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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default 'Stugoats' GIS build

    I thought I'd get further in my build before I posted but first day in I made a big oops and need advice. I've lofted the side panels on two sheets of ply then during my first cuts my concentration lapsed and I started cutting down one of the 300mm verticals next to where the butt join is.

    Can this be saved/fixed or do I have to make another?
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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    I suppose it was a rhetorical question. Deep down I knew I'd have to cut out another but was too annoyed at the time to accept the inevitable. So I've planed down the original then traced out a new one. There was a reason I bought 7 sheets of ply, just didn't expect to use the extra so soon.

    Anyway, finally after 3yrs my GIS is underway. I bought botecote epoxy and glass from Boatcraftpacific before last Xmas with intent on starting back then but, you know, delays. The ply I bought is from Fyshwyck Building Supplies in Canberra. I was there on a quick day trip and took the opportunity to duck in and out with ply. They had a good range of 6mm marine ply, from pac maple, pink marine up to a pricier okoume and hoop. The hoop looked great but larger bs1088 sheets and the lure of the cheap stuff saw me go the Malaysian ply at about $60 a sheet, 5 ply.

    I was was going to experiment and scarf the ply together as opposed to butt straps, particularly if I ended up with 2400mm sheets v's recommended 2440mm. But I'm following the plans. It was daunting enough accurately lofting the side panels and I'm too inexperienced to scarf long joints, though there's some pretty cool diy circ saw jigs out there to do it accurately.

    I'm doing all the lofting on a garage floor. One thing I did learn from marking out a Eureka a few years ago was how uncomfortable it was and a back breaker. This time round I'm using knee pads which have been awsome.

    Regarding the name, Stugoats. Seems like a tradition to stick a goat or something goat related in there. A couple months ago I binged watched The Sopranos, a show I've been meaning to catch up with for ages. Well Tony had a boat called "Stugots II" and there's a bunch of meanings for that online, so Stugoats it is.

    As for the rest of the timber, for most I'm going to use Victorian Ash which is available locally. I love the way it finishes with hand tools. I had plenty of reclaimed stuff but it went into mine and mates workbenches over the past year. I'll probably use it for a birdsmouth mast, the boom and yard too. I'll decide on gunwale and inwales later but may be a mix of vic ash, meranti, tas oak and maybe black wattle for spacers. Hardwood parts will be redgum or terpentine.

    That's pretty much it until I get a load more done. A couple of pics of ply not much to show just yet.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    Aargh, I wish I bought a laser cut kit. I stuffed another panel. I was hoping to put butt straps on yesterday but I've marked and cut the bow incorrectly on one panel, 25mm from the vertical rather than 55mm. I'm clueless to how I did this and I only discovered the era when I placed both aft side panels together to fair their sides. See third pic. I should be able to cut a spare from the remains of the seventh sheet. Disregard the 'stern' marking, it is the bow.

    It it was cool to see the bottom panel line up and get a sense of the size and shape, the second pic doesn't convey it. I can't wait till it takes shape but will have to wait till next week. I'll take the time at work to reread the plans, again.

    The first pic shows setup for planing to lines and like panels are then clamped together on sawhorses for fairing. It's a huge difference being able to do this standing up. On my Eureka I languished on the garage floor with panels threaded under a leg whilst I planed them and ended up with a sore butt and back.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    So I got the sides and bottom glued using botecote with botecote gluing powder added. Car batteries make great weights though baking paper doesn't make for a great nonstick-to-epoxy barrier. Maybe I've got the wrong kind of baking paper but I thought I read somewhere it works. Painter's masking plastic is on the floor to protect the concrete.
    WP_20151111_14_32_53_Pro.jpg

    I was a bit careless with cleanup of the squeeze out, ie I didn't. I should've taped around the buttstraps to catch the squeeze-out, instead I spent a little time sanding the following day to clean up the edges. No biggie but lesson learnt for later.
    WP_20151112_17_45_14_Pro.jpg

    Yesterday I bought some Victorian Ash for chine logs, framing, etc. I had the material list with me but couldn't wrap my head around trying to buy it all in one go in the right sizes. I don't know how many times I've read the instructions or looked at threads but some aspects of this build only make sense when I'm on the tools and making a part. For me, timber sizes and lengths create brain strain. I decided I'll just get a few long bits and machine what I need as needed and try to avoid scarfing.

