Archives for 2008

With the stems properly positioned, it is easy to attach the bottom. It has a little bit of rocker and needs a few weights to hold it in place. It’s ironic that I have so many squares. Very few things in boats are either square or straight. So, this is what they’re good for. The 1:1 version uses screws for fastening. Screw fastenings were yet another reason to build up the bulkheads from solid wood, even if it was thin.

The bottom is cut oversize so that it can be trimmed to exact size once it is affixed to the frames. But, how to mark? Marking where the frame meets the bottom id easily done, but to the wrong side of the board. How can we reliably get that mark to the side where we can use it? A very nice little marking tool does the job. Lay it against a frame or bulkhead and mark the extension on the bottom.

Mark three places along the side. We then have five points defining the bottom’s shape, the 3 marks and the points of the stems at each end. Fair those marks with a batten. Be generous with bending or bowing the batten. Keep the line smooth.

Then comes the fun with my favorite small tool. This is a small bronze luthier plane. available from Lee Valley tools. It is a jewel of a plane, simply wonderful to use. We will use it quite a bit in building this boat.

The bottom is planed to the line, including setting a bevel on the edge that matches that of the bulkheads and the frame. Then, the edges of the bulkheads are given a bevel that matches the fore and aft curve defined by the bottom.

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This boat has no thwarts or seats. One sits on the bottom, maybe on a cushion, not on any built-in seat. One of the comfort accommodations is an adjustable footrest. Making it was something to do while waiting for the stems to set up. The footrest has a simple rail that’s screwed to the bottom and has several holes drilled for different positions. The rest itself has two holes for finer adjustment and a pin extended from the knob to hold it in place. This is another of the fine scale features, complete with simulated screw heads.

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The stem pieces are the same at each end and are gotten out of a single board. There are no splices or scarfs. As with many small parts that have duplicates, I temporarily glue two boards together and cut once. The challenge with the stems was getting them positioned correctly on the bottom. They are so small that it is hard to find a method that works well. The 1:1 version can probably be done by setting the stem in a vise and positioning the bottom over it. That didn’t work for the model because it’s too hard to see the joint that way, and the tolerance for a good fit is incredibly small.

It took three tries to arrive at the method shown. The bottom is aligned on a cutting pad, where we have lines drawn to ensure angular accuracy. That’s weighted down. The stems are then clamped to a machinist square and glued in place. 1:1 fastening is bedded with glue and fastened with two screws for each stem.

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