epoxy
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.
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.
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.
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.