Nutshell Pram EXCUSE ME Bottom Garboard Seam

 15 Feb 22:

Cold outside today, in the 40s, so we set up a little space heater under the hull for a few hours to help dry the epoxy. The heat rising raised the hull temp enough to keep the cure going on the epoxy.

One step today was to start filling holes where temporary fasteners had been removed. To do this we filled a syringe with THIXO thickened epoxy and cut the tip to a size just a bit smaller than the old screw holes, then injected small amounts of epoxy.

We planed the lower edge of the garboard flush to the bottom panel with a hand plane, then finished off the seam with 120 grit discs on a DeWALT 20V random orbital sander. One seam had some voids where we didn't get the epoxy in the right spot, so we injected more epoxy into that seam and clamped it again with deck screws, fender washers and PVC foamboard backer blocks.

A few of the screws were named for friends and family. 

Log of EXCUSE ME.

Nutshell Pram EXCUSE ME Planking and Epoxy Tips

 14 Feb 22:

Let's see, what to do today? Planking? That's it. A few notes follow as we continue planking our Nutshell Pram EXCUSE ME. One note is that it's a goo idea to mark which edge of the plank gets epoxy. We had a work slowdown today when i gooped the wrong edge, it's easy to get confused as the plank gets taken off from dry fitting and hauled over to a work table. So a little pencil mark helps, as do a few scribbles as to where the transom surface will get epoxy. 

When we are finished dispensing epoxy from a tube, we just leave the mixing tip on vs putting the shipping  cap back on. The old epoxy hardens, and when we're ready to epoxy again we put on a new mixing tube.

When the old mixing tip comes off, we see fresh thickened resin and hardener waiting to spring into action.

New mising tube.

A video: https://youtu.be/ULc7sXbjqCk

We apply a small bead of THIXO to the seam the spread it out with a paint stir stick to ensure full coverage.

Another video: https://youtu.be/VmZuQ0590eY

We hope you remembered to cover the molds, so they don't stick to the hull :)

A tip from Charlie, this screw acts as a third hand to help hold the plank during dry fit and again during final attachment of the plank.

Planking tips video: https://youtu.be/VmZuQ0590eY

Hey Webb, the Whisky Plank glued and temporarily screwed!

The bottom of the sheer plank and middle plank overlap a bit, the designer says to add some thickened epoxy here to increase the seam strength. Smooth the bead with a nitrile gloved finger to attain ludicrous speed in the pram.

Pause for celebration with libations.

Log of EXCUSE ME.

Nutshell Pram EXCUSE ME Forekeel TotalBoat THIXO Epoxy and Lamination Tips

30 Jan 22:

We worked on the forekeel today for EXCUSE ME, but first a couple of close up photos of the midships frame clamped and drying.

Here's a photo of the fir strips that will be used.

 

The blocks that are used to form the inner curve of the keel.

Here's a video on the materials and techniques we used to laminate the frame and forekeel.

Video link: https://youtu.be/mMM0T5gYpL0

We used a paint stick to spread out the thickened epoxy onto both faces of the fir strips. This ensures full coverage when the strips are clamped together.

All 15 strips epoxied together, ready to go onto the clamping jig.

The first two clamps are the hardest, an extra pair of hands is useful to control this octopus. 

Every clamp or two it is important to makes sure that the strips are laying flat vertically. We take a scrap piece of 2x4 and press down from the top, tighten the clamps and move on to the next few clamps. 

Here's a few tips on lamination: 

Video link: https://youtu.be/7OZ_1mz2qFA

The jig was then taken inside the house to dry in a climate controlled, 72F space. 

Log of EXCUSE ME.

Nutshell Pram EXCUSE ME Lamination Jig

 29 Jan 22:

We added clamping blocks to the bending jig. Spacing is arbitrary, with enough blocks around the curves to ensure the proper bend.

Before the laminations are clamped to the bending jig, we covered the jig with a plastic trash bag, to keep the adhesive from sticking to the jig. We chose TotalBoat THIXO as the adhesive, applied to both faces of the strips and smoothed with a paint stick to ensure full coverage. The pre-thickened resin mixes with hardener from separate cartridges through a mixing tube. Today we tried out the THIXO Pro tubes, which have more volume than THIXO from a single 2 part tube, but also requires a special dispensing gun. THIXO also comes in a single tube that can be dispensed with a regular caulk gun or High Thrust 25:1 caulk gun. The High Thrust gun makes it easier to squeeze the caulk gun handle. 

