Garboard no.1

August 16, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

After a few days of fine-tuning stem bevel and learning how to clamp the garboard to evenly press it along the whole keelson I finally glued it tonight.

The day was very hot so I waited till late evening for temperature to drop.

Masking tape along all sensitive areas, especially in centerboard case opening. This will be pulled out once epoxy squeeze is maintained.

Still warm and steamy, epoxy was kicking very fast so I divided it into three smaller batches and spread thickened glue as fast as I could.

While dry-fitting and tuning the stem bevel I could never got the front part of the garboard to fully cover the stem. There always becomes a gap so that the stem is visible. Frustrated with this I checked on the net that all other builders have the same configuration.

Well, then there is nothing wrong with my setup - the plank sits spot-on on all molds and bulkhead landings which means it is on its place. Without applying “plywood torture” techniques it will just not cover the stem’s crown.

That’s absolutely no problem as it will have to be trimmed anyway, to receive false stem once planking is finished. It will cover the whole stem, creating the same beveled structure as in traditional boat building but with two parts glued together instead of one piece of timber with carved landing bevel.

It took me a good few hours to finish the job and clean all epoxy excess.

Mosquitos, these bastards, were waiting until I got my hands gloved and wet with glue so I could no longer kill them. They were sucking my blood unpunished.

As always - you can never have too many clamps!

Bevels everywhere

August 13, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Plane sharpening session.
It was a high time to re-establish primary bevel on my no.5 but I made a mistake and used Tormek for that. Not that it does not work - works like a charm - but in my workflow I like to use wet stones for re-sharpening during the work.
I like them more and it takes no time to sharpen plane iron this way. Machine is a bit more time consuming to set-up so I reserved it for “big jobs” like primary bevel or damaged chisels.

Well, the problem with such mixed workflow, at least for me, is that Tormek is leaving rounded bevel. It uses rotating stone. When I want to add my tiny secondary bevel on stones it starts to grind the back of primary bevel, before it reaches the tip.

I could, of course, increase the secondary bevel angle and land on the tip but…. I don’t want to. It would distort my established workflow, introducing yet another angle in sharpening. I like to have it easy: all my irons are 25 degrees primary bevel and 27-30-ish degree of secondary bevel. Sharpening fixture set once and (almost) never changed. Peace of mind.

So I decided to bite the bullet and re-grind the iron back to flat, 25-degree bevel, on water stones. It took me two hours. Slowly removing the curve from iron tip.

Until finally arriving to flat and mirror-like primary bevel.

There we go!

Back to the boatshed.
Finished beveling one side of the keelson. Forefoot left roughly done, to be checked when I offer the garboard plank.

An hour later - with intermezzo of swimming, to cool down - the other half is beveled.
I try both garboards, to check if they meet in the middle. Indeed they do, with tiny overlap, as expected.

Forefoot section will be interesting to mount.

I torture plywood with clamps, to find where the stem needs some more beveling. Nothing broke so far!

The day was very warm and sunny so I use the opportunity to do dusty work outside. Table saw got some usage - I made 30 wooden clamps from plywood off-cuts.

Essential to have for upcoming planking.

Keelson beveling

August 12, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Directly after work I jump into my boatshed.

Marked rolling bevel angles for the rest of the keelson. Many cuts!

These cuts would suggest that chiseling the wood is a good idea.

It’s not.

The angle is changing quite rapidly in stem and transom areas. That requires more subtle tools - like planes - since wood grain does not follow this change. I got to know this by hard when I chiseled too deep…

Cursing heavily I switched to planes. Scrub plane for stock removal followed by smoothing plane and block plane. (Note to Albert - get this Veritas scrub plane while it’s available - you will use it more often than you think!).

I still think that making these cuts is worth the effort. Not only that they provide visual guide of how much needs to be removed but also wood chips are shorter thus plane cuts more easily. Siberian lark is quite tough wood.

No sweating about this chipped bit - thickened epoxy likes these imperfections, in fact.

Starboard side got done almost all the way to the stem.

Stem part is a bit more challenging as the garboard turns rapidly there. I leave this for tomorrow, I’m tired after the whole day at the factory.

Sweating like a pig after violent planing (who needs a gym?!) I take a break and go for evening swim in a lake. Coming back after dark I cannot resist checking with the garboard plank if my bevels result in snug fit.

They indeed do!

Plan for tomorrow:

finishing bevels on both sides of the keelson
offering garboard planks, further keelson trimming and hopefully gluing garboards in place
making plywood clamps & wedges for coming planking

Keelson - preparations for bevelling

August 11, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Short evening after work - I managed to complete marking bevel lines on the keelson and started kerfing it for chiseling and plaining.

In centerboard opening area I no longer have central line. I re-established it temporary with masking tape.

Started sawing kerfs. Still many to make, to be continued tomorrow night.

