lewisboats

Aha...beat any responses! Got the first coat of paint on...looks good. Unfortunately...I will have to spring for a second can of paint...I don't have enough left over for the second coat. I shoulda used house paint... I have some leftovers that might have worked. Oh Well...it should keep things dry I hope.

Well...She's primed and will see topcoat 1 tonight hopefully. Choice has been made...Green out and Almond in.

Some more work this morning...finishing up the caulking the inside (I missed a couple of spots) and added a couple of smaller skids on the bottom. Here you see the seat installed. Most of the caulk I used cures clear so you can't really see all the stuff slathered in there. I used some stuff called PolySeamSeal. Claims it is a caulk and glue in one. With a couple of coats of paint over it I expect it to do fine...sure is a pain to get off the skin (don't go shirtless when caulking and if you do...shave first!!) Here is the outside with the skids on it. and a Profile shot: I am planning on leaving the wales bright...and I have two choices of paint color. Which would go best do you think...opinions please. Exterior / Interior _________________________ Almond / Almond Vermont Green / Almond Vermont Green / Vermont Green Almond / Vermont Green Vermont green is slightly more olive than Forrest Green You have until Tomorrow 10 am to voice your opinion

Yes...I know...no pictures! BUT I have another update. I have blown both the build cash ($85 now) and the time (about 11 hours) but I have the wales on, a bottom rub strip installed, a seat installed and the inside and outside caulked and filled. I have been dodging the weather and my jobs and working right up until I have to cover it and I haven't gotten any pictures taken. Not really exciting stuff...looks like it was a guest target at the St Valentines Day Massacre for all the holes and screws caulked but otherwise it is as you see it above. I expect it is about ready for painting when the caulk cures. I will probably exceed my target of 2 hours of actual painting but it should be water worthy by 15 hours of labor. I should have budgeted 15 hours and $100 for the build. I expect that with some help I could have come in at 10 hours or under but some things just take more than twice the time without that pair of helping hands. I would say the boat weighs in at about 60 lbs right now so with paint it should hit about 65 lbs. I'll weight it when I am done to see just how far of I am on that figure too.

Good...I am glad you didn't get taken in. There are some tutorials around...I did one but it is a thread on BoatDesign.net in the software area. Google can come up with some I think.

This software is simply a re-splashed Free!ship. DO NOT pay for what you can get free and do not give this con artist your hard earned money. If you doubt what I say check out this: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/design-software/again-still-29732.html and this: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/design-software/great-boat-design-software-3d-boat-design-vs-freeship-28000.html

Thanks Pepe...unfortunately I have some unpleasant news. If you paid for 3 D Boat Design...you got ripped off. Someone took Freeship and changed the splash screen and is selling it as their own. I know the author of Freeship and Delftship and he has decompiled 3 D boat design and it is exactly the same as his own original source code. The guy keeps popping up on BoatDesign.net and trying to push it off as his own. He doesn't get far with me and the author both forum members. Try downloading Free!Ship and see if it isn't the same thing. Good Luck with your version of the PD. http://download.cnet.com/Freeship/3000-6677_4-10558861.html

I have done both ways...I find attaching them prior to bending to be marginally easier. Bending the panels can be a bit tricky if you don't have something to bend them around and getting the bow together is a bit of a juggling act with holding it together, holding the screw and lining things up and holding the drill/driver...all with 2 hands. If you can find a way to clamp it or have a second pair of hands then it is definitely easier. I don't usually hear cracking sounds...the log is actually less inclined to crack as it has the support of the side panel to spread the bending stresses. I have never had a log crack when it was already attached. These actually were in 2 parts per side (I didn't get them far enough back into the straight section)...and weren't bending right. I put a couple of metal braces across the butts but that only helped a little and prevented me from touching up the chines prior to attaching the bottom so I removed them and put on 2 temp braces that you can see in the pictures of the bottom going on. Once the bottom was on they weren't needed any more...the bottom and the logs mutually supported each other.

http://www.closedcellfoams.com/ particularly...: Gymnastic Rubber: Similar to Ensolite, its durable, flexible and resilient closed cell foam with a medium feel. Its squishy characteristic makes it great for exercise mats, camping pads, boat cushions. Excellent for use in leisure, marine/flotation, industrial and automotive applications.

