Chine and Sheer strakes

With the side panels all glued up, I started work to shape the sheer and chine strakes.

The sheer I shaped as shown on the drawing on sheet 5, but with the chine log I have only very roughly planed the lower edge ( the interface to the bottom) and intend to bevel it once it's glued into the hull. The chine log is also made in 2 pieces and will be laminated in place at assembly. It's temporarily screwed together to get the bevels right. Hopefully this will make installation of the chine log a somewhat easier process. We'll have to wait and see!

By next weekend the side panels should be well and truly cured, so I might make a start at dry assembly and get the cleat bevels cut to shape.

Side panels coming together

More scarfing at the weekend, and after a lot of work and effort I ended up with four panels all cut and ready for the glue.

Yesterday I laid out the first 2 panels on a temporary bench. I found a few packs of laminate flooring left over from one of my many DIY jobs. When the floor panels were snapped together this gave me a nice long straight edge that I could use as a reference line to keep the base line straight.

Here's the first 2 panels pre-coated ready for the thickened glue.

Taking an idea from Al (of Little Jim fame) I laid out the panels drilled holes through them into the bench and used nails as temporary pins to keep panels in place. This makes putting them back in position simple and straight forward after gluing up. You might see the nails through the panels in the picture below. I've marked the nail holes so that I don't forget to fill then in later on! The first panel is now off the bench and is looking good. I hope to get the second one glued up in the next few days.

Side panel scarfs started.

I made a start on cutting the scarfs this weekend. Not much was done on Saturday as I spent the best part of the day enjoying the sunshine at the Boat Inn beer festival.

Today was really too hot to work in my shed, so I didn't get much done until the heat of the day had dissapated later this evening.

I've got one scarf more or less cut, it probably will need a bit of tidying up once I get it's partner ready.

The strange pattern is the shadows cast by the corrugated plastic roof sheeting!

I've also started the vent trunk construction. I've laminated six pieces of douglas fir to make the trunk top. More later....

Back on track

Well the stem's all bonded and put to bed for the time being.

I expect it will need a bit of reshaping when I come to the dry assembly. Until then it joins the pile of other bits in the corner.

I started preparing my first scarf on a side panel tonight. More of that to follow.

Confession Time!

You know what they say, "measure twice cut once". Well I measured several times but the end result was the same; I made what is colloquially known as a major "Cock Up"!

When I came to build the stem I made a series of paper patterns with the cross section at each 100mm station. You'll see them in the photo's of the stem below. What I managed to do somehow was draw the first one (the one at deck level) totally wrong. Instead of making the width at the stem face 72mm I made it 36mm, forgetting that the (36) on the plan related to the half width. That's why those pictures below show a nice inward curve towards the top end.

Never mind, I glued a couple of blocks of scrap wood back on, smothered in epoxy/wood flour mix and no one will ever know (if I hadn't come clean).

The offending item is now curing at the moment, ready for the finishing touches when everything has set. At the weekend I'll probably make a start on the scarfing of the side panels.

Stem

I took a day off from epoxy and worked on making the stem. I'm making this from 4 laminates because I've run out of 38mm thick fir!

The first two are as per the design, the top laminate will be made using 25mm with a small portion bonded on where the thickness is 38mm.

shaping these was actually quite an enjoyable task (and sweaty). I sharpened my planes up before i started and the wood was beautifully workable. I've ended up with a large bag of shavings and I'm not done yet

I hope to finish all the laminates tomorrow and get it bonded up before the end of the day.

First 2 Stem laminates.

As they'll be when bonded.

Bulkheads nearing completion

I've now more or less completed all the bulkheads. The only outstanding tasks are:

• drilling the limbers
• cutting out the chine log notches
• marking and partial cutting of the sheer starke notches
• fitting the vent baffle cleat to the transom.

Here they are, all out enjoying the sunshine in the garden....

I can't mark and cut the sheer and chine notches until I have planed and beveled my timber. I hope to get round to this soon.

All cleat bevels are only roughly planed, I'll wait and pick up the correct bevel during trial fitting. I've left all the floor bevels standing as per the plan. Again I'll pick these up off the work.

Yesterday was the first really hot day I've had while using epoxy, and my first batch nearly went off too quickly for me (using medium hardner).

Subsequent batches were made in much smaller quantities!