Thread: Tom Cat

Time for an update. The steaming of the margins did not go according to plan! One of those days where the head is not screwed on. I had started out with the usual scenario making sure everything was ready with the timber orientated to get both done together, dressed, edges rounded, soaked really well, clamps opened to the correct gap, the whole nine yards for such a small job.

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Into the steamer for an hour, then out, into the jig, bending beautifully, commence clamping, timber cooling, all is well…ugh no! I have misread the chamfers and have bent one the wrong way!! Many bad words, more bad words! Attempt to straighten them to get them back into the steamer – just made it. I’m only steaming one half so the ends are sticking out which gave me some time to ensure I mark the dang things correctly. I didn’t want that happening again.

Gave them another 30 mins and repeated the process. This time correctly…and all went well but now I worry that I may have over cooked them. Anyway, time will tell. They look good anyhow.


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What you consider cussing over, most would find acceptable. I just wish you had no life to get in the way, unlimited funding and a 30 hour work day, so I could see the project progress at a much faster rate. Very enjoyable . . .

I had decided earlier to give the boat a bit of class by putting a wooden grate behind the CB Support. The thinking was this would fit in well with the how the Floorboards would run. Anyway, I needed timber before doing anything so took a trip down to Lazarides in Brisbane and picked up some Queensland Maple for the job. These guys are great and I recommend them. It’s something different although somewhat of a gnarly timber with all sorts of curly grain in places where you didn’t expect! However, it should dress up really nice.

I spent the last couple weeks milling the timber to general size but planed to thickness. Considering the aft two frames are somewhat apart it was imperative that the thickness be ample enough to stop them overly bending underfoot. I eventually settled on 15mm in lieu of the designed 12mm. That little extra should do the trick (hope). It was a long job but has set me up for the designed layout I have in mind.


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First job was the grate – more milling and lots and lots of planing and routing but eventually reached an end point late last week. During the process I had to buy a pattern bit for the router, manufacture a jig for the cutouts etc. I had designed an extra wide fwd perimeter strip as I have an intention to carve something in there later. As an aside, I took wood carving up as a respite from my work project whilst in Germany and spent many a pleasant evening in a wood carving class with like minded older people just like me. It was a great experience, met a lot of people who didn’t speak English but managed somehow to communicate our ideas and kudos as required. For that I thank the opportunity afforded by the prolonged absence from home. I concentrated on relief carving and have been tossing around ideas for bits on the boat. However, nothing concrete yet. I have experimented with this little design – roughed out at this stage – for the fwd perimeter on the grate but am hedging my bets that I will find something more nautical (or not!)

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Here she is in her rough state – the polyurethane glue needs cleaning up with a sharp chisel. Also I am asking for help on what finish to come up with for the boards and the grate. The boat will be covered and on a trailer most of her life. Any hints, advice, recommendations etc would be most appreciated as there is a plethora of information at hand but…..decisions, decisions, decisions.

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You'd be well advised to leave the grate with an oil finish, applied regularly. The initial coats are tedious, until the wood sucks up what it wants, but the hardwood will be a little forgiving in this regard. Mix up a 1/2 gallon of mineral spirits (not turpentine unless it's real gum turps) and a half gallon of tung (not linseed) oil and stir well. On the first 2 coats, thin this mixture an additional 20% - 25% with spirits. Apply with a rag until the wood is soaked, let stand for 15 minutes then towel off the excess. Wait an hour then do it again. Wait two hours and use the 50/50 mix, every two hours for a whole day, of course toweling excess, after it's pooled for 15 minutes. At the end of this first day, you'll be tired of doing this, but it's a necessary procedure to get the wood saturated with oil and permit the solvent to flash off. You're not done, but the worst is over. Every day for a week, apply a generous soaking with the 50/50 mix, letting it stand for an hour, before toweling off. At the end of this week of oiling, the wood will be soaked or nearly so. As the last coat, add a few ounces of Japan drier to the oil (per gallon), which will force it to dry. During the soaking process, the grate will be sticky and difficult to handle, just wipe off finger prints and store in a dry place. Once every 3 or 4 months, you'll need to refresh this oil with a quick wipe, using a soaked rag, let stand for 15 minutes, then towel off. These "maintenance" coatings also have the Japan drier in it, so it'll dry quickly and can placed back in service the next day.

Welcome to the wonderful world of traditional oil coatings. You don't use linseed oil because it'll turn grayish/black fairly quickly and certain bugs like to live in it. Tung oil will also darken, but at a much slower rate, with UV exposure. Use pure pine gum turpentine or mineral spirits as the vehicle, not distilled petroleum turpentine (it says what it is on the label), which is too harsh. Once the cellular structure of the wood is filled with oil and the vehicle flashes off, water doesn't penetrate, but the oil does dry out and you have to recoat frequently, to preserve the wood and keep it from weathering. Don't scrub the grate with a brush to clean it, just rub with a towel. If you have to use a solvent to remove a stain, you can change the color in this area, if you get aggressive, so a light touch on spots. Maintenance coats are easy and should be part of a regular routine, maybe coupled with waxing other pieces or removing water spots, etc.

