Trailer painted and being reassembled

I've just been working on the trailer over the last few weeks. I bought more wood for the boat, but I decided to just finish the trailer so I can get all these trailer parts and grease out of my garage. I primed and painted all the parts of the trailer, using a roller and brush. Like all my paint jobs, it's a 50 foot paint job, (it looks good from 50 feet away.) The color of the trailer is also the trim color for the boat, so they will match.


Now I'm slowly assembling the trailer ... if I can remember where all the parts go. (I took pics of everything before disassembly for reference.)


I painted the trailer frame instead of galvanizing it, because galvanizing was too expensive. I did however buy all galvanized replacement parts (which are not on the trailer yet), so the trailer will have galvanized wheels, hubs, and axle.

Next week, I'll show the completed trailer and perhaps some progress on the boat!

Still working on trailer

The lumber store said it will be a few weeks before they get more of the wood I want (1X6 CVG Doug-Fir), so I'm just working on the trailer for now.

I ordered some parts online. I'm getting new tires and wheels, a new axle, new lights, and a few other accessories. I may also get some new hubs, because I just noticed that one of them is cracking. So basically, almost every component of the undercarriage was damaged.

I also stripped a lot of the paint off of the frame. I decided to take the old paint off, because there were some flaky rusty spots, which is no good to paint over. I used chemical paint stripper and then naval jelly (which has phosphoric acid to dissolve the rust ... interestingly, an ingredient in Coca Cola). Maybe hiring someone to sandblast the frame would have made more sense, because this is a lot of work with nasty chemicals. I couldn't get all the paint off, but most of it. I'm almost ready to prime and paint.

(Note that the brown spots still on the frame are mostly brown paint, not rust).

There are a lot of other small parts to paint. This is going to take a little while.

Frames complete. Trailer dismantled.

The frames have been finished and attached to the strongback. You can start to see the shape of a boat forming in my garage. Some temporary braces are placed across each frame at certain heights specified in the plans. These braces rest on the strongback at specified spacing, ensuring that the frames are at the proper location as the boat is being built. I'm waiting for some more wood from the lumber store. When I get it, I'm going to continue construction of the skeletion of the boat.

In the meantime, I'm dismantling the trailer and stripping the old paint off the frame. It's not nearly as fun as building the boat and hard work, but necessary.

One major problem I found with the trailer is that the axle needs to be replaced. As shown below, one of the spindle surfaces was seriously damaged. The trailer showed obvious signs of overloading and neglect when I bought it, so I guess I should have expected to find something like this. If I would have used the trailer as it was, the bearings would failed in no time for sure. I'm glad I decided to completely overhaul the trailer. It'll be much more reliable and not a worry.

Boat Trailer Aquired

I bought a used boat trailer on Craigslist. $240. It needs a little work, but it's the perfect length and has all the features I want. I couldn't pass it up. This steel trailer is a 1972 Gator Trailer made in Florida. (The company is no longer in business). The only info I could find online about the company is here:
http://www.feathercraftboats.com/Gator%20Trailers.htm
It seems the 1950's and 1960's trailer frames were round tubular construction, but this one is open c-channel ... which I think is better, because it won't rust from the inside out as long as I keep it painted. (A steel tubular trailer should really be galvanized, especially if its going to be in salt water.)

I can't figure out how much weight this particular trailer can haul. I'm sure my boat won't be too heavy for it, but it could be too light (then the springs would be too stiff and my boat would have a rough ride). I jumped up and down on it (I do that with any large purchase) and the springs seem about right. I also lifted one side ... I would guess it weighs about 350 lbs.

This trailer has a row of keel rollers down the middle that support the majority of the weight of the boat, as well as bunks on the side that keep it stable. This is an ideal trailer setup for a wooden hull, in my opinion. The trailer is also tilting, which means I will be able to beach launch the boat without a boat ramp ... very cool. That longitudinal board down one side is a metal platform for walking on so you don't get your feet wet ... I like it.

Ok, actually, there's lots of work to be done on it, which I will be doing concurrently with the boat construction. The tires and wheel bearings need to be replaced. The lights and wiring need to be replaced too. I also plan to paint it to match the boat and maybe get new fenders to make it look better. The carpet on the bunks seems to be shag from some granny's bathroom, so that should be replaced. I also need to get a spare tire and wheel. Then I need to adjust the trailer to fit my boat, including the axle and bunk positions. I will probably have to spend a few hundred bucks and a few months fixing it up. But I can't find a new trailer like this anywhere ... and if I could, it would be pricey.

So ... now maybe my blog should be titled "Hartley TS14 Construction and Trailer Restoration", because I plan to include the details of the trailer restoration in my posts.

Frame construction still in progress

I'm still working on the frames. After a lot of sawing, measuring, hammering, and one big sticky epoxy mess, the frames are starting to come together. The plywood gussets have been cut out and all of the frames have been glued and nailed together. I'm quickly learning how to use epoxy. Using straight epoxy doesn't work well for bonding pieces of wood together. It's too thin, so the wood soaks it up or it drips out of the joint, resulting in a glue starved joint. So I'm learning the correct ratios of wood flour (fine saw dust) and silica additives to give it a nice consistency that won't drip or sag. Instructions say to get the epoxy the consistency of mayonnaise or peanut butter for glue. A good rule of thumb that I learned: if the epoxy can't keep its shape in the pot, then it won't keep its shape later and won't stay in the joint.

