Phlod

Jim April 5th, 2007

Above are the plans for Sand Dollar. Well, it’s 1 sheet of plans out of 16, but it is the most important one. It describes the full-sized temporary frames, transom, and bulkheads, which I have previously mentioned.

At the top of the plans, you might notice that there are two parallel lines, one marked “Jig” and another one marked “Jig - Transom”. The difference between these two lines is 1 1/8″, and if you happen to use the wrong one at the wrong time, well then you’ll be fine. However! If you use the right one at the wrong time or vice-versa, you’ll screw things up big time.

Here’s a close-up:

But I’m getting ahead of myself … this weekend, the boat project moved outside to the garage. I transported the strongback out, and, while this piece seemed quite large in the shop, once outside I instantly realized how small this boat is actually going to be:

Here’s the strongback, compared to my dad’s 16′ fishing boat … a boat which is typically described as “small”. Too bad boat’s aren’t like electronics, or I would be building the coolest boat ever.

Before I could do too much setup, I needed to finish up the fore and aft bulkheads. This involved framing the plywood bulkheads with sassafras pieces, attaching them via epoxy and screws. I also needed to cut the holes for the access hatches, a job that was made easy through use of the spindle sander. The top piece of framing on each bulkhead is left off until the boat is flipped over and the tops of the water-tight compartments are installed.

Aft Bulkhead

Fore bulkhead. The bottom piece was a little short, hence the fillers.

Once the bulkheads were mounted and ready to go, I had to put the legs on the strongback and level it, which proved to be a very time consuming task. I initially clamped the legs on, then through trial-and-error (lots of error), I gradually achieved level. I also marked the location of the strongback on the floor, so that if it is moved, I can find that level spot on the garage floor again. Once this was done, I could attach my frames to the strongback using sheetrock screws. Here, I used a string centerline to insure that each frame was centered, and made sure that each frame was level.

It’s difficult to see here, but Station 4-10 1/2 (the second frame from the front) is actually a bit too tall. 1 1/8″ too tall to be exact. Once I cut and test fit the keel, it became obvious that something was wrong, as no boat I’ve ever seen has a huge dip in the bottom 1/3 of the way back. Through some measurements and conjecture, my error soon became obvious. Instead of building to the “Jig” line, I had built Station 4-10 1/2 to the “Jig - Transom” line! The horror! (This is about as exciting as boat building gets, folks).

So, what to do? When I assembled the temporary frames, I used a liberal amount of glue, so simply disassembling the frame and correcting my error wasn’t an option. Instead, we’d have to do something a bit more drastic …

Above is a picture of how all the temporary frames mount to the strongback. The Station 4-10 1/2 frame needed to be lowered by 1 1/8″, so I simply removed the frame, set the fence on the table saw to 1 1/8″, removed the screws from the bottom of the frame, and ran it through. Here’s the result:

Of course, I’ll have to reattach the frame with screws, but a quick test fit of the keel proved that the problem had been resolved.

• Boat Building , Plans
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