C17 (Classic 17) in London

[WobblyLegs]

Well, a busy weekend for me.

I have managed to cut all my 9mm panels (with the exception of one cabin side which will come out of frame D after rollover), and the stringers.



I've left the stringers for last as I want to laminate some of the longer lengths of off-cuts together so that I can measure (and cut) them as one piece instead of trying to get everything to fit together later. It makes sense to me...


So far the only error I found was when I laid the two motorwell sides together to match them, and found that I had measured one sloping upwards towards the transom and one sloping downward towards the transom.




So, not a panic, as I have lots of large off-cuts, and was able to cut a new one without a problem.

I only hope I haven't made any other errors in measuring.

If the weather holds (thunder showers predicted for today!) I'm hoping to laminate what will become the stringers tonight and cut them tomorrow or the next day, and also laminate all four transom pieces before the weekend, leaving me ready to begin building the mould on the weekend.

As before, I have uploaded some more pic's in my C17 album.
http://gallery.bateau2.com/thumbnails.php?album=286

Wobbly.

[WobblyLegs]

Well, I had to wait a couple of days as the weather isn't co-operating, but I have managed to laminate the stringer wood tonight.

http://gallery.bateau2.com/albums/userp ... 00x400.jpg

I have decided that it's probably better not to post pic's of everything I do here, so I'll keep the pic's in the thread to major development (like the next one hopefully will be the frames/mould), and just put links to the "minor" pic's (which are in my gallery).

[Cracker Larry]

So far the only error I found was when I laid the two motorwell sides together to match them, and found that I had measured one sloping upwards towards the transom and one sloping downward towards the transom.

Just a suggestion for anytime you are cutting mirror image pieces. Stack the two pieces together, secure with clamps or screws, then cut as one piece. They will always match, you only have to lay it out once and cut it once.

[WobblyLegs]

So, this weekend has been a little more relaxing, but still keeping ahead of my schedule.

Stringers laminated, measured and cut, in that order, then notches cut. Followed by notches cut into frames "C," "D" and "E."

I had to check whether they all fit:



It's also the first real indication of the size of the boat that I'm building. Somehow a tape across the ground showing 17 feet doesn't mean anything!

I had planned on laminating the transom, but got hit by a thunder-storm with hail like I have never seen (in England) before… (20 minutes after this pic was taken, the sky was black. Unbelievable!).

More pic's in the gallery as usual.

[BillTwo]

So, this weekend has been a little more relaxing, but still keeping ahead of my schedule.

Stringers laminated, measured and cut, in that order, then notches cut. Followed by notches cut into frames "C," "D" and "E."

I had to check whether they all fit:



More pic's in the gallery as usual.

Wobbleylegs, I posted earlier to your thread in a differrent category but I didn't get your response. This is the perfect one that I really wanted.

I'm now waiting on my Pre-Cut Plywood Kit to begin building my OB17. While waiting, I was practicing notch cutting using my table saw and jig saw (I do have a Bandsaw, but its still in the box). Both tools did not give me the quality of notch cut that I was looking for. I had to use my wood chisel on one or two, and fine trim some other notch cuts due to undercuts, and splinters. My question to you is HOW DID YOU GET SUCH PERFECT LOOKING NOTCHES for those frames and stringers? What tool(s) did you use and how did you use them? Woodworking is not my best suite and the only project that I've ever built in my life was birdhouses. Any instructions or details on how you did yours would be greatly appreciated.

If you would like, you can email me the information, but any details on cutting those notches correctly would be of great help to me. I've use masking tape to reduce the splinters but I still have a poor quality cut notch when I finish cutting. Whether it be on my table saw, which causes an overcut. I have a general purpose blade (60 tooth blade) on my table saw and my Jig Saw has an all-purpose blade that can be used for cutting Plywood. The Table Saw is a Craftsman, the Jig Saw is Black & Decker and my BandSaw is a Delta (which I haven't used yet).

Regards,


BillTwo

[WobblyLegs]

HOW DID YOU GET SUCH PERFECT LOOKING NOTCHES for those frames and stringers? What tool(s) did you use and how did you use them?

Hi BillTwo,

Sorry, I never saw your question in the other thread (once I had an answer for that one I kinda forgot it was there, and didn't have a "notifier").

Regarding the notches, I measured the widths to EXACTLY 9mm on the stringers and 18mm on the frames (stringers are 2 x 9mm ply). My stringers are 122mm high so I made the 60mm deep on the stringers which turned out to give me 62mm to be cut out of the frames.

As to cutting, I used a jigsaw, taking it slowly and making sure that the measured line stayed on the centre of the blade (i.e. taking out about 1mm [half the blade width] or so of wood either side of the line). Doing the end of the notch was a bit crude: after cutting each side of the notch to full depth, I started about 2/3rds of the way in on one cut and cut a curve heading towards the end of the other cut. I then cut straight in to the line of the notch-end repeatedly and SLOWLY shaving away the edge of that curve, basically using the jigsaw as a "file" to square off the end.

