We Try This

After my initial bout with fairing, I got a bit gun shy. I didnt want to make any mistakes fairing the structure. Was that really it, or was it because I am not thrilled with this part of the boat build?

Well, I think its a bit of both, probably more on the not so thrilled part. Anyway, after having gotten part way finished with the starboard side, I was at a point where I was going to have to tackle the sheer at frame 4. This is the first part of the sheer where the curve towards the bow starts. Its the same with the chine. From this point forward, fairing is going to be more challenging and I am not quite ready mentally to tackle this.

Also, the sheer forward of this point is going to have quite a bit of material removed because of the angle downwards of the frames. The "Boatbuilding With Plywood" book by Glenn Witt states that it is often necessary to add additional material to the inside of the sheer between the frames in this area.

A perfect excuse to stop fairing!

So the sheer in this area has a curve which means that any material added here will also need to conform to that curve. I had some remaining sheer lumber left over, but not enough to do all the reinforcing. More on that in a minute.

I cut as many pieces as I could from the leftover sheer material to fit in these spaces. I left them long so that when the wood was bent, there would still be enough material. The reinforcements need to go from one frame to the next. A total of six pieces would need to be added. I had sheer material enough for four.

What I also had was some leftover scrap from two years ago when I cut out the frames. This scrap was 3/4 inches thick and I needed 5/8" thick for the sheer reinforcement. A few months back I had experimented with my table saw on how to cut thin slices off of wood. I was planning on using this technique to get the wood down to 5/8 inch.

The technique is simple really. You take a piece of wood at the correct thickness and place it between the table fence and the saw blade. The fence is cinched up to the wood. You can then run the thicker lumber through the saw and it is thinned down to the correct thickness.

Before I could do that, I had to get a usable piece out of the scrap, which was oddly shaped. I needed a straight edge on on side of the scrap in order to eventually cut the piece to the same width as the sheer material. I simply drew a straight line on the scrap through the widest portions allowing enough material on one side of the line for the necessary width. Then I clamped a wider board on top. This wider board already had a straight edge on two sides. One side was lined up with the drawn line. The other side would run against the fence and allow me to make a straight cut on the drawn line. The fence was set at the same distance as the wood clamped in place.

Im sorry I didnt take any pictures of this particular process, so I hope my description is adequate. Once I had the wood to the correct width, I applied the technique for getting it to the correct thickness. This left me with sufficient material for the two additional sheer reinforcements.

The reinforcements were bent using steam over cinder blocks and using a ratchet strap to perform the bend. The following photos illustrate this process. The trick here was to get the bend sufficient enough to conform to the sheer when I glued it into position.



Gluing was performed in a similar manner to the second sheer lamination done a few weeks ago, namely using clamps.



After the bending was performed. I would temporarily clamp the wood to the outside of the sheer and draw a line to indicate the angle I had to cut the ends to match up to the frames. I would then cut outside of that line at the same angle and then gradually adjust it inward, testing the part on the inside of the sheer until it fit the way I wanted it to fit.

The end result after several days of steaming and gluing was six reinforcements glued between frames 4 and 5, 5 and 6, and 6 and the breasthook. The next two photos show before and after shots of the sheer between frames 4 and 5



This next photo shows the additional thickness.


Between work, steaming the wood, waiting for it to dry sufficiently, gluing up the parts , and waiting for the epoxy to cure, I managed to avoid fairing for a week.

But alas, I knew that I had to get into it or the boat would never be finished. So three days ago I started back up on fairing.I got the sheer faired from the aft end of the boat up to frame 4 on the starboard side as well as the remaining area of the chine in the same stretch of boat.






The piece of plywood is used to simulate the skin that will eventually be applied. I am pretty sure that when I start fitting the real skin, there will be additional fairing required so Im just trying to get close at this point.

So far most of the fairing has been sanding the chine and sheer down to the same angle as the frames and then blending the area in between the frames to get a nice flat area to attach the skin. Forward of frame 3, the sheer starts to curve and the area to be blended increases as you get closer to frame 4.

To give myself something to guide the sanding by, I drew a curve from frame 3 to frame 4 on the sheer, gradually widening it to match up to the area already sanded down at frame 4. You can make out the line on the sheer in the last photo. The sheer is then sanded back at an angle to this line from the outside, leaving the bottom of the sheer essentially intact.

What I was trying to achieve is an angled surface on the curve that matched the angle that the skin will mount to the chine and sheer at. You can see that in the next photos.



Finally, today, I started repeating the process on the port side aft of frame 4. I still have more work to do here.

To illustrate one final point, the next photo is shot looking down on frame 4. You can see that the frame needs to be faired to match the chine on the left of the photo. The other frames forward of this are even more dramatic in the amount of material that needs to be removed.



Needless to say, the forward area of the boat has many angles and curves to consider while fairing and I intend to go slow in this area. So updates to the blog may be a bit farther apart for awhile.

Until next time, take care.

Well, duh! Yes, that worked. Worked so well in fact that my blog is now falling far behind the actual work. So this post will catch me up to the present time, and the very next post should have a picture of the completed galley.

