1 Aft panel = Two evenings work

The oak battens, chine and keel that I was going to glue the aft bottom panel to were all tarnished from just being open to the air. It took most of the first evening and 3 belts (40 grit) on my belt sander to remove all the tarnish and leave nice clean wood to glue up. New belts are cheaper than the added time it takes when you persist in using a dead one, and dead ones burnish a surface. That's not good for gluing.

I'd gotten an attachment to allow me to connect my bosch sander to a vac, so there practically no mess.

I clamped a few guide blocks in place, and put in a few locating screws. This allowed me to consistently replace the panel. Then I marked up the places for all the screws, it takes long enough that you don't want to be doing that while the glue is setting up.

The next evening I coated the oak in neat epoxy and then pasted on micro fibre mix. A little careful lifting and the bottom panel was in place.

There's ¾" screws every 3 inches on the chine and keel and every 6 inches on the 3 battens. Add in the screws on the transom and you suddenly have about 100 screws. Two 18 volt drill/drivers means that you don't have to keep swapping drill bit/driver bit.

When I get home I'll see how well it all went.

Even so it was well dark by the time I finished, my builders site lamp is getting a good workout these evening.

More sanding this evening to start the aft panel on the other side.

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)

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It seems ok....

The CB case seems to have glued up ok.

I tidied it up today, added a few bronze ring nails for good measure. An oversized nail set allows you to smack these down flush without leaving hammer marks all over the place.

There was a hole to be drilled through the Oak at the forward end of the case the would have been whole lot easier to drill before I put it all together. The main problem was not drilling the hole, but cleaning up the break out from the drill bit. Since the line to raise the Centerboard is deadended through this hole, a little rounding of the sharp edges was required.

It's amazing where you can fit a dremmel.

Next step is the keel. I need to clamp it in place, and tidy up the CB bed logs to fit. Then I have to cut the slot for the CB through the keel.

That's one of those jobs that if you mess it up, there really is nothing else to do but start again with a new peice of wood. An a clear 4" x 1 1/8" x 12' is an expensive peice to mess up - never mind the time it took to cut and plane it.

Again, wish me luck.

Epoxy - A batch gone off

I started to glue up the Centerboard case today. I sanded the Oak and precoated it with epoxy.

Then I mixed up a batch of epoxy and filler, but while I was working on one side of the CB case, the remaining epoxy and filler was just getting warmed up.

When I went back to the mixing cup, it was hot, really hot, and had a big solid lump in the middle.

By now I had a half glued up CB case, and no epoxy ready. I mixed up a second smaller batch as quickly as I could, but still making sure I stirred it enough. So now I have to wait until tomorrow evening until I can see if it glued up OK.

Wish me luck.

Laminated Deck Beams....

I went to my wood pile, to find a peice of oak for the last deck beam.

1" x 4" x 6'.

The longest "piece" I had was about 5' 4". Or I could cut into the lovely 16' plank that I had intended for the sheer clamps.

Maybe I could laminate up a plank. After all, this is going to be supported by a post in the middle. And glue is stronger than wood. And.. And..

I have cut a whole set of 1" x 1" strips, and most of them 5' 4" long, and staggered the joints so that when I cut it to shape, and cut the notches I should not have any weak points.

The whole lot is glues up with Balcotan PU - which does not stick to Cling Film / Plastic Wrap - and clamped with about 30 F-clamps.

It's sitting in my garden shed, awaiting a bounce test.

I reckon that if I can put a block under each end and it will support my 200lbs bouncing up and down on it, then it should be good.

It is for a 14' sail boat, not an ocean going clipper....

Any thoughts or comments.

Glue

Pretty much everything that seems simple is not. If it seems simple then you probably don't know enough about it. Take Glue for example. Put two bits of wood together, some glue in the middle and it sticks right. Well sort of.

It needs to be waterproof. So that means Resorcinol, Epoxy or Polyurethane adhesive.

• Resorcinol needs to be cured at relatively high temperature, won't fill gaps and need high clamping pressure.
• Epoxy fills gaps, but doesn't like the cold and there can be problems with gluing white oak.
• Polyurethane will fill gaps to .3 mm (small, tiny really), requires clamping, but doesn't mind the cold. It has a long open time that's not dependent on temperature.
  

Given that most of my work will be out of doors in winter in Ireland, I've just gotten 1Kg of Balcotan Super Fibre to try out. My plan is to glue the boat with this, then by the time it comes to glassing the boat, it should be a little warmer, and I can use a low temp epoxy. It's never really hot here.

I'm still kind of up in the air about glassing the whole boat, or just taping the joints and glassing them. We'll see.