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.