Grates have tight fitting joints which can split, if left to weather or much moisture gain is allowed. An oil finish will prevent this, but you have to stay after it. The oil finish will permit good under foot traction when wet, unlike varnish or polyurethanes.

The images attached are some adjustable sole slats (they can be raised to form a berth, shown in the raised position) I made a couple of years ago. They're cedar and have received a full day's worth of oiling. As you can see they're not "there" yet, but never will compare with the varnished thwart. Once fully soaked, they'll have dull shine, but it doesn't last long (days).

I had the same question re coatings and varnish even over epoxy just did'nt seem like a good move so after much reading I've decided to go with Cetol HLS with a teak tint on the beechwood I'm using for floorboards. I did wonder about an oil finish as per PARs advice and have used Tung oil on interier applications, love the stuff but at the end of the day the stain is it.The timber grain is also gnarly and I think at least five or six coats will be necessay looks OK so far after three and I understand like the oil finish an annual recoat is recommended.
Grate looks terrific BTW.

Things are progressing. I have now fit the Boards for the Fwd section but have as yet to figure how to hold everything together and above all else keep the sections in the boat whilst on the water and on the road.

The Grate has been fitted also. The Boards are 15mm and the Grate is 25mm thick respectively so a couple of cut-outs were required in the Floors to accommodate the extra depth. Work now continues on the Floor Boards Aft. To ensure continuity of the FB’s I have increased the width of the two FB’s either side of the CB Case. My Board width required I glue two together to gain the width required and I used a lap joint with PU glue (Purbond) to achieve this. The jointer does a great job of this.

Lap joins were also required for the centre FB Fwd and the two edge FB’s Fwd. I will get some pics of these when I have finished fitting the long Aft FB’s.
As far as keeping them in the boat I have decided on a three point methodology – all gleaned from ideas of others on the forums here in AU and the US. I will share this when I have progressed a little further as pics are better than words.

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Just realized the week has come to an end and so it goes that work ceases on the boat on Fridays. The weekends are kept for house and yard maintenance.

Raced out and took some pics so here is the final look. Note that I have used 7mm thick ply spacers to get an even spacing everywhere. I still have some tuning to do prior to joining them together with cleats that will be startegically placed to provide the necessary support and assist with the hold down effort. In the pics you will also notice I have clamped a temporary board aft to provide a baseline for the work. The outer port and stbd FB's have been joined with a lap joint as I did up Fwd. I'm still trying to decide whether to include them or not in the removable section along with the 3 adjacent FB's. It's a hefty section so maybe not.

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I can sit over my pics now and and contemplate just how I will achieve all the hold down support stuff.
My thinking is….

• I have ordered a half dozen Brass Finger Latches from Whitworths and envisage using 4 of these to hold the FB sections down in strategic places. Aft Ctr rear and Fwd Ctr FB rear port and stbd.

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• Extend the FB cleats (whatever their called!) under the permanent FBs adjacent the CB Case and the centre Fwd FB (these are permamnent).
• Then use this wonderful little design to finally hold everything down. I will use a brass turn button swivel to keep everything shipshape(not that this isn’t, of course!). I really like this even though it’s more work.

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I was going to recommend those 1/4 turn dogs, as a method to hold one end of your floor board assemblies. The other end can fit under a cleat, which could be hidden under the boards, on a frame or floor support.

Had a business trip away week before last so missed out some build time. Things have progressed however, as I had received my finger latches I installed those to see how they would go. There are six all together – 2 in the grate, 2 Fwd P&S and 2 Aft P&S. They work pretty well but now that I have the Forstner bit set I’m going to install the turn buttons as well. I haven’t done that yet. Instead I took the Margins out, cleaned them up and drilled for the hold down screws and plugs ready for installation after I have cleaned and sanded the entire interior. This will be done after I have made ready all the interior bits that are required inside the Hull and prior to fitment of the Deck.

I have moved on to the Supports required on the Transom for the Seat and Deck (just needed a change!). I’ll go back to the Flooring (turn buttons and beading the FB edges) after I have done some work in this area. Luckily Bill designed the Seats to be at the same height as the CB Case so to get the correct height it was simple matter to jury rig a level from the top of the Case and mark on the inner face of the Transom where the corner of the board hit.

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Having these marks I used a bit of thin fibreboard and transferred the marks with a compass and then cut the required curve on my bandsaw, tidied up and also used the template in reverse for the Port side. Using the template on a piece of 19mm Hoop Pine we have a Seat support! However, it’s very stiff and I’m thinking I will need to use the original Transom steaming frame to steam the pieces to shape to make life somewhat easier in getting the top bevel correct for the Seat boards themselves. Anyway, that’s my plan for them.
The Deck Support was another matter altogether. My original template was not accurate anymore (for whatever reason). To get this right I needed to temporarily install the aft Deck Frame, plane in the correct bevel and use that as a reference point for getting the correct curve on the inner face of the Transom. I used a presentation laser pointer attached to the Deck Frame to get a number of points on the curve and again transferred these to my fibreboard to get out the template required.
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I have to say I was pleased with the outcome because it has worked really well.

