Day 5

Day 5

I started out my day doing some work on Noel till about 10:00.

Then went to Atlantic Veneer (NC locals... They stock Marine Grade plywood... BS 1088...) and bought two sheets of 3/4 Marine Ply. 96 bucks a sheet... and 14 board feet of ash. I planed it down to 3/8ths thick, and ripped two strips 6 feet long by 3 1/4 wide out of it. I've got 31 board feet of ash invested in this mast beam, as you can't get flat cut lumber... but you can cherry pick straight vertical grain pieces out of boards. With my wallet much lighter...

Then I went back to Pylasteki and did some vacuuming, then measuring. I'm widening the passageway through the main bulkhead by two inches. My shoulders get stuck going through, without the door frames on. Stock it is 19 3/8ths wide. Wandering through lowes the other day, I saw a roll of thick brown paper... 35 inches wide. The stock bulkhead measures 36. I took a straight edge and marked off an inch with a sharpie... and taped it up. Last night I ground off all the tabbing on the hull and bulkhead on the forward side... minus the rotten spot where the wood behind it is missing, there it is just down to the mat... Then I took an exacto knife and trimmed out my pattern. I cheated... Grin.

The boat tapers from the bow out to amidship... The forward side is tighter than the aft side of the bulkhead... So I wanted the pattern off of the forward side of the bulkhead to get a tight fit.

Once I had this... I folded it up and stuck it in a trash bag... and raced back to the truck to go to the hardware store and get a jelly roll of 2 part epoxy putty. One of the holes I filled on day three, wasn't... and in the deluge turned into a solid stream of water. I had to practice some boat builders yoga to keep the paper dry while folding it up. I ran back to the boat, and filled the hole... and tapped the starboard chain plate up and out. Pylasteki is blocked funky, she is sitting a touch bow down, so there is water sitting on the chain plates... I will need it dry there for tomorrow as I cut out the bulkhead.

I then went back to Noel and unloaded my sheets of plywood, and one piece of 3/4 inch press board underlayment.

I took my luan fishbone... and laid it on a sheet of 3/8ths plywood. I then played connect the dots, as the largest gap was about 3 inches... and did away with the need for bending a fair curve with a batten.
I cut it out with my jig saw, set as fast as it'd go. I try to shave my pencil lines, but leave them on the piece... Meaning a Stanly sureform plane will take off the high spots, and I don't often have to wish for anything to grow back.

I laid it up against the bulkhead and decided it was ok. You might have noticed that the new pattern is pictured on the front of the bulkhead rather than the aft side... I'm moving the mast forward a smidge, and doing some interior redecorating. (grin)

Once I had my pattern... I went to the band saw and made a block 2 and 7/8ths wide, with a lip on one side... My carpenters pencil out of the handy dandy sharpener has the lead an 1/8th inch away from the side... with some repeatability. I don't much care for trying to hold a compass 90 degrees off a curved surface, so this is an easy one to transfer a line... Worse yet is having to sharpen said pencil in compass, and radically change the radius, tough to erase a line off a dusty piece of scrap plywood... grin.

Why did I have to redraw the line? Well... The new beam will be a smidge over 3 inches thick... but my jig goes on the inside of the curve... which is a smaller radius.

Then I cut out my pattern and made a 3/8ths thick mast beam. Weee. If I tab it in real good it'd do...

Then I took my paper pattern out, and laid it on a piece of junky AC 3/8ths. It was at this moment I discovered I only needed one sheet of 3/4 ply for both bulkheads. Oops. Well... If I screw both up I've got spare lumber. Grin.

After that I carried my saw horses down the stairway to heaven as the florida bow thruster guys called it... It's the most rickety stairway in the history of sawn timber... and ripped my underlayment into two pieces. I don't have a flat floor or work space resembling plumb, level or anything else... So I have to create it when I need it. The great thing about press board it is that its flat. Always, until you get it wet and turn it into a pile of mush... 2 pieces screwed together it doesn't wobble around. I then carried my saw horses back up the stairs, and my half sheets... Then laid a piece of 3/4 ply (not marine grade... it's my work bench!) on top of the horses, followed by the underlayment. Noels deck is curved, with about 6 inches of rise in the center over 16 feet. She's sitting on a railway at the moment, so her stern is running way down hill... but it does that anyway in the water. I sighted down my saw horses and shimmed them till they were inline... then lifted, prodded, pushed and fiddled with the stack of three sheets till my 8 foot straight edge had 6 feet of flat. I then screwed the three together, and transferred my lines from the pattern.

After some goofing around, I discovered that my 53 inch wide beam was evenly divisible by 9 inches. Well... close enough for it to click that I could use 3 1/2 inch spacing anyway. So I marked it out and adjusted the curve slightly till it looked right, and started screwing down bits of 2x4. 2x4's have gotten junkier lately, as I had to pre-drill the holes... so they didn't explode... I think I'm becoming a snob for higher grade materials. Once I had a few down I decided to test out my clamps. This is where I goofed. I bought two pounds of 2 inch screws, not 1 pound of 2's and 1 pound of 3's... So my blocks wanted to shift.

That was 7:10... So I went to lowes. 40 minutes or so round trip driving. Had dinner... and bought some 4 inch PVC sewer pipe, as I've been dreaming of adding some longitudinal stringers to Pylasteki... that don't stop and start at the bulkheads.

Back to the boat I unscrewed all the 2 inchers, and added the 3's. I did a trial run, and ripped my scrap pieces of ash into the same size as the real deal... I figure I'll glue up the junk and give it a try to test for spring back and fitting before using the good stuff. First laminated beam I've done, so I want the one going into the boat to be right.

I then assembled and disassembled my rig, till I had the right clamps in the right places... and added 2 blocks to keep the ends tight. The secret is to put the big motha's on the outside, and the wimpy ones in the middle. Start out with the clamps all the way unscrewed, and slide them till they are tight. The outer edges get re-adjusted to take up the slack, as there is more curve than they have threads.