Scribe and cut

Today I did more awful cutting and sanding of fiberglass...yuck. This morning I found some 16 ft stock in the old wood shed, and cut a few thin battens for lofting . First up was the chine dish...1" deep with the high point being at the oar locks at the center of the sheer line. I clamped the pieces together, and clamped them to the panel at the ends and center. I marked 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 points of the arc and used those points to align the batten. I scribed the line then sighted down it til it was fair to my eye. I redid the line over and over until it became a nice thick tight arc. Once I had it where I wanted it, I came thru with the jigsaw. I then came thru first with the orbital sander to whack obvious high spots. Then came thru with the block with long strokes to level the curve. Again I eyed out the curve until it was pretty fair. I Recut the transom line as I realized my panel was about 1" longer than 17'. Rather than deviate from my already planned lines from the model, I cut the transom to the right size. Once I had the first panel cut to shape and mostly fair, I scribed all my sheer line measurements, and plotted lines aligning 90 degrees off the chine and sheer line, so I could decide later where to align bulkhead panels.

After scribing the first panel, I flipped it and aligned it with my other panel. As I mentioned before. I messed up and glassed the wrong side. What I did was flip the panel over since it was uncut and had the same taper. The chine line cut I had made originally was pretty close but not exact. It now becomes the sheer line when I flip the panel. Compared to the factory edge my panel was not perfect. I used a fence and a jigsaw on a few spots that were really high, then took the block and faired it out. I got the two panels to where the sheer lines matches almost exactly. I then clamped the two panels together so they couldn't shift, and traced the finished panel. I made quick work of cutting the second panel with the jigsaw staying just outside my scribe line. I aligned the panels again on the sheer and took the block to the chine line stem and transom. I faired all edges level and smooth. I then sighted done the arc of the chine and tried to get it as close to fair as possible. It's not perfect but looks pretty good. Faired out the transom and stem cuts.

About ready to think about stitching. Before I do though, ill come thru and make sure all those small delams at the edge of the panel get filled with a little resin and clamped. Tommorow ill make the parts for the 3 piece temporary stem. Since the stem has an arc, ill use a few triangles backed by a thin flat piece of stock. This will hold the v on the stem in place when I zip tie the stem together. Ill also make a fake transom to hold the shape of the back panel. Ill wrap it in visqueen before I install it so I can use it as a mold and foam and glass over it for the transom. I'm also thinking about using one of those chip board panels to make a small cart for around the shop that will also double as my saw horse/strong back when I flip the boat over gotta find some burly casters. tomorrow is a new day, more stuff still to do. She'll look like boat soon tho.

Got to keep movin'

Slow couple of days around here. Slow steady progess. Fixed the broken horn in the old boat. My trailer has a flat so I need to fix that and I should probably reinforce my repair underneath and on the other horn so it doesn't break again.

Got out on the river a bit. Low water grow ventre is fun stuff. Low water bashing in a creek boat, felt good to be out on the river,

I got the floor panel wrapped in plastic and moved into in the wood shed. I used a couple sheets of 1/2 marine ply I had laying around as a wall to lean against. It's out of my life for now. I pulled back some of the peel ply on the panels to check my finish. Looks good. Way better than i could have done by hand. cheap vacuum bagging is awesome! Areas where two cloths met or edges were all squashed down flat and smooth to the touch. awesome! Even resin distribution, and a smooth almost velvety finish that will be great for secondary bonding.. The edges where the glass met the corners were rough so I put on my space suit, mask and goggles used a hand sander on a 45 to nip the glass off right at the corner. I hate sanding fiberglass. I think most of the reason I wanted to bag the boat was so I could sand less fiberglass. Yucky! Itchy! . The first panel that I left in the bag long enough had nice wrapped edges that cleaned up quickly and easily. The one I pulled early had goo bond to the face, but no wrap on the edges. Too quick pulling it out of the bag. I dressed the edges on the sheer. Looks good.

Then I realized I pulled an idiot measure twice cut once moment. I made a mistake I had made many times while building models and forgot to flip the second side panel for glassing so I glassed the same side of two panels. Luckily I realized this whole thing while I was laying out the trace cut from the first panel. The taper in the panels match so the chine becomes the sheer of the second panel and ill trace it to size of the first panel. The chine cut was pretty even. Not as good as the factory sheer I tried to use but ill make it work, the two panels are very close. It'll get buried in gunwales anyhow and the wood will find the right curve and make up the difference.

I found one spot I screwed up from when I pulled the first panel too early and I have a spot about an inch deep and 5-6 inches long where the core lifted off the face. This will be buried in gunwales also but ill fix it with a cabosil mix before.

Got one panel cut with the stem arc measured and cut and the the 3 transom cut options marked and the shallowest one cut. 36 tip jigsaw and a Fence makes a nice straight cut. Ill need to cut some long 18 ft battens for helping loft the boat full scale and to draw this huge 14.5 ft arc 1" deep I need to cut into the chine. Then ill trace this panel onto the other panel, cut it, then line the two up clamped together and fair them both dead even. Then time to stitch with temporaries and loft full scale.

