I'm thinking of building a dinghy and will be on a very tight budget. The thing is a don't have a million dollars to buy all those clamps I see you guys using. Boatmik, like your method posted above, could I just clamp then screw the gunwhale on and so forth?

G'day Bob
There's an old joke about a boat-builder's daughter's bride-price being calculated in clamps. That could solve your problem one way, yes?

In all seriousness (& I isn't MIK & haven't his wealth of expertise), A lot of clamping jobs could be done with screws. But then you'd either have to hide the screws, or back fill the holes after removal. If the bit you're talking about has a bright finish, the screw holes will be visible for ever & ever, amen. If it is under paint or another bit of wood, & you've got time & patience to do the back-filling, it doesn't matter too much.

But there are some jobs that only a clamp (or 20) will do.

Start haunting the cheap shops in your area. Every now & again they have clamps at very low prices. As do Bunnings. I got most of my spring clamps for a shade less than $2 each, & my sliding F clamps cost not much more. Spread over a few months, it hurt less. If even that cost seems steep, just remind yourself that you will amortise it over several boats...

Oh... didn't I mention that before ?

I challenge you stop at just one boat !

cheers
AJ

Bob,

I managed to build the Goat Island Skiff with somewhat fewer clamps in those days!

Let's see if I can make sense of how I did the gunwhales.

Firstly, I glued the inwhale to the inwhale spacers, screwing the spacers from the outside. ie no screw holes on the face of the inwhales.

Next I removed the screws, and glued the inwhale spacer/inwhale in place, screwing from outside the hull.

Remove screws again, then I built the gunwhale in two pieces, so screwed the inner "structural" bit on, then clamped and "sprung" the outer bit on afterwards.

All screws are removed after the glue goes off and before the next bit goes on. It sounds a bit complicated, but that's what you do if you don't have clamps!

On a Eureka, I'd keep a temporary gunwhale on while the inwhale glue is curing at least, or the sides may not end up fair.

Cheers,

P

I'll believe that, especially in the good ole bad days when G- Clamps were all that was available, cost an arm, leg and left testicle

Thanks guys, great replies! (this will only be a start of my questions )

We are getting there. The end is in sight! (Don't worry Midge. It won't be "FINISHED", just "in the water"!!!)

Got the Epoxy on the decks and Bulkheads and Gunwales last night. If the weather holds (which ALL the forcasts say it WONT!!), we will get the final coat of epoxy on outside of hull tonight and then 2 coats of "Aqua Cote" tomorrow. (in the rain, apparently) Tomorrow will probably the last chance to work on it before "Launch Day"

Uncle Bob, the last batch of photos that I posted showed a whole mess of clamps. Mostly bought them the day I took the photo from the local "Go-Lo" store. Cost $2 each!. I bought 15. I just wish the Epoxy and varnish was as cheep as the clamps. Next boat I build will be held together permanently with clamps INSTEAD of glue and Epoxy. Much cheeper that way!

All the best

Walesey

Attached Thumbnails

     

Looks good Walesy. Really Good.
AJ

Greetings to all

I have been following this thread for a while since I'm also building my own Eureka and find tips here quite helpful. You can observe my progress on the boat (sorry its only in Slovene - far, far away, but you can see some pics):
http://www.kanujerojen.blogspot.com/

But my question is this. How do you guys manage to mix the filler that doesn't stay white? My supplier here says they only have such type of hardener that is white. And as I would like my boat to have natural wood colour this bothers me.

So I added some enamel brown paint to my mixture that mixes well with the epoxy so when I fill the gaps between the panels, they are similar to wood colour. But I wouldn't want to us ethat method for gluing as the paint weakens the epoxy mix.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

G'day Koala, and welcome aboard mate.

I have yet to build one of mr, Storer"s designs t on my builds, I use wood flour to mix with the epoxy for the fillets. All wood flour is the sifted, sanding dust mixed with the resin to the consistency of peanut butter.

When mixed with the epoxy, it goes a slightly darker colour but still is a "natural more tmberlike appearance.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Gidday Koala,

The filler powder we use which is a brown-grey colour is supplied by a company called BoatCraft Pacific, which makes Bote Cote epoxy.

You could contact them via the web to see if it was worth bringing some in.

I used white filler on my Goat Island Skiff, but carefully masked the fillets so they look as though they were meant to be there, if you take care, they'll look quite ok.

cheers,

P

Wood flour works well. It is just wood dust from sanding timber.

Make sure it is a timber that glues well - waxy teak dust would cause problems.

Use a mix of the white one and the wood flour to get the colour you want.

Michael

__________________
Storer Wooden Boat Plans subforum on UBeaut Woodwork Forums
Boat Plans
Cheap Boat Plan

Thanks for your help. It's quite tricky to get the things you need arround here. We don't have many small boat builders arround.

Koala,

While I haven't tried it, I have heard that ordinary flour works well as a filleting mix too.

Howdy Mick,

Anything can make a paste with epoxy ... but the question you need to ask is how strong is it?

If the particles you are adding are round in shape - they will have add almost no strength to the mix. Like the lightweight filler powders used to make an easy sanding epoxy mix - Qcels or Microballoons. Talc is also quite rounded - so it makes up a weak mix too.

Flour probably would be weak as well.

Move to something fibrous and strong in its own right and you start to get good results. Pulverised glass fibres, that noxious hazard cabosil(icosis), pulverised cotton (the standard west gluing mix is this). Anything with a bit of a length to the fibres is good.

I haven't looked at woodflour under a microscope but - I'd suspect it is a bit fibrous as it does make a reasonable gluing or filleting mix. It does need to be REALLY fine - like from a belt sander. If it is coarse you will end up with something that cannot be applied nicely.

Also not a timber that is difficult to glue like teak or white beech.

MIK

__________________
Storer Wooden Boat Plans subforum on UBeaut Woodwork Forums
Boat Plans
Cheap Boat Plan

G'day Mik,

Thanks for the heads up mate. I haven't used the stuff (flour) but what you say makes sense to me.


Also, you are absolutely correct re the courseness of the wood flour. The finer, the better. I am lucky enough to access to some very fine, powdery stuff that works very well for me in my fillets and so far, strength has not been an issue. but then again, I am only building paddle craft.

Last day of work today folks! Yipeeeeee!!!!!

If the Eureka is not in the water tomorrow it will be early on Friday!

(Don't worry Midge. I hope to FINISH it next year!!)

Thanks all for all your help and encouragement on our first boat! (especially Mik and Midge) Yikes! I understand now why Noah had grey hair after his first boat!

I will post the "Launch" pics in a week or so, when we get back from Jervis Bay.

Merry Christmas to all of you! Remember the PFD's!

regards
Walesey