Day 58 - Chickenpox!!!

Well, not really, but my boat looks like it has it. :-)

First day back working after five days off and I was raring to go!

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous about adding the second layer of 1/4" plywood to the bow. Don't know why, maybe I was afraid it wasn't going to fit. But after putting the two pieces of plywood together, cutting them to match the scribe line and laying the first one on I could see my worries were completely unfounded.

This panel only required a little bit of shaving along the bottom edge, and some more out by the tip of the bow and down it went! I pulled the four locator screws, mixed up a couple batches of epoxy (back to the big quantities!) and liberally coated the two pieces of plywood, made a batch of peanut butter for the scarf and up along the fairbody (keel) and started putting in screws and washers.

And more screws and washers. And more... Well you get the idea. ;-) After using most of the washers I started using a hammer to tap the hull listening for gaps between the two pieces. Where they touch there's a "thud" sound. Where they don't the hammer literally bounces back. Where it bounces you add another screw and washer. I ran out of washers so I made some of plywood, about half a dozen before I stopped.

See? Chickenpox! Tomorrow I'll do the other side. I'll pull all these screws and washers, clean up the scarf and then I'll have to do some work on the fairbody before I can lay the second piece in.

Next I needed to do some sanding on the hull. All of the edges of the fiberglass along the fairbody needed to be sanded down as well as the drips and runs of epoxy.

After that I went to work on the transom. As you'll remember, I had cut the hull off, but had left it about 1/2" long. I grabbed the planer and very carefully started trimming it down. It was a little tricky where the stringers stuck out, but with a gentle touch I was able to trim them down too. The sander was next with a new piece of 60 grit sandpaper and then it was just a matter of gently applying pressure and waiting for the sander to do it's job. Back and forth and back and forth... Almost zen like.

Looks good! I rounded off the edges, again using the sander, as the angle is wrong for using the router. I cut some of my scrap pieces of fiberglass, a four inch wide 10oz piece to run from stringer to stringer, an eight in inch wide 10oz piece a little shorter, and a ten inch wide 4oz piece to run from chine edge to chine edge. After more epoxy and putting down the layer of glass it looked like this.

I used the last of the epoxy to coat some of the vertical supports and then drove and countersunk 8d nails in the holes left from the screws used while attaching the stringers.

Last I made a run to Home Depot. I've been looking again and again at the vertical supports and I'm not sure I can trust my small level. Those supports just don't look right. If they're wrong it'll be a pain to fix, but it needs to be done now. Once the sides go on it's too late.

Oh, here's a picture from where I was this week. Enjoy!

8 Hours

Day 57 - Customization

Renns book says on the cover "Build a better boat than you can buy." One of the reasons behind this is because when you are building this boat, beyond the basic hull, what goes inside is completely up to the builder. True, I've made some customizations beyond the book like a longer hull and the change in the angle of the transom, but those are fairly common. Tonight the true customization has started.

I pulled all the screws in the hull and the stringers first thing today, except for the ones all the way forward. I really wanted to give that area time to cure since there was so much stress applied yesterday.

The next step should have been laminating the second layer of 1/4" plywood on the hull but with the screws in the way that couldn't happen, so on to the framing.

There are two pieces of wood on each side of the hull that span the gap between the chines and the shelves. They do two things; one is to provide support for the sides to keep them from flexing and two is to keep the spacing between the chines and shelves constant. Normally these are spaced so that one is about two and a half feet from the transom and the other is about half way from there towards station 6 (station 6 is the magical point 10 feet from the bow where the hull transitions from the curve coming from the bow to the straight run to the transom).

And this is where the customization really starts. I've decided to place mine differently. I placed one at station 6 for the front bulkhead of the cabin, and one at the rear bulkhead of the cabin. Further back towards the transom I've provided additional support plus the start of a pocket shelf on each side for storing things along the sides.

You're looking at what will be the starboard (or right hand side) of the boat. The vertical piece of wood nearest you is at station 6. The next one back is at the rear bulkhead for the cabin. And the two verticals and one horizontal at the back are the rear support framing. (You can also see two flaps of poly hanging off the edge, we'll get to those in a second.)

