The Utility More incremental progress

As predicted, progress on the boat over the last 24 hours has been small and incremental. Little things have to be done in preparation for the larger tasks. So it was yesterday evening. I sanded & filed away at some big globs of cured epoxy.

I should not have been so careless as to let these big globs cure in place unnecessarily. It only makes for more work to do after-the-fact. Of course, you cant always reach some places to scrape away extraneous epoxy.

Equally, sometimes you cant reach a dried glob of the stuff with a sanding block or a file, when the thin blade of a putty scraper wouldve gotten rid of it easily before it cured. Such is the case with those spots behind the chine at the sheer. I decided to just leave them. Technically, I suppose these spots are already "encapsulating" that small area of the wood. Its just not pretty. So be it. That part of the boat will only be visible with a flashlight, anyway.

Moving forward, Ill just have to strive to work more neatly with epoxy.

Read More..

Incremental progress on the first bottom plank

So, cautiously and methodically, I have continued fastening down the first panel for the bottom planking.

Using a 4-foot ruler as a straight edge, I drew reference lines on the plywood to show placement of the floor battens. That made it much easier to mark the places to drill holes & drive screws. Marking the chines for screw placement has not been so easy. I’ve had to cut away enough overhanging material so that I can use my marking gauge — the same spring clip & duct tape arrangement I used on the side planking. I used the Porter Cable multi-tool saw to cut away plywood as I worked my way forward... cutting new plywood washers as I went.

Bottom panel, before much extraneous material was removed.

Looking forward, you can see the panel begin to curve and twist.

Reference lines for the battens helped greatly with screw placement.

Near the forward frame, the plywood begins to curve and twist considerably. At times, it seemed like I just couldn’t bend it any more without breaking it. I followed the technique outlined in Boatbuilding With Plywood, and cut away as much extraneous material as I could, while still leaving myself adequate material to work with. It is amazing how much easier plywood will bend when excess material is cut away.

Here, a good bit of material has been removed from the panel. It became much easier to bend.

For now, my progress has stopped at the forward frame. I’m just inches away from the transition joint. To mark the approximate cut line up forward, I coated the corner of the side planking with a lumber crayon & bumped the bottom planking panel against it to transfer the mark. It worked reasonably well. Soon, I’ll remove the bottom panel, cut near this line, and re-attach the panel for further fitting.

The transferred line on the inside of the panel should help greatly when I remove the panel & trim it down further.

 Once this panel is cut to shape, I’ll be able to use it as a template for the other panel.

Read More..

The Utility Incremental progress on the planking

It has been a week of small, incremental progress on the Utility. Even when you can only spend 15 – 30 minutes a day on the project, each little step gets you further along, and can take much of the prep work out of the next major task.

So it has been for me over the last several days. One morning, I simply measured and marked the location for driving screws through the planking and into the chine. That evening, I “connected the dots” between these marks, giving me the line along which to drill the holes. The next day, I marked points along this line, spaced 3 inches apart. I drilled holes on a few of these points, and drove a few screws. The next day, I did a few more... and so on. 

Aft starboard side panel, dry-fit & screwed on.

Once the aft starboard side panel was screwed on, I trimmed the edges down some with a block plane. Then I went back and beveled the rims of the screw holes just enough so that I can drive the screw heads down flush with the plywood surface, while still achieving good compression of all the plywood layers beneath the screw heads.

Screws spaced 3" apart; Holes beveled for flush fit & layer compression.

At this point, the aft starboard side panel is screwed and fitted into place. I will have to wait until I have more free time to remove it, apply the epoxy, and then put it back on. In the meantime, I’ve resumed the fairing for the port side panel.

And, oh yes... Don’t think I’ve forgotten the Zip. I’ve assembled its breasthook & have been sanding the sides, as time permits.

Zip breasthook assembled & being sanded.

Read More..