Chines and bracing

I completed the bracing of frames 6 thru 8, they are a lot more rigid. There is still a little bit of give, I will see how it goes when the Chines are wrapped around and decide if I need even more bracing.

Second part of the day was cutting the chine logs out. It's a job that frankly I have been avoiding. The bit that I struggle with is getting the first straight edge on a board. I tried a development of my previous method, and although it produced a better result it still has plenty of room for improvement. While typing the last sentence I have comeup with a method that should solve my problems.

The other thing I have done since I ripped my keel bits is buy another roller top stand to held feed the timber, this made a huge difference. I think I'll get another couple.

So what I am doing is using a piece of box aluminum that is 25 x 75. I lay that on its 75mm side and then put the guide arm in my skillsaw in backward so that it runs along the aluminium on the opposite side the cut. The skil saw then runs along the top of the box section. This works very well except my boards are 4.8m but the box section is only about 3m long so. I have to do a cut, then move it, and it's in moving it that errors creep in. But as I said before I have an improvement in mind which should solve my problems.

Any how, after getting a straight edge I ripped out 4 lengths of chines from one board and a couple of shorter lengths to join and give me the 20 ft lengths I need.

I got a chance to thickness the short bits and make a start on one of the long bits before I ran out of time.

Keel is finished

After finishing the prep in the last section of keel, I proceeded to glue that on this morning.

The glueing aspect went much better with thicker glue.

But.... I managed to shear off two of the screws. I have two theories, and it's probably a mixture of both

1. I don't have a tool to drill the correct hole taper, I did this manually for the first part of the keel with no issues, but I am thinking I messed it up and didn't drill deep enough, this is backed up by a couple of the frames cracking when the screw was driven the last 5 mm or so.

2. The second possibility is that the screws don't like being partially driven, and then driven home later as a second operation. The reason I was doing this is my battery drill doesn't have enough grunt to drive them all the way home. So I drove them all as far as I could and then went round them all with a brace, and it was then that two of them sheared.

Oh well, just another building challenge.

Keel Pt 4

Had a pretty productive day.

The keel is made of two laminations; as I mentioned in a previous post, my timber is just a bit too short. So the first lamination was scarfed just forward of the transom. So last night I manufactured the forward half of the second lamination. Today I just had to put the taper on and drill the holes for the screws. The keel is fastened with 3" #14 screws. I don't have one of those bits that drills the right size hole for the thread and shank. Those screws have a big head, it's about 12mm in diameter. I don't have drill bits larger than 10mm so it was out with the auger bits again, and again I had to sharpen it, but it works great and so I was able to recess all my screws to allow for fairing.

Next problem was to drill the bolt holes that fasten the forward end of the keel to the stem. These holes are about 130mm deep and the stem is only about 35mm wide so if I didn't go down straight it would be a big problem.

So I got my laser level out and projected a line up the drill bit to keep it square side to side. Then I clamped a square to the stem as a reference for the fore - aft squareness. It worked pretty well, came out the bottom about 4mm off centre which is good enough.

Then came glueing, this is the biggest gluing job I have done yet area wise. I did some estimates on how much glue I would need but decided that my math was wrong and so mixed up about half of what my maths said, well my maths was over, but it was closer than my "guess".

Second problem was I figured since I was laminating that a fairly runny mix of glue would be ideal. WRONG, as soon as I poured the glue on the keel it tried to dribble off the end.

Anyway got the glue sorted and bolted things at the stem, which proceeded without issue. Then I clamped the rest of the keel down prior to putting the screws in. This is we're things started going pear shaped again, my battery drill doesn't seem to be charging, it was on all week but gave up half was through the first screw, so out with a ratchet and 1/4" socket, wound all the screws in that way.

Then cleaned up all the dribbling glue, thickened it up and did some gap filling.

In the afternoon I turned my attention to the second part of the second keel lamination, cut to length, thicknesses, planed the edges and routed the scarf. I couldn't go any further as I need to remove the clamps on the front section of the keel to line up the back section to position the screw holes etc.

So, turned my attention to adding bracing to the front to secure frames 6,7 & 8. Didn't get finished but it's well on the way.

Keel Pt 3

Had a couple of hours to spare tonight so went down the the shed to do some thinking and prep work and ended up making most of the second lamination for the keel.

