First Assembly of Keel

Yesterday, I began to assemble the keel parts, starting from the stern and moving forward. The back panel of the keel had to be planed a little bit to allow for the 9 degree bevel on the bottom and top.
I then began to attach the sides to the bottom, along with the stiffeners, with sheet rock screws. I predrilled the sides approximately a 1/4" up with a 5/64" bit to make sure that the screw would be located correctly. Then, as I attached the sides, I drilled the 5/64" hole into the bottom piece, doing one hole at a time to insure that the bottom was perfectly aligned. After drilling the hole thru into the bottom piece, I enlarged the hole in the side piece to 1/8" to allow the screw to grip the bottom piece to pull them tight. That screw was them installed and tightened just enough to pull everything tight.
I got all of the side to bottom screws completed, but still need to attach the three forward stiffeners and stiffener panels, which still have to be measured and cut out.
Pictures are going to be attached next to show this assembly sequence.
The stem will be notched and attached next.
After everything is screwed together and labeled for correct re-assembly, the entire assembly will be taken apart. All parts will be checked and then re-assembled with epoxy and all seams taped with fiberglass. All interior parts of the keel will then be coated with epoxy at least twice to make sure it remains waterproof.

Keel Bottom and Side Butt Splices

Today, I epoxied the keel bottom pieces and the keel side pieces together with their respective butt splices. Seems pretty easy to do, but the pieces really slid around a lot after applying the epoxy twice on both pieces. I used 7/8" brads to hold everything in place and as many heavy things as I could find to keep the bottom butt splice as tight as possible.

Tomorrow, I will try to start assembling the keel sides and bottom along with the interior keel pieces.

Today I have spent my time cutting out the keel strengtheners and butt splice pieces to join the bottom and side keel pieces. The butt splice pieces were cut to 6" instead of the 4" on the plans for extra strength. Every little bit of strength will help in that area. I have only cut the four 20" keel strengtheners for now, as I don't know the exact sizes of the other three pieces until I begin to assemble the entire keel.

I also sanded down the excess epoxy on the White Oak stem and rounded all corners with a 1/4" roundover bit on my router table. Just sanding off the epoxy took nearly an hour, so I will try to be more careful with the squeeze out on the rest of the parts. It is much easier to squeegee off the excess epoxy during the assembly. This stem was hard to do that due to all the plastic I used to make sure no parts were epoxied together that shouldn't have been.

I also planed and sanded all of the edges of the plywood keel bottom and sides. The sides of the keel were clamped together and "matched up" during this.

Maybe I can get more done this evening.

Keel Bottom and Side Pieces Cut

Well, I worked a little more than I thought I would on Christmas Eve.

The attached pictures show the pieces cut out for the hull. They will still need to have all edges "straightened" with the plane. I cut as close to the pencil lines as I could, but need to get them perfect for mating with the other pieces.

I also cut the Douglas Fir 2" x 8"x 48" into four different pieces for now, which will also go into the hull section. I will cut them to final size when I determine their exact size needed.

Time to go to the Christmas Eve Party!!!

Christmas Eve - Laminated Stem Complete

The laminated stem of White Oak turned out pretty good. The excess epoxy will have to be sanded down, but the two pieces are matched up very well. The epoxy was allowed to sit for a minimum of 24 hours before removing the clamps, which gave the epoxy enough time to cure. This will be one hard stem, and it weighs about eight pounds in its present state. After I sand off the epoxy and get all six surfaces smooth, I will round-over the corners with my router to make it look a little better.

I also completed drawing out most of the main keel pieces on the plywood . You may have to look real close or enlarge the photo to see the pencil lines. I will draw out the rest of the keel pieces today on another piece of plywood. It is probably a wise idea to follow the layout of all the pieces shown on the plans, but I have already deviated. I am going to make sure I will have enough to use before moving on.

Merry Christmas to all. And yes, I do know that nobody is really reading this.

Starting with the Stem

Last night I cut the White Oak plank to size with my table saw and laminated two pieces together to make the 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" x 39" stem. As you can see in the picture, I used several clamping blocks and epoxy to clamp the stem pieces together. The plastic was used to make sure the clamping blocks and the stem were not epoxied together.

I will be using West System Epoxy and Hardener for the entire project. I have looked at the MAS Epoxy, as well, but there is not a local dealer of this brand. I also used the West System brand to build my first boat and had very good luck with it.

After laminating the stem together, I began to draw out the measurements for the keel parts on the plywood. I got about half of the keel pieces drawn out so far.

Beginning Day on The Mini-Tug

Today I am beginning to build my "Perfect 10" Mini-Tug. It will be built using the plans from Berkeley Engineering.com. So far the best name I have come up with to name the boat is "Lil Bump". Any other great ideas would be listened to.

I will add pictures of the building process as soon as I begin.

Up to this point, I have already bought most of the plywood, the stem piece, some Douglas Fir, and the visor material, which is made of tempered masonite. The plywood I will be using is an Arauco brand plywood with exterior glue in 1/2" and 1/4" sizes, and it is made from Radiata Pine. The stem could be made from Douglas Fir, but I chose to use White Oak, which will be very strong and has very good rot resistance.

The motor choices can be from 2 HP to 30 HP, but I have some time to decide on that. I currently have a 2 HP Honda 4-cycle outboard, but I don't believe it will be near enough power.

Above is a picture of what it may look like in the future. Not sure about the colors, but I do like the Coast Guard design. Hopefully, I can have this completed by this summer to take out and fish and have fun!

The drawing is my first order of business. This is the keel of the boat and will be built before anything else. I am completing this in my basement, as my garage is quite full. Maybe a picture of that later! This keel consists of the stem, again White Oak, with plywood sides, spacers, and bottom with the 2x2's of Douglas Fir.

The White Oak I have is approximately 3/4" thick, so I will cut out two pieces and laminate them together with epoxy. Afterwards, I will then cut the laminated piece to exact dimensions needed for the complete stem.

Time to draw them out on the plywood and start cutting!