Ready for sandpaper

I got all the staples out.  There are several moments when building a stripper that are satisfying.  Two of them are when you get all the strips in place, the other is when you get all the staples out.  I used a box and a half.  That's over 1500 staples...
We'll get to sanding next week.

Staples

It's going to take me a year to get all the staples out!   I'm just going to plod along with it.  I trimmed off the excess wood and it actually looks like a boat.   I also found a new feature on my camera.  I kind of knew it was there but I never tried it...  Doesn't work here so someone let me know if it works out there... supposed to be a video file.

Stripping is done

I finished up with the strips.  Now the hard work starts.  Getting all those staples out.  I used a box and a half.  Each box holds 1250 staples.  We used 5 1x6x8 cedar boards.  I cut the strips about 3/16 inch.  I got about 19 stripes from each board.  I got 7 left over.  You do the math!...

After the staples I'll use the router with a straight cutting blade to trim the overhangs.  Then sanding.

                                                  This is what they do around here for fun...

Almost there

Between the Alberg, the Shelley, and Griff, I'm spread thin.  I got more sticks on Griff but I ran out of staples and glue.    Looks like it will take one more stick of cedar from Lowe's to finish the deck.  The sticks standing up are acting as wedges.  That's where I ran out of staples.

Note to self:  Don't put your finger right under where you shoot the staple in.  It makes for little dots of blood all over the wood.

One half of the deck

The rest of the port side went on with out a hitch.  Tape is a good clamp.   Got other projects for the rest of the week so the other side will have to wait for a few days.

I'm back!

Took a few weeks off this project in order to get the big boat ready for the water.  Also started another mothboat for a fellow up in NY.   The strips are going on nicely.  I had to stop here because the bend at the bow was getting severe and I needed to let the glue dry before any more go on.  I think I have enough strips to finish the deck.  We'll see how that goes after the port side gets done.

                                                         Big boat!

Stripping the deck

It always looks like you got a lot more strips when you cut them up.  But just put them on the boat and they disappear from the pile real fast.  I got 26 strips on.  That's a good day for me.  Two hour max is my work limit with strips.  They get on your nerves fast and then you start to make mistakes.  Besides, I ran out of glue.

Cedar strips

A few weeks ago I got some cedar from Lowe's .  Whenever I'm in the store I visit there cedar rack.  They usually have a full selection of boards in most sizes.  I look through the 6 inch wide pile and pull out all the best sticks.  I look for minimum knots ans good color.  I  usually find one or two great boards.  An 8 footer costs about 12 bucks.    That's compared to a specialty lumber store that has clear cedar for about 4 bucks a foot.  That comes to about 32 bucks for the same lumber.  When it's cut up into strips you can't see the difference.  The two boards gave me about 38 strips.  I cut them 4 mil thick.  I'll probably need two more sticks. I'm going to butt join the strips.  Not going to do bead and cove.  The curve is shallow, not like a canoe where you need the bead and cove to make the tight curve.

Mast step

Finally, we are getting some nice weather. The yard is a swamp and getting to the shed is like walking through it.  I did get the mast step built.  I used the peg leg from the Abbott.  As you can see in the pix, Griff is a lower boat. That leg sits flush with the Abbott deck. We'll have to put them next to each other to see how much difference there is.   Also put the tiller on the rudder just to see how that worked.

Tiller

I got the face coaming installed using the old school way.  I used glue and screws.  I think this method is more appropriate for this boat than epoxy.  Also found a tiller.  It was attached to an old weather beaten rudder that came with the boat.  It cleaned up well.

More frames

Slow day here in Delaware.  First fairly warm day in quite some time.  Problem is it's pouring rain.  I used the old deck coaming frames as a pattern for the new ones.  I had a chunk of 1/4 inch ply laying around.  It was the Christmas tree base or train platform.  It's now part of the boat.  The frames that came out has spacers on the bottom side glued in between the deck frames.  I figured that they were for a screwing plate for the inner coaming/splash board. I'll make spacers and install them later. That's all I did today.

