May 2017

May 2017,

Yes, I skipped a month.  Not much went on during April.  Still trying to raise money for the next step which is encapsulating the hull.  I've done a bit of work on the appendage keel as you can see in the March page although some of that was performed in April.  It just didn't make sense to start another month with just an incremental improvement.

I have started to look at the Isuzu C240 diesel that I purchased.  I'm starting to tear it down and go through it checking all the parts as I go.  When I'm done, it will be a new engine.  I like this engine because it is simple, gear driven cam, its been around a long time and parts are relatively inexpensive.  I still need a "V" drive transmission though.

I've removed the Velvet drive transmission.  Looks like it could use some TLC.  It was suppose to have been a strong running engine when it was removed.  I'll keep you posted once I'm inside.  Keep you finger's crossed.

The engine exploded all over my work bench.  Well, not really.   Time to go through everything with a micrometer and see what is good and what goes in the garbage.  That was the hardest tear down I have ever performed.  That is one solid build motor.

Surprising, but all of the major components; cams, crank, etc. check out.

February 2017

February 27, 2017

I've been working hard on making the appendage keel for the boat.  The appendage keel is a triangular keel at the aft end of the hull where the rudder is attached.  It also provides directional and lateral stability as well as protection for the rudder.  I've chosen to build it up from laminations of 3/4" marine plywood.  Actually, I used scraps from cutting out the bulkheads and keel.  It took every scrap I had in the shop and managed to clean the shop at the same time.

The first step was to lay out the appendage keel on the work bench.  Gathering all the scrap 3/4" plywood I could find I ripped it to 4" width.  I cut and rough laid all the 4" strips within the outline on the workbench.  These are loosely laid so when I had filled my outline I clammed the entire assembly with 1" bar clamps.  I lost about 5 or 6 inches when I applied pressure via the clamps.  This shrunk the triangle.  I measured for additional pieced and added them where I thought would fill the triangle back out.  These steps were repeated until the entire appendage keel lay out was filled with wood under clamping pressure.

Lines were drawn at the boundaries of the appendage keel and down the middle.  All the pieces were numbered and I cut about an inch along one of the boundaries.  This helped me align the pieces when I glued them together.

I glued (West Epoxy) about 10 - 15 pieces at a time and made sure I had adequate clamping pressure. Ending up with a stack less than 12", I was able to run them through the portable planer and quickly clean up the sides when I was done.  It was also difficult to maintain the proper shape clamping more than a few pieces together.  After the first set, I used a pneumatic stapler to hold the pieces together.  Two in the middle and one on each end of the pieces.  This kept everything aligned without too much danger of the staples interfering in drilling holes and final shaping.  The 5 sections were then realigned once the epoxy was cured and the sides cleaned.  I used strips of wood to temporarily hold all the sections together.

All the sections held together by strips of wood.  

 Once I was happy with the lay out, I used the circular saw to cut the entire keel to shape.  It took two passes, one on each side.  I then marked where the two 1/2" stainless steel threaded rods would go and where the cut-out for the prop would be.

Notice the two faint lines where the threaded rods would be drilled and the cut-out on the left where the prop will go.  

Two half inch holes for the threaded rods will go from the bottom center to within 3/8" of the top and bottom edge.  A tricky drilling.  I actually got a little off in the last two sections and had to make some adjustments.   In the end, I was happy with the results.

This is the jig I built to guid the drill bit through all the pieces.  I only have a 24" drill bit so I will have to repeat this jig set-up a few times.  This is actually the second setting of the jig.  You can see that there are shims under the jig to hold it off the keel.  This maintains the angle but is appropriate for the holes that are progressively toward the side.

A close up of the jig.  I used aluminum blocks to guide the drill bit.  The shaft of the drill bit was narrower than the bore so there are two aluminum blocks on either side of the 2X6 with different holes.

The boring jig was securely screwed into the appendage keel before each bore.

All together with the threaded rod in place and everything tightened up.  It worked!  

 The next step is to cut a cove into the edge that will receive the rudder.  The rudder thickness at the appendage keel will be 3 3/4" so I will make the cove with a 2" radius.  This will give me 1/4" between the appendage keel and the rudder for a smooth flow of water over the rudder.

I've attached a 2X6 along the edge that will receive the cove.  This will allow me to attach a fence to guide the circular saw.  I also added a brace to steady the keel.  This piece weighs a few hundred pounds and I do not want it falling over especially while I'm working on it.

You can see the fence an a few of the initial cuts.

