tomstock

I just posted some recent pics of my Weekender project in the gallery. Anyone know what type of hardwood that is? It's a brownish/greyish/purple color when freshly cut, just like the pic. When laquered, it was more of a brown color. Tom

I just bought a 3 gallon bucket of the stuff. I'll use it to fillet and most importantly strengthen everything that is glued. Basically i'm going to fillet as much as possible. This should take care of the small keel gaps too. I can fill the gap with fiberglass resin, and then reinforce with a fillet of this epoxy paste. I may even use this instead of the 5200. After all, I'll have 3 gallons of it to use up. Not bad for 65 bucks. Think I could use this stuff instead of weldwood? I ran out of weldwood today when doing my cabin. Tom

Arnie, did you continue on to use this stuff on your boat? I may buy some for the fillets and for filling gaps. It sounds like it would work much better than bondo, since it would add strength to the joint instead of just fill it. How thick is it? Is is wet enough to squeeze into a 1/16" crack? I contacted the seller and his price has gone up to $40 + $25 shipping, but for 3 gallons of the stuff it's still a pretty good deal. Tom

I think I may have enough wood left to laminate a bow spirit from two pieces of 2x4 red oak, cherry or mahogany (I'm not exactly sure which it is). My other option is to just laminate two nice clear fir 2x4's. I checked with the lumber yard and they have these nice and clear with a straight grain. Should I save the hardwood for other things? Tom

I'm planning to soak some epoxy into the tiny gaps between the keel and hull bottom on my weekender. I figure while I'm at it, I could use the epoxy to create a nice fillet along the keel. Anyone know if Home Depot carries epoxy in large enough quantities to do this? What about something to thicken it up? West Marine wants $70 per gallon!!! Ouch! I considered wood filler or fiberglass resin for the fillet, but I dont think either one will be strong enough to hold up to abuse (epoxy isn't as brittle). Tom

I have lots of little gaps here and there... like where stringers meet bulkheads, and where the cabin sides reach the front of the cabin (mine is square). On the inside it's not visible because of the joiners, but on the outside I need to fill in the cracks. I have a feeling that Elmer's Fill-N-Finish would be better and stronger than using Bondo. It's cheap and easy to work with. It dries extremely hard (harder than wood). I'd like to use it to fill in the screw holes also. Anyone have any opinions on this? Thanks Tom

I'm 3d, without the sides installed. I figure I should be sanding and painting the inside of the boat at this point. Should I bondo the floor to stop checking? Should I epoxy the floor without fiberglass? I want a nice smooth durable finish without checking, except Im using ACX which is very splintery on the rough side. Would this be a good time to install the cabin sides and roof, or should I put the hull sides on first? Tom

Yesterday I pulled about 20 feet of 2x6 hardwood from a bank dumpster. I'm not sure if it's mahogony, red oak, or cherry but the bare wood is a very dark reddish purple color, and the sanded and finished faces are sort of a lighter brown color, similar to red oak or mahogony. It's very very heavy. I'll have to do some trimming to get rid of metal edges, etc, but for the most part it's useable. I'll use it for rafters, toe rails, tiller, etc. I'm 3d and my costs so far are $376. Not too bad. Tom

I finally made it to the 3D stage. It seems like all of the little things end up taking more time than the big things. After two weeks of dealing with small things (stringers) I have finally put the deck down onto the bulkheads. There were some errors here and there, but I just readjusted everything (read cut to fit) and went with it. Pretty much everything at this point is becomming a custom fit rather than exact measurements. For some reason my rear bulkhead stuck out 1/2" on each side of the hull. I spent about 30 minutes measuring but it just didnt make any sense. I finally just trimmed off the excess and continued on with other things. I have pictures and a daily log here: http://www.flopped.org/~mykrowyre/project/ The username and password are both "weekender" Tom

