Time to start gluing
Now that I have made a couple of changes and everthing fits well, it's time to start gluing. Gluing 1 side at a time the, first thing is to get a good line up of the deck formers and the transome, also line up the same deck former at the notch of bulhead #2. Tack glue the deck former to the transome and bulkhead #2. Reapt the same process to the opposite side. Allow to dry, When dry, using a straight edge. check and line up bulkheads 3,4,and 5 with the transome, when you get them lined up tack glue bulkheads 3,4 &5 to the deck formers. Now tack the forward keel spine in place, once dry I added the rear keel spine support at this point and glued it in place.
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Its time to install the battons and chines, 1st check each notch in the bulkheads and transome for a good fit of the spruce strips used for the battons. Check the fit of each notch I used an x-acto knife to open them a bit to get a good fit but keeping them snug in the slot. You can also sand the notches to get a good fit. Glue and clamp each batton in to the bulkhead at each notch, I left the strips long and cut the excess once the batton had dried in place. Add all four battons at this time. Next I added the chines fitting them in the same fashion as the battons a good fit means less sanding, I Began at the nose and worked toward the rear or transome leaving the excess and trimming it once dry.
Next I used a long sanding bock with 80 grit sandpaper and sanded the battons and chines to get everything flat and flush, using a straight edge to continue to check the progress until there were no voids or high spots. Take your time making sure everything is nice and even.
Once the bottom skins have dried, the excess overhang needs to be removed so the side skins may be added. I started removing the excess with a small hand razor plane until there was just a bit of excess left then finished removing it with a sanding block, sanding it until it was flush with the chines and transome sanding the skins flush around the bottom of the entire hull.
Its time to add the shears, First check the notches at the outter bulkhead tops, using the 1/8 X 1/8 spruce shears supplied in the kit as a guide, You may need to trim or sand the notch to get a good fit , be sure to not make the notch to large, now sand one end of the shear to an angle that will go at the nose of the hull. Starting at the nose set the angle you have sanded against the nose line up the shear with the nose and the notch in bulkhead 2 at the same time, apply some medium CA at the nose and shear, a quick shot of CA kicker will hold it in place, now gently bend the shear until it meets the notch in bulkhead 2, CA and use kicker to lock it there, work the shear in to the notchess on the remaing bulkheads working toward the transome, glue and kick in place at each notch, allow to dry. When dry trim excess shear stock at the transome. Repeat the same process on the opposite side of the hull. To make bending the shear easier you can first soak the shears in alcohol for about 20 minutes before bending. Here are the shears in place.
The basic hull is making quite a bit of progress, Now we'll move on to the deck and hatch, At this point I am only going to add 1 of the 3 deck supports, Using a piece of the left over batton 1/8 x 1/4 stock I installed the deck support that runs from the nose brace back to bulkhead 3. After checking the fit and trimming the notches in the bulkheads I clamped and glued the deck support in place. The reason I only installed the center deck support is that now is a good time to waterproof everthing from bulkhead 3 forward to the nose. Leaving the remaining deck support off now allows more room for access to get a good waterproofing job done. I applied a good coat of 30 minute epoxy thinned 30% with alcohol to the entire area between bulkhead 3 and the nose.
Originally Posted by ace028
Now that the nose area has been sealed up I added the remaining 2 deck supports. Once I had a good fit I glued them in place, sanded them to the bulk head shape and waterproofed them as well. While the waterproofing was drying I added a transome doubler. This does not come in the kit but a good idea for some added protection. I took a piece of 1/8 light ply and traced the existing transome pattern on to the ply then cut out the doubler and epoxied it in place to the hull using spring clamps. When dry I sanded it flush with the hull.
Now I fit them in to place and clamped the at their correct location,I did the same process for the remaining side and transome. I used one of the provided hatch formers at bulkhead 3. I used masking tape to hold some small spacers in place and masked the frame betwen the opening frame and hatch pieces. This is all clamped in place and tack gued together with medium CA.
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