It took a little longer than expected, but I've glued the skeg and capping pieces in place. After much deliberation, I decided to glue all these pieces in place instead of just screws and sealant. The glue will make them much stronger and sealed, though I won't be able to remove them as easily. After all the pieces were glued on the boat, I sanded the top flat and rounded the edges.
The bolts were used as clamps while gluing the skeg, then the bolts were removed after the glue hardened. (The bolts are easily removable if they are temporarily wrapped in clear packing tape). The inside of the bolt holes were then coated with epoxy (which helps keep the wood from getting "sick" from the metal). The bolts will be reinstalled later with sealant. (So the bolts will be removable for inspection or replacement.)
The stem capping is two layers of 1/2" thick oak that must bend about 90 degrees.
I broke the first piece trying to bend it into position. Oak generally bends well, but this is a very tight bend and my pieces are very dry (probably kiln dried). So I made a wood torturing jig in the shape of the front of the boat.
It's just a piece of plywood with carefully shaped blocks screwed to it. I slowly poured a gallon of boiling water over the oak pieces as I bent and clamped them onto the jig. The heat from the boiling water relaxes the fibers of the wood and prevents it from breaking. A metal strip covers the outside of the wood piece so that the clamping force is more distributed. After the pieces were bent onto the jig, I poured another gallon of hot water on them, then let them dry for a week and removed them from the jig. (I didn't take pics of this process, sorry). They sprung back a little when I removed them, but they were easily installed on the front of the boat without breaking. (This boiling water technique is similar to steam bending, but I didn't want to make a steam box since I only needed to bend these two pieces. Steam bending probably works slightly better and the wood doesn't take as long to dry).
I drilled two 1" drain holes in the bottom of the transom for draining the bilge when the boat is out of the water. These holes are lined with a brass tube permanently glued in. They will be corked with drain plugs when the boat is sailing, since the boat would flood otherwise.
I also drilled some holes through the stem for a bow eye (in which to hook the trailer winch). This was scary, because I couldn't remember if there were any screws in the way. Luckily I didn't hit any. These holes are also coated with epoxy and the bow eye will also be installed with sealant.
Metal strips were made out of aluminum flat bar. I'm hoping they will add some extra protection for the bottom of the boat. We'll see if they do any good. Brass half-oval strips are commonly used, but I couldn't find that for a decent price. Aluminum should work just as well on a trailer boat, though it may not be quite as pretty. I used an angle grinder to cut them to length and round the edges a little. A belt sander with fine paper polished them up nicely. They were test fit on the hull (which is the cause of all the small screw holes in the previous pics), but then removed and will later be attached to the skeg and capping pieces using sealant and countersunk stainless screws.
The hull is shiny because I coated it with another thin coat of epoxy. The next step is to give the hull a final sanding. The final coat of epoxy has some ripples in it and I need to rough up the epoxy anyway, since paint won't stick to this super shiny, slick surface.
Then I'm going to paint the hull! I'm currently painting a scrap of plywood to test the adhesion of the epoxy, primer and topcoat that I'm using. I'll let it dry and then see if there are any adhesion problems.
The boat flipping will be two weekends from now hopefully. (But there is still a lot of work to be done after that.)
Nice Share!
ReplyDeleteCould you write more on construction adhesive used?