HC14 Build - First Ever

[peter-curacao]

Not sure I understand you correctly, but short pieces of 5/8 electrical pvc pipe works fine and for wider angles 3/4

[gstanfield]

I use 3/4" pvc cut into short sections then I drill my holes 1/2" from the edge and put my wires in. When I tighten the wires (or zip ties) it will pull the panel tight with about a 1/4" gap which works great for epoxy

[Cracker Larry]

I seldom use spacers, but I might before this FS18 is put together I would use PVC pipe too, beware of wooden dowels, too easy to glue them to the boat

[topwater]

I also use 3/4 pvc pipe , if you want to space the panels were they touch i used small finnish nails
or as we call them brads.

[JCordray]

I did manage to do all of the stitches with some cable ties. As I suspected it turned out to be fairly intuitive once I started although there were some nice learning opportunities! Here are some pics:

http://gallery.bateau2.com/displayimage.php?pos=-40320
This is when I finished the first side. It felt like an accomplishment!

http://gallery.bateau2.com/displayimage.php?pos=-40319
This is when the whole of the lower chine panel was stitched on except the bow and stern. I had my first learning opportunity here when I realized that putting the spacers in before all the stitches was maybe not such a great idea. It made it very hard to get the bow and stern to pull together. So I took out the spacers and did the bow and stern and then put the spacers back in.

http://gallery.bateau2.com/displayimage.php?pos=-40318
So here is the whole thing stitched together. I am quite pleased with the result since I have never made a boat before! It actually looks like a boat! After I finished and got to the stern then I realized the stitches would be better on the outside and the spacing of the stitches at the bow was not quite right. So I took an extra half an hour or more and pulled out all the stitches one by one and put them in the other way around.

So now for my questions!

After everything was stitched together there is some overhang from the bottom outside the lower chine panel. Here is a picture:
http://gallery.bateau2.com/displayimage.php?pos=-40317
This only happens on one side of the bow and not at all at the stern. Can I assume this is down to poor measuring/cutting of the bottom panel? It seems not possible to pull the stitch and somehow force the plywood to conform to the outside of the chine panel. The curve looks fair and symmetrical from one side to the other and from front to back. Should I just leave it, filet and glass the inside seams and then cut and plane this bit down?

Generally speaking, if stuff doesn't line up quite right (within a reasonable limit) can I just assume I will be using sanding, filleting, seaming and then fairing to deal with these areas?

How do I work wet on wet with stitches still in place? Some people say to fillet in between the stitches, let the epoxy cure, remove the stitches, fillet the rest and then tape over the fillet. Others say to work wet on wet but how do I do that with the stitches? Surely after the epoxy cures getting the stitches out could be very hard and could damage the new joins?

Finally, after the seams have all cured, will I remove the spacers or will this stress the joints too much and cause them to break as I am putting the upper chine panel on afterwards?

Thanks for your help! I am really enjoying the building process and also the feedback from all of you!

I am also amused because my wife is only now realizing how 'big' this canoe is...

[peter-curacao]

LOL I think we all thought you were asking about those kind of spacers


Did you look at this tutorial? you can find a lot of answers there
http://www.bateau2.com/howto/sg101.php

[cali123]

[img]http://images5a.snapfish.com/232323232% ... vq0mrj/img]

[dbcrx]

How do I work wet on wet with stitches still in place? Some people say to fillet in between the stitches, let the epoxy cure, remove the stitches, fillet the rest and then tape over the fillet. Others say to work wet on wet but how do I do that with the stitches? Surely after the epoxy cures getting the stitches out could be very hard and could damage the new joins?

The idea is to just put small fillets, small blobs really, between the stiches, just enough to glue the panels together and replace the stitches. Then when that's cured you can removed the ties and do your main fillet all the way along and then glass onto that. All this bit you can do wet on wet.

[JCordray]

I get what you mean Dave. I suppose it is just hard for me to imagine the glue holding when the stitches come out! Of course it probably will - and should - but some of those stitches seem to be under some serious pressure...

Only thing for it is to try though...

Thanks for the tips!

I did look at the tutorial pages by the way and find them generally helpful but also lacking in some small details along the way. They are great and I refer back to them sometimes but still end up with questions from my own lack of knowledge about how to build boats!

[dbcrx]

I must add that I'm not saying that out of experience, yet. Just the way I figure it should go. But a 2-3cm fillet of epoxy should hold a lot more than a plastic cable tie - it's sticky stuff! Remember to paint a thin coat of neat epoxy onto the wood where the fillets are going to go before putting the putty mix in. That way the epoxy will bond right down into the grain of the wood as well.