Rubrails installed

Rubrails are just about the last structural item to install.  

But before doing that, I put on this trim piece on the bow.  The plans call for the bow transom to be completely flat, but when I installed the deck I noted that I had a bit of extra length, and so left it in place.  I now cut this piece to finish off the bow.  No steam bending or anything here, it's just cut to shape.  It has beveled edges top and bottom and fits in nicely.  There will be a shadow under this and I think it will look better than a completely flat front.

For rubrails I elected to use some clear fir I had on hand in 14' lengths, old floorboards. They were pretty dirty to I cleaned most of that off with a sander, then ran them through the surface planer, and cut them to width with a circular saw.  The sheer curves horizontally, vertically, and twists, so I had to soften these up with the steamer.  It took a lot of steaming, and even then this wood didn't bend too well, but it was enough.  

I clamped them in place below the gunwale to hold their shape.

And after they cooled down removed the plastic back and reclamped them to dry.

Then installed them with epoxy and used screws to clamp them.

All trimming and rounding of edges will be done with them installed on the boat.

Cabin sides installed

After the deck was installed I moved on to the cabin sides.  Here you see the cleats on the edge of bulkheads 2, 3, and 4.  These are beveled to match the angle of the cabin sides to provide a good glue surface, and I was working on these before gluing down the deck.

Here's the minimal clamping required during the glue up. The sides sit flush with the bottom surface of the deck, so the little leg in the foreground needs to be trimmed a bit, as it sits on top of the deck.  I also elected to cut the little quarter circle drain holes in the cabin side, mostly because I like the way they look.

I've got a little stick clamped to the deck pushing the forward part of the cabin side towards the center of the boat to keep the curve of the side constant.

After the epoxy cured I ran a little fillet along the lower edge of the cabin side to fix that in place.  Later on I will add a larger fillet and fiberglass tape to this joint.

I also glued on the doubler that reinforces the front section.

And filleted inside between the cabin side and the bulkheads. 

And along the bottom of the cabin side where it meets the carlin. After the epoxy cured I softened this edge with sandpaper.

With the sides attached the next step was to make the cleat that will hold the edge of the cabin roof.  There's a gentle curve to this, so I set up the steamer to bend the wood. 

After cooling and drying out I glued it on. 

Here you can see the small filler strip that I also added to the top of the cabin sides, as they were a little bit short. 

Here's the cleat installed. You can see I even remembered to run the bottom edge through the router before gluing it on.

And planed down to match the curvature of the roof, which is next to be installed.

Port gunwale and deck carlins in place

After the troubles I'd been having with scarf joints giving way under the head of steam bending, I was careful on the port gunwale to avoid steaming the two scarf joints present there.  I steamed the gunwale in sections, and that's easy to do using the plastic bag method of containing the steam.

The gunwale bent without any breakage, and again I used most of my clamps to glue that on to the hull.

For the carlins that support the deck, I was able to use single lengths of sitka spruce left over from my mast stock, so didn't have to worry about joints.  Here the whole length is being steamed.

And here clamped in place.  I clamp in place while it's still in the bag, and can even keep steaming while bending the part into place.

After the wood has cooled down, I unclamp and slip the bag off, then reclamp and allow the wood to dry. The next step for these is to glue them in and plane them to accept the deck. 

Steam bent 'glovebox' shelves installed

A while ago I saw on the Scamp forum an idea another builder had to include some shelves under the seats to store little things like car keys, wallet, etc.

I decided I wanted to do the same, and I realized the time to do that was now, since it's almost time to install the seat tops.

I first contemplated and measured and picked a size for the shelves.  They are about 1 foot long and 5 inches wide.  I cut stock to rough size and fit it to the hull.  The edge that joins the hull needed to curve front to back, and bevel top to bottom.  This was pretty easy to do with the 12" disc sander.  I decided I wanted rounded corners, so I cut and sanded those, too.

I determined I wanted an edge to the shelf about 2" high, and fit around the curves of the corner. A little steam bending seemed to be in order.  I glued up some scrap for a form and traced the profile of the shelf, then cut it out with the bandsaw:

Look for my earlier post on steam bending to see the steam generator/plastic bag 'steam box' that I used.  Same technique here.  After each piece cooled a bit I clamped them against the shelves to dry out and fully cure overnight.

I then coated the inside of the sides with unthickened epoxy to seal the grain, and let that cure.  Then used thickened epoxy to glue the edges on and glue on some little bracket supports.  I used the 23-gauge pin nailer to hold the parts in place while the epoxy cured.

I then ran a fillet around the inside, and trimmed the overhanging ends of the side pieces to fit the hull.  

To install the shelves in the boat I placed them against the inside of the hull and traced around them.  I then shot pin nails through the hull from the inside near the ends of the shelf and bracket outlines. I then connected the pins with lines, showing me where the centerline of the shelf pieces would be.

I then coated the mating surfaces of the shelf with thickened epoxy and held it against the hull, while a helper shot pin nails from the outside of the hull into the edge of the shelf and the bracket.  We were able to hit the target with each of the three nails we used per side.  No further clamping was needed.

Here's a view of the starboard shelf looking through the access hatch in B4.  After this photo was taken I also added a fillet between the shelf and the hull to reinforce the shelf and finish off the inside.

