some wooden blocks to just fit inbetween the vertical guides.

 I drilled a hole for the bolt - this needs to be very precise. 

When the wood is bolted very tightly in place, you put the whole lot down on a flat surface, and screw in the aluminium strip. I've shown the result here. You need to do it in place to get it any way accurate.

You can see a small gap on the right of the strip - the plastic guides on the planer sit there.

This is accurate to about 1°

Bevelator 1000 Pictures and Update

The laminations on the chine are in place, I will leave them till at least tomorrow to completely dry. Then I will mark the fair curve and trim away. I set up a batten to follow a fair curve, and all seems well.

I finished the heavy work on the second chine, and on the keel using the Bevelator 1000, shown here. As I described before, I've bolted an aluminium strip to the side of the planer. The strip rests on edge against the chine when you are doing the keel, and vise versa. 

This really does make light work of fairing the chines and the keel. It is not perfect, but it gets you into the ball park real quick. A little work with a Jack plane will finish the job now that the bulk of the wood has been removed. It's only off by about 1°.

The shop vac makes life a lot easier. There's about 2 buckets of shvings that are Not all over the garden. The Bosch in the picture has a switch so that it can take a vacuum on either side. That makes all the difference in the world. 

Oh yes, the planer goes through bronze screws just the same as Oak, there's not even any different sound (at least none I can hear over the shop vac, and while wearing ear muffs)

Laminations

So, last night, under the glare of a 500 watt site light, I added the two laminations to my chine. I used microfibres with the epoxy this time.

I think they will be better as a glue, fiberous and all that.

I see some careful consideration as I mark up the curve that I want to fair the lamination too. Some serious thinking, measureing, holding plywood in place to see how it will all fit together.

Given the surface area available to glue these things up, and given that the oak should all expand and contract in the same direction, I have no fears regarding Oak & Epoxy.

Time I guess will tell.

Thanks Harvey

Just a quick note say Thanks Harvey.

The band saw made life easy for cutting 3/8" thick laminates from 2" Oak stock.

I replaced the rubber drive band, and the old blade, and added a new fence, total cost, a whole lot less than a new band saw.

It's such an innocuous machine, hardly as noisy as the Shop Vac when it's just running.

(For everyone else, Harvey had an old Band Saw in his workshop that he donated to my boat project)

Next I'll glue the laminates into place to build up the chine near the bow, and then use a batten above and below the chine to mark out a fair curve. A little work with a power plane, followed by a long sanding board and I should be back in business.

That was a PITA

First, I will refer to a previous post boats-are-easier-than-carpets

I decided that it would be better to remove the first laminate, and replace it with a correctly sized one, rather than try to just add more laminates and fair them down.

There is a concern that White Oak does not Glue up well with Epoxy.

I am no longer concerned about this. My Epoxy glues my White Oak just fine.

The only way to remove the laminate turned out to be cross cutting it down to the glue line every 1/2 inch or so, and chipping it out with a chisel, just like cutting a housing for a lap joint.

Even doing this, in most places the wood did not come off at the glue line, A sander with 80 grit will tidy up the mess this weekend.

I used some scrap ply to see how much extra material I need on the chine to ensure that the side and bottom planking meet at most at a 180 degree angle. It's about 5/8"

At least I think know what I need to do now.

I suspect some more time in the Thinking Chair before I set to it.

This is not good.....

Even with my lamination, my chine is too far inboard. It's not a great picture, but that grey thing is a straight edge running from the stem to the sheer strake. I have and bevelled the stem and started bevelling the sheer strake. The straight edge is sitting on part of the sheer that will be faired away. But not much. Even when I finish fairing the sheer, the chine will still sit inboard of the straight edge.

I think my lamination was too sharply tapered. I will either add another lamination, or more likely plane it back and add a single less tapered one. I suspect I'll build it up with ply tacking into place first to see exactly how much I need to build up.

Bevels R Us

 

I really should have taken a picture, but this should give you the general idea.

An aluminium strip is bolted to the side of the planer (there's a hole for bolting on a parallel guide).

