Thread: Paddlepop - 8ft Mini Mouse new build

Had a day off work today, so we got started. I'm working out of someone else's house, so am having to make do with what I can find - it will be an outside build mostly, so here's hoping the Sydney weather improves!

First Jack & I had to make a working surface from some old rotten sawhorses and scrap timber



Team Paddlepop get prepared


What could possibly go wrong?


Somebody else's lounge room rug is the perfect place for marking out.



A cable tidy makes a decent marking batten



I tried using my host's jigsaw but it was rough and blunt, and this cheap tenon saw was much better.



Once the first side was cut out, I used it to mark out the second side



Jack gets to try using a saw for the first time. He is a bit young, but wanted to try everything - and that's half the point.



I clamped both sides together to plane then down to the line - it was easy to get them exactly the same size & shape this way.



And at the end of the afternoon, I have the first sheet all cut out, planed and sanded - two sides, a bottom, and fore & aft transoms.


Next step will be cutting out the two bulkheads, and I'll be ready to go 3D - but that can wait until tomorrow. 5 hours in, and it seems to be going okay - and we are having fun )

Well done and great photos. Jack seemed pretty keen on the saw but a bit non-plussed with the hammer and tape measure.
Great to see him getting involved. A worthwhile tale for show(?) and tell next year.

I agree with the previous Post, good workmanship , especially with limited tools.

Good to see the apprentice is also trying, just beware that boat building is addictive


Jeff

I have never built a boat and have no real desire to, but this build looks like it could be quite fascinating to watch.
Hope you don't mind if I come along for the ride.
Cheers
Jim

Welcome Jim - take a seat and enjoy (if you can handle the wood-butchery!)

Okay - making decent progress as I've got an unexpected break from work. Over the last two days, I've put in about 10 hours work

11 - I cut out all the frames - 2 transoms and 2 bulkheads, as well as two paddle blades. The frames have had strips of pine glued to the top edges - this will help pull the sides together as well as form a base for the decks. I used Purbond - simple, quick, and dried strong in 2 hours @ 20 degrees.

12 - while I waited for them to dry I started on the paddle. It will be a simple double paddle with no feather in the blades - easy for the kids to use. I used a dowel of 25mm tassie oak and trimmed off a 6mm deep flat edge. Again I didn't have a better idea for cutting it than to use the hand saw - but it worked well.

13 - sawing the inspection port holes was a nightmare. The jigsaw was useless - its not mine, and it seems too slow & coarse, and butchers the wood. This Stanley keyhole saw was better, hard work but at least I got a sort of round shape.

14- look at those horrible splinters! I should be able to hide them under the inspection port trim, but they are awful. How would a real wordworker cut these holes? 110mm so too big for a hole saw.

15 - okay, all frames sized, the edges roughly hand bevelled to the shape of the hull, and ready to tape.

16 - taping in progress. Jack helped for a while (and was really helpful) but got bored after 30 mins. It then turned into quite a struggle to bend, pull, and tape single handed.

17 - after much effort, the boat it 3D! Hooray! My older son Max (7) helped here - I taught him the basics of using a cordless drill, which was very exciting, and he drilled a few holes and screwed in some temporary screws in the bulkheads to help pull the shape together. I reckon I still have 30-60 mins of pulling and prodding and adjusting tape until she is square and all the edges are correctly aligned corner to corner. Then I will seal the seams, turn her over, and start filleting. But now its beer o' clock.

18 - the paddle came together okay. At 2m it is quite small and light, but should just be usable by an adult as well. Tomorrow I'll poxy it up for additional strength.

Looking good .

hints,
1 to avoid splintering ply score the cut line with a stanley knife, this will minimize the splintering
2 hole saws go to 150mm
3 make sure that there is no contamination from the tape
4 buy some new blades for the jig saw and your host will love you ( I suggest double cut blades, they cost more but give a faster , cleaner cut and last longer)