And here's the reverse view of the shelf with the first coat of paint.  It's a bit tricky painting the bottom surfaces upside down and backward using a mirror to see what's happening.

This little project took some time, but I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I think these shelves will be really handy.

Steam bending

I've always wanted to try steam bending, and the upcoming work of installing the carlins (under deck supports) and gunwales is going to provide a good opportunity to try it out.  The plans call for several narrower piece of wood to be bent and laminated in place without steam, but I was not looking forward to handling and securing long skinny, slippery, epoxy covered pieces, so I thought I would gear up for steam bending.

Traditional steam bending involves placing the wood to be bent in a box and applying steam until the wood gets flexible.  Then you remove the wood from the box and quickly put it in place before it cools off and stiffens up again.

Recently I saw a video on the net showing a variation of this, where the wood is steamed in place on the boat. Using this method there's no frantic dash to beat the cooling wood, as you can keep the steam on until everything is in place.  The key is to do away with the traditional steam box, and substitute a plastic tube.

So, excited about trying something new, I placed an order for an Earlex steam generator and soon it showed up at the door.  A quick visit to eBay and 200 feet of 6-inch wide 4 mil lay-flat tubing was also on the way. 

The steam generator comes with the tank, a hose, and a electrical cord.  The hose is nice and long, about 10 feet, and has a flare fitting on one end and a threaded fitting on the other - very nice.  The steam generator is pretty simple, and consists of a heating coil in a plastic box, but it has a pressure relief valve and over-temperature shut off (if you run it dry).  It's a nice setup.

For my test bend I planed some pine to 20mm x 30mm.  Nothing special about this stick, it has knots and all - kind of a worst case scenario.  I cut off a section of plastic the same length as the wood.

And installed the hose in the middle.  The threaded end and jam nut is inside the tubing in this photo.

Then I put the wood inside the tube, filled the steam generator with water and plugged it in.

After about 15 or 20 minutes steam began to flow.  Some flows through the tube and out both ends, and some condenses in the tube and eventually runs out the ends.  I put a bucket under each end to catch the drips.

After about 45 minutes I put on gloves and easily pulled the wood into place.  This bend is in two dimensions - curving both upward and inward as it approaches the ends of the boat. 

Pulling the plug on the steam generator, I let the wood cool.

And then slipped it out of the plastic.  There was very little spring-back - this experiment was a success! 

The wood took on a nice smooth curve for the most part.  If you look in the background you can see there is a straight section there as the piece ended and there was nothing pushing it into a curve.  With a full-length piece this shouldn't be a problem.  Or if I wanted this shorter length to curve in that area I could have pushed it out a little with a brace - the bending was easy and did not require much force.

Since the final, full-length, part will have one or more scarf joints joining shorter sections of wood, I plan to do another experiment like this, but with a scarf joint in the test piece to make sure the steam heat does not cause the joint to fail.  If it does I'll have to come up with a plan to work around that.

Little jobs

This morning I found that my paint was still tacky, so rather than putting the second coat on I tackled a number of other little jobs.

I applied fillets to the transom, and epoxy coated the bevel I had planed on the bottom of the transom doubler.  I test fit the cockpit sole and found it was a touch long, so I planed off about 1/8" on the back edge.  I believe the bevel on the doubler is doing it's job of making the installation easier.

I then trimmed the centerboard pivot pin to length and made the solid cover that will be glued on the water ballast tank end of the pivot hole.  I also made the cover that holds the head of the bolt and screws on from the underseat area.  Here the rough first coat of epoxy over the bare wood is shown.  I'll smooth that down and recoat before installation.  I also drilled out to 1/4" and epoxy filled the anchor holes for the screws.

Then I clamped the hull to the building jig and removed the screws that were holding it in place.  I put the final coat of epoxy in those areas, and will sand and paint, and then reinstall the hold down screws.  Then I can remove the clamps so they are not in the way of hull panel installation.

A couple days ago I received in the mail an Earlex steam generator, and an eBay purchase of some 6" layflat tubing 4 mils thick,and so I experimented with some steam bending.  

This is a piece of lumberyard pine 10mm x 30mm.  I steamed it for 1/2 hour and was able to easily put a twist in it.  I'm going to try 20mm x 30mm next and if that bends easily I will do that and not have to laminate the under-deck carlins.  I will need to join shorter lengths with epoxy and scarf joints in either case, and I will be running another test with a test joint to ensure the epoxy doesn't soften and let go at that temperature.  I know I can soften epoxy with my heat gun, but that's quite a bit warmer, I think.

By steaming inside the plastic tubing (which is similar in weight to a zip-loc bag), I should be able to do this right on the boat, and not have to hurry from the steam box to the boat before things cool off.  I'll be providing more information on this later.

I also spent some time thinking about where I wanted my seat hatches and how large they should be.  This is the port side with one of the B3 hatches, which is 12 x 18".  I think that looks about right.

But on the starboard side, I have to set it further outboard because the centerboard trunk is under that seat.  this puts it too far out, in my opinion.  I plan to cut a new template so that I can cut the hatch, hatch stiffener, and underseat backing plate about 1 3/4" narrower.