    First thing's first, chine logs. At over 5metres in the plan, I bought two 5.4m x 185mm x 19mm planks with a view of having single piece chinelogs plus making up 45mm x 19mm for all the other parts of that size.
    WP_20151112_12_55_04_Pro.jpg

    I also bought a 2m x 230mm x 35mm pice which I'll rip and machine for the top transom frame.
    WP_20151112_12_55_17_Pro.jpg

    I've got a 12m long shed with the table saw located roughly halfway, so I should be able to rip these boards amongst the clutter.
    WP_20151112_15_25_52_Pro.jpg

    Not quite
    WP_20151112_16_59_07_Pro.jpg

    From the first board I got three 45mm x 19mm now 5.3m lengths, plus another length abouth 40mm wide which will be used later.
    WP_20151112_17_54_09_Pro.jpg


    Two of those sticks were used for chine logs. I marked 35mm in from the side panel chine edges by using a small piece of ply as a marking gauge of sorts, making pencil lines every 30cm or so. When the chine log is placed on this line it leaves a 10mm overhang as per the plan. Gyprock screws were used to dry fit the chines and to make the necessary curves. The 30 and 50mm spacing for the stern and bow was now hand cut with the angles copied from the panels by using a sliding bevel. Screws were removed, epoxy and filler applied, then screws and chine reattached with batteries and other bits added to help clamp. Not as much squeeze out this time and I still didn't use tape, but cleanup with a brush was effective. The plank on the bottom panel is the second vic ash board and it's just sitting there waiting to be used. There was nowhere else to store it
    WP_20151112_20_26_04_Pro.jpg
    WP_20151112_20_29_35_Pro.jpg

    Making the bulkheads and transom is where I'm up to now.


    WP_20151111_22_51_52_Pro.jpgWP_20151112_20_59_02_Pro.jpg

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Gothenburg, Sweden
    Posts
    100

    Default

    Looking good!
    Pontus

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    Thanks pontus. I had no idea you finished yours. I've gone back to find your thread and saw the blog link, congrats man it looks awsome. Love the colour and the interior looks amazing. My ply will be bland in comparison. I gotta say too, "thole pins", never heard of them before but I love the idea. I've looked previously at stainless steel and bronze oarlocks but I think I'll give thole pins a go to start with.

    The last few days saw the glue up of the frames, including transom and one side of the centre case. I've also been doing a lot more reading and rereading some of the more in depth GIS builds with regards to design features and individual touches, particularly around the transom and middle seat and centre case. I don't feel game enough to try and change much so I'm sticking to the plans. Though I do like some transom variations, whether they be for outboard inclusions or rudder variations, or just down to gorgeous wood on the back. At they very least I wanted good looking wood across the transom top, but I ended up with a bit of Vic Ash with a gum vein towards the port side. It's a solid piece of timber but still...if the appearance bugs me I'll add some funky veneer, but anyway, I suppose the idea is to look forward when sailing.
    WP_20151114_21_23_37_Pro.jpgNB the ply in the background is unrelated to this GIS.

    A word on clamps. I've got a bunch of F clamps but those black plastic clamps on the outside of the box were disastrous during my Eureka build so far as the larger ones would explode without warning. I used to have many more but of those that broke were only clamping gunwales or inwales, not over stressed, just opened to less than an inch. Anyway, this time round I bought 20 metal ones in the box there. Cost around $70 all up for 150mm ones and they're pretty good value, and work well. I also got a pack of those Irwin clamps. First time I've used them and they're brilliant, though I'm keeping 'em clean and only using them for dry fit ups.
    WP_20151114_11_23_05_Pro.jpg

    Still not enough clamps, though I had glued together the transom and most of bulkhead1 the previous day. Two more plastic clamps snapped overnight, this time medium sized ones. I should've originally returned them but oh well. Metal ones are great for this kind of glue up. The F clamps can be too heavy IMO and may distort the frames if they're solely used.
    WP_20151114_22_34_36_Pro.jpg

    Batteries for clamping internals of the centre case to the port side. The starboard side is on top but not glued yet until the interior gets epoxied.
    WP_20151114_22_31_51_Pro.jpg

    A flatpack GIS. In between work hours I'll try and shave the frame bevels to get ready for assembly during next days off.
    WP_20151116_09_03_18_Pro.jpg

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    15

    Default

    Nice! Keep it up!