The strip is edge down.

You alternately plane the chine and the keel, with the edge resting on the other. Take off a bit at a time and voila.

Dave

Good, and not so good

Fairing is going well now that I have moved up to using a power plane. I have bolted a strip of aluminium to the side - it's edge facing downwards. It rests on the keel while I plan the chine and vise versa.

The results are ok. I'll tidy up with a Stanley #4 Bailey.

If only it were all that good.

I was a little premature in my self congratulation over the nice joint between the chine and the stem. I still contend that the joint it very nice, it's just in the wrong place.

Now that I've started fairing, I can see that it's joined to the stem too far back.






My first thought was to trim the stem back to the chine, but on reflection that would change the entire profile of the stem, and I am not sure it would change it in a good way.

I see 2 oak battens about 3/8" thick at one end, tapering to nothing, laminated in place from the stem to about the first frame.

Wish me luck.

Fair Enough

It was a good weekend. We brought the little un's to see a new foal, and to see a Japanese Garden. Stepping stones are a wonderous thing when you are 2½.

I even got to work on the boat. The last sheer strake is now glued and screwed. Incidently you can strip bronze headded screws with a Yankee Screwdriver. You just have to try hard enough. Luckily the screw is exactly where it needs to be. 8-)

I spent a lot of time Sharpening and Honing and Polishing various chisels and planes, so I started fairing the chine log with my Stanley #4 and a truely razor sharp Hock blade. 

There were a few reasons for starting with hand tools.

• You get a feel for the job without messing it up in one fell swoop.
• Shavings are less annoying than saw dust when there's clothes drying on the line
• The sound of a sharp blade shaving oak is quite pleasant, a power planer is hardly musical.
• It's interesting to try it.

One piece of advice, never arm wrestle with a carpenter who uses hand tools.

I suspect that I will move on to power tools for the bulk of the work, as I suspect that it would take many weekends of collecting shavings to make a dent in the work that must be done.

Photos will follow soon.

In the Dark

It was a lovely day for backyard boat building yesterday, not cold, not raining, not even windy. But I was in work. So I get home, have dinner, entertain the little uns until it's bedtime, and then it's Dark.

But I really wanted to take out the deck screws and replace them with bronze ones on the sheer strake. 

So out with the cheapo site light. 500 watts of halogen illumination, and we are golden.

I have decided that I like my Stanley Yankee for bronze screws. It's slower than a power driver, until you factor in the sheer grief of stripping the screw heads, or just plain sheering off the top of the screw. The Yankee just does not do this.

Next job, this weekend hopefully, is the other sheer.

It snowed. It's march fer feck's sake...

I had great plans for Sunday.

Then it snowed*. It's march fer feck's sake...

What else can I say, except it would be nice to be building indoors.

*Ok, Mostly it just rained, but it did snow for a little bit.

Polite Rain

In a shop, it's polite to wait until someone finishes a difficult glue up or stops playing with the sharp spinny thing before you interrupt. So I was grateful that the weather showed the same good manners.

I had just finished gluing up the port side (I refer to port and starboard as if I were sitting upside down in the boat, since it is currently upside down. This seems more correct. For absolute Clarity the port side is the side facing out into the garden in the photos) anyhow, as I was saying, I had just glued up the Sheer Clamp, all held in place with waxed deck screws and large washers. I was crouched in the gap between the bushes and the boat, just about to start drilling the holes for the starboard side when I felt a few drops of rain, then a few more, and like Cockroaches and Politicians, where there are one or two, there are always many many more.

Tarpaulin up, tools away and back inside for a hot shower. All the while thanking the polite rain for not disturbing me halfway through the port side, and for not letting me get well started on the starboard.

Incidentally, one very handy tool for boat back garden building is a Garden Kneeling Pad. Basically a piece of durable foam with a built in handle that's just right for kneeling on. Kneel in the cold wet mud, or hard concrete for a while and trimming those last two notches is a whole lot less fun. Get one for feck all + postage on ebay.

