Water and Waiting

It seems like one of the hardest parts of boat building is the waiting. Waiting for epoxy to dry, waiting for wood to soak, waiting for bent wood to set. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Well, I've been waiting a while to post an update, and I might as well put one together while I'm.....waiting.

I began mounting the chines 5 days ago. The Glen-L plans call for the chines to be built from 1" x 1-3/4" x 12'mahogany (although finished wood tends to be "3/4, not 1"). Given my lack of experience with bending mahogany, I thought that it would be very difficult to achieve desired curve. I decided to revert to making two laminations of 3/8" mahogany.

Luckily, I was able to get two 3/8" lengths from each piece of 1"x 1-3/4" length. I used the table saw at Norwalk Woodworker's Club to slice the 1" thickness in half, which removed 2/16 in the process. The planner took care of the remaining 1/32" on each strip. I highly recommend going to the Woodworker's Club. Bo was very helpful in teaching me how to use the machines, and assisted me in achieving the desired results.

Even with 3/8" chines, the wood was still stiff, and I could not achieve the desired twist (as described by BarnacleMike). The need to soak was upon us. I cut 2" PVC pipe down to 5' and placed a rubber cap on the end. A single chine was inserted into each, and then boiling water was poured into the tubes. Water was changed about every 12 hours for a total of 48 hours.

After soaking, I rough mounted the chines onto the frames. The portion of the frame where the chines meet (plus 5" above and below) was beveled using a power sander with 50 sand paper. Perhaps a power planer would be easier, but I have been using the sander a lot for taking away large amounts of material, and have gotten very comfortable with that method. The chines extend 8" forward of the stem. I attached webbing and winches to this portion to crank the chines into shape. They are still in this position today.

I have put significant thought into the question of how to mount the chines to the stem. Adhering to the advice of Wayne, a neighbor who BUILDS PLANES IN HIS BASEMENT (and yes he has a very cool basement), I will be making a mini chine breasthook out of laminated scrap mahogany. This will take some extra time, but will make achieving the outward chine twist much easier.

Now for the sheers. These are made from two lengths of 5/8" x 1-1/4" mahogany which are laminated together. I thought that I would be able to mount these dry....I was wrong. I first soaked these with the PVC method for 24 hours. When they were removed from water, I rough mounted them, and found that they were still too stiff to make the bend. I decided to compromise with them for the night. I clamped them in place along frames 1 and 2, and them clamped them just outboard of the forward breasthook. This gave them a gradual bend. They were then tightly wrapped with towels, which were ziptied into position (thank for cycling for the hundreds of spare zip ties). I then doused the towels with boiling water, and trapped in as much as I could using cellophane to wrap it all together. New boiling water was exchanged every 4-6 hours by cutting holes in the top of the cellophane wrap, and then resealing with additional wrap.

That process went on for 24 hours until it was time to clamp them into their final resting place this afternoon. Due to the shape of the breasthook (more or less a triangle), the erwin clamps had no solid surfaces to grab onto in order to hold the sheers against the breasthook. This was remedied by sawing scrap 2x4 into a saw tooth-shape and placing it on the aft side of the breasthook. The sheers were clamped tightly up front and sprung toward the rear.

Even with water, the sheers were far from spaghetti, and did not want to lay flat against the frames. In fact, they were pointing out from the breasthook at about 35 degrees. I lassoed a portion of the sheet between frame 1 and 2, and used a winch to crank them in over the next few hours.

You can never have enough clamps! These Erwin Quick Grips are great.

My sheers and chines are now in their final resting places, which brings us full circle...waiting. I'll leave these in position for the next day or two. This should give me time to mentally prep for the next steps.

I'm Brinkley and I approve this message.

The Bee's Knees

Had to make a quick post about something I'm psyched out of my mind about.

For the past few weeks I have been dreading the thought of mounting the transom knee to the keel/transom. Unlike most other components, the pre-drilled holes will not help me in lining up the knee with the keel and transom. In other words, the knee is glued on when it is relatively free floating. This makes clamping very difficult because the wet epoxy creates a slip-and-slide for the pieces to be joined.

On other components that require gluing, I have been using a strategy that allows me to line up the pieces as desired even after they are coated with thickened epoxy. I first line up the dry components and pre-drill holes for screws or nails (whichever is needed). I then sink the screws through the first components until it protrudes about 1/8" through the side that contacts the other mating surface. Once the epoxy is applied, the protruding screw easily finds the hole on the adjacent part (this is depicted in the picture of the stem assembly below). This is not possible on the transom knee because I am using 1/4" carriage bolts placed within 1/2" holes. The excess space will be filled with epoxy to create a very strong, and very water-tight seal.

Here is what I am excited about. To ensure that the bolts are centered, I drilled 3/4" holes about 1/16" deep into the inboard side of the knee. The washers fit perfectly into this space, and ensure that the bolt remains centered. Once the bolts are under pressure, everything is pulled perfectly center. Meanwhile, it looks very appealing!

The bronze washer sits just below the surface of the knee. I intend to establish a water-tight seal around and under it prior to completion. Water in this knee would be a bad thing!

I borrowed this drill and bit from my neighbor, Wayne. It makes perfectly round holes and allows me to select the size hole I want. This made finding the right size hole for the washer very simple. 

The bolt will be perfectly centered in the knee. The head of the bold will be squeezed into center when pressure from the nut is applied. This is not the actual bolt I will be using.

I have other work to do today, so work on the boat will be light. The chines are currently soaking in PCV pipes to enable the bend and twist to the stem. If I have time, I will fit these to the stem and allow them to set for 48 hours. I will also have to sculpt the blocks that will be used to mount them to the stem.

Getting Back to the Blog

Luckily for me, I am a much better boat builder than I am a blogger...although that might not be saying much. I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled up this blog today to find that my last post was on March 2. Although I am having a terrific time working on the Squirt, it seems difficult to remember life prior to beginning this build. It certainly feels like more than 6 weeks!

From here on out, my plan is to post my progress every night, along with problems faced during the day and solutions. So far I have completed mounting the frames to the form, attached the stem to frame 2, and glued and screwed the battens/keel.

It might not sound or look like very much work has been done, but looking at each piece of the craft I cannot help but think of the hours that were spent carefully sanding, sculpting, and bonding every segment. I have learned a tremendous amount over the last 6 weeks, and I hope to post all of it on this blog. 

The build has been assisted by the blogs of many other Glen-L builders. I am hoping that this blog will help more in the future. 

More to come!