Devlin bluebill build thread.

Laid out ply, ready to go. the 3/8 meranti is REALLY light.
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Epoxy central. what an adventure! Very easy to work with IMO.
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Wetted out, waited about 15 min or so before mixing up the next batch with cabosil thickener to about matyo/ketchup consistency. I used stainless staples to hold the scarfs together from a hand stapler, time will tell if that was a huge mistake or not. :O
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LOL - my two girls! they watched from outside the garage, but my daughter wanted to be in on the pictures, so we took one.

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a proud first time scarfer.

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Paul,
Good for you keep us posted. Just a little tip. I would cover that nice table with something like wood or cardboard if you don't want it ruined by epoxy. It gets messy at times.
 
Way to go Paul! I had to laugh thinking about "Scarfing is a moat around boat building". Not such a big deal after all was it? Now the real fun begins. Good call Brandon on the mess factor, it will get that way no matter what you do. I found boat building a good time to do a floor paint AFTER.
 
Very exciting. You can test those scarfs after you cut the hull out you will have some nice leftovers to convince yourself that your work was good :).
 
Paul~

Great work - and great documentation - especially your Support Group.....

Regarding the SS staples - I would pull them once the epoxy is fully-cured. Any metal can attract moisture and also heats and cools differently from the wood and epoxy.

BTW: Some builders use deck screws and wood above and below scarph - isolated with sheet poly - as a clamp. The screws are driven not through the scarph itself but either side of it. Then, just fill the holes with thickened epoxy later in the process. (It's just like pulling the stitching wire out of chines, etc.)

All the best,

SJS
 
Very exciting. You can test those scarfs after you cut the hull out you will have some nice leftovers to convince yourself that your work was good :).
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What a good idea... I will do that! I plan on lofting and cutting hull sections this weekend.
 
Paul~

Great work - and great documentation - especially your Support Group.....

Regarding the SS staples - I would pull them once the epoxy is fully-cured. Any metal can attract moisture and also heats and cools differently from the wood and epoxy.

BTW: Some builders use deck screws and wood above and below scarph - isolated with sheet poly - as a clamp. The screws are driven not through the scarph itself but either side of it. Then, just fill the holes with thickened epoxy later in the process. (It's just like pulling the stitching wire out of chines, etc.)

All the best,

SJS
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I was planning removing them, I am just worried about ease of removal! My support group is great. I'm already far over budget, and my wife hasn't tanned my hide yet, so that's a plus! My little helper is a challenge to keep out of trouble, but she's a great encourager.


Ps... I bought a fancy new jigsaw for cutting my lofted pieces out. :eek:
 
Guys, I was just wondering what you use for sanding the epoxy squeeze out on scarfs? I tried using a belt sander and it seems too unwieldy to me, gouging wood on either side. Random orbit sander? That stupid sander polisher thing devlin uses?


Thanks in advance, looks like I have to buy more tools.
 
Paul~

I do use a sander/polisher - with a 40-grit disc BUT WITH A VERY, VERY LIGHT TOUCH (and LOTS of experience by now.....). In especially delicate areas, I use a random orbit with 60-grit.

Some guys use a heat gun and a scraper - something I plan to try next time I have to.

This is a topic where I ALWAYS look for the experience and recommendations of others.

All the best,

SJS
 
Building boats with epoxy you will end up having a love/hate relationship with your sanders. The absolutely best thing to do is to be very, very neat with your epoxy so you don't need to sand much after it's cured. Proper cleanliness during fileting, use of peel ply, etc. will minimize a lot of the potential sanding. When I sand I use every sander at my disposal at one time or another but rely heavily on my random orbital sander with 60 grit paper. The sander polisher you speak of does work but be very careful as it can cause more damage than good as it can get very aggressive if you use a heavy hand.

The best advice is to use the very best sand paper you can buy. When 3M advertises that their top of the line paper lasts 3 times longer - it does. Sandpaper is one of those commodoties that you get what you pay for. If you can get a sander with a vacuum port on the back, that helps with the dust but really try to use a canister mask whenever you sand. Epoxy dust can be nasty and seems to get into everything.
 
Thanks guys, I ended up using a combination fusing a sharp chisel to shave off the highest spots, a belt sander to work down further, and a palm sander to complete things. I wish I would have known just how much was gonna squeeze out of the joint, I would have saved myself a lot of sanding.

Anyway, I did most of my lofting today on the scarfed pieces, will finish and cut those out tomorrow hopefully.
 
front deck cutout
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I now have all the 3/8 ply pieces (the scarfed ones) cut out. this includes the front and side decks, the sides, and the bottom of the hull. this is the two bottom pieces together. I chose to leave the line and in many cases a little extra, and I faired and smoothed the edges down with a belt sander. the end result looked a lot better than I thought it would:
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Beveled Edges, ready for stitching, hopefully tomorrow night.
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Got the itch to do a little updating to some of the diver dekes - swapped my droppers over to a 1/4" rope (less tangles than the straight decoy line i was using. too thin and prone to tangles)

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And I patched and painted the some of the rest of the rig:

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Paul ~

Congratulations on the progress with the boat!

Question re your decoys: looks like your are tying to the decoy with a Bowline and a Figure-8 through the swivel - correct?

(I am putting similar drop lines on the Model 72s I'm rehabbing for Craig Kessler & Crew - never thought to use the Figure 8 on the swivel....)

All the best,

SJS
 
I'm personally a big fan of the sander/polishers-if you have a few different pads for them (I use soft and medium ones the most) they can do just about any sanding job that you would need. That's some great progress you're making! You're about to get into the fun part of actually seeing the hull come together-it's a magic moment once you get the sides stitched on and get to see the hull take shape.
 
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