Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Don Hill 16' for a First Build
Hello Everyone,
I've been looking in on this site for a little while now, and have finally decided to build my own drifter. I bought the Don Hill plans for a 16' standard. After looking at the threads by Phil Westendorf and Guy Fredrickson, I'm really excited about beginning my own boat.
I've got some skills, already being an accomplished knifemaker, as a second-generation machinist. I've built houses, and turned bowls, and lots of other crafty stuff, so the skills are there - just not the interest - until now.
Has anyone here bult a boat using the Don Hill method of not using a strongback? Is it ay easier? Is the boat any good when its done? I'd really love to hear some advice from those of you who've built one this way. It'll be pretty difficult to compete with the boats that Guy and Phil are making, but I figure that just starting out would give me a good boat to play with, and allow me to develop good habits to inject into my next build.
Anyhow, thanks for listening to me, and its great to be here.
Kibby
Views: 3002
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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Kibby, check out www.riverstouch.com. Roger Fletcher the professor emeritus of drift boat history has written what I call the "bible" of drift boat building. It explains not only the history of the McKenzie and Rogue River drfit boats but explains in great detail the building of these boats. The Oregon based boats are built without a strongback. There is also a mid-western school of drift boats built with strongbacks. There are pluses and minuses for each style of building. After you have reviewed Roger's book and compared what he presents there you can make a more informed decision on what way you want to build.
Brad Dimock, another frequent contributor and builder of historic and modern drift boats has an interesting video posted on the site. It shows him and an inexperienced crew building a McKenzie style drift boat in a day. The handy dandy search feature located at the right hand top of the page will help you find Brad's posts. Look for the video there. If you need a hand just let us know and somebody will help out.
Rick Newman
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Permalink Reply by Kibby on
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Thanks, Rick. I will get that book. I passed over that website before, not knowing what I was looking at. It has the look of a confusing jumble of stuff that wouls scare me out of clicking on anything there that would potentially be a mistake. Upon your recommendation, I went back there and reexamined it, and it looks legit. Seriously, its kind of scary, lol. You have to spemd a great deal of time there to make any sense out of the info provided. ANYWAY! :-)
I also googled-up Brad Dimock. Thanks for the leads. Looks like I got some more studying to do!
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I'll pass your comments to Roger in a positive way. I need some more web site design work. If you can spend the time there are numerous "builds" documented over the last three or four years. Also if you start at the main page you can find my "page" here on the site. I have attended the McKenzie River Wooden Boat festival and documented the boats and their details. You can get a good idea of the construction techniques practiced out in Oregon and environs.
Another wonderful education technique is to take the time and read all the posts. There are folks with many, many years of boat building knowledge that have posted and commented there. It will answer a lot of your questions.
I think that Guy and Phil are building beautiful boats. Check out the boat that Micheal Rosso just completed it is great. The really neat thing about drift boats is you can build them almost any way you want with whatever features and customization suits you. There will be hull designs and such that will perform better than others. You have a chance to build your boat your way. However the more you know about how they are built the more you can make it the way you want. Sort of like making knives, the knowledge of how steel is worked, what type of steel it is, how tempering works and what you want the knife to do is easier if you are educated about the materials and techniques.Good luck, keep posting your questions and post photos when you are building.
Rick Newman
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Permalink Reply by tungsten on
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ya i've been to that site before also and had a hard time getting anywhere.i gave up and went else where.
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Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on
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Ditto! to Ricks comments.
I have been reading on-line every evening for years from several Wooden boat forums and have been driven to make my boat unique by selecting elements and features from more than one source.
Bottom line is, Wood is one of natures best hidden secrets, there's lots of neat stuff hidden in those trees. Gotta love it, eh!
Dorf.
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Do you guys mind if I ask a few newbie questions? It'll help fill in the missing pieces.
1. Does marine plywood come in 4'x16' pieces? I'm under the impression that it does, and that would certainly make a big difference not having to scarf as much.
2. Scarfing: What is the best adhesive to use? Any links to this would really be appreciated. I've rather exhausted my YouTube searching.
3. Epoxy and Fiberglassing: How badly does it smell? Is it the same smell as the bondo and fiberglass you can get at the local car-parts store, or is it rather low-odor as in the two-part repair epoxy someone would use to repair a chair or something like that? I know that most of you use the West System stuff, and thats what I will use as well, but I have never been near it so I can't guage what I'll need to take for steps to keep the smell out of the house. Oh, I forgot to tell you that my shop is the two-car garage that is under my house.
Thats about it for questions for now. I appreciate you guys taking the time to help an East-Coaster get into the driftboat scene. The only way for us guys to get our hands on one is to either make one or buy one out west and ship it here.
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Oh and I wanted to show off a little. This is what I've been doing, so I'm not totally without skills!
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Kibby,
If you want to know about epoxies check out West System's Web site, They have just about everything you need to know about Safety, Application Techniques, Uses and a whole lot more.
Also, If you have a specific question, call them. I spoke with a Tech Specialist for 45 mins the morning I glasseed a 16 ft. canoe for the fiirst time. We discussed many things about what could happen and as a result it turned out as I hoped it would. They have lots of experience and are willing to share.
http://www.westsystem.com/ss/the-105-system/
By the way, awfully nice knives you make! I know a guy who makes that kind of knife at the quality you do and it's not just all you gotta do. Great work!
phil w
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Kibby, wonderful knives! What steel are you using? I like the tooled leather too.
We all wish it came in 16' lengths. There might be someplace that does it but I don't know where. So scarfing is the new skill you get to learn. There are multiple methods to make the required cuts on the end of the plywood. Routers, sanders, planes, combination of such, jigs, attachments to your skill saw, etc. The search engine will give you posts, pictures, videos, opinions etc. The greater the width of your scarf the more non-end grain wood you can glue together. Not much strength in end grain. A ratio of 12 to 1 is highly recommended. One thing to consider is the length of your scarf will reduce the length of your finished product so it is hard to make a 16' sheet without two scarfs.
Polyester resins and body putty use different chemicals than epoxy. I happen to use System 3 products and find that either I have lost my sense of smell or they don't have much odor. Doesn't mean that they shouldn't be inhaled frequently or in large amounts. A well ventilated work space and appropriate safety gear is always warranted. But for someone who works with hot steel, loud noises and sharp edges it shouldn't come as a surprise.
There are several popular brand of epoxy, West, System 3, Raka, MAS, etc. Each has their proponents. Some are mixed in a 2 to 1 ratio and others in a 5 to 1 ratio by volume. Measuring by weight / density calls for a different ratio. System 3 is 57% resin to 43% hardener. A Harbor Freight gram scale is wonderfully easy to use when mixing. I have been doing small batches so I place an empty container on my scale, turn it on and add 12 grams of resin and 8 grams of hardener. If I pour to much I add a corresponding amount of the hardener. I keep a ratio card on my workbench so I can remember the ratios between epoxy jobs.
The Gougeon brothers that started West have a large, free PDF epoxy manual on line. System 3 also has a wonderful publication. Being on the East Coast you have Jamestown Distributors just down the road. Right now freight is free, code word WATER.
You are well on the way, keep us informed.
Rick Newman
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Permalink Reply by Guy Fredrickson on
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Very nice work on the knives.
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Permalink Reply by Roger Fletcher on
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Kibby – I appreciate your comments about my web site. Someone told me not long ago that the site is ‘like running a class IV rapid: you’ve gotta study it a bit before you shove off, but once into it, there’s a lotta good stuff.’ Truth is, I know a whole lot more about boats, their construction and their history than I do about web site development and maintenance. Once you get into the book, you’ll see what I mean : )
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