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CS17 #370 Peggy-O


LennieG

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Wow- what a week. Making progress, one little step at a time.....someone a week ago called this boat building method "tortured ply"…

I got it, having been thru the grand opening. I would rename it "violent Ply "at this point. :). Next time I will wear a helmet.

Installed the two mahogany inwales today. I was advised to use Mahogany as it was said that doug fir breaks or cracks by next morning.....I was glad to have that advice.

As I got the lumber fit in and clamped during dry fit the Bow stitches broke, exploded and/or broke thru the plywood and the bow sections split about a foot apart.

Recovered fine. Re drilled new holes, re stitched, buttoned up, re installed inwales, clamped top, cut ends, added clamps and buttoned up. All seems fine. There will be a lot of holes to fill on this boat but I don't think anything is lost........liking this a lot but amazed at the stress points on me and the boat :)

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Lennie,

My opinion based on building two of Graham's boats and others is that fir works great just about anyplace on the boat. It is not too heavy, very strong and fairly easy to work.  I have had no problems with cracking as your advisor has suggested.  You have to get straight grain  I think mahogany is way overkill particularly if cost is considered especially on a place like the inwale which will not even be seen.

 

Sorry, you had the problems with blow out.  Did you epoxy the seams before going for the inwale? Epoxy even without glass may have helped hold everything together.

 

dale

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Lennie - 

 

I had some cracking issues early on, as I did not wait for a full cure on the forefoot joint, and then tried to do this alone.  Wow does this open fast!  

 

I gave up on the stem and added some temporary machine bolts to keep things aligned,  these holes were easy to patch at the end while applying grout and tape to the seams.  It did take a while til I was able to horn things into agreement (tape measure bow to corners of transom).  A good bubble level set up early in the process also helped me visual things better.  

 

The best feeling is when you have the seat frames in and can actually sit down in the boat with plans in hand and seeing how logical the CB trunk installation is going to be.  It makes the journey worth it at this point.  

 

David

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Good comments! All is well. Graham has seen Douglas fir crack when returning next morning when used on inwales so I was glad not to have to face that issue. The inwales are in and fine! Chines all glassed and stem glassed. Shaped the keel batten today and will install tomorrow. It kind of seems like a snails pace now.....spend three days and pictures don't show any difference but necessary stuff. It is such a quick, immediate gratification in beginning when all of a sudden you have a hull. So tomorrow should have keel batten in as well as transom, then next week glass bulkheads and then seat structure.

Loving this process!!! Wish I was heading to messing bout event.post-3404-0-96389500-1382580801_thumb.jpg

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Dale-

To answer your question, no I did not glue stem before adding inwales. Had stitches galore. I have now added some glass and fillets in stem, removed stitches and all seems fine.post-3404-0-28606700-1382581332_thumb.jpgpost-3404-0-82265400-1382581305_thumb.jpg

The second picture not current. All clamps have been removed as well as stitches.post-3404-0-82265400-1382581305_thumb.jpgpost-3404-0-28606700-1382581332_thumb.jpg

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Lennie,  this look like great (and fast progress, I"m jealous). I've also been using fir throughout apart from some trim mahogany and have not had any issues with blowout.  This is the first time I've worked with douglas fir extensively and the biggest issue I have with it is that it is pretty picky when it comes to grain orientation when it comes to planing even with a low angle block. 

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After three weeks of glassing Chines, center line and bulkheads, removing wires and adding keel batten, I made great progress yesterday and actually added new structure! What a nice feeling. I had joined the side seat frame pieces Thursday at the scarf joint, and yesterday spent considerable time leveling boat laterally, dry fitting seat frames and aft bulkhead etc. Rather than removing all those components to attach the glue strips I decided to glue them in place, and believe it worked out well. Today plan to add fillet and glass to inside of vertical seat frame.....may take a couple days, then onto center board and trunk.....will be sitting in boat next week I hope playing "I'm on a boat". :)

post-3404-0-96998800-1383397985_thumb.jpg

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Lennie,

I am confused by your photo.  I don't think I have ever seen a center bulkhead still in the boat when preparing the seat longitudinals.  Is this something that Graham recommended or is part of the kit boat process.  I think it would be helpful to be able to view the full length of the side seat longitudinals to be sure they are straight and level.  Are you doing something different with this center bulkhead?

dale

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Hi Dale

I have wondered about that myself. I never saw in the assembly instructions that it was time to remove the temp bulkheads. There is a slot in them to accommodate the longitudinal seat frames, so it all seemed to fit together nicely and the fact the temp bulkhead is still there does force alignment. I believe I will remove temp bulkhead, perhaps after glassing outboard side of longitudinals, and replace with side bulkheads....kind of six to one, half a dozen to another.....

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Looks good! Have you flipped the hull to tape the outside yet or are you saving that for later? I am trying to figure out the best sequence for that. Right now I am leaning towards waiting until the cb trunk is in so that we can completely finish the bottom and avoid another flipping.

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Matt-

Thanks- I am very pleased.

I have not flipped her yet and don't know the sequence and don't really find one in plans unfortunately. Plan to continue with CB, trunk and mast step for now. I am in agreement with your line of thinking. I guess it becomes a matter of trade off between weight and number of times you need to turn over hull. The more you add to interior the heavier she becomes. Am just going to proceed for now.

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Glued up the centerboard today. I wasn't planning any "mods" but always in awe of those that do some. I figure I will be lucky to build the boat let alone change it. Well, I actually made a mod today after all. Here goes: I had read about guys adding walnut shells when glueing centerboard so figured I would do same. Believe it forces some space between joints so you don't clamp out all glue and starve the joint. Well, bought shelled walnuts, ground them in my coffee grinder......broke the device. I decided to go to Publix ( our local food store) and use their heavy duty grinder - the one you use when you buy beans and grind them. All went well, didn't get kicked out of store and no one noticed. However, there was some coffee residue in grinder so my end result was coffee flavored walnut shells. :)

All worked and I plan on having the nicest smelling centerboard of anyone!

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Looks like you got a good job on the layup, and looks like you found some nice fir to make it with.

 

On the walnut shell, you may have gotten that idea from me, as I'm the only one I can recall ever having mentioned it.

 

Attached photos show my reason for using it. Glue line on the left was made after adding a 30/100 grit mix of walnut shell to the thickened epoxy.  Glues on the far right were made with no additives, only slightly thickened epoxy. Both were clamped really hard.......more than enough to squeeze out the glue. The benefit of the walnut shell is it acts as a spacer to prevent squeeze out and too thin of an epoxy glue line, no matter how hard you clamp it. Without that, it is always a guess as to how much is enough as far as clamping pressure is concerned. Even more so when doing a lamination that curves, as the curved lamination itself creates pretty serious clamping pressure that will squeese out the epoxy, leaving a starved and weak glue line.

 

Second photo is a slightly enlarged version of the first. On this one, you can see a second glue line from the left. That was made with 30 grit walnut shell and the resulting glue line is a full 1mm thick.......about the same as one ply in the plywood and about twice the thickness of the 30/100 grit. All things considered, I have found the 30/100 grit to be about right. Only downside I've found is the black walnut shell I use tints the mix a dark brown.......almost chocolate.

 

BTW, I don't grind this myself. Rather it is purchased already ground and screened to these sizes. If anyone wants some of the 30 grit to play with, I have a 50# bag in my basement. Be happy to send some or it can also be purchased on ebay. About $10 for a few pounds. That is a lifetime supply.

 

There might be other things that could be used. Corn meal or some versions of grits come to mine (have never tried those). I would not use sand as that will destroy the edge on whatever tool you try to use to cut or shape your lamination later one.

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