Boat building

[SENC]

I will be watching your epoxy and glassing practice; I've been reading and watching numerous videos. A lot of conflicting and I suspect poor information exists. I wanted to be working on my little drift boat before this, but nothing ever goes as planned, lots of snow and bitter cold weather lately with a week of the flue mixed in just to make things interesting. I'm hoping to get a couple of small projects finished up this week and hoe out the shop for boat building. My project is much smaller than yours but will still crowd the available floor space to the limit.

Got a start today - primed the demo piece and made some fillets. So far so good, no real surprises. It was a little cool in the workshop, so resin was a little thicker than it would be normally. Still takes a LOT of cabosil and wood flour to thicken the resin to peanut butter consistency. Hopefully will get a little time to glass tomorrow.

 

[SENC]

I know I'll enjoy the woodworking part, the resin and glass part may have to grow on me. Rather than tape, I bought a roll of fiberglass cloth to both cut strips and to sheath the hull. I practiced with a few strips yesterday - messy! I need to do a better job of cutting neatly to reduce fraying - but the entire job is rather messy. My test piece isn't going to end up pretty, but I'm learning a good bit about how I'll need to set up and about workflow.

Wood gets delivered today, so scarfing for the hull/side panels and laying out and cutting out bulkeads will start soon.

 

[Nubsnstubs]

I know I'll enjoy the woodworking part, the resin and glass part may have to grow on me. Rather than tape, I bought a roll of fiberglass cloth to both cut strips and to sheath the hull. I practiced with a few strips yesterday - messy! I need to do a better job of cutting neatly to reduce fraying - but the entire job is rather messy. My test piece isn't going to end up pretty, but I'm learning a good bit about how I'll need to set up and about workflow.

Wood gets delivered today, so scarfing for the hull/side panels and laying out and cutting out bulkeads will start soon.

When I worked for Bombardier at the turn of the century, I learned to do fiberglass work. One thing we did was to take the fiberglass, lay it down on the piece with 3 layers of the glass, then apply the resin, and then lay a piece of cellophane over it and then roll it with a roller to get the resin to spread cleanly with no bubbles present.
Those were smaller projects, but it might work on a boat. I know they did larger, but used better cellophane to use a vacuum to pull out bubbles. .............. Nubs

 

[sprucegum]

I know I'll enjoy the woodworking part, the resin and glass part may have to grow on me. Rather than tape, I bought a roll of fiberglass cloth to both cut strips and to sheath the hull. I practiced with a few strips yesterday - messy! I need to do a better job of cutting neatly to reduce fraying - but the entire job is rather messy. My test piece isn't going to end up pretty, but I'm learning a good bit about how I'll need to set up and about workflow.

Wood gets delivered today, so scarfing for the hull/side panels and laying out and cutting out bulkeads will start soon.

That fish bump guy makes it look pretty easy. I transferred the pattern for the bottom of mine to cardboard this morning. The paper pattern is half of a bottom and needs to be flipped to trace the other half. I figured that I'd have better luck with cardboard.

 

[SENC]

That fish bump guy makes it look pretty easy. I transferred the pattern for the bottom of mine to cardboard this morning. The paper pattern is half of a bottom and needs to be flipped to trace the other half. I figured that I'd have better luck with cardboard.

If it's marked and measured, you may find it easier lofting it than trying to accurately trace a pattern.

Made some filleting sticks today.

 

[sprucegum]

This plan came with full size patterns all on one big sheet of paper. The lines are labeled with letters and numbers like 1a, 2b etc. the bottom being only half I felt that alignment on plywood would be easier with a cardboard template. The others I will just transfer directly to the plywood with a ponce wheel. I am planning on picking up the plywood Monday, I will probably order the epoxy and other supplies also. This is supposed to be a 40-60 hour build but because of epoxy drying time between steps I expect it to take around 3 weeks. I will also need to make oars, and probably and put on some custom touches to suit myself. Ice out usually happens in April, sounds hopeful but who knows I've already procrastinated for 37 years

 

[sprucegum]

If it's marked and measured, you may find it easier lofting it than trying to accurately trace a pattern.

Made some filleting sticks today.

View attachment 268583

I've been looking at the Raka epoxy, which viscosity did you purchase? I'm thinking that the 1.5 gallon kit of standard epoxy would probably meet my needs. I question the need for me to purchase the non-blushing formula because from what I have read blushing is caused by water and humidity. My radiant slab shop is about as low humidity as you can get this time of year. Nice selection of filleting tools, I guess that's something that I can work on while I'm waiting for materials.