This view is a little better.  You can see the cove marked on the foot of the keel.  Also not that I recessed the appendage keel bolts and provided a smooth surface normal to the bolts so the washers and nuts would sit tight.

Just about finished with the rough cutting.

Time to knock out the rough stuff.

All the rough stuff is knocked out. The next step is to cut out a bit of the upper section where the prop will eventually go.  I have not worked these details out so I'm leaving myself plenty of room. I do want to cut out a bit though so I can clean the cove up with a cove plane and be able to slide the plane all the way through the cove.  The plane I'm using is actually an antique wood plane use to made molding.  They are very cheap but extremely versatile.  Because they are readily available (and cheap) you don't feel bad about modifying them to suit your work which I did a bit to the ones I used.

Plane work is done.  Wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. 

60 grit sandpaper glued to a 3" schedule 40 PVC pipe cut to the length of a sheet of sand paper cleaned this cove up with quite a bit of elbow grease.  I sanded until all the score marks from the circular saw were removed.  I then followed with 100 grit sand paper on the same PVC.

The next step will be to radius the forward edge.  I'll end up with a 1" radius at the leading edge.  Then I'll smoothly take the 2" thickness to the full 4" over 4 or 5 inches.  I'm also contemplating glueing a few of the sections together so that I have only 3 easily managed sections.  The top two section will have the drive shaft tube bored through them.  I'll glue the last three sections together as I mount them on the hull.  It will be nice having a relatively light section to handle when I prepare the bottom of the hull for attachment of the appendage keel.  

Now it's time to flip it over and radius the forward section.  Once flipped and secured, I drew reference lines to help guide the work.  One centerline along the edge.  Two more lines 1" to either side of the center line.  This would be my minimum 1" radius although I'm not going for circular.  The last two lines are 5" from the end and draw on the sides.  These help guide the where the taper ends.  There were a few staples that needed pulling so I would not dull my tools.  These took a bit of digging out. Apparently I was not as careful as I though I was when assembling the piece.  No worries, the fasteners only needed to hold till the epoxy cured.  I then just radiused the end with a power planer making sure to mirror my movements on both sides.  I worked slowly till I had a pleasing radius even along the entire side and cleaned it up with a belt sander using 60 grit paper.  When happy, I chose a side and made a template of half of the radius with a piece of plywood.  I used this template to make sure that the radius was even all along the edge and the same on both sides.  I was very pleased that there was little finishing work to perform to make the end fare and even.  Actually I was quite surprised.

Checking the radius with the template.  A centerline is marked on the template and aligned with the centerline (barely visible do to sanding) on the edge.  This is critical because if the template is not plumb with the work, you will not have the correct shape.

After finishing the radius off with the belt sander, first using 60 grit and then 100 grit, I've redrawn the centerline that I came close to sanding completely off.  I just wanted to retain the reference line in case I make modifications.  Also, looking at the line gives my a nice feeling that everything is even and straight.  

A side view showing the progress.  

All the power planing was followed up with 60 grit sandpaper on the belt sander and then 100 grit.  The entire piece will be finished this way once I've mounted it on the hull and cut out the section for the prop.

Getting close to being done.  I've cut out for the prop and shaped everything for smooth laminar flow.  Now I'm just doing a little filling with epoxy so that everything is smooth.

January 2017

January 3,

I measured how much epoxy I have left and have decided that there is not enough to ensure full saturation of the cloth for even one side.  I'll have to save up my pennies and purchase another drum of epoxy.  I don't expect to have that kind of money for some time so in the mean time I'm choosing projects that can be accomplished with little or no money.  One big one is the construction of the skeg keel appendage.  I'm making the skeg out of laminations of 3/4" Meranti plywood ripped to 4 inch widths.  This will produce a strong and stable appendage.  I've been cleaning out the boat shop so naturally I have a large collection of scrap plywood from the bulkheads and keel stump construction.  I used every scrap I had and was able to collect enough for the entire skeg.  Keep your scrap, you never know what it might be useful for.  Now comes the task of lamination.  I've dry laid the entire skeg and bar clammed it together.  I lost 3 inches in the clamping process.  This means, I'll have to lay up the laminations in sections compensating for the lost length due to clamping as I go.  I figured as much and have a few extra pieces of lamination for that purpose.

I've detailed this process in the February section.