Today I cut the transom, lazarette, and deck parts from 3/8" ply. I noticed that the plans are incorrect regarding the placement of the reference line for the rear deck panels. If you draw the reference line as shown, from the corner to 13" from the opposite corner, you will not have enough wood left for station #14. I ended up moving the corner end of the line over until I had enough room for station #14. I added the rear stringer, planed the top of the keel with a surform, and then glued and screwed the hull bottom down to the keel. I made my first custom cut today. While lofting the curve for the cabin, I decided that I would go for the square cabin front. After considering this before I decided against it, but I have to admit, I just didnt want to buy more wood to cut the round stringers for the front of the cabin. This way I can use my scraps to make straight stringers. Besides, it'll make the boat my boat instead of a copy of everyone else's boat. I lofted my own curve and cut it. It looks great. I had to trim 1 1/34" off of the forward deck panel to get it to align with the curve of the rear pieces (hidden in the plans). I also had to flip both the wood sheet and the cut panels of the deck (for tracing and cutting) to be able to cut the 20 degree angle on th eoutside edges and have the pieces come out the same size. This isnt mentioned in the plans, but if you dont do it this way your new pieces end up almost 1/2" bigger! Tomorrow I go 3D!! FINALLY. Tom

The plans are really vague about this bow gusset. They list 2" stock, but then later say at least 3" wide, but there is no Bow gusset material listed in the lumber list. My guess is, I need a 6ft 2x4 to make these two pieces (each 36") ? Tom

Well, I eneded up using a hacksaw blade in the gaps to cut all of the screws. I used a crobar to pry apart the boards where they werent glued because of the previous gap, and poured a large amount of weldwood wood glue into the gap, drilled, and re-screwed with shorter screws. This time the gap is CLOSED, and glue was squeezed out. Yay!! Unfortunately, I didnt figure this out until after I had already filled two other gaps at the stem with poly resin. I think it'll be ok tho. It's looking pretty good so far. I'll be cutting the deck and sides tomorrow. In the meantime I'm hunting for a chunk of deadwood for the keel. Tom

Thanks guys for the advice. I'm beyond my budget this weekend already so I wont be able to buy epoxy and fix the keel. I hadnt been planning on screwing it up and was hoping to get 3d by today. Instead, I'll be cutting the 1/2" and 3/8" ply for the hull, and next weekend will have to be the keel fixing session and hopefully 3d. Tom

Yeah, I think removing the screws is going to be out of the question. I think filling it up with epoxy will do the trick, and will probably only cost me $20 worth of Home depot epoxy... I think? Tom

Okay I've decided on the following options: 1) Remove all of the screws, re-clamp and glue. This might not work because a lot of the screws stripped. I could try cutting a slot in the top of the screw but they are sunk way to deep to cut easily. Maybe I could just cut into the wood (and screw) with my dremel... I could fill the slot cut in the wood with epoxy or bondo when I finish. 2) Squirt epoxy into all of the cracks until it's oozing everywhere, and hope that i got it all. There is a chance that option 1 will result in a whole day of removing screws only to find that the wood can't be moved because of the glue between the layers is holding it together and apart at the same time. Tom

Could I fill the gaps with epoxy before I glass it? In most places, there are no gaps. There is a small gap about 1ft long which is about 2mm wide. I've tried clamping and screwing it but it wont budge. Another gap is about 4" long and 3mm wide. This one is just at where the stem starts on top of the keel. I dont think taking it back apart is an option at this point. I'll try to get some pictures later today or tomorrow. -tom

Someone suggested using screws instead of nails for the keel, so I picked up 1 1/2" stainless screws listed in the plans for joining 1" to 1" panels. I glued everything up, drilled and screwed one side, flipped it, and did some of the other side when I realized that the first set of screws had gone through the center ply and pushed apart the other side. I now have 3/16" gaps, a few of which show daylight all the way through. ARRRRGGH GRRRRRRR!!!!!! To top it off, the screws I drove in stripped so I couldnt back them out to fix the problem. I clamped the wood in a vise and drove more screws a about 2" apart trying to force it together, but still have some gaps here and there where the 1 1/2" screws went all the way through the center panel. I switched to 1" screws after seeing the problem. To top it all off, the glue was pretty much hard by the time I finally got the pieces screwed together, but with a few gaps still showing. This sucks. What now? I'm getting the feeling I should spend the next $1000 on a daysailer and take the $500 loss and I told you so from my friends and call it a day. Tom

Should pictures be drawn 2 color (black on white) or is greyscale ok? Tom

It isnt much, but here are my pics so far: http://www.flopped.org/~mykrowyre/weekender -tom

Yeah thats what I mean... there is no upload button anywhere. -tom

Just went to create my gallery but I dont have the Gallery Admin option, so I cant upload any pictures. I'm logged in (relogged in 4 times) but no luck. Ideas? Tom