New to Forum, CS20 #104

[Maria CS20 104]

Hello there, we, our family, are the proud owner of plan for CS20 104.  Got plans in November.  Built cradles for transom, center and bow at the beginning of this month.  Monday this week picked up Okume in New Orleans at Riverside Lumber.  Price has shot up with increases in shipping and low dollar.  Made in France and spendy.  $99.50 for 3/8 and $87 for 1/4.  the wallet still hurts but I'm sticking to Grahams recommendations.  I went 300 miles to pick it up, Riverside folks were great.  Co-onwer of Riverside said he expected as much as 8% to 40% increase through 2008, don't know where he got the figure, things are a bit pricey in the Big Easy.  Now for my first few of hundreds of questions during this adventure:  What is the first step in laying out bottom and side cuts, does one glass the boards together before layout and cutting, do you tack thte boards end to end and layout then cutout and glass, and what is the recommended cutout tool, what blade (teeth per inch)?????

HELP

[Ken_Potts]

  Welcome, Maria and family!

  Have you built other boats?

  I imagine that you've been studying the plans since November and know them fairly well by now.

  I spent a lot of time on layout before I did any cutting.  In the end I paid very close attention to what OTHER parts had to come out of each sheet and I cut the side and bottom pieces intentionally too wide.  That allowed a little mis-alignment when I scarfed the panels together.  Then I laid out a side piece on one scarfed panel and cut both sides at once (stacked one on top of the other).

  I cut outside the line (with a jigsaw, some folks use a circular saw to get a more fair curve) then planed the edges back to the line.

  I probably spent more time and effort on the initial layout and cutting of the pieces than I had to but the more accurate you can be on those first panels the smoother things will go on the rest of the boat - But don't make yourself so nervous that you can't get started .  There are very few mistakes that can't be fixed.

  Ask lots of questions, share lots of stories and have fun!

[Ken_Potts]

  If you're using a circular saw, more teeth is better for plywood.  There are blades that are specifically designed for plywood.

[Maria CS20 104]

Have built a pram and repaired, polished and cleaned boats as a Sea Explorer in high school, have done a lot of furniture and some cabinets in the past several years.  Cleaned a lot of submarine bilges in 9 years too.  We have a full wood shop minus a lathe.  You indicated a circular saw makes better line, will it make the required curves or do I intervene with jigsaw and then continue with skill saw?

Jim Atkinson

Maria (pronounced marriah, is the name of the wind in a song in the movie Paint your Wagon) is the name we have dubbed our boat

[Ken_Potts]

  Hi Jim,

  When I wanted to cut gentle curves like those on the sides I used to use a circular saw.  But - I make mistakes so fast with power tools that I elected to cut deliberately outside the line with my jigsaw (my jigsaw is more comfortable to hold than my circular saw) and plane back to the line with a small block plane.  If I remember correctly I screwed the sides to each other before cutting them out knowing I could patch the screw holes later.  That's one of the luxuries of building a painted, rather than bright hull

  I think you'd be able to manage the curves on the side and bottom panels with a circular saw.  You'd still have to dress the edges of the panels a bit with a sander or a plane, though, because the circular blade would leave a slightly slanted cut on the curves which would make the two stacked sides (or bottom-halves) slightly different in shape.  Maybe not different enough to be a problem but early in the project is the time to be the most finicky about cuts (in my opinion).

  If you're used to making furniture you're probably going to tend to make your cuts cleaner than they really have to be for a stitch and glue boat.  Although it's good to be as accurate as possible there is some wiggle room in that adjustments can be made before the epoxy gets mixed.

  Submarines, huh?  Cool.

[ulpilotrmh]

You indicated a circular saw makes better line, will it make the required curves or do I intervene with jigsaw and then continue with skill saw?

Jim Atkinson

I have not used a circular saw to cut shallow curves, but I inderstand it is done by setting the blade to just barely cut thru the ply. I am building a Spindrift 10N, and the plywood parts will be cut out on Graham's CNC router.

Russ

[Maria CS20 104]

Thanks for the information folks, time to grip and rip, no time like the present, layout of CS20 104 begins this weekend.  My son Pat, bless his heart, wants a work schedule and progress plan.  He's ex army recent war vet, got out year and a half ago at the end of his tour.  He'll figure out soon that this is an adventure and not a project, but he'll also keep us moving forward.  He wants a launch commitment date, I told him we are not NASA.

Jim

[Ken_Potts]

  Go ahead and give Pat a launch date but make sure he knows that NASA bumps launches back all the time and you will too.  I think I must have had at least five certain launch dates when I was building.  And although I launched last year I'm still building  ;D

[Charlie Jones]

One important point to remember- if you cut something oversized you can always plane to the line- BUT on a tack and tape boat- if a pair of panels are cut UNDERSIZED, the error is doubled- for example on the two bottom halves. So you'll get a dip in the hull line- a 1/16 error becomes a 1/8th "oops" when put together.

So I always cut oversized and use a block plane to bring it to the cut line.

[Tom Lathrop]

Surprised that no one has mentioned it but you should really be posting on the B&B forum since many of he regulars don't get over here too often.

Don't think they would run us off but ;D

[Frank Hagan]

Surprised that no one has mentioned it but you should really be posting on the B&B forum since many of he regulars don't get over here too often.

Don't think they would run us off but ;D

Tom's right ... not that any of us mind, really, and you can post anything boat related in the Main Forum, but you might get missed by some of the B&B regulars who only post in the B&B Yachts forum.  So I put a "redirect" on the thread in the Main Forum and moved it here. 

[Maria CS20 104]

Thanks for the redirect, I can build anything, just can't stand to fiddle with computers even thought I have had one since the TRash 80 came out using cassette tapes.  We are currently waiting for our package from Carla including epoxy and tape, and I pick up some 16 foot spruce planks this weekend.  We have fairly good specialty wood dealer, spendy but extensive stock, I'll be gertting some mahogany from them later.  Appreciate the tips on cut large and plain in to the finer dimensions.  Does the Ocume plane well on the edge or should I take thinner cut due to end grain?  Layout has begun and cutting will commence this weekend.  Wife and mother in law (she lives with us) are going to NC summer house in three weeks or so and more full time effort will be possible as I will not be entertaining the ladies and my son and I won't be worrying about housework while we live in the garage and build calluses.  I am excited and as I told Pat the launch date would be around January 30th and our first expidition is scheduled for April month end a year from now (one weeks cruise on the intercoastaal waterway Jacksonville to Cocoa Beach FL.).  Must not let the excitement overcome patience and good judgement.

Get back to you next week

Jim

[Maria CS20 104]

We are back, cut out the sides over the weekend had a blast, power planed the bottom into fair and it was awesome, I am giving up sanding, this Bosch unit is controllable from 1/64 to 1/16 and very light weight.  Sanded in edge with 100 grit and 150 grit.  Will lay out most of bottom this evening and tomorrow evening, double up Friday and cut Saturday, transom and bulkheads hopefully this week end and we should begin sewing next week when son Pat is out of school for the summmer.  We are taking pictures and will get them on line shortly

Jim