December 2016

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy whatever you're into.  Solstice was a few days ago and we're in a new year.  I'm hoping for some warm weather next week to lay up half the hull with fiberglass.  Yes we are expecting warm weather almost in the 70's.  The warmest is over Christmas where my wife and I are obliged to spend this wonderful weather indoors eating and drinking.  I'd rather be working on the boat or enjoying this wonderful weather out doors.  Well, that is how it goes.  I have received the fiberglass necessary to encapsulate the hull.  Well, I think I have enough, I'm starting to think that I did not buy enough but I have a contingency plan.  I'm splitting the formidable job into two parts anyhow; the port and the starboard side.  I'll access the need to purchase additional glass once I lay up the starboard side and buy what I need.  It should not be too painful.

I spent the entire day and a bit of yesterday cleaning the shop and getting the dust off the hull.  I also was concerned with dispensing a 80 pound roll of fiberglass.  I was counting of using the angle of the bow to my advantage, so I did not want to cut 50 foot lengths and lay them up.  I wanted to be judicious as possible.  Remember, I'm on a tight budget.  To that end, I built a vertical dispenser using some scrap lumber, a lazy Susan, and some 3/4" black pipe I had laying around.  I really did not want to roll the fiberglass out onto a table or the floor.  I want to keep the glass as clean as possible without any possibility of snagging or warping the weave.

So this is my dispenser.  I used a 25 X 25 inch base made out of fiberboard.  I added 2 X 4's for feet and to give  some depth to insert the pipe.  I had a lazy Susan lying round with 1/4" plate aluminum riveted to one side.  It was from an old project that was abandoned.  I drilled a hole in the aluminum so the pipe would fit down the middle.  I drill a 3 inch deep hole in the center of the fiberboard so that it went almost through the 2 X 4's to receive the pipe.  I cut another square piece of fiber board (13 X 13 inches) with a hole in the center so that it fit on top of the lazy Susan.  Now the 13 inch board freely swivels.

This was much easier than I anticipated.  I laid the roll of fiberglass on its side.  Slid the 3/4 inch pipe through the center.  Added the 13 X 13 inch plate, lazy Susan, and then the 25 inch base.  Then I used the black pipe to leverage the whole contraption vertical.  It was much more stable than I anticipated and the fiberglass should pull right off without having to roll the mat out on the floor.  You can see the end of the Starboard bow to the right of the roll.  We are almost ready to tack the glass in place.

I've also worked out how I'm going to hold the glass in place while I roll the epoxy resin on.  I'm planning on hanging the cloth in place using brads nailed about a quarter of an inch into the hull and let the cloth drape naturally.  I can clip the heads off so that only about a quarter of an inch remains to hold the cloth and apply the second layer of cloth again hanging it on brads.  The clipped brads will interfere minimally and once the second layer is draped I'll press it onto the clipped brads.  All the brad heads will then be clipped short.  The epoxy can then be rolled on.  Once there is enough epoxy to hold the cloth in place, the brads can be removed.

July 2016

July 25, 2016

Finishing up the keel stump.  I've built up the keel with plywood and planed it perfectly flat to receive a final plywood cap.  I've altered the original pattern so it now duplicates that last plywood cap.  I will then be able to continue building the keel on the workbench and bolt it on later using the nice flat mating surfaces.

This is the built up portion of the keel with the plywood capper off to the left.  Notice the nice horizontal stripes that are  the different plywood layers.  I used these stripes as a guide to maintain a smooth even cut when I leveled the stump.  The bottom of the image shows the aft end of the keel which slopes forward 3 degrees.

This is the forward part of the keel.  I also worked on the transition from the keel to the bow.  I think it needs  more faring but I don't want to cut too deep.

Looking aft.  Each of those colors is a different layer of the plywood.    

This is the keel stump with the plywood cap temporarily in place with two metal pins fore and aft.  The  pins locate the cap in the correct position and will be removed after it is epoxied into place.  They are great for quickly placing the part in the correct position after the epoxy has been applied.  Epoxy makes things very slippery and the part to be fastened in place will slid around making a mess.   I used drywall screws to fasten the cap in place after the epoxy was applied.  This gave nice even clamping pressure.  The screws were removed when the epoxy was partially cured.  If you allow the epoxy to fully cure, it will grab the screws and you risk breaking them off when trying to get them out.  There are no permanent screws in the entire stump.  I do not want anything to interfere with the drilling of the keel bolts.  A screw could redirect the long drill bit or dull it.   The 3/4" stainless keel bolts will be sufficient to add mechanical strength to the keel.

