Fillets- clean enough for Bill Gates, but not Steve Jobs

Here's what the fillets look like after the masking tape is removed. If I had been a bit more careful when I was applying the little dabs of epoxy that allowed me to remove the wires before filleting, the fillets would've been much cleaner. As it is, though, once I put the glass tape along each fillet and paint the whole thing with unthickened epoxy, this picture will be the only evidence that the fillets weren't perfectly clean. Steve Jobs would've probably started over, but he's dead now.

Here, the 3" glass tape is laid along each fillet, and next I'll coat the whole thing with unthickened epoxy.

In addition to glass tape, the inner hull between the fore and aft bulkheads gets a layer of 6 oz. cloth to add strength and stiffness beneath the seat and to protect the floor from the wear and tear of getting in and out of the boat. I ordered some peel-ply from Fiberglass Supply, and am planning on trying it out on the inner hull lay-out before I decide whether or not to use it for the exterior glassing.

Making Fillets

The weather threatened, so I had to move the boat under the covered porch and then suspend it level on the horses and re-align it using the winding sticks. Once it was level and aligned, there were a few flat spots along the keel. To remove these flat spots, I loosened the stitches and inserted a few wedges (Home Depot: $1.45 for a dozen, and well worth it) between the panels along the flat spots, pushing down on the panels until the keel line followed a smooth curve. I then dabbed a pinch of thickened epoxy between each of the wedges, as well as between each of the stitches along the entire hull. This allowed me to remove all the stitches after the epoxy tabs cured, which means I can make fillets without having to deal with the wires being in the way, which is important because I want to make thinner - and therefore lighter - fillets. 

Here, the wires have been removed and the keel and chines have been masked so I can apply the fillets. I found that those Home Depot wedges make excellent epoxy stirrers, are really great for applying thickened epoxy along the joints, and do a much easier job of filleting the centerline than the 1" radius filleting tool I made. The angle between the bottom panels at the keel is pretty flat, so to get a consistent fillet, I had to hold the radius tool at a shallow and constant angle as I dragged it, which was fiddly and hard to get right. Using the thin edge of a Home Depot wedge, though, which bends into a nicely sized radius when wielded at a low angle, I found that I could manage the thickness of the fillet simply by managing the application pressure. It made for much smoother fillets down the centerline. Also, the wedges were excellent for scraping up the excess epoxy that squeezed out of the fillets. Go get yourself a dozen, at least.

Winding the hull

With the hull wired together, I then leveled it and made sure it was aligned along it's length (so-called "winding" the hull). As you can see in the picture, the ground isn't level, and I doubt the sawhorses are exactly the same height either. It's not necessary, however, to have level sawhorses or level ground to properly align the boat. It's enough simply to suspend it level from the sawhorses. To do that, I screwed two pairs of upright sticks to the sawhorses and then clamped the boat to those sticks so that it was level.

Next, I checked for alignment along the lenth with the aide of long sticks across the hull about 1/3 and 2/3 along its length. Note that the front stick and the rear stick are aligned, which means that the front 1/3 and the back 1/3 of the boat are aligned. In a mis-aligned boat, those sticks would not be parallel with one another. In this photo, it looks like the sticks are tilted down to the left, but they're actually level according to the spendy Tennessee Mason's level that I bought at an estate sale for $2. I'm a cheap bastard.

This shot was taken before I squared up the bow. It was twisted slightly out of vertical, so I loosened the stitches a little, gave it a twist so it was vertical, and re-tightened the stitches. Next, with the boat aligned and level and the bow and stern vertical, I'll "fair" the hull - which means I'll sight along the keel and chines checking for dips, bulges, flat spots, etc.

Hull

I started at the bow and alternating sides, added four or five stitches at a time, until the entire hull was stitched together. With a bit of attention to making sure the panels were coming together evenly, the hull begin to resolve nicely into a satisfyingly kayakesque shape.

I include the picture below not to show the hull, but to showcase my excellently adorned sawhorses. Ji Xia and I made them for this project out of scrap wood from the city dump (I'm a cheap bastard), and she was kind enough to paint scenes on them for me. Notice the fine rainbow she painted on the one at left, and the startlingly realistic painting of her playhouse on the one at right. It shows the roof architecture in impressive detail, as well as a true-to-life rendering of the swing, with its yellow chains and green seat. You can see part of the actual playhouse in the background at right.  She's an excellent painter of playhouses, rainbows, and other things. (Thanks again, Uncle Stinky, for the playhouse!)

Sixty stitches along the keel.

Next, I loosely wired the bottom panels together along the keel line. The straightest edge defines the keel, and the gentler of the two end curves is the bow.With the panels wired together, I'll then turn the side panels over (sheer-clamp side down), put some spreaders across the panels, and put the bottom panels in place in preparation for wiring the bottom panels to the side panels. (Note: the picture shows them wired together a bit too tightly. I had to go back and loosen them so I could unfold them properly.)

Yep, it's pointy on both ends

 With the sheer clamps glued to the side panels, I wired the panels together at the bow and stern and used a spreader-stick to define the proper beam and was rewarded with the first clear hint as to what the boat will look like. (As you see, I didn't have 18 gauge copper wire handy, so I used zip-ties instead). 

glue in hand...

The folks at Fiberglass Supply shipped the resin, fillers, and cloth lickity-split, and the first thing I did was mix some cab-o-sil thickened epoxy and glue the sheer clamps to the hull sides.

Q: How many clamps does a guy need?
A: Just a few more...

Long time gone..

I haven't touched the boat since I glued the deck beam together, but today, I put in an order with the fine folks at Fiberglass Supply for the cloth and epoxy and other stuff. Their prices are the best on the web, and they supply Allen with his materials. They know what they're doing. You're not going to find nicer folks, better prices, or better stock - it's cheaper by far than ordering the glass and glue from CLC, for example. On recommendation from Allen, who's mixed untold gallons of epoxy of all kinds in his life, I went with the Resin Research product with a fast hardener so I won't have to wait around forever in this miserable upper-60 degree sunny February weather for the glue to cure.

In case it helps, here's my supply list, with cat numbers from Fiberglass Supply. You may notice I ordered waaay to much epoxy for one boat ( I ordered a 3 gallon kit). The extra is for Crescent to use when she builds her boat. I also ordered a couple yards of peel ply. Allen says it's easy to make really nice fillets with it.
 

Item	Cat #	Quantity	Unit	Cost/Unit	Total
3" glass tape	C34-2521	1	50 yd roll	20.00	20.00
Deck glass (3.6oz x 27")	C06-1229	6	yds	3.11	18.66
Hull glass (5.6oz x 50")	C31-1287	8	yds	6.49	51.92
Peel Ply	M05-0739	2	yds	4.12	8.24
resin research epoxy	G02-0140	1	3 gal	178.00	178.00
Cab-o-sil	J42-0541	1	lb	11.51	11.51
Pecan Flour	J16-4281	1	5 qt	19.68	19.68
microspheres	J05-1449	1	quart	9.58	9.58
Resin pumps/meters	?	1	pair		0.00
Disposable brushes	T09-3320	5	each	0.94	4.70
4" Roller	T10-4316	1	each	3.96	3.96
4: roller covers	T10-4980	5	pair	2.5	12.50
1 oz grad cups	T19-9085	20	each	0.11	2.20
3 oz grad cups	T19-9122	20	each	0.25	5.00
Nitrile Gloves	X71-4317	1	box of 100	12.05	12.05
				TOTAL	358.00