Adventures in drilling, and some progress

Final work to finish bulkheads before 3D.  Cut out inspection ports in Bulkheads 1 and 4.  Installed them on the vertical face of the bulkhead instead of seat tops since the interior will be painted and seat tops will be varnished, hopefully the white will blend in and visually not break up the beauty of the wood.  Down the road if there is a problem I can always install more on the seat tops.  Planning to screw and caulk them in instead of bedding in the epoxy or 3M 5200 in case they discolor or become brittle they will be a bit easier to replace.

Daggerboard and rudder are at final thickness after sanding and planing.  Next I cut out angles at top/ bottom/ trailing edge and started shaping the leading edge of the rudder with the templates.

Finally the bulk of my time has been spent drilling holes in tiller and transom to get all the hardware aligned and mounted.  Unfortunately, despite my previous experience drilling straight and true holes from gunsmithing, I drilled 2 crooked holes.   Even with straight sharp bits, a drill with bubble levels, proper measurement, piece being clamped level and light drilling pressure, still crooked holes.  Best I can surmise is the tiller assembly is not perfectly square to itself...So I filled the holes with epoxy & wood flour and learned some good lessons!

Getting ready to cut out holes

Bulkheads 1 & 4 inspection ports cut out.  Once it gets warmer I will install them with hardware and caulk after painting.

Beautiful offcuts...

Daggerboard

and Tiller

Finally, the drilling saga...First set of holes for the gudgeon in the bottom of the picture went great, however the mistake in drilling the gudgeon in the top of the picture can just barely be seen.  One trick that helped was to use the entire setup assembled to keep everything aligned.

The other essential was a drilling guide since the whole assembly does not fit on the drill press.  This is a small piece of Ash drilled on the drill press then clamped in place as a guide for the drill bit.

 

Installing pintles on the transom.

Successful install...whew!  It is straight, centered and has good clearance.

Trying on the rudder for size.

Slowly continuing, small parts & dreaming of 3D

Work has continued slowly since this fall, however my lack of blogging ambition is probably evident...apologies.  Since my last post, all bulkheads are finished and sanded, preparing to add inspection ports and hardware for hiking straps.  Also began work on glueing foils, wood staves are WRC and Cherry from my grandfather.  Hopefully 3D will be soon, once the bulkheads are finalized...

I have contemplated some names but I am reluctant to share before the choice is made.  Call me a traditionalist, purist or what-have-you, I just can't imagine a wooden boat with a name born of an innuendo, pun, or proclamation of wealth.  Wooden boats elicit something that the formless, empty clone of fiberglass does not, therefore the name should be just as worthwhile and dignifying as the process of building it.  Sorry to disappoint, no Sea-duction, Miss Behavin', Reel Nauti or A Crewed Interest...

Finished layout of tiller, began drilling for hardware.  Doug Fir, Cherry and WRC.

3 coats of epoxy on transom, not yet sanded

The puzzle of the daggerboard begins...

Glueing was a bit crazy (wood soaked up a lot and had to mix more mid-process) but got it together with good squeeze-out everywhere.

After the orbital sander and long-bed plane, time to get out the template to start shaping!

Rudder layout

& glueing.

Bulkhead 1, mark II...

As I feared, with many long-term projects, mistakes will not be found until much later and hence no indication as to why or how the mistakes were made.  Applying some experience from a brief stint in shipping, the saying in our dept. went, "It's ok to make mistakes, as long as we catch it."

While laying out parts something didn't look right on bulkhead 1, bottom & side bevels were all backwards.

"Back to the old drawing board."  Bulkhead 1, again.

Successful Repair

Epoxy on bulkhead 4 repair dried, piece stayed in place and gaps were filled throughout.  Repair was a success.

Lines drawn to make the correct cut, you can make out just how far off the first cut was!

Perspective is a bit deceiving but the cuts and angles are perfect this time around.

New tool, cabinet scraper.  Never used one before this, it works great!

Lesson Learned

I should have learned from the experience of others that once you say the word "3-D" out loud Murphy's Law goes into effect to slow down any meaningful forward progress, or so it seems.  Realized after attempting to match the bevel angle of the bulkhead sides with the jigsaw that the blade, just like humans, is prone to wander.  The resulting gap in bulkhead 4 was far too large for my woodworking ego to allow...

So, epoxied part back in place and will make the correct cut once dried.  As you can see from the picture, cut was not even close!

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Plan B on bulkhead 1 went much better; cuts made with handsaw and final fit with chisel.  Yet another oops shows itself here, but angles are good and epoxy covers all. 

What's worse, these mistakes were made while 2 brains were present...My dad had the afternoon to assist and offer encouragement.

Small tasks, work continues

Working on some small tasks and moved some things around in the workshop to prepare for going "3-D" in the coming weeks.

Sides have been hiding for quite a while, brought them out to get ready for 3D!

Stem complete, 36mm end & 22mm end.

After a wet spring in Kentucky, noticed one panel was not completely off the floor and got some water damage, unfortunately it was the seat top that I plan to leave bright, so sanded to try to repair.  Most of this will probably get cut off.

Before:

After:

More bulkheads, new tiller...

Apologies, minimal work completed on the Goat Island Skiff for quite a while due to trips, projects and work.  Haven't forgotten or stopped dreaming about it, though!  Finally back to work, also this summer has had some milder days that make the workshop a bit more bearable.

Sadly, a new tiller had to be constructed due to misread measurements, now Doug Fir (pre-coated sides, sanded, masked and with chines in the background)

Bulkhead 3 and bulkhead 4, epoxy on 1 side

Stem, cut to size, WRC

Stem, plotted out.  Cut out angle from large end (36mm) on table saw.

Stem, planing to final size.

Sharp planes make beautiful shavings