 

[DLJeffs]

When you said filleting sticks this is what I thought of ....


and when I saw the photos of the ones you made I thought "Man, those'll never work and he plans to fillet some pretty tiny fish."

 

[Tom Smart]

Made some filleting sticks today.

Before Google I would have had to go to the library to learn what this was. So, I'd probably never know.

 

[SENC]

I've been looking at the Raka epoxy, which viscosity did you purchase? I'm thinking that the 1.5 gallon kit of standard epoxy would probably meet my needs. I question the need for me to purchase the non-blushing formula because from what I have read blushing is caused by water and humidity. My radiant slab shop is about as low humidity as you can get this time of year. Nice selection of filleting tools, I guess that's something that I can work on while I'm waiting for materials.

I called and spoke with the owner. He said thin is what most boat-builders use. He said the medium or thick were useful for filling and fillets (require less thickener), but thin is best for wetting out. I bought all thin, and will say it's not as runny as I expected - though my shop has been about 60° during my testing so it will likely run more when in the 70s.

I chose non-blushing just to save the hassle of cleaning blush when I need to let it cure between coats. I hope to do mostly wet-on-wet, which avoids the problem altogether, but just not certain that will always be the case and decided the small premium was worth it (and that was more than paid for in savings from choosing Raka over others). I think the other reason to choose it would be if you're planning to leave any of the wood unpainted (you'd need to varnish over the epoxy for UV protection). As I recall, the non-blushing yields a clearer finish, but double-check that as I'm working from memory.

An alternate solution is to use peel-ply. I do plan to use peel-ply over glassed joints, as it also reduces some of the sanding/fairing burden.

 

[SENC]

When you said filleting sticks this is what I thought of ....
View attachment 268621

and when I saw the photos of the ones you made I thought "Man, those'll never work and he plans to fillet some pretty tiny fish."

That's because you read what I wrote using your best French accent. Read it like @Tclem would read it (phonetically, though you probably dont need to go as slowly as he would ) and it won't be so confusing.

 

[DLJeffs]

So fillet = Fill it.

 

[sprucegum]

Before Google I would have had to go to the library to learn what this was. So, I'd probably never know. Fill eat, and fill it

 

[trc65]

Now I would have called them a corner sticks or cove sticks. But then I'm also a land locked Midwestern guy.

 

[sprucegum]

Picked up my cheap plywood this morning and pretty much got all of my parts cut out. This is a very simple boat that requires no strong back or form to assemble. The sheets that have to be joined use butt joints with reinforcing with butt blocks. I am going to order the epoxy tomorrow, I want to let the parts warm up and acclamate for a few days anyway. I need to sand everything with some coarse paper to help the epoxy bond so I can work on that if I get bored.

 

[SENC]

And in lightning speed, @sprucegum passes me before I even get out of first gear!!!

I got scarf joints cut on 4 pieces of 3/8, as I'll need two sheets almost 16' long for hull and side panels.

 

[sprucegum]

And in lightning speed, @sprucegum passes me before I even get out of first gear!!!

I got scarf joints cut on 4 pieces of 3/8, as I'll need two sheets almost 16' long for hull and side panels.

View attachment 268697

View attachment 268698

Like I said very simple low budget build. If it goes well I may attempt something a little more difficult next year. I've always liked trying different things, this is a first for me. Did you make a router jig for your scarf joints ? They look pretty uniform from here.

 

[DLJeffs]

Here's a little amusing interlude ... when I was a kid in Samoa we found an old 55 gallon drum and my dad helped us cut it half lengthwise. We used it as a boat, had an old 1x2 we used as a paddle. Pretty sure the max capacity was one 12 year old or 70lbs, which ever came first.

 

[sprucegum]

Here's a little amusing interlude ... when I was a kid in Samoa we found an old 55 gallon drum and my dad helped us cut it half lengthwise. We used it as a boat, had an old 1x2 we used as a paddle. Pretty sure the max capacity was one 12 year old or 70lbs, which ever came first.

Now that is low budget

 

[SENC]

Like I said very simple low budget build. If it goes well I may attempt something a little more difficult next year. I've always liked trying different things, this is a first for me. Did you make a router jig for your scarf joints ? They look pretty uniform from here.

No, used a cordless planer and then finished up with a sander. It was my first try at it, and didn't go too bad. I tried to go further with the planer than I should have and chipped a few edges... but as these sheets were 8'3" long I had a bit extra to play with and recovered (I think). That will be confirmed when I try to mate up pieces later this week.