Swimming ?

 One thought I've had is to have a swimming ladder on the boat. Wondering about water temperatures, I found this website. https://watertemperatureforecast.com/ 

 Another website included "swimming condition" icons. It was saying anything above 65 degrees is "BRISK" and anything under 65 is too cold for swimming. I have a little pool in the back yard and swimming pool temperatures for just soaking in need to be at least in the low 80's. A mountain lake in the 80's?, that'll never happen.

 I have in the past swam in Diamond Lake and in Crescent Lake, both in the Cascade mountain range.

 

Epoxy Putty formula

 When boat building with epoxy, everyone has lots of advice.  Many people will refer you to a book, Epoxy Basics by Russell Brown, as the gold standard reference. https://www.amazon.com/dp/149284182X   But I also came across a document which included a few pages on epoxy additives.

Straight epoxy, especially the LV (low viscosity) types typically used in boat building, are very thin and runny.  To use epoxy as a glue it needs to be thickened somewhat, and to use epoxy as a putty it must be very thick (like peanut butter).

Russell Brown recommends using three or four different additives to make filleting putty.  In the Wooden Boat magazine articles of building the Redwing-18 they recommend using two additives, one of which is wood flour.

The problem with the standard additives commonly sold is that most are fine, powdery man-made materials which are not at all good to breathe into your lungs. I was at the club a couple weeks back talking to a guy about these additives when I saw a few left over containers on a shelf.  Curious to know what one actually looked like, I took it down and opened its lid. The guy literally jumped back four feet!! Certainly if you are going to measure out  an amount and stir it into your epoxy you will want to use a dust mask or maybe a respirator, but all I did was take the lid off.

Now, one of the common additives used is what's called 'wood flour'. First off this is a natural product, it is literally wood sawdust that has been ground to a fine powder. Imagine you're power sanding a block of wood with a vacuum attached to the sander. What ends up in the vacuum's bag is wood flour.

Using the man-made additives yields a putty that is smoother and easier to work with and some will also add extra strength, but I feel the extra costs and hazards are not worth it.  I will be using only wood flour on this boat.  I'm sure many people will wish to argue this point, but I've made up my mind. I like things simple and I like doing things my way. 

Using just wood flour does not make the ideal putty to work with and I've already found that trying to lay down the full sized fillet in a single pass is difficult. I've decided to do the fillets in two passes. Putting down an under-sized fillet first and after it hardens, applying the full sized radius fillet on a second pass. Note; the fillets will be covered with fiberglass cloth and more epoxy, so they don't have to be perfect or perfectly smooth.

When power sanding, I would certainly use a vacuum attachment if the sander had one, and I would use a dust mask. I would also ventilate the work shop before taking off the mask. These same precautions need to be used when measuring and mixing wood flour into epoxy. Once whetted out in the epoxy mix, a mask is no longer needed.

Since I'm mixing lots of batches of putty for the fillets, I made myself a dust-hood so I don't have to bother with masks. Here it is. I've added a red line to the picture to show the edge of the plastic sheeting on the front.

 I measure the wood flour using a kitchen weight scale and then mix the epoxy inside the hood until all the wood flour is whetted out and mixed into the epoxy.

For those curious my putty formula is 10 pumps of the MAS epoxy, about 135 grams, and 38 to 40 grams of wood flour.  That's all that my little mixing cups can handle.

UPDATE: after finishing the second MAS epoxy jugs, I found I had a significant  amount of resin leftover. Apparently the pumps aren't perfect, especially when cold. From now on I will be mixing by weight instead of counting pumps. New formula is 100g resin , 45g hardener, and 45g wood flour.

 

 

 

Costs so far...

 The epoxy filleting requires a fair amount of epoxy and I'm ordering another 1-1/2 gallon kit. This finally puts the cost of materials higher than the motor. 

Boat Storage update

 With the concrete extensions complete, I emptied out the garden shed and moved it four feet to the left. The wood pile on the end got rebuilt and a new white tarp. The whole garden shed got a good cleaning out and reorganizing.

I removed the roofing to repair some leaks. One thing led to another, and I've purchased all new fiberglass roofing panels. I included a few white pieces to give more light into the shed. 

The boat cover area will be rebuilt larger using the lumber that is currently in use on the boat building structure. In the meantime, I've shortened that outside area roof down to 8 feet.

