SCAMP gets a nose job (solving a problem with a custom router jig)

To the extent I can in my small shop, I like to take a step back from time to time and admire my progress.  Generally I am well pleased, but recently something a bit out of line caught my eye.

I think this had been hiding until the contrasting paint showed up the unevenness in the trim piece I had installed at the top of the bow transom last September (see this post: <rubrails>). My intent was to have the bottom of the trim match the curve of the deck, but looks like that didn't work out:

I thought about this for a while wondering how I could most easily correct the problem.  My planes would not work on this concave surface.  A curved sanding block beveled to match the edge angle could work, but that seemed like a lot of work and not guaranteed of success.

I finally hit on the idea of making a custom router base to which I could attach a fence curved to fit the deck, and a leg to hold the bit at the correct angle.

Here's a shot where you can see how this fits against the bow of the boat.  The bit is 1/2 inch diameter, and set to the correct depth will give me a nice radius at the bottom - I won't even need to re-fillet this joint.

Here's a first pass on one side, showing the amount of material that needed to be removed.

And here's the final result before painting.  I feel good about getting this evened up.  Clicking on any of these photos should show you a larger view.

Transom cap installed

With the seat backs in place, I could now move on to install the transom cap.  

This was a bit of a problem to deal with.  It's fairly stiff and needs to be beveled on the ends to fit against the deck.  As I was fitting this I discovered that I had beveled the top of the transom in the wrong direction (lower in back), so I fixed that first.

After a bit of trial and error I got the bevel right on the cap right, and with a set of helping hands secured the ends with a block and screw.

To fill the void under the cap and above the deck, I shaped an insert that I could glue in place.  You can see here I cut it a little short, but a little thickened epoxy will take care of that more easily than remaking the part.

After gluing in the spacer blocks I glued down the transom cap and held the ends in place with three screws each.  

I also glued the doubler under the cap at the same time.

After the epoxy cured I unclamped and sanded a roundover on both edges.  Looks good and really stiffens up the transom. 

Transom installed

I'm itching to start getting hull panels installed, and not having the transom installed on the boat was one of the things standing in the way.

Earlier I had epoxied the transom doubler on to the transom while the two parts were off the boat and easy to handle and work with.  But one potential problem I could forsee was possible difficulty in getting the cockpit sole (the floor) installed later on, since that piece fits up against the transom and fits under the doubler.  And is a tight fit up forward.

I had read of another builder who ended up trimming the aft edge of the sole off to get it installed.  I'd prefer to not do that, so I decided to plane off the corner of the doubler at the bottom to give me some clearance to install the sole later on.

I got out my trusty #5 plane with the Hock blade and started making shavings.

It didn't take long and the job was done.  I really like using the plane - such a sense of getting something done!

Looks pretty good as I dry fit the transom.

So I mixed up some thickened epoxy and installed it.

Seat cleats and transom doubler

Next job was to install cleats along the bulkheads to provide glue surface for the seats, which are installed later on.  I cut pieces from the cleat stock that I had previously prepared, and applied thickened epoxy to the cleat.  I then lined up each cleat and shot a couple 23 gauge pins in to keep it from sliding around, then follow up with clamps to ensure I had good contact.

I cut the ends of the cleats at a 45 degree angle and sealed the ends with thickened epoxy.  Cutting the ends like this will give me more clearance when I later apply the fillets between the bulkheads and the hull panels 

I also took this opportunity to glue on the transom doubler.  I had some difficulty clamping this part.  I had the part on my plywood risers, but ran them from side to side rather than front to back to make sure the panel didn't bow.  Doing that meant that the risers were in the way of my deep-throat vise-grip clamps.  

I was able to reach  parts of the panel from the edge, and some from the tiller cutout using my home-made cam clamps, but still needed more pressure out in the middle of the panel.  I tried piling on all my leftover lead ingots, but that wasn't fully effective.  Using go-bars between the workpiece and the shop ceiling finally did the trick.