July 8, 2018
Woke up this morning feeling, probably, the worst of this entire flu. However, by around 10am, it was like the flip of a switch...back to the land of the living! I cautiously tried on my renewed self, took it easy for the morning to just test things a bit...yep, I was on the Dhows by the afternoon. And I was excited to be going after the installation of the gunwales and seating on the white Dhow!
So to that end, with a helper I began to realign the inner and port outboard gunwales to begin. After achieving best possible alignment, I installed the first few fasteners - 1.25" #10 oval head wood screws with cup washers. With the first few screws in, I was off to the races making good progress on the port side down to just forward of the forward seat. At this point I focused on aligning the starboard outboard gunwale and repeated the installation of fasteners down to just forward of the forward seat. Again with a bit of help aligning the forward seat knees (the bronze hardware connecting the gunwale and seat), I was able to mark them to drill for the silicone bronze machine screws. We removed the seat, and I drilled through both gunwales for the #10/24 machine screws, secured on the outboard side with a washer and nut. With the forward seat in position (and the astute will notice that the seat does not yet contain a hole for the mast to be inserted and supported), I moved on the installing gunwale fasteners moving aft and adjusting the gunwales on the sheer line as I went.
Stopping just forward of the middle seat, I again rounded up some help with alignment of the seat knees in order to mark for drilling the fasteners holes. At this point I also placed the daggerboard trunk in position, inserted the daggerboard trunk brace and clamped that assembly to the middle seat. This was to ensure that the daggerboard trunk was not only aligned with the seat, but also the daggerboard slot in the hull - all aligned perfectly. With the marks made, we removed the seat and I went ahead and drilled through the gunwales for the fasteners. After installing the middle seat, I again worked my way aft to complete the gunwales. As I worked to install the gunwales down both port and starboard, I kept measurements on where the oar locks would be installed. I had marked there location, and now with the gunwales complete I came back and installed each of them with four 1" #8 silicone bronze wood screws. I had a bit of clean up work to do on the aft of the Dhow, but the gunwales are essentially complete, less treating with boiled linseed oil.
I moved back forward and prepped for the mast support hole in the forward seat. I found center on the seat, and with a carpenters square to keep the drill plumb, drilled a pilot hole a good way into the seat and flotation foam within the seat assembly itself. I then came back with a 3/8" bit, 12" in length, and continued through the seat down to just penetrating the surface of the mast step.
I removed the forward seat and brought it back to the shop for continued work later in the week. As you can see below the drilled marked the mast step well, and measurements taken from the bottom of the mast will be transposed to the mast step to create a "key" to accept and "lock-in" the mast. More to come on this.
With daylight waning, I moved on the prepping for installation of the daggerboard trunk - something I really was not anticipating being able to get to today. I sanded the surface of the hull where the DB trunk was to be glued in, as well as the surfaces of the DB trunk itself. I vacuumed the sanding debris from both the DB trunk and the hull, and followed that with a wipe down with solvent. I mixed a small amount of neat epoxy, and painted that onto the hull and the DB trunk's bottom surface and lower 3" all the way around. The bottom of the DB trunk will be mating with the hull, and the lower 3" of the trunk will accept a fillet for preparation of tabbing to be installed later.
Back in the shop, I mixed a small batch of West System epoxy, thickened with 406 colloidal silica and 407 low-density filler. I applied an adequate amount to the bottom surface of the DB trunk, and placed it into position, again clamping the trunk brace to the middle seat to help with alignment. I pressed it down firmly to achieve squeeze out, and then went below to ensure good alignment and to clean up the squeeze out. All looked good, so I went back to the shop and prepared a larger batch of the same thickened mixture.
With this larger batch, I applied fillets on both the starboard and port side of the DB trunk. The fillet, a radius from the hull to the vertical surface the DB trunk will allow for a smooth lay down of the 1708 biaxial fiberglass cloth to come. This "tabbing" with the 1708 biaxial will add strength to the installing the DB trunk, eliminating the need for fasteners from below...and eventual water ingress. Well that's it for the day. Thanks again Dr. Keys!
Total Time Today: 5.75 hrs
No comments:
Post a Comment