So far, I'm reasonably satisfied with the frames. No matter how many times I measure and check symmetry before I put them together ... the frames keep turning out not nearly as perfect as I would like. How frustrating. Maybe I should just stop measuring things that are already glued together. Oh well, we'll see if my frames result in something usable. Everyone talks about how nothing on a boat is square or symmetric ... I can see why. But how far off can it be before it starts looking fugly?

Stay tuned folks. I'll have something vaguely in the shape of an upside-down boat soon.

Centerboard Plate Obtained

So I got a centerboard plate for the boat this week. The centerboard is a large fin at the center of the boat that acts as a ballast and also keeps the boat tracking straight. It can be pivoted up into the hull (into the center case/trunk) for trailering or beaching the boat. The centerboard on this boat is 5/16" steel plate that weighs about 80 lbs. No other ballast is used on the TS14. Raising the center plate requires a small pulley tackle or winch.

The people in the shop at my job actually made the center plate for me. They only charged me scrap metal prices and time to use the plasma burning table ... VERY cheap compared to buying the steel retail and trying to cut it myself.


The only problem ... when I got home, I noticed that the steel was bowed slightly (about 5/8"). They must have ran it over with a fork lift or something. When I put a straight board on it, you can see the slight bend in it. The steel plate has to be straightened so it will fit in the trunk and pivot without jamming in the slot.


I tried jumping on it ... that didn't work. I drove over it with my small car ... that didn't bend it either. A professional would probably heat it with a torch, but I don't have one and don't want to pay someone to do something seemingly so simple. So I devised a silly (and potentially unsafe) way to bend the plate involving a large scissor jack, some chain and some 4X4's. Now that's some crappy engineering.


I straightened the plate, but it was more work than I planned. I did rough calculations and I figure that it took well over 2000 lbs to bend the plate. I had to bend the plate about 2" past flat to get it to permanently deform and spring back to a flat position. The plate is still kinked by about 1/8", but its much straighter now and should work.


I like the idea of a strong steel centerboard, but I have to find a way to keep it from rusting. Galvanizing it is one option, but the galvanizers in my area have a $200 minimum charge. I'll worry about it after I get the hull built.

Wood Purchased and Frame Construction Started

I bought some wood this week ... about 70% of what I need. I got mostly clear vertical grain Doug-Fir (CVG DF) for the frames and almost everything inside the boat. Marine grade plywood is going to be used for the hull. I got Aquatek and Hydrotek brand name meranti (mahongony-like) plywood. It looks like pretty nice stuff. No voids in the plys. Hydrotek looks a little nicer and has a BS 1088 stamp on it. (Although I hear this specification isn't regulated, so the stamp is pretty meaningless.) I also got white oak for some pieces that will take more of a beating.

I cut out the frames from 1X4, 1X6 and 1X8 CVG DF. It was pretty easy ... just tracing the patterns and lots of cutting with a jig saw. Although, cutting with a jig saw requires some practice to make a clean cut. (Reading the instruction manual and holding it with two hands helps a lot.) The frame pieces will be glued and nailed together with plywood gussets.


I also cut out the pieces for the stem, which will be three layers of wood glued and screwed.

Setting Up Shop

Here is a picture of my garage today. I got it all cleaned out and organized. I built the strongback during the July 4th weekend. The strongback is basically a flat and level frame on which to build the hull. The hull will be built upside-down and then later flipped over. I built the strongback out of scrap 2X3 that I got from the free scrapwood pile at my job.


I aquired a free (though cheap) table saw from my coworker/friend. (Thanks Mike!) So far I have spent about $150 on saw blades, small tools and other supplies from a discount tool store. One item most homeowners don't have enough of for boat building is CLAMPS ... I bought lots of them!

For the last few weeks I've been reading online forums and a few books about building small boats. I've learned of a few necessary jigs I need to make. I made a scarfing jig today.


It's basically just an angled aluminum plate attached to wedges on a piece of plywood. This allows me to use my belt sander to scarf lumber. The photo shows the jig with short test scrap pieces. Scarfing is used to make a long piece of lumber out of two shorter pieces. I roughly angle cut both pieces on the table saw (8:1 slope), precisely finish them using the jig and belt sander, then glue them together with epoxy. If done correctly the joint produced is much stronger than the wood itself. I hear this is done quite often in boat building. I already know I need to scarf pieces together to make the mast, since I can't find lumber that long! Books I've read say to use a large hand plane or some other tool that is either expensive or time consuming. Since I already have a cheap belt sander, I'm going to try to scarf with it. The photo below shows my two pieces ready for gluing. Looks like my jig works good enough.


Also, a few weeks ago, I made a cross-cut sled for my little table saw, based on some plans online I found. The sled has oak strips on the bottom that fit into the guides on the saw. It'll increase my chances of finishing the boat with all my digits intact! I've already used this handy little jig lots of times.


So the next step is to buy wood, epoxy, and fasteners. I'm going to do that next week, except I'm still trying to figure out what kind of wood and how much to buy. Then I can start building!