Dave's FL12

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dewers
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Post by dewers »

Thanks Mike for the idea, I will see if I can come up with something like that. I hope I can make my little FL12 look as good as your FL14.

Also I looked at your gallery, its nice to put a face on the people who help out. Also do you mind if I steal a few of yor beautiful ideas?

May I ask how you cut out the seats? I will most lilely throw a few more hundred questions your way if you do not mind

Dave

Mike Adams
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Post by Mike Adams »

Dave,

You are most welcome to make use of any of my ideas if you think they are good enough to suit your purposes! :wink:

I'm not quite sure I understand what it is you are asking about the cutting out of the seats, but there are a number of discussion posts about this topic on my main building thread at http://gallery.bateau2.com/forum/viewto ... sc&start=0

If I can help with any advice please don't hesitate to ask, but I'm no expert - "Lake Dreamer" was my very first attempt at boat-building. However, there will be plenty of others reading this thread who will be sure to correct me if I'm wrong! :)

Mike
FL14 "Lake Dreamer" built.

dewers
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Post by dewers »

In my eyes you have created a work of art. Here is what I am talking about

Image

I saved many of the pics of your gallery to use as insperation.

Thanks again

Dave

ks8
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Post by ks8 »

dewers wrote:Well I put the first coat of fairing down today.

I put it down fairly thin, but I did find out how bad my fillets look. I am going to try to make this as good as I can and just put it down to practice practice practice.
Where I had a couple of fillets that were not what I had hoped for after they had cured, I roughed them up and then laid a bit more filler on top and then another piece of tape, wet on wet, and carefully and gently smoothed the tape into the fillet goop for a nice smooth radius, then carefully wet out the tape being careful not to distort the goop beneath (or I'd smooth it again if the brush punched a valley in it too deep somewhere). It is a question of getting the filler material just the right consistency in the epoxy. It is easy to say *peanut butter*, but there are different peanut butters! If you get the slow hardener, or use cooled down hardener, you get a bit more working time to tweak the filler consistency. Keep your *blend* in a wide paper or plastic salad bowl and the increased surface area will keep it from flashing early on you. Just know that if you use the cooled down hardener, it will get a bit more runny when it warms up. I know some builders wait until the filler gets gummy before laying on the tape, but I like to be able to form it slightly under the tape, but to do this, it can't be too runny or too thick.

Like you said, practice practice practice. :)

I think sometimes it is easier to fix a fillet by laying a good one on top, rather than trying to fair it back into shape. Of course it will use more filler and tape and epoxy, but so does fairing (except for the tape).

Hint: the fairing mix can be very runny on vertical surfaces. If you add just a bit of cabosil, (or colloidal silica), it will thicken a bit to stay put, but you don't want too much silica in there either or it will get hard to sand, and brittle. If fairing over bare wood, brush the wood with epoxy first, else the dry wood may wick all the epoxy out of your fairing blend and make it too dry and flakey, but if you soak, AND your fairing is too runny, it will slide and run all over the place. Once again.... practice. :wink:

If this is your learning boat, be ready to buy more materials for the little fixes of the first project, and by the time you are done, you'll be ready for... got the next one planned yet? Enjoy the learning curve. Experiment under the seats once the construction is done there. Then only you will see *the learning curve*. :)

It's taking shape!

Mike Adams
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Post by Mike Adams »

Dave,

The seat top was first made all of one piece, to which I epoxy glued the meranti trim strips. Before it was installed in the boat, I then made two cuts right across the seat top with my portable circular saw set to just below the depth of the plywood.

The seat top was then turned on it's edge and I inserted my jigsaw (with a fine-tooth blade) into the cut made by the circular saw. The jigsaw was used to cut around the curved corner into the meranti trim and then straight down the middle of the trim piece (where you have indicated on the picture above), round the opposite corner and back into the second cut made by the circular saw.

This procedure was repeated on the opposite edge of the seat so that the hatch part of the seat eventually separated from the rest. The edges were then cleaned up with sandpaper and the fixed portion of the seat top was glued into place in the boat.

The hatch was initially smaller than the hole cut in the seat top by the thickness of the saw blade - but the epoxy and paint took up most of that small difference, so that the finished hatch fits neatly into the seat.

It's not difficult - but you have to do it before you glue the seat top into the boat or it would be virtually impossible to do!

Cheers
Mike
FL14 "Lake Dreamer" built.

dewers
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Post by dewers »

Thanks much Mike, It seems so well done I thought you may have used a plunge router with a very small bit

dewers
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Post by dewers »

This evening I filleted the transom area with a new technique i read about the galleries. I used a 2" PVC joiner the create the nice rounded fillets. The came out much better and evenly. And using some heavy plastic bags we have here as peel ply seems to working well. Pictures will follow later

Thanks again for all the great help,

Dave

dewers
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Post by dewers »

When taping the bottom is it better to work wet on wet again if I have to fill some spots in with wood putty?

Thanks

Dave

ks8
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Post by ks8 »

I'm not quite following the question. Got a picture to explain it?

Wet on wet most always is a benefit in that it saves a step, makes a chemical bond with the tape laminate, and particularly on inside fillets, it helps you form them smoothly under the tape. Personally, I did the outside taping by letting the wood flour filler cure first, and then getting it nice and rounded with a light touch of the belt sander first, then RO, then a sanding block. It isn't perfect, but I started this hull with a goal of simple *workboat finish*. :lol: When I taped outside I then had no worries that I'd accidentally flatten a *wet* filler corner as it was already cured and shaped permanently. But I'm sure others have done just fine with wet on wet here also. I did not trust my skills then with wet on wet either, but outside corner is a little trickier to be careful not to distort a target radius corner during the taping, since this is now hydrodynamic surface on the outside, in the water. ( BTW, I am going with the workboat finish in areas, no mirror showroom gloss as a goal. The trim is the only thing that adds some style. :) Got to finish it already! )

I'm not sure what you mean by having to fill some spots with wood putty... or how that would affect a wet on wet decision. :roll:

dewers
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Post by dewers »

There are some spots where the side of the hull and the bottom are not exactly flush with each other. I want to fill those spots in and then add the tape. But from your reply I am going your way

Again thanks for the help, and if your finish is workboat, then I am in lots of trouble :help:

Dave
Last edited by dewers on Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

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