No fair, as soon as I get a boat on par with your Nassau you go back to the Yam. Don't you like playing with me?
So Carl, who will still be around for second sortie? And type for yourselves, I’ve been building boys. Traced out the keel. Had to tweak the length to get everything to match up Keel with frame slots marked Cut out the stringer layer. The spacing worked out well Stern Keel maybe, bow Stern with stringer Attaching stringer layer Check the beam always Keel in place, test fit Frames dropped in, just to see how I did lining things up Not bad looking Side I then attached the keel, making sure it was straight with a piece of ply. Then went frame by frame gluing I’m place Keel straight Frames in for real Stern Flipped over to see the whole hull shape Stern, won’t be much to shoot at below Forward casements Profile Forward casement from above Bow quarter shot Decided to stick with pink foam. Ripped into strips for each frame, I stuck them up to keep track of the ones I cut Next couple of days I’ll cut the rest down and glue them together, maybe start shaping by Wednesday
Short update, got about an hour in tonight after work. Cut up more foam. The extreme bow and stern will be balsa given the small contact area for glue to hold. I made up a jig to cut the strips down to size, worked pretty well, a lot faster than using a razor. Set the ‘fense’ At the right distance to cut, pull piece, slide in strip, cut again Pile of foam Slightly more organized. Some pieces will need to be sanded down a small amount. Next step will be trimming the pieces, then gluing in each piece with foam board construction adhesive. Should have more time tomorrow, hopefully will get a significant portion glued in
As a landlord, if I walked into one of my properties and saw this, I'd be like WTF? But as the somewhat talented maker that I am I'd also be thinking, sweet!
Thick walls, and I mask everything with vacuuming sounds. The worst thing I’ve done so far is drill a small hole in the floor, so I’ll have to great creative whenever I move.
Shop vac. It’s an enclosed room with sliding glass doors, floor covered with workout equipment plastic sheets. I still shake my head when I hear about people cutting hulls outside with just a fan. Proper use of a shop vac will catch the vast majority of dust, you miss a little on the inside of the hull, but if you have the cutting wheel spinning towards the suction it is very effective. No more looking like a snowman for me
Couple hours in today Sanded down the foam to fit between frames Then I had to trim the pieces up, and cut away some material to not interfere with the wood used to attach the frames Here is an example, quick cut with a razor Fits in here All done, ready to glue in Will glue in tomorrow or Thursday. Bow and stern will be balsa so no dry time to worry about there. I have Friday off so I should be able to get through the first trim and spackle job. If the weekend goes well I might get into making the mold early next week. Planning on a four piece mold, typical halves but two removable pieces for the bow casements with the large inset
Now she’s actually 4.5 units. A bit of work today. Cut out balsa blocks for bow and stern Used foam board glue. General process here. It’s important to keep the glue from getting on the edges of the frame, or all of the way between the foam pieces for when it comes time to sand the foam down. Glue lines will show up on the sides and will take work to smooth out Balsa blocks, still will get trimmed a bit before I CA them in place All the foam is glued in now, that is a big step complete. Will get balsa blocks in tomorrow, maybe some initial cuts on the foam
Mid day update. Started sanding Cut corners with razor blades here Shifted to sander Progressing First side rough, moved to other half Second side rough. Have a few low spots, no big deal It’s nice how quickly it takes shape Will cut and glue in balsa blocks after lunch Hoping to get blocks in and initial fill of spackel today
It some work done today, started with blocks Bow, first set in Side Rest of blocks added This is just with the palm sander, pretty good Another shot. Added spackle
Good progress today. Started off sanding spackle from yesterday Added bondo, didn’t get a good mix. Small batches are touchy, it’s good for structure but a pain compared to other fillers Bondo over the turret hump, ended up not curing so I scraped it and redid layer Had to sand a bit in the stern beyond what I did with palm sander yesterday Decided it was good enough to paint, initial coat gets things closer to a consistent surface, and help identify low areas Done. First coat is always nice to see it all one color If only it was the real hull haha Should be a good pit bull Bondo on turret hump and under fed casements that stick out Time for joint compound. Highly recommend for getting a nice smooth finish. I use a razor blade to apply. Goal of first coat is full coverage, and a rough pass at any low areas (typically on rounded portion of hull) Kinda rough but sand really easy Skimmed the casements too, kind of a pain but will be worth it to fill the low grade plywood sides Maybe sanded here, I realize that all these pictures will look the same haha, but lots of work between shots Smoother here. I use the foam sanding block things, good balance of rigidity and flex to not flex between ribs too much Sanded here as well Look down the stringer Resin ready to go, hopefully crack them open this week for the mold. 7 hulls planned so far Put a second coat of joint compound on the bottom, will let dry over night. Focused on getting all of the low areas on the curve from side to bottom. Might be last full-ish coat Will sand tomorrow then probably paint, then see how it looks, maybe third coat or more spots of skim coat if necessary. I’m going to call the ball early on this plug, I typically spend too much time smoothing out areas on the bott or sides that just get cut out. Hopefully will move towards making the mold by mid week. Plan is 4 part, with small pieces for the forward casements, it’s a non-trivial overhang. I’ll make a dividing plate to go down the keel for the first half, goal will be mold done by end of next weekend. So far not good at estimating time on this one, but moving along
