Filling of Joints almost complete

Joints in the foreground have been filled and sanded in the picture above.

All of the joints have now been filled except for the one that runs from stem to stern over the keelson and stem post. Some of these have already been sanded and finished and those that were filled this past weekend will be finished off this coming weekend. Joints are filled with a paste made by mixing epoxy with a graded teak flour (sawdust), which I get from Roy at CKD Boats. All that still remains to be filled are all the screw holes before final sanding.

Planning for the Turning.

Things are progressing well at the moment and planning and preparation for the turning are already afoot. Filling and finishing of all the joints and holes should be completed by the end of next week, and I have already started stripping and removing parts of the building stocks, some of which will be used to make the cradle and also skids for the turning. All that then remains after the filling is completed is to fit the packing blocks for the keel and skeg and then seal the hull.

Planking Finished.

At 16h35 this afternoon after a day of perfect weather, which was one of quite a few over the past two weeks, I finally fitted the last panel to the hull which completes the planking. This was one of 216 panels which went into planking the hull. All that remains now before turning is to fill all the gaps and screwholes, fit the packing blocks to take the keel and rudder skeg and then seal the entire hull with epoxy.

Slow progress on second layer

With the rainy season well and truly upon us, it has been slow going with gluing the second layer. I was hoping to have had this completed before the rains came, but unfortunately did not make it. However there have been a few gaps in the weather which have allowed some progress and there is only about two thirds of the bottom which remains to have the second layer glued. Hoping to have this completed by the end of next week so that I can do all the filling and sealing before the end of June.

Gluing in cooler wet weather.

Once again this is a long overdue update. Unfortunately a couple of other things had to be done first like replacing the front deck on the house and replacing the neighbors roof before the rains came. Also with the onset of the cooler wet weather it has made it more difficult for gluing, due to the fact that the Epoxy does not spread as easily.

In view of this I decided to create my own weather, by making a "Hot Box" to keep the glue at a more workable temperature for a longer duration. However one has to be careful not to make this too warm as it then starts to set sooner than desired. The box is a simple arrangement with a couple of globes in the top section and one of the sides open at the bottom to take the tray. I use aluminium roasting trays as they are cheap and disposable which obviates the need for cleaning with expensive solvents. A small fan heater also helps to get the work area and area to be glued to a more workable temperature.

Tools and Jigs 1

SCARF JOINT JIG.

In order to cut Scarf joints accurately, I made up a jig to hold planks of up to 230mm wide by 22mm thick. This was used to join the long lengths required for the Keelson and the Stringers.

The jig consists of a framework which holds the work at the correct angle for a Scarf joint - giving the required 10x the thickness of the timber for the length of the joint. On top of this is a sliding platform which slides along the length of the jig - for the length of the joint - onto which the router fits and slides from side to side.

Once it is set up it is just a matter of sliding the router from side to side whilst moving along the length of the joint. In order not to put strain on the router the depth is varied in increments.

Gluing of Second Layer Finally Started.

It's been a while, but I have been busy mostly with backfilling of all the screw holes and gaps over the stringers on the first layer. Once this was complete the panels for the second layer were all cut and fitted dry.

When the time came to start gluing the second layer, I battled for a few days to get the balance scale to work properly and have now opted for a small digital scale instead which is far more acurate. The investment so far is to great to risk a mistake with the mix ratios and thus mess up the whole project.

Setting up the Keelson

Currently things are progressing slowly, but progressing they are. I have been filling all the screw holes on the first layer and then sanding, which at the moment is a problem because of the noise factor. The hull seems to act as an amplifier and I am sure they can hear me on the other side of Scarborough. Good competition though for the drummers up on the hill.

In the meantime I will continue with the story.

Once the frames were set up it was time to lay the Keelson, which turned out to be quite a challenge due to the length, especially when it came to glueing the 3 layers together. Thanks to Theo for his help in making this a bit more manageable with both of us mixing glue in tandem. I even had to make additional clamps out of some rectangular tubing to get the job done.

The full length pieces were first made up with 3 pieces timber glued together with Scarfs. These were then layed in position over the frames to mark and cut the shape. Once this was done the first layer was fixed to the frames with the subsequent layers beeing glued in place over that.

Frame Set Up

It's been a while since I last posted, but there is nothing visually changing at the moment. The first layer of the skin has been completed - glued to stringers etc. Second layer starts going on this weekend.

In the meantime here are a few pics of the next stage once I had the roof and Building Stocks set up. Spending quite a bit of time making sure the stocks were perfectly level and alligned, made the task of setting up and alligning the frames that much easier. This is something I have learnt as the project progresses - the more time you spend getting it right, the easier the next stage becomes.

The Continuing Story

While the skin is going on nothing much is changing visually, so I will continue with the story from where I left off with the post on the 2nd of January.

Once the frames, stern and stem were complete it was time to move outside and start setting it all up. The first step was to set up the building stocks and put some sort of roof over. This entailed laying concrete foundations for the legs in order to get the stocks perfectly level.