Thread: The Little Black Dog - MSD Rowing Skiff - Adelaide OZ

Well my repair seems to have held.

I spent most of the day carving down those chine logs. I was going to leave the bow till tomorrow to give the repair more time to set but, of course, couldn't help myself and got stuck into it.

In the 'above' picture, the failure was on the left hand side - basically, the inner veneer glued to the chine log held and the next veneer pulled apart (the dark one to the right of the white, central veneer). You'd never know it's been repaired

The second photo, the side shot, is of the same area. Remember the earlier pictures where there was a cm or more of chine log sticking above the side? Well, that was all taken off with a hand plane

Further down the boat, where the side flares out, there's no-where near that sort of wastage. As mentioned earlier, my chine logs are over sized - the job won't be as hard for a nomal build.

I've now planed both logs back to about the top of the sides and plan to finish them off tomorrow. This bevel isn't square to the sides, it has to be flat across the bottom of the boat so it's a case of keeping an eye on things by laying a steel ruler (1 m ruler) across the two sides to see what bit's high. Easy done. Pictures of that tomorrow.

And now I hurt. Every muscle from my belt up hurts ... and don't it feel great The shed smells of pine shavings I even sharpened my plane

Richard
yes, the can of petrol is still on standby

Originally Posted by Daddles

And now I hurt. Every muscle from my belt up hurts ... and don't it feel great The shed smells of pine shavings I even sharpened my plane

Richard
yes, the can of petrol is still on standby

people think i'm strange in this modern age of power tools but i still love to use the old hand tools, you have much more feel for the job you're working on.

hey Richard maybe some of this enthusiasm of yours on this build may rub off on the yellowtail in the back ground

Finished shaping the chinelogs today. Easy enough to do but man, all those shavings.

It's a case of making sure the bevel is flat across the bottom (I did this using a steel rule) and making sure the line of the hull is fair, done by squinting along it. Easy enough to balance the two.

I also used the inside edge of the side as my line ie, the outside edge of the hull side is planed down to give the bevel. This gives a really clear view of when you've hit the right line.

I even screwed the bottom in place, but more of that tomorrow. If you look towards the rear of the boat, you can see where the hull is twisted - that's because the hull is really floppy and is sitting unevenly on the saw horses for this photo, she squares up easily enough.

btw, the repair to the front of the hull where the plywood delaminated seems to be holding

Richard

More sanding and coating - the bottom panel this time.

Having made sure the bottom panel fit the boat (it does, just, make sure you're really generous with the amount of extra you leave, especially around the middle of the boat), I screwed it in place using screws at the transom, the middle and one at the bow, partly to make sure it'd go on but mainly so I could replace it at the same place come glue up time.

I then needed to sand the inside of the bottom panel so removed it from the hull, placed the hull on top of Sixpence to free up some working space and stared with dismay at all the shavings littering the floor from shaping the chine logs.

Mumbling and muttering, I got out the broom and swept up. Said muttering and mumbling increased in intensity as I fired up the trusy random orbital sander and proceeded to sand that bottom panel nice and smooth ... remembering to hook up the vacuum cleaner this time

That done, I needed to mark out the glue joints ... so the hull came off Sixpence and was squared up on saw horses, the bottom was screwed back on, I clambered underneath, broke my pencil, resharpened it and drew around the chine logs and bulkheads.

Note: large economy sized wombats should use higher than normal saw horses if they're going to go climbing under the boat

Puffing and sweating, I removed the bottom panel, lifted the hull back onto Sixpence, laid the bottom on the saw horses and masked up the glue joins. After that, it was a simple case of three coats, wet on wet

Now I get to ignore her while the poxy sets.

Tomorrow, dewax, sand, get really grumpy then glue the bottom onto hull ... maybe

Richard

Fine job - Richard

Well, I won't be sanding the bottom panel and fitting it today ... the epoxy is still sticky

There's no problem - it was cold last night and I'm guessing I'm just in too much of a hurry. Another day won't hurt. Guess I'll have to go shopping for timber and get started on the oars

Richard

The epoxy had set by lunch time - must've been a very cold night in the shed last night.

I had converted to oar making mode though and invited Jan out for a timber shop crawl.