Gluing the floor

Some days you make lots of progress, some days not so much. I woke up yesterday and was a bit eager taking the panel out of the bag. Might have gotten a little cold the night before because the panel was still a little green when I took it out. I tried to stand it up but didn't feel comfortable with that. I could have reaffixed the bag and left it under vacuum, But the resin had gone off, just still a little tacky. I decided to just leave it flat on the shop floor. Went out and ran some errands, and cranked both heaters on while I left. I came back and it was warm in the shop and the panel seemed to have hit its cure. 24 hrs on slow, I gotta be patient. The reason I really want the panel out of the way was so I could glue up the bottom panel while i still have a big shop floor, then get it out of the way and store it in the other panel/wood shed while I bring the hull to shape full size. Now that both side panels are done I am anxious to see the boat come to shape full size and to see if I need to make many adjustments to my dimensions from the model which Imagine I will. Ill have nwhat looks like a boat here soon.

Today I worked on gluing the hull panels together. The bottom panels are a bit hammered. some dents along the edge and a couple on the face of the foam. one edge has a huge chunk missing. hopefully its in the cut line, otherwise ill have to learn how to patch core before the boat ever hits the water. The shop floor was tied up yesterday and I forgot to get heavy duty packing tape while I was out. It got late and I quit early. This morning I got the tape and came home and masked the edges of the panels with the packing tape tight to the edge just like before. I gave the end grain of the foam a hit with straight epoxy, then turned the heater on it and let it sit all afternoon and night. Came back late tonight and mixed up a thickened epoxy with cabosil and glass bubbles. Used a roller to make quick work of application. Came thru with the towel to grab excess epoxy off the face of the joint, butt jointed the panels, and taped the halves together first by pushing them together and using tape straps to hold tension, then taping across both joints to hold it together and keep the two pieces level. Flipped the piece over which is easy in one direction when you tape it, and did the back Side. Used my long piece of base board to clamp over the top of the joint using the underlying chip board to squish the joint between. Then I used my old world clamping method again to weight the center of the board. I was careful making my wall this time. I didn't go too tall, and tried to use the heavy bricks so I didn't need as many last time I had a rickety stack that fell over when the place likely got blasted with a wind gust or something. This stack seems solid and I think it will last thru tommorow.

Tommorow ill work on fixing the fishing brace in the old boat. Today I cut a piece of wood that allows me to pull tension at the right angle with clamps, and have managed to clamp the broken horn in place. First ill come thru with heat and get the wood nice and hot. Then ill mix a small batch of straight epoxy and let it soak in for a bit. Ill let it sit thru the day, mask of the wood, then come thru with a full coat of thickened silica glass bubbles and clamp the piece in place, probably cleaning the squeezeout as i go. ill use one long deck screw to hold the thing together and leave it clamped for a day or so. Ill probably reinforce under the horns with some smaller horns made of plywood. Should last til the next person sits or falls on it. This current boat is going to have nrs style aluminum bars with a foam core/glass pedestal top. Ill try to make it strong, removable, and adjustable. Nothing that anyone can break easily. Spend too much time last year fixing broken wood.

Another one in the bag

Got a late start today and went around town running errands and getting more supplies for the vacuum bag. More shop towels, and another roll of butyl tape. The batting hardly wetted out at all on the other piece so I was able to pull some off and reuse it for the next panel. I have left the peel ply and everything else on the panel for now. Give it more time to kick and its protection for the panel on the meantime. I think I'll leave them while the temporaries are in and slowly pull them as the assemble the real bulkhead into place. Seems like I got a little print thru from the wrinkles in the bag, not a big deal these will be buried under hatches inside the boat, and a quick and easy fairing would fix it if I wanted. I liken this to the thin breather I am using with the shop towels and the 6 mil plastic. For panels where I need a nice finish I will probably do batting for breather on the whole panel. Stuff that's hidden I'll go cheaper. I also think better bagging film would have helped. I'm going to use some thinner plastic on the top for the bottom inside panel. Ill also be getting some real bagging film for pulling the outside bottom where I need it to stretch. I can reuse this big for the bottom panel of the hull, plus I have a few feet on the roll left to bag bulkheads and such. I may try to get a cloths iron, and iron a shirt over the plastic to smooth it out. Ill give it a test first.

