Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Stem Attachment to the Keel Continued



I attached the stem to the keel side with 1 1/4" drywall screws after trying to straighten the planed edges on the keel sides. The angle was slightly off on both sides, and it still is to some extent. I will have to work on it a little bit more to make sure that the stem with be straight up and down and not turned sideways. I think I am going to trim back the left keel side a little bit to make it match with the right side. Right now it is approximately 1/4" farther forward on the stem.
If you look very carefully in the pictures, you can see that the stem is off about 3-4 degrees torqued sideways. Hard to understand what I am talking about, but it is there.
I have also now bought some wood screws that I will use in the White Oak to make sure that they do not break off inside after epoxying everything together. The wood screws appear to be much stronger. I have also heard that applying regular bar soap to the screws should help when removing them. I may try that.
The bottom of the stem will be trimmed to match the bottom of the keel curve, which should make it a little more pleasing to the eye. It will also help a little bit when fiberglassing that area. The smoother the better.
I have also planed down and sanded all of the Douglas Fir pieces to make sure they are not above the keel sides, but as level with it as possible. When the bottom of the hull is attached, I want it to contact all of the top surfaces of the keel as much as possible.

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