Building a small trolling boat.

[hoytedow]

Cut 2 wood disks and staple cardstock as you roll it onto disks, making a cylinder, then a conical shape all attached. Then drench it all with melted paraffin. Just a thought. Maybe teddy diver would like to chime in.

[Lurvio]

I'll have to think about it, if I can locate a pipe elbow, I'll definately use it. Otherwise I'll probably make a female mold (remowable) inside the boat. I have cheap ply scrap lying around that I don't feel bad about throwing away afterwards.

Now of to sleep.

Lurvio

[ancient kayaker]

Left-over plaster compound from the day job?

[hoytedow]

You could plaster over the cardboard shape to make the female mold.

[Lurvio]

I can get my hands on some fairing stuff, but I'm not using any on the building, it's a storage place, not a home.

Now thinking with a fresh head, I think the cardboard might work pretty good, if the mold was faired with something. I'll go shopping today so I'll take a look, what's available.

Lurvio

[Lurvio]

Hello

I got a full day of work on the boat today. I cleaned the excess glue around the gussets and reattached the frames to the building form. Then I screwed and glued the keel pieces (2) and the stem* on to the frames.

*I did some studying on the terminology, GlenL Glossary.

Keel & stem attached




The gussets faired. A jigsaw was real handy in this.


I also got the bottom battens made and attached.


And the breast hooks glued from two layers of 15mm ply.


I cut the breast hook pieces from different sides of the plywood piece, so the surface veneers are diagonal when glued. I don't know if it helps much, but it looks better.

Now a bit of a problem, how do I attach the lower hook sides? The top is easily screwed to the end of the stem, but the lower hook is in two pieces both sides of the stem. I could bore long holes from the side and screw it in that way, but if you have ideas, they are very welcome.

Lurvio

[hoytedow]

It is taking shape nicely and the woodwork looks to be very fine quality.

[Lurvio]

Thank you for the compliment.

It would look almost professional if I got the right tools. I don't have my woodworking shop set up yet so have to survive with very crude tools. I'll make the insides 'good enough' and try making a good surface on the outside. The birch ply is going to be lightly stained to accentuate the grain pattern and the wave. Then some glassing on the bottom and a good coat of PU-varnish on top.

Lurvio

[hoytedow]

Varnish over epoxy usually has a tragic ending, or at least ends up badly. Paint is much more durable.

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by hoytedow

Cut 2 wood disks and staple cardstock as you roll it onto disks, making a cylinder, then a conical shape all attached. Then drench it all with melted paraffin. Just a thought. Maybe teddy diver would like to chime in.

few ways more..
Styrofoam plug and GRP (with epoxy of course) would be the easiest I think..
If you prefer totally wood kind of strip planked tunnel keeping the strips in upright (intersection vise) and cutting the tunnel curvature (lesser to the sides) in the profile of the strips and gluing together.. some grinding to finish.
Metal plating.. of mc fender.. a little chop, weld and hammer..

ps. and nice work (thou I'm a bit sceptic with your glue choice)

[Lurvio]

Darn, I had thought about styrofoam as a mold but not in a right way. Thanks TeddyDiver. I can attach a decent size block of foam inside the hull and carve the needed shape in it with an angle grinder and sanding disc. I was gonna use that method for fairing anyway so it's perfect.

I think I mentioned the tunnel is going to be GRP, but probably not epoxy, I have a feeling it's harder to find around here than polyester. And I've used polyester resin before in a car audio installation so I'm familiar with it.

hoytedow
What about polyester resin? And I have a wide variety of products I can use. There is sure to be a right varnish for any surface. Just have to find the right one.

Lurvio

[TeddyDiver]

With epoxy you can do it directly on the styrofoam without any additional protection. Other resins will "eat" the foam away.. Biltema has "laminointiepoksi" and "lasikuitukudos"/rowing and if you want I can send you some biaxial it's better for this than the roving above..

[Lurvio]

TeddyDiver
Been there, done that. That is seeing a mold disappear under your eyes.

I have to check what products I can get my hands on, Biltema probably isn't the cheapest or the best of products. I have a business so I can get my hands on some industry-products too.

The glassing is only for abrasion resistance, so it doesn't matter very much, what kind of rowing it is.

Lurvio

[Lurvio]

A little update

I got some work done on the boat again today. The weather has also warmed up a bit so the glue works a lot better.

Yesterday I attached the breasthook and the lower hook. Today I faired them to the final shape. The lower hook was a real pain, I had made it a bit over sized and had to remove more than half the material to get the final shape. The jigsaw again saved me from a lot of trouble. Then I faired the frame notches to their final shape and got the first layer of sheer and chine, and the side battens attached.

The boat is taking shape and I think it'll be something to be proud of in the end. I spent some time on the barn floor lying on some hay and just stared at the thing.

Well, on to the pics then.








Next I need either to buy a bunch of clamps or make my own. Wooden clamps for gluing the sheer and chine layers are very simple in structure and I probably have everything needed at home. If I find big spring clamps at a reasonable price somewhere, those would also work.

Probably won't get anything on the boat done tomorrow, there's an excavator coming to make a trench for the heating pipes connecting the boiler center to my woorworking shop. And then I get to play with urethane foam making the heating canal.

Lurvio

[ancient kayaker]

Just in case you don't know about this, you can make a pile of spring clamps in a few minutes for pennies from plastic plumbing tubing: cut a slit along the length then chop it into 2.5 cm lengths. See Small sailboat Design - advice requested post #47 for picture.