Bottom Attached! Sort of? | SouthernPaddler.com

Bottom Attached! Sort of?

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VTFogg

Well-Known Member
Jan 14, 2007
73
1
Rutland, Vermont
My 11 year old son Matt, and I attached the bottom last night. I'll tell you what we did if you promise to never do it! We fitted the rough cut bottom with a 1" overlap, and secured it with screws in the ribs and ends. Then we penciled lines where the sides met the bottom on the inside and around the ribs, removed the bottom and laid it on the floor. We mixed up 200ml of epoxy, and applied it (too heavily) to the ribs and stem/stern with a brush. We also applied it (too heavily) to the floor where the ribs would be. Then we picked up the floor, placed it on the bottom, and screwed it back in. We filled a 10 ml syringe w/epoxy and put a bead of it on the outside of the pencil line where the sides meet the bottom. Sounds ok right? Well when we got to the center rib, I noticed that the sides no longer were along the pencil line. Uh oh! "We gotta move fast Matt, this stuff only lasts a while!" "We can't mess up now, and create an international pirogue incident!".

Quickly removed the screws, realigned the bottom, and screwed it back in, and piled every water bottle, cat litter tub, tool box, concrete block we could find on top. Then we sat back and sadly noted all that epoxy running down from the ribs, and that one end of the boat had no epoxy under the sides at all. "Don't worry Dad" says Matt, and like a good little caver he dives under the boat with paper towels in hand, crawls in on top of the ping pong/work table and starts wiping down the ribs and sides. What a kid!

I removed the weight this morning, flipped it over, and started scraping the still soft epoxy from the ribs and sides. It will be fine. Just lots of sanding, and I still need to attach the bottom to the sides.

Ya don't get that kind of excitement in banking folks. What fun! :D

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s283 ... -07005.jpg
 
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oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
When I was reading what you said and I came to the part about marking the inside of the boat on the bottom , I was saying ....NO..NO....NO...NO thinking you were going to cut the bottom on the inside line.

We had one person do that and what a headache he created for himself when attaching the bottom. That was several years ago and he is still cussing about it.

Chuck.
 
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VTFogg

Well-Known Member
Jan 14, 2007
73
1
Rutland, Vermont
No Chuck, I don't need to mess it up any more than we did. It's attached nicely at the ribs, the stem/stern, and from the stem to the first rib on one end (both sides). The rest of the sides are still not attached. The only damage is just lots of epoxy has dripped all over from the rather heavy bead that I put in the wrong place. Like I said, I scraped a lot of it off this morning, but we've got quite a bit of sanding to do.

Good thing I have two orbital sanders and "boys, let me introduce you to a really FUN part of boat building - sanding!" :wink:

Ha, ha, ha - they'll remember this for a while.

VTFogg
 
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oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
Like you said ... You don't get this excitement in banking " ... Plus you will never get the same amount of interest , especially the divdens it will pay your helper's in understanding life and it's problems plus the rewards of doing something or creating it yourself for your enjoyment from now on. :D

That is the fun of building boats , you make mistakes then have the knowledge to correct it and proceed on and upward.

Life is a learning process and when you stop learning , folks send flowers.

Chuck.
 
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VTFogg

Well-Known Member
Jan 14, 2007
73
1
Rutland, Vermont
I glued the front half of the bottom to the boat this morning. Following our poor first attempt, I had to tightly strap the bottom to eliminate the gaps between the bottom and the sides. This did the trick except for a couple of very small gaps near the stem and the ribs.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s283 ... -07001.jpg

It's still quite chilly in my basement, and it takes two day for the epoxy to harden (3 to fully cure) so it will be a while before I can do the other half. Then it's time to trip the excess from the bottom, round the edges and start filleting.

I was thinking of using a block plane/surform to remove the excess bottom. Any other suggestions?

VTFogg
 
S

spikec

Member
Mar 12, 2007
24
0
Fayetteville, GA
If you're talking about the inch or so of wood on the bottom that overhangs the side... if you have a router, use a flush trim bit to cut off the excess. You can then use a roundover bit or your sander to smooth the bottom piece to the side.
 
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VTFogg

Well-Known Member
Jan 14, 2007
73
1
Rutland, Vermont
Hello Spikec. I saw your post that you used a router to do this. I have one that my father in law had hanging around, but I have never used it. To tell you the truth I'm not even sure if it has any bits, and it scares me to think of using it the first time on the boat. One wrong move and it's a submarine!

I think I'm with Jack on using hand tools except a power sander. - VTFogg
 
V

VTFogg

Well-Known Member
Jan 14, 2007
73
1
Rutland, Vermont
The bottom is finally on, trimmed, and fully sanded!

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s283 ... -07002.jpg

Guys, this really took a lot of time, fine tuning, and "plan b". Most of my problems were rooted in my luan plywood which from the start had an excessive curl to them. When I butt jointed them, the curl caused it to not perfectly join in the same plane and at a slight angle. That caused persistent problems in joining the bottom to the sides. I finally had to do it in three steps. First epoxy it to the ribs and the stems. Then to strap and clamp up one half of the boat at a time, epoxy it and let it cure, then the other. Oh well, it was a good lesson and the seam actually came out very tight and consistent.

By the way, I ended up trimming the bottom with an old Milwaukee saber saw handed down from my grandfather. I just adjusted the bottom plate on the saw to match the side of the boat and was able to easily trim within 1/4 inch of the sides. Then with the help of my son Matt, we used surforms to grind off the rest, and finished with orbital sanders.

I'm ready to start the inside fillets next.

VTFogg
 
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