Scarf joints cut and epoxied, keel rounded and taped

 Over the last couple weeks the weather has been one of two ways, very hot and humid or very cold and rainy. Not exactly the most motivating but, I'v managed to work on a few different areas.  I finished cutting my scarf joints on the three bottom hull pieces and applied a couple coats of epoxy and epoxy wood filler to fill the end grain, holes etc.  I wanted to precoat the end grain to ensure the final joining goes together wet and I don't get any dry spots.  The keel has been rounded over with a 1/2" roundover bit and I've applied the 3" 9oz. cloth tape to all 5 rounded edges.  Today  I will be sanding the keel to feather out the glass tape edges.  I hope to get the 6oz glass cloth applied Monday or Tuesday evening.  The photos here show my most recent progress.  Cutting the scarf joints was a messy job!

A few more things done...setting up the garage/Sourcing supplies

I've removed the transom from the jig and everything looks good.  When building my jig I used standard 2x4 stock for setting the transom curvature, this gave me about 2 1/2" curvature when formed in the jig.  With the transom out of the jig and a few days passed, the curvature is now sitting at 2 3/16", well with in the 2"-3 1/2" range the plans call for.

The past couple of days I have cut out my front cabin and two side 1/4 panels to the rough 16"x32" shape, these will be cut and fit in place later on.  I've also setup a table in the garage using a few 2"x10"x8' boards that will span across a couple saw horses to create a table to work on. This should be quick and easy to take down and set up when needed.

During my last trip to the Home Depot I was disappointed to find out they stopped carrying the Norton line of sanding discs!  They now carry the Freud line and the price is much higher at $1.45/disc.  I can't seem to find anyone in town that stocks the 6" sanding disc so I ended up ordering some off ebay, 200 discs at 30 cents a piece....can't beat that!  I'm also having a hard time finding cheap chip brushes.  The lowest price I could find for a 2" chip brush is $1.50ea.  Harbor Freight has packs of 36 for $10.99.  I guess I'll be making a stop at Harbor Freight the next time I cross the boarder.

Transom glued up and molded in Jig/Hull Floor pieces cut out.

Well, it's been a while since my last post...quite a while!  I've continued to work on keel, filling, filleting etc.  I still have to round over the edges with a 1/2 router bit then fill and sand some more before starting the outer glass and epoxy.  I'm working in my basement and don't have the best ventilation so I'll be waiting for a good day to move the keel outside and get the sanding and routing done in one shot.  The last two weekends I cut out the hull floor pieces and transom pieces.  I also got around to building the transom jig and epoxied the transom pieces together and set them up in the jig for molding.  I didn't expect the transom pieces would need as much epoxy as they did.  I used 23oz in total to get a good wet coat that I felt comfortable with.  I used a few screws to dry fit and align the 4 pieces before fitting them into the jig where I used an even grid pattern of 40 or so screws to make sure the center section of the keel would be evenly clamped.  The outside 5 inch perimeter used up about 40 different sized C and spring clamps to finish it off.  The photos below show some of the most recent work.

Keel Continued - Built, and Stem Installed

Sorry to anyone who has been following my build to this point.  We've been going through our busy season at work and just now we are starting to see it begin to wind down. 

Since my last post, I've received my shipment of fasteners from Clark Craft and I've been able to complete the building and assembling of my keel.  I have not glued anything at this point. Everything has just been dry fit together.  As I continued further up the keep, assembling the formers into place, I used a number of different ratchet clamps to hold the keel sides and bottom in its bent/formed position.  My sides were already pre-drilled using a 1/8 brad point drill bit.  When in place I used my tapered #8 bit to finish the hole through into the keel bottom followed by a SB fastener.  I think Todd mentioned in one of his posts that a valuable yet inexpensive tool that came in very handy when measuring angles was a t-bevel. This stands as one of the most used tools aside from my straight edge and rulers at this point. 

When it came to mounting my bow stem, I did not taper the keel sides to sit flat on the stem.  Instead, I cut them off flush with the front of the keel bottom.  I made sure that the vertical front edge of the keel sides were cut and sanded 90 degrees to the rear keel bottom planing surface.  I used my jigsaw to rough cut the notch in the stem bottom, and followed that with careful chiseling to get the precise fit.  Once the stem was set into place, I clamped the keel sides tight against it and used plywood shims on either side of the stem inside the keel (visible in photo) to hold it from shifting.  I also used a long 1 1/4 inch square steel tube run along the keel center to keep the horizontal plane of the stem 90 degrees to the keel back. (Malcolm Newbiggin used this method in his Candu Junior build). Once I felt the stem was square and in place, I drilled my holes using the 1/8 brad point bit followed by the #8 taper.

Just yesterday I started to number my pieces and disassemble the keel.  I also set up my router table and put a 1/2 inch round over on my stem edges.  The photos included below show the mentioned progress along with a few shots of my formers once disassembled from the keel.  I hope to start epoxying this week.

  

Keel Assembly Started

I started to assemble the keel dry.  I purchased a few 24 inch wide clamps that have been very helpful in clamping the pieces tight while pre-drilling the screw holes.  I have 3 former sections in place, but have now run out of screws and am awaiting my shipment from ClarkCraft.  (Earlier I said I'd be keeping all the fasteners in but I've already realized I will be removing the fasteners from the lowest portion of the keel to accommodate the 1/2 inch roundover on all the keel edges.  I guess this will give me about 60 screws I can use elsewhere in the build.)

I also have cut out the most rear section of the bottom/floor of the boat hull.  For anyone that is reading and might be worrying about me getting this out of my basement, don't fear.  Once I have the keel assembled I'll be building pieces in sections and assembling out in the garage when spring comes.
Here are some pictures that show my progress to date.

Keel Continued - Butt Joints

Over the last few days I have cut out the remaining pieces for the keel sides and bottom.  I have joined them using butt blocks.  I have pre-drilled and countersunk and will be using silicone-bronze fasteners to attach the blocks.  The fasteners will not be removed.  I plan on using silicone-bronze fasteners for clamping purposes throughout the build and will also be leaving these in.  It sounds as though silicone-bronze is the standard used by professional and amateur boat builders.  I opted to use these fasteners also, considering the nominal increase in overall cost. Included are a few pictures of the keel bottom and sides, dry fit together. 

Cutting out/fairing keel

Since my last post I have worked on cutting out my keel sections and fairing them up. Next I'll be cutting out the three 2 ft sections needed to bring the keel to it's 10 ft length.  I'll be mixing epoxy soon.  I've also included a shot of my douglas fir bow stem and the keel formers that have been roughly cut to size.  Things have been going slow but smooth so far.  I have a wedding to attend this Saturday so most of my weekend is spoken for.  I hope to have another progress post soon.
I'm pretty comfortable with my new Bosch barrel-grip jigsaw. It's a world of difference going from my Black and Decker.  Don't get me wrong, the Black and Decker does the trick, but...