Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Journey of Building a 16' McKenzie River Drifter
Hello from Minnesota! Ever feel like you need a project? No, not a "weekend building of an Ikea shelving system", I mean a real manly project with bloody knuckles, sawdust and strange looks from the wife!
Maybe it is early onset mid-life crisis - maybe it is guilt for not following in a long familial line of foresters - but one day in January of 2014 I felt an inexplicable urge to build a wood drift boat to float the Upper Mississippi and Upper St. Croix, and for our once a year trip to the "Golden Triangle" near West Yellowstone, MT.
After hours of research (most of it spent trying to convince myself I was not going crazy), I settled on the classic lines of the Don Hill McKenzie River 16' Drift Boat and pulled the trigger to travel down a course as irreversible as the river itself.
What follows is my journey to make something beautiful with my two hands while raising a little girl and maintaining a healthy marriage. Tight lines and beautiful wood.
~~~ Gopher Dan ~~~
Views: 9863
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Gopher Dan on
-
Week #2 (first week of fab) Wrap-up:
After our great snow storm turned our roads into ice rinks for a few days, I made a trip to West Marine to look over their inventory and a trip to Rockler to pick up T-88 and Titebond 3.
On West Marine: West Marine is a fun store if you have one near you. Pricing is a little higher than Jamestown Distributors for most of the epoxies / adhesives, but I wish I would have seen their pricing on stainless steel screws before I purchased mine - they have about the lowest pricing around on those.
On Rockler: Fair pricing, nice people. They do have some nice wood including White Oak - but it is marked up quite a bit from the lumber yard. Good to know they have it in case I get in a pinch. A ton of just awesome woodworking gear. They also carry West System epoxy - but it is also slightly higher than Jamestown Distributors.
On Epoxies and Finishes: I ended up purchasing all my epoxies last night from Jamestown Distributors. Going with 105/207 epoxy coated with Z-Spar Flagship for the sides, and 105/206/423 Graphite for the bottom. I am using the 206 for the bottom because it is a little less expensive than the 207. The 207 dries ultra clear, which isn't going to matter on the bottom once I add the 423 Graphite. I will be using 3M5200 for bedding compound and 3M4200 for behind the chine battens.
Rib Assembly Nearly Complete: Over the weekend, I sanded down the ribs really thoroughly, and assembled them together. I used Titebond 3 as the adhesive and #8 stainless steel screws ran through pilot holes. I did end up cracking one rib pretty badly - so I will have to fabricate a new one. I think the relative humidity is so low here in the winter the wood is more easily cracked, especially since it is a little cool in the garage. For wood that needs to be bent I will start bringing it indoors where it is a little warmer and higher humidity a few days beforehand - hopefully that will help.
I may have to slow my progress a little as the plywood isn't going to be in for a while - but there is still a lot of work to do in the meantime getting the chines/rails fabricated.
Here are a few progress pictures of the ribs - prior to sanding off the Titebond glue residue. I was pretty diligent about wiping off as much glue as possible, so all that is left is a light residue film. I brought them indoors to let the glue cure for a few days at room temperature.
-
Permalink Reply by Josh Case on
-
Looks like fun! I had started my build with West System epoxies, but found they are way too expensive for what you get. I ended up getting all of my resins and glass from Raka. Good prices, quick to ship and show up.
It seems you are going for the traditional open drift boat design and not a decked out whitewater dory like I am building. This obviously makes a difference in the amount of glass and epoxy you need in the end.
I can also confirm that 5200 is indeed permanent. Very permanent. Also note if you do not get the fast kick stuff it will take forever to cure. Especially if it is nice and cold in your garage, like I am sure it is.
Here is a link to my blog.
http://matkatwerks.blogspot.com/
Maybe you can garner a hint or clue from another brand new builder. I sure have found the search feature here to be quite helpful. It seems like every question I would ask has been asked so far.
Good Luck!
-JC
-
-
Yep - I am only coating the outside in epoxy - inside will be oiled. Normally I would shop around for other less costly alternatives, but trying to figure out what those alternatives were ended up being very time consuming.
Meanwhile, I have the entire West Systems user manual and felt pretty comfortable knowing what I was buying which is worth something. Since it isn't a ton of epoxy - that is why I went West Systems since I had to factor the PITA factor in trying to figure out the alternatives.
I didn't get the fast cure 5200 - as I will be building a bunch of other sub-assembly pieces and assembling other parts of the boat by that point - but did get the fast cure 4200.
-
-
The tube of 5200 says 5 days to become tack-free. In my garage at about 60 degrees, it took well over a week. Just be aware! Keep those pics coming!
-JC
-
Permalink Reply by Ben Kittell on
-
I do love seeing a stack of frames coming together! Great write ups, keep up the posts and pictures!
-
-
Week 2: Too Cold
In case you haven't heard, we are having a brutal winter here in the Midwest. It is the coldest winter since 1977-78 and our 8th coldest on record here in Minneapolis. We have had 53 days with temps below 0°F this winter and the snow has hardly melted.