Looks like a Boat

Here you can see it's starting to come together. Both of the sheer clamps are fully fitted, Next is the glue up. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that the frame for the cover is inside the chine between the first and second frames (from the pointy end). This will require some "rework" on my canopy frame.

As I mentioned before, twisting oak requires a little bit of leverage. I've swapped in the shorter clamps as the wood has already taken on a fair twist from when I steamed it. This helps keep it all in place until I can get the Screws and Glue in place.

And the pointy bit. The tape is to stop water getting in before I glue it up. 2 inch screws and big washers hold it all in place.  A nice fit if I do say so myself.

A little more progress....

The sheer strake notches for the "other" side of the boat are finally cut. The "other" side is of course the side beside the wall. And the Bushes. I think in hindsight that another 6 inches away from the wall would have made a lot of difference. 8-(

I can see the problem when I get to glassing and painting. It will require some "gentle" trimming of the bushes. My wife may not be happy.

It appears that the best way to actually attach the strake is to glue and screw it on at the front first, and then bend it into position. This way leverage works in your favour. In the absence of any friends who would be prepared to simply stand still, holding the end of a 16 foot "stick" for half an hour or so, I ended up just tying it off at the centre and the far end. This, after a little bit of adjusting (ok, a lot of adjusting) held the near end in place for me to drill and screw. I wish I had pictures, but by the time I was finished, It was dark, and I was tired and there was kids (and wives) to be fed.

Fuller bits rock, but they are fragile. Fortunately the one that snapped off had gone in far enough to protrude out the far side, making removing the broken bit a whole lot easier. You can't really leave the broken bit in. Steel and Oak are poor bedfellows. Acid and all that. It was (of course) my fault that it snapped, trying to squeeze the drill in where it just won't fit means it puts a whole lot of bending force on the drill bit. That only ever ends one way.

Next up is the glue up. Then the fairing, then I start with the skin....

Sheer Strake Notches

Trying to fit the sheer strake (blue) when the frame us upside down, and it's colder than a Snowman's toes can be fun. Working upside down is just hard work. A simple template (in red) helps get things lined up. 

This is just cut from a scrap of wood, ply is fine. And it quickly allows you to see how much you need to increase your notch by to have the outside corner of the sheer strake at the correct height.

If you think my diagram is a bit rough, you should see the joint. But it will be hidden away, epoxy fills all known gaps.... 8-)

Wooden it be nice....

Wooden it be nice to work on my boat.

I got all dressed down in my old clothes and overalls, unwrapped the boat.

I took out a few saws and markers to have a go at some of the remaining sheer strake notches.

Then I noticed a small spot on my glasses. The another. Then I felt one on my nose.
I could suddenly hear the pitter patter of tiny rain drops on the Poly Tarp.

Just like that, overcast became raining, and I had to cover over the boat and gear down.

Building a boat outdoors is a nice idea. But Rain is a dismal reality.

Oh well there's always next week.

Work has deadlines, My Maths degree has deadlines, The boat will just get done.

At least the hired help still shows up on time....

PMF 180 Rocks

In spite of dire weather forecasts, I got to spend an afternoon on the boat this weekend.

I added the twist to the second sheer strake. More cord, more truckers hitches and more clamps.

Then I started cutting the notches for the first sheer strake.

I really didn't fancy trying to chisel upwards, so I got out a blue marker pen, marked off the run of the sheer strake at each frame and then got out a mirror and the PMF 180.

It Rocks. It's not a precision instrument. This is not the thing to used for visible dovetails. But to cut a notch for sheer strake that will be epoxied and screwed into place, happy days.

You can set the blade at any angle to make it easier to get at things. It's noisy though, even through ear muffs.

I got all bar one frames sorted on the first side. Next weekend should see both sheer strakes ready to be glued and screwed into place.

Decking screws to draw it all tight and to be replaced by bronze later.

Sheer Madness

I decided to go with simple L shaped brackets to help me get the sheer strakes into place. Two minutes with a hand saw and some scrap ply and I had 10 L shaped pieces.
Once they were clamped in place, it gave the sheers something to rest on while I clamped it all up. You can see these more clearly in the second picture.