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    Thanks Wes.

    Bit of a disaster the other night. During a hot night with the aircon cranked up we started smelling a strong smell of fuel or something. We found it was coming from my motorbike which had fallen sideways and was lying on top of my flat pack GIS with fuel and some oil soaking into the bottom panel and the clutch lever causing damage to transom. After a couple of days the fuel evaporated and the damage fairly minor.

    image.jpg

    image.jpg

    Although there doesn't seem to be any fuel stains left I'll hit the area with acetone before epoxy goes on. Maybe pentetrol too. I had oil soaked into a spot on my Eureka which I think was cured with acetone and sanding.

    Anyway, today I've been sanding epoxy glue drips and hand bevelling with planes. It's taken all day and I've just realised bulkhead 4 has the sides bevelled incorrectly. No drama, they can be bevelled back without loosing width of the bulkhead due to the way I glued the side frames on.

    But holy crap, we got a boat shaped object! I've yet to notch the corners of the bulkheads but I thought I'd do a dry fit. With the transom clamped and the bow pegged, the hull creaked as I slowly forced bulkhead 3 in. I thought something was going to snap, but the hull took shape and wow. I'll leave it like this overnight and get back to it tomorrow.

    image.jpgimage.jpg

    Unfortunately the port side bends inwards between bulkead 4 and the transom unlike the starboard side which maintains a graceful curve. After scratching my head I realised it was from the motorbike resting on that side. The motorbike's clutch handle hit the transom bottom frame then dragged it across the port side panel causing gouge marks from solid glue drips. I'm positive it'll get into shape when the gunwale goes on.

    image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

    Off the the port side is two more VicAsh planks both over 5m long which'll be used for a birdseye mast and will glue using Sikaflex black marine goo. Cost was $270 for the vicash expensive stuff. I'll do a running cost update soon.

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    15

    Default

    Looking good there!

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Aberfoyle Park SA
    Age
    63
    Posts
    1,787

    Default

    Not Penetrol I think - seems to me to be an oil-based formulation to assist "oil" paints to flow.
    Would likely act as a barrier to epoxy bonding to the timber cells rather than an aid.

    Acetone ok.
    Alan J

    Nothing says "Unprofessional Job" so loudly as wrinkles in the duct tape. - B.Spencer

  12. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    You're right AJ, I dunno why I thought penetrol. Over the past week whilst fitting the bottom I discovered an approx 30cm diameter fuel stained spot on the bottom facing the water. It was hard to see but the fuel smell was still strong. I revisited an old thread I started about the same subject, oil stains on ply, and did the same thing. Rubbed acetone into it liberally and sanded when dry and that was it. No more fuel smell or discolouration.

    I've found it hard to keep up with updates lately. On the days I've had to work on the GIS I've been too tired to type a post. Once again, I have to thank all those that have posted excellent photos, videos or chronicled their builds, there's so much reference material out there it's been extremely helpful.

    So, there's been good progress over the past 10 days. Right now the hull is in one piece with all bulkheads in, bottom on and stem in place. Centre case is in one piece and test fitted, seat cleats being cut, shaped and dry fitted plus staves cut for a birdsmouth mast. It still feels like I could've done so much more because a lot of time has been spent going over instructions, plans, photos etc time and time again. But it's worth it to avoid mistakes...minimise mistakes.

    About a week ago or so I needed to make preparations to move the loose fitted hull out of the garage and into the shed for gluing. First step was to make the stem which was cut from some redgum, this stuff from an old railway sleeper.

