Getting To The Bottom Of It

We dry-fit both garboard planks on the boat to mark out where the epoxy goes.  This is also necessary to double check that the planks are fair along the set up, everything fits properly, and we have all the clamps and tools ready for when we glue. 

Still dry-fitting, we used the screws as clamps at the bow and the stern.  

We clamped the port side plank in place after the epoxy was applied.

Spreading the epoxy on the keelson in preparation for gluing the starboard plank on.

Spreading unthickened epoxy on the garboard plank.

We used screws as clamps until the glue cures.  We waxed the threads of the screws with beeswax to make them easier to remove.

Thanks to the generosity of the Erie General Electric Employee Community Service Fund, we have a new Sharp Aquos Interactive Touch Board.  We used it for blogging this morning.  Thank you!

Stretching Out Our Skiff Skills



Rounding over the bracket for the foot stretchers using a router.  The foot stretcher brackets were cut out with the CNC machine and will be used for skiff #1.

Gluing up the next garboard plank.  

We glued the keelson to the stems and the frames.

Putting glue on the bow stem.

We were spreading glue on the frames.



We clamped the keelson down to the stems and the frames.  Afterwards, we had to clean off the extra glue.

Planing the keelson

We used a block plane to plane down the hog (keelson) to fit the garboard plank.

We are fitting the garboard plank to the hog (keelson), stem, and frames in order to make sure it's fair. We still have to plane more off the keelson for a perfect fit.  Look at the twist from midships to the stem!

Finalizing our setup

We screwed the molds to the strong back, while making sure they were perpendicular.

The piece we used for the keelson was 1/4" too thin, so we added wood to make it the 1 1/2" that is required in the plans.  We marked the pieces of the keelson to make sure they were centered. Then we glued it together using epoxy.  We then clamped it to our bench so it holds in place and dries flat.

                                             

The start of the garboard plank

We are squaring up the molds using the speed square and clamping the keelson in place.

We are gluing the garboard plank, which is the first plank to go on our set up. While lining up the scarph joints, we made sure the hole points were in a straight line using a level.

Before gluing up your first planks, it is SO IMPORTANT to watch this video about plank glue ups.  Forward to the 5 minute mark - the first part of the video is about different techniques for cutting scarph joints.  Study the sheets in the plans and mark the holes that you are supposed to line up!

Starting on the stems and "hog" (keelson)

In our lumber rack, we had a perfect piece of knot-free Spruce to use for the "hog" or the keelson.  We used a router to round the edges of the hog so it would fit nicely into the mould set-up. 

Gluing the inner stems together. We decided to use the marine plywood stems that came with the kit instead of making them out of hardwood.