Last time, I had the shelf cleats installed, and it was time to take measurements for the shelves. This sounds like a simple process, but of course it isnt because not one of the shelves is remotely rectangular. Because of the round shape of the Blue Moons hull, the two bulkheads are not actually co-planer with each other. They are a bit closer together inboard than they are outboard. That is, the shelves are a bit wider in the back than they are in the front. And because of the way the hull curves, the left edge of each shelf is shorter than the right edge. I dont know what the name of this odd shape is (update: its quadrilateral), but its not rectangle.

I puzzled about how to capture the shapes of these shelves so they would be a snug fit, and then chose another form of tick-stick magic.

In brief, you need a stick and a rectangular block. The stick must be a bit shorter than what you want to measure, as shown above. The block should span the gap, plus a bit more, also as shown above.

In the photo above, Ive pushed the left edge of the stick against the left bulkhead. Then I put the block on top of the right end of the stick, and pushed the block up against the right bulkhead. I then marked and labeled other end of the block on the stick. 

Its important to label each tick as you make them. For example, I labeled the above tick 1F, for Shelf 1, Front. 

Then I took another tick at the back of the same shelf and labeled it 1B. Since the back of the shelf is a bit wider than the front (about 1/4"),  the 1B mark is about 1/4" further out towards the end of the stick.

This captured the width of shelf 1 at the front and the back. Then I used a tape measure to measure the depth of the right and left sides of the shelf, from the hull to the front rail. I actually want the shelf to be 1" inset, but it was easier to measure to the front rail and then deduct 1" from the measurement.

That gave me two widths (front and back) and two depths (right and left) for each shelf. It is then easy to transfer these measurements onto plywood:

Basically, you just reverse the tick-stick process. Back in the shop, you lay the block alongside the tick-stick, line up the end of the block with the tick, and mark the other end. This form of measurement is much more accurate than you could ever take with a tape measure. Its basically accurate to the width of a pencil line. Cant ask for more than that (as long as you keep the pencil sharp!)

In reasonably short order, I had the shelves cut out and back on the boat for a test fit. Amazingly enough, they fit beautifully. Just one or two spots had to be trimmed up with a block plane Id brought with me. 

It was then time to start working on the fiddles -- the 1" high lips that will keep things from sliding off the front of the shelves.

Being not-so-happy with the factory cut trim pieces on the bulkheads, I decided to cut my own fiddles. After doing a bit of googling, I ordered a mighty slab of teak for nearly the same price as I would have paid for the finished trim pieces. 

Hard to believe, but you can order wood through the Internet. Even big pieces. This one came in a big box via UPS. It was quite a thrill to unpack it, I must confess...

The first word that popped into my head upon seeing this hunk of wood was luscious... I must be spending too much time in the basement. But, God, it was beautiful.

I needed about 8 of trim (4 x approx. 2) so cut a rabbet along the edge of the board with my old rabbet plane. It took longer to sharpen the plane than to cut the rabbet. I am finally getting the hang of this simple but tricky tool.

With the rabbet cut, I ripped out the fiddle stock with my circular saw... another tool Im getting better at using. 

Cutting long, straight line by pushing saw against a clamped-on fence

I wont be telling any experienced woodworker anything new, but for the other newbies out there, the key to making long, straight cuts with a circular saw is to clamp a good, sturdy fence to the work piece. In this case, I used a long batten that Id made when building Cabin Boy. It was far too thick for any of CBs lines, but it made a perfect fence.

Much easier to make this cut with a circular saw than with a table saw, in my opinion. I might feel different with a better table saw, but with the equipment Ive got, this set up gives me the straightest cut.

I then had a long, 1" thick rectangular stick with a rabbet cut on one side. How to round-over the top edge without a router?

Everyone -- and I mean everyone -- I talked to urged me to use a router on this one. Only one problem: I dont own a router! No matter. I clamped the 8 long stick to my crummy bench and planed off one corner. Then I turned it over, and planed off the other corner.

This literally took 7 minutes. I timed it. Starting with three sides, I ended up with 5 sides.

Then I then planed the 4 corners... just a bit. That gave me 9 sides. Another 3 or 4 minutes gone.

A few more minutes with a sanding block and I had a perfectly rounded edge. One of these days I do need to buy a router, but not until I really, really need one. So far, I just havent needed it.

Then it was just a matter of cutting the fiddles to length. Here is one fitted for size...

And then I had a whole lot of pieces to paint and varnish. Here they all are. The photo doesnt show all the cleats that I removed from the shelves, which also need to be finished.

I taped any edge that is going to end up glued, so that I have wood-to-wood glue joints. 

You might also notice the latest addition to my shop -- a 14" Delta bandsaw. I already had a pretty good Craftsman saw, but the Delta was such a great deal, I couldnt pass it up. A big upgrade in the bandsaw department. 

Okay! So I am off to Florida to visit my mom, but next time Ill be assembling the galley and moving on to the settee. No more serial-building!