Does this make sense?

The notches are NOT a tight fit which is the way it needs to be. You need some space for epoxy to glue the frames to the stringers at a later stage. In my case I'm guessing at just under 1mm on either side as my jigsaw blade cuts a width somewhere between 1 and 2mm or so.

I'm using a plain "high-speed" cutting blade, and am getting some splinters as you do, but they are small and I just brush them off (it's all getting covered eventually).

I hope this all helps, but I'm really not the expert on this forum. I'm basically working out how to do stuff as I get to it. I seem to be improving though

[Steve_MA]

As he said, you dont want the joints to be tight..you want epoxy to get in there. Almost any mess you make at this point with the saw can be fixed with epoxy...so long you dont cut the stringer in half

I think the biggest headache might be if you cut the nothes too deep. But even there you could use a clamp/wood block to keep it at the right height and tab it with epoxy.

[BillTwo]

Hi BillTwo,

As to cutting, I used a jigsaw, taking it slowly and making sure that the measured line stayed on the centre of the blade (i.e. taking out about 1mm [half the blade width] or so of wood either side of the line). Doing the end of the notch was a bit crude: after cutting each side of the notch to full depth, I started about 2/3rds of the way in on one cut and cut a curve heading towards the end of the other cut. I then cut straight in to the line of the notch-end repeatedly and SLOWLY shaving away the edge of that curve, basically using the jigsaw as a "file" to square off the end.

Does this make sense?

The notches are NOT a tight fit which is the way it needs to be. You need some space for epoxy to glue the frames to the stringers at a later stage. In my case I'm guessing at just under 1mm on either side as my jigsaw blade cuts a width somewhere between 1 and 2mm or so.

I'm using a plain "high-speed" cutting blade, and am getting some splinters as you do, but they are small and I just brush them off (it's all getting covered eventually).

I hope this all helps, but I'm really not the expert on this forum. I'm basically working out how to do stuff as I get to it. I seem to be improving though

Thanks Wobblylegs, that's just the input that I needed. When you are a novice at something and you try to do those things that you haven't done before, its always great to get that experienced help you need to keep you going in the right direction.

As I indicated before, I was practicing with two different tools to cut notches; using a Table Saw and then a Jig Saw. Now I just have to improve on using my Jig Saw. Every thing that you explained to me made sense. Also, it jogged my memory about gaps are good - especially for epoxy, as long as its within the given tolerances. I was trying to make a near tight fit less than 2mm. My gaps were coming out around 5-6mm. In terms of US measurement, I want to keep my cuts down to 1/8 inch or less but not so tight as to defeat the epoxy glue.

Thank you so very much for your input and I too will post some more of my pictures on the Gallery as soon as I have something to Post. Currently it's just a model concept that I plan on incorporating on the OB17 once I get my Pre-Cut Plywood delivered. I can be searched on the Builder Galleries under "OB17".

Steve, thanks for your input also. I will keep a close eye on my gaps when doing my Stitch and Glue process.


Regards,

BillTwo

[WobblyLegs]

Also, it jogged my memory about gaps are good - especially for epoxy, as long as its within the given tolerances. I was trying to make a near tight fit less than 2mm. My gaps were coming out around 5-6mm. In terms of US measurement, I want to keep my cuts down to 1/8 inch or less but not so tight as to defeat the epoxy glue.

Hello again BillTwo,

I seem to recall reading somewhere (either on the Bateau site, or in my plans) the the gap must be no more than 1/8 in TOTAL, so only 1/16 on each side (remember we're talking notches here - other parts of the boat allow bigger gaps). I've been looking at some of the tutorials since my first reply, and they suggest cutting with your blade on the outside edge of the line.

Have a look here:
http://bateau2.com/content/view/77/28/

You'll get better with the saw as you progress - I'd cut all my 9mm before doing the notches, and am now confident enough to cut most curves to within about 1mm (1/16?) of my line. When I started I was about 3-5mm out.

Good luck.

W.

[Cracker Larry]

Hi BillTwo,

As to cutting, I used a jigsaw, taking it slowly and making sure that the measured line stayed on the centre of the blade (i.e. taking out about 1mm [half the blade width] or so of wood either side of the line). Doing the end of the notch was a bit crude: after cutting each side of the notch to full depth, I started about 2/3rds of the way in on one cut and cut a curve heading towards the end of the other cut. I then cut straight in to the line of the notch-end repeatedly and SLOWLY shaving away the edge of that curve, basically using the jigsaw as a "file" to square off the end.

That's one way to do it. Here's another......drill a hole slightly larger than the jig saw blade just inside one of the corners. Make your first cut to the corner with the hole, then use the hole to turn the saw 90 degrees to make the back cut.

As to splintering, the plywood will splinter pretty bad cutting cross grain. To prevent this, put down a strip of masking tape where you will cut, lay out the line on the tape then cut with the tape in place. No splinters.