    WP_20151122_15_02_25_Pro.jpg

    Doesn't matter how sharp my planes were, redgum like this just has to be sanded, all of the shaping done with a belt sander. Note the squarish end is waste and not part of the stem.
    WP_20151122_15_40_36_Pro.jpg WP_20151122_16_19_51_Pro.jpg

    I love that grain and colour, shame to hide it.
    WP_20151122_16_20_43_Rich.jpg WP_20151122_18_23_49_Rich.jpg

    With the stem held in with screws I used a bunch of PVC blue tape plus clamps and one ratchet strap to bring the hull together. I love this tape, pretty strong so long as it doesn't stretch over sharp edges and it doesn't leave residue. With the Eureka I could use a couple of turns but the stresses in the GIS are much more. For example, when it came to gluing the transom I used about 8 complete turns around the hull with the blue tape over itself.
    WP_20151122_18_23_36_Rich.jpg WP_20151123_00_03_01_Pro.jpg

    Here it is in the shed with gluing commencing. All bulkheads have been temporarily screwed before the move which made it easier to reposition them for gluing. It was like having locating pins.
    WP_20151123_15_01_37_Pro.jpg WP_20151123_16_57_51_Pro.jpg WP_20151123_16_57_39_Pro.jpg

  13. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    At this point I had glued all the bulkheads and transom into position. One thing I was concerned about, the misshaped port side panel, was easily corrected by clamping 19mm stock on the sheer as temporary gunwales. I've been following surlyone's build from the beginning and was aware of a similar problem he had. Luckily it doesn't look like I'll have to do much else for the port sheer to follow an even curve.

    WP_20151123_21_53_44_Pro.jpg WP_20151123_21_53_57_Pro.jpg


    With the hull upturned to fair the chine logs an issue became evident that echoed a problem callsign222 had. Despite careful marking, cutting and bevelling notches in the lower frame of the bulkheads, numbers 2,3,and 4s' bottom frames were not going to meet the bottom panel. Only No1 bulkhead was deep enough. Shims had to be cut, glued and planed to the bottoms of those bulkheads.
    WP_20151124_09_17_05_Pro.jpg WP_20151124_09_21_30_Pro.jpg WP_20151124_16_11_10_Pro.jpg WP_20151124_18_08_04_Pro.jpg

    Another thing, when putting together the bow for a test fit I heard two cracks. I couldn't see any issues until I was fairing the chines and saw the ply delaminated and chine separated from the ply. It's still solid and the whole area has been filled with thickened epoxy now, including the gap between the chines with thickened epoxy plus shavings. I cut way too much out of there.
    WP_20151124_16_23_54_Pro.jpg

    A bit of twist was evident early on so before the bottom was glued, some weights were added and with that the cleats aligned.
    WP_20151124_16_18_31_Pro.jpg WP_20151124_18_20_52_Pro.jpg WP_20151124_18_19_34_Pro.jpg

  14. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    With the bottom on and all epoxy cured I turned the hull again to see if the twist was permanently gone which it had, though the hull is still prone to twist depending on how it's suported. Like the instructions say, the seat tops will eventually lock in the alignment but so far so good.

    WP_20151124_21_42_13_Pro.jpg WP_20151126_10_14_42_Pro.jpg

    I turned the hull and set about removing all the screws and pads for some filling, sanding and bevelling of external chines. No pads were used on the bottom.
    Unfortunately some pads needed tapping with a chisel to remove and on the starboard side some ply laminate went with the pad.
    WP_20151127_11_58_02_Pro.jpg WP_20151127_15_57_57_Pro.jpg

    Chiseling towards the stern eliminated damage to the ply on the port side.
    WP_20151127_12_03_05_Pro.jpg WP_20151127_15_58_06_Pro.jpg

    A final look at the transom.
    WP_20151127_15_58_12_Pro.jpg

    Yikes, a lot of ooze clean up. This is what happens when you're in a rush and glue late at night. Unfortunately it set like this and has required a lot of sanding with a delta multitool sander. I should've cleaned it up on the night but oh well, it's sanded now, almost.
    WP_20151126_12_06_57_Pro.jpg WP_20151127_10_55_59_Pro.jpg WP_20151127_10_55_47_Pro.jpg

  15. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default

    The mast step and partner are ready to be cut but I wasn't sure exactly what diameter my mast would be given that I was making a birdsmouth mast and haven't made one before. In summary the mast turned out really well. Not exactly dimensioned as per plans as each stave ended up slightly less width and there's only taper at the top. Made out of Vic Ash and glued with Sikaflex 291 black marine polyurethane, it's quite strong and visually there's a nice thin black line between each stave. It should look great when glassed.

