Christmas sanding and drilling

Today I was able to sand down the seats and drill the holes for the motor mount.
For christmas, I was given a drill guide to drill straight holes. It worked well to drill oversize holes for the motor mounts on the transom. Since the holes are oversize, I will fill with epoxy, then drill out 1/4" holes for the 1/4-20 bolts I will be using to hold on the aluminum motor guides.

It's really too cold to do much epoxy work.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Seats glued down

This is a major milestone, the seats are glued down. It took awhile to get it all done.

First, I finished the wiring to the motor on the port side. You can see the wires run along the inside. The connector at the back is not installed yet.

Wiring runs to the back of the boat

This is the end of the wire. I have a brass through hole fitting for it.

Closer shot. You can see the hole for the motor connector plug.

Saturday I decided where the motor remote control would come through the seat and drilled the hole for that. Since I can't cut the connector off, I had to use a cable clam to go through the seat. The connector is very large and needed a 7/8" hole through the seat.

I glued a doubler on the seat and drilled the 7/8" hole through.

Then I coated the bottom of the seats.

Bottom of the seats coated. And the footwell cover and the sole doublers.

Saturday evening, I recoated all the pieces. They were ready to be installed Sunday morning, if still a bit tacky.

Sunday I started gluing the seats down. I don't have a lot of shots of the actual glue down. Just make sure that you have the seats dry fit very well before attempting the glue down.

I had sanded all the cleats. Saturday evening and Sunday morning, I recoated all the cleats. So everything had a nice new coat of epoxy on it before the actual glue down.

Using buckets of water and boxes of tiles to weight down the seats.

After I got the seats glued down, I wanted to glue the transom doubler that will be used for the motor mount. I glued that in along with the small plate that backs the socket connector for the motor.

The blue spreader clamp holds the small plate for  the motor connector.
To the left, you can see the transom doubler.

A lot of clamps holding the transom doubler.

It was a real pain clamping in the transom doubler, but I got it. I used the same trick of a cross bar spreader and a small spreader perpendicular pressing against the piece. You can just see it at the bottom of the above shot.

I had some gaps along the outside edge of the seat. After it was glued and weighted, I put tape under the seat to block the cracks. Then I ran a pre-fillet. I don't think a pre-fillet is a real thing, but the idea is that I used some thickened epoxy -- not quite as thick as fillet mix -- and forced it into the cracks as best I could. I pushed that down with a finger and let it cure for just awhile. I had the garage about 70 degrees with the oil heater, so it didn't take too long to firm.

Then I ran a real fillet all along the edges and cleaned with a gloved finger a few hours later.

I was not able to fillet right near my complicated clamp setup at the back. I'll get that later.

Starboard side is glued.

Painted under seat wells, electrical for motor

Last Friday, I painted under the seat wells. I had to buy a new pint of RustOleum White Satin 7791. I think it's the same as the White gloss 7792. I like the satin better, but it's hard to tell the difference in the light and I think it will be impossible to tell the difference in the dark under the seats.

I used white of course because it should make it easier to see under there.

Although, thinking about it now, I have purchased a waterproof LED light strip. Maybe I should wire those up under the seats. The port side would be easy, I'd just have to run some 18awg marine wire that I have and rig up a switch. The starboard side has the centerboard trunk and would require drilling a hole through B4, running the wire under the starboard front hatch, then drilling another hole to run the wires back into the seat well.

I'll consider that this weekend. 

I decided to buy a connector for the motor so that I could easily remove the motor from the rear of the boat. West Marine sells a more expensive version of MinnKota's connector. I bought one of those and installed it in the aft transom.

MKR-18 socket.
Notice also that I trimmed the planks.

It looks nice and will be easy to connect and disconnect the motor when needed. I'll have to find a way to lock the motor so that no one steals it. I think a brass padlock will work.

The motor and the connector.

I didn't get any pictures, but I did wire the motor to the plug. I still need to heat shrink it to finalize it, but it will definitely work.

I also ran the wire under the seats and decided how the connector will look. In the picture below, the small steel ring is the through hole for the motor wire and you can se the back of the socket.

Wiring pieces. I still need to epoxy it all together.

Here is another shot with the wire through the hole.

Wire needs to be stripped and connected later

This weekend, I plan to drill a hole for the motor remote control and drill all the holes for the cable clam connector. I think that will go just fore of B5. I will velcro mount the controller under the decking. 

Once those decisions are made, I can finalize the under seat wiring and start epoxy coating the bottom of the seats in preparation for gluing them down. I'm excited for that step.

That frees up some other jobs, such as gluing the motor doubler and drilling the holes for the motor rails.

It also means I can start on the deck.

A final note: Beware drill bits from Harbor Freight. I needed a 1 1/8" drill bit for the socket, so I picked up a set of 4 spade bits. They were all horribly bent. I was able to drill my holes, but a lot of shaking happened. Unacceptable. I'm going to take them back when I get a chance.

Primed under seat well and cut sole doublers

This weekend we had pretty good weather. Saturday I decided that I could prime under the seat wells.  That went fine.

