Stern and Bow Transoms

Today we installed the stern and bow transoms onto our building jig. We decided to bevel the bow transom and get that ready to install because the fore keel has to be epoxied and screwed to it before it can be screwed to the jig. The very first thing we did was drill a 1/2" hole in the fore keel for the painter to run through once the pram is finished. Next, we beveled the bow transom. Below you see the bevels getting smoothed up.

We drilled our screw holes for the fore keel and the transom, cleaned everything up and I mixed up a batch of epoxy. We spread the epoxy over both surfaces and screwed the fore keel to the transom. Next we made the mistake of spreading epoxy on some of the places that we wanted it to soak into the plywood. For the rest of the afternoon, we were hitting these little places with our fingers, hair or anything else that happened to fetch up on it. Below you see the bow transom with the fore keel attached to it. We also installed the cleats that are used as guides when placing the transoms on the jig.

At this point, we left the bow transom to set and went about setting the angle and fastening our stern transom to the jig. We set our angle, leveled and squared everything up and fastened the transom to the building jig with two sheetrock screws. We also have secured it with the clamps just to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. We used bits of scrap plywood to keep the heads of the screws from sinking into the transom.

Next we went back to our bow transom. This took some jiggering to make all the parts come together as they are supposed to. We finally got it secured to the jig with two sheetrock screws. We'll leave the clamps on it too at least until we get the bottom and perhaps the garboard planks secured to it.

We placed the bottom on top of the whole thing when we were done and began talking about the porcess we would use to secure it to the fore keel, midships frame and the stern transom. The book says to put in "temporary" sheetrock screws in order to hold it in place while you drill the screw holes. We are both reluctant to put any more holes into the bottom than we absolutely have to, so we are back to needing some more rugged clamps than the ones we have. Perhaps we will have to invest in some larger "C" clamps if we can't find any around here.

Building Frames on the Jig

Yesterday afternoon we installed the building moulds onto our jig. This involved squaring and leveling the moulds and fastening them onto the jig with sheetrock screws. We had to pay close attention to center lines, make sure the moulds were positioned at the correct intervals along the jig and cleat the temporary ones with 1 x 2 pieces of wood. Below you see the finished produce from bow to stern. This involves the notched #3 mould, the laminated midships frame and the #1 mould closest to the stern. This process wasn't rocket science and we found our clamps were helpful to hold things once we got them positioned. In fact, we left the clamps on the moulds after we got the screws in place to add some extra muscle to the frame.

The next process involved bevelling the edges of the stern transom so that the planks would lie flat along the transom once they are fitted. This is where the head work came into play. It took some figuring to get our tools to tell us what we wanted to know and make sure we were cutting to the proper angle before we actually cut the transom. First we established guidelines by which we made our cuts and drew the lines on the outside of the transom. Each plank and the bottom of the pram lie on the transom at a different angle, so this involved setting the saw three times to three different angles and getting our guide tool set at the proper angle as the saw so we could check the results after the cuts. Below you can see the guide lines drawn on the transom.

We made our angled cuts on transom very slowly which would account for the burn marks on the transom, but they all came out well according to the angle tool we had set to check our results. Working with an experienced sawyer doesn't hurt at times like these. Below, you see the transom after the first bevel cut along the bottom. I am sure these edges will need some sanding to make the planks lie flat on them, but we will cross that bridge when we actually do the fitting of the planks.

The Building Jig

Yesterday, at long last, we built the building jig. This is nothing more than a set of two 8 foot 2 x 4's with 2 x 4 cross pieces at specific locations along the length of them and 1 x 2 cleats at specific locations also.. Sort of like a ladder. Measuring and leveling are critical here because the positioning of the cross pieces and the 1 x 2 cleats determine where the building moulds will be placed and therefore the overall shape of the boat. The end cleats are beveled at specific angles on the edges because the bow and stern transoms will rest against them while the boat is being planked. The stern end of the jig has two uprights also angled to allow the stern to rest against them. We have several things to do before we can put the moulds on the jig. We have to bevel the bow and stern transoms, glue and screw the fore keel to the bow transom, put the positioning cleats on the bow and stern transoms and mark the floor under our sawhorses so if the whole rig moves, we know where the legs were positioned when we did the leveling. We spent a good deal of time stiffening up the sawhorses, squaring the ladder and getting things level before we fastened the jig to the sawhorses. I think we will have to import a set of hands or two to get the moulds affixed to the jig because they also have to be leveled fore and aft, port and starboard. Below is what the whole thing looks like. I am getting anxious to get the moulds onto the jig because then we can really begin making the thing look like a boat.

The Rudder

Last weekend saw no progress on our little boat. We had family and grandkids around so we took the time to enjoy that all too rare experience. We had baseball in the back yard, the swing set got a good workout and we all sat around the table and laughed. What could be better than that? Our younger son will be 35 tomorrow and we celebrated that event a little early.

