Tuesday, May 18, 2010

More Parts Cut Out






The last few days, I cut out all of the seat box parts, the cabin frames, and drew the deck part on the plywood.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Bottom and Cabin Sides Cut Out

The other night I cut out the three pieces that will be for the bottom of the boat, as well as the 1/4" cabin sides. I began to mark out the pieces that will be the seats on the plywood, but will cut them out tonight. The seat boxes on the plans show that the inside space will be completely closed off, but I am going to go a little different route and make those areas usable storage space. I will use some Douglas Fir I have from the transom jig to strengthen the seat boxes up, and cut out holes in the forward face of the seat box. Those spaces will be big enough to put some fishing items in, or maybe a small cooler for the drinks!
The bottom will be scarfed together to become one piece. The plans show you can butt them together and use epoxy and fiberglass tape, but I don't think that would be near as strong as the scarfs will be.
I will put the pictures of the cut out pieces on here later. Nothing to show right now but some pieces of plywood.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Transom Epoxied Together


Tonight I epoxied the transom together. As I got about a third of the way through putting the epoxy on, I ran out of my original hardener that I was using. I already had a small can of what I thought was new hardener, but it turns out it was pretty old, and I don't know how old. I didn't have a choice but to continue using what I had. I put two layers of epoxy on all pieces, as it just soaks into the plywood.
I lined up the plywood, putting the screws in to line everything back up. Then I put the transom pieces back in the jig. As you can see from the photo, I used 43 clamps of different types. I also used several screws to make sure the middle part is tight.
I will now let it set up for a day to see if the epoxy is any good. If not, I will have to buy more plywood and epoxy and try again.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Transom Jig Built



Tonight I built the transom jig, which consist of two 2x6's at six feet long, four 2x4's at two feet long, and two 2x4 1/2's at two feet to put in the middle to bow the transom.
I attached the 2x4's on the jig with 3 1/2 inch screws and adjusted the space in-between the two 2x4's to allow for the bend.
The transom pieces were then cut out of 1/4" plywood in four different pieces to allow more plywood to be utilized for other parts. The smaller pieces are sandwiched between the two other normal size pieces. The transom pieces are cut to 22"x56". After everything is cured, the transom will be cut to its final size.
I then matched all pieces together to get them straight and put several screws through all of the layers to make sure they can't move when epoxied together.
The pictures show the transom in place on the jig, which I will leave overnight to help the plywood adjust to the bend. I will then epoxy them together tomorrow.