With the garden shed emptied, I had the opportunity to throw out old useless things, to repaint the shelving, and to redo the tools.

A couple of Christmas' ago I received some garden tool storage pegs (yes, I did ask Santa for them). I finally got around to installing them in a neat and organized way. I added an additional 2x4 to place a few of them.

Now, women will shake their heads and roll their eyes, but no man can look at this and not say... "That is a thing of beauty!"

 

Stitching aide / holding the frames

 I held the center frame, #4, in place using a brace to the bottom.  I screwed a small block to the bottom panel with a single screw and then clamped a stick in place. 

The top clamp uses a small slotted piece of plywood.

The other frames were braced against this center frame using slotted blocks and sticks clamped in place. The clamps hang from below to keep the braces from tipping over. Note, the clamps do not clamp to the frames. Its only the slotted blocks which hold the frames. With the bottom of the frames stitched with tie-wraps, this was more than enough to hold the frames while fitting the sides on.

 

Filleting volume

 There are three areas of filleting to do on this boat; frame-to-bottom, frame-to-side, and bottom-to-side. The plans call for a 2 inch radius fillet on the frame-to-bottom and the frame-to-side fillets, and a 3 inch radius fillet on the bottom-to-side.

The angle that the panels meet are not perpendicular 90-degree angles. The frame-to-bottom panels vary a little with the curve of the bottom panel fore and aft (the 'rocker'), but they are fairly close to 90-degree. A 2 inch radius fillet looks like the upper-left image in this picture and the cross-section of the epoxy fillet is 0.87 square inches.

 The angle of the bottom-to-side panels is about 20 degrees and remains roughly the same fore to aft. A 3 inch radius fillet looks like the upper-right image in the picture and the cross-section of the epoxy fillet is 0.81 square inches. A larger radius, but the amount of epoxy, although slightly less, is roughly the same as the 2 inch perpendicular fillet.

The angle of the frame-to-side panels varies greatly from fore to aft. Frame #4 is roughly 90 degrees, but the others are significantly different.  Here's frame #1 near the bow, viewed from above.

Frame #1's angle is much more than 20 degrees. The lower-left image in the picture above shows the effect of 20 degrees of angle using the same 2 inch radius on both sides. A huge difference in the cross sectional area, making a huge difference in the amount of epoxy securing each side of the frame. Not just a difference is fillet volume, but also in how far from the corner the fillet extends (glue contact area on the panel).

To alleviate this issue, I will use different radii throughout the frame-to-side fillets. The lower-right image in the top picture shows fillets that are far more equal, but using different radii.

I made myself four filleting squeegees, 3-inch radius, 2-inch radius, 1-1/2 inch radius, and a 1-1/8 inch radius. I then held the squeegees in the frame-side corners and visually selected what looked right. Here is the diagram with the assigned fillet sizes. 

 

The Epoxy Year

 It's actually been a very mild summer this year and it's barely the end of August and the weather is turning Fall like.  The next three days are promising significant rainfall.

 At some point the boat build will be tarped over for the winter and progress will become dead slow.  I'm pondering about what stage the build we be when this happens.  I'm currently working the 'stitch-and-glue' step. Which will be followed by some deck framing. After that, the boat gets flipped upside down to do the all the steps which complete the hull.  I had thought I might get to the boat flipping step before battening down for the winter, but now I'm rethinking that.

Upside down would make it easy to drape plastic over it, but if I leave it upright it leaves me access to the inside and there are numerous little parts I can work on in the basement workshop during the winter if I have access to measure and fit the parts on the interior. 

Why does the build become dead-slow during the winter? After all, I have a covered work area and can further cover the boat in plastic. The reason is that Epoxy is a chemical reaction and in the winter it just becomes too cold for the curing process to happen well.

According to the MAS epoxy data sheet, the minimum temperature required is 55 degrees (F). Here's Portland's average temperatures. The "Epoxy Year" closes out around the last week of October.

 

 

Presto! It's a Boat!

 This is a time-lapse video.  The file size is large, 577 Mb, so blogger can't upload it directly, but I've managed to get it uploaded to YouTube.

