ModelBoatBlog

Designing, Building, Operation and Discussion of Model Ships and Boats
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Current Activity

- The Dauntless Project has been on hold as I stumbled between other major projects trying to to solve a late-in-life crisis. Being over the "standard" retirement age but still working, I was searching for an Idea on how to turn a hobby into a profitable business. Building a model boat didn't qualify.
- My primary employer "retired" me in early 2015 so now I have time to pursue other projects of interest.

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The Dauntless

This is the Primary Category for the Dauntless construction.

My Bare Bottom

This is a very “raw” finish of the bottom planking. Lots of work yet to do but all the wood is now on the bottom portion of the hull. I have sanded the high spots a bit but I have a few glue bulges to grind down. The glue is harder than the wood so I need to go carefully after them with probably a mini sanding disk or drum.

Next I will apply a thin layer of something (yet to be decided) surface filler like Bondo to fill the depressions. I am thinking to put that off until I get the side planking installed. There is likely to be some more bumps and bruises before I get it totally covered with wood.

At this point the instructions say I can dismount it from the building board. I am almost afraid to see what the joints look like inside the bilges. I will probably have to clean up some runs inside and probably add glue fillets where gaps exist. Pictures later on that work. The entire inside will be coated in epoxy surface sealer to preserve and waterproof the wood. A lot of the present glue joints will be a lot less noticeable and most will be concealed from outside inspection. I’ll know what’s in there…

I have seen some boats where the builder must have used casting resin to seal their interior hulls. I first thought they had painted them white but after doing some castings of my own I realized what they had done. Casting resin starts clear and turns white as it sets. I don’t want that look in my hull. Epoxy will set up clear.

I could paint the interior cabin areas white if I choose, but I reserve that decision for a lot farther down the construction path.

The work shown here was actually finished shortly after the last post. It has taken me this long just to get it posted.

Slow Poke

That’s me all right, a slow poke. I haven’t been jumping on this project as much as I intended when I started it. I have lots of excuses of course but none that even I believe. So I will not post them here.

I did get another hull plank installed today so that is worth at least a picture.

Two more boards in the center at the keel and I can take the hull off the build board. The hull is then supposed to be stiff enough that it won’t warp. The next steps are the side planks and then getting everything smoothed up. It’s Mothers day weekend so you have to believe I have to put in a lot of time elsewhere.

Oops! That one of those excuses I said I wouldn’t print.

A Hull of a Job

More work on planking the forward part of the hull. This is the part of the work where the builder has to force wood to go where it doesn’t want to go. There are no instructions on how to do this other than the info page says, “…install in alphabetical order. A,B,C”. Interestingly there are 6 parts “C”.

Well I seem to be doing OK after one false start. There is some trimming of the wood to make it fit this far along. The idea, at least for me is to find a way to route the wood for minimal stress in bending.

It’s those curves that make boat hulls so alluring.

Hull Planking

First step is to shape the chine strips to match the frames. This took some time even using 80 grit sandpaper. I wore a dust mask I no longer can tolerate inhaling sawdust or in this case sanding dust.

The outside edges of the hull planking are oversize and will be cut back to the chine and the rear frame. In the photo #3 you can see that the T-1 and T-2 pieces have been epoxy glued in place on frame 12. They form the rounded stern of the boat.

Bending Chine Strips

It has been a bit of a dry spell in the building of the Dauntless. That’s not very good when the project is a boat. The bones of the hull have been setting in plain sight and the assembly is too big to ignore, so it is not like it was forgotten. In fact, I would lightly touch it every time I walked in and out of the shop. Kinda weird right?

The stopping point was the two chine strips that run down the sides of the hull. I spliced the kit wood as the stock lengths are too short. That was planned and part of the build. The problem is the kit word is very hard and does not like to conform to the bending near the bow.

I have been thinking of steam or ammonia water but of course I have neither readily available. That was the original excuse for the pause in the work. Then I just became overwhelmed near the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with cookie presses and other “pressing” projects including glass stamps. (Check my other blogs for all that.)

Well, it is now mid March of 2012 and I cleared the workbench for the first time in quite awhile. Looking at the Dauntless I realized I had planned to have at least the hull in the water by now but is is obvious that did not happen. So I am correcting the situation. At least I am taking steps in the proper direction.

I have soaked the chines in plain hot water (I don’t know if the temperature matters) and you can see I am preforming the chines to near the proper shape. Like I wrote, the bow is the hard part.

Once the wood is dry so the epoxy will adhere, I will glue the chine strips to the frames. There will be some shaping required of the chines, but then the hull will ready for covering. I will start to look like a hull and not a dinosaur exhibit.

The point of this project is to have a large platform (the Dauntless) so I can experiment in several ways. One is to test a network based control scheme using micro computers and XBee radio modem links. The other is to test my engineering skills and CNC machine shop making special components for the boat. Having a really cool large model boat is just the spin off benefit!