Glued Up First Garboard

Since the garboard was in place, I decided to go ahead and glue it up rather than take it down to install the daggerboard trunk. I took out all of the screws and made sure the board was in sink with the keel plank. I used weights and tools to even the two boards out. I mixed some epoxy and put it into a sandwich baggie with a little hole cut out of the corner. That worked pretty well I must say. I will have to go back and touch up the seam when I can remove all of the "weights". 

Here are a couple pics.

I also took all the clamps off of the trunk. With a little touch up, it will be ready to install.

Trunk Glued Up

After correcting that 1/2" mistake I was able to glue up the daggerboard trunk. I coated the inside of the spacers with epoxy and then applied thickened epoxy to their face. After roughing up the inside of the other half of the trunk, I carefully aligned it and clamped it down. 

I used a trisquare to make sure the bottom was square. That should insure that it is pretty square when I attach it to the bottom of the hull. That's the next step, then I can get on with planking.

 

1/2" Mistake

It's not the first, and it won't be the last, but I made a 1/2" mistake when I glued up my spacers in the daggerboard trunk. As I was dry-fitting them yesterday, one of the pieces looked to be 1/2" short. How did that happen? Couldn't figure it out but I went ahead and cut another one and glued them. 

When I went out to check the fit today, the top was too narrow! By 1/2"!! How did that happen? It turns out I laid one piece on the wrong line. You see, as I was figuring the placement of the spacers using the daggerboard itself as a guide, I had made several adjustments and thus had drawn several lines. When I laid the pieces down for the actual gluing I laid the one on the wrong line! Ugh!!

Well, that had to be fixed. Fortunately it was not too difficult. I adjusted the depth of my skill saw blade, attached a "fence" with clamps and with a few swipes cut back the "excess" spacer on a new line and smoothed it out with a chisel and palm sander.

That should do it! A little epoxy to fill in one  slightly low spot and no one will ever know if we don't tell them!

 

Daggerboard Trunk

I have decided that I'm going to install my daggerboard trunk while the hull is still upside down. That way when I cut the fiberglass over the daggerboard slot, I can use it to help seal the trunk. If I'm going to do that, I need to do it before I get too many planks on and it's too hard to reach. So now is the time.

I had already made the sides to the trunk. Today I cut and glued the spacers to one side. I used some of the left over Douglas Fir. I'm kinda running out of that stuff. Tomorrow I hope to glue the other side to it. 

Before cutting out the spacers, I double checked all of the internal dimensions using the daggerboard itself. I think I've got it right. Again, fingers crossed!

This Planking is Challenging

I thought about laying down the first garboard with epoxy tonight. Turns out I spent the whole evening just trying to get the positioning right. I had that 1/4" gap. I first of all cut a filler strip about 3/16" wide. I didn't like it. I decided I might be able to close that gap a bit by shifting the plank. 

It looked like the bow end of the plank could maybe use some planing down. I fiddled, planed, repositioned and repeated several times. Here is the final result.

Bow end.

mid-ship

stern end

The gap is minimal now. I think I'll just fill it with thickened epoxy. Shifting it did pull it off the line a bit on the opposite edge. Don't think that'll be a big issue. 

I've also got a lot of screw holes to fill! I had to get her to lay flat and that was the easiest way. You can't have any buckling. It'll be ok. The weights and tools are helping to keep the two planks matched up between molds.

Now to glue it down and get the other side to match! 

 

Spiling - What's Spiling?

I tried my hand at spiling for the first time yesterday. Spiling? What's spiling? 

Spiling is the process for copying and transfering the shape of a plank to your stock, be it a piece of plywood or a board.

It's time for me to do my planking. I've already done my keel plank and I went ahead and copied Clint's dimensions for it. I knew there would be some "play" in it fore and aft. It was symmetrical across. However, the other planks are not symmetrical. I don't trust myself to have gotten the setup up my strongback and molds close enough for Clint's dimensions to fit. They might. They might not. I felt spiling would be the safest method, even though I've never done it. 

Here's how the first effort went.

