Bulkheads are In!

I decided to go ahead and do both bulkheads at the same time. The aft one fit better than the first. I did have to trim it up a bit. That took a couple hours. I had to use some clamps and weights to keep it in place as well as the first one. 

I added the fillets on the flotation sides of the bulkheads first, let them cure a bit and came back and added the fillets on the opposite sides while finishing up and touching up the "horns" of the bulkheads. 

I spent a lot of time trying to make sure I had the position correct on each one. I think I got close enough anyway. 

All in all I think I have about 8 hours in the bulkheads. I'm pushing 400 hours at present. 

Forward Bulkhead

I spent about 5 hours today working on fitting the forward bulkhead. As built, I did not fit. I had to cut it way down. My suggestion to Clint would be to make it one of the molds, along with the aft bulkhead, and presto! You got it. 

I took the mold from the forward section, cut it back a couple inches all the way around and used it as a blank. Then I hot-glued pieces into place to get the right sizing.

Next I placed it on the previously made bulkhead and cut it to the indicated size. I beveled the bulkhead, which was probably the hardest park of the process, and did a lot of fine tuning. I fidgeted with it's placement a long time trying to get it plumb and square. We all know how that usually works out! I think I'm as close as I'm going to get. 

Here it is ready to glue up.

The "horns" had to be cut way down below the inwales. Not quite sure why such a big discrepancy between Clint's plan and what I came up with. Oh, well. 

I will try and glue it in place in the morning. 

Fiberglass Laid

I laid down the fiberglass in the floor of the boat aft of the midship frame. This is to strengthen that part of the hull which I'm told "oil cans" in a seaway. Clint also suggested I do this. I laid it back to the rear bulkhead.

The edges are a little rough and will require some sanding.

Not quite sure How I'll finish the fiberglass sheet and strips. The floor will cover most of it. I could leave it like it is or fill it with some thickened epoxy. I'll think on it.

Now to fit out the interior. I'll start with the bulkheads I believe. I played with the forward one a bit this evening. The fit appeared to be a bit tricky. We'll see how it goes. 

 

Interior Prep Almost Done

I did some more epoxy/fiberglass work on the interior. Almost ready for fitting out. Monday morning I hope to lay that piece of glass in the floor aft of the mid-ship frame.

I did a quick trip downstairs tonight to sand off the thick edge of the fiberglass tape so the cloth will lie better. 

Here's a close-up of one of the fillets I did at the laps. I did most of them. A few of the laps were a little starved of epoxy. It was really important to add some epoxy to those. When I glued the planks together, I wanted enough epoxy but I didn't want to make a total mess. I think I fairly succeeded in that. 

I hit the two quarterknees with the sander too.

Hopefully, I'll begin fitting out the interior next week!

 

Interior Work Continues

I've spent several more hours on the interior. This is very exciting! I'm getting closer and closer to fitting out the interior with thwarts, flotation chambers etc. 

I've glued down 6 fiberglass strips over the bottom two joints and beefed up the laps. There were a few gaps and I felt a small fillet in them wouldn't hurt anyway. 

I also glued up the quarterknees. I've yet to sand them flush.

I may glue down 2 more strips in the front though I don't think it is as vulnerable as the back half of the boat. Then I'll glue down that full layer of fiberglass over the back pictured in the previous post.

All in all, the work has gone faster than I expected on this phase. Pretty soon I'll be installing those bulkheads I built months ago!

 

Prepping Hull Interior

I sanded the interior of the hull aft of the midship frame tonight in prep for fiberglassing the four inner most joints with tape and then a layer over the entire bottom aft of the frame. Just a couple pics:

I will need to fill the seams with thickened epoxy before fiberglassing. I may be able to do it at the same time, then come back and lay down the cloth. 

Quarterknees

I came home yesterday at lunchtime and was home the rest of the day. I felt like I needed to do something on the boat. I had spent a couple hours taking apart two large pallets that I had picked up at the construction site next to the church. I came out with twelve 12' 2x4's. That's about $150 in lumber. 

I ate supper, relaxed a bit, talked to Robin for a good while and then watched the Braves for a few minutes. At 10:00 I went downstairs. Over the next 2 hours I cranked out my quarterknees. I'm very satisfied with them. They came out great except for one small edge that I hit too hard with the palm sander. That will show a little bit of filler when attached. 

There were angles and bevels galore in these babies, but the fit is good. I changed out my bandsaw to a 1/4" blade to make those curved cuts: a good result.

Breasthook

My first order of business on the interior was the breasthook. I could have started elsewhere, but that was my choice. 

I wanted a substantial piece of board to do it. The plans called for hardwood, but I had a 2x8 that I picked up at the same time I got the batch of cedar next to the church. This board is 1,1/2" thick, but that'll be ok. 

It took me three tries cutting it out to get it half-way decent. The first try, I made an incorrect cut. The second try was better. I almost used it. I decided that I could do better. I took better care to get the angles of the bevels right. That worked pretty well. Took some work with the bandsaw and the Japanese saw (that saw is turning out to be pretty handy). 

Here she is glued up.

I left it a little "proud" so that I'll be able to sand it a little rounded to conform to the gunwale a little nicer. It's not fine joinery. There will be a little "fill", but that'll have to do. , 

I did use my System Three wood flour that I ordered from Amazon. My "homemade" saw dust, even after straining, was too coarse. The new stuff made a wonderful batch of thicked epoxy. I knew I would need that to get a finer, cleaner look on the interior. It'll be worth the $18 I spent for it. 

Strongback Lowered

Now that I've turned the boat over, it is too high for me to work inside the hull. The solution? Lower the strongback. This was a fairly easy task. It took me an hour to make some temporary legs and install them along with two cinderblocks. I then shortened the real legs by 12". 

On Sunday afternoon, after dinner, I took my work crew down to the shop for some heavy lifting. Ric suggested that we use some 2x's to lift the boat and strongback. Good idea! Two on one end and two on the other. When they lifted, I quickly went around the boat and removed the temporary legs, which were held on by just 2 screws each, and they lowered the strongback. Presto! Done. 

Now I'll be able to work on the inside of the hull much better!