Tips and Hints This page is about updates to the plans, construction tips, helpful hints and
maybe even a few dreams. So help me out and send yours in to be posted here.
This page is about updates to the plans, construction tips, helpful hints and
maybe even a few dreams. So help me out and send yours in to be posted here.
Alcohol Baby Wipes - The cleaner that you work when using epoxy the less you have to sand after the epoxy cures. To that end I keep a plastic container with a lid, I use old plastic peanut butter jars, filled with paper towels and denatured alcohol, the type you would use in camp stoves. I use the paper towels that are perforated into thirds rather than full sheets and stuff about 25 pieces in the jar and then pour in enough alcohol to keep them moist but not dripping. Use these to clean up drips and sags or to wipe smooth fillets while they are in that green "plastic" stage. Ann & Nev - Peace IV
Scarfing Jig - This jig I made to use on the table saw. It is sized to the thickness of the stringers and my tablesaw and will cut a 10:1 scarf. To scarf both end of the board you either must wait until the scarfs are cut to mill the beveled edge or you must "back" one end into the blade otherwise the cut edges won't match up. That bit of hassle is well worth the speed and consistency of cutting multiple scarfs. Clif - Sangraal
Fitting Floors - Take the time, while you have the lower hulls with the stringers fitted, to figure out where the floorboards go and use 1/4" hardboard to make templates from which you can cut out the floorboards. It is a simple matter for two people to fit hardboard between the bulkheads and then trace the outer edge of the stringer on it. Now when the hulls sheathed you won't spend un-necessary time trying to measure and fit the floorboards in place. You will need to assign hull placement early though as each hull is slightly different regarding floor locations. Ann & Nev - Peace IV
Sanding Fiberglass - Ugghh, avoid it when possible. When it isn't possible to avoid, protect your skin completely or else you will suffer for days with the itchy, scratchy, sharp remnants of glass fibers on your skin. Here is how I protect myself: Hands, arms neck and face get a wipe down with a barrier cream. The type I use is a foam product that is wiped into the skin. Once that is dry I liberally apply talcum powder to those areas. Talc serves to fill the pores so that the glass fibers can not get in there. Then a Tyvek suit with hood, gloves and a full face respirator with dust cartridges. If it is hot I hive very little on under the Tyvek so it isn't too bad heat wise. When I am done I dust off with the compressed air hose and then take a COLD shower initially to wash off as much of the glass fibers as possible without opening the pores on my skin, then warm the water up to comfort level. I highly recommend a PAPR style respirator like the Trend Airshield from Airware America. If you are working in a warm environment it is a LOT more comfortable that an regular full face respirator. Clif - Sangraal / JB - MAS
Epoxy - Use MAS epoxy period. You'd have to have a huge reason to use anything else in my opinion. The slow hardener is non-blushing, it has a friendly, error proof 2:1 mix ratio and the folks at MAS will help you out with a very competitive pricing and unheard of support. Call JB and tell him Clif sent you! 1-800-398-7556 www.masepoxies.com
Lumber - Buy it as local as you can, use local species with similar characteristics to the specified woods if you don't have access to Douglas Fir and the like. It will take a bit of research but it will save you money and you will have a bit of home in your boat. The exception being the masts, if you are building your own masts from wood it is worth the extra expense to order in premeium quality Sitka Spruce or Douglas Fir for them. Clif - Sangraal
Cutting your wood - After you have lofted or scribed your lines on the wood you have to decide how to cut it out. What works for me is this: When marking the wood I use a good carpenters pencil and make sure that I have a good dark distinct line. After marking it I like to coat it with epoxy if at all possible. It is easier to coat the wood when it is lying flat and it will eliminate chipping of the wood edge, especially plywood, when you cut it. Most often I use a good Jigsaw with a sharp blade but regardless of what tool you use cut just outside of the pencil line leaving about a blades width of space. That excess is trimmed to the finish size either using a sharp block plane or with the belt sander. On plywood I usually use the belt sander since it is faster. On lumber I use a block plane. Depending on what you are cutting your precision need will vary. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to get a perfect fit in areas that will be bonded with epoxy fillets or fairing material. Save your precision work for the interior trim! Clif - Sangraal
Testing Plywood - Marine plywood purchased from a reputable dealer should be fine but before you go to the trouble of cutting your panels take the time to test a small sample from every batch of plywood your purchase. The standard test for Industrial / Commercial WBF plywood is as follows: Boiling test – Test specimens {85 mm (3-1/4 inches) long by 25 mm (1 inch) wide} shall be boiled in water for 4 hours and then dried for 20 hours at a temperature of 63 ± 3 °C (145 ± 5 °F) with sufficient air circulation to lower moisture content of the specimens to a maximum of 8 %. The specimens shall be boiled again for a period of 4 hours, cooled in water, and tested while wet by tension loading to failure in a shear testing machine operated at a maximum head travel of 405 mm (16 inches) per minute. Jaws of the machine shall securely grip the specimens so there is no slippage. The percentage of wood failure of the specimens shall be determined with specimens in a dry condition and evaluated as described in 5.7.3 and 5.7.4. You can review the entire document at http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/210/sccg/ps1-95.pdf A twenty eight hour testing cycle is more than I care to go through personally so my plywood test consists of a 1 hour long boil and then air cool to touch. If they survive the boil test I send samples through the dishwasher with a load of dishes and if they survive that I am happy. What you are concerned about is a faulty glue run at the factory, either bad glue, no glue or a bad cure. Those problems will become apparent right away with boiling a small sample. Other problems like voids or lay-up problems will be evident when you inspect the panels or begin to cut them. If you have any concerns, call your dealer right away. Ann & Nev - Peace IV / Web
Clothes Pins - There are lots of
clothes pins out there, wooden, plastic, coated wire but I have never seen any
quite
like the ones that Ann and Neville carry on Peace IV. They are called Cyclone
Clips and are found in the UK. One piece molded plastic clips, the
cyclone clips hold like you want them to and have nothing to rust, break or
separate. I will try to find an online supplier but in the meantime try to make
friends with someone in the UK because you really want a bunch of these on your
boat. Ann & Nev - Peace IV
Fairing Mixture - 1 part epoxy (resin and hardener), 1 part Cab-O-Sil, 2 - 3 parts microbubbles. Combine well (use a respirator while mixing please!) and trowel on the hull with a smooth edge trowel. Sand with a longboard to fair and then thoroughly vacuum the hull. Reapply the fairing mixture with a smooth edged trowel, filling in any remaining low spots and re-sand to fair. Check for defects with your hands and eyes. A nice trick is to use a sheet of paper under you hand as you run it over the hull... you will feel abnormalities easier this way. I also draw pencil lines on the hull before I sand in order to see my sanding progress easier. Several contributors
Counterpoise - I spoke with Gordon West about putting in a counterpoise for my ham radio. The suggested method was to use 100 square feet of either copper foil or copper screen on the inside of the hull below the water line as a capacitive ground. The fact that we have no inboard engines or ballast keel makes for a slightly different approach. TO my great surprise Gordon suggested instead that I run a copper foil tape from the tuner to a single bronze thru hull / seacock and use the surrounding sea water as my counterpoise. Essentially this would be the same thing as pounding a copper rod into the ground if I was land based. The tape will be bonded to the hull with epoxy. The only exposed area then become the connection to the thru hull and the transition from the hull into the pod. I will have to give some more consideration to the transition into the pod, but if I mount the tuner in the hull I can run RG 8U coax to the tuner in some sort of flexible conduit to protect it. Gordon West - http://www.gordonwestradioschool.com