Another day of work

Stringers - Final Gluing
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

Yesterday we did the final gluing of the stringers, and so far this is the part that Im most concerned about. We butt-joined the wider piece on the left to the narrow piece on the right. The now-joined stringer runs from the bow transom to the stern transom, and form the entire bow-to-stern frame pieces.

My concern is that that well break this specific joint in the period between when the joint dries and when we actually mount the pieces. Id highly recommend using a two-person moving method with these completed pieces. Set the stringers vertical (so theyre facing the way they will face when finally installed). Have one person lift with one hand on either side of the joint in this picture, and one person lift toward the back of the narrow section. I may do another video on this to more efficiently demonstrate what Im talking about.

But Im digressing...
Lets assume this joint is as strong as Id hope it should be... lets concentrate on what we did to set this butt joint... As usual, saturate all of the surfaces to be joined with unthickened epoxy, and saturate the fiberglass tape. Lay a coat of thickened epoxy on butt joints. Lay the plastic on the floor. Lay the bottom piece of fiberglass tape roughly where you want it. Set the boards on top of the bottom piece of fiberglass tape, and preset the butt joint. Lay the top piece of fiberglass tape on top of the plywood butt joint. Lay a piece of plastic on top of all of this. Use a square to get a precise 90 degree angle, as the picture hints at. Then use a piece of scrap wood, and temporarily screw the scrap wood to both sides of the butt joint. This will help keep the butt joint from floating during the curing process.

Remember, if you click on the picture, you can see the picture complete with comments and tags on the pics that can help you visualize what Im discussing. Again, the picture is courtesy of www.flickr.com

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Dave Surveys the days work

Dave Surveys the days work
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

This should be the last "what weve done so far" post. From here on, you should see everything we do shortly after we do it.

In this picture, you see several sheets of plywood joined together to form the length of the hull. I am standing directly behind the starboard bottom piece. The starboard side piece is the other section thats laid out. Heres what we did...

We test-fit the sections end-to-end. Once we were satisfied that the pieces fit, we put the sealer coat of epoxy on each side of each butt joint. Next, we joined the pieces together.

In order to join the pieces together, we started with a huge sheet of plastic on the floor (epoxy wont stick to the plastic), then we set a thin strip of plywood on top of the plastic (youll see the method to our madness in a minute), then we laid down another strip of plastic (again, because the epoxy wont stick to the plastic).

Next came the lower strip of fiberglass tape, measured just longer than the butt joints, and placed so the tape fit roughly equally on each piece of plywood to be joined together. We next carefully set the plywood in place.

Next came the top piece of fiberglass tape, again set so that the tape sits equally on either side of the butt joint. Next came another plastic sheet (for non-stick purposes), and finally, another thin strip of plywood.

After all of this was set in place, we double-checked everything and ran a screw through the whole shit-n-shebang, ensuring a non-slipping, tight, solid butt joint. We repeated this whole process for each butt joint. There was a lot of prep work involved, but it saves a lot of work in the long run. We used any leftover epoxy to seal the plywood; well finish the sealing process before we lay the fiberglass over the whole hull.

In summary... we sealed the plywood underneath the fiberglass tape with epoxy. We laid down the big sheet of plastic, so the plywood wouldnt stick to the floor. We laid down a piece of scrap plywood, so the screws would have something to sink into. We laid down a strip of plastic slightly bigger than the scrap plywood. We laid down the bottom epoxy strip. We set the plywood in place over the lower piece of tape. We laid down the top strip of fiberglass tape. We laid down another piece of plastic. We set a top piece of scrap plywood on top, and ran a screw through all of it. Once the butt joints were set, we removed the screws.

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