 

This video shows the 'Stitching' part of the "Stitch-and-Glue" method of boat building.  Although this shows all the stitching, the pieces will require lots of alignment adjustments and tightening of the stitches, perhaps even some nails, before the hull is ready for the gluing process.

 

Toledo Wooden Boat Show

 Went to a boat show Saturday in Toledo Oregon. Not a huge festival, but a great small town atmosphere. Free parking, no admission charge. 

Toledo Wooden Boat Show

 A couple of steam powered fantail launches.

 I got a short 10-15 minute cruise on this one.

 This ol' gal was thrilled with her new toy, an cordless air horn. Super loud.

She was the owner of this micro tugboat (maybe 9 feet long).  Driven with a 4-1/2 horse outboard, custom rigged for remote steering.  Her son had the slightly larger mini tugboat behind it.

 There were a couple of antique sail boats which I think were locally owned. I sniggered at the sign which included the phrase "maintained by..."

 

There were 8 or 9 other boats at the dock and a dozen or so kayaks, canoes, and boats up in the parking lot area where they had a fair number of stalls (organizations and sellers of art and other things).

The kid's arts and crafts table where any kid could make their own boat. I loved that there were lots of cannons and such made from cartridges! A good ol' small town thing.

 Lunch was Fish and Chips from one of the food trucks. It was nice to know I was getting the real thing from a local supplier because their list included about six different types of cod and a couple of other fish. Ling Cod, Pacific Cod, Black Cod, and others I've already forgotten. I tried the Black Cod, very nice and good fries.

Here's the 'pirate boat' that they shoot at with potato gun "cannons".

 They also do a cardboard boat race, where contestants build using strictly cardboard and are limited to regular glues and standard paint. No epoxy, no water-proof coatings, limited places where tape can be used.  I didn't know when the race would take place and so left shortly before it happened.  It's sponsored by the big local industry in town, a Georgia-Pacific paper mill.

Preparing for the build out.

 With all the major pieces prepped, I've leaned them off to the side. Then the remaining plywood was stored on a frame at the end of the shed, emptying the table.

 The frames were brought up out of the basement workshop and placed in order against that plywood.

 The next step is to modify the table frame into a cradle to hold the hull as it gets built. More on that when it happens.

Stitches

 The build of this Redwing will utilize the 'Stitch and Glue' method of hull construction.  The traditional 'glue and screw' method involves constructing frames and then attaching each board, or piece of plywood, to the frames a single piece at a time.  With the stitch-and-glue method the bottom and sides of the hull are first created as large, complete pieces and put together into a hull in a single step. I'm within a couple of weeks of this dramatic step, when the pieces of plywood suddenly become a boat.

Here's some pictures of my stitch testing.  This test let me check the drill bit size and the hole spacing (about 1 inch from the joint). Even when the tie-wrap is tightened fully, the joint can still be moved (with considerable pushing) a good 1/4 inch in any direction. The tie-wraps are rated 50 lbs, so I plan on spacing them out quite a bit. Four ties on the frame-bottom joints, two on the frame-side joints, and s three on the bottom-side joint in-between each frame.

 

I've pre-drilled all the stitching holes with one exception. On the side to bottom joint I've drilled the sides, but not the bottom. With the bottom's curve it was too difficult to determine where to drill the corresponding holes, so I'll wait until the stitch assembly to do those.

 While the panels are still flat on a table, I sanded the epoxy in preparation of the next gluing.

Boat Storage progress

 Took a break from boat building to work on the garden shed / boat storage area.

As you recall from a previous post, this work included some concrete additions.

 This week saw the completion of the second concrete addition. This was the filling in the corner of the lawn area on the right side in the picture above.

I poured it in three phases, forming up the middle section first and sloping it slightly to run the rain towards the lawn area. Then pouring the top section sloping up to the existing sidewalk going to the porch door, then finally the lower section with the curved edge for the new corner of the lawn.

 To make it easier to run bikes or carts from the lawn onto the concrete, I filled the corner with new soil slanting up to the concrete's edge. It's been barely over a week and the new grass seed it sprouting well.

 This took a total of twenty 60-lbs bags of concrete. I mixed two bags at a time in a tub with a hoe. Since retirement I've found time to lift my dumbells again and even a few weeks of that helped me survive lifting and carrying the 60-lbs bags. No injuries were reported. When the lumber store asked me whether I wanted the 60-lbs or 80-lbs bags, I quickly said "60's, I'm too old for 80 pounders."