Epoxy spills. Marking keel bevel

August 10, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Fine weather prevails so I finished cleaning all planks. Since I was at it the skeg also got treated. Hot-air gun, scrubbing blade and sandpaper make all the difference.

By the end of this I was covered with wood and epoxy dust.
I went for a swim in a lake.

Refreshed by late evening dope I looked into the keelson at the stem.
I was not sure as of where to trim it - to keep as much wood as possible - so I just left the full width and glued it in place. Now, on the jig, I can mark where the bevel starts to meet the keelson.

I clamp a batten to nearby bulkheads or station molds and use a piece of wood to determine where the plank’s bottom edge will meet the keelson.

This is, of course, just an approximation since the plank will be wider than a batten and it will be laying on all stations at once, hence springing up a bit, forming a sweet curve. But for finding the bevel the batten should be enough.

It was too late in the evening to run power tools so I ripped it with a handsaw. I love Japanese ripping saws!

Started marking the rolling bevel line when the family called me out.

To be continued tomorrow evening.

Cleaning scarf joints

August 09, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I take advantage of good weather to prepare all boards for planking.

Dusty job so I work outside.

Epoxy excess cleaned with block plane, followed by a touch of orbital sander.

Sixteen planks done tonight, just four left to do.

Mortises for the skeg

August 08, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

There are three mortises to be cut in the keelson. I chose to cut them in situ, although it is much easier to do it on the bench, before the keel is glued to the structure.

Pros of doing it after gluing is that one can precisely mark where mortises should be.
Or eyeball it.
I prefer this way also because the keel plank is heavily bent in this section. It felt more secure to have a timber without cuts while performing the bend.

The skeg should land into corresponding openings in the keelson.

Marking approximate place for each mortise. Happy to see that the only big knot left will be cut out.

I made a simple fixture to guide the router: thick plywood piece with slats stopping the router at the edges of planned cut.

After placing the fixture in approximate position I used a small straight edge to check if inclination of the cut - and its edges - will correspond to keelson’s openings. This is why I used thick plywood - to have walls to support the straight edge.

Eyeballing at its best.

The first cut went a bit off, by 3mm. I needed to enlarge it in one direction, to compensate for the miss. Such small mistake will be filled with epoxy goo so I don’t sweat about it.

I figured source of the mistake and the other two cuts were spot on.

All mortises cut and trimmed with rounded edges.

Next step is to bevel the keelson and then I can start planking!

Keelson glued

August 07, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

It was raining cats&dogs so I was happy to work inside the boatshed.

Before spreading the glue I undertook tedious job of masking everything. At this phase it is easy to glue too much - the keelson rests both on bulkheads and on molds. It would be embarrassing if it got glued to the jig!

To avoid messy spill-up into the centerboard case I made a foam plug. It closes the centerboard opening and will be pulled out with use of silver-tape tabs once all is clamped in place and squeeze out cleaned.

The clock was ticking a bit slower since air temperature dropped so I had a bit more time to gather spills, thicken them up and make fillets, especially on aft part which is under the highest strain.

As always is the case - you never have too many clamps!

The next step is to make a jig for routing tenons for the skeg.
After that I will bevel the keel for coming garboard and the planking process will begin.

Dry-fitting the keelson

August 04, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I was lucky with the weather - planing down the timber could be done outdoors, providing enough wind-cooling for extensive physical training. Wood shavings are good to have for starting fire during winter.

Fitted onto the boat to check landing on all stations and for taking measurements.

Back on the bench I re-established the centerline and marked opening for centerboard.

Ad-hock jig for routing the opening.

This plank is almost perfect but there are two knots exactly in the centerline. Both don’t protrude to the other face and are “live knots” but still… I got lucky that both these knots are in areas which will be cut away!

Big knot got removed after centerboard slot is routed.

The second one is just in the skeg tenon are so it will be gone, too.

I like when things fall in place so nicely!

The moment of truth - fitting the keel plank again, to check if centerboard opening is matching the centerboard case.

Yep!
All on the spot!
I left a pencil line-thick margin when routing, just in case something is not perfectly centered but that was not necessary. All locked in its proper position.

I clamped the keelson plank into its position and steamed the wood to remove some stresses. I leave the assembly now for a few days so the wood can get used to its new shape.
It should make gluing a bit easier.

Next steps before planking:

trimming centerboard opening - rounding the edges (pencil-line thickness) so that centerboard will not get trapped by protruding edge
making a jig for cutting skeg tenons. This jig will be also useful later as tenons will have to be cut again after planking.
masking and gluing the keelson to the boat

Keel timber

August 03, 2022 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I will make keel timber from Siberian lark. I’ve saved a plank with very nice, tight grain for this purpose.
Measuring width at every station and mold.

Transferring to the plank.

I need to shave 8 mm of the plank, to land at 18mm thickness. I do it by hand, with scrub plane.
Who needs a gym?!