Here is the block installed. The pads are to keep the screw tips from penetrating thorough the bottom Re-checking the wales...still not glued on though...the air got still, the humidity went zoom and the sky started to get darker...time to pack it up. The bottom profile is just a little off from the drawing...mostly I didn't add quite enough flare to the bulkhead sides. This would have pulled the bow up just a tad more. No biggie. I hoisted it as you see it onto the old shoulders...50lbs maybe? and carried it into the garage, cleaned up the shavings and put things away, grabbed the mower and knocked out the front yard to keep the city off my tail and about 10 minutes after I was done it was raining...still is in fact.

and here it is trimmed except for the tip This is the ply I am using...nice even plies and no voids inside. Starting to install the bottom: I spent a bunch of time on this as I kept knocking things out of square...time wasted. No time for pics so here is the bottom done and screwed together, going over to install the block at the bow bottom joint. Bottom Block of the same ply Joint that needs blocking...before cleaning up

Well here's news...some good... some not so good. Plenty of pics today but I didn't get done. I don't think...in fact I know...I won't manage the 10 hour mark. I have made too many mistakes and am too unorganized. I will wind up the build and list what should and shouldn't be done. I still have about 50 something minutes but I expect I have about 2 hours work to do, not including painting. If I had had help a couple of times I expect I would have been able to do it with a bit of time to spare but sometimes two hands just aren't quite enough. Anyway...here are the pics. I squared and leveled up the hull on a couple of tables and set to work. I put the whole panel on and used one side as the edge... This gave enough leftover to do the bow piece Which was cut from the end of the scrap after cutting out the main bottom piece Here it is positioned to mark for cutting

Yes to the first one...but I would go with DW's for the second. It is cheaper, smaller and easier to use and I believe it comes with the swages. And yes...I said easier to use. Try holding a bunch of things in one hand and trying to lever the Swager with the other when you need both to operate it and two hands to keep everything together at the business end.

Well...today was totally buggered up. Nothing done except over sleeping, repair the kid's car, get roped into working my part time job for 4 hours and generally not being able to do a thing on what I wanted to work on exclusively. Tomorrow I will try again. I told everyone that I was going to be busy and not to bother me unless it involved blood or funeral arrangements.

http://www.duckworksbbs.com/tools/swage-it/index.htm Swaging tool is also available. I would be more inclined to make one but I have access to some machine tools to do it. Your investment might be a bit high but you will probably need to use it enough to pay for itself after a couple of boats/friend's boats.

I think the very first thing I would do is replace all your standing rigging with UNcoated wire. I work with that coated stuff and though you may be able to slide your fingers up and down and it feels slick...other materials tend to find it tacky and sticky and it binds things up. Do some searching on the web...you can find some decent deals on 1/8" SS 7x19 wire. You could check on Ebay too. I know Duckworks sells it for $0.52/ft plus shipping...which isn't too bad really.

I WILL be done tomorrow...I found out this morning that I have an unexpected day off tomorrow and I won't have to be to work until Monday night. It will be tight but I still hope to come in at around 10 hours work. Edit/Delete Message

{Yesterday} Man...I can't get nuthin' right. The "proper joint" side is the one I cut too short, the one that has half the stem nekid is actually the right angle. Unfortunately I glued the stem to the short side first...leaving the other. I am seriously considering doing it over...it also is messing with the flare at the bow and there isn't much holding it. Cutting the glue line shouldn't take more than 10 minutes, another 5 for redoing the lines and cutting and another 10 to glue and screw back together. It is raining now but hopefully it will dry up a bit later...at least enough to get that done. Well...it quit raining about 2 minutes to 8 so out I went. Stem came off in the allotted 10 minutes but it took about 7 to mark and cut the sides...caught myself almost making the same mistake but I didn't. Took another 10 minutes to make a new stem piece...the old one didn't have enough bevel along with having loads of glue and veneer on it. Installed the front frame to help bend the bow and then installed the stem. Took a bit of trial and error to get it lined up right but it is in. Nipped off the excess from the bottom and now it is potty and beer time. Total...56 minutes. Gonna pee the pooch and walk the park...back later. {Today} Pictures...a bit later than promised but still. I also took 20 minutes and mounted the transom knees, put in a temp spreader and trimmed what was left of the transom ply for a seat. The wales are just clamped on for a fit check. I am not going to use the $10 ply for the bottom. It is TigerPly and absolute crap...even worse than the other luan I got a few years ago. It has two longitudinal face veneers that rival onion skin for thinness, two transverse cores sandwiching a single structurally significant longitudinal ply in the middle. I can't bring myself to use it when even a scratch against a waterlogged lily would go through the outer veneer. I will sub one of my 5 (even) plied Plyfloor Baltic birch underlayment sheets at $25 per sheet for it and have a bottom that can withstand a few knocks. This will put me over by $5 but it will be worth it.

