Sawford's Zip Build

Roberta Hegy · **Posted:** Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:47 am

I used a forstner bit to countersink the carriage bolt heads. The forstner bit leaves a nice little indent in the middle of the hole you can use for a guide for drilling the hole for the bolt. You could do that in the transom and the keel. Then the heads of the bolts can be buried under filler or covered with veneer. A nice set of Forstner bits can be purchased from places like Woodcraft for about $20.00 if you watch for sales.

Nothing else special about the joints. Just be nice and flat and squared up. Lots of thickened epoxy and a fillet along the sides.

Roberta

sawford11 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 08, 2011 4:51 pm

Thanks Roberta, I have those bits so that is what I will do

. Is there any secret to matching the filler material to either douglas fir plywood and/or mahogany (when I get there, that is)? With all the screws/bolts to cover throughout the build, I am sure properly concealed scews will allow for the best finish. I haven't worked with epoxy/varnish coverings before....I guess I am getting ahead of myself, but properly finishing the hull is the biggest concern I have (and it keeps popping up in my head). Looking at some of the beautiful crafts on this forum, I have told myself there must be some clever way these people are hiding all their screw marks.....
Thanks again - Sean

sawford11 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:29 pm

Very busy weekend....but unfortunately, not because of the boat! I was able to mechanically fasten all the frame members, epoxy the breasthook and stem, cut out the notches in the transom frame, and then my daughter and I epoxied the the top and edges of all the frame members. I also roughed out and planed the keel. I was able to stop by a local lumber mill/mill work and picked up 38 board feet of rough mohagany. I'll start using that and see where it takes me. I couldn't find 16 foot lengths, so I will need to join two pieces for the chine and sheer. No biggie though, just an extra step. I think tomorrow I will stop by Home Depot and pick up the material for the building form. I began to move some of my tools around to make a big enough area for the boat build and also still be able to use all my tools. I told my wife I need to build a bigger garage; that didn't work! A few more photos below...

red · **Posted:** Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:34 pm

sean looking good it wont be long and youll have all the frames up on the form looking like a boat!

Roberta Hegy · **Posted:** Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:39 am

Looking good, Sean!! Nice to have your daughter helping.

Getting the right mixture of wood floor and tinting is artform. I was never good at it, but I will say if it looks too dark while still wet, it will be too dark once cured.

Roberta

sawford11 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 20, 2011 5:58 pm

Thanks for the compliments....it feels like I am getting somewhere; Tuesday my son (4 yrs) and I anchored the bottom member to the concrete floor. He couldn't understand why I was drilling holes in a perfectly good floor. Saturday morning I finished the building form and epopy encapsulated some pieces. I then epoxied and screwed the transom/frame together permanently. Once that cures, I will attach it to the back of the building form and finish the layout/location of the rest of the frame members. I still need to cut the front of the building form to length. Since I am measuring from the top (well, actually bottom since it is upside down) of the transom to each frame member, I can't layout all the frames or the overall length of the building form top rails til the transom is attached. I also bolted and epoxied the knee to the transom; that too is curing. That's about it for now, probably won't progress much over the next week with the holiday in there...Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

sawford11 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 21, 2011 5:47 pm

Just a couple of pics with the frames on the building form. The transom, frame 2 and frame 4 are all squared up and level. Need to spend some time on frame 5 1/2 and the stem. The front notches on the building form are cut, but I just ran out of time so the stem and will just have to wait for another day.

gdcarpenter · **Posted:** Mon Nov 21, 2011 6:59 pm

Ah yes, frames on jig, I remember it like it was only about 18 months ago! gdcarpenter and fellow ZIP builder here to say that that's a fine looking build you have going there. Looks like you have a pretty good range of shop tools available too, I really envy the heated shop!

Funny how sometimes you do an ton of work and don't seem to have much to show for it and sometimes it seems like you have made miles of progress, such are the joys of boat building.

Roberta Hegy · **Posted:** Tue Nov 22, 2011 5:30 am

Looks good!!!! Keep the pics coming!!

Roberta

rbrandenstein · **Posted:** Tue Nov 22, 2011 8:16 am

Great progress on your build. You're moving pretty fast.
Regarding matching filler for holes. You really need to to experiment with the materials you plan to use. You can have matching filler, but when the epoxy is applied, it changes.
Here is a link to a something I posted that shows the differences you can encounter.
http://www.glen-l.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12236

vupilot · **Posted:** Tue Nov 22, 2011 9:16 am

Very nice, brings back memories of a couple years ago.

sawford11 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 22, 2011 10:45 am

Again, Thanks for the compliments.....and also thanks for the tips regarding the fillers, I will be sure to experiment with various mixes and then cover each with epoxy to see the end result.

So far, the heated workshop has been nice. A few days in November have already dipped below freezing but the garage has been a steady 68...seems to work pretty well with the epoxy I am using. It will be nice to be working on a boat and look out of the shop to two feet of snow...

sawford11 · **Posted:** Sat Nov 26, 2011 3:50 pm

I have the keel cut to length and clamped in place, just to check the fit. I also cut out the sheer clamps, chine logs, and battens. The sheer and chines had to be joined (because I only had 13' long mahogany) so I made those this morning and they are curing now. The inside of my garage is just over 26 feet. When I ripped these pieces (13') to width, the lumber was hitting the wall behind me at the start of the cut, and then hit the wall in front of me at the end of the cut. I had to move my table saw to the exact middle of the garage to get this to work! ....but if I didn't have a boat sitting in half the garage, I guess I could have set the saw up at an angle....Oh well, got it done.

Two Questions for you former zip builders: I see in other posts, the keel was tapered from 4 inches to the width of the stem (1.5"), where it ties to the stem. I didn't see this in the plans/instructions. Is this needed or a preference? Is there any guideline to how long this taper is?

Question 2 - The plans call out the battens to be extended as far forward as possible. Is this length determined by potential interference from the plywood planking? Should I estimate what the planking will look like when it is installed (and curved to match the chine) or should I just try to scale it off the plans and leave myself extra room?

Thanks!

vupilot · **Posted:** Sat Nov 26, 2011 4:26 pm

Leave the battens extra long for now, you wont install them for a while. You will end up fairing them and it will make sense later. They will kinda spring against the planking.

The keel taper is spoken of on page 129 of the boatbuilding with plywood book by Glen L Witt if you have a copy. Its not specifically mentioned in the Zip instruction packet if thats all you are using. I dont see a problem having it full width, you will just have to fair away the edges of the keel so it doesnt interfere with the planking.

Keep up the nice work.

sawford11 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 27, 2011 3:29 pm

Thanks vupilot...I did buy the book along with the plans. When I received both, I read them both front to back....but then forgot to reference it when looking at the battens and keel. Ooops! Thanks though, I went ahead and tapered the keel and set the extra long battens to the side.

I scarf joined the chines and the four total sheers (2 per side that get laminated). The scarf turned our pretty nice, though I was a little skeptical at first. After those cured, I planed the sheers and chines down to the proper size. I filled a BIG garbage bag with wood chips.

After that, I drilled holes for the carriage bolts for the keel, tapered the width of the keel, and permanently epoxied and screwed it to the transom, frames and stem. I think the keel looks pretty good (although I have nothing to compare it too)! I did notice that the keel began to curve slightly before frame 4 as I bent it toward the stem. The plans say it is to be straight to frame 4

As I clamped the end of the keel to the stem, I could not keep the 1" thick white oak from bending before frame 4 (i.e. toward the back). It seemed the stress from clamping the front of the keel transfered the bend through the joint at the frame. Did anyone else notice this?

Glen-L.com

Sawford's Zip Build

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