I considered putting some small shelves aft of B7 for storage of keys and things. I would have built a shelf and used screen door screen for the shelf bottom so that water didn't pool on it.

I measured and did some looking and decided that I won't bother, they'd be too restrictive.

I can easily make more hammock loops, but I have to find smaller hammocks for back there. I just might have to weave them myself.

Here's a couple shots just after priming:

port seat wells primed

starboard seat wells primed.

I had planned to paint the seat wells on Sunday, but the primer hadn't completely dried in the cool weather.
That forced me to do some other things.

I decided to cut the doublers for the sole and the footwell cover.
I'm actually very happy with how this is turning out. Since the hatches are about the thickness of the 9mm plywood, the sleeping surface should be very flat and easy when sleeping.

dry fit the hatches, and dry fit the cut doublers.

In the above picture, you can see the pieces that I cut. The one between the 2 hatches I just cut from scrap. The other I cut from the large sole doubler that comes in the kit. It's exactly the right width.

aft doublers dry fit

I also traced out where I wanted the aft hatch. I still haven't cut out the hatch in the sole yet because I am climbing in and out of the boat quite a bit and don't want to trip.

I also cut the 28 1/2" x 26 1/2" footwell cover and the 26 1/2" doubler to go on that. I even found the time to glue it together.

Gluing up the footwell cover

I still haven't decided how the foot well cover will go over the foot well. I think I'll just cut some cleats and glue those in and let it sit on top. I'll probably cut the cover in 1/2 so that I can store it somewhere.

Finally, I coated the doublers that I cut in preparation for gluing them down.

Coating the doublers

The motor mount transom doubler

It's been cold; I've been busy

It's been cold and I've been busy, so I haven't gotten too much done lately.

I was able to glue in the eyelets. I decided to put 6 on each side of the seat wells. They should work well for bungie tie downs.

Gluing the eyelets to B5

In the above shot, they are clamped to B5 with just glue. That is looking fore. They are on the same location on B6. The bottom 2 can be used with a bungie net, the top one will be use for the hammock.

Fillet them.

The weather here is supposed to get cold again for awhile, so I'm not sure what I'll do next. I believe I am ready to prime and paint inside the wells, which means I can get the seat tops glued down sometime soon, then I start on the deck.

Eyelet construction

Simeon had a great idea to install attachment points inside the seats. My first thought was stainless steel hooks, but they have a tendency to poke holes in dry bags.

I remembered a trick I developed when I built my kayak. I wanted loops on the topside of the kayak for bungees. I cut a slit in the wood and then put the loop through the slit. This is almost exactly the same.

First, I found some 3/4" nylon webbing. The important bit is that it is nylon and will melt.
Then I cut some 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" squares from 4.2mm plywood.

6) 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" squares and black nylon webbing

Add a line through the middle.

Drill some holes to make slots. I used 5/32" bit.

5/32" bit drilling the slot

Then I used a file to clean the slot.

I had a file that was just the right thickness to clean it out.

6 squares with a slot.

Now comes the fun part. You need to make loops out of the nylon strapping. I do it with a butane torch and a pliers.

Melt the nylon.

After you melt the nylon, you need to flatten the end. I pressed it against the anvil of my vise.

Press against the vise anvil

This makes a nice flat area.

Flattened it.

Now you can slip that through the slot.

A nice loop for attachments.

But I wasn't very happy. It stood too proud of the surface.

Proud of the surface.

But that's easy to fix with a forstner bit. (I didn't get a picture of the actual drilling.)

Chow out the bottom with a forstner.

Initially, I made 6 of them. But that isn't enough, so I made another batch of 6. Now I need to figure out where to place the 12 of them.

I know 2 of them will go on the inner ends of B4 & B5 under each hatch. I'm going to hang toy hammocks there. I'll pick up some stainless S hooks later.

The next step is to epoxy coat the pieces. Then can put the loops through and then glue them inside the hull where I want them. They should be low profile and easy to attach bungee nets without getting in the way.

Seat wells have new cleats

A comment from Simeon on my last posting prompted me to glue in some cleats against the hull to make sure the tops were well secured and didn't sag when people stood on them.

This is generally pretty easy. I just cut the cleats and mark them against the hull. Then I coat the backsides with unthickened epoxy. After they are all done, then I thicken up the rest of the epoxy and use it like a glue against the hull. I also pin the cleat to the hull with two nails. The 1" stainless nails are just perfect to go through the cleat and into the 9mm plywood without bursting out the back.

Two cleats behind the hatch cutout.

This looks lopsided, but it's straight. It's for the rear circular hatches.

I am starting to run out of yellow cedar and I will need more for various places in the top. I'l have to pick up some more and rip it to the right 20mm x 30mm size.

As long as I had the epoxy mixed up, I coated the centerboard cover. My trick in the previous posting worked pretty well, but there were some gaps that I wanted to fill. The tape hammock didn't work perfectly. It was easy to fill the gaps with thickened epoxy.

