Dan Kautz
A Little Progress – Dec 2011
I did some work on the hull this weekend. Not much as all I did was get the keel glued to all the bulkheads (frames). I tried to form the chine stringer at the chine line to conform to the bow curved section but the spruce wood is too hard and stiff to bend properly. One of the hazards of kit wood.
Each chine strip is actually two pieces of 1/4 x 1/4 square spruce, angle spliced to make it long enough.
I actually broke the splice joint when I tried to see if the short end (after the splice) would bend more than the longer end. That put a lot of tension on the splice and it failed. Mostly a glue failure but some wood. That means the splice wasn’t all that good anyway. I never would have found it and it wouldn’t have been a critical joint near the mid section anyway, but now I get to do a “do over”. I probably squeezed too much epoxy out of the original joint.
Becalmed in the Horse Latitudes
I have had to heave to and lay up for awhile. We are into the 2011 holiday season and the workshop and work on the Dauntless roboboat project are lost in the midst (mist?) (fog?) of other projects.
I created a little wood working project called a cookie stamp set and that item has exploded as Christmas gifts. I am currently building four more sets and that might not be the end.
I have discovered there is a much larger demand (read that as market) for well crafted and unusual home products than scale steam engines and large model boats. I have people wanting to buy these cookie things! Not that I have changed my enthusiasm for either of these personal hobby indulgences, but I see what work can help pay the hobby bills.
Basic Hull Glue-up
The hull formation has begun. The last post was a dry fit. This one has the epoxy doing its thing. I had an idea to keep the chine flat to the board. I used an office stapler in the open position and actually stapled the chines down to the work board. Just enough penetration to give a good flat hold without any pins in the way.
I was also using some weights from time to time. You can see them in the pictures. The round silvery ones are 303 stainless steel blanks I use to machine locomotive wheels (2 per blank). Nice heavy hold down weights.
FYI epoxy glue doesn’t require tight holding to do a proper job. In fact light or no pressure is preferable. I little fillet is good practice. These fillets are a little large but they will be hidden under the deck so I was a bit generous. Epoxy is designed to be a gap filler too and the Dumas slots need a lot of filling. The slots are a bit oversize from the die crunching.
The keel isn’t glued in yet and that will be the next step.
Dauntless Build Started
The very first step of the Dauntless construction is shown. I used some 5 minute epoxy to splice glue the keel pieces and the sheers.
The flat building board is finished with three coats of polyurethane. The door looks almost too good to build upon.
The keel hasn’t been laminated yet and I have ordered some 30 minute epoxy with which I will do the lamination. I also ordered some System3 T- 88 epoxy that I will use when I need a slow setting epoxy. I am always fixing things with epoxy and this stuff has been around for along time, originally designed for boat builders.
I discovered the System3 T- 88 is recomended to only be used as an adheasive. because of its thickness it is not recomended for sealing wood or laminating fiberglass. For surface coating System3 recomends several other lower viscosity clear finish products in the end use chart. I will consider those coatings that can also be used when I cover the hull and other surfaces with 2 oz fiberglass.
I laid the keel haves side by side to illustrate the curve of the hull. Epoxy will be applied on the top surfaces seen here and then joined together to make a thicker keel.
Door Building Board
I now have my building board. As you can see in the pictures I purchased a 24 inch by 80 inch flush door. I ended up getting it at Home Depot after Lowes didn’t have ANY 24 inch in stock. No problem, they are close to each other.
It cost $24.00 and with tax it ended up two cents shy of $26.00. That’s not a bad investment for a flat place to build a large model boat.
The floor clerk cut 20” off the door. He volunteered to do it for me after I told him I was building a large model boat. I said, “That would be great as you’ll do a straighter cut with your panel saw than I could do at home.” Also the door in two pieces would fit into my VW GTI much easier. It probably took him less than two minutes to safely make the single cut.
Now I have two flat surface building boards. The large one is 60 inches by 24 inches and the smaller board is 20 inches by 24 inches. I won’t count the saw kerf as missing OAL.
As you can see I made and glued in new end supports in both door pieces. I had to dig the mighty Powermatic out of its hiding place to do the sawing. The thickness of the end wood is 1 and 1/8 inch. The insert width can be anything. The large piece I was able to make 1 and 1/4 inch wide. The small piece I could only scrounge up a 3/4 inch piece. Both will do the job just fine. Overall length of both pieces was 22 and 1/4 inches. That makes the stock wood sides only 7/8 deep each.
That material seen inside the door shell is just cardboard. With the sharp wood chisel seen in the photo it took all of 3 minutes to prepare space for the new end wood piece. For the primeval forest tree huggers, that is not real Lauan wood. It is a pressed fiber like paper with somehow receiving a super thin coating on the outside to make it look like wood. I am sure it is an ecologically sound material.
I choose Type III Titebond glue but I do have an equal amount of Type II here in the shop. Either would work fine. I coated both surfaces before making the joint. Now I am pealing Titebond skin off my fingers just like my model airplane days (or woodworking).
Oh and as usual, one can’t have enough clamps on hand.
A once over with the sandpaper block and the door/boards look like they were always that short. I am thinking I should give the building boards a coat of urethane just as a moisture (humidity) protection. Then on with the project build.