Log of EXCUSE ME.

1963 Alcort Sunfish CHIP 19 Apr 21 Thickened Epoxy Skim Coat

19 Apr 21:

In order to seal up a few tiny leaks on CHIP's hull, we are going to spread on a very thin coat of TotalBoat THIXO thickened epoxy, but first we need to remove hardware and sand the deck lightly.

The keel strip on the wooden Sunfish is aluminum quarter round, about 18 inches long.

There are a few tiny voids in the deck where the plywood has checked, not enough to let water i but enough to let air out. Our experiment is to spread a thin layer of thickened epoxy into those valleys, sand, then prime and paint again. We used 80 grit to scuff the previous paint.

 

Leftover sanding dust turned the THIXO blue, which worked in our favor to help us see where the valleys were.

While we had the THIXO out we put a second coat on seams in the mast step and daggerboard trunk.

Log of CHIP. 

1963 Alcort Sunfish CHIP 24 Feb 21 Deck Edge Repair and Floorboards

24 Feb 21:

CHIP got banged up a little during Hurricane Sally, some chips along the deck edge and one floorboard washed away. We filled in the divots with TotalBoat THIXO thickened epoxy dispensed from a 18:1 High Thrust caulk gun and smoothed it out as best we could with a plastic spreader, hoping to minimize sanding. 

The wooden Sunfish have floorboards, we cut a new one from 1/4 inch marine grade plywood for CHIP, painted it with TotalBoat WetEdge BlueGlo White and coated the top with TotalTread non skid. The test fit was today and everything fits perfect.

Log of CHIP.

BLUFF RATTY 16 Jan 21 Bow Angle, Garboard, Chine and Frames

 16 Jan 21:

We plan to incorporate design elements from BARBASHELA into BLUFF RATTY, one of the first is to put a small rake on the bow and reverse on the stern, so we found the angle using our BARBASHELA bow porch table and our pocket bevel.  

After we cut the rocker on the garboards with a DeWALT 20V jigsaw, we clamped them together and sanded with 60 grit on a DeWALT random orbital sander to get the edges matched up. We'd like to have good fits where we can and plan to use thickened adhesives like THIXO or PL Premium to fill in any spots we miss, which will be a lot. (Note: All cuts could be made with a handsaw or jigsaw, and sanding could be done with sandpaper.)

2 side planks.

We used TotalBoat THIXO thickened adhesive to attach the chine strip to the side plank. 

If you have a lot of clamps, use 'em. Light pressure only, just enough to hold the chine in place, too much pressure can squeeze all of the adhesive out of the joint. We wiped off most of the excess that squeezed out to avoid later sanding, and used a gloved finger to make a little curve over the plank/chine joint, like you do with tub caulk, this ensures the joint is epoxied and will help shed water off of the joint.

No clamps for the other side? We predrilled pilot holes through the plank into the chine for #6 x 3/4" screws,  then fastened the plank with THIXO and the screws. Silicone bronze screws (Jamestown Distributors) are optimum, other options are marine grade stainless, stainless or exterior deck screws. Each step down in quality will shave years off of the boat's life. 

2 chine strips attached to 2 lower side planks (garboards).

Next we started fiddling with frames, the "elbows that will hold the planks to the bottom. You could make the side angle straight, but we wanted a little flare to the sides, like BARBASHELA has. And the frames could be rectangles, but we wanted the curved feet and used a salvaged bit from BARBASHELA to get the curve. The bottom of our boat will not be flat side to side either, we want some V, so that will be incorporated into the frame angle and truss that runs side to side to connect the frames. We're putting 1/8th" of V across 15 inches of the truss, you can see the truss poking its head into the photo top right. The V bottom will help the boat track straight.

Prototype frame laying on its side, with notch for chine strip cut out. Thoughts here are to not make this notch a tight fit along the chine, to allow water to drain to a low spot in the bilge. Those drains are referred to as limber holes.

Jamestown Distributors

TotalBoat

Log of BLUFF RATTY.