Glen-L.com

Looking good.

I've had a lot of dampness here that slows down my progress

get some done tomorrow

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

Speaking of the cold and snow. St. Louis was hit with 8-12" of snow and the temperature was 2 degrees this morning. Not conducive to working in the garage. Here's what I'm dealing with.

It is supposed to be warmer this weekend and hopefully I'll be able to glue in my keel and knee.

I was hoping my avatar, bishop Dogbert, would exorcise my demons of stupidity and prevent me from doing anything stupid. Well, no such luck. I scarfed and glued my sheer clamps and used a nail gun to hold the joint in position while I put clamps on. I then realized the sheers are 13/16" white oak and need to be planed down to 5/8".

I wasn't going to be able to plane these down with a couple nails sticking in the wood. I tried several Dremel attachments and they didn't work. I ended up putting a spiral cut bit in my router, set the depth to what I needed to remove, and tilted the router into the nail. It cut a nice clean hole, to the right depth and took the nail with it. We'll see if it works. Here's one of the sheers with the nails trimmed.

_________________
________________
Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

Bob,

One observation... The last pic on the 1st page of this forum shows the keel next to your limber (drain) cut. It will be much easier to encapsulate the underside of the limber cuts now, rather than waiting until the ply is on.

Unfortunately, I didn't think about this on my build, and I have probably wasted more resin than I needed to trying to force foam brushes & chip brushes into that small space in order to get a good encapsulation. Just something to think about...

_________________
Malahini Build Gallery:

http://picasaweb.google.com/11229065623 ... directlink

Thanks for the reminder. I put epoxy on the limbers when I attached the keel. I'll make sure to add a little more when I attach the battens.

More progress.. the weather was warmer on Friday and Saturday and I was able to attach the chines and sheers.

I built a wood steamer out of some drain tile available at Home Depot. This is better than PVC because it is polypropylene which has a higher melting temperature than PVC. I saw pictures on the web of sagging PVC pipes when used for a steamer. I happen to have a Wagner wallpaper steamer which I used for a source.
I steamed the chines and bent them to the frames. While the steaming let me bend them pretty easily, they sprung back quite a bit and the final alignment and attaching of the chines was a challenge. After a day of futzing, I got them the way I wanted them.

Today, I steamed the sheers and attached them. Bending the long pieces around the took some creative support to handle them singly. However, the laminated sheers are now attached.

I used every clamp I had and I could have used a few more. The epoxy should set overnight and then the fairing can begin. Oh joy! From what I hear it a messy and tiring task.

_________________
________________
Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

Lookin' good!!! Great idea about the steaming.

Roberta

_________________
Roberta
Built Zip "Oliver IV" and Super Spartan "Jimmy 70"

Wow looks great! Looks like the chines worked out well. Now for the relaxing process of fairing.

_________________
It's amazing what one can accomplish when he doesn't know what can't be accomplished.

The chines didn't quite line up with the sheers between frame 4 and the stem. I followed the comments of Onplane and Feckless and had the same issue. The plane of the chine is inside the sheer. I read the Boatbuilding with Plywood chapters several times and they mention this issue (page 137) and suggest using a pipe clamp to twist the chine while it is being fastened. I did all that and it still didn't quite work out.
So, I ripped some wedge shaped strips of oak and epoxied them to the chine between the stem and frame 4. Here's the strips waiting for the epoxy to set, which continues to be an issue because of the cold weather.


Once it sets up, I'll sand the end to a taper and continue fairing as intended.

I also received my plywood on Friday. I waited all day for the truck, as I was the next to last stop. I ordered all the Meranti plywood from Homestead as I wanted to get it all in one shipment to save on trucking costs. There are four 4x10 sheets which I plan to scarf for the sides. The rest are a few more 1/4" sheets for the deck and 10 sheets of 3/8" for the bottom, covering the transom, flooring, cabinetry, etc. It's hard to believe there is a $1000 of wood leaning in my garage.

_________________
________________
Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

I love my Meranti.. and good thinking on the 10' sheets.. one less splice on the sides is always a good thing.

