Month: February 2019

Great progress! I spent hours on Saturday and even more hours on Sunday. I was hoping to actually glue some parts, but I didn’t quite have enough time for that.

I clamped the breast hook and quarter knees in place, allowing me to attach, with screws for now, the cleats that will finally hold the breast hook and quarter knees. It’s something of a dance, deciding what gets attached to what, since some parts are on the inside and some the outside.

I can’t screw the gunwale to the hull at the bow and stern if there’s a breast hook or quarter knee in place in the way, but, similarly, I can’t screw the breast hook at the bow or a quarter knee at the stern if the gunwale is in place. So the sequence is to screw a cleat to the hull on the inside, then screw the gunwale to the outside, then screw the breast hook or quarter knee to its cleat on the inside.

So, finally, with the cleats in place, I have the actual length of sheer line to which to attach inwale spacers. This is where the tape measure comes in.

I first tried clamping the tape measure to the inside of the boat, since that’s where the spacers go. But I couldn’t get the tape to lie flat all along the sheer line, since the curve on the inside is concave. It worked much, much better putting the tape on the outside, along the convex curve, where the tape stretched taut and flat.

Then it was a simple matter of making marks 8″ apart, for the 4″ blocks to be 4″ apart. The next issue, though, was transferring the marks on the outside of the hull to the inside. I could’ve just eyeballed it, probably, but, as usual, I worked out an overly exacting method.

I used two extra scrap spacer blocks, clamped together with some thinner scraps, to make a gauge to transfer the marks from outside to inside.

Once the points were marked on the inside, I could then screw the spacer blocks to the hull. Again, this is a little bit of a dance, since I’m screwing the blocks to the hull but then I’ll be screwing the inwales to the blocks. I don’t want screws going into or through each other from both sides.

So I made a little jig or template from an extra spacer block, such that the screws will be in different corners of the block depending on which side they come from. I clamped that onto the outside and drilled pilot holes for each block.

Then I clamped each spacer block in place and drilled through the pilot holes with the #6 screw countersink set for a 1/2″ screw.

And, finally, I screwed each block on with the 2 screws.

That took a while, going around both sides of the boat, 15 spacer blocks per side and 2 screws per spacer block. That’s 60 screws, if you’re counting.

And then I was able to screw the gunwales onto each side.

I was amazed at how solid the assembly is, with the sturdy gunwales attached. Next steps is to unscrew all the parts screwed on today so that they can be glued and re-screwed. Then inwales glued and screwed to the spacer blocks. Then time to turn the boat over and install the chines.

Stay tuned.

(Oh, and I forgot to mention, Dawn stopped by to take a picture of me working on my boat, to send to Papa Joe.)

Another week working mostly in the basement workshop, this time making the spacers for the inwales. I’ve planned for 15 spacers on each side, each spacer the same 5/8″ thick and 1-1/2″ wide as the gunwales and inwales but also each spacer block only 4″ long. So, that’s 30 little 4″ blocks to make.

I don’t actually need this type of inwale. It’s a lot more work, as opposed to just slapping the inwale onto the hull, but I’m imagining them to be useful in a few ways as well as just looking nice. As Chesapeake Light Craft puts it, “So spacered inwales are an affectation to some extent, but they are genuinely practical in two ways: they create handy lashing points the whole length of the boat, and if you want to tip the boat up on the beach to drain the water out, the gaps (or scuppers) created by the spacers allow all of the water to run out.” I also think maybe I heard somewhere that the truss-like construction adds strength to the sheer line. I may just have imagined that last part, though.

I put a lot of (extra, unnecessary) thought into how many and what size these spacers should be. At some point I determined that it would be easier to position the spacers halfway between the ends of the boat and halfway between each other. So that’s either 1 spacer at the 1/2 way point, or 3 spacers at 1/4, 2/4, and 3/4. Or 7 spacers at 1/8 intervals. Or, finally, I decided on spacers at 16ths, so 15 spacers.

But then I started worrying how to evenly measure the halfway points. I have jute string, but, when using it to line up the bow and transom when gluing the hull, I noticed that it stretches. That wasn’t a problem when using it for a straight line, but it would be a problem when trying to determine half of itself. I then went looking at buying some sturdy mason line, but that was more expensive and even then I wasn’t sure how much it stretched. So instead I found and opted for a sewing-tape-like tape measure, something that I can clip to the sheer line to mark block points.

And by taking up 18 inches of the 142 or so inches of sheer line with the breast hook and quarter knee(s), I’m left with 124 inches to fill with 15 spacer blocks and 16 gaps, making a tidy plan of 4″ spacers at 4″ apart.

So again I needed to cut 30 blocks. I had planed extra stock when making the wales themselves, so on Saturday I started at it with the miter saw. The all-purpose blade was a bit rough on the tender stock, causing a lot of tear out, so I cut as many blocks as I could with the stock to be able to pick out the less damaged pieces. Turned out to be 54 blocks.

Then on Sunday I picked out and sanded the best 36, determining which side was the show side and marking a center line on the front and back. I also took a few and made them into installation templates, drilling holes so as to be able to transfer the same dimensions to the hull sides to drill pilot holes to install the real blocks.

But, before I can install the spacer blocks to be able to install the gunwales so then to be able to install the inwales, I had to fair the sheer lines of the hull. I had cut the hull shapes pretty roughly with the circular saw way back in week 2 or 3, and the lines from bow to stern were not especially even, despite having taken a whack at them with the router back in week 5 or 6. This time, though, I used a top-bearing flush trimming bit with the actual gunwale pieces as the reference lines, and I used Dad’s old Rotozip instead of the giant Porter Cable 690 router. The Rotozip handily came with both 1/8″ and 1/4″ collets, and the top-bearing bit that I bought has a 1/4″ shank. So the Rotozip makes a nice little trim router.

