Frame 4 attached finally

Not a whole lot of progress tonight, I got frame 4 attached and epoxied in place now though finally, took a lot of time to make sure it was level and in the right spot.

Here are a few pics of it attached and the joints.

I will let the epoxy harden overnight and then tomorrow night I will finish cutting out the few notches for the Chine that have not been done yet.

Hopefully I will get the wood for the Chines in the next few days, Maybe even get all of the wood for the Chines and Sheers and at the same time if I find a decent supply.

Some progress over the last few days

I started testing out the placement of the stem so that it is ready whenever I need to attach it.

I cut the Keel to length and laminated a few pieces of 1/4" plywood to the inside of it to add some extra strength. This is not specifically needed or called for in the plans but it adds extra strength and doesnt take that long so I figured I might as well add it.

Brought out the layout board that I made previously and started putting together the last frame. The floor timber in the middle and the gussets are epoxied together and then a few screws are added to hold it together while the epoxy dries.

The Keel has been epoxied to each frame and then screwed to the frames to hold it in place. The Stem is also epoxied and screwed in to place now.

Just as a side note, I highly recommend the pumps for the epoxy. I would have wasted a ton of it without them for the proper 1 to 5 ratio. As well be carefull with it, I found out that it can heat up very quickly to the point of melting through heavy tupperware bowls and making smoke.


Here is a picture of where the Keel and Stem meet, The Keel sits a bit higher than the Stem but that will be taken care of during the fairing process.

Just using a hand file to start shaping the keel in to the stem.

Test fitting the last frame, it has a notch on the floor timber that slides right in to the stem. So far everything seems good, took a lot of filing but it is all fitting fairly snug and level now.

Here is a shot trying to get all of the frames in view (except the transom).

Not the best picture quality but here you can see the whole thing, it is definitly starting to take shape.

More work on Transom and Keel

Got a little bit more work in on the Transom and Keel today, The frame of the transom is now epoxied to the plywood transom.

The notches for the Keel have been cutout roughly on all of the frames except for frame 4 (I havent assembled that frame yet as the stem is not mounted to the rest of the frames yet).

Have not had a lot of time to work on it the last few days but I squeeze in half an hour whenever I can.

Stem and Transom progress

Started working on the Stem and Transom tonight. Here is a pic of the 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood stem being laminated together with epoxy and then clamped.

I started notching out the frames for the Keel, they are not fully notched yet though and the keel still needs an inch cut off of width and a foot off of the length. It is just sitting on top freely until everything is fully notched and cut.

I laminated the Breasthook and started to build up the block for the stem/breasthook. It is just freely sitting there for the current time (not actually level and centered yet)

I epoxied the Transom frame to the Transom, it is currently clamped and waiting for the epoxy to set. I will probably add the motor board to it once the epoxy hardens.

Here is a picture showing how the breasthook and stem get notched together, there are 2 layers on the breasthook laminated together and the stem just slides into it. I will epoxy it once everything else is ready.

Making the outlines for Transom, Stem, Transom Knee, and Breasthook

Picked up a piece of 3/4" Plywood today for the Transom, Transom Knee, Stem, and Breasthook.

Starting making the outlines on the wood.

Its hard to see the outlines in the picture but all of the pieces that are made out of 3/4" plywood are laid out on the sheet now. 2 Stems to be laminated together, 3 Transom Knees to be laminated, the Transom itself, a motor board, and 2 pieces of the breasthook.

Getting everything all laid out like this ended up taking several hours, was hoping to have them cut out tonight as well. I will probably get them done sunday night or monday during the day.

I also found a 12' piece of Mahogany that I picked up and will use for the Keel, wont even have to make a joint as the keel only needs to be 11'.

Finished building frame

Finished the building frame tonight, took a ton of time to get everything level. Some of the boards themselves werent level so involved a pile of sanding as well.

Everywhere that I checked seems to be level and the correct dimensions, I will keep checking as I am building to make sure nothing gets moved.

I dont like the epoxy I got from a local store so I put together frame 3 without epoxy, just screwed the gussets on to hold it in shape so I can keep working on other things for the mean time. I am going to just wait and order enough epoxy from Glen-L to finish the boat. I want to encapsulate everything with epoxy as well so I will get a few gallons from them.

Here it is with frame 3 put together temporarily.

It looks a bit out of shape and not centered but that is just the camera angle.

Starting the building form

I now have frame 1 and 2 put together so I am starting to put together the building form. From what I can tell on the plans it looks like you normally make the breasthook, stem and transom before that but I dont have the plywood for those yet. Since I have the time now I wanted to get as much as I can done.

I used mostly 2x6 boards with the bottom members being 2 2x4s instead just because I had them already and wanted to use them.

Not really too much to explain here, just putting it together as in the plans. I had shorter lumber so had to use a bunch of butt joints. Getting everything level with each other took majority of the time.

The frames are not layed out or placed where they should be, I just had them sitting there for the picture. So far the one major thing I have learnt from all of this is just how bad I am at wood working. Definitly learning a lot as I go.

Starting the gussets

Well I started making the gussets for frame 1 and 2. Here is the template for the first one.

Then I copied that over to the plywood and cut out for of each gusset (2 per side).

What I did after that was screw little blocks around the frame on the side that I am not using epoxy first so that it does not move at all.

Then I put a piece of parchment paper under the corner where I will be using the epoxy, better than the frame sticking to the plywood, I will either pull the paper out before it hardens or just tear it off and sand it a bit later.