I forgot to mention I glued the first lamination to the frames during the week. That went ok. I can see judging the amount of glue required the laminate the keel pieces together Abington difficult to determine.

Then struck a small challenge, I need to drill a couple of 25mm holes about 10mm deep to recess the stem to keel bolts. I have a fist full of auger bits and a couple of braces, but the bits haven't seen service in about 25 years and were very blunt.

You Tube to the rescue, found a couple of tutorials on how to sharpen the bits, and found it remarkably easy and successful.

So I have ended the evening with my second lamination pretty close to ready, just need to plan out how to drill the stem bolt holes square, that's going to be tricky.

Keel Pt 2

I figured I would have the first lamination in place within a couple of hours, 6 hours later it's in place but only glued at the stem.

The big issue I struck is my bench saw can only cut to 65mm. The keel is 100mm wide and so couldn't be scarfed using the jig I built a couple of weeks back. So I decided to do it with the router, and to be honest I struggled to get my head around the problem.

But I got there in the end and was extremely pleased at how great a job it did.

After that it was plane the edges of the first keel lamination with my #6 jointer plane, these edge were still rough from going through the bench saw. I have to say that the plane is one of my most favorite tools. I have got the hang of getting them very sharp and I get great results. Nothing beats a long curl that's thin as paper and the full width of the timber.

So after that it was taper the keel to the stem and then out with the glue. I mixed one batch which was enough to glue the scarf joint and the keel at the stem.

Tomorrow I will glue the keel down along the rest of its length.

My scarfing jig for the keel

 This is my first "real" scarfing attempt, it went much better than I feared.

End of the day and I have a keel sort of in place

Keel pt 1

Tried to run one of my 4.8m x 270mm boards through the thicknesser with no infeed or outfeed table and by myself, as I suspected would be the case, it didn't work too well. The reason I tried to do it was to get a better look at the grain for selecting a piece for the keel.

So I gave up on that idea and checked the edge of the board and sure enough it wasn't straight. So I set about putting a straight edge on it, which is much easier typed than done, took me two go's. I am going to think about better ways to do it. Doing this however has left me with a board a little over the required width for the keel. I still need to run it through the table saw to clean up the other edge, but it's progress.

Then I put the board through the thicknesser again, much easier this time, still by myself but the board was manageable, trick was taking just enough of the weight, I judged this using the rollers on the infeed & outfeed table of the thicknesser, taking weight until they stopped rolling and then releasing a little to keep them rolling. Worked great I am pleased with the result.

So I now have most of my first keel lamination, it's too short by about 2-1/2". I am going to cut it back to frame 1 and put the scarf joint so that the centre of the joint is on the frame. For the second lamination I'll put the joint up at frame 6.

Thicknessing the first board produced an insane amount of saw dust, I need to find something to do with it. I filled my shop vac twice

More timber

Went and picked what is hopefully enough sapelle to complete the framing.

I am however currently debating with myself about how best to manufacture the sheers.

These parts need to be 5/8" x 1-1/2", so I bought a length that is 2" thick and intend to mill that down to the 1-1/2" and then take the 5/8" slices of that, but this will have me bending in the opposite plane than is perhaps intended by the quarter sawing. Not sure this will be ok ???

End of the holidays

Well it's back to work for me tomorrow, and so gone is the luxury of spending 4 or 5 hours most days tinkering on the boat.

I have been working out a rough timetable and come up with the following based on getting 5 hours a week, which will typically be a saturday or Sunday.

Keel - 2 weeks, finished at end of Jan
Chine - 4 weeks - end of March
Sheer - 4 weeks - end of April

Battens - 8 weeks - end of June

Fairing - 4 weeks - end of July

First layer of planking - 8 weeks - end of September

Second layer - 6 weeks - mid November

Third layer - end of January

So 12 months time and I am hopefully in the final throws of the planking.

I haven't done a budget for the above works but my gut feel is I will be able to squeeze it in as long as there at no other disasters around the house.

Timing may shift a bit as that schedule has the planking starting in mid winter and it may have to wait for spring to be warm enough. I may have to get some fast hardner as well.

Ready for the keel

Pretty much all I can do has been done with the materials I have to hand.