When I am working on a project, and this pram falls into that category, I make a work schedule in my head. I want to get this much done by thus and such a time. And then if I can't keep up with my own work schedule, I feel that I am falling behind and I need to catch up. I have to admit to feeling that way about the pram this week. I wouldn't change what I did do last weekend for anything but it is what I didn't do that bothers me. So, it was with that feeling during this week that I decided I would work on the pattern for the rudder blade.

The boat plans call for the rudder to be made out of the same sheet of 3/8" plywood that the bottom of the boat is made from. The plans show a grid of 3" squares and the rudder drawn within that grid. John thought I should just draw the grid on the plywood and then draw the rudder directly on the plywood. I was afraid if I did that I would create pencil dents on the plywood and my rudder would forever have a grid on it. So, I took two left over Susan Collins campaign posters (I hope she doesn't mind) and taped them together and drew my grid on them. Then I lined out the shape of the rudder onto the grid. It came out pretty nicely.

Since 3/8" is pretty thin for a rudder, the plans also have you cut out of your left over 1/4" plywood, two cheeks to be glued on either side of the rudder blade to make it a little more rugged where the tiller fastens onto it. I lined out the shape of the cheeks on my grid too. After doing this, I figured the whole thing would be just under an inch wide where the tiller fastens on. Then I began to investigate just how the blade fastens onto the boat. I looked at our favorite marine supply store's website but couldn't find a single "rudder hanging" kit. Then I checked Wooden Boat's website and ah-ha, there was the exact rudder hanging kit I needed. After checking the price of the brass kit, I scrapped my plans for making the rudder out of plywood. This rudder is going to be made out of mahogany! We added a 12" piece of mahogany to John's list of items to order.

Cutting out Planks

This weekend was spent lining out the planks on the 1/4" marine plywood and cutting them out. I measured out and marked the points showing the shape of each plank. Then we bent a batten around the shape made by the points and drew the lines for each plank. We made sure all the lines were fare...

and then cut them with the jig saw.

We had laid the 1/4 inch plywood over the 3/8 inch plywood used for the bottom so we had a stiffer work surface. We moved the 1/4 inch piece around and clamped it to the 3/8 inch piece in order to create a clear cutting area. This worked pretty well most of the time. One of us held the cut strip while the other sawed. We got three of the planks sawed out yesterday and today we used those for a pattern and traced out the second set of planks.

After completion of the plank cut outs, we cut out the 3/8 inch piece for the bottom.

And here is one of the garboard plank...

We have now completed the construction of all the major pieces for the pram and are ready to construct the building jig. Wow!

Building the "Done" Pile

Yesterday, we paid a visit to our local lumberyard and bought three sheets of marine plywood to make the bottom and the planks for the pram. The price was great but the quality was not. Oh, well! Then we tripped off to Portland for our annual visit to the Maine Boatbuilders Show.

Today, fresh from our visit to the show, we went about our own little boat building tasks with new enthusiasm. First, we screwed together the mould station #3 with our newly acquired 1" screws. Then we cut the pieces and put together mould station #1. This is the last of the mould stations. We positioned the cleats that will rest on the building jig and screwed them onto mould station #1 and #3. Those two stations are done and ready to go. Below you see the last screws going into the cleat on the #1 mould station.

Next we cut the angled edges of the laminated midships mould. This was not something that either of us really wanted to do for fear of messing the thing up. It came out pretty well despite of our misgivings. Then we laid it out on the plans and attached the cross cleat to it where it will sit on the building jig. There is still some sanding to do on the laminated mould as we cut it fat rather than thin to allow for screwups. I'll get the sanding done sometime this week.

With this accomplished, our done pile is getting bigger.

Next we put the 3/8" Marine plywood that we bought yesterday on two sawhorses and lined out the bottom piece of the boat. We drew a center line and then marked the points designated on the plans for the curved sides of the bottom. Then one of us held one of our 1/8" strips left over from our laminating project up to the points on the curve and the other drew the curved line. This gave us a nice shaped bottom piece. Now all we have to do is cut it out! The centerboard housing and the rudder also come out of this piece of plywood, so we will probably lay them out and cut them too.

Station #1 and Midships Frame

We didn't really accomplish a lot this weekend. Saturday afternoon we went to work on the two mould stations that we have left to build. We are building them out of boards instead of plywood and it involves cutting angles on the outside of the boards and then putting cleats in to hold them together. We got mould station #1 to the point where we were ready to cleat it together and discovered that we didn't have any sheetrock screws that were short enough to do the job. So the mould station is sitting on the work table ready to be finished.

Today, we brought the plans for the laminated midships mould up and spread them out on the livingroom floor and marked the line where we will cut out the frame with the angles for the side planks. I had laid the plans on top of the mould and using my pin prick method, tried to lay out the correct lines for the frame. The result wasn't really good. We brought the frame up, laid it out on the plans and then using the line drawing on another depiction on the plans, we lined out the outline of the frame. We think we have it down okay, but it will probably have to be adjusted when we are planking the pram. Also, who knows how this frame will line up with the mould station #1 and #3 when we get it all on the building jig? We have a friend who is a wooden boat builder. He will tell you that you can make five boats out of the same set of plans and they all will have a slightly different shape. I can see why after this weekend's efforts.