I then drilled pilot holes in the guesset where I will be placing the screws and put the screws in enough so that they stand on their own, that way it will be quicker to screw them in when the epoxy is in place.

heres how it ended up (Couldnt take pictures during the process as the epoxy dries fast and gets messy)

Then the same thing for the other corners, I managed to finish the gussets on frame 1 and 2 tonight.

Still working on the layout board and frames

Spent a good portion of today working on the boat again. It doesnt look like a whole lot from the pictures but it was quite a few hours of cutting and fine trimming the frame pieces to fit.

I got frame 3 copied to the layout board and all of the pieces cut to shape, just needs some sanding and then this frame will be waiting on plywood for the gussets and epoxy which I will get once all of the frames are ready for assembly.

It is hard to see in the picture but I now have all 4 of the frames copied to the layout board (Transom will be put together seperately).

Here is frame 4, it is now all cut to the correct shape as well just needs to be sanded.

Here is frame 2 layed out, same thing as the others above it is cut to shape and just needs sanding.

This took a lot longer than it looks, next time I hope to get frame 1 cut to shape and then I will start sanding all of the frames to get them ready. I picked up a new belt sander today so that should make fairly quick work of it but we will see.

It seemed a bit rough a few days ago and I thought I was going to have to start a few of the frames over from scratch but now I am getting the hang of it and think everything should work out, atleast for these 3 frames. We will see about frame 1 next time.

Creating the layout board

I still have a lot of cutting and sanding left to do on the frame pieces but figured I would get the layout board setup for frame 1 now so it is good to go.

The layout board is used for putting the pieces of each frame together, you copy the outline of the pieces for each frame on to the board and then put them together over top of it to make sure they line up.

Here is a 4x8' sheet of plywood that I used for it, Made a vertical line in the center, and then a horizontal line 1 foot up (Doesnt really matter where you make this line as long as the full pieces for each frame can fit on the board)

Then I took the tracings I did previously of the frame pieces on parchment paper and extended the center line and level line on them so it is easier to line up to the board.

I did the 2 pieces one by one instead of both sheets at once, so now that they are lined up I taped it down on just the sides, slid carbon paper underneath and then traced the outline on to the board.

Then I just put the second sheet over top and lined it up, carbon paper, taped it down and traced the next outline.

Now one side of the frame is outlined on the board

Now for the other side just flip the parchment paper tracings over and do the same for the other side

And now I have a full size layout of frame 1 to work over top of

Now to start shaping the pieces to what they should be and make sure they fit in to the outline, Dont think I will get much time for anything until next week though.

Frame parts cut out

Well the parts for the frames are cut out now (havent made the gussets yet though)

I planned on having a lot more done but most of my work is done after midnight, last night on the first cut I made my only band saw blade broke so I couldnt do anything.

I got the rest of the pieces cut out today and was going to start sanding them to shape but it turns out the motor is seized on the band saw, have to wait to get a new one now.

Here is a pic of the frame parts layed out close to how they will sit.

The cutting begins

Started cutting out the pieces for the frames now, doesnt look like that much progress but was a few hours of cutting already. I am just cutting them out roughly using the bandsaw and then will clean them up and get the finished shape done using a bandsaw.

Hopefully I should get some more time in the next few days to finish the cutting.

Heres what has been cut out so far

Finishing up the outlines

Over the last few days I finally got all of the outlines done on the wood.

I found a different method that seems to work a lot better so I started over and did all of the pieces again to make sure they were accurate.

Parchment paper for cooking/baking worked really well, it comes in a roll of 250' so for the pieces that are printed in full I copied them on to the parchment.

Once it is traced on to the parchment you just put it over the wood to find a good spot where it fits, then cover the wood with carbon paper and trace the outline on to the wood.

You cant see it in the picture above but I used green painters tape to tape down the sides so it does not move at all, the tape doesnt leave anything behind on the wood or paper.

Heres another shot of the same one.

The carbon outline is usually pretty light and hard to see so I go over it again on the wood with a black marker so it is easy to see when cutting.

Just a general shot of the work area

For the pieces on the plans that are only shown in half the parchment paper works great, I did the same thing as above to trace it on to the parchment paper, then just flip the paper, line up the center line on the plans with the one you already copied on to the parchment paper and then redraw it again and you have the full piece on the parchment paper. The main issue I had with going straight from the plans to the wood using carbon paper was lining up the two halves perfectly. This way it is already done and you just have to trace it on to the wood.

Same thing again, if everything turned out correctly just trace over the lines on the wood with marker and on to the next piece.

With the parchment paper I find it is really easy to line up several pieces on the same board easily without wasting space on the wood like I was before (pretty much had to guess where the other piece ended when trying to line everything up). This way just put the parchment paper outline over the wood, find a spot where it fits, then tape down the parchment paper on the sides only. If everything looks good I then slide the carbon paper underneath the parchment paper from the bottom or top, then tape down the top and bottom and trace away.

Repeat for all of the pieces. Now that I have all of the hard wood pieces traced out I rolled all of the parchment paper copies up together and will keep them in case I mess something up and need them again.

So I actually managed to get all of the parts for the frames outlined on the wood, didnt have time to cut them out yet but hopefully sometime in the next week I will get a chance. So far the plan seems to be cutting the outline out very roughly with a jig saw and then cleaning them up with the band saw and a belt sander.

I am guessing it will take quite some, dont have much experience with band saws or belt sanders so I will have to go slow to make sure I dont screw anything up.