I have discovered that 2 of the keel slots weren't correct. I filled one by about 4mm with epoxy last night and today milled it back to the correct depth. Since that worked as planned I have since done the same with the other one and will mill that back with the router tomorrow.

Also glued the keel blocking on to the transom.

I had a piece I had saved for the keel but found it was bent. Will still be able to rip it into battens later on.

Frames are all on

Glued on frame 8 and the transom today. I have also completed the cutting of all the slots from the keel.

I got my last bit of timber out that I was planning to use as part of the keel and found it had a big bend at one end . So its off timber shopping on Tuesday.

Frames 1 & 2 are back on

As per the title, frames 1 & 2 are no permanently attached.

I have prepared frame 8 for attachment, and would have done so but it wouldn't consume a whole batch of glue so it's sitting in the ready to go pile.

Also started lining up the transom, but to complete this I need to have all the keel notches cut out, so that is top of tomorrows list.

I have also been researching the extra bracing required whilst bending the chine and sheers, and have a plan, but I need to get some more timber for that.

Not much new

Only got frames 3 & the stem fixed in place today.

Frames, Stem and more

Had a good day today.  Frames 4 & 5 are now permanently attached, and the Stem has been prepared for permanent attachment tomorrow.

I also completed a jig I have been making to cut out the various notches on the frames.  I tested it on Frame 6 and it works perfectly and leave a clean and square slot for the keel to sit in.

The new glue is working out fine, but a single batch is very big, so I need to stack up enough jobs to consume it all, and then work very quickly to get everything done before it begins to tack off.  So far so good.

Ignore the less than perfect joint in this photo, epoxy glue is good for fixing all manner of evils. One of the things this photo doesn't show is that I forgot to put a sacrificial piece of ply to protect the floor timber splintering whilst I was routing out the slot.  Didn't do do much damage, but I will remember for next time.

The stem in this picture is just sitting there.  Its all levelled, squared, holes for the screws are drilled, its just not glues and screwed.  Probably not noticeable, but I spent about 30 minutes today with a hand brush sweeping up saw dust.  Ended up with and enormous pile.

New Glue

I was coming to the end of my current glue supply and decided this was a good time to review it. Until now I had been using a pre-gel mix that was mixed at a 1:1 ratio. This aspect was good, but it was also a rather expensive way to go. I have also had nagging doubts about the product, not that I have had any problems, but it seemed support was limited should I stumble. I started looking into using EPG epoxy and glue powder but they didn't have pumps and I was concerned about mixing ratios. So I have changed over to West System. I went and spoke to the technical guy for 10 minutes and he had concerns about EPG as well, he quoted a low value on some parameter that I can't recall as I didn't understand it at the time. He also threw in a few freebies in the form of hand cleaners, manuals, glue spreaders. So now I have a 12 litre bag of glue powder and 12 litres combined of epoxy resin & hardner.

So I came home and read the book. It strongly recommended making a trial batch to get used to the pumps and mixing etc.

First thing I noticed is that a single pump produces a lot of glue, more so that most job I am currently doing requires. This has me concerned a bit as I can see me doing lots of jobs where 1 pump is going to be too much, or not being quite enough.

Anyway decided not to waste the 'trial' batch and used if filling old bolt holes left over from removing the frames.

This was the first time I have had the glue go off while I was still working it, and I also noticed a lot of heat which I wasn't getting from EPG. I had spread the glue out a bit, but needed to spread it out much more.

Todays photo shows frames 6 & 7 attached, 7 was done a couple of days ago, forgot to post it.

The stem is just balanced, need to do a bit more preparation before fitting that.

Tomorrow I hope to get frames 4 & 5 fitted.

Frame 6 and 7 are back on

After repairing all the damage I spent a long time ensuring that the stringers were correctly aligned.  A process that nearly drove me nuts.  I was talking to a guy at the nuts and bolts shop and he used to work for a boat builder and said that sometimes on a warm day that could actually see the frames bending as the temperature rose.  I think that was what was happening to me. 

What I did was clamped the two stringers together, ensuring the two landing points on the taper were perfectly aligned.  I then using a marker pen scored 4 lines acorss the stringers at roughly equal intervals.  I then bolted one stringer to the building form and then using a straight edge and square checked that the stringers where square at each of the 4 lines.  I would get he front lines lined up then work my way done the stringers, and by teh time I got to the end they where 5 mm out.  I would then go back to the start, and sure enough it was 5 mm out.  So start again.  This went on for an hour before I got it close and bolted up.  Even now they are about 1mm out.