    I used a tablesaw with some crude fingerboards to cut the bird mouths. It was a bit rough and despite my attempts to get the depth of cut and 45deg angle set correctly, I ended up thinning all the staves by a few mm so the max thickness is 32mm rather than 34. A router or shaper would've made a neater job IMO.
    WP_20151202_15_05_03_Pro.jpg WP_20151202_16_43_36_Pro.jpg

    Only a few staves needed cleaning up towards the ends with a rebate plane but they all went together easier than I thought they would for the dry fit up. As I assembled at one end with one loose hose clamp I gradually moved a couple more clamps on and further down as more staves went in. With the final one in and the end clamp tightened snug the rest came together as I rolled the mast on the ground and added more clamps.
    WP_20151202_21_22_06_Pro.jpg WP_20151202_21_02_02_Pro.jpg WP_20151202_21_02_42_Pro.jpg

    I used two 310ml cartridges in a caulking gun which was just enough. A bit of ply scrap shaped to a 90deg scraper was used to help distribute the sikaflex evenly as best I could. Despite the messy process the staves came together easier than the dry fit due to the polyurethane being so sticky and thick. I had planned on using lots of turps to clean up but it wasn't needed. I let the mast cure on the floor overnight then worked on it the next day.
    WP_20151202_21_29_07_Pro.jpg WP_20151202_22_32_40_Pro.jpg WP_20151202_22_33_21_Pro.jpg

    I began to shape the mast with a drawknife which was fantastic until you catch grain going the wrong way. There were two staves that had grain facing in the opposite direction to others which could've been avoided with a bit more care in planning stave layout prior to cutting tapers. The progression of photos shows the worst area of the drawknife cutting in plus rounding with a No4 plane, then in a different spot beltsanding at 60grit then 120 and some water for contrast.
    WP_20151203_13_58_35_Pro.jpg WP_20151203_14_14_37_Pro.jpg WP_20151203_14_28_32_Pro.jpg WP_20151203_14_28_56_Pro.jpg

    The next two show the whole mast with the taper towards the left and runs over a metre or so. The second photo is just of the bottom end.
    WP_20151203_19_16_57_Pro.jpg WP_20151203_19_17_12_Pro.jpg

  16. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
    Posts
    211

    Default Mast

    The holidays have put a real spanner in the works. I wanted to finish and use the GIS during the holidays which turned out to be an unrealistic goal. So much to do plus motivation suffers on those really hot days.

    Back to the mast from about 6 weeks ago... I'm kind of regretting using polyurethane to glue the birdsmouth staves, wishing I used epoxy now. After testing offcuts and applying lateral stress (standing on them) they broke along the glue line moreso than the timber. Furthermore, the inside of the mast is still uncoated however that will be tackled with a small roller pushed in lengthwise. More on that when the time comes. Something that needed addressing was the number of large checks and chunks taken out during planing of the mast. I think I mentioned them before but with alternating grain direction between staves, planes a drawknife and spokeshave were mostly unsuitable and as a result some sections needed filling prior to final sanding.

    I've watched most of Nick Schade (Guillemot Kayaks) videos in the past and remember one of him gluing in and fairing a repair piece on a strip kayak and decided to try the same since I'm after a bright finish for the mast.

    Here's some showing the process and before and afters
    WP_20151210_11_46_00_Pro.jpgWP_20151210_11_47_36_Pro.jpgWP_20151210_17_19_15_Pro.jpgWP_20151210_11_57_16_Pro.jpgWP_20151210_17_21_17_Pro.jpgWP_20151210_17_30_03_Pro.jpg

    WP_20151210_17_33_31_Pro.jpgWP_20151210_17_37_02_Pro.jpg

    I made the end plugs too which aren't glued in yet. They're handy to suspend the mast for sanding.
    WP_20151210_18_20_07_Pro.jpgWP_20151210_18_19_50_Pro.jpg

    Test fitting to check centreline alignment. The mast step and partner hadn't been glued in yet.
    You don't realise just how tall the mast is until it's in position. The photos don't really convey that sense of wow IMO.
    WP_20151213_16_44_46_Pro.jpg WP_20151213_16_45_20_Pro.jpg

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