Bulkheads

We ran into a little snag last week.  We ran out of material to finish the frames and it won't be here until wednesday, so we started building bulkheads.  Its actually a good thing we ran out of material, it will give me time to really finish the frames that we have built.  We will be doing a lot of pre-coating and also covering some surfaces with fiberglass before we start planking the hull.  These small details feel like a slow down now, but will save tons of time later on.  I have mostly been working on bulkheads lately, because they are almost all plywood, and we have plenty of that.

The bulkheads act the same way as the frames, but are cut out of plywood.  These bulkheads serve several structural functions, as well as provide walls inside the boat.

The bulkheads are to large to cut out of one sheet of plywood, so two sheets were scarfed together, you can see the line down the center of the closer bulkhead.

Checking to see if my scarf joint is cut well, which it is.

A large portion of the hull is flat sections, which make it easy to build, but at the ends the frames get more shape.  This is one of the first frames to start curving.

To obtain the correct shape of curved frames, I first draw the lines out on my table and then carefully lay screws along them.  Then i simply tip the frame material onto the screws and push down hard enough to let the screw heads indent marks into the wood.  Now I connect the dots and cut it out.

Frame material comes Wednesday, until then we will be fiberglassing and pre-finishing the frames/bulkheads we have ready.  And just maybe I will make some deck beams, we'll see. 

Until next time, Cody and Beth 

PS. Beth and I went out to a pond in the park near our house a yesterday and sailed the remote controlled model I built.  So much fun.  no pics though, maybe later.