Those five pieces of wood look pretty simple, and they are, but a lot of planning and work went into their placement. First I took off all the clamps, screws and supports at the rear of the boat so that everything was floating freely. Then I confirmed that the chines were still level from front to back and started working on getting the shelves level. A block here, a shim there, a clamp there and after about an hour I had a straight, flat run from station 6 all the way back to the transom on both sides. Then I started cutting wood pieces, mirroring dimensions for both sides, and dry fitting and screwing things together. When all the pieces on both sides were done, I took them all apart, mixed up some epoxy and peanut butter and put them back together.  When I looked at the lines of the shelves things looked just ok, but not really fair (a fair line is a smooth continuous line that is pleasing to the eye without any abrupt transitions). So I pulled the rest of the clamps and Voila'! all the lines cleaned right up!

Now, about those pieces of poly. When you install the sides on the boat, you do so by attaching them to the outside face of the shelves, then climbing inside and tracing the shape of the chines against the sides then cutting to that line. You then put three layers of fiberglass overlapping the chines and the sides. But how do you keep the sides from flexing in under the shelves? In the places where there's framing, it's not a problem as the framing provides support, but in the larger spans you screw wooden "tabs" to the chine to provide that support. The poly is hanging over those tabs. Wouldn't want to glue the sides to those temporary tabs now would we? :-)

I pulled the last of the screws in the hull and did some clean up and called it a long night. I'm out of town working for the next few days, so no progress reports for a while.

This project leaves me with a smile every night when I go home!

8 Hours

Day 56 - Squeeze out

is a good thing if you're a boat builder! Squeeze out is the excess epoxy that is pushed out when you push two pieces of wood together. It's kind of like putting a ball of Play Dough between your palms and pushing them together. The Play Dough will spread out, filling the gaps between your hands, with the excess going out the sides.

But back to the beginning. I had to start at the bowstem today as the position of the hull is set off it, and the stringers are then set off the hull. So I pushed the hull up snug with the bowstem and then used a compass to trace the inside line of the hull on it. Went to the back and put two screws in the hull to tie it to the transom to hold the position. Went back to the front, got under the hull, lifted it up with my shoulders and then propped it up with a 4x4 and started planing the bowstem to fit.

I thought I'd be spending most of the day working on just the bowstem, but I got it right on the first pass! Cleaned up the bottom edge and using a spare piece of plywood and the planer I cut a little more angle in the shelves to make a little better fit as the angle is a little shallower up near the bow. Then I put a couple screws through the hull into the bowstem to hold it in place.

Next I went to the back and pushed the stringers forward in their slots until their tips just touched the hull up near the bow, marked their position at the transom, slid them back and cut them off. Made up a small batch of epoxy and peanut butter and glued the stringers in place. Then I cut the hull to length and put in two locator screws to hold it in place.

Then it was up to the horse at station 6 and some pulling and pushing to get the hull centered on the stringers. Underneath I went and two blocks were set flush to the stringers and screwed to the hull so that when the hull was picked up and then set back down it would return to its centered location.

A screw was driven up through the hull at the tip of the stringers and then again at station 6. One more screw was driven at the transom for the edge of each stringer and a string was pulled tight and a line drawn on the hull.

Then marks were made the full length of the hull at eight inch intervals. These marks will be used when I drive screws to pull the hull tight against the stringers. But the next step was to prop up the bow, spread epoxy on the top of the stringers and the hull, then made significant quantities of peanut butter and spread it on top of the stringers. Once I'd reached the point where I couldn't easily get to the top of the stringers, I set the hull down on the bowstem, reinstalled the screws and then did the same at the transom end of the hull.

And now it was time for the test. I set up the ladder at the transom and carefully climbed up on the hull. While kneeling astride the center of the keel I drove two screws on each side into the stringers. Things felt a little, uh, squirmy (that's a technical term :-), but as I worked my way from the transom towards the bow alternating sides and driving screws I could feel everything stiffen up.

Why drive the screws while kneeling on the hull? My weight helped to push the hull down in contact with the stringers, and the closer that contact, the better the ultimate strength of the joint.