3D part 1: Part 2: Proper joint: Improper Joint...I was going for accuracy (silly me) and decided to measure from the 1" line for the required distance (adding the extra inch of course) ...dropped the measure and re-did it...and screwed it up by not adding the extra inch. Done for the day...I have been on the go since 5:25 last night so it is time for a (nother) brew and then some sack time before work tonight.

Well...got another 3 hours work in...and this is the result. Parts: Stem: Transom: Chine Log: 1 1/2 D:

Only got about 30 minutes in today...thunder storm rolled in and power has been spotty plus I am working outside. Got the other chine log on and got the stem cut and glued to one side panel. Unfortunately...I doubt I will get to go 3d today. No real time line to build it just a limit on the hours needed so I may not meet Friday's proposed done date if I can't find the time to get it done. Tomorrow I start working the second job and will be working both until Saturday so building hours will be curtailed to one or perhaps two hours if I stay up late. I was really hoping to get 2 or 3 hours in today and perhaps get the hull tacked together...or at least ready for the bottom panels.

Cheap Luan ply $10/sheet, 3/4"x3/4" chine logs ripped from a 1x8, 1/2" ply transom, Pine Ranch stop for wales, PL Premium, 3/4" screws and Rustoleum Paint. 10 ft long, 45" beam designed for a small no gas motor lake where I take the dog on a daily walk around. Really a dammed creek it runs to about 200 acres or so and winds up the creek to another small dam with a pond. I'll be using it with a trolling motor or oars but it is designed to take a 5 horse motor for bigger lakes. I probably won't use it that way but you never know... I have about $65 into it now and 1 hour and 10 minutes building time...I expect to be done by Friday.

For my fillets I usually wet the joint first...this keeps the wood from pulling too much epoxy from the filleting mixture. Then I use a nice, thick, almost dry mixture of wood flour and epoxy followed by a strip of glass cloth and then wet the whole thing out and smooth it over. A final coat is put on to fill the weave of the cloth once the tack starts to go away but before it is tack free. I have also done it where the fillet is left to almost cure then the cloth is added...this results in a neater final product as you can use masking tape to make nice straight edged fillets. Doing it this way also saves the sanding needed if you let the fillets cure thoroughly prior to taping. I use the masked type if I am going to leave the filleted area bright or there is a reason to spend the extra time to make them pretty. For glassing...it depends on if you are glassing a dry laid cloth or you pre-wet the surface. I usually go with the dry laid because I work alone and getting the cloth to lay right on a wet and sticky surface is a nightmare by yourself. I usually staple it on well then wet out. Pull the staples prior to re-coating to fill the weave. I use a thin mix with cab-o-sil or micro balloons as a weave filler then a final light coat of pure epoxy to seal the surface properly.

I don't know...Pepe's PD with that small cabin is pretty slick. I have seen some that are really way out there but very interesting and creative. Welsford has one and so does Michalak along with Storer and the original. There are plenty of plans and styles to choose from then let your imagination go wild from there. I started with Pepe's example and morphed it into a 14.5+ footer with multiple chines and a nice sized cabin...if a little shy of headroom.

Wow...I forgot that those pages were still residing on the site. I haven't seen that background and calligraphy in years. The other version is more up to date if not quite so flashy with the background and navigation. I really should do an update...I'll add that to the mile long list of to dos and projects that I don't have time to get to right now.