Now that they are steamed into place, and with the help of towels, boiling water, clamps and a truckers hitch, I am twisting them  a little to follow the line of the frames. To avoid the clamps damaging the sheer strakes, I clamped a cutoff either side and then twisted. With the leverage of the long bar clamps, and the 3:1 advantage of the truckers hitch (poor mans pulley) you do have to go slowly and carefully to avoid that snapping sound. I hate that snapping sound.

It's really starting to look like a boat now. I can see the shape of it.

I need to bevel each of the notches and then glue and screw. I have a Bosch PMF 180 (Fein multimaster clone) and it happily cuts oak. I suspect this will be easier than trying to lie under the frame and hit a chisel upwards.

Each step is a step closer.

It takes a lot of effort to go out in the Cold when you could just stay in the house and have a Christmas drink...

But I did postpone the drink, and wander out. It's small steps, saw the compound angle where the sheer strakes meet the stem. (Mark it out twice and check it again)

Break the edges of the sheer strakes with a block plane cause I am sick of splinters.

Tidy up a notch or two on the frames.

Now I'm nearly ready to steam the sheer strakes and bend them into place.

The chines rested on the frames, that made it easy to put them in place. The sheers will be underneath the frame notches. I am trying to decide if I should screw short battens to the bottom of each frame to rest the sheers on while I bend them into place, or just use cord slings.

Battens are more work up front, easier to bend the sheers in place, but will be in the way when I go to bevel the notches.

Slings may be too slow to get right when the sheer is cooling off from the steamer.

Battens first, then replace them with slings ?

As usual, lots of ancillary work makes the primary job go smoothly. If you ever see a craftsman work, and wonder how he does it all so easily, ask him, how much preparation has gone in that you didn't get to see !!!

Christmas Helpers

I was cleaning up the glue joints on my sheer strakes, when an old helper came along to supervise. He simply watched, approvingly, I presume, as he passed no scathing comments.

The joints came out just fine. A little work with a plane and the two pieces of wood just merge into one and other.

He used to drop along when I was digging the garden path and the stone circle. I guess he still associates me with upturned soil and worms.

I did manage to capture my supervisor on film....

Glue Up Photo

Photos as promised.

Kitchen Glue Up

It's cold and wet, and I don't have a 20' long shed.

So how do I glue up the sheer strakes ? 

In the kitchen of course. After the toddlers have toddled off to bed, I dragged the parts into the kitchen and glued them up. Of course this meant leaving an 18 foot long stick, complete with clamps, lying in the kitchen over night.

4 am comes and the littlest one awakes on cue.  So I wander down to get her night time bottle, and duly trip over my glue up. No major worries, it's got enough clamps to hold the titanic together. And since this is a PU adhesive, it's tighter than a ducks...

Then at 6:30 the next morning, I have to get it out of the kitchen before I go to work. 

Out through the window, since it will no longer fit around the corner to go out the back door. 

The neighbours must certainly wonder what that "Crazy Fool" was doing wandering around the garden with a head torch at 6:30am and dragging a long stick out through the kitchen window.

Remote Control Vac

I didn't spend a fortune on a shop vac that switches on when it senses the current drawn from your power tools. Switching it on and off is a PITA. Leave it running an you kill the motor. Leave it of and you poison your lungs.

I came across this tip in a wood working magazine (can't remember which one - sorry)

For less than €20 you can buy a remote control plug adaptor. Plug this into the wall, plug the vac into this, and a small pocket remote switches your vac on and off. 

Perfect. Keep the remote in you pocket and you have no climbing back and forth around the shed to fire up the sucker. (pun intended - sorry) 

Longer Sticks

It's hard to find 16' oak. And harder to transport it ! So for the sheer strakes, I had to build some longer sticks. I built the traditional Scarf Jig.
As you can see it's a 2x4 to clamp the oak too, and a guide rail for the circular saw.
The 2x4 was not square (who would have thought it?) so I had to set the saw at a slight angle to make a square cut. For once easier done than said.

