Rabbeting a keel

Gday Everyone,

I am looking for some help with my keel. From a previous post you will be able to see that my Mercury 22 footer is coming along. The question is that I am about to come to the time where i need to rabbet the keel to accept the plywood planking. Is there another method that i can use at this point to make it easier. The rabbeting just seems like it will take quite some time and also some skill to achieve.

Any help would be great

Cheers

 

ah but that is timber building, have you thought about jigging up for your router

 

Archie, ply boats often usually just need the stem/apron & hog to be bevelled using the frames & a batten as a guide with a plane & the "stem" & keel added as a cap after the ply is on. All the best from Jeff.

 

Thanks for the help,
Lazyjack have you got any more pictures on your boat it looks awesome

 

Jeff i think i might go with your idea I have spoken to a few others and it seems to be the normal now to attach your ply to the frames and innner apron then bevel them off to allow the keel to attach to the bevel.

Thanks for the info.

Archie

 

i have a hundred pics of boats like these in turkey, neat eh, but I dont build in Timber

 

Much depends on how your keel is built. Thee are two generally used approaches, one is a real rabbited keel, bearding and ghost lines, etc. The other is a keel and false keel. This two piece keel is pretty common in plywood construction. In inner piece, typically called a batten is V'd to shape to match the deadrise of the frames. This is relatively easy to do with a straight edge and some time. The outer piece is called a few different names, but we'll use keel for now. It has the reverse cut into it and this is more difficult to fit. The best way is to "pickup" the deadrise changes at predetermined locations (say every foot or so) along the keel batten. Just use a bevel gauge and record this angle, so it can be transferred to the keel.

Is there an easy way, yep, plug the plans into a CAD program and have a CNC cut file produced. Then take it to the local CNC shop and have them plow one out for you. This ain't cheap nor particularly fulfilling, so dig out the extra sharp chisels and rabbiting plane and work slowly down to the lines. Sneak up on it, as you can easily remove more wood, but it's more difficult to put it back when too deep.

There isn't a way of doing a rolling bevel or rabbit with a router and jig, which doesn't require days of setup and very careful planning.

If you're using epoxy to glue the planking to the rabbit, then your exactness need not be very precise. Any old bevel will do and back fill with thickened epoxy.

 

Archie,

It is only a 22 footer mate, once you actually start doing it, the rabbet chiselling and planing really does not take all that long at all, it is a bit like mowing the lawn, thinking about it is a whole lot worse than actually doing it!