I had made my "compass" and spiling battens a few days earlier and already posted. The battens are seen stacked next to my keel plank in the "hole" picture. 

I started by temporarily attaching my battens to the location of the garboard plank.

Then I measured the distance from a point on the batten at the molds to the edges of the desired plank and marked these on the batten.

Next I removed the batten and transferred all those measurements to the plywood. I then connect the "dots" with a batten, mark new points equidistant from that line which will allow for the offset of your saw and blade, reattach the batten on those new points and cut. 

I tried to cut both garboards at the same time to save time and trouble. The Rotozip just wasn't powerful enough so I switched to the 3.5" saw. As long as I didn't let the blade get too deep, it made the curves OK. It was tight, but it made it. 

Here's the garboard dry-fitted.

It came out OK, but as you can see, there is a 1/4" gap (the second plank is just lying there and not fitted). I'm thinking my spiling batten made have been too flimsy. I can fill this gap since the keel plank and garboard butt up edge to edge. I'm going to rip a strip of leftover ply and lay it in the gap. It will be epoxied and covered with fiberglass inside and out. 

I don't want to have this big of a mistake with the other planks because they overlap. I'm going to purchase a piece of luan and cut two more spiling battens that will be stiffer then the first ones. Hopefully that will give me a more accurate plank. 

All in all, not too bad for the first try. I've got to get the next ones pretty close, hopefully within 1/8". I really don't want to mess up and have to buy more plywood. That would be an expensive mistake!

 

A Hole in My Boat!

Tonight I cut a hole in my boat! Say what?! Really. I cut my daggerboard slot. That's a hole. I carefully checked and measured the size and location of the trunk and cut the slot with a 1/4" drill bit and jig saw. Looks good.

I also cut out some "arms" to make a "compass" which I will use to spile my planks. I snipped the heads of two small nails to use as my points. Should work. I just need to pick up a bolt with a wing nut. 

I also trimmed the keel plank at the transom. The jig saw has an adjustable base which helped me cut that plank on an angle close to the angle of the transom bevel. A little sanding and voila!

Lastly, I planed the keel plank into the stem for a smooth transition. Now just waiting on the garboard planks!

First Plank Glued Down!

I glued down the first plank tonight!

There really wasn't a whole lot of work left to do after lining up the molds. You'll see the pics are very similar. I did take the time to cut out a 3" strip of scrap plywood to see how the garboard plank would land on the stem. I planed it down just a little bit more. I also sanded down the transom bevel to get a little bit of curve out of my planing. I also did my best to make sure the stem was in line with the molds. The only problem there was making sure it wasn't twisted in the middle. I think (hope) it's all lined up.

One down. Ten to go!

 

Look, Mom. No Clamps!

“Look, mom. No clamps!”

I took an hour after church tonight to go downstairs and screwed the molds to the strong back. 

But the real reason for posting so quickly… frankly, I’m just about speechless. No, make that ecstatic!

After screwing them all down with 3” #14 screws, I turned the lights out. Why did I do that? I turned my phone light on and propped it up against that 1/4” hole I drilled in the first mold. Guess what? It shined all the way through the 1/4” holes I drilled through the other molds!!!! In other words, those molds are lined up nearly perfectly!!! Now I didn’t say perfectly, but they’re pretty darned tootin’ close! Man, that makes me feel good. Yoo-hoo!

What Job Takes 5 Hours?

It was time: time for the dreaded job, setting up the molds for good.

I've been building things for forty years. In all those years, no matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to get things square, level and plumb. Duh! But I manage to get the job done somehow.

With this boat, having the strongback, square and level is crucial. Setting up the molds square and plumb is crucial. If you don't get it at least close to right, you're going to have a bunch of problems.

I labored the other day to get the strongback right. Today I started with double checking the measurements on the molds. I found a few areas that could be fined tuned and one measurement that was almost 1/2" off! Fortunately, I was able to fix it. 

Next, I measured for the placement of the molds, double checking to see which side of the mold the 2x's went on. Lining them up was the challenge. I cut a 1/4" hole in each of them in the center and 3 & 1/4" up from the bottom. I then ran a string through the hole to see if they were lining up. It was close but I couldn't get it just right. I abandoned that method.

