Cutting cockpit sole and seat top hatch openings

With the hull panels now installed, I put a coat of paint on the inside, and will show a photo of that when I've got the final coat done.  I took a little break from painting and turned my attention to constructing the remaining hatches in the cockpit sole and the seat tops.

I used the same technique I described earlier in > this blog post <.  I used all the same template guide bushings and reused the template itself for three of the cockpit sole hatches and for the hatch on the port seat.  I needed to make additional templates for the ballast tank opening, the starboard seat top hatch, which is narrower due to the centerboard trunk, and the round openings for the plastic hatches in the back corners of the seats.

I took a while to finalize the locations of the cockpit sole hatches, measured (several times!), and started making sawdust. 

Here are the holes completed in the top layer.   These were cut out with a 1/8" bit, and I plan to use the sections cut out as the hatch covers.

In the bottom layer I cut the holes smaller, and included a groove for the gasket.

And then I spent a few hours cutting all the additional backing plates and hatch stiffeners from 1/4" birch ply.  Lots of changing template guides, collets and bits was involved.

Next up, I will sand off the fuzz and round edges and corners, laminate two layers where appropriate, and install them.

Hull panels done - some fisheye fun!

To finish off the hull panels, I taped the joints between the hull panels and bow/stern transoms, and trimmed the panels off flush with the ends of the boat, which looks nice.

Next I vacuumed out the hull and ran a tack cloth over it before coating the interior of the hull panels with their third and final coat of epoxy.  I had applied the first two quite a while ago when the panels were flat on the bench.  I used a roller, and then tipped out the bubbles with a foam brush.

Then I grabbed the fisheye lens for my camera to take these shots, which accentuate the nice curves on this boat!

After the epoxy cures I'll remove the gloss by hand sanding with a sanding sponge, then will apply two coats of white paint to finish off those interior areas.

Final hull panels installed!

It's been a productive weekend - I finished installing the final hull panels, and now this is really looking like a boat.  

These panels were the easiest of the bunch.  I fit the panels, then removed wires front and rear and loosend those attached to bulkheads 3 and 5, the hull panel lifted up and stayed in place leaving lots of room to apply thickened epoxy to the lap joint: 

After applying epoxy, I pivoted the panel down and reattached the wires.  I added a few through the lap joint to make sure I had good contact the length of the joint.  These ties I bent to the shape of a big staple, drilled two holes, inserted them from inside, and twisted on the outside.  Worked very nicely.

I let the expoy cure, then removed the wire ties that were no longer needed in the lap joint, and filleted and fiberglass taped the inside joint.  The fiberglass tape on this joint is not required per the manual, but it makes me feel better to have it, so I applied it.

Here's an inside view.  This was taken before I filleted and taped the starboard side.

And here's an outside view.  Looking like a boat!

Mini-tool review - Microplane rasp

This weekend I was looking through the remaining pile of boat pieces, and was pleased to find that they grow fewer all the time - a visible sign of progress. 

Among the remaining pieces I spotted one that I had forgotten about - the cleat that supports the aft edge of the foredeck.  I thought I might as well install this, and went to check the fit on the boat.  I found that I had painted over the gluing area, so I first scraped that area clean.  I then found that I had put some nice substantial fillets around the deck beams on the forward side of bulkhead 2, and so the cutout in the cleat would not fit.

I had a couple options at this point.  I could try to remove the fillets, which would be a lot of work.  I could make a new cutout in the part big enough to fit around the fillets, but that would not be very elegant.  I took the third option - to form the cleat to conform to the fillets, and to do that I called into service one of several microplane rasps that I bought a little while ago.

These stainless steel rasps have lots of very sharp tiny cutting edges, and come in fine or coarse in several different profiles.  They work great.  The company's web side is here if you'd like more info: Microplane Rasps 

Here I'm using a coarse, square profile rasp to shape the deck cleat cutout. 

Here's the final result.

And here's the installed part - a perfect fit!

These tools also work great on cured epoxy.