Which is what I did on Monday, the President’s Day holiday, use the trim router to make the sheer lines wonderfully straight. Boy, did that make me happy, seeing those straight lines when I was finally done. That had been worrying me for quite a while.

I started to fit the breast hook into place so as to attach the cleat for it, even drilling the pilot holes for the screws for the cleat. But then came quittin’ time, alas, so that’s for next week, attaching the cleats for the breast hook and quarter knees, then installing the inwale spacers.

These shouldn’t have taken 2 weeks to do. But I guess they did.

I put off cutting out the quarter knees until I could get to Home Depot and buy some proper jigsaw blades. That wasn’t until Sunday, so I only got a few hours to work. I spent it all making and fitting the quarter knees and cleats, as well as doing a final fitting for the breast hook. But that was only after fitting a piece of 1/4″ ply to the bottom of the jig saw as a sort of pad on the sole plate, since the metal one was marking the ply as I was cutting.

After cutting the parts in the basement workshop, I did some test fittings in the boat in the garage. The starboard quarter knee fits quite sweetly, while the port side knee has about 3/16″ inch of play up the hull side leg. I’m debating whether to just screw the hull closer to the quarter knee or somehow plane or sand the quarter knee itself into place. I don’t have a proper sanding machine, one where I can move the work piece around on a larger machine. I’ve got a belt sander, which might work, if I can figure out how to stabilize it upside down. Or I might just spring twenty or thirty bucks for a disc plate to attach to the table saw.

I also took care of the issue where the breast hook fits into the corner of the bow but the front of the breast hook sits up a little proud of the sheer line. I used my dozuki to cut a bit out of the underside of the tip, and now it fits pretty nicely.

Next week is fairing sheer lines and starting to install wales.

Making a few key parts in the basement workshop, using just hand-held tools instead of the big machines for last week’s milling operations. These key parts, the breast hook and the two quarter knees, will determine the final size of the inwales, so I need to make them before installing the inwales.

I had always planned to make these parts from the same 24″x48″ piece of 3/4″ plywood as the transom, but I ultimately cut out the transom rather larger than my original plans, so I had to get more creative in order to get the parts I wanted.

So I used my go-to graphics program, PowerPoint, to map out the best way to use the remaining material.

First thing I did was cut the skeg area out, putting that aside for another day. Then I cut the breast hook blank and cleat area. I took that out to the boat in the garage and traced the angle where it’s supposed to fit directly on the board. I like it when I don’t have to measure.

I used the Stanley sliding t-bevel to measure the hull flare on both sides, again not really measuring as such, more just tracing the angle from the bevel onto the back of the board. I’m not thrilled, and not sure why, the angle on the port side is different from the angle on the starboard side. It’s only a tiny difference, though, so I’m guessing it won’t affect the rowing or sailing qualities of the boat. I hope.

Back in the shop, I drew the final shape on the blank and cut it out with the jigsaw. I really need to get proper blades for the jigsaw, since I waffled between using the all-purpose 6 tpi blade that tears out the ply something awful and the metal cutting blade that takes a million years to cut the ply. I eventually went with the metal blade.

After I finished cutting the breast hook, I traced around the bottom of it onto the ply for a cleat to hold back end of the breast hook. (The top angle will be on the stem.) Again I had to cut the sides and legs to the different port and starboard flare angles. But they came out looking rather nice, I think.

I took the completed breast hook back out to the boat to test the fit, and, for the most part, it’s pretty good. The top angle sits on top of the stem a little high, though. The top tip of the breast hook is a little proud of the sheer line, and I’m not sure what to do about that. Maybe sand it down, but I’m worried about going through the top ply. Maybe chisel down the top of the stem, but it’s in an awfully tight corner. I’m afraid I might dig too much into the hull itself there, although that part of the hull won’t be under the waterline and will be covered by the gunwales. We’ll see.

Laying out the quarter knees was its own folly. I had trouble translating the nice curves that I drew so easily in SketchUp to curves drawn with a pencil & compass in the real world. In SketchUp, all you have to do is use the arc tool, define a start and end point, then drag the curve out to whatever distance, perpendicular to the line between the start and end points, that you want. I went with 3/4″ distance. Looked okay.

In the real world, I don’t know how to do that with a pencil and compass. I need the radius of the circle from which the arc comes. I ended up just eyeballing it, choosing a radius with the compass and plotting the point equidistant from the start and end points on the curve. (The end point being the midpoint of the parallelogram that would be made if there were not curves.)

Eyeballing it turned out to look okay, since the whole point of these curves is just to look nice and fancy. There’s not really any structural engineering purpose to them.

Then I drew a port quarter knee on one piece and a starboard quarter knee on another piece. Ready to cut, right?

Um, no. I guess not. I made the hull side of the port quarter knee, the one I drew first and labeled with Sharpie, 5-1/2″ long instead of 6″. I had to erase and redraw it.

I didn’t have time to cut them, but at least they’re plotted.

And I’m about ready to fair the sheer lines to a final shape, deciding to use a flush cutting router bit from the outside this time, so I won’t have any trouble with the hull butt blocks, using the gunwales themselves as straightedges. I ordered a top-bearing bit, and, just for fun, clamped the starboard gunwale on to see what it would look like.

Looks good! That’s next week.