The lumber is cut using a circular saw and the edge is cleaned up using a belt sander with 50 grit sand paper ... (which makes a great power planer for this task). I made sure there were no gaps underneath the skeg and that it was not leaning to one side.
The top of the skeg is perfectly horizontal ... (yay a straight line finally!) So I used a tight string (leveled with a string level) to mark the top edge. Then it's cut with a circular saw.
The front of the skeg is checked out to accept the next capping piece. This was done with a table saw set at a low blade height. This worked well, except the bottom edge got chipped a little.
Next the holes are drilled and countersunk for the through bolts. These bolts are hot dipped galvanized steel. It's normally not a good idea to mix metals like these galvanized steel bolts and bronze screws and nails. However, since this is a trailer boat, this won't cause any corrosion problems most likely. Also, bronze is higher on the galvanic series than galvanized steel, so the steel will corrode first if there is a problem. I may have to replace the bolts once every 20 years, but at least the permanent bronze screws will last forever. (For those of you still concerned, just pretend the bolts are sacrificial zincs).
The two capping pieces on either side of the centercase slot are made the same way as the skeg. (Except these pieces are going to be installed using large screws instead of through bolts).
They are also faired slightly on the sides where they meet the skeg using a belt sander. (I'm kinda embarrassed that I use the belt sander so much, but it works so well!)
Next week I'm going to make some more capping pieces for the front of the boat, then take it apart and install all of them with glue.
No comments:
Post a Comment