Sunday, April 6, 2008

After a cold week of weather and not much opportunity to do anything I got some time in today.

I did receive a parcel from Noah’s Marine with lots of stainless screws with Robertson heads that I much prefer, some throwaway brushes, mixing cups and some other epoxy mixing things that I will soon be needing.

I worked until about 4 pm and then went to Windsor Plywood and picked up a 10.5 foot long S4S 1 x 6 Douglas Fir board to use for the bulkhead framing.

Came home, set up the table saw and with my trusty helper Hunter assisting I soon had three 10.5 foot long 1 1/2″ wide pieces of framing material.

I started off with Bulkhead 1. I cut the bulkhead pieces to length first. The plans require the framing to extend beyond the edge of the plywood bulkhead by about 1/2″ for an angle of 26 degrees. I set up the table saw to cut 26 degrees with the help of my Veritas angle finder tools. Fiddled with the fence until the width was just right and then ran the two pieces through.

Then, I used the table saw fence to help me line up the frame pieces with the edges of the plywood and to make sure the tops of the frames were tight against the fence as well as the plywood. I then drove a small nail in at each end to hold everything in place while I drilled pilot holes for the screws.

Once I had both sides attached I measured the distance between them for the top piece and cut it to fit nice and snug.

After that was all done, I took everything to the basement and assembled it with Titebond III glue.

Did the same for bulkhead 4.5. It set it up with clamps as well as screws on the top frame. The sides didn’t need clamps as I got nice glue squeeze-out with just the screws. The screws are closer together on the sides so that is what makes the difference I think.

So, a pretty good day given the late start.

I also picked up a digital food scale at Wal-Mart as well in the afternoon. I plan on measuring out a bit of epoxy tomorrow night and epoxying a couple of pieces of scrap together to see how well it cures in the relatively cool temperatures we are still experiencing. If that goes well I’ll laminate together the rudder and leeboard pieces to start.

Some photos: