Wednesday, February 22, 2012

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.


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