New Glue from Franklin

Here is a picture of the scarfing jig that I put together for the 21 or so sheets of plywood that I needed to scarf to put the Rustica 570 [facebook link] together.

The picture is a poor showing of the entire device, but I basically cut a 7ish degree pair of blocks from a 2x6 about 2 feet long and then put a pair of scrap 1x1 angles on each end - bolted the whole contraption to the workbench. I built a 4 foot long sled for the mighty Triton plunge router [Australian power tools rock, Mate!]. Then I spent hours carefully sliding the router back and forth over the sheets of plywood stacked neatly on the bench.

The first problem I had was that the bit that I was using had a mysterious chip in it which made scarfing plywood like trying to saw your leg out of a bear trap with a rusty spoon. Well maybe that would be neater.

I bought a trio of 9 dollar plunge bits from MLCS. Shameless plug these guys have always delivered for me.

The Hydrotec 1/4" and 1/2" plywood aggressively ate the first bit, but I changed out bit 2 for 3 just because I liked the feeling of power from the incredibly sharp bit.

I routed within an 8th or so of the final feathered edge using an up and down cutting motion with the router and then sweeping across a third or so of the cut area for clean up and then would set the router bit plunge in another 1/16th to 1/8th.

I had trouble lining up the multiple sheets until I started using the router bit as the gage tip and moving each sheet back and forth until all of the peak edges touched the bit the same.

I set the jig up to do 5 sheets at once - I never did more than 3, and my best looking work was on 2 sheets at a time.

When the routing work was done, I swept my trusty hand plane across the scarfed face to knock off any extra height and followed up with a dressing using the belt sander; quick nervous sweeps with this hideous gouging tool. I emptied the bag of sanding dust into a box to use for mixing up epoxy peanut butter for the filleting part of the hull and appurtenances assembly in later days.

Jim Breaux

Houston, Texas

Instructables

Collapsable and portable Sawhorses. Great for cutting plywood on or even building the boat on.

An easy wooden mallet.

A bench made from scrap.

Big/Tiny Variable Dust Separator.

Mike John

Folding Mast

Unique to places like Perth and others where yachts need to pass under bridges, we put a hinge in the lower mast so it can be easily lowered and raised on the water. This is the third composite hinge we have done. It's a Hall spar from a Mumm 30.

Dennis

Calculator

This might be useful for those whose Maths is as rusty as mine, in working out lengths and angles of cuts.

Andre

Encapsulated Bolt Heads

I am currently building Michael Storer's drop in outrigger plan. I don't know if any one else has suggested this but when It came time to encapsulate the bolt heads, which are under the cross members and impossible to see, I thought of this method. I used plastic milk bottle "caps", filled them to slightly rounded (over full) with thickened epoxy, then held them in place under the cross beams and over the bolt head with a light spring clip. They could also be held in place with tape or wood bracing depending on the situation. Maybe even a "C" clamp as long as it wasn't over tightened. It worked great and wasn't messy to do. Probably the least messy epoxy job I have ever done.

I recreated what I did with peanut butter subbing for thickened epoxy but did manage a picture of the actual outrigger project. I started with the bolt shoved up into the hole with the head protruding a little and held in place from the top by a small piece of masking tape. Then I fill the milk cap slightly over full with thickened epoxy (any small cap will do) and press the cap over the bolt head and hold it in place with a spring clamp. I then pull up the bolt the last little bit if needed (if thick enough the epoxy may push the bolt up the last little bit). Then I secure the protruding bolt again with another bit of masking tape to make sure it doesn't drop a little into the epoxy filled cap. The spring clamp depresses the cap slightly and a little epoxy squishes out but that helps ensure the epoxy is totally around the bolt head. Oh, I first tried holding the cap up with masking tape but switched to clamps because they worked better. First photo is finished product inside the outrigger hull. Second one is a mock up with peanut butter, ha. The head of the bolt is inside the epoxy filled green cap and you can see the threaded part above the beam. Third photo was taken from under the beam. Hope this helps some one.

Jim

Oarlocks

I built a Dave Gentry SOF Whitehall and liked it so much I'm building a 3' longer version to take two rowers. I really have enjoyed your Douglas oarlocks on my first boat so they were my obvious choice for my stretch limo version. On my first boat, as on this one, rather than leather the oars, I decided to leather the locks. Looks nice, rows well. Thanks to you and everyone at Duckworks for being such a great resource for information and supplies.

Kip, WA

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