Also, up near the bow, the 1/4" plywood was significantly humped up away from the stringers so my weight was necessary to push it down. The screws alone would not have been able to pull the plywood in contact with the stringers.

Even still, I had to drive additional screws to pull everything into place on one side.

And then to that squeeze out. I climbed under the hull and was pleased to find squeeze out along the length and both sides of the stringers, the inside and outside of the transom! Yay!

Then it was back to the transom to put in some more screws and nailed in some 6d nails. All of the screws in the bowstem, hull and transom will be removed tomorrow.

I pulled all the stray locator screws in various places around the jig, stringers and framework, did some cleanup and called it a night.

9 Hours

Day 55 - Bigger and smaller

Hooray! A group of friends came over today to help put the hull on top of the framework. Thanks to Jerry, Chip, Gary, Daniel and Jon! Chatted a few minutes, explained what I wanted to do and in nothing flat it was done. 20 seconds maybe? Awesome!

I spent a few minutes trimming the fiberglass and epoxy from the work last night. Then I pushed the stringers forward to their final location and pulled the hull back till it just touched the bowstem and climbed underneath to take a look.

Pretty cool! There's a lot of work tomorrow on getting the bowstem to fit, but the first thing to fix will be at the transom. You will note however, that once the sides go on the only way inside will be by crawling underneath the shelves. That should be fun. :-)

That gap is there because the transom needs to be trimmed a little lower where the chines land. With the change in the angle of the transom leaning forward a little more than the original design that changes the layout of the lines on the transom not accounted for in the plans. Not a big deal, just a few minutes work to fix.

Oh, and the bigger and smaller? The shop feels bigger as parts and pieces are removed from the sides, but it feels smaller as everything consolidates in the middle.

1 Hour

Day 54 - Building a skeleton

Another big day doing big things and little.

Started by taking the stringers outside, swapping them end-for-end and hauling them back inside. One of those really long range planning boo-boos, oh well. :-) Set them up with one end on the horse and the other end in the slots in the transom. Both of them were proud (above the surface) of the transom edge so I got out the jigsaw and cut the slots a little deeper. The stringers aren't quite level, they're a little high at the bow end, but trying to shave a 1/16" off the legs of the horse just isn't worth the potential for screwing things up so I'll leave them be.

Next was cleaning up the fiberglass work from last night, trimming the excess and then pulling all the screws, blocks and clamps. Mixed up some epoxy, split it to make some peanut butter, cut some strips of 4 oz glass and at the transom put in a fillet with two layers of glass.

Did the same on the back side of the bowstem.

Then it was clean up and prep time for tomorrow. Swept the floor, put everything away, and moved stuff away from the end walls and the side wall with the hull leaning on it. Tomorrow will be another big day as the hull will be placed on the jig! Hopefully I'll have a big crew of guys to help; the hull isn't heavy, but it's big and awkward and managing it while maneuvering around the jig and boat pieces will be a challenge.

Finally, I sanded the inside of the hull to knock down the high spots and then wiped it down with water and ammonia.

Put extension strings with washers on the ends on the light pull strings as I wouldn't be able to reach them otherwise and called it a night.

5 Hours

Day 53 - Tying it together

Today was cool, both figuratively and literally. The skies cleared last night and the temperature dropped below freezing. When I got to the shed tonight the temperature had dropped to 55 degrees so I turned the heater up, but it never got up to 60 as the wind started blowing and gusting again. It's still weird to see the walls flex, hear things creak and groan and the lights wave, but put some earplugs in and it's all good. :-)

Lots got done tonight! Let's see...

First I pulled all the screws from the plywood shelves. Then I very, very carefully cut the slots in the transom for the stringers to go in. More of those pesky angles.

Then I carried the transom over to the jig (man it's heavy!) and carefully high-stepped over the sides of the jig and the centerline string, set it on the jig, and temporarily propped it in place. It wants to tip backward towards the wall so I cut two legs out of 2x4s, screwed them to the floor then let the transom lean back on the them.

Next a string was hung to provide a vertical reference to the centerline string to align the transom from left-to-right. The long blue level was used to verify that the transom was level with the jig side-to-side. The short red level was used to verify that the shelves were level front-to-back. And I carefully measured the distance from the front of the shelves running across the transom to the back of the jig.