Long story short, Week 2 was a bye week from building, as my garage is not heated and it remains bitterly cold in the garage without a lot of propane (BTW, propane heaters and sawdust in confined spaces kind of scares me - so I have been hesitant to get too crazy for fear of an explosion).
I did make a run to pick up some more wood over the weekend. I took a couple quick pics (I didn't want them to think I was spying!) You will see Youngblood Lumber has a beautiful selection of many woods, mostly in 10' lengths. They had some VERY intriguing selections of White Oak - but unfortunately they were just too different from the rest of my wood - so I did some digging behind what you see here to pick some more standard grain material.
Well, that is all for this week folks. It is supposed to get up to 32°F here this week, so maybe spring is actually coming. Ugh.
-
-
Epoxies & Adhesives
-
-
Week 3 - more cuttin' wood!
Here in MN, a near cult-like phrase is: "I was outside cuttin' wood - I heard the phone so I run." It stems from a local radio station's bit where they call Northern MN folks and ask them to match the cash call $ amount of the day. If you are ever looking for a taste of Midwest Americana, take a quick listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sPF0AUxotI There are a bunch of great calls on this bit.
Anyways, got some cutting of the hand rails and chine battens cut this week and started on the chine strips. I also spent about 4 hours sanding them down thoroughly.
I decided to follow advise to go to 5/8" on the rails instead of 3/4" thickness. I found the wood incredibly hard to bend at 3/4", but took just a hair off and already the rails are showing how easy they will be to bend.
I made what will probably be one of the last trips to the specialty lumber store to pick up white oak for the seats and various interior pieces as well.
Progress is slow and steady as I only work on things a few nights of the week but having fun. This week I will get the rest of the chines cut, and start scarfing together the lumber. I am still anxiously awaiting the Meranti order, which should be a couple weeks out yet.
I found the best way to sand these was using spring clamps to hold them in place. They keep the wood from vibrating which makes the sanding go a little quicker.
First pass was cleanup using the belt sander of all the areas I ripped on the circular saw, followed by the hand-held orbital to remove imperfections.
-
-
Start of Week 4 - the Scarfer
Did you know that when you Google "scarf", autocomplete brings up "scarface"? Well my goal this week is to NOT become scarface!
I got all of my rails (gunwales), chines and chine battens cut and rough sanded over the weekend. All of the pieces will require scarfing to reach the appropriate length.
I am going freestyle on the table saw to do my scarfing of the rails and chines (the battens are rather thin so they will be done by the belt sander). I am finishing off the scarf with the belt sander / plane sander. I am sure there is a safety violation in there somewhere, but hot diggity this method works for me. What I do is scribe my line on the wood with a nice dark pencil. Then I get down to table level of the saw to line up my cut with the blade and gently press it on through.
The result is a first cut very close to the line that requires very little sanding, required no jigs and it took all of 30 minutes to do all my gunwales.
After rough cut on table saw:
Sanding and Finishing the Scarf Joint
After the rough cut, the next step for me was a belt sander and/or long board hand sander. I used the belt sander to get me close to my line, and then followed with the hand sanding long board with 60 grit paper to finish things off. There will be some final fitting with the opposite piece to ensure the joint is ideal for even epoxy distribution. The thin edge of a metal ruler helped me find high and low points along the way.
Prior to tonight, I had never scarfed anything in my life except plates of spaghetti and entire pizzas, so I was happy this went smoothly. I did find the complex angles / fairing on the chine make for a little more difficult experience but managed through it.
-
-
Scarf Joints with T-88 Epoxy
The garage has been below freezing, so I rigged up this little heat box to keep the joints at a decent temp for 3 days before really doing much of anything. Yes, isn't it elegant!
Removing the clamps:
I clamped the joints evenly and with moderate but not tight pressure using c-clamps and boards covered in packing tape. I removed the boards after about 3 days when nothing felt tacky anymore. This was the boards before cleanup. I just decided to not really do much cleanup after I put them together, because some prior testing revealed the epoxy sanded off rather easily.
The results after the initial sanding are what you see below. I have some work to do to "feather" the thickness of the boards from the joints back to the main part of the board. It was hard to get things exactly perfect - and what was most challenging was:
1) Pressure on the joints during clamping - too hard and all the epoxy comes out = bad. too soft and the joint floats around where you don't want it. Hard to get the joint exactly lined up on all four sides.
2) Sanding afterward - in a couple of spots got a little too deep - luckily it was only on one side so I will put that side down and feather it out - no one will be the wiser.
3) Knowing when to stop sanding. I am going to take a step back, and come back with a clear head on the sanding in a day or so with a hand sander where I can't get too crazy.
Scarfing / epoxy of these rails has admittedly not been my favorite part of the build so far. I learned a lot during this part of the project that should help me once I finally get my plywood. I mean they turned out acceptably, but given about 100 or more attempts I could probably do better.
What you see here isn't "final" per se, but like I said I am going to step back before I do anymore sanding to feather the thickness.