Frames part III

I finally glued in the deck frames.  I used Titebond II wood glue.   On other boats I've used thickened resin.  I have used this wood glue on other projects and always liked the results.  It dries fast, is waterproof, and is just as strong as the epoxy.  When the glue dries, pulling it apart only breaks the wood not the joint.  Going to do this on all the boat projects from now on.  It's cheaper and you get the same results.

This is the rudder I'm going to use.  I wonder how much flack I'll take since it's not a barn door rudder like

the other vintage boats use...  

  Turnbuckles.  I ordered them from marinepartsdepot.com  1/4 of the price from a local sailboat store in Annapolis.

Frames part II

I solved the mismatch problem with the frame supports.  Operator has a short circuit between the headphones.  I used the old deck coaming to align the new frames.  I saved the old part and had to glue it back together with hot glue.  Worked good.  I'm ready to glue these guys in.  I'm going to put the center traveler back in the boat.  It's not original but it was in the boat when I got her.

Frames

This was a good weekend.  I spent Saturday working on the Alberg 30 and Sunday on Grff.  It is quite interesting that the projects on both boats are similar except on the Alberg things are 5 times bigger!

I got all the frames cut out and fitted on the boat.  Frames 1, 2, and 3 are the original.  Frames 4 thu 8 and 10 are new,   9 is rebuilt.  I put the coaming in just to see if I was in the ballpark.  Things are looking good.

It also pays to have a bunch of clamps.

There is one interesting thing.  I matched all of the frame supports and put them back in order.  I have three left over with no visible place for them.  I also have four spaces where frame supports go but nothing fits.   This is going to take a bit to sort out.

Paint

Finally got back outside today.  We have had a nasty winter.  Cold, snow, wind, and then on top of that just nasty weather!  There is something wrong with climate change deniers.  It's 60 degrees outside right now and tonight they are predicting 15 degrees with 6-10 inches of more snow.

With that, I got the fiberglass done inside the boat to fix the longitudinal cracks in the bottom.  I sanded and cleaned up as best I could and then painted the bow section black.  I thought that would look good.  The next thing was to paint the rest of the inside of the boat.  I chose a teal green because I'm keeping the hull color which is a dark teal green.  The reason you don't see the black is because I sprayed it green.  I should have done all black first. The green covered much better in the bow that the rest of the boat.  First coat on.  I'll get to the second coat next week when the new snow melts...

The third picture is the cockpit coaming.  I'm stripping that back to wood.  It has about 10 coats of paint on it. 

Along with the paint I installed the new CB trunk.  The old trunk had been moved aft about 8 inches.  I put this one back in the original location.  It's now in the same location as the Abbott.

 It's a few days later and I got the coaming just about sanded and ready for varnish.

 

 

 

Inside cleanup

I haven't done too much lately.  It's just been too cold.   It is interesting to note that one half of the inside of the boat has paint on it and the other half has none.   I can't elplain why.  I was going to sand but something in the back of my head said don't do that it might be lead paint.       I rummaged around the ACE hardware store and found a paint stripper that is in a spray can.  I think it worked as good as the stuff  you have to apply with a brush.  It got about 95% of the paint off.  I'll keep picking at it.  I should be able to start glassing the cracks in the bottom.  Going to do that from the inside, hence the paint removal.   The picture looks worse that it really is.

Centerboard trunk

I finally got back  to the shed today.  The last two weeks the weather was just unbearable cold to do anything.  So I started slow.  I mocked up a CB trunk.  The boat had a modified trunk that did not fit the boat.  It was elongated at the top so that the board could move from side to side.  I guess there was some engineering to that but it escaped me.  The position of this board is also up for discussion.  I can see the original front position of the trunk but more work needs to be done to actually set this one.  More on that later.  The long fwd support will eventually mate with the deck at the splashboard.  The plywood came courtesy of George A.   I found it on his front porch...

 

 

I had some more time today so I glued up the CB trunk.   The  inside has two coats of resin. The exterior supports are glued on with Titebond II yellow glue and the box is glued with thickened epoxy.