Long shot of the centerboard cap.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this weekend's accomplishments. I need to do some sanding to give the epoxy some tooth, then I can prime the seat well and then paint them. After that, I'm ready to glue on the seat tops.

Before I glue on the seat tops, I need to make sure there is nothing else I want to do inside there.

I considered adding 2 bilge pumps. I wanted to put the bilge pumps between B4 & B5 and then coil up a flexible hose and hang that on a hook under the seat. When there was water in the sump, I could open the hatch, throw the hose over the edge and flip a switch. I decided that running the wiring was going to be a real pain it'd be easier to buy a hand pump.

If anyone has any ideas about what to put under the seats, let me know.

Sanding & epoxying in seat well, centerboard cap

The last few days, I've been cleaning up inside the seat wells in preparation for gluing on the seat tops.

I didn't get any pictures, but I used some epoxy with 410 fairing to smooth out the inside. I used a squeegee to roll on thin coats where needed.
I then sanded inside the wells and put a 2nd coat of epoxy over everything.

Now I just need to wait awhile for it to cure. I'll give it a quick sanding with 80 grit to give it tooth and then prime it.

As long as I was messing with the seats, I decided I could glue up the centerboard cover. It needs to have a block put under it so that it fits in the centerboard trunk. Additionally, it needs to have a lock on one end so that it stays put and won't jump out. It turns out I've got some pecan hardwood tongue & groove flooring that is nearly perfect. I used a table saw to rip it down to the right width, chopping off the tongue and the groove. Then I use the leftover tongue to cut a small piece that would fit in the groove on the end. That will be the lock. It doesn't need much.

Then I pondered how to glue the pieces together. I decided that I could use packing tape to make a little hammock to hold the flooring at just the right spot.

See the packing tape hammock on the right?

I also added more packing tape and scotch tape to make sure nothing got glued that wasn't supposed to be glued.

I slipped the tongue in the groove. I'll put glue on the ends and glue it inside the trunk.

I also wrapped the end of the flooring in packing tape to make sure I didn't glue the tongue in the groove.

The fore end, again wrapped in tape. The lateral piece is the hammock.

Cap is on top of the pieces suspended in the tape hammocks.

I then put the cap on and made sure I knew where I wanted it in relation to the seat. I put on one coat of epoxy, then mixed up some silica glue and smeared that on. Then I put the cap on and weighted it down. A few hours later, I took the cap out and it looked great.

The tongue is glued in. I'll re-coat that with epoxy.

Here you can see the groove on the flooring and the tongue in the centerboard trunk

Finally, here is a shot of the whole thing. I'll coat it and seal it up.

Tomorrow the epoxy in the seat wells will likely still be green and will sand poorly, so I can't sand that. I have a couple other projects like the anchor rode storage that I still might build.

Starting to look like a boat

Today the glue was dry on the fore sole. I cleaned it up a bit and then did the filleting. In the below shot you can see I did the fillets and I also cleaned up the puzzle joint.

Fillets done

Before that, I put down all the hatches where they are supposed to go and snapped some pictures. It is starting to look like a boat.

Long shot

The veranda

Veranda and the battery well

Veranda, battery well and seats.

This evening, I painted the exposed surfaces of the fore and aft sole. This will protect it from footprints and marred wood. I've already dropped a few tools and scarred up the wood a bit. The epoxy should protect that very well. I haven't decided yet if I'll do the second coat or if I'll wait awhile to glue on the sole doubler.

I used the Abranet sanding disks on a random orbital sander to clean up the puzzle joints and sanded right through a ply or 2, so I put on micro balloons to smooth it out. It still has a ton on strength there, so I'm not worried about it.

Painted surface. You can see I added some micro balloons over the puzzle joints

And a long shot back. More micro balloons over the oval fills.

Tomorrow will be a busy day at work, so I'm not sure what I'll accomplish. I also need to stop at WestMarine for some more filleting mix and some 610 tubes.

I think the next thing I'd like to do is to get some doubler plates created for the motor mounts. That will be complicated to get correct and I may not be able to mount them until after I glue the seats down.

Fore sole glued

I got the fore sole glued down tonight after another coat on the bottom of the sole and a good coat on the cleats.
(I also sanded the nastiness left by the plastic. It's not perfect as there are still some lumps in the crannies, but I'll apply some fairing putty and get that smoothed out. I have one word: Abranet. That stuff is great. Makes your random orbit sander more like a belt sander without all the nasty scratches.)

water buckets weighing it down in the center

spreader clamps pushing it down at the edges.

I feel good about this. It's nice to see the thing coming together.

The next step with the sole is to fillet this fore area. Then I can do some fairing on the area that is visible above the hatches. Finally, I can prime and paint that area.

In the next few days, I hope to get the aft sole painted a first coat. I'm walking on it a lot and I want to have it protected. I'll probably also paint the fore sole also. Just a single coat as I still need to cut doublers for the areas outside the hatches.

I also want to get the foot well done, so I may paint on the sandy grit on the doubler there.

I would also like to double the aft transom so that I can get the holes for the motor mount drilled.

So much to do.