Here you can see the four cuts. Not bad for a first try.
I need to tidy up the saw burn, but otherwise, happy days.

The view from above. As with everything preparation is 90% of the work, actually cutting the wood took seconds 8-)

As always the question, Epoxy or Balcotan Marine PU ? It's a nice smooth flat surface, that I can clamp good and tight and it will be above the water line. I'm leaning towards Balcotan PU. The test peice that I glued together with balcotan and left out in the weather, left in the shed, and generally abused is still holding strong.

Gluing it straight is just means I need something to clamp it too.

Sharper Still

One thing that I found was a buffing wheel on an arbour on my drill with some polishing compound will take the edge from "cuts a few hairs and scratches my arm" to " shaves cleanly, removing every single hair with ease".

You still need to get the back flat and put a reasonable edge on, otherwise you get a nice polished blunt edge....

Sharpening

Having a miserable cold, and being able to do feck all, I tried sharpening up a few chisels. It's theraputic. Back and forward, back an forward, change up a stone, repeat.

Of course we all know the Back of the chisel is the important part for sharpening. Here's a simple idea to make it a little easier to hold the chisel steady and flat on the stone, and make life a lot easier on your fingers.

Just whip a pencil onto the chisel as shown with heavy string. Every second loop, go around the pencil and change direction - this locks the pencil in place.

Two whippings 1 1/2 inches apart is about right.
You just can see in this picture, a low spot just at the business end of the blade (top as you look at the picture). It will never be sharp until I get down to that spot. One thing that helps is only flatten the last inch.
The traditional test it shaving hairs off the back of your arm. For those who think that's a myth.... Dada.... Real Live Arm Hairs


This was brought to you by DMT diamond whet stones. Including the XXCoarse, Coarse, XFine and XXFine.

A quick update......

I have removed the waxed deck screws in the first chine, they came out without even a struggle. I was a little concerned that the epoxy might have managed to get a grip, but the wax worked out just fine.

A little aside, wax melts just fine in the microwave, but it goes on really thick to COLD screws. I think that next time I will heat the screws in boiling water too. Then they won't cool down the wax so much and come out with 1/8" coatings.

I have replaced the deck screws with Bronze screws. An Old Brace that belonged to my grandfather has provided excellent service in setting the screws, as it gives a nice fine control rather than just stripping the head out as power tools can. Bronze is soooo soft.

I have glued and screwed the second chine. Next on my list is cutting the sheer clamps. Since I could not get 16' oak, I will have to scarf these in the aft section where there's not too much curvature.

Fitting these will be "fun" as firstly I'll be working UP from ground level to fit the notches, and secondly the starboard chine (if the boat were right way up) is quite near the wall and the shrubs.

I am not really sure how my wife is going to react when I propose cutting back (down?) those shrubs for glassing and painting operation. 8-(

Block and tackle.

I got a few of these cheap and cheerful pulleys on ebay. Not for sailing, but rather for building. A bit of 3mm or 4mm cord bought at your local hardware, and a pair of these make pulling the chines into place a whole world easier. 

Try getting a bar clamp to do that !! 

Gluing Chines

I did spend some time figuring out how to glue the chines logs in place. At about 14 foot long, they are quite unwieldly, and epoxy is slipperier that a slippy thing in slippy sauce. It's all very well saying the screws will hold it in place, but as you try to position the end at the transom, or perhaps at the stem, and the other you suddenly find this wisdom somewhat incomplete, as your epoxy starts to set.

One simple solution is to screw it in place staring at the middle without glue. Then mix up the epoxy suitably stiffened with amorphous silica. Only then do you unscrew the aft half of the chine, whack on the glue, then screw it back in place. The other end is suitable tamed. Then unscrew the forward half, apply the glue and replace it. Simple. It's like having a strong patient helper at the other end.

