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!