Well I'm building a 17 54 baker drift boat. So far I've got a pallet of expensive ply wood and one scarf cut

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Epoxy is a different beast at 50 degrees when compared to 90 degrees, I was spoiled with the overnight curing I was used to

Bennett,
Create a small tent with the plastic and add a small electric heater (I have a 1500 watt, works real good) to heat the area under the tent. Make sure your heater has enough room so as not to ignite the plastic. It will cure the epoxy much quicker. You really want 60 degrees minimum for the epoxy. I have found there are a few epoxies that say they'll cure down to 50 but why take the chance.
Dorf.

Thanks dorf. The epoxy cured enough for me to transfer the logs downstairs into the climate controlled area. The epoxy was cured but not rock hard after 36 hrs with temps between 40 and 60. After 6 hrs downstairs it cured perfectly. I called raka and they said it'll cure down to just above freezing, it'll just take many days. My plan for epoxying the frames is to drape a tarp over the hull to form a tent and stick a heater in there. Just as you described.

Careful with out gassing,you don't want to raise the temp as the goo cures you'll get bubbles all over.Dont ask ;)Keep the warm air from blowing on the frames.Best to heat the wood and epoxy first then roll/tip it on.Warm runny resin will self level and penetrate better into the wood.

thanks for the tip tungsten

A helpful tip is too use dowels or anything round to mix your epoxy,this reduces the amount of air you create.

Wanted to get a bunch of frames glued and nailed in place today but hit a road block. Once frame 5 is installed I'll feel a lot better about removing a couple frames at a time to round over and get the limber holes cut. I've got my chine logs ready so I'm pumped to get these frames in and hopefully have the bottom on before mid January.

Why not just cut all the limber holes all at once, or at least during the same operation? why put them in and remove them? You can also round the edges as a separate operation.

Rick N

Rick right now the frames are holding the sides in place and he was breaking frames. One thing I noticed was that the (2 of the 3) screws in the corners of the frames are inline with the grain of the wood, which makes them more prone to break under stress. I realized that right away on mine and offset those 3 holes. Right now your sides are under alot of stress, but once the chine log and top rails are on that will really help that situation.

I did a post about the rounding over frames and stuff and either didnt post it or it didnt show up. I broke the edges on my frames early on but wanted a bigger round over after I got the sides on so I did that after the fact. You really only want to round over the inside edges of the side frames and only round them up to but below where the top rails come into play. I used a trim router. Messed me up though cause I already had the frames covered with 2 coats of epoxy, but oh well. I also rounded over the inside of those limber holes. I just broke the corners of the bottom frames with a sanding block.

Be careful which corners you round over, like on the top rails, Only want to do the outside edges and no corners on wood that has to bond to other wood.(like the insides of the rails)

What mike said, I wanted to dry fit each of my frames before final assembly. That's the reason for the one piece at a time assembly

I built a different method, routered and half lapped my frames in the corners, just used 3 screws for temporary fasteners, then glued them with thickened epoxy still using the screws for temporary then removing them and drilled the screw holes through and epoxied dowels in place of the screws, made the frames plenty strong.
 Hey Mike B., with your method do you epoxy those frame joints? Are those assembled with 3 nails or screws? Is that where they were breaking Bennett?

Yes mine were breaking there because I wasnt bracing the frame with a batten across the top of the frame.  Mike Bakers plans call to screw and epoxy the frames together as well as nail and epoxy the sides to the ribs

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