I am about to install the chines on a pram and wondering on the easiest way to notch the ribs. The plans I have are from a cabinetmaking friend of mine that passed away. His notes tell me the cuts have to be 90 degrees square to angles of the bow and stern. His last piece of advice is "take your time and have confidence". If anyone of you have some more suggestions or more detail it would be greatly appreciated. I am also a cabinetmaker of 3 years and this is my first build.

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Hey William,

The notches for the chine need to be parallel to the side of the boat. The top angle will match the angle of the chine for every rib regardless of the actual rib angle. The Chine should have the same angle roughly as the rib with the most flair. The bottom angle will be the same angle as the top but will be faired prior to attaching the bottom to get that actual angle. Use a scrap piece of your chine as a template and lay against the rib, draw around it and use a stiff hand saw for cutting.

Hope this helps/makes sense.

Mike

I htink a review of some photos would provide the answers. Anybody have some to illustrate?

Mike Baker has the right answer... you need cut parallel to the outside of the frame. Some people use a hacksaw blade with tape wrapped around one end so you can hang on to it... unless you have one of those japanese saws.

Also, Roger Fletcher's book has an awesome illustration on how to do this >> http://www.riverstouch.com/Book.htm

Here's a few pictures I took of this process, hope it helps.

I started with a piece of the chine log that was extraneous. Cut up a short piece to use to determine not only the correct dimensions but the correct angles.

With my marking knife I made my initial mark. With the knife I can pretend that my cuts will be accurate! Next step is to make the mark for the width of the cut using the piece of chine log.

So far I am very accurate.

With my mini-engineers square I can transfer the line across the frame.

My mini Bevel gauge is used to transfer the line to the face of the frame. I initially matched the angle of the chine log to the bevel gauge.

I next used the knife to scribe the lines that I would cut with the hope that my Japanese pull saw would follow them.

I used the piece of chine log to confirm the dimensions. The old measure twice, cut once theory.

Then I used my pull saw to cut to the lines, sometimes very successfully and sometimes not.

So far so good! Only 17 more to get right!

A chisel was used to smooth up the surfaces.

So to reiterate:

     determine initial dimensions,

     transfer the dimensions to the frame,

     cut to the lines,

     clean up if needed.

However, not all the frames are at the same angle so you have to consider that when transferring the dimensions. See below:

Hope this helps out. I have to report that this was perhaps the most challenging part of the woodworking for me. I do have gaps between the chine log and the frames in places, I also had one of my original chine logs break while trying to fit it and had to make my own chine logs from some "bending ash". Did not end up at the same dimension as the originals. I guess I need to build a few more boats to get better.

I also understand that you can build little covers for your unsightly gaps. I don't remember who showed my that trick. I let you guys try and discover who's boat that is in.

Rick N

Rick,  let the sand, mud and river sludge fill in those gaps until they go unnoticed. haha.

 

nice tutorial.  thats the way I do it to.  I also use a Pfiel marking knife.

 

Dave, thanks for the comments, coming from you that means a lot. By the way I don't have little covers and hopefully some Clearwater River sand and dirt will fill them up over the next four days! Looking for steehead!

Rick N

wait... you are wanting to cut chine notches after ribs are installed?  the notches need to be cut before frames go in.

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