I got truly sick of stripping the head off the (expensive) bronze screws, so now
I use square head deck screws dipped in molten bees wax to hold things together. Much stronger than Bronze. And square heads just don't strip out. When it's suitably set (which may be several days, it's cold out there) I will replace the galvanised deck screws with Bronze.

I am assuming that there will not be so much epoxy in the existing screw hole that it prevents me inserting the bronze ones. Wish me luck.

I really need a boat shed.

When you are trying to build a boat outside, you need, not just good weather, but some likelihood of good weather for the next few hours.

So with showers making a regular appearance, I set up a "lathe" in my garden shed using a 650 watt drill, and a bolt set into 3/4 inch ply as a chuck.

I quickly gave up trying to use a chisel, perhaps I needed a little instruction, but the chisel simply bit into the wood and bent the bolt.

Attempt number two with a stanley surform round plane worked a lot better. I was able to shape some nice covers for the Center Board pivot.

A Forstner bit allowed me to cut a rebate on the inside to hold a gasket, since this will be oak on oak, a little rubber should make a better seal.

Now it feels like I am making progress again.

Fitting the chine

The next job was fitting the chine log. It's been sitting in place for a while in the poorly fitted notches. A great big todo.

I go to spend a few hours this weekend with a mallet and a few sharp chisels fixing the notches.

One thing I figured out is that while I am drawing things tight, square drive galvansied deck screws are way better than bronze. Bronze screws are way too expensive and strip too easily. For the gluing, I will wax the deck screws, bond the lot with epoxy and then replace the screws with bronze. I have about two frames to go on one side and I can start gluing.

It's been a while....

It's been a while.... I was doing exams, so it most of my "free" time was spent studying. Now that that's over for another few months, I've made some progress on the boat.

I have glued the CB case to the Keel. This fun, as you have to glue the cb case to the keel, and to the frames that cross the keel for and aft the CB case. It has to be strong, as the CB case must not leak, and will be one of the attachment point for the main sheet. Once the epoxy clock starts ticking, you can't hang about.

The CB case and bedlogs slot into the keel like a through tenon, just a very very big tenon. I slid the for and aft frames out a few inches, coated the CB case with thickened epoxy and slotted it into place. A few clamps brought it up snug. Then I pasted the ends where it would meet the frames with more epoxy and slid them back into place. These frames also needed epoxy where they joined the keel. It's all dry now and looks rock solid. Bronze screws will follow.

Then I glued and screwed the keel and the remaining frames, and glued and bolted the keel to the stem. (the bolts are home made from bronze bar a good quality die cuts threads in bronze without too much trouble. Don't cheap out and buy a cheapo tap and die set. Just buy the sizes you need. Life is hard enough without cheap tools)

D

The Center Board

The Irish Rainy Season has started. We learned in school that Ireland had warm sunny summers. This was obviously a Blatent Lie. I've been wearing a coat to work in the mornings.

I can still work in the shed though 8-)

I used a router to cut slots at the correct depths base don the NACA foils. This gave me a guide for sanding.

You can see the lines cut in the CB here.

Here you get a good idea of how it looks from the end

And here's what it looks like as I start to sand one side.

The angle of the chine

I used a bar clamp, and a cord to a bucket full of water to hold the chine at the correct angle. A towel soaked with a few kettles of boiling water gave the oak enough flexibility to twist.
A Japanese pull saw really is the best thing since sliced wood.

I was pretty happy with the result.
The chine on the other side is another days work.

Realising that It would be easier to do the slot for the Center board case now rather than later, I took a break from steaming. I used the template that I made up earlier and a cheap and cheerful JCB 1/2" router. I just used a simple trim bit without a bearing (the shaft acts as a bearing). I cut out most of the centre of the slot first with a jigsaw. This made for less routing and less sawdust), but it did mean that some of the cut was lifting the grain. Not usually a good plan . Luckily Epoxy, and the fact that this will be well out of sight will save the day.

Steaming the Chines

I had planned to use a drain pipe. But a little reading led me to the inconvient truth about PVC. It starts to melt if you run steam through it, and it collapses under its own weight. So this is Aluminium Air Conditioning ducting. It arrives compressed concertina like and you simply stretch it.