keep up the good work,

Jeff

Jeff - thanks for the advice there, all good

I got stuck into the inside yesterday

18 - the paddle is together
19 - and about the right size for Max
20 - although jack will struggle a bit
21 - the boat is now taped together and the seams carefully sealed
22 - and the right way up ready for glass. Looks a bit like a boat now.
23 - I was working wet on wet, so lots of work in a careful sequence all done before any layer dried out. so - wet out the whole hull with Bote Cote and a timber preservative & thinning agent. Then make up filleting mix, and fillet all the joints, tape them with fibreglass tape, and wet out the tape with epoxy again. I did it one compartment at a time mixing no more than 60ml of poxy and it worked well, didn't lose any batches. The streaky white is just colouring in the poxy - the cockpit will be painted white, and I'm not planning on an undercoat, so am tinting the poxy.
24 - inside done - took about 8 hours of solid work and my back i killing me. Lots of cleaning up to be done, and will have to do one more coat of epoxy throughout to seal it - but I just couldn't do any more last night, so that will have to do
25 - detail of the inside. No pigment here, and haven't bothered to sand or remove marking lines because this will all be in a buoyancy tank.
26 - tape off - and she hold together! It would float if I put it in water - so I guess she is now a boat! Woohoo!

HI Alex,

I would suggest you fill the outside joins before you radius them , then sand and glass the chines,
ARE you glassing the whole hull??

give the whole hull a sand down before you glass then glass, and fair.


looking good.

Jeff

an impressive backyard project.
i think you'll all have a lot of fun.

Thanks Boz.

Hey Jeff - yes, that's what I did today. Clinton had made a huge point of meticulous taping of the outside before doing the inside joints - and when I stripped off the tape, it had worked pretty well. The fillets / filler had penetrated well, in some cases right up to the tape - but along much of the joint, nothing had got through as it was edge to edge, leaving a right-angle to fill. So I filled that last night, then this morning radiused it all with a Stanley Surform (my new favourite wood-butchering tool), sanded it, epoxied the entire bottom & outside sheer, then laid 50mm fibreglass cloth tape over the edges, wetted the tape out, and gave the hull another coat of epoxy. I discovered that using a roller for the epoxy is WAY better than brush and am a complete convert.

I also tried out a new (to me) technique of covering the finished seams with peel ply - apparently this really help with compressing the finish, drawing off excess resin, and finishing with a very strong light clean fibreglass that hardly needs any sanding. You'll see in the pic the first strip I put on was way too big, but the subsequent strips went on neatly - and we'll see the results tomorrow.

27 - bottom glassed. Looks pretty good, almost enough to tempt me to leave it clear - but the joints are covered up at the moment
28 - detail of the joints with peel ply covering the fibreglass tape.

Oh, and no, I won't be glassing the whole bottom - really not necessary on such a small boat, and I want to keep her as light as possible for the kids. 3 coats of epoxy, and 3 of 2-pack paint should seal her off well.

Todays main tak was to build a skeg and fit it.

28 - luckily the cutting out process left some very useful scrap shape - this one fit almost perfectly
29 - new technique of the day was "spiling" - using a block to transfer the curve of the bottom to the skeg. Actually, the fit was so close anyway I didn't need the block, and just held the pencil flat on the bottom and traced it across - worked great.
30 - fine shaping the skeg. I just did this by eye, then rasped a bit with the surform, then checked again. No need to be precise, you need to have some gaps for the epoxy to fill.
31 - I'd done some dummy runs earlier with epoxy & fillets and scrap wood - and this came in handy as a support for the skeg. I clamped a brace at the transom, and then used this right angled support against the skeg to hold it vertical while the fillets set
32 - completed skeg, with epoxy, thickened fillets, fibreglass tape and peel ply in place. Note peel ply making sure supports don't stick to the skeg - but plastic bag will also work.
33 - then we have to wait overnight for that to cure - so we decided to work on the paddle a bit. Here Max learns to paint on epoxy. It is Bote Cote so not too toxic, but I won't be letting them do much of this
34 - Jack has great concentration, and actually listens to instructions (when its a fun project) so I think he'll do well at this lark
35 - the paddles came up pretty well
36 - I'll probably keep these clear - so a couple of coats of Acquacote clear and these are done. I'll wait until the boat is ready so I don't have to mix too many batches.

looking GOOD, I see you have a rock'n roll pirate as a helper , doing a good job with the brush.

Paddle looks good and made with economy in mind but will be efficient and light weight for the boy's to use.

Cheers,

jeff

Totally fascinating seeing it all go together.
I admit half the terms you're using are Greek to me, but your photos makes things clear enough even for me to understand.
Cheers
Jim