Small progress

No pictures today, but they should be forthcoming.  That is if I can get home in time to snap some shots before darkness. 

Since last update, I've completely stripped and redone the chines.  I had them nearly "finished" in mahogany, but as I tried to wrap things up, I realized they were not laying anywhere near flat in relation to the side bevels and where the planking will eventually lie.  Kinda probably should have figure that out before, no? 

I spent the better part of a month trying to salvage something that just seemed too cool to not work.  In the end, I just decided to start over and use the "Pat" method (no, you probably won't know what that is unless you are Pat).  Recall that part of my original chine issue was that my mahogany was too short, requiring not only thickness-wise lamination, but also lengthwise scarfing to make up the length. 

In my "revised" method, I just bought a 16' clear fir 2x6 and ripped out 6 beveled 1/4 inch strips.  Actually seven counting one mistake.  Took the better part of a Saturday afternoon and may have killed my table saw motor, but it's done.  I was also having MAJOR trouble getting glue to kick off in the damp and cold, so I moved to Gorilla glue, what with their whole "moisture activated thing".  I had a past bad experience with it during a bow-building project, but it appears to have worked well this time.  Gotta say, it set up pretty well.  They look good. Glue lines look really good and even (as a bowmaker, that is something I love to see).  So after a few days of work, actually, one weekend I think, I had full length chines, laminated in 3 layers to a total of 3/4 inch.  No delamination, no glue problems, no splices lengthwise, and Daddy is a whole lot happier now.

This weekend my daughter and I planed the tops for final fitting of the bottom and trimmed the ends up.  I picked up 3 sheets of quarter inch marine ply at Mr. Plywood (yes, that is really the name - why would you go anywhere else?).  I'm now scarfing the side pieces together to get ready to plank up.  Gardner specified butt blocks, but I figured since I have the time and a sharp smoothing plane, and I've done scarfs before, I'd give a shot at scarfs for now.  First sign of trouble, those butts are on deck though.  I've been through enough issues already trying to put full chines in design that Gardner said should have "pieces" (but I still think these are "better", so na na).

Hope to get some photos of the chines up soon, followed shortly by the sides, or at least part of them.  I asked for some input on adhesives, and the consensus on glue for attaching the ply to the frames on the Coot forum was to use PL Premium, since I'm using fasteners and avoiding epoxy.  That should provide all the sticky I need, plus some gap filling/sealing function, so I'll probably use that.  Stuff is cheap too, I think I paid 5$ at Mr. P's for a tube of it that should do both sides easily.  Gorreeya glue is twice that for a little bottle.