More Rail Work

Here's a pic of the two gunwales glued up. The bow ends don't quite match, but I may be able to sand down the starboard gunwale, which looks slightly longer, to match.

I've been working on the inwales now. This morning I measured and sanded the first one. And then, guess what I did? I glued up the wrong side! Duh!! Oh, well. That just means I'll have to sand the "new" side. Here ya go:

In the morning I hope to glue up the second inwale which I prepped a few minutes ago. 

One issue I had was that the midship frame was not notched to receive the inwale. I cut the notches with my new oscillating saw and a chisel. A bit rough, but they'll have to do.  

Second Gunwale Glued Up

I took the first one off. Looks good and I shaped up the aft end of the gunwale.

This morning I glued up the second. It was a little twisted but with the clamps I believe I got her on straight.

I'm still sure whether or I not I am going to do a slotted inwale. Guess I'll be figuring that out shortly. I did like it on Little Bit. It looked great and was quite useful. 
 

First Gunwale Glued Up

Tonight I glued up my first gunwale. It took me an hour to shape the end. I copied the shape of the angles at the stem on light cardboard, traced them onto the end of the gunwale and tried a combination of cutting and sanding. The method that did the trick was simply cutting both angles with the Japanese saw. I did shape up the curves edge with the sander.

I coated the inside of the gunwale with epoxy, thickened some more epoxy and slathered it on. I got a good consistency and clamped the thing on. I started at the stem, since I wanted that to be a tight fit. The far end of the strip rested nicely on the bench while I got the clamps started. Then I moved all the way to the other end. I tapped the gunwale with a hammer and block of wood to get it even with the sheer strake and then cleaned up the squeeze out with a rag soaked in alcohol. I think it turned out pretty nicely.

I believe I can do the finished end a little quicker on the next one. Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow evening. 

Gunwales and Inwales

Last night I unclamped the gunwales and inwales which I had glued up the night before. Some good squeeze-out! I used my small prybar, which has a pretty sharp edge on the straight end, to chip away the  worst of the squeeze-out. Then I took the belt sander with the 80 grit belt on it to take off the rest. Like before, the scrafs aren't great but they'll do.

I decided, since I was at it, that I'd do some fine sanding as well. I took my palm sander with some 120 grit paper and sanded the flat edges of the four strips. I started to sand the  short edges but decided I will probably be sanding them smooth the  top edge of the sheer strake, so I ceased and desisted. 

Before coming in, I took the notion to see what the gunwale would do clamped on the sheer. How hard would it be to bend? Would it break? 

I clamped the middle hard and then worked my way out tightening alternating clamps little by little until the strip was clamped all the way around the strake. No breaks! Seemed to go on alright. 

I did not fool with shaping the end that will butt up against the stem. Hopefully Monday night we'll get her glued up!

Back to Work

After literally a month with no work done (except to turn the boat), I'm back at it. Yesterday morning I cut out the wood for the gunwale and inwale. I salvaged quite a few board feet of cedar from the building next to the church before they tore it down. I figured why not use it. It may not be the prescribed wood, though some say use what you've got, but I'm going to go ahead and use it. After all, it was free! It does have a few knots in it, but hopefully it will make the fairly gentle curve of the sheer without breaking. 

I ripped the pieces on the table saw and cut the scarfs on the band saw with the guide I made way back when I was scarfing the pieces for the spars. 

Not much to show in the way of pics but here they are epoxied together. 

  I did run into a glitch. My pump is gooped up. It seems the epoxy has thickened up. I got two new pumps when I ordered more epoxy but I can't seem to find them. They say, if you heat up the stuff, it will dissolve the thickened epoxy. We'll see. 

Boat Turned!

After weeks of indecision and the kitchen remodel at church, we have finally turned the boat. With a ready made crew, which are with us most Sunday afternoons, we turned her Sunday.

The hull is not very heavy. I'm going to guess maybe 80 pounds. Ric and I probably could have turned it, but I wanted some "insurance". 

Here's the crew: Tara, Ric, Luke and myself. Robin was the photographer.

And here she goes over.

I did have a little trouble with the 4" pipe overhead. We had to step the boat toward Ric so that a narrower part of the beam was under the pipe. I hadn't figured that 5' beam! But it was an easy solution. 

I wanted to be careful and get her on the cradle squarely.

And here is a view of the  unfinished interior. Those lines are beautiful. And look at that transom!

And now to get back into the routine of working on her several nights a week. First on the agenda is the gunwale, inwale and rub strips. After that I will probably cut the legs on the strongback so that I can reach the interior without too much strain. I'll be running two strips of glass tape down the keel plank garboard joints, glassing the sole with 8 oz glass from the midship back to the rear thwart, cleaning up the epoxy squeeze out at the laps and then putting a thin fillet at those same laps.