-
-
End of Week 4
Notchin', drillin', scarfin' & plywood
I have been keeping busy dismantling and sanding my used trailer until I got my plywood in - well I finally got it on Friday.As you may recall, I ordered it from Midwest Boat Appeal and Marine Plywood in St. Bonifacius, MN, the only place within 250 miles to carry marine grade plywood. It worked out to be a little less than ordering it from Noah's factoring in shipping - just a few years ago he was selling 12mm for under $100, but prices are really dictated by the supplier...... (3) 12mm BS1088 Hydro-tek Meranti @ $121.08 each, and (3) 6MM BS1088 Hydro-tek Keruing @ $57.08 + MN tax. I am sure it is available for less, but not anywhere nearby.
It all is pretty high quality stuff all stamped with the BS1088 logo (for what that is worth) and I actually was able to pick through and reject a piece that was too exotic and wouldn't have paired well with its mates for scarfing. I believe this option is worth something and if you have it available locally - support your local small businesses.
6mm on top, 12mm on bottom = in the back of the F150 and now it is mine!
Scarfing Plywood
I used a 7" Buck's block plane to scarf the wood at a 12:1 ratio (3" on the 1/4" / 6mm material). I marked a line at 3" and used the block plane to get it close. It was soothing, relaxing, and pretty fast (under 20 minutes per) with a SHARP plane. Once I removed most of the material, I used a belt sander with 80 grit to finish to what you see below (another 10 minutes). I tried to focus on the 3" line and feather it to the end without removing any end material to keep that line straight and paper thin.
As Mike Baker says, if you focus on the line, the feather on the end tends to take care of itself - so true. Light pressure - only mistakes were when I pressed too hard. No rush - relax. I put another piece of scrap/sacrificial material under the plywood to help me get the feather just right and that seemed to work great.
This is my second plywood scarf ever. The first one looks just about as good, but I am showing you the better of the two <')))><. I will find out soon how they look once epoxied, but I am pretty optimistic. I can't get the ends much thinner or they start to get "fiber-eeeee".
The garage is still a miserable 30ºF. I can't believe it. I have to wait to use the T-88 epoxy on these until it is at least 35ºF. I will then tent it with an electric heater and tarp, but the forecast is for 2 more days of cold nights below 10ºF so I will wait until later this week to finish the scarf. Having scarfed some dimensional lumber I now feel pretty confident in my T-88 skills and its pot life (about 30 minutes in a small batch), and how to spread it using cut up milk containers in two applications so it soaks in (credit: Baker).
Drilling Drainage Holes
What you are looking at below is how I "discovered" or "learned" how to drill the drainage holes in the ribs.
The first couple were pretty sloppy, but fixed with a sander. To keep the drill in place, I notched a groove with a wood chisel first. I found if I did this, the drill wouldn't travel. I also found that if I held the drill a certain way (shown below), it wouldn't travel.
I would recommend you practice on scrap for 3 or more holes first (I was never very good at practicing).
Holding the drill
Due to the rotation of the drill, I found if I held it like shown below it wouldn't dance or chatter or travel.
Important tip: The most important thing I could tell you is to hold the drill with the material to the right (not straight on, and not to the left).
- Material to the right.
- Drill in right hand (not like below due to taking photo with right hand).
- Put between legs to brace end of drill.
- Put pilot drill bit in groove made from chisel.
- Start slow and steady (but not too slow).
- Press gently and get a very light groove going.
- Once you have a nice little groove, go full bore for a smooth hole.
This is how 14 out of 16 looked.
I will not show you number 15 and 16 :) One required epoxy as it chipped out, and one looks a little less than "perfect circle" like. I will probably be the only one to notice, unless at some point someone removes the bottom of the boat and sees the repair work.
After this, a light buffing by hand with sand paper will finish it off.
-
Permalink Reply by Tom Anderson on
-
Gopher Dan . . .
I've enjoyed following your build. Although I fear it is too late . . . I must chime in to offer some help on your future hole drilling ventures. A simple way to ensure easy drilling with hole saws is with a quick and easy jig from scrap wood. Simple drill a hole in a scrap piece of wood with the hole-saw you are using, and then place/clamp the scrap over top of the frame you want to drill. The guide (scrap wood with the hole in it) will ensure that your hole saw is upright, does not wander, and you can place the hole (or part hole as it may be) exactly where you want it.
You could even get fancy and glue/screw another scrap piece on the bottom of to act as a 'fence' for your frames so that you ensure your half hole is always centered on the edge.
. . . like this (this is quick and dirty so obviously the bottom (fence) board would have a half-hole after it was used.)
You could also clamp down two frames bottom-to-bottom and make use of the pilot bit on the hole saw a little better . . . drill two half-holes at once.
Over the years, I have watched many of my carpenters struggle with taking an existing hole (let's say 3-1/2 dia. hole in some wall sheathing, and struggle with how to drill it out to a larger size with a hole say (let's say 4-1/2"). Solution is the same.
Hope this helps . . . and your boat is looking beautiful so far. I hope you can float the St. Croix one day . . . one of my favorites from back home.
© 2024 Created by Randy Dersham.
Powered by
