Job List for 22 August

Ewan Kennedy Job lists August 17, 2012August 18, 2012 0 Comment

We’ve had a trial fit of the building frame on the caterpillar. The good news is that everything goes together very nicely. This means that we’re at the end of phase one of our build and can move on to setting everything up for serious boat-building.

General Clean-up

We should now have our first big clean-up of the building space, as we’ve finished making our kit of parts for the main hull and won’t have to make any new pieces for the next month.

We should gather up all scrap plywood, saving the bigger bits of marine ply and scrapping the cheaper stuff that the moulds were made from.

Finish the Frames

The four frame pieces have all now cured and can be unclamped.

The inside faces and the flat fronts and backs will all be visible inside the completed boat, so will need to be sanded to remove the runs of epoxy that have squeezed out. The sharp edges should be nicely radiused.

Finish the Building Moulds

The mould pieces are all looking good and need to be cleated together using fish-plates made from scrap ply on both sides of the upper sections and the cross-spalls from CLS timber, which Ray has been making.

The online instructions for the set-up are available here:-

http://scottishcoastalrowing.org/files/2010/12/Ch-5-Mounting-the-Moulds.pdf.

We’ll have a few paper copies in the shed for reference as the evening proceeds.

The instructions are very clear and easy to follow, so I won’t try to improve on them. They are written with the traditional building ladder set-up in mind, but I don’t think any changes are needed for our closed caterpillar set-up.

Note that Mould 1, at the bow end, will be screwed onto the outside face of the wee open two foot box furthest from the door. It’s been left clamped in position.

Note also that the cross-spalls go on the AFT faces of moulds 2 to 5 inclusive and the FORWARD faces of moulds 6 to 10 inclusive. This is essential to ensure that everything can be taken apart once the planking is complete.

By contrast the frames will go on the FORWARD faces of moulds 2 and 4 and the AFT faces of moulds 6 and 8. This is so the edges can be bevelled slightly to give a close fit to the planks.

There is a box of long screws to secure the cross-spalls to the top of the caterpillar, one screw on each side of each mould.

Job list for the rest of August

Ewan Kennedy Job lists August 10, 2012 0 Comment

For the rest of the month I think we’ll be busy getting the whole set-up ready to begin planking in September, so rather than posting weekly job lists what follows is a comprehensive list covering everything to complete this stage of the build.

Complete and size stem pieces to sided two inch thickness.

We should be gluing up the final piece on the 15^th. Excess epoxy to be carefully planed off and then sections finely planed to size.

Assemble mould sections and frames.

This is all described in great detail on the Scottish Coastal Rowing website, so I won’t repeat it all here. The page for this is :-

http://scottishcoastalrowing.org/files/2010/12/Ch-4-Gluing-the-Frames.pdf

Job List for 1 August

First, where we’re at just now.

Last week we got most of the jobs on the list done and also found time to chat to the Kilmelford folk.

Construction of the building base went well, with the legs fitting the floor nicely and leaving only the wee two foot box to be done. (The fairies didn’t turn up later to finish it as they’d gone to Jura.)

It’s beginning to look like an mdf caterpillar, which might be its new name.

The 36 plank pieces are pretty well done.

Almost done was the heroic work of cutting out the mould and frame pieces, a much bigger job than anticipated.

This Wednesday we can:-

Complete the Caterpillar

Complete the wee third box, fine tune everything, then glue everything in place.

Finish the Mould and Frame Pieces

Cut off the webs, smooth the frame sections for assembly.

Cut the cross-spalls, dry fit everything for assembly next week once the caterpillar is done.

Prepare the Laminating Board and Brackets

The stem patterns need to be marked onto the board, then the stiffening pieces screwed to the back.

The brackets need to be cleaned of old tape and epoxy, then positioned and bolted to the base

Tools and stuff report:-

We now have a good supply of sandpaper, parcel tape for protecting edges from glue and a set of digital scales.

Job List for 25 July

NickB Building the boat, Job lists July 25, 2012August 9, 2012 0 Comment

First, where we’re at just now.

We’ve made a good start with getting most of the parts for the building base (must stop calling them the coffins) cut out and the sides assembled. These need to be completed and fitted.

The 36 plank pieces have been marked and cut from their sheets and the other parts marked for cutting.

Nick H sourced some fine Douglas Fir for the keel and hog, which has now been machined and thicknessed. On his next trip he’ll get hold of timber for the laminating strips for the stems.

This Wednesday we can:-

~ Complete the Coffins

~ Assemble all three, then trim the legs to fit the floor, check that everything is square and level and shim the legs as required for gluing. May get these glued as well, but if not this will be done by the fairies during the week.

(Meantime the mould pieces can be cut out, cleaned up and set aside to go on the base in due course)

~ Finish the Plank Pieces; they’re basically fine but need a little sanding and checking over.

~ Prepare the Laminating Board and Brackets

~ The stem patterns need to be marked onto the board, then the stiffening pieces screwed to the back.

~ The brackets need to be cleaned of old tape and epoxy, then positioned and bolted to the base

Tools and stuff needed:-

~ a laser level or similar would be wonderful. There’s a spirit level onsite.
~ a jigsaw or two, and a fine sharp saw or a Japanese pullsaw. There’s one of the latter onsite, but a second would speed us up.
~ sandpaper.