 

Inwales

 The last of the preliminary epoxy coatings have been completed on the plywood panels. After some sanding they're ready for the stitch-and-glue hull assembly.

The final detail to do was to notch the top corners of the frames to allow for the inwales. I haven't done this because I had no idea how big to cut them.  The plans call for a one inch by two inch piece of lumber, but anyone familiar with stock sold in any lumber store knows there's no such thing as a one inch by two inch.  What they call a two-by-four actually measures out as 1-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches, and a one-by-two which should be 3/4 inch by 1-1/2 inches truly measures out as something different.

I've now purchased the wood for the inwales and the actual measurement is 0.70 inches by 1.50 inches.  That's roughly 11/16ths of an inch not 3/4 and far from a true one inch. Though this is a far smaller piece of wood than a full 1" by 2" piece, it's function is not highly critical. It may help form the curve of the sides and sheer-line, but I think it's main function is merely a board to screw the sides, decking, and rubrails into.

 I bought two 16-foot lengths and one 8-foot length.  When scarfed together will give me the two 20 foot inwales to go at the top edge of each side. The wood is straight grain fir. It was a little spendy, but there will be a limited number of such boards on this build.

 

Epoxy

 After finishing coating the first side of a side I found the epoxy jugs getting near empty.  Jumped on amazon and ordered another 1-1/2 gallon of the MAS brand. I still have about 1/3 of the WestSystems left, but don't intend using it for surface coating or fiber-glassing due to the amine blush.

When I bought the WestSystems in May 2025 it was $198 for the 1.2 gallon kit. I bought the first 1.5 gallon MAS kit last December for $160.  The current MAS price is now $176. A 10% jump in less than a year. The MAS website now lists it as $197, so I guess $176 on amazon is at least some discount. The WestSystems has not changed prices on amazon.

 

Amazon - MAS Epoxy kit

 

 Some time ago, a year or so, I read a forum post where someone had bought a Redwing-18 kit second-hand from someone else. It was a kit of CNC precut plywood pieces, but also included the fiberglass and epoxy. I vaguely recall it being 7 or 8 gallons of epoxy.

If I have 1/3 of the WestSystems left, then I've currently have used just over 2 gallons.  This latest purchase brings my total purchased amount to 4.2 gallons.  We can only wait to see what the final totals will be.

Stitching Aide

 One of the things recommended by previous builders is to ease the corner of the bottom and side pieces, so that when you go to stitch-and-glue them together they are easier to align, it being harder to put two sharp corners together. In this diagram the green object is supposed to be the zip-tie (the 'stitch').

 

I kept the bevel to a minimum, doing only about a 3 or 4 mm depth. This was only cut on the edges where the sides and first bottom layer come together.

 

UPDATE:  This turns out to be totally unnecessary, don't bother doing it.

 

Sides and Sheer-Strake

 Lofted the sides onto the completed scarfed sheets and cut with the jig-saw.

Lofting the lines

 

A 50-pack of cheap blades means always having a sharp blade.

Cuts all finished

First side coated with epoxy.

Last of scarfing for the sides is glued

 I've changed my technique a little. I'm now doing a dry fit of the scarf and drawing reference lines.  The lines include two marks 6-inches apart which I use to align the pieces during the gluing phase.

 

Stem Post progress

 Found time to head to the club (RiversWest Small Craft Center) on Saturday during one of their open-houses.  They hold two open-houses per month open to the public.

With help from a long-time member we got the band-saw set and the dust-collection system on.  We first set the band-saw's fence to the width of my straight edge board, then we screwed the straight edge to the piece, aligned to the drawn line of the intended cut.  Flipped it upside down and with the straight edge against the saw's fence, ran it through the saw. I steered and pushed it through the blade and he supported the other end. It's a good sized band-saw and cut through the 3 inch thick piece in no time.

Here's are the inner and outer stem pieces shown with the transom behind them.
 

To help prevent it warping from drying out too quickly, I coated the pieces with epoxy.

 There's still bevels and tapers to cut on these pieces, but that will wait until the hull is stitched together so that I'll have the actual hull to take measurements and angles from.