Saturday, May 24, 2014

First float glued!

Six hours of work today.There's quite some work to be done before glueing the hulls. We first faired the bottom stringers at bow and stern, mostly with the power plane. Here's a pic at the stem


After quite a bit of adjustments, we closed the hull "dry", i.e. with screws but without glue. Here's view of the stem, which requires some pressure to close. Moreover, the plywood here shows some twist, so several screws are required for an even contact pressure.


And here's a view of the transom, for which we needed some mechanical help


This boat does not go together as a jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces need some adjustments and fairing here and there. Nothing terrible, but be prepared with files, Surforms, planes and the like.
Anyway, in the afternoon we judged that were ready for glueing and prepared a relatively thick glue (epoxy+microfibers). Here's how the putty looks like


Following the instructions, we started from the bulkheads. We used a couple of sticks to keep the hull sides open while unscrewing the bulkhead, spreading the glue and screwing back, making fillets with the squeezed out resin. We then glued the stem and finally the transom. Here's a view of the hull from the transom


and here's one from the stem, with the "milestone beer"!


Total work time to date: 118 hours

5 comments:

  1. Fantastic! It looks really good.

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  2. Speaking of tools - it would be cool to see what you have used. Are there any tools you wish you had that would have made life easier for youin the build so far?

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    1. We tried to show all tools in the pictures: jigsaw, circular saw, drill, electric planer, orbital sander. And of course some hand tools: saw, Surforms, rasp. The tool we've missed most is probably a table saw which would have made our life easier.

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  3. Thanks Pippo:-) I am a total woodworking no-nothing so everything helps!

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