HC14 Build - First Ever

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JCordray
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HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by JCordray »

So evidently, waiting for plans to come through the post is the longest and hardest part of boatbuilding so far...

:D

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gstanfield
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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by gstanfield »

Yes, it is one of the hardest parts :D

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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by JCordray »

It's okay - I have a few other small projects to work on but it is a little maddening!

The plywood is in the shop, the epoxy, fillers, gloves, stirrers, mixing jars, sticks and other bits are on order. I'll be ready to go whenever Royal Mail get their act together...

JCordray
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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by JCordray »

The plans have arrived and the work is well under way! Here are a few pictures of the progress so far:

The Plans laid out on the bed for inspection

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After working through the plans I went off to the store with my helper John. The wood just barely fit in the car!

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I don't have loads of space or money so I have had to improvise a few things, like these:

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After getting the wood home and my improvised sawhorses sorted out, the wood went up to get ready for work.

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With the wood up I started scribing the lines onto the wood. I think this is called 'lofting' although my son John simply referred to it as drawing on wood. He was very interested in helping with this part!

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After getting all the drawings done - which took ages - I had to actually cut something! This was a bit scary and felt like a sort of point of no return. But I chopped away and ended up with the first chine panel:

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The plans said to only measure once and then use the first one as a template so cutting out the other three happened a lot faster. Here are all four:

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I was pretty determined to finish the cutting of the pieces in one night so I just got on with the business of doing more drawing on wood and cutting. The result? Here:

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All of the previous work was done on Thursday and so today, Saturday, it was time to use epoxy and fibreglass tape. This was a first for me and also made me a little nervous. Everyone else makes it look easy and so I didn't want to screw it up. Here are all the pieces of wood laid out on the floor:

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Just after this - before mixing up the epoxy - I thought it might be a good idea to put some plastic underneath the wood so I didn't glue it to the garage floor. So that was done and then I primed the wood with epoxy and applied some tape and then wetted out the tape with more epoxy. I was pleasantly surprised to see the fibreglass tape actually go clear like it is supposed to!

Here is the state of things so far:

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I have put a heater in the garage now. The space is not insulated so I might as well heat it by burning money directly, but I want the epoxy to set up and cure properly and it was too cold.

A question: Do I need to wait for one side t cure totally before I flip it all over and do the other side? Or could I leave it to set up for a few hours and then flip it over (carefully) and do the other side, weight it down and leave it all to cure for a few days?

TOTAL TIME: 6 HOURS

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gstanfield
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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by gstanfield »

And now the fun really begins :D
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JCordray
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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by JCordray »

Well there has been a small disaster!

I went to check on the epoxy and discovered it was gluing the plastic I put on top of it! So I pulled the plastic up but this disturbed the fibreglass tape. So then I mixed some more epoxy and put tape back down on the the one which looked 'unsalvageable' and used a bit more epoxy to wet down any bits from the other seams which looked not quite right.

The problem is the floor is a little uneven and so getting a flat joint seemed hard. Then, after all this silliness, I realised I could have just stuck a nice big, FLAT, board underneath all the seams on the floor and weighted the panels on either side of the seams and I would have had nice, flat joints.

Oh well. It looks like it will set up okay now.

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Cracker Larry
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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by Cracker Larry »

A question: Do I need to wait for one side t cure totally before I flip it all over and do the other side?
Yes! Let it cure at least 12 hours, in cool temps maybe longer.
I went to check on the epoxy and discovered it was gluing the plastic I put on top of it!
No problem, just leave it alone until the epoxy dries and it will peel right off.
The problem is the floor is a little uneven and so getting a flat joint seemed hard.
If the joints aren't flat, I'd cut it apart right now, grind off the glass and do it again. I do a lot of things twice :wink: :lol:
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JCordray
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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by JCordray »

I'm pretty sure I got the joints flat now and can be sure to get the other side flat by using some some spare wood to even out the floor. The epoxy and tape looks pretty good now.

Of course, I am also now cooking up some spicy chicken quesadillas, bacon-wrapped sausages, jalapeno cheese dip and some apple pie with custard to go on it. So with a bottle of white I've got a meal on.

Food before boats methinks...

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peter-curacao
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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by peter-curacao »

JCordray wrote: Of course, I am also now cooking up some spicy chicken quesadillas, bacon-wrapped sausages, jalapeno cheese dip and some apple pie with custard to go on it.
Aha that's why that mortar is there as a weight ! :lol:

JCordray
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Re: HC14 Build - First Ever

Post by JCordray »

So I checked on the seams today after they all set up and cured. Some of them were not so good, like this one:

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You can see on the right side the fibreglass tape didn't bond to the wood and epoxy very well. I have taken this apart, ground the epoxy and fibreglass tape off the wood and put some more epoxy and tape on the joint. Now it looks like this:

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Is this better?

I had another joint break because of my rough handling of the wood (they are only taped on one side so I think this was the problem) and I did it again as well since the fibreglass tape snapped. Now it looks like this:

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Do these look okay? The other three joints look like these so I hope this is okay.

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