So bottom line is I have a way forward and just need to steam my bits of wood after pre-drilling the installation holes as I have no way of clamping the Seat Supports. I’ll give the deck Support the same treatment.

This piece of advice is for all those who have made templates, forms or anything that assists in the build to make life easier. Don’t throw anything out until after the build is completely finished and even then ask yourself the question many times over if it is still the right thing to do. I was pestered a number of times to get rid of the so called superfluous stuff hanging around in the shed but I prevailed and am so glad I did. So we come to the Floor and Deck Supports on the Transom and yes!!! as I mentioned in my previous post I used these superfluous forms to steam the Supports! I am so glad I didn’t throw them out. It has made the job that much simpler although there was significant spring back it still assisted in obtaining their shape.

The Deck Support is now epoxied in place but I still need to give the Seat Support the same treatment to have it finished ready for the next phase.


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Meanwhile work has continued on the Floorboards and I now have the turn buttons completed with their supports but here I have a dilemma and am contemplating my navel as to the best wood/material to use for the actual buttons. I want to match the Floorboards but the wood may not meet the strength requirement here. More time required for thinking I s’pose and it’s not important yet anyway – I need to buy a bunch of SB screws for any number of jobs that are awaiting their purchase and this is just one of them.


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I spent a complete day beading the boards on all upper edges to give a better feel to the bare feet that will eventually trample all over them so now in a position to finally finish them off. I’m very pleased with their look and glad I spent the time making them so. Some pics here of their look if you can pick it out.

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I have a Floorboard related problem that I canvass the formunites for – I am intending to oil my FB’s and my question is this – is there an advantage to oil all pieces prior to final assembly or doesn’t it matter much?

With the quality of work that you're preforming on this project, whatever you elect to do will look just fine. I agree that the toggles need to be stiff enough to perform and my first instinct, would be to use oak for them. Yep, they'd contrast, but this likely wouldn't be as big an issue as you might think, possably even stylish. The base portion, where it sticks up flush with the cutout, could be the same stock, so the hole looks the same. I would also suggest a button head barrel bolt, instead of a screw.



To install these I'd insert a blind nut under the base, with the appropriate relief hole for the bolt shank. This would leave the base free of a protruding stud and you'd have the ability to remove and replace the bolt repeatedly if necessary. I'd do this because I think screws are great if you want to dog something down for good, but not as effective if asked to accept some slop as this application needs. I'd also put some thread lock goo on it during assembly, to insure it stays put.

Most of the time, oil is just lathered on after assembly, though some logic could be offered, to warrant a very liberal pre-assembly coating, to get the areas that will be hidden after assembly. Considering how long an oil coating lasts, it probably doesn't matter much, as these areas will dry out pretty quickly, but at least the cells will be filled with oil initially.

My build is in the beginning stages. I have been very slowly getting to it but things accelerate now. I was introduced here by the Wooden Boat Forum. First, my thanks for sharing your time and talents. I am a novice and am learning many things from your experience. I will build in a very similar manner as you. Next, is the generosity By taking the time to set forth so much, you give the rest of us encouragement and inspiration; a big part of the resource needed for any lengthy and part time undertaking. And finally, what a nice job you are doing with Meerkat; so carefully put together.

Sincerely,

Greg in Pennsylvania

Originally Posted by PAR

With the quality of work that you're preforming on this project, whatever you elect to do will look just fine. I agree that the toggles need to be stiff enough to perform and my first instinct, would be to use oak for them. Yep, they'd contrast, but this likely wouldn't be as big an issue as you might think, possably even stylish. The base portion, where it sticks up flush with the cutout, could be the same stock, so the hole looks the same. I would also suggest a button head barrel bolt, instead of a screw.



To install these I'd insert a blind nut under the base, with the appropriate relief hole for the bolt shank. This would leave the base free of a protruding stud and you'd have the ability to remove and replace the bolt repeatedly if necessary. I'd do this because I think screws are great if you want to dog something down for good, but not as effective if asked to accept some slop as this application needs. I'd also put some thread lock goo on it during assembly, to insure it stays put.

Most of the time, oil is just lathered on after assembly, though some logic could be offered, to warrant a very liberal pre-assembly coating, to get the areas that will be hidden after assembly. Considering how long an oil coating lasts, it probably doesn't matter much, as these areas will dry out pretty quickly, but at least the cells will be filled with oil initially.

Hi PAR - Unfortunately I'm too far down the track to go with the above. I've never seen these button head barrell bolts but then again I've never looked! Great idea though and I appreciate your valuable input to my project.