The oars will be the traditional, diamond cross sectioned oars. Why? They work really well, you don't have to be as aware of their orientation and while they aren't as powerful as spoons, they aren't as tiring to use. Later on, I'll build some spooned oars to see how the two compare.

Length? Well, Mik's plans talk about 8' oars. However, the beam is 4' 2" where the rowlocks go and the rowlocks are outboard of that. Double that beam and you get 8' 4". I'm going to make my oars 2.5 m long, which is a nice, round, metric number and about 8' 2"

Timber.
All discussions about oar timber specify light weight, no knots, straight grained and whatever you can find at the time - this last criteria seems to be the defining point for some reason. I'd also promised earlier in this build that I'd buy real timber for the oars rather than recycling something.

So I picked up the lovely Janet and headed off to buy some oar timber ... oh, and to look at some monster garden pots for her

Typically, it turned into a drama.

The first place had some lovely planks, just the right size ... two days ago and ripped them into battens yesterday The alternative was full of knots. I could have bought some lovely, furniture grade timber but it was 35mm thick but I wanted 19mm and didn't really want to turn that much timber into woodchips.

The second place, where I usually buy my oar timber, were well stocked in everything except the size I need.

So we went looking at garden pots.

Then I thought, 'how about the recycling depot?'. After all, this is turning into the recycled boat so why not keep up the tradition and use some recycled timbers. So we drove for half an hour to the recycle shop, which had a lovely sign on the gate that read: 'Temporarily Closed'

So I wound up at Bone Timbers, who I've avoided in recent times due to the ultra condescending attitude of the last git that served me there (which is why Ottos get so much of my money, but they're on the other side of town). Today though, I got a lovely bloke who broke all traditions of the place and LISTENED to me Worse still, he UNDERSTOOD my needs Then, to cap it off, he knew exactly where to find exactly what I needed

So I came home with two lovely pine planks. I asked him what variety it was and he called it 'New Zealand Clear' - lovely colour, light, nice grain, no knots.
Cost? $50

I came home and got stuck into oar making, which I'll document in another thread in the 'Building/Repairing' forum seeing it's not something specifc to this boat. It might take a day or two for this thread to go up because I've just realised it'll work better with some drawings and I'm currently without a drawing package.

Richard

Maybe you should take the lovely Janet shopping with you more often...


So, mmm... where is this "Building/Repairing" forum? Maybe I need to do a little exploring - ya know, broaden my horizons...


Bob

Yes! I support Bob's question - is the post not yet on the board?

soth

Originally Posted by masoth

Yes! I support Bob's question - is the post not yet on the board?

soth

I started putting it up, then deleted it because I realised I needed to draw a diagram ... and didn't have the software. It'll get there. I've got to be really brave today ... and get my hair cut

Richard

Found it. Sorta hiding in plain sight.

Click on Wooden Boat Forum near top of the page. Building/Repairing is the first forum listed.

I should probably keep exploring 'cause that little exercise didn't do much to broaden my horizon.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobWes

Found it. Sorta hiding in plain sight.

Click on Wooden Boat Forum near top of the page. Building/Repairing is the first forum listed.

I should probably keep exploring 'cause that little exercise didn't do much to broaden my horizon.

Bob

Bob, do you have any idea how much raw material you're offering to the humourists on this forum

Richard

Got the bottom glued on today. Man, what a job. Allow plenty of time and have lots and lots and lots of screws on hand. Typically, I ran out and had to resort to nails, lots of nails, with cleats, of which I didn't have enough so had to frantically cut some more

Still, for better or for worse, the bottom is on, all twists, bends and skew angles set in epoxy.

There there was all the climbing around underneath trying to clean up. The plan was to carefully create a small fillet on the inside edge but I reckon I've managed to leave a small hollow instead - I'll look at ignoring it or doing a secondary fillet later (very very small fillet, just enough to blend the chine log with the bottom). I'm actually a pretty good filleter but just couldn't get the knack of it and with the epoxy going off and working over my head while crouched under the boat, getting an efficient clean up became more important.

Now I'm knackered and the stupid boat can just there and set for a day or two

Richard

Well Richard, you've really taken me on a ride from "Wow! I'm going to get into my boat building." to "Er. I wonder if I should do somethiing else with that expensive Gaboon marine ply."
Your lack of space is really hampering your work,, isn't it? Nevertheless, I have faith in your determination, and your back. Go for it, man.

soth