June 2016

June 2016,

We are almost ready to start fiberglassing the hull.  Only a few more things I'l like to get done first.  One of those is building the ballast keel stump.  The is just leveling the bottom of the hull where the keel will bolt.  I started by building a pattern of the external keel as it would be up against the hull.  I laid this pattern in place on the hull and marked its outline on the hull.  After removing the pattern I made sure that the hull within the outline athwartship  was level.  This required filling with more filler strake or planning existing hull off.  The result is a level surface (athwartship) that I can start building up the keel stump.  The next step is to take the keel pattern and transfer it to 3/4" marine plywood.  This takes two pieces 8 feet long and we will call this a keel slice.  This first layer or keel slice is fitted into place and bonded with epoxy and stainless staples.  I perform a similar transfer and make another keel slice out of 3/4" marine plywood but this time I have shortened the forward piece around two inches.  This is because the forward part of the keel sweeps back at a 45 degree angle and the aft part of the keel sweeps forward 3 degrees.  I purchased the straightest 2X6X14 foot long piece of pine I could find and mount it edge up to the new keel slice making a ~16 foot long section that is rigid.  Using a 6 foot level I place this keel slice in place and temporarily fasten it so that it is perfectly level.  I actually left out a few steps; One is attaching the 14 foot 2X6 to the pattern first and setting it into place so that I could measure how much shorter the keel slice would be which is a function of the separation of the installed keel slice and the perfectly level pattern.

Leveling the second keel slice using the 2X6 and a 6 foot level.

You can see the first keel slice which conforms to the hull along its length and the second above that is perfectly level.  The space between the two slices of keel will be filled with plywood.

 The gaps between the two keel slices will be filled in with plywood.  I am planning to use 3/4" plywood to fill as needed with square cuts and then the triangles that remain will be over filled with 1/4" plywood.  This way, when I sand the edges smooth, I will only be sanding the 1/4" plywood and will have a reference every 1/4" of vertical measure.  It's also a good way to use up that left over scrap 1/4" plywood from the hull construction without using a lot of the expensive 3/4" plywood and sanding most of it into dust.  The top slice will then be permanently bonded to the keel finishing up the keel stump.

Later, when the boat is righted and the keel is ready to install, I'll bore the bolt holes through the keel stump first, align the keel and bore the holes through.  I will then cut out the ballast section and send it to the foundry for casting and pouring.  If I had a good lead supply, I would attempt this myself but lead is hard to come by these days.  All the tire companies seem to be contracted to someone in some manner and won't deal with me which leaves me buying lead on the open market and that is just too expensive.  So, I'll go with a cast iron keel for now.  The material is free but the casting is expensive.

Here, I have added the 3/4" plywood fill for the keel stump.  Notice that I still have the wedges to fill in front of the plywood.  I plan to over fill these wedges with 1/4" plywood so when I plane the excess of the 1/4" plywood down I'll still have the corners of the 3/4" as a running reference of how much material I need to remove.  More steps this way but less work and more accurate results (I hope).

May 2016

May 23, 2016

This weekend I have finished the lamination of the hull; all four layers.  I started this process on July 2, 2013.  I still need to do a little trimming on the port side and some sanding at the stern and bow but it's all installed.  That was 128 sheets of 1/4" plywood cut to 10" strips (640 strips).  For most of the hull, two strips were scarfed together (320 scarf joints) to make 320 16 foot long strips which were temporarily fastened to the hull.  They were marked and measured, cut and planed, resinstalled and checked (repeat as necessary), and finally permanently bonded to the hull with epoxy and stainless steel narrow crown staples.  Then the seams were sanded smooth.

This is where I was on May 21 working toward the stern.

This is the keel.  I'm preparing to trim the port side at the keel.

My new 36" X 4" long board for fairing the hull.  I built this from the 1/4" hull plywood which is fairly stiff.  I added 24 gage stainless steel to the bottom and wrapped it with 36 grit sandpaper.  Remember all those hand saws I went through when making the notches well that is one of the handles from one cut at a comfortable angle.  The front handle is just some rounded off oak.

Keel all trimmed up and ready for the filler strake.

All the plywood is installed toward the transom.

All the plywood is installed toward the bow.

All the plywood is installed toward the stern.  A bit of trimming and sanding is still needed.

May 30.

Finally, I got a camera with a panoramic setting so I can get the whole boat in one picture.  This is it.  The planking is completely finished with all the sanding trimming and fairing.  Well, I'll probably tweak things while I get the appendage keel stump built.  That is the last thing I'm building before glassing the whole thing.  I am also quite busy at cleaning the shop.  No spare sawdust hanging around during the glassing process.