Hopefully this will insure that the transom is square to the hull and sides. The only measurement I didn't do was to verify the angle of the transom, but at this point it's moot as all the other measurements are more critical. I suspect I'm within a degree or so.

Next I took off the four clamps for the two forward jig locations and lifted the tips of the shelves at the bow up almost level with the main jig, removed the clamp at the tip and loosened the screws. I wanted to take the stress off of everything so things could find a natural balance for the next step; tying the forward shelves to the rear shelves at the transom.

You might recall I was going to scarf these pieces together with a 5:1 scarf, but I changed my mind and recut them back to a 45 degree angle. I needed to sacrifice strength for accuracy when I cut the piece that bridges the gap. I cut the front and rear shelves with the angle facing up, cut the bridge piece with the angle facing down, drilled a pilot hole through each joint, drove a locator screw all the way through and then backed it out just so the point was still sticking out to help line up the joint.

Made up a batch of epoxy and wetted out the faces of the scarfs and then did it again. Poured some of the epoxy in another container, made peanut butter, liberally slathered it on the upward facing angles and then screwed the pieces together. Last I cut some pieces of 4 oz fiberglass, cut a hole in the middle of each (to miss the locator screw) and put them over the scarf joints.

Then I went back to the bow. Wetted out the faces of the shelves twice where they meet, then applied a thick coat of peanut butter. Clamped them together and ran the locator screws back in. Pushed the shelves back down in the jig and reset the four clamps. Wetted out the top of the tips and the bottom of the bowstem, applied another thick coating of peanut butter and carefully aligned the bowstem on top. Locked it in place with two screws, then locked the 4x4 in place with screws.

Next was strengthening the bowstem to shelf joint by carefully making sure any gap between the bowstem and the shelf tip was full of peanut butter, created small fillets in the corners of the sides of the bowstem and applied two layers of 4 oz cloth. I'll trim these tomorrow, pull all the screws and the clamp and create a small fillet on the back side of the bowstem. Last I swept the floor, then laid down on my side and looking up under the tips (about a six inch gap) I pushed peanut butter up into the gap that opened up when the tips spread when pushed down. Renn would have you drive a screw or two up through the tips and into the bowstem, but there's no way I have enough room to do that. His jig stands six inches taller so that works for him.

Did some cleanup, put tools away and spent a few minutes admiring what is really starting to look like a boat!

This will need a couple days to cure fully with the cooler temps, but I've a couple other things I can work on in the meantime. I also discovered that I'm going to need to lengthen the pull strings on the lights! :-)

4 Hours

Day 52 - In th dark

no one can hear you scream.

Quote from a movie, I think. But scream I almost did. Getting ahead of myself I am though.

Tonight was for building the shelves/corner braces for the transom. I did that yesterday, but with 3/4" ply instead of 1 1/8" so I got to do it over again tonight. This was ok though as the practice last night made doing them again easier. I cut the bottom corner brace for each side first, then traced and cut the upper shelf for each side. With angles on two sides of each piece, one for the side panel at 21 degrees and one for the transom at 15 degrees, that meant that I could only measure and cut the first one.

Set the transom up on the sawhorses and swept it clean from all the sawdust I've made the past two days. Then stacked each pair of plywood pieces, lined them up and drove two screws for alignment. Pulled the screws and mixed up a batch of epoxy and started coating the plywood faces. And then...

Everything went silent and dark.

Yep. Power outage. The wind has been howling the past two day and we've had sporadic power outages around town, but this couldn't have happened at a worse time and was I prepared? No. So I carefully work my way over to my cellphone, turn up the brightness and go back to work. What a pain.

A few minutes later Debbie stopped by with a headlamp and I was able to work a lot faster. Put some peanut butter down and screwed the plywood pieces together. Then put some epoxy in the slots in the transom, slathered in some peanut butter and set the plywood pieces in the slots. Drilled three holes on the backside of the transom and drove three screws to pull the transom and the plywood together.

You will note the clamps. Another DDD. I cut the angle wrong.

Again.

Sigh.

4.5 Hours