Without a little insulation, it would not keep the wood hot, so some cheap attic insulation and a bit of cord and we are set. I just used a steam wallpaper stripper as a steam source and left if cook while I got on with some other bits and pieces.

Here you see the two chines clamped roughly in place. There's still work to do, but progress is progress.
Oh, yes, heavy gardenning gloves are your friend here, the Aluminium is hot, the steam is hot and the oak is hot.

Various other commitments....

That's always the reason for so little progress. This weekend I managed to steal about 2 hours to work on the boat.

An hour spent sharpening up some chisels. A flat waterstone grinder is the thing for flattening the back of your chisels. But the jig is really for planer blades. It's not great for chisels. A 120 grit Japanese Water stone will reshape your chisel in short order, and a set of Ice Bear Waterstones will get it silly sharp.

I cheat and use the Veritas Mk II sharpening Jig. Maybe with more practice...

All this sharpening was to allow me to spend the second hour changing the angle of some notches in the frames that join the transom. Of course if I had cut them right in the first place....

At any rate, it's kind of scary to see how easily a truly sharp chisel will cut through Solid Oak, even end Grain. Fingers Behind the blade and all that.

Beale Park 2008

In spite of promises of dark overcast days and heavy showers, the main concern this weekend in Reading was sunburn.

We made our second annual visit to the Beale Park boat show.



Amongst the highlights for me was bringing Sarah - my 18 month old daughter out sailing on a Bay Raider. Lovely boat. I want one. Actually, How about a Sea Raider.


Sarah appeared to love it, though she was trying to lean out overboard, and was saying "swim swim swim". We did manage to avoid testing her life jacket on this occasion.

Some time later I managed to find a kind gentleman from the wooden boat builders association who taught me to eye splice.

It's one of those things that's not really that difficult when you see it done, but try learning it from a book. If you follow the link to the eyesplice above, it all hinges on picture 9.

Some of the work there on display was amazing, including a newly build Salcombe Yawl. Nice, but a little spendy at £25,596 (a little under $50,000). I guess you get what you pay for.

There were rowing skiffs, sail boats, electric launches and steam boats..


To top it all off - we stayed at the Beetle and Wedge a nice restaurant along the thames which has a few rooms for B&B. The food was fantastic. The staff made us feel like old friends, and Sarah got to feed the ducks at the river bank. The ducks were simply brazen. While Sarah was tearing bits of bread a slice off to through to the ducks, one came around behind her and snatched the slice clean from her hands.

Four days of very civilised living in the english countryside. Excellent.

Thanks Bro'

I convinced my brother to come join me for a spot of boat building. I had 4 long (14'-16') oak planks to plane down to 22mm and cut into long strips for battens.
Hard to man handle all alone.

My PT85 was quite inadequate for the task. It would plane oak just fine for a while, but then just overheat and give up the ghost. Unless I wanted to run a board through, then shoot the breeze for 20 minutes and repeat (not a bad idea, but my time is limited) then I needed bigger iron.

I rented a Makita 2012NB from SamHire for the weekend. Like many hire shops they treat weekends as non business days, so I got it for 3 days for the price of 1.5 - In the end, due to various commitments, I only used it for about 3/4 of a day - but that was enough.

We spent quite a while running 15' planks through the planer, and got things down to a fine art. In retrospect, I should have just paid The Lisnavagh Timber Project a few bob to run it through their big industrial planer and it would only have taken an hour or so. You live and learn.

Cutting the battens is made easier by a very simple trick. Clamp the planks to bits of scrap on top of your workbenches. Then set the blade so that it cuts the oak, and cuts into, but not through the scrap. Now you don't have to get inventive about how you clamp the wood so as not to cut your workbenchs in half. So simple.

In fact for the first few battens, the oak was heavy enough not to even need clamps - do clamp the scrap bits - unless you want to see how far your saw can fling them.

Next up will be steaming the chine logs and the sheer clamps.