_________________
Ian (aka Iggy)
My Malahini Build

Bob,

You'll be very happy with the Meranti, as Iggy says. It's very tough, as you will see. Amazing amount of pressure to get it to conform both at the transom sides & the bottom forward section (If you got 3/8" for this).

Thank goodness for strong Epoxy!

_________________
Malahini Build Gallery:

http://picasaweb.google.com/11229065623 ... directlink

Looking good Bob! I had the same issue with the chines/sheers but to a lesser extent so thickened epoxy was enough for me.

_________________
Bill

I told my wife we needed a three-car garage for my projects...she told me to ask her for permission next time before I buy a house.
http://www.unitybuild.net

Finally, the fairing is done! At least, it is close. I'm sure I'll have tweak it when I apply the plywood. What a messy affair that was. I had the best luck using an angle grinder with 40 grit and a belt sander with 36 grit. Boy, did I make some sawdust. I could use my planes on several places, but it was hard to get proper leverage, so I ground most of it down.
The front section was a challenge to fair correctly. Using a piece of plywood as pictured in the Glen-L literature just seemed too subjective and imprecise. I didn't feel I was getting it right. I then used the Rabl method. It is only briefly mentioned in the Boatbuilding with Plywood book, but it seems to give a more precise method to do the tricky section at the stem. I marked out 6 sections on the stem/keel that were 12" apart. On the chine, it took 12.8" sections to mark out the same 6 sections.
I then ground out an angle at these marks so a straight batten laid flush between them. Here is a picture to show the process:

Doing this at each marking gave an indication of the needed angle so I could transition the fairing between them. At one point on the stem, I even put in a mark halfway to guide the transition. (It's marked B' in the picture.) I used the Rabl method on the sheer-chine fairing in the front as well. I was pleased with the results.

Finally, to check my work, confirm both sides were symmetrical, and create a template, I used some roofing paper to cover one side of the boat. It is pretty stiff and allows you to simulate the plywood. I clamped it on and trimmed to the boat. It fit pretty well. As a final test, I use the trimmed piece and placed it on the other side. It fit almost exactly the same, just about a 1/4" shorter at the stem. Close enough for government work, at least.

Next step is to scarf the 4x10 sheets of plywood for the sides. I decided to create one large piece rather than use a butt joint.

_________________
________________
Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

Wow!! Looking Good!!!

Roberta

_________________
Roberta
Built Zip "Oliver IV" and Super Spartan "Jimmy 70"

More progress. The weather has been great so I took Monday off to get some extra boat work in.
I used the day to scarf my 4 sheets of 4x10 plywood into two 3x18 sheets of plywood. I laid the plywood on my garage floor and using the roofing paper template, figured out where to trim the plywood. It turns out that a 32" width is adequate. So I ripped the plywood to 32" and then set up for scarfing.
I had previously made a clone of the John Henry scarfing jig for my Makita planer. Here is my jig in progress.

It takes many passes of the planer to get the cut down to where it needs to be. In addition, I used a wood block with coarse sandpaper to trim and even out the joint. Here's the result.

Prior to gluing, I covered the good side of the joint with clear shipping tape to protect it from glue squeeze out. I then glued and assembled the joint over some plywood and drove in two small brads to hold it together while I clamped it. I used another piece of plywood which I screwed on top to clamp the joint. Parchment paper was used to prevent sticking.
While not perfect, the joints came out OK.

I hope with a little sanding the joint will look acceptable when epoxied. I plan to keep the sides bright. I now have the challenge of working with a very long piece of plywood, fitting it into position, and gluing it in one long piece.

_________________
________________
Bob
Completed Malahini (launched 6/24/2012)
http://bobsboatbuild.blogspot.com/

Looks great! Esp for first time!

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

Look's Great!! You didn't see my poor attempt at that so you have no perspective on how really well you did!!!

Roberta

_________________
Roberta
Built Zip "Oliver IV" and Super Spartan "Jimmy 70"