I decided to line things up with the keel plank. I had a line drawn down the middle of the plank and I had a mark in the center of each mold. I tacked the plank to the first mold and transom. Then I carefully adjusted the molds to hit on that center line. I was concerned about the midship frame. It's not made like the rest and I had not marked the center. I got it close and then measured to the "break" where the garboard plank is to go. With some fiddling, I got it to where I was satisfied. I'll probably look at it one more time before gluing anything.

Laterally they look lined up. Vertically, not so sure. When I had the string running through the molds, it seemed #6 was 1/4" too low. I don't see how it could be, so I'm trusting my strongback and dimensions on the mold. I may tack a couple battens on it where a couple planks go to see how it looks.

The keel plank is temporarily in place. I've still got to attached the stem and bevel the landing on the transom before glueup. Here is the set up as of now.

Looks good from this angle. I'm still worried that this boat is not going to be "fair". I did notice that there seems to be a "hard" spot where the scarf it. We'll see how it all turns out. One thing is for sure: I'll be spiling the planks!

 

Cut Out First Plank

Tonight I cut out my first plank, the keel plank. The big thing here is that I wanted to be able to use my Rotozip with the aid of battens. It seemed to work pretty well. 

I may buy some styrofoam insulation to put under the sheets next time. That will give the ply a solid base and yet allow the bit to cut through easily. I'll spend a few dollars but the time saved will be huge. 

I plan to spile the rest of my planks. I don't trust that my set up will be close enough to use Clint's dimensions. 

 

Staves and Stem

I got in a couple hours this evening. I made 2 staves which I plan to use to cut my planks and hopefully also use them to glue-up my planks. We'll see if they work. They are 3/4" x 7/16" x 17'. 

I will cut out the keel plank first so that I can use it to secure my molds. 

I also finally decided to try and do the rough beveling of the inner stem. I tried to use the band saw but, like I feared, it was binding. So I went with the power planer. Got it close. Anyway, we're supposed to do final beveling when the planks are glued up. 

(Next day)

This evening I went down and unwrapped and sanded off the epoxy on my new staves. They are 17' long or so. I'll use them to mark my planks. I'm also hoping to use them as guides for my rotozip. Keeping my fingers crossed. That would work so good. 

I scarfed them with 12:1 joints that I cut freehanded with the bandsaw. They didn't need to be perfect. LOL

I'm wondering if the scarfs will create a slightly "hard" spot. If so, I'll just have to work with it.

 

A Quick Peek

I'm not quite ready to set up the molds, but I'm close. I just had to take a quick peek to see what it's going to look like. After about 4 & 1/2 hours of working on it today, here's where I'm at.

I need to do the preliminary bevel on the stem, cut the notch in that first mold for the stem and do some careful alignment before I fasten the molds down. This is where some precision comes in. I hope I've been careful enough. Honestly, I'm quite nervous about the fit of all the parts.

I do plan to ask Clint a question about the last mold at the stern. I don't see why I can't use the bulkhead. It's position is almost exactly that of the 6th mold. He is on vacation so it will have to wait. I'll find plenty to work on til then. 

 

Time to Plank!

I finished the scarfing today. Six sheets of 4x8 plywood ripped to twelve 2x8's and scarfed end to end.  The scarfs aren't perfect (hmm, hmm, clear throat) but they'll do. I'm painting so they'll work. Once I cut the planks, I may have to do a little filling of the scarfs, but I'll put the better side to the outside of the hull. Here are a couple more scarfs.

I spent a few minutes realigning the strongback. When I first set it up, I failed to center it in my workspace. It's going to be a little tight any way, so I decided to get it in the middle of the 10' space. I'm also double checking to make sure it's level.

Side to side I can use the level. End to end I wanted something a little more reliable so I used the tube "trick" again. Those last 2 pics are of each end of the tube. You'll notice the water level in the tube. It is right at the top of the strongback on both ends. Water seeks its own level. Right on! 

Did you notice the scarfed plywood and molds in the pic? Yep, that's the next step.