So I have since reattached frame 6, which is on and looks ok, but was a bit of a mission.  Re-using existing holes was more trouble than it was worth.  So now I am gluing up all the holes and will re-drill as required.  The problem I see with this is that the coach bolt heads are going to struggle to penetrate into the epoxy.  That's going to my next mission

I also put on frame 7.  This didn't go too bad, had to do a bit of fine tuning to get things square and looking ok.  The glue was taking a long time to go off today as it was fairly cold.  We are having a crap summer here in NZ.

And another day of filling and sanding

Finished the prep on the clips ready for reuse

More sanding and glueing on three of the frames. I guess tomorrow will be the same, so hopefully Saturday will see frames being refitted.

Did some more work on a jig I am building to notch the frames.

Another day of filling and sanding

Filled some more of the damage with glue, also sanded down the trimmed clips.

Also had a thought, by rotating the clips by 180 the frames will be in the correct position as a non trimmed face will now butt against the frame. The hole alignment might be a tiny bit out if for some reason they weren't perfectly square but as they where drilled using a drill press I am confident they will be ok.

Also picked up some replacement nuts and bolts for the ones that were damaged during extraction.

Hopefully in about 36 hours I can begin frame installation again.

I also started work on a jig to assist in cutting the notches for the battens. Mk 1 didn't quite work out as the ply I used was too thick, but the concept is ok. I will develop it further over the coming days.

Off they all came

And surprisingly quickly and with minimal damage.

The stringers are almost 100% repaired

The frames are about 70% repaired

The clips, I found that I couldd slice 3 mm of the sides that had been injured and they are all ok again. Just need a bit of a sand and a couple of coats of sealant. Doing this will mean that frames 1 to 5 will be 3mm aft of their station but I really cant see this being an issue.

It does mean I have to fill and re-drill frame 6 holes as the position is dictated by the landing on the taper.

I am guessing it will be at least another 2 days before I begin to reassemble.

I also have to get some more nuts and bolts as about 10 sets were damaged during removal.

It's been a lot of work, but I think was worth the effort.

I have also figured out what went wrong ( I think).

There is no bracing on the building form in the fore-aft direction. The plans don't show any however I fully intended to add some after I had the frames in roughly the right position. I couldn't do it before as they would block the positioning of the frames. But I forgot :-(. This meant that the whole thing could twist, and either 1 stringer went back or forward the full 5 mm or the two of them moved to give a total error of 5mm. Bummer !!

They must all come off

After spending more time reviewing the frame problem I have decided that all the frames must be removed.

So I have a week of destruction, repair and then refitting of the frames ahead of me. Have to say its a bit daunting at present but I'll take it one step at a time.

A dark day

I messed up and have ended up with frames 1 to 6 not being square with the stringers. In hindsight I know how I went wrong, I failed to get the stringers aligned properly, and then fitted frame 6, which sits on a ledge cut into the stringers.  Then each frame was referenced to this frame, so the problem telegraphed its way along the boat.  Bugger !!!

I have posted on the glen-l forum regarding my stupidity and await for advice on what to do. Worst case is I will have to remove all the frames and start again.

Damn !!!


Update

Well after checking things over again I found that 1,2 & 3 were ok. 4 was a tiny bit out, 5 a tiny bit more and frame 6 was pretty bad, about 5 or 6 mm out.

So I went and bought an oscillating tool (See my tools page). This was absolutely perfect for cutting through the glue joints. It made very little damage to the various parts and after a bit of a clean up and filling some gouges I will be able to reuse everything.

It will take a couple of days to get back to where I was but could have been a lot worse. To fix my stringer misalignment I will have to cut the longer one shorter by about 4 or 5 mm.  So my Monaco is going to shorter than designed by 5mm :-) .

Here are a couple of photos showing the damage from cutting.  The stringers suffered very little on the top faces, but the side faces fared worse.  The frame suffered a little worse, but nothing a bit of epoxy won't fix.  Best of all, none of it will be seen when its all finished.