Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
16' Double ender w/ transom
My first glimpse of a drift boat was on the Cal Salmon as a kayaker in the late 70s - i was intrigued by the way the boat rode through the wave trains and could handle the water. I got a better look a bit later on a couple of Rogue trips, watching them through Blossom Bar... I thought I'd like to try that. The idea of building one was cemented a few years ago after a visit to Andy Hutchinson's shop and seeing his build of a decked boat in sapele - what a beautiful boat. So as a start, I got Roger's book and built a model, getting an idea of how things went together and where the challenges might be. This spring, I traveled to Flagstaff to attend Brad Dimock's class, where I met an incredible variety of skilled folks, all interested in building - not to mention a shop to die for. Then it was off to Oregon and the wooden boat festival. I stopped in Bend, where I picked up a trailer and a bunch of great information from Mike Baker - now I had a trailer, and needed a boat. Materials were a bit of a challenge - I originally wanted Port Orford Cedar for the frames - in Bend, there's a reliable supply from Orepac, but in Victor, where I live, no such luck. I ended up with Alaskan Yellow Cedar for about $7/bf. Hydrotek was next on the list. McBeath lists it on their web page, but there was a 2 month wait, so I ended up getting mine from Edensaw. Following Brad's lead, I'm using epoxy from Resin Research. Now for the fun stuff...
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on
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I made Guys jig too and tried it and got about the same results. (maybe a little worse than yours, I think you have a better table than my temp set up) I think it would work good but the table its on needs to be very stout and super flat. I had good results just using the belt sander afterwards. I felt the same way about the belt sander, did a pretty nice job. I like your dolly cart too, great idea.
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Permalink Reply by David Witton on
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I took the traditional approach to the glueup, first saturating the joint with epoxy until there were no dry spots, then thickening the mixture, applying that and clamping. I adopted the Dimock clamping method
First adding an 1/8" shim between the two pieces of 2x4 to make it easier to introduce the shim shingles.
I had masked the edges of the joint to make cleanup a bit easier, but what happened was the squeezeout caused the tape to rip, and stick to the plywood - does anyone have a suggestion on how to solve/prevent this? I'm thinking about conservative use of a heat gun...
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Instead of the blue tape I used clear 2" shipping tape to catch some of the squeeze out, it seemed to work pretty good, and peeled of the plywood pretty good. Still had to sand a little to clean it up. This scarf thing is new to me, but what I got out of my first one, my dry fit joint was perfect, I was really happy, but my glued joint not so great (though still usable). My next one after applying my first coat of epoxy to the scarfs and allowing to dry, I`ll resand the scarfs before the final glue up. I think the first coat swelled the wood, and the thickened epoxy just added to spreading the joint apart
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Mike - I didn't have any joint quality issues. One thing I didn't mention in the earlier post was that when I did a test align of the joint, I drove (and then pulled) 4d finish nails on each edge of the sheet where they'd be covered by the chine. After I applied the resin, sticking the nails back in allowed me to be sure of my alignment, and they held the plywood in place through the clamping process.
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The blue tape came off with a bit of heat - I'm hoping that heating and then cooling epoxy doesn't affect the strength - does anyone have experience with this?
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Now that my scarf joints are done, I'm interested in getting rid of the West System 875 Scarffer I bought - used once, new $90, I'll sell for $70 and pay shipping.
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After a long break for other summer projects, I'm back to the boat. The next step was to clean up the scarfed panels and cut out the sides. I was happy to discover that the dried epoxy could be cut with a block plane, and didn't gum up the belt sander. I laid out the sides, double (and triple) checked the measurements and cut them out, then tuned them up a bit with a flush cut router jig. I laid out the station lines on the inside surfaces, but didn't mark the outsides - something I regretted later. I had prepped the stem a while ago, so one after another, I fastened each side to the stem with temporary screws top and bottom, where they would be covered later by gunwales and chines and laid out the location of the ringshanks and predrilled with a 1/16" bit. Then I disassembled, masked all the pieces with clear packing tape (thanks, Mike Thomas for the tip), mixed epoxy and assembled. The screw holes help me to get the correct alignment when the parts were covered with epoxy - once the nails were in place, the screws were removed and the clamps went on.
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Next step was installing the frames - I pretty much did exactly what Mike Baker suggested. First, I fastened the frames at chine and gunwale with temporary screws, then installed the transom, predrilled holes for the ringshanks and masked everything off. At each frame I clamped scraps on each side of the frame so I could replace it exactly.
Then I removed the frame and added thickened epoxy - I used Thixo, from Jamestown Distributors - and reinstalled the frame, established alignment with the screws, and fastened with ringshank nails. I got a little sloppy when I predrilled the nail holes on frame 9, and have my first repair to do.
Next step is to steam and install the chine logs - they should be sealed between the chine log and the sides, but it seems like applying caulk before putting the chine log in place would result in a big mess. How do others get the caulk in the right place?
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Permalink Reply by Mike Baker on
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Hey Dave,
Nice progress. I have switched to using thickened epoxy for the chine log (actually don't build many boats anymore mostly make kits) . Either way they both make a mess. Use a piece of 1/4" plywood that is 1/4" wide (like a stir stick) with a small nail poking through it at the appropriate depth. The nail will keep you from putting the goo to far down the side of the hull. Set the depth less than the width of the chine, as you slide the chine in it will spread out. It doesn't really need to go all the way to the top of the chine cuz when you oil the inside the oil will seal where the wood is bare. Hope this makes sense.
Mike
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So is the chine log in place already, and then you insert the 1/4" plywood between the side and the chine log and use it as a spreader/trowel?
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No, before you put the log in use the spreader to apply the goo to the side of the hull and into the chine notches. It makes a lot less mess to put it on the hull as opposed to the chine log itself.
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Now that the sides are on, it's time to work on chines and chine logs.
I cut the scarf joints with a simple tablesaw jig
This looked to me like a safe setup - but it kicked back and I ended up with 25 stitches in my forehead. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but I was reminded NEVER to stand in line with a tablesaw blade. After a wife-enforced day away from the shop, I finished - carefully - cutting the scarf joints. I dryfitted the pieces and drilled an alignment hole to make things simpler at glueup.
Chines and chine logs are clamped and drying - tomorrow it's time to steam parts.
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