Slow progress today. Cut out another 6 or 7 notches.
Had a visit for Craig (aka seapea). He brought with him my order of raptor brads. He also bought his raptor gun as well. Did some side by side trials with my gun. More or less convinced myself to by a raptor gun. Mine works well most of the time, but the raptor worked well all the time. My one had a tendency to punch then too far. The raptor by tended to leave just proud of the surface.
Should finish the prep on the bottom battens tomorrow, just need to get more glue.
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Monday, 25 June 2012
Another day of battens
The forecast for Saturday was for a high of 17 so I had high hopes of getting some glueing done, but alas it only got to 15 briefly.
I decided to put a 2mm radius on the top sides of my battens. Several people recommended doing this to the frames, and although I don't recall anybody saying it about the battens, it still seemed like a good idea. I am sure my knees will thank me latter.
So I set about modifying my work bench to accept my router mounted from below. This took a couple of hours to rig up and the results were disappointing. My bench has started to sag a little in the middle.
So I gave up on that and just put the battens on the ground and ran along them. I had thought that would be awkward (not sure in hindsight why), but it turned out to be quick, easy and produce good results.
The rest of the day was spent sanding some of the battens, drilling holes, final trim on notches etc
By mid afternoon I had done all I could on the port side and started marking out more notches on the starboard side. Got 1 cut before I ran out of time.
I also had a look at the data sheet for the glue and discovered 16 deg is the minimum, not 15 as I had thought.
I did also however find there is another version of hardner that can go down to 4 deg so I am going to look into that.
Not a lot of progress really, a bit disappointing.
I decided to put a 2mm radius on the top sides of my battens. Several people recommended doing this to the frames, and although I don't recall anybody saying it about the battens, it still seemed like a good idea. I am sure my knees will thank me latter.
So I set about modifying my work bench to accept my router mounted from below. This took a couple of hours to rig up and the results were disappointing. My bench has started to sag a little in the middle.
So I gave up on that and just put the battens on the ground and ran along them. I had thought that would be awkward (not sure in hindsight why), but it turned out to be quick, easy and produce good results.
The rest of the day was spent sanding some of the battens, drilling holes, final trim on notches etc
By mid afternoon I had done all I could on the port side and started marking out more notches on the starboard side. Got 1 cut before I ran out of time.
I also had a look at the data sheet for the glue and discovered 16 deg is the minimum, not 15 as I had thought.
I did also however find there is another version of hardner that can go down to 4 deg so I am going to look into that.
Not a lot of progress really, a bit disappointing.
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Still doing battens
Today's achievements were
Sand down the sides of the keel to get all the glue squeeze out off
General sand of anything that needed a tidy up before the port side bottom battens go on.
Drilled holes in 3 battens ready for glueing
Glued some spacers into two batten notches that were too deep
Re-sawed my remaining offcuts into battens, mostly short bits suitable for scarfing.
General tidy up of workbench and another big sweep up.
Cleaned up the scarf joints on the battens
Started to sand the batten with 220 grit .
I am hoping to do some glueing later today, but it's quite cold, in the garage at the moment it's only 12 degrees although it doesn't feel that cold. I need 15 minimum according to the epoxy instructions. I can see this becoming a real problem and foresee progress coming to a halt for a couple of months. I can probably keep myself fairly busy for another month with battens and associated works, after that it depend on the weather.
Sand down the sides of the keel to get all the glue squeeze out off
General sand of anything that needed a tidy up before the port side bottom battens go on.
Drilled holes in 3 battens ready for glueing
Glued some spacers into two batten notches that were too deep
Re-sawed my remaining offcuts into battens, mostly short bits suitable for scarfing.
General tidy up of workbench and another big sweep up.
Cleaned up the scarf joints on the battens
Started to sand the batten with 220 grit .
I am hoping to do some glueing later today, but it's quite cold, in the garage at the moment it's only 12 degrees although it doesn't feel that cold. I need 15 minimum according to the epoxy instructions. I can see this becoming a real problem and foresee progress coming to a halt for a couple of months. I can probably keep myself fairly busy for another month with battens and associated works, after that it depend on the weather.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Half the bottom almost done
Had another weekend of interuptions, but managed totoal about 6 or 7 hours on the boat.
In that time got all of the notches on port side bottom completed, and dry fitting of the battens sorted. Cutting the forward end of the battens to shape where they meet the chine / stem was a lot of fun, bit of a head scratch-er, and very difficult to get snug fits.
I had to scarf join 4 of the 5, of which I have so far only glued 3 of them. The 3 that are glued just need trimming to length and then I can beginning glueing and screwing them into place permenantly.
This is another one of those staes that has a dramatic effect on the look of the boat, and the perceieved in not actual progress.
The big thing I noticed this morning is that lack access has again taken a big step, it wont be long before I am crawling under the cheer to get at things "inside" the boat.
In that time got all of the notches on port side bottom completed, and dry fitting of the battens sorted. Cutting the forward end of the battens to shape where they meet the chine / stem was a lot of fun, bit of a head scratch-er, and very difficult to get snug fits.
I had to scarf join 4 of the 5, of which I have so far only glued 3 of them. The 3 that are glued just need trimming to length and then I can beginning glueing and screwing them into place permenantly.
This is another one of those staes that has a dramatic effect on the look of the boat, and the perceieved in not actual progress.
The big thing I noticed this morning is that lack access has again taken a big step, it wont be long before I am crawling under the cheer to get at things "inside" the boat.
Monday, 4 June 2012
More on notches
I have been continuing on with the notches on the starboard side of the bottom. As I approached the bow the curves in the frame the router / Jig solution wasn't working so well and so I changed over to a tenon saw and chisels.
Discovered that this method was just as quick and didn't suffer the tear outs that the router caused.
So I have one left to do on the starboard bottom.
I also have cut one of the battens to marry up to the chine. This is a complex angle, but turned out to be very easy to cut. A bit of fine tuning with the spokeshave left a very nice joint.
Hit another screw with my chisel, I knew it was there, having already removed most of it to chisel a notch. I even knew the bit was there and was trying hard to miss it. Not a big deal, but it's another half hour of building time lost to sharpening instead of building.
Discovered that this method was just as quick and didn't suffer the tear outs that the router caused.
So I have one left to do on the starboard bottom.
I also have cut one of the battens to marry up to the chine. This is a complex angle, but turned out to be very easy to cut. A bit of fine tuning with the spokeshave left a very nice joint.
Hit another screw with my chisel, I knew it was there, having already removed most of it to chisel a notch. I even knew the bit was there and was trying hard to miss it. Not a big deal, but it's another half hour of building time lost to sharpening instead of building.
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