Keel Stem Reset

Yesterday, I was able to work on the boat again for the first time in a week due to some traveling and other activities.

As noted before, the stem was not straight in alignment with the center line of the keel, so I decided to see if I could correct this problem.

I took the stem screws out and re-trimmed the notch at the bottom of the stem to make it match the bottom of the keel better. I used my new T-Bevel to accomplish this task, and I am now sure glad I bought it the other day. A cheap tool that will come in very handy in the future.

I also trimmed the left keel side back to match the right side.

I then re-attached the stem with on screw through the bottom of the keel bottom into the notched area of the stem to hold it straight with the center line of the keel. Slowly, I drilled new holes and re-attached the keel sides to the stem again, while my girlfriend held the stem in perfect vertical level in both dimensions, and holding the stem in center alignment with the keel center line. Quite complicated for such a small piece, but it will make a big difference when the boat is completed. Everything needs to be as straight as possible or it will look funny when it is done.

It came out way better this time than the first time when I tried to accomplish it all myself. Thank God for Girlfriends!!!

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.

Stem Attachment to the Keel

On New Years Day, I started the process of attaching the stem to the keel sides and bottom. This requires the two plywood sides to be planed down at an angle to match up with the keel sides. I thought I had it pretty close, but the rear edge appeared to need planed down, but after accomplishing that I found that I had planed it too much. Now, I will need to sand or plane down the forward edge of the keel sides to match it up better. This may work out pretty good in the end as the stem is a little over the 1 1/2" measurement that is in the plans. If I had a planer-surfacer, I would have planed it down to the exact 1 1/2". See attached pics for clarity on this issue.

I also planed and sanded down the rear most Douglas Fir keel stiffener.

Today I will try to fix the angle problem with the keel sides. I also noticed that the front of the keel sides are slightly warped, so I will have to adjust for that when screwing everything together. I will also need to notch out the bottom of the stem to match it up with the keel bottom. It is kind of a weird angle.

First Assembly of Keel Continued

I completed installing all of the keel strengtheners yesterday. There are two things I have left before disassembling the parts and then reassembling with epoxy.

First is to attach the stem, after notching it and attaching the 1/2" quarter round. The second is to take the keel strengtheners back off and drill the small hole for the screw in the bottom and sides of the keel. I have already marked their locations as you can see with the pencil marks. After taking them off and drilling those holes, I will reinstall them to drill the strengtheners themselves.

Believe it or not, all of these parts except for one (the rear most portion of the bottom) is built from one piece of plywood, except for the obvious Douglas Fir parts and the stem. Very little is left from that one piece of plywood. It did take a little time to make sure everything was nested together on the plywood as close as possible to get this result.

The stern most piece of Douglas Fir and the plywood will still need to be planed down to the correct level of the sides.

FYI- None of these screws that are used to assemble all of the keel will be left in the parts. They are only used to get everything in alignment, epoxied together, and then they are removed. Hopefully, none of them will break off when removing them. Sheet rock screws easy break if over-torqued I found out when finishing my basement.