Centerboard uphaul tube installed - makeshift flaring tool

Before I finished installing hull panels, I wanted to get the centerboard uphaul tube installed, while it was still easy to work in that area.  This tube lines the hole that the rope runs through to raise the centerboard, and prevents wear to the hole and to the rope.

The uphaul line is 1/4" diameter, so I got a short length of tubing from the hardware store that is 5/16" ID, and 3/8" OD.

First, I drilled the hole.  I wanted to ensure that the hole was perpendicular to the bulkhead, and didn't tear out on the far side.  So I drilled a hole through a scrap block on the drill press to use a a drill guide, and clamped another block on the inside of the centerboard trunk to prevent tear-out.  I drilled a pilot hole and then followed that up with a 7/16" bit.

I cut a short length of tubing, flared the end, and inserted a length of 5/16" dowel and taped it on.  This let me manipulate the tubing, rotating it to apply thickend epoxy and pulling it through the hole. 

I clamped it in place with a stick until the epoxy cured.

Here's the inside, flared edge.

And this is the other side.

And this shows the 1/4" uphaul line exiting the tube.  At this point I considered leaving this as is and calling it done.  The rope pulls straight out of the hole and into a turning block, so I think that would work fine.  At this point the flaring tool doesn't work, and trying to shape it with a ball pein hammer seemed likely to mess things up.

After some thought, I started rummaging around in my 1/4" bolt bin, and found this flat-head machine screw.  My plan was to insert this through the tube with a washer and nut on the inside and flare out the end by tightening the nut in a controlled manner.

Here's the screw Inserted in the tube.

And the resulting flare after tightening up the nut a bit.  Worked great.

But it was sticking out a little too far, so I sanded it back using a little disk in a die grinder, and flared again.

And then I did follow up with a little light tapping from the ball pein hammer to fllatten it out just a bit more.  Job done!

More hull panels and a Whoops!

I have continued to install more hull panels, and it's been rewarding to start to get a more complete feel of what this boat will look like.  

After applying a panel I come back about a day later and hit the edges of the fiberglass tape with a scraper to smooth off the rough edge.  The tape has a little structure at the edge that sticks up and is rough, and one edge is worse than the other.  The scraper made quick work of it.

And after vacuuming up the shavings we see this.  I don't intend to attempt to further smooth this out.  It's inside the storage area, and all I care about is that there are no rough edges to snag anything I store in there.  the inside of the hull panel and fiberglass tape will get one more coat of epoxy to ensure all is sealed, and then two coats Rustoleum Gloss White to finish it off.

I found that the front of the garboard panel curved across the center line due to the keel from the bow transom down to the bottom of the hull having a slight curve.  

I used a plane to trim that panel back to the center line so that it would not interfere with the panel on the starboard side.

I then took a look at where the material was removed, and how much was taken, and got out the spokeshave to make the other side look the same

After installing the panel, the front edges meet up nicely. 

Moving on to panel number two, things got a little more difficult.  The bottom hull panel rested against the hull bottom, but panel 2 doesn't have that luxury.  I ended up suspending the panel with some thin nylon straps to get it roughly into position, and then wired it on in a few places.

I then took out some wires and loosened others.

This left the hull panel hanging loose enough so that I could get under there to apply thickened epoxy to the lap joint and then tighten things up again.

So, current status is four hull panels installed, filleted, and taped.

And it's looking like a boat!

But alas, all is not perfect.  I got so into getting hull panels installed that I forgot I needed to use the seats to align the bulkheads.  I've had some issues with this plywood in that the pieces tend to warp and twist somewhat.  Not sure why that is, but the net result in this case is that all the bulkheads no longer line up with the slots in the seats.  Whoops! 

This is the worst one.  Looks like I'll need to open up the slot on one side, and fill it in with epoxy (wood flour fillet mixture) on the other.  Should not be a big deal, and the hull panel shape looks good.

My wife consoled me, saying that no one would ever notice as long as I didn't blab it all over the internet or something :-)

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.