Got right back into it this afternoon. Strung out my glass to make sure it was the right size, weighed it on the scale. One layer was the same weight as the one on the first panel. The other one was 2 ounces over. Took my prior calculation, added the 2 ounces extra resin, and pre poured all my resin for the whole layup arrannged per sheet of glass. I mixed up my 290 gm bog with silica and glass bubbles and started to roll it out on the panel. Was a little shy at the end so I mixed up another 145gm batch and finished prepping the panel. Then I layered my 45 degree layer on, pulling the bias till it fit. Then i came over with the precut 9oz sheet and laid it over top. Instead of going one layer at a time, I just went for it, since it was only two layers of glass. I started mixing batches, pouring a section, using the spatula to squeegee resin over the area til it wet out both layers. Did that til I had the majority of the cloth wet out, then I started attacking the edges with resin and the spatula. Finally I came over with the roller and the final layers and worked the resin in, wetting out any last sections and moving big air bubbles out. Once I got that done I tried to work quick to fit the peel ply which was on the roll backwards, then lay 2 roll of shop paper towels for breather, with the batting tunnel down the center. Bubble wrap and breather under the fitting, at the head of the bag. I covered my butyl from yesterday with wax paper strips when I opened the bag so I was able to reuse most of the tape. Had to re tape a few sections, but those sections then sealed really easy with double width tape. I had one leak in the center of the bag that was a bitch. It was audible and annoying. Yet I couldn't find it...it was on a pleat in the bag somewhere. I tried butyl tape, packing tape, a butyl taped window around. Not much could stop it. The pump was cycling on like every minute. Annoying... I used the roller to get it to where it wasent making noise and the pump cycled once every 3 min or so. Not great, but whatever, the pump will take care of it. Ill give the pump a break tommorrow.

Tommorow ill Prep the bottom panels for joining, then glue them together on the shop floor while I still have this open space. Then ill stand them up here in the shop till I have an assembled hull shape, where ill try and bag the floor draped over the hull i shape as it cures.

Bag it, Tag it, Sell it to the butcher at the store..

Finally ready to get some stuff done today. Been doing alot of prep the last few days for glassing the panels precutting all sorts of pieces. Turns out most stuff I cut what I thought was big ended up fitting real tight. Luckily the edges will be getting a dish on the bottom and the Top inch buried in the gunnel arrangement. Got up early this am and recruited Michelle as my helper. She made a pretty good mix maestra and helped with wetting out the glass. I weighed all my glass on an old kitchen scale beforehand, and figured out the exact resin needed converted to grams from lbs and ounces. Next, I used my formula to figure out the ratio of hardener to resin...as it mixes 2:1 by volume, but 2:.9 by weight. To make things easy on Michelle, I pre weighed out 200 gram resin batches, and she added 90 gm hardener. For each layer, there was one batch over and one under respectively which were derived from the remaining resin needed to wet out the glass for the given weight. I got all the batches ready to mix in cups, then I mixed a 290gm batch of slurry thickened lightly with glass bubbles and silica. I rolled this on the bare corecell as a bottom layer, then Michelle and I layered out the 45 degree pieces and pulled the bias on the cloth till it was where we wanted it. Next we started mixing the batches and wetting out the cloth with rubber squeegees. She was starving the layup a bit but I came thru with the roller and topped everything off. Next we pulled the 90 degrees layer and seated it on the panel. Again, barely making it, we tugged on the bias a little to lengthen it to size, then wet out with the foam roller. We topped it with precut peel ply the was definatly big, as intended, then layered 2 layers of blue shop towels as breather, topped with a quilt batting tunnel down the bag to ensure I had adequate airflow. The bag was a little tight on the top side by the valve but some packing tape and butyl sealed it up good. Found a few leaks and had Michelle on the roller rolling while I seated the bag. Pulled vacuum and set the controller to pull around 14" hg, the bag was leaking around the top and the resin trap was leaking, almost no chance of pulling resin in, I may just ditch it. I put the fitting off the side under two layers of bubble wrap with batting in between. Looks good. Pump was cycling a bunch in the beginning, got everything sealed up and it was coming on every 5 min or so for 15-20 sec. Good enough for me...I'm gonna try and find a stethoscope to search out leaks better, for now this is fine, the pump will run when it needs to. Got the heat goin out there, should be good. Gonna buy a few dollar store tarps and make a big tunnel tent as a hot box for curing these guys.. More building tommorow hopefully
Chris

Shop work

Good progress today. Been out the last couple days. Skied static peak on Friday, then went fishing on Saturday. Got into a nice fish right in the first bank run. Got her right out of the fast water chasing a streamer.

Today I went over and checked out the new Briggs dory that Jeremy Christensen built. Nice looking boat and great finish work. Chatted canyon with Dobb's who is taking the boat down next week. Got home, and got the vacuum pump working. Turns out I needed to adjust the vacuum controller. Got it holding 20 inches of mercury in the shop which is about the most I can pull at this elevation. Seems to work good. Still smells like propane and bleach when it evacuates but I guess that's how it's gonna be. I did some work around the shop to make my life easier. Built a shelf up on the high supports that were already there to get all the excess glass out of the way. I built a rack to hold rolls right below the work bench. The rolls hang between to support joints on a removable line. There are slots for 3 rolls, and maybe one more. This will make it much easier to pull long pieces of glass off the roll. I also found an old metal tabletop on the side of the garage. I rigged up a joist and a catch so that the table top rests on the support joist held in place. Found an old support in he wood shed about the right height to support the front. Held the two pieces together with a clamp. Instant table, and it breaks down to nothing in about 2 seconds. Should make life much better for the mix monkey.

Ready to start glassing, pump is working and tested. Have all the materials. Start soon!