Saturday, April 10, 2010

Attaching outer stems & finishing hull

Stern stem after being planed and sanded. It is a beautiful experince planning the walnut that these stems are made of. Just figured out how to sharpen my small block plane on the grinding stone and finish it off with a wetstone. Sharp helps :) Can't wait to begin plannning and sanding the entire hull.
Prior to gluing the stems I sanded the ends of the strips to a clean 90 degree angle. I also precut the outer stems on my table saw to remove some of the wood befor putting it on. I also sanded spots on the end pieces so the stem fit nice and tight. This is the stern stem epoxyed down and clamped.
Bow stem epoxyed and clamped. I first put a coat of unthicken expoy on the hull end pieces and the stems, followed by thickened epoxy with some sanding dust mixed in for color.

I'm closing in on the final strips on the hull. Taking my time with the long miter cuts has kept me from being frustrated....even when I need to recut them twice sometimes. The key is cutting them longer so you can trim down rather than trying to get it right the first time. As you